Basejumper.com - archive

On Sept. 8, 1974, Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake river canyon just south of the Perrine bridge. We all know (didn't) happen. His 40th anniversary will come and go with little fanfare simply because the city of Twin Falls couldn't get it together to have a celebration. A shame........

I'm a Twin Falls resident and taxpayer, and I'm glad the city isn't wasting my money on policing the crowd for a for-profit event to benefit the bottom line of private parties.

Even if drawing more "extreme" activities to Twin Falls would boost my business revenue, I don't think it's a good trade for changing the feel of life here. And it's certainly not a good trade for overtaxing city resources, which I both use and pay for. I would much rather the city's limited resources be used for basic services that directly impact my family's quality of life, rather than being squandered on spectacular events of questionable long term value.

If you want the money to be spent on something like that, why don't you come and pay for it?

Not a shame at all, if you ask me.

From the wiki,
"n September 2013, stuntman Big Ed Beckley received the rights from the Idaho Department of Lands to reproduce Knievel's Snake River Jump for a price of $943,000 to jump the canyon on the 40th anniversary of the attempt.[32] Beckley is scheduling the jump for September 7, 2014 (one day before the 40th anniversary of Knievel's attempt)."

I didn't see anything going on with the ramp while I was there last week, though...

This event was a part if the areas history. Recognizing it, IMO, is important. Certainly we're plenty of ways to limit the impact on the city resources. Had it been planned correctly, it could have turned into a very profitable endeavor for the entire area. Just hate to see time go by and some significant events not celebrated. Just a shame.....

Looks to be cancelled because of no TV deal.

I'd rather see 3 dozen or more basejumpers as per last weekend during September weekends rather than 3,000 or more mixed bag folks coming to watch a questionable Evel repeat.

I have a bridge to sell anyone who actually thinks Mr. Knievel actually intended to attempt to make it to the other side.

Who among us wouldn't attempt the same "event" with a bicycle?

Sorry, Mike, you're full of poop on this one. Evel not only intended to make it across, he did make it across!

From the Wikipedia account:

"West of Shoshone Falls, the launch at the south rim of the Snake River Canyon (42.597°N 114.423°W) was on Sunday, September 8, 1974, at 3:36 p.m. MDT. The steam that powered the engine was superheated to a temperature of 500 °F (260 °C). The drogue parachute prematurely deployed as the Skycycle left the launching rail and induced significant drag. Even though the craft made it all the way across the canyon to the north rim, the prevailing northwest winds caused it to drift back into the canyon. By the time it hit the bottom of the canyon, it landed only a few feet from the water on the same side of the canyon from which it had been launched. If he had landed in the water, Knievel likely would have drowned, due to a jumpsuit/harness malfunction which kept him strapped in the vehicle. He survived the jump with only minor injuries."

Bottom line; he was foiled by poor engineering. As the Skycycle Wikipedia says:

"A later analysis showed that a design flaw in a mechanical parachute retention cover, which did not properly take base drag into account, caused the premature parachute deployment. Following the failed jump, Truax blamed Knievel for the failure and vice versa. Later Truax accepted full responsibility for the failure."

So Mike, why the factually derelict, knee-jerk disrespect toward a pioneering extreme athlete who did so much to set the stage for all of us who came after him? You jumped off El Capitan one time; Evel Knievel dared the Reaper his whole life, doing one "first" after another. Mad props to him for his creativity and courage. Props to you too for your accomplishment but you sure ain't no Evel Knievel.


44

You're a bitter man Robin. It never occurred to me to be anyone's hero. Reading between the lines, your obvious implication is that I am jealous. I might have known you would take it that way. Your clever and informative attack is based on the Wikipedia accounting that his motorcycle didn't take the easy way out, and that he might have made it if his parachute hadn't prematurely opened "in error". We know that there never was a second attempt. It was my opinion before and after the jump that it was a very lucrative ripoff.

Evel Knievel had a history of motorcycle jumps that left him with every major bone in his body broken at one time or another and pretty much wired together. I made a terminal jump with helmet, boots and reserve, from an overhung fixed object, hardly a death-defying dare for the Reaper. I happily admit I am no Evel Knievel.

I think you misinterpreted Robin's post. I don't think he was implying that you were jealous.

But back to the topic.

Rip off? I wouldn't go that far. Anyone who paid to see that probably got their money's worth.

At the time I thought it was kind of stupid mainly because he was a motorcycle jumper extraordinaire and that rocket contraption was not a motorcycle. If anything, I think the event was a sort of "jump the shark" scenario because he had taken motorcycle jumping about as far as it could be taken.

Regardless, he was a true badass.

>>I think you misinterpreted Robin's post.<<

No, I think you misinterpreted Mike's post. Robin *is* jealous as Mike Pelkey is a true legend in BASE. His singular El Cap jump in 1968 equals thousands of our jumps because the rest of us merely played follow the leader.

