Age technology material. you are not supposed to break those things. that motorcycle helmet was broken in three different places, but it saved my life. saves his 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 and 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
Just a good old boy from alabama. but all joking aside, what bubba does takes talent, skill, planning and a lot of guts. when i do a big jump, anything can happen. on july 4th, 2001, the worst happens. the last thing i remember is putting the bike in gear and letting the clutch out. bubba attempts to jump 22 cars at the del mar fair where he did a crowd pleasing show in 1999. we drew a record crowd. i jumped over 14 school buses. a really cool jump. it went great. it was flawless. i said, we got to do this again. i m thinking, oh, yeah, i got the perfect plan. so my idea was to jump over 22 cars on a harley davidson motorcycle off of a 7-foot high ramp. ever the showman, bubba intends to give the audience their money s worth. so the day started off pretty good. i got to tell you, they paid old bubba to be there, so i made sure i did my job. so what i did is hired a laser light show company and we rocked it.
All the cars were white, we wanted them to look really 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.
A brave jumper, a legendary motorcycle and a record-breaking attempt all collide in a horrific crash that leaves a crowd stunned and the fate of the rider uncertain. when you meet bubba blackwell you are immediately bowled over by his southern charm. hey, i m bubba blackwell. harley-davidson motorcycle world record jumper. i m making a living riding a motorcycle because the mensa club kicked me out in alabama. bubba has been riding bikes for as long as he can remember and he s the first to admit jumping motorcycles for a living is a pretty cool gig. you know, when you are going through your routine in the dressing room, you are putting on the gear, putting the leathers on, the boots on, you are zipping them up, part of me kind feels like, you know, dad gum, this is the coolest job in the world. i m like fonz, you know? he d like to you think he s
And i certainly don t remember the helicopter ride that, you know, sent me to scripps memorial hospital, which is where i woke up a day or two later. bubba breaks a lot of bones, not to mention a state of the art helmet. that is a $1,000 kevlar 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 places, but it saved my life. saves his 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