• In 2013 Rocky Successfully jumped a fully operational fire truck over a school bus longways. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Jan Lee "I wasn't scared. I was psyched." I want you to meet another friend I made at Evel's Comeback Announcement last year at Galpin. Janet Lee is  having an anniversary. Thirty years ago this summer she volunteered for active duty as a girl daredevil. What did it take to qualify? Nothing big, just an interest in stunts and a willingness to get inside the demolition box with "Mr. TNT." She volunteered, yet they wouldn't actually let her do the dynamite act - what are they, chicken??? Still, Jan's confidence got the attention of stuntman Billy Ward. The Deathriders show was in town and Janet,  daughter of Texas cop Bob Harris, seemed like the kind of person who could deliver what Billy Ward wanted: women stunt drivers, something new and inspiring for the American people. Then there was the love connection - Billy and Jan were married from June of '73 to June of '77. On June 22, 1973 Jan officially joined Billy Ward's Champion Auto Daredevils, performing a precision driving act. Over the next few months she ran the gamut:  precision driving, crashing cars, driving through dynamite, reaching ramming speed as Human Battering Ram, crashing through sheets of ice and even performing a head-on crash with another driver. You know, the kind of stuff we do everyday in L.A. to get parking. Jan was a dangernaut, a regular "Girl Evel," as the paper called her. Others in her age group were getting into drugs and alcohol, but Jan had no  interest in that stuff. She wanted to get high, all right - in a stunt car! She had a wild streak, this cop's daughter, but it was all honest work. Besides, says Jan, "There weren't enough women role models and I always got a great reaction from little kids." I'm guessing 1973 was the year "Don't try this at home" officially entered the national vocabulary. Jan spent 1974 specializing mostly on the Human Bomb Act, working racetrack shows sometimes six nights a week,  though Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas. After giving birth to Billy Ward, Jr. in August 1975, Jan traded a Ford Pinto for a CR 250 dirtbike. She trained herself on it in the desert near Phoenix. In the bicentennial year 1976, Jan became one of America's only active duty female cyclejumpers. Her inaugural jump came May 1st, down in old Mexicali, a benefit show for - but of course - the local blood bank. You see, the show's male jumper  crashed when he failed to stop short on a practice ascent up the ramp (you know: zoom up there, stop just short, gaze off at the target, get the tension up - standard daredevil ritual, but you've GOT to nail the stopping short part). So now they needed Jan. It was her first big, public jump, and they needed her to do it on a scrub bike with no speedometer. Were you scared? "I was naïve then," says Jan. "I wasn't scared. I was psyched." She hit it - barely. Her back wheel clipped the top of the catch ramp, denting it, and she cruised to victory  unharmed. And then she did the Leap of Death, a Suicide Twist and the Miss Dinamita act as well. A stunt woman's work is never done. The rest of the season found her in the great states of Texas and Arizona, inaugurating new Kawasaki dealerships by jumping over 60 bikes. Here's the best part: Who the hell insured these things? "No one. You just said you were or no one asked." Daredevil Alley, baby! Your private insurance information is between you, your mechanic and your God. In Las Cruces in 1977, Jan got the blessing of Southwest cycle-jumping champ Bob Duffey. Duffey used to wear the slogan "Fear No Evil" on his leathers as a cut on his Montana rival. By now Jan had worked enough where she'd seen most variations: she'd made scores of perfect jumps, had plenty of near misses, and one official crash that required stitches. Then came San Angelo, Texas. Caesar had his Rubicon. Evel had the Snake River. For Jan it was the Concho River, her biggest jump ever. It went like this. Thousands gather for the Fiesta del Concho, starring girl daredevil Jan Ward. During practice runs something doesn't feel right with the speed. But hundreds and hundreds on both sides of the river are there to see her jump, so she signals she's ready. She races toward the ramp and when she hits it she feels the throttle fail ever so slightly. She sails over the Concho but falls short of the catch ramp and plows into the riverbank instead. A little more elevation would have killed her, throwing her into the hard lumber of the catch ramp. Still, it's not exactly a soft landing. She hits with her head and right elbow. The medics are there on the spot. One of Jan's brothers removes her helmet and another pulls her bike out of the river, still running. Her next stop is  the ambulance and the ICU, unconscious, with a major concussion, and a dislocated elbow broken in three places. Jan remembers waking up to reporters at her bedside waiting for the finish on the story. It was a bad crash. Jan retired from stunt work at age 22. She still got her fair share of high altitude by painting flagpoles. She was a martial arts instructor for 20 years. She's revisiting her daredevil career this year, researching, recollecting and trading information, and invites you to email her at janetlee1954@aol.com. As for Evel's comeback? It's been cool. "I finally got to meet him at the Galpin event and he signed my book! Evel Knievel is the ultimate daredevil," says Jan. "I remember most other jumpers, the men, were jealous."

