Two hours later we were at the helipad. I watched as groups of people came and went in the hustle and bustle that came with filming a show. Josh was in his element, ordering people around, double checking the views from cameras, making sure that the GoPros used to film a bunch of the stunts were all in place and working. The man was a pro. Kiegan was being interviewed about the upcoming stunt, standing in front of the Bell helicopter with a grin on his face and his hands on his hips, wearing only a Miami Dolphins t-shirt and a pair of American Flag board shorts. Despite the gorgeous sunny day, floodlights and reflectors were still pointed in his direction.
The college football player, Antoine King, was about fifteen feet away, also being interviewed. I had to admit, if I were a betting person, I would probably put my money on Antoine. His dark, muscular arms had to be at least twice the size of Kiegan’s, and it wasn’t like Kiegan was small. The football player was at least 6 foot 6, and built like a tank. Surely he had the strength to get across a cargo net hanging over water. Surely. Suddenly, Josh clapped his hands and yelled out that it was time for takeoff, and if I thought things were chaotic before, it was nothing compared to now.
I tried to stand out of everyone’s way as they began filming Antoine and Kiegan getting into their separate helicopters, the pilots coming in from the building a few feet away, the helicopters’s rotors beginning to spin, and finally the takeoff.
Two more helicopters took off behind the ones carrying Kiegan and Antoine, each filled with an extra camera crew that would be filming the whole thing.
I had expected the helicopters to just fly a few hundred feet from the docking station and do the stunt there, but they quickly flew off far away from the coastline, hundreds of feet out into the open ocean.
So that I could still see what was going on, I made my way to a cluster of computers set up on a table, which showed a live stream of all the different cameras set up to film the stunt.
The show’s host was about to start the countdown. I looked into the screen showing Kiegan’s face. He was determined, focused. So was Antoine. A second later both men were on the edge of the helicopter. I never would have guessed that I could have been that nervous about this stunt. After all, it was possible that things could go horribly wrong. I knew there were a couple of boats with scuba divers ready to go get either one of the men if they got into trouble if they fell in the water, but at the same time, it seemed so unlikely. Kiegan especially had this fire about him, he seemed invincible. Still, as I watched him begin to climb down the cargo net, making sure to get his ankles securely wrapped in the netting before moving on with his arms, my heart began to pound in my chest.
Antoine was definitely going much faster than Kiegan. When Antoine got to the bottom portion of the net, rather than put his feet in the netting he just hung from his hands and began to swing from square to square of the cargo net, like a kid effortlessly making his way across a set of handlebars.
I watched as Antoine was almost at the end, when suddenly a gust of wind from the helicopter’s rotors blew him off balance. My breath caught as I watched the incredible athlete hanging from one arm, dangling high above the water.
Full credit to Antoine, he didn’t panic at all. He didn’t look down. Instead, he looked up at the cargo net and made a huge effort to reach up and grab it once more with his other hand, but as he missed he lost his grip with the hand still holding him to the net and began to freefall.
“Oh my God,” I whispered to myself as I watched the screen. Antoine’s huge body plunged towards the earth, his arms and legs swinging around just a tiny bit. Just before he hit the water Antoine put his arms up into the air to avoid hurting them on his landing. The splash for such a big man hitting the water at such a high speed was surprisingly small.
While one of the boats began making its way to where Antoine went in, throwing a lifesaver out to him, I re-focused on Kiegan. He was slowly, but surely, making his way across the net, and had almost made it over to the other side. Now he was slowly turning himself around, having to make a 180 degree turn so he could go from feet first to head first to get back into the other side of the chopper.
I watched with bated breath as Kiegan seemed to take ten minutes to move those final three feet, before finally grabbing something inside the helicopter and pulling himself back inside.
One of the cameras grabbed a closeup of his face as he lay down on the floor of the helicopter, a sheen of sweat over his face, obviously completely exhausted.
Five minutes later both men were back on solid ground, Antoine brought over on the boat, Kiegan by the helicopter which he had successfully crossed, winning the stunt.
Both men embraced when they saw each other, Antoine said something to Kiegan, who patted him on the shoulder in that way men do.
When Kiegan saw me, he flashed me a grin.
“Impressed?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I guess so. I gotta say, I didn’t think you were going to win that one.”
“Neither did I, little sis, neither did I.”
I grabbed a coke from one of the coolers full of drinks and went back to the outskirts of all the happenings. It was crazy just how many people were needed to shoot one episode of a reality TV show. I found a giant box to sit on and sipped my drink while I watched the crazy happening around me.
Suddenly, I felt someone near me.