Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Fuck Evel Knievel...


You wanted it, so you're gonna bloody get it...
AUSTRALIAN MOTORBIKE JUMPING LEGENDS!!


#1, Dale Buggins


By 17, Dale Buggins was breaking Evel Knievel's world records. By 20 he was dead. By 25, I refer to the number of cars he would jump on his Yamaha. This kid had spunk, and by spunk, I don't mean semen, I mean get up and go! Although, I'm pretty sure he had semen too, because he had balls the size of Uranus. Unlike American 'hero' Evel Knievel, Dale Buggins only crashed once. Also, unlike Knievel, he wasn't a drug-addled, nasty dickhead. Buggins was just a kid living for the now. They even made an action figurine/toy stunt bike in his likeness. Sadly, he had his demons too, and one of them talked him into buying a .22 rifle and shooting himself in the chest in his room at the Marco Polo Inn in Melbourne in 1981. He had just returned from a tour of the states. I guess he didn't like it so much. He shares his deathday with Jimi Hendrix.

Too pure for this shitty world, he now jumps free of the shackles of gravity, forever young. Buggins, you rule the school.


#2 The Kangaroo Kid

Happily, the Kangaroo Kid din't blow a hole in his chest, and lives to jump to this very day. Here he is in action, flying to the moon.


Here he is with his wife.... or daughter.


And again. I'm still not sure if it is his wife or daughter. Either way, he's a lucky guy.

And that's lucky, because luck is what you need when you decide to make a living from jumping motorbikes. Anyway, taking his name from a magical jumping marsupial, the Kangaroo Kid rides a quad. Yes, that's right, the Kangaroo Kid figures two wheels are for pussies. He is best known for such ridiculous four-wheeled stunts as 'jumping the paddlesteamer' and 'jumping a flying plane'. He has been known to sing his favorite song 'I Believe I Can Fly' right before activating his quad systems. Kangaroo Kid, we all believe you can fly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that, my mum Jan Buggins has only just been saying that Evil Knievels legend lives on and yet not one mention of Dale's name on any of the Australian TV channels, especially channel 9, with whom he had such a good relationship. Dale beat Kneivel's record by 6 cars when he was just 19 and was an Aussie hero at the time. Do you think there is a taboo or stigma about the way Dale died?

Would like to hear your comments.

Cheers Emma

wayne,o said...

Dale is still remembered very well in north Queensland.I had lots of people asking me about him,i told them i was very young but remember him doubling my Aunty Tracey my sister and myself around the front yard of my grandparents place Doug and Shirleys down at the central coast.Still got his photos up on the wall after a show with his dad and cutting his our hero cake from 1981.The legend still lives on.