Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Evel Knievel served in the US army, worked at a copper mine, was a semi pro hockey player, started a successful hunting guide business, competed in ski jumping, pole vaulting, and rodeo events. For a brief period he was a profitable insurance salesman, but quit after not being promoted to Vice President after a few months with the company (which later became part of the multi billion dollar Aon Corporation). Mr. Knievel also owned a motorcycle dealership and offered $100 off to any customer who could beat him at arm wrestling.

All of these things occurred before Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel became the daredevil that we remember him for today. Say what you want about Evel, but what more could we be doing in our own lives? It is a new decade so where do you want to start?

CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images. Promotion for the shark tank jump in 1976.

For more images of Evel Knievel see Life’s gallery and captions here. You can follow Life Magazine on Twitter or on Facebook.

About the Life Magazine archive:

The cataloging of the Life Magazine archives by Google is a highlight of the last decade. This is the strongest collection of editorial magazine photography from American history. So far Google has cataloged every single page of each issue from 1936-1972, and can be viewed or printed for free through (you HAVE to click this link) Google Books online here. However I question how some of Life’s photographers may have lost the rights to their work that is now available for license through the partnership of Time Inc. and Getty images. I assume this was only possible due to poor contracts initially signed by the photographers in deals that now look similar to the blues musicians who lost the rights to their songs to recording studios.

Unfortunately, many photographers have not been properly credited by Time/Life. Google only hosts the archive, so we can’t blame them. If you blog, share, or post any images from the Life archive please use good karma.  Try to at least credit the photographer who shot the images whenever possible. It is the least we can do.

LA Times Newspaper clipping circa 1999, photo: Jay Watson

Tazio Nuvolari was born on November 16, 1892. He had 46 major road victories. Prior to auto racing, Nuvolari won the 35o cc motorcyle European Grand Prix in 1925, and was a Nations Grand Prix winner 4 times. Nuvolari was left partially paralyzed from a stroke in 1952. Ironically he died in bed a year later from a second stroke at the age 60 on August 11, 1953.

This is not only a creative piece of advertising, but a nice little taste of freedom. Looks like fun for both the skater and the director. Full report from Cab here, who always has something positive to share and leads one of the most inspired lives of anyone I know. Add him to your RSS feed.

Skate and destroy pop bubbles!

Laidback grind by DP © Jay Watson Photography

Where does your inspiration come from? I would like to ask Duane Peters. He placed 3rd at the 10th Annual Tim Brauch Memorial Contest this past weekend. The man is 47! Not only did he lose a wheel on his first run, but he kept riding and grabbed “trick of the day” and a couple of tacos for the effort. The “Master Of Disaster” rode against legends of skateboarding such as Steve Alba, Steve Caballero, and Christian Hosoi. It was obvious Christian or Caballero would win after the first round so Peters was left to ride for himself and for the crowd during the finals. A position in which he thrives.

DP was one of skateboarding’s first to come out of the 70s era and embrace punk rock. Anyone in the 80s could dress punk, but Peters transcended the outward appearance and pushed it into his riding style. He skated punk! He founded bands The Huns, the U.S. Bombs and invented my favorite trick, the “disaster.” The Master has also battled with addiction, but he keeps on playing music and still consistently rides well in contents. There are only a few original seeds in skateboarding. Which makes me wonder when there is no one else who came before you, then how does the seed begin? Where does the creativity and inspiration come from? What is telling you when you lose a wheel to keep riding?

I see inspiration everywhere. From the riding style of pro skaters to the little grom who is starting out. Skateboarding is about progression and pushing yourself a little farther each time you ride. Or to just push yourself to have fun. This has been inspiring me lately. If I can remember these lessons from a skateboard then surely they will translate into photography. Inspiration also comes from not knowing. If you knew what would happen then why bother doing anything at all?

Inspiration from a song.
We need DP to stick around. After I shot this image above I was reminded of a song by by 7 Seconds where they lyrics scream out “I’m Gonna Stay Young Until I Die.” That song has given me a little extra motivation. Now that I am older it makes much more sense.

• • •

More on Duane Peters

U.S. Bombs (acoustic)

• • •

Final Results 10th Annual Tim Brauch Memorial Bowl Contest. September 28, 2008
Lake Cunