We've had quite a few lovely posts over the years about people on bikes and skateboards and all these fine new sports that those crazy kids are in to these days, whether it's charging it, huckin' or riding in all its myriad of forms. New, yeah? Here's your great-great-granddad showing you what for with some barspins and suchlike novelties on a heavy old fixie. Stick around for the full-pipe attempt at the end. Directed and filmed by Thomas Edison.
posted by loquacious on Apr 20, 2009 - 64 comments

When Man on Wire won a Grand Jury Prize: at Sundance this year, many could hazily remember Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the World Trade Center Towers in New York in 1974 (previously) but few knew the extent to which the entire endeavor was a wacky multinational caper. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn on Oct 11, 2008 - 32 comments

This is how we roll in India
This is how we slide in Saudi
This is how we fly in Sweden
Some people are a little bit casual about road safety.
posted by roofus on Jul 14, 2008 - 69 comments

Downtown Miami seems like a lot more fun when its filled with foam. That is all.
posted by allkindsoftime on Apr 20, 2008 - 30 comments

Please refrain from all activity while we re-calibrate the Cojones Scale. (single link youtube post)
posted by hifimofo on Mar 3, 2008 - 45 comments

The Wall of Death. Celebrated in song and art, the act of riding a motorcycle on the vertical wall of the inside of a cylinder, was a popular carnival attraction, mid-century. Although on the wane since the 70's, there are still a few practitioners, some of whom have better websites than others.
posted by Devils Rancher on Dec 31, 2006 - 9 comments

The opening theme of Mozart's symphony in G minor, K. 550 - on rollerblades and downhill.
posted by persona non grata on Sep 4, 2006 - 38 comments

STUNT ROCK.
posted by glenwood on Jul 26, 2006 - 38 comments

The 1 Second Film. 12 giant frames. One giant movie. 90 minutes of credits. All profits to the Global Fund for Women. It's all part of a plan.
posted by Sticherbeast on Jul 21, 2006 - 13 comments

The greatest Hollywood stunt pilots of them all, Frank Tallman and Paul Mantz not only looked the part, but flew camera ships, raced planes, and performed amazing aerial stunts in films for over 40 years. Not long after forming Tallmantz Aviation, Mantz was killed on location in the excellent 1965 version of Flight of the Phoenix. Tallman, grounded on FOTP due to a go-cart accident, lost his leg as a result but flew in movies for another 13 years until crashing in 1978.
posted by cenoxo on Feb 11, 2006 - 6 comments

Short film of climber Dan Osman scaling Lover's Leap in California without ropes, racing over 400 vertical feet in just under four & a half minutes. Link goes to direct wmv download. Having never heard of Osman before, I was shocked to find out that his daredevil ways led to an early death when a rope snapped while Osman was performing a modfied form of bungie jumping in Yosemite back in 1999.
posted by jonson on Nov 23, 2005 - 79 comments

Great Leap Forward With the Chinese minister of extreme sports in attendance, American skateboarder Danny Way cleared a 61-foot gap at nearly 50 mph, crossing the Great Wall of China. "I'm not a fan of heights," said Way, 31, who made five successive jumps. "The sooner I can get down from the top in one piece, the better." Daredevil sports have taken off in China, where Flying Over the Wall events began 10 years ago, but this was the first skateboarder to make an attempt. In 2002, a Chinese bicyclist died attempting to jump the wall when he landed outside the safety area.
posted by rcade on Jul 10, 2005 - 21 comments

This is a really bizarre self promotion stunt. Garry Turner sent this in to "One Step Beyond" producer Claire Mandile in the hopes of being featured on the show. Garry's "resume" is in the Guinness book of world records as the man with the Stretchiest Skin.
posted by claus on Jul 5, 2005 - 19 comments

Haute Voltage stunt flight (Direct .mpg. Bonus if you read Russian)
posted by growabrain on May 13, 2005 - 10 comments

Man charged in Blaine paint attack "A 28-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage for allegedly throwing pink paint at the box illusionist David Blaine has made his temporary home." It's not the first time he has been attacked. Here are the stunt details, a progress report and the box's location.
posted by ifenn on Sep 27, 2003 - 50 comments

Hot seat. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, when the staff at this radio station had one of those dynamic, 'brainstorming' sessions, to dream up 'wacky' new competitions for their listeners... Now they're going to have their asses sued.
posted by apocalypse miaow on Jan 15, 2003 - 52 comments

French Spiderman does it again! Alain Robert has just sucessfully made it two-thirds of the way up the 50 storey 1 Canada Sq in London's Canary Wharf before being arrested by police in a window-cleaning cart. It's like a war zone down there. As soon as any news links appear i'll post them here.
posted by andyHollister on Oct 18, 2002 - 39 comments

Not content on resting on its laurels, BMW brings in a new season of The Hire on bmwfilms.com. w00t.
posted by hobbes on Oct 16, 2002 - 9 comments

Acclaim's Turok plublicity stunt. Video game maker Acclaim is allegedly attempting to convince five poor saps to change their name to Turok for a year to promote their video game. However, none of the information on the about page checks out. For instance, there really is a Marketing Science Centre but the name "Simeon Cantrell", appears nowhere on it (nor do related links in a google search.) Is it a stunt or reality? The AP seems to have bought into it. Do you?
posted by kurtosis on Aug 13, 2002 - 7 comments

A Million British children all jumped at the same time. They actually caused a little bit of recordable seismic activity.
posted by yevge on Sep 8, 2001 - 13 comments

Rocket (Wo)man! Jumping out of an airplane is one thing I'd never do. But jumping out of a balloon in sub-orbital space...nope, don't think I'd do that either.
posted by thc on Nov 4, 2000 - 9 comments

You know that ad where a guy offers to pull a semi with his Chevy Tracker? Well, these guys showed up Chevy by pulling a truck with their...uh...winkies. [Via fark]
posted by plinth on Oct 23, 2000 - 9 comments