WATCH: Man Takes Risky Jump Off Huntington Beach Pier

HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Seconds before a man did a back flip from the Huntington Beach Pier Monday night, you can hear his friends talking about checking off his bucket list.

"I hope your bucket list is done."

Then a witness says one friend steped into the frame holding a remote control for a drone he's flying above the pier to catch the jump on camera.

"You got the drone going?"

The hard landing didn't hurt him, but the big swells and strong currents nearly did. He couldn't swim the third of a mile back to shore and grabbed onto a pier piling and waited for a lifeguard to rescue him.

"Apparently he wasn't a good swimmer," a lifeguard said.

A witness says the man's friends returned to the pier to shoot drone footage of the rescue. Lifeguards say they do rescues near the pier regularly. They warn that some who've jumped were killed or paralyzed. This guy was lucky he only had a few cuts.