  Evel BowEvel A Stuntman in his MindFirst thing you gotta know about Evel BowEvel is that he is a stuntman in his MIND. BowEvel (his friends call him Hans) is very clear on this - inside his own  brain he has routinely risked certain death and emerged victorious. This is his gig: a stuntman in his mind, and singer, songwriter and bandleader for San Diego's BowEvel Brothers, complete with his brother Fritz BowEvel and guitar-picking good buddy Ed BowEvel. Last June, these were the guys who strummed "I Will Survive" inside the Galpin Ford Showroom during the comeback announcement of Hans's personal hero for over thirty years - the indestructable dangernaut named Evel Knievel. "I've got all my life to live, I've got all my love to give, I will survive, I WILL SURVIVE - HEY, HEY!" The BowEvel Brothers' vocalizing fills  the showroom where Evel and Galpin customs man Beau Boeckmann are debuting the Evel Knievel Galpinized Ford F-150 "Gladiator" tribute truck. As Hans and the boys play, the guest of honor breaks into the now-notorious dance moves known as "The Evel Boogie." Even Evel's oldest friends are shaking their heads in amazement. We've all seen him do some crazy things before, but dancing? Evel is back, all right, BIG TIME. BowEvel was also at Evel's right hand when the legend announced AN ALL-NEW ULTIMATE JUMP, RAMPING UP FOR 2003. It was a red-letter day in daredevil history. As soon as I filed my story from Galpin, I dialed up Hans to get his  story. Here's a guy whose Aunt Lillian made him his first Knievel costume in 6th grade, and Uncle Jack painted the helmet to match. He first meets his hero in person in April of 1989, when a bunch of Knievel fans fly out to Vegas to see Evel's son Robbie jump the fountains at Caesar's Palace - and vindicate his father's disastrous wipe-out of December 31st, 1967. Picture Hans on the strip in costume, the jumpsuit, the V on his chest, the helmet, the cane, the shoot from the  hip and take no lip attitude. Somebody sees him strutting his stuff in the land of the electric lotus and says, hey buddy, come on over to the bar at Caesar's. Sure enough, Hans is led to the court of Caesar and a genuine Caesar is who he meets. Evel looks up from his booth with private phone, sees Evel BowEvel and says, "I'm taking a picture with you." It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Hans is sitting there going, "I can't believe I'm having a drink with Evel Knievel." Since then their paths have crossed many times. There was Robbie's jump in Lake Elsinore, CA in '96. Then in 1999 when Robbie Knievel prepared to jump a Wile E. Coyote-class ravine near the Grand Canyon, the BowEvels were there by the campfire, invited by the Kaptain himself, singing up a storm in praise of the greatest bloodline in cycle-jumping history. But the coolest thing about Hans is he's not just an ultra-fan, he's also a brinksman. If somebody gives him any shit, he's ready to throw down - and a s the Romans knew, those Germanic barbarians, even the skinny ones, can give you hell. Let's put it this way, Hans completely digs Evel's amigos like the Castines, and guys like daredevil Doug Klang and cycle-jumping champ Louis Re, who are cool to him, but expresses disgust at those sorry offenders inside the Knievel crew he recalls tried to sabotage him. Despite - or maybe because of - semi-official sanctioning for BowEvel pride from father and son Knievel, a couple of haters inside Robbie's tech team even tried to have Hans kicked off the Arizona landing site. "I'll tell Gary he's an asshole man to man. I will take him outside and punch him in the face. Billy is also an  asshole. I'll say it to their face." He's gone from happy-go-lucky to serious - he will fight them if they try to stop him from doing his thing. BowEvel, a man of elemental passions and stone-carved grudges, just like the original player himself, code name EK-1. And oh yeah, Hans also hates Fox TV and their "Death Jump Goons," an aversion shared at Five-O and by everyone who remembers the legacy of Evel's primetime point man, the great Howard Cosell. I'm telling you, Evel Central Command, what about Jason Priestley??? He'd be  perfect to help call your big jump - especially after