Damn, pretty impressive. For some reason I though the arc of the jump would be flatter, more line drive. He got quite a bit higher than I expected.
I was not impresed. Yeah, I'm sure you do more death-defying things every day, before breakfast, no less. The guy strapped himself on a motorcycle and flew over 300 feet, and you're not impressed? You, my friend, take Internet Toughness to a whole new level. Congratulations, you get my vote for Most Asanine Statement of 2008. Happy New Year!
I just loved the run up, it looked like it began outside the state and ran through the garage by the pillar, just flat out nailing it. That looked the most dangerous. The flight was so smooth, I wonder if he looked around when he was up their. I doubt it, but it would have been beautiful to see. Maybe next time a helmet cam. Impressive, you bet!
He is no Evel that is for sure. Because he stuck the landing, you mean? Great obit on Evel in The Economist.
Damn it, here we go again in 2008 with yerfatma stealing all my best lines again.
That was a great jump. As a fan of ski racing, I've always wondered at people who go banana-whackies over a run where a racer wobbles all over the place and nearly eats fence half a dozen times, but yawn at a perfect execution. Clearly Maddo put a huge amount of preparation into this, to be able to do it so cleanly. Congrats to him and thanks for posting the link, crash.
It was an amazing jump and the height he got was just incredible. He looked 3x higher than the stands...must have been well over 100' in the air. As far as Chief Fan not giving him props because he did it with new technology, what's was he supposed to do? Attempt it on an old Triumph or Harley? Oh brother. This guy has a bigger sack than you and your whole town put together, Chief. He broke the world record. Just because he made it look easy goes more to his preparation and professionalism. I guess you would only compare him to Evel if he broke a few dozen bones, huh? The only thing that disappointed me was that the show started at 11 ET and the jump didn't happen until well after midnight. I had to keep interupting my New Year's Eve to go back and check when he was going to jump.
He is no Evel that is for sure. Yea he made the jump and made it look easy, but he did it on state of the art equipment Didn't Evel use a ROCKET to jump the grand canyon?
"Didn't Evel use a ROCKET to jump the grand canyon?" No, he used a rocket to fall into the Snake River Canyon.
No, he used a rocket to fall into the Snake River Canyon. And I've seen an animated coyote do that trick.
Attempt it on an old Triumph or Harley? Oh brother. No doubt. His bike would break down half through the jump. I can see it now: "Holy crap, I must be a hundred feet in the air! I'm flying...I'm flyyyiiiinnngg!!" "Wait, what the hell was that?" "Oh great, I just dumped all my oil. AGAIN!" /gets off bike and starts to work on it
As a fan of ski racing, I've always wondered at people who go banana-whackies over a run where a racer wobbles all over the place and nearly eats fence half a dozen times, but yawn at a perfect execution. Good point, LBB. Whatever that human tendency is, it's pretty much exactly why people got into Evel. He said it himself a few times later in his life - if he hadn't cocked up in Vegas in '67, would people still have been interested the next time he jumped over something? Probably not. It's that same desire to see people live so close to the edge that they're wobbling that makes this good sport. Alex Higgins in the semi-final of the World Snooker Championships in 1982 clears the table to force a deciding frame against Jimmy White despite putting the cueball in good position approximately no times at all.
"Thank you God, thank you ESPN, thank you Red Bull." Fantastic. Is that some sort of new holy trinity?
Haven't you seen those Red Bull Ads? That's pretty close to how they described the Holy Spirit in school. At least as sensible.
Not to belittle this achievement but from a SpoFi perspective I think we need to do a sport/not sport debate since the technology and rider nerve were the key elements involved rather than, say, any physical attribute.
any physical attribute Other than balance, strength and endless repetition/ practice, you're spot-on. I think that's why we don't do these debates.
Maybe he used performance enhancing drugs.
Maybe the bike used performance enhancing drugs.
It definitely looked juiced.
Bill: It's ski-jumping on a motorcycle. I watched this jump a dozen times, awestuck by the distance and the overhead view, and his movements and the way he aligns the bike for landing are remarkably similar. The miniscule margin for error is comparable too.
If those are the main attributes of a sport then almost anything that requires physical effort and where results improve with practice is a sport and the word loses meaning. Far be it from me, though, to declare myself the SpoFi arbiter of language.
Sport/not-a-sport is the ultimate threadkill. Do you honestly think there's a negligible physical component to what that guy does, and anyone with "technology and rider nerve" could do it? That seems as absurd to me as the suggestion that anyone could be a world-class ski jumper.
If those are the main attributes of a sport then almost anything that requires physical effort and where results improve with practice is a sport and the word loses meaning. Eh. You seem to be coming from a view that's predisposed to see a "sport" as something with a ball, two teams, uniforms, rules and officials.
anyone could be a world-class ski jumper But... oh.
lbb, rcade: not really in either case but is chess a sport (not boxing chess, mind you) and are FedEx drivers athletes since nerves, endurance and practice, plus strength in the latter case, are all involved at the highest levels?
Hate to knock a pal, Bill, but your introduction of chess and FedEx driving demonstrates that you're just looking to ridicule this jumper's achievement. That's about as welcome here as the soccer haters who can't let a link pass them by without ridicule. The sport/not-a-sport aspect of this discussion is over. Future comments along those lines will be deleted, as I should have done originally.
Comment deletion requires nerves, endurance and practice, plus strength. But it's not very sporting.
Fair enough. At least I don't feel like Zed Shaw must after seeing the Slashdot thread about his anti-Rails rant.
