Uniform and we spent most of our concentration on making sure we put on a fantastic show for everybody. and if i had that to do over again, i think i would spend more time on making sure i got a good ramp. in front of 35,000 spectators and a backdrop befitting a rock star, bubba appears. i get out there and i m doing the show. we got the lasers going and the power road going and everything was working really good, but i m making all these passes back and forth. i m doing wheelies and it is going really good. what i did was made all these passes and chewed up the water-downed packed surface. it is now like running in sand. i m in fourth gear, i m going to the ramp, the engine is you know, it sounds good, i m in a high rpm, the bike is not fishtailing, i must be good. i lift my visor up and put the bike in neutral and bow my head and say a quick little prayer. he puts the bike back in gear and that s all he remembers.
I have a 3-year-old little girl so now my excitement for what i do has kind of changed gears a little bit because i want to make sure that i m going to be safe. but for now, bubba is still loving the ride and he insists he is living his boyhood dream. the terrible thing is i m starting to get a little bit old and it is kind of like, all right, hot shot, you have done it all now, what are you going to do next? coming up, a cowboy finds out that when you mess with a bull you really might get the horns. you are playing with this sort of thing and you get burned. and it is said astronauts can see it from space, but can a skateboarder jump out of it? it was so out of the box for somebody to jump the great wall on a skateboard. there are so many things that motivated me to do it. when caught on camera: the danger zone continues.
Places, but it save maryland i life. saves hi life but barely. i had a major head injury. i had bleeding on the brain. i crushed my right shoulder, broke the collarbone and my shoulder blade in the back. i broke all my ribs, i punctured both lungs, ruptured spleen, i shattered my pelvis and i broke six vertebrae in my back and one in my neck. but other than that i was all right. bubba has no memory of the jump, but ever the perfectionist, he critiques his performance from his hospital bed. i m thinking, it s so obvious i don t have enough speed. it got me to thinking, did something happen, did i black out? what went wrong? as i started watching the video an analyzing it quite a bit more, you can see me mid-air working the bike, i m trying to move it around, so obviously i was totally there, but the only thing i can fathom is just the simple fact that as i m going to the ramp the bike is spinning. there s just enough speed being
The jump and its horrifying results are caught on camera. i don t remember getting closer to the ramp. i don t remember shifting the motorcycle. i don t remember getting closer and closer and positioning myself for the jump. i don t remember any of that stuff. and i certainly don t remember the helicopter ride that, you know, sent me to scripps memorial hospital, which is where i wong woke up a day or two later. bubba breaks a lot of bones, not to mention a state of the art helmet. it s a very 1,000 indy car helmet. very lightweight, very space hitch technology material. you are not supposed to break those things. that motorcycle helmet was broken in three different
Robbed because of the traction issue that i simply didn t make the landing ramp. i wasn t even close. the accident may have broken his body but certainly not his spirit or his trademark self-deprecating sense of humor. now that i am fortunate enough to have all the world records, i ll do this a little smarter. that s one of the things you usually get a pass on because your name is bubba from alabama, but we are having so much fun now you learn from your mistakes. i ve always enjoyed about doing what i do is just the excitement of it and for the longest time that was everything i focused on was just how exciting can i make it for everybody. bubba is still jumping motorcycles, but he s also a father now, something he says has slowed him down. well, somewhat. before i used to always think, hey, that didn t work out, man, they are going to get quite a show and i laugh it off because i m a good time charlie and i like to have fun, but now i m a daddy.