eating the wall in a racecar and graduating from actor to bona fide Man of Action! And Mr. T! He whipped cancer and he would bring a whole new dimension to calling the jump. Only please, please, no standard bone-heads from Fox! Anyway, in 2000, the BowEvels play their hero new songs commemorating his "Wild Turkey and wild romance." That's at the Del Mar Mile, where Evel is master of ceremonies. It was scarcely a year after the liver transplant that saved the all-time great's life. Suddenly being Mini-Me to the Master of Disaster isn't a dead end street at all. Now being the daredevil-king's court jester and traveling minstrel is a promising vocation, as wide open as Big Sky Country under the stars. It all comes together in mid-May of 2002, when Hans joins the rally ride from Vegas to Primm, NV, for the  groundbreaking at The Evel Knievel Experience gaming and entertainment center. That's where Evel, age 63, busts out the unthinkable announcement: "I am going to jump again." Nobody knew, says Hans. The first time Evel's closest friends hear anything about this is right there at the ground-breaking. I'm tripping, says Hans - flabbergasted at the lack of communication in the crew. He's asking Evel's old guard, you guys seriously didn't know? Talk about a man apart. Evel dropped his bombshell on the audience and his own inner circle at the same time. That sets the stage for the Galpin event two weeks later. This time, Evel BowEvel has his idol's back when the big man announces, "I'm going to have a long, long runway where ever I  choose to jump, and I'm going to jump the fastest, safest, best manufactured motorcycle in the world that right now I am testing. These young guys jump these little ring ding Hondas or Yamahas or whatever that is, they have great suspension, but I am going to jump a big V-Twin just like I used to jump. And when I get ready to go I hope you're all there. Stay on the take off side and when I take off, blow like hell — you'll get me clear across." Whenever and wherever he chooses to take action, that's a day you can be sure Evel BowEvel and the BowEvel Brothers will be on hand to support their lifelong hero - and Five-O will, too. That's a promise from us to Evel, and if you try to keep us from doing our thing, we'll punch your face in. —  Nate Nichols

  Super Dave Osborne "You don't want to see how my last stunt went." Comedy/StuntmanCross-over Report Special to Five-O by John Wareham Evel Knievel, the King of the Daredevils, made many tremendous jumps on his motorcycle. But he also crashed and was hospitalized on many occasions. "Super Dave" Osborne also does death-defying stunts. Unlike Evel, he crashes every single time. Yet he has never been injured. How can that happen? It's because "Super Dave" Osborne is comedian Bob Einstein, who has made a career out of crashing and burning on  TV. Einstein, brother of filmmaker Albert Brooks (born Albert Einstein), has played the self-absorbed, bumbling, incompetent, deadpan daredevil since he first appeared on the short-lived series "Van Dyke and Company" with Dick Van Dyke in 1976. He then appeared semi-regularly on the John Byner hosted cable show "Bizarre" in 1980. Einstein's act goes like this. "Super Dave" comes out, dressed in a leather jumpsuit directly ripped off from Evel Knievel, complete with a cap with "SD" printed on it, and sets up his latest stunt, which he says didn't quite go as planned. The stunt usually has  "Super Dave" participating in some outrageous maneuver, sometimes involving trucks, cars, cycles - maybe he's standing on top of a moving semi-truck traveling at a high rate of speed, or something equally dangerous, like high voltage. That's the set-up, but then they edit a "Super Dave" dummy into the shot, which violently crashes, sending limbs and body parts in ridiculous directions they don't usually go, for a semi-humorous result which looks completely fake. After the laugh-track asisted pay-off, "Super Dave" is embarrassed by the mishap and, in a deadpan fashion, comments on how he does so many stunts that do work well and here the host had to show the one that didn't. As Evel's career gave way to retirement, "Super Dave" parlayed his frequent "Bizarre" appearances