While I was busy feeding orphaned tiger cubs with my philanthropy group, Hunks Without Borders, San Diego played host to the “Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.” daredevil showcase on New Year’s Eve. The event was a huge success for many reasons, if your thing is watching people ride motorcycles and snowmobiles really fast and far, but the main reason was that riders Robbie “Maddo” Maddison and Levi LaVallee, which is coincidentally my sister’s porn name, both set world records for the longest jumps.

Madison broke his own world record of 351 feet by jumping his motorcycle 378 feet and 9 inches, while LaVallee also broke his own world record of 361 feet by jumping his snowmobile 412 feet and 6 inches. And to make it even more extreme, wicked, rad and whatever else the hip kids are saying these days, they did it at the same time. I bet that’s not the only thing they did at the same time that night… *whispers* your mom.

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On October 1, a group of 25 adventure-loving maniacs from Switzerland set out to accomplish their most death-defying feat to date. They wanted to descend upon the Gueuroz Bridge, a 613-foot-high construction that was once the highest in all of Europe, and create a spinning jacuzzi to hang from it. That’s it, that’s their dream adventure. The Swiss are weird, man.

So what the hell goes into dangling a hot tub built for two dozen people 450-feet over a river?

Several teams had different task. Some were pre-heating the water on top of the bridge using the 3 gas burners we had used for the jaccuzzi on top of Mont Banc); others lowered all the parts necessary to built the platform 130 feet below the bridge; others still were hanging low down and assembling the platform and setting up the hot tub with its gas burner to keep the water at 100°F; while others prepared the rappelling lines for all participants; in short, everybody helped so that 4.5 hours later the first person could jump in the water with a breath taking view. Six hours later the last person came out of the water and at 6:00 pm everything was back on the trailers to get back to Lausanne where we enjoyed a fantastic raclette at Jan’s place.

(Via)

Raclette at Jan’s place and I didn’t even get a call? I thought we were cool, Swiss adventurers.

This group has actually been organizing extreme hot tub adventures for the better part of a decade, with their ultimate feat having taken place on the summit of Mont Blanc. In related news, I once jumped off my friend’s roof into his swimming pool and it was totally righteous, dude.

Check out the glorious details of this latest adventure in pictures after the jump. WARNING: Not conducive for people with fears of extreme heights or effort.

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Evel Knievel, the late daredevil who took pride in his scrapes with the law, was nearly indicted by the federal government, according to the 290-page report the FBI compiled on him.  Along with possible ties to a crime syndicate, Knievel’s bread and butter seemed to be kicking the shit out of people:

His most well-known run-in with the law was a 1977 attack on movie studio executive Shelly Saltman, whom the daredevil beat with a baseball bat in the parking lot of 20th Century Fox.

Saltman promoted Knievel’s infamous attempt to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon and then wrote a book about the experience, angering Knievel by portraying him as “an alcoholic, a pill addict, an anti-Semite and an immoral person.” Knievel was sentenced to six months in jail and Saltman won a $12.75 million judgment, but never collected…

Knievel’s file shows investigators believed he was involved with other violent acts — a threat in Phoenix, an attack in a Kansas City hotel room and a vicious beating in San Francisco. All were allegedly carried out by Knievel associates, according to subjects quoted in the file.

Yeah!  What an awesome badass!  It’s like that old saying: revenge is a dish best served in public, as you assault them with a baseball bat at their place of employ.  Well done, Evel.  That guy was a real class act.  Not like those thugs O.J. Simpson and Lawrence Phillips.  Evel’s totally different, in that he didn’t play football and was… uh… how do I put this delicately?  I believe the term is “white.”

[Machochip]

Evel Knievel, the greatest daredevil who ever lived, died yesterday. He was 69.  Here's a video of him plying his craft at Ceasar's Palace on New Year's Eve, 1967:

I always admired Evel Knievel. Not because I was particularly fond of daring the devil, but because the motorcycle stunt-man didn't take shit from anybody.  I remember seeing a program about him on the History Channel in which they recounted the story of when Evel severely bludgeoned a former promoter of his with a baseball bat because the promoter had written a slanderous pulp biography about him. And he had 2 broken arms from a recent jump, but that didn't stop him from sending the promoter to the hospital. What? Yeah, I watched the History Channel. I couldn't find the remote control and the TV was at least 5 feet away from the couch, but the span seemed longer than the Snake River Canyon. More Evel vids after the jump:

This wouldn't work at an "El" station: 

I would like to find some way to deride England and the Brits as usual, but that was AWESOME!  This guy totally trumped my running up the down escalator at the mall to impress the lovely Katy when I was sixteen.  I can still see that smug mall cop's face as she slammed the cold steel door of mall jail.  And Katy with her, "It would've been cool had you reached the top, but since you didn't, I'm going to go to prom with Jack."  Bitch.  The London Underground authorities were not pleased with this guy's stunt either – I'm with you brother.  Thanks for the idea.  Although it will be a hassle to carry skis everywhere I go, if I ever see Katy near an escalator again, I'm totally doing this. -KD

(Thanks to Awful Announcing for the tip.)