You Should Never Try to Cannonball Into a Frozen Pool -- This Viral Vid of a German Guy Shows Why

Going for a polar bear swim is a display of guts, physical will-power and insanity all at the same time. A German gathering up his muster to jump into what appears to be an ice cold pool, while wearing only a Speedo-like swimsuit, is the perfect example of these traits. But he forgot to do one thing -- check the water.

In a YouTube video posted in late September that went from only a couple thousand views to more than 2.7 million in less than 24 hours -- thanks to it going viral on the site Reddit -- the man is first seen staring down his target. With what sounds to be a mix of German and some English, the man seems to allude to the purpose of his jump being to promote his new band.

Making a running leap toward the pool, he lands with a thud instead of a splash. The pool was solid ice.

Due to his cannonball jump formation, he hits the ice directly on his spine. His friends, not really rushing to his aid, begin laughing (the camera is shaking at one point from laughter). The man who made the daring jump does not appear seriously injured as he too goes from issuing expletives to laughing and scooting on the ice.

Watch the America's Funniest Home Video-worthy clip (Warning: Strong language used throughout the video):

Perhaps he knew the pool was iced over and was trying to break through it? It does appear there are areas of the pool at the edges that are darker and are perhaps contain thinner ice.

The video was posted on YouTube by MrRobcalifornia, who is a user in Reutlingen, Germany. It is unclear when exactly the video was taken. Looking at the weather in the Reutlingen area at this time of year, it appears that the lows are only creeping toward the mid-40s, which would not ice over the pool.

According to his Facebook page, Rob Californiaa is a drummer at Bi-Pole and graduated from School of Hard Knocks, University of Life.

Images in this post are YouTube screenshots.