Back when I was a kid in primary school one of the most popular books in the school library was the Guinness Book Of World Records. We would pore over it in search of the weird and the wonderful or the dangerous and daring records. We weren't interested in Olympic sprinting or high jumping records but things like the hot dog eating record (Joey Chestnut, 76 Nathan's Famous hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes) or the longest wheelchair ramp jump (Aaron Fotheringham, 21.35m).
It was the motorbike related jumps that really caught my eye in my early years though, usually set by the late Evel Kneivel. Evel was a showman who knew how to work up excitement and as it was early days for big motorcycle jumps he had to learn by hard experience. There were very few people he could turn to for advice
