Evel tribute honours Calgary man
SOARING TO NEW HEIGHTS: Fan’s ashes fly across Snake River Canyon in successful stunt
On Sept. 16, in a replica of Evel Knievel’s Skycycle X-2 and at a speed close to 700 km/h, Hollywood stuntman Eddie Braun successfully jumped across the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho. When he did, he carried with him a unique Calgary connection.
The daredevil, who has appeared in films including Sully, The Avengers, Swordfish and The Last Castle, as well as being Charlie Sheen’s stunt double in television’s Two and a Half Men, finished what his hero Evel Knievel could not.
Knievel, on Sept. 8, 1974, attempted to launch his Skycycle X-2 — basically a rocket designed by Robert Truax — over the nearly half-a-kilometre wide and 152-metre deep Snake River Canyon, but his parachute prematurely deployed. Knievel landed without major injury at the bottom of the canyon, but he never got to try the stunt again.
“People say Evel aborted his attempt, but I think that parachute was simply a malfunction,” said Tamara Swayze of Calgary. “It was seen as doable in 1974, and Eddie proved it was in 2016.”
Swayze’s late husband, Todd, was a passionate Knievel fan. As a child, Todd idolized Knievel and played for hours with toy vehicles in the likeness of those used by the daredevil in his motorcycle stunts. But while most kids grow up and forget their childhood heroes, Todd could not. He became a close friend with Knievel and his immediate family were invited to the stuntman’s funeral in 2007.
Annually, Todd attended the festival that celebrates everything about the world’s most famous stuntman during Evel Knievel Days in Butte, Mont., Knievel’s hometown. That’s where Todd met Braun and Scott Truax, the son of the man who built the original rocket and who was secretly building Braun’s new ride.
“We knew the rocket was being built, but they were doing it on the hush,” said Tamara. “Todd became good friends with Eddie and Scott, and they invited him to be an honourary crew member on the launch team.
“Then, in December 2014, Todd was diagnosed with lung cancer. He got sicker and sicker, and died in February this year.”
When Braun and Truax heard Todd had died, they approached Tamara and asked if they could take him for one last ride.
At the launch pad in Idaho with the rocket nicknamed Evel Spirit, Tamara handed Braun a plastic vial containing some of Todd’s ashes. Braun stowed them away in the front chest pocket of his flight suit.
In an email to Driving.ca, Braun wrote: “Todd was a very warm, sweet man. We shared an undying passion for all things Evel Knievel, and I figured it would only be fitting to invite him along for the flight.
“His widow Tamara agreed, and Todd was right there with me streaking across the canyon in true ‘Evel Spirit.’ There is a little Evel in all of us.”
Said Tamara: “I thought that was a fantastic tribute to Todd, and I’m super honoured they’d think to do that.”
“Todd was right there with me streaking across the canyon in true ‘Evel Spirit.’” — Eddie Braun