That's the question everyone asks us. Why is Tripod — a hi-tech company started by a bunch of young punks barely out of college — teaming up with a '70s legend who hasn't performed one of his signature stunts in almost 20 years? Why on Earth are we seeking life advice from a man who made his living and his name (literally) doing things that any reasonable human being would consider lunatic?
After all, this is the guy who jumped his Harley 151 feet across the fountains at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, landed disastrously, and didn't wake up from his coma for 30 days. This is the guy who busted his pelvis in half trying to jump 13 double-decker buses at Wembley Stadium in London. And this is the guy who watched two unmanned test flights of his rocket-powered "Skycycle" end up in splinters at the bottom of Snake River Canyon, then calmly hopped into the third one and tried to clear the quarter-mile chasm. In case you weren't around then, he didn't make that jump either.
Are we sure we want this guy advising the world's youth? Yeah. Dead sure. And here's why.
Because Evel Knievel is nuts — he'd have to be — but he sure as hell ain't stupid. He got 6 million bucks for that Snake River jump (or 4 million, or 1 million, depending on your source). He saw the risks laid out before him, saw the rewards, and went for it. No whining, no begging for sympathy, not even after spending an aggregate three years(!) laid up in hospital beds over the course of his career. Not even now, when Hepatitis C, contracted during one of his far-too-frequent blood transfusions, threatens to do what none of his crashes could. This is his life, and he's lived it exactly how he wanted to.
And that's where the rubber meets the road, really. Tripod has always been about making informed decisions and taking informed risks. It's about taking opportunities as they come, and about creating your own opportunities where none existed before. You want DIY? We're talking about a guy who invented his own sport, for crying out loud.
So ask us one more time. Why Evel Knievel? Dumb question. Who else would we get?
Get the lowdown on Evel's amazing story at evel.com.
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