"We just made it up, red-necking it, I guess," Larry Snyder of Federal Way, Washington, told KING 5 News, referring to his homemade zip-line.

While out camping last weekend, Snyder and his friend thought it would be a good idea to string some wire between a pair of trees and use a jury-rigged pulley to travel from one side to the other.

It was not a good idea.

"We'd been on it. The kids had been on it," Snyder told news station. "I just took one more step up and jumped, and when I jumped everything stretched out and once I hit that stretching point, the weakest point was the handle so it gave out."

The exact moment Snyder's mistake dawned on him was caught on camera by his fiancee.

The video shows the 44-year-old falling some 12-feet and smacking the ground with his back — hard.

Despite the alarming sounds of agony emanating from Snyder — "it sounded like I was dying, and I felt like that" — he actually emerged from the incident mostly unscathed, save for some bruising.

It certainly could have been much worse: Snyder had undergone neck surgery three years ago, and was in no condition to be falling from homemade zip-lines.

At least he's learned his lesson.

"I wouldn't recommend it," he told the NBC affiliate. "I wouldn't do it again that's for sure."