into many guest appearances on Late Night with David Letterman; the Showtime animated television series "Super Dave" from 1987 to 1992; the television specials "Super Dave All-Stars" (1997) and "Super Dave Osborne's Vegas Spectacular" (1998), feature film "Be The Man" (1998) and the straight-to-video feature film "The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave" in 2000. Einstein has appeared on television as someone other than "Super Dave" only twice since 1980. Right now he's the TV pitchman for Cerritos Auto Square, with a pretty cool gag: he pretends to be their inept competition. For example, the Cerritos Auto Square is filled with beautiful cars. Cut to SDO, who's sitting alone in an empty lot. "It's going to be great, all the cars are on their way," he promises. Then of course, sub in the dummy, who is mashed underneath a huge, rolling car-carrier. UPDATE Hey Nate, Super Dave Osborne was on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday. He was run over by a bus while in his "prayer tent" during a taped rehearsal for a motorcycle jump over several buses.

  Thanks, John, for your report on that truly mystifying phenomenon. We'll be back next issue with more Wild Men & Wonder Women on Wheels. Spanning the  globe - from Knievel to Bowevel, from Super Joe to Super Dave, from Jan Lee to Jumpin' Jamie - keep your dial tuned to Daredevil Alley for more Exclusive Coverage of the King of the Daredevils, the Legion of Evel and the Greatest Comeback of All Time. Viva Knievel. Five-O Out.

  Scrap heap art works Pierre LaChance An Okanagan artist scrounges wood from scrap heaps and turns it into amazing replicas of cars and motorcycles. http://youtu.be/U2ZdXSEBITo Read it on Global News: CLICK ON THE LINK  http://globalnews.ca/video/403982/scrap-heap-art-works  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  " DID YOU KNOW" Back in 1964 a man in his mid-twenties climbed onto a barstool in Lott's Sebringvilla Hotel and ordered a drink. His eyes caught and focused on the enlarged photographs hung on the walls, photo of old cars and hell drivers in old and unfamiliar surroundings. The man, Montrealer named Ken Carter, was fascinated because he too was a daredevil, though admittedly not in the class of whoever was performing the stunts in those photographs. Carter, in fact, was a second-liner with Paul Riddell's Imperial Hell Drivers. " I saw pictures of a man doing a ram-to-ramp jump over a Greyhound bus and I knew it had to be Lucky Lott, " Carter would say later. " I always thought he was crazy but I changed my mind after I met him." That was the beginning of a friendship lasting almost twenty years. Some time later, Carter returned to Sebringville to seek Lott's advice and help with ideas he had for improving his daredevil status. He was interested in ramp-to-ramp stunts, but he wanted to do them with a specially designed rocket-car. Carter became known a The Mad Canadian and attracted international attention in 1977, the year he told everyone he was going to jump his rocket-car from Canada to the United States across the half-mile stretch of the St. Lawrence River at Morrisburg, Ontario. " For once a Canadian will be a hero," he said I expect to live to tell you about it. We have left no stone on turned and all the people working with me have the finest credentials. The odds are in our favor. It works on paper and I think it will work in real life." If I thought I was going to die I wouldn't do it." And he didn't do it. There were a number of planned attempts, some postponed by weather, and there was talk of U.S. official refusing Carter the permission he needed to land his car on American soil. A friend Ken Power did the stunt.  Edited by Pete Chance Stuntworld1.com Producer/Historian --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OKANAGAN PICKERS ONLINE! BUY-SALE-TRADE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. The “Okanagan Pickers” (We love recycling  anything and everything  from yard sales and fleamarkets) Antique items  like art,coins,gold and jewelry.   "WE LOVE IT ALL IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT"  Pierre LaChance is the Okanagan Picker.ca  Google Pierre LaChance Kelowna