NickD :)
BASE 194

There ya go Robin, trying to interject facts and history into someone else's opinions about an event. Are you ever gonna learn that some folks opinions are FAR more important than any actual event?

Get a grip, Your Highness.

No need to read through any lines because there is nothing between them to read: I said straight out that you were full of poop about Evel Knievel and then I documented why with multiple cross-referenced sources conveniently collected in two Wikepedia entries. Period.

And then I asked why you would disrespect a guy whose black death accomplishments not only far exceed your own stellar but singular accomplishment but in so many ways set the stage for all of us extreme athletes who followed after him. Period.

Instead of answering that question, you made non sequitur pronouncements about heroes and bitterness and jealousy that are products only of your own mind and/or medications because they have no more relationship to objective reality than your absurd "opinion" that flies in the face of those well-documented facts and calls one of the 20th century's greatest rocket scientists a liar.

Time to stop digging and look in the mirror, Your Highness.


44

LOL... try again, Mr. Self-proclaimed BASE Historian: His Highness is also one of us merely following the leaders, to wit:

Leonardo DaVinci (and several others at this link)
Frederick Law
Franz Reichelt

Among others... so please do your homework before you snark at me again, son, and save the psychodrama babble too: a guy threw a turd in Baronn's punch-bowl reminiscence about an actual legendary extreme athlete and I called him on it. Period.

You may now return to your grammatically challenged writing. That is all.


44

Apparently not.


44

Would have been RAD to see Miles or Ed do a cool stunt in the canyon.

Tom, Tom, Tom, you are so conservative and BORING! I bet the cops would have been stoked on the overtime and the entire economy of Twin Falls would have been bolstered by the money spent by the crowds drawn to the event.

Its the 21st century, time to think a little more progressively. Events = good for local economy.

support the monkeys, crack a beer and kick back and watch them make history!

That's the Spirit! I wrote to the city council to get Miles in the seat. Could have had RB sponsor the whole thing. Had concerts, extreme show and the capped it with Miles blasting, ejecting at the apogee and doing a coupla flips before deploying. Too Cool!

I actively lobbied both the local and provincial gov'ts when they were denying a permit for Nik Wallenda to cross the niagara gorge. Tightrope walks across niagara were legendary in the 1800' with Farini and Blondin competing for attention. It is a part of the history of the area, and the Parks Commission denying him a permit to do so was an abomination. The event was televised and was a complete success.

I don't know about the specific application to reenact Evel's attempt, but Red Bull has had success and major coverage with Felix's balloon jump and other events - I would have thought they could have recreated that with Evel's attempts. It could have made a lot of money for local businesses of all sorts.

But I don't live there so it's not up to me. I do think it's a bit of a shame, I used to watch Evel's jumps with excitement...

I disagree on both of those. It's easy to spend money that's not yours--but someone still has to pay for that stuff, and in this case I'm one of the taxpayers who would end up footing the bill.

I realize I'm just a boring, old fashioned libertarian, but I honestly do think that more government spending is bad for the economy.

If it's such a good thing, then why not have the people who are making the profits pay for it?

I'll give you one thing Robin, you haven't changed one bit since the day I met you, and that's hard to do.

NickD :)
BASE 194

Sarcastic or not, Baronn's point is that it was just an opinion. I don't think that anything I said warranted the venom I received for it.

I'm saddened to see that when I posted a simple opinion of mine about remembering a significant (and VERY Cool) event and it ends up turning into a bitch session. This is even more of a shame......

Oh, so you're new around here....


44

Thanks, Nick. You've aged well, too.

Peace out,


44

+ about 1,000

The event would have been great, and the original event was so cool even in failure that it could be reprised on any anniversary of the jump and it would be fine... so it's not too late!

But I'm with Tom on this: Bad enough to take money out of everybody's pocket in a 4 million-person city to pay for a football stadium only 75,000 of them can use, but the tax base of a small community such as Twin Falls cannot absorb that sort of profligate spending on a private-enterprise project.

Make it a private enterprise, for-profit affair or a charity event that doesn't cost the city any money; if it's that great an event, and the organizers are good, it will make money.

At the same time, and for the same reason, the city can't hammer the organizers with punitive taxes, regulations and/or permit costs; if it's that great an event, the city will make money from the tax revenue generated by the crowds that come to see it.

But when promoters want cities to pay for them to make money, they are socializing the risk while keeping the reward private and that is no way to run a government or a business.

So now that baronn's brought it up, maybe it is time for the BASE community to actively figure out a way to honor the grand old adventurer who tried to jump the Snake River on a steam-powered rocket cycle... and make a few $$$$ too. Personally, I like the idea of Miles doing it...


44

Locals, being locals, have long memories.

http://magicvalley.com/...df-001a4bcf887a.html

NickD :)
BASE 194

"haven't changed one bit since the day I met you, and that's hard to do."


it's sad that there is a level of chump that is irreversible and that only the dead will know peace from.