Weekend Awesome - Motorcycle Parachuting
The Internet is full of videos of riders doing crazy stupid stunts – with various degrees of success we might add – that sometimes makes us wonder what drives young people today to take dangerous risks and then post the videos online for a bit of YouTube celebrity.
But then we remember that youthful recklessness isn’t a new phenomenon, and people have been doing this kind of thing long before the digital age. Take the example the subject of our Weekend Awesome video, one Fred Osborne. Osborne attempted to become the first person to ride a motorcycle off a cliff and then parachute to safety. And Osborne isn’t an X-Games-loving energy drink-slurping reality show star of today. No, Osborne attempted his feat 88 years ago on November 1926. And it didn’t go well.
According to the video description, Osborne jumped off a 200-foot cliff but the writer wasn’t sure if Osborne survived the landing. An article in the Nov. 18, 1926 edition of the Evening Star provides more details, saying Osborne actually rode off a 500-foot cliff in Santa Monica. According to report, Osborne was expected to survive his injuries.
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Grandfather to Super Dave Osborne...
He wasn't even wearing a helmet. And he didn't look THAT young.