Dallas man in viral waterslide video recalls accident

DALLAS, Texas - The Dallas man seen on video flying off a waterslide is now nursing a broken arm and broken ribs at home.

The accident happened at a home overlooking Lake Travis, just east of Austin, and was captured on cell phone video, now with more than a million views on Facebook.

David Salmon said he was conscious through most of the incident. Even though he remains in a lot of pain, he knows it could've been so much worse.

Now that Salmon's home and resting, he can even see the humor in watching the shocking video.

"I'd gone down a few times and it was fast," he said. "But this time, I just couldn't slow down, even threw my arm out, and went right over the edge."

The cell phone video shows where the slide takes a quick turn. Salman said he felt his body ride up the side, and then all 200 pounds of him went airborne, backward over the edge.

"For a split second, I was like oh no," he said. "And then it was like a hard crash, and the rest was all just blurry."

To the horror of everyone watching, including friend Matt Mazure, Salmon landed about 10 feet down on a rocky hillside and broke his left arm, fractured several ribs and left his lower back, shoulders and side covered in painful scrapes and bruises.

"After I fell, I was sitting straight up, like, 'Oh! I can stand up. I can be fine,'" Salmon recalled. "Then my body just couldn't do anything. It was excruciating."

A large group of friends had rented the house for a long weekend and were taking turns on the private backyard slide Sunday evening when it suddenly went from recreation to rescue.

"Maneuvering up was really painful," said Mazure. "There was a lot of screaming."

As for the video, Salmon shared it on social media with #failvideo, #brokenarm and #notdead.

"I posted it basically so my friends could have a laugh or just know that I was ok," Salmon said. "I'm not one of those people who loves attention. So I don't want to be famous because of this freak accident."

Salmon said he doesn't want to be 'the waterslide guy' but is glad to be alive.

"I could have easily broken my neck or my back," he said. "And this could have been way worse."

Salmon declined questions about the house, the house's owners or any possible legal action. He said he is just focusing right now on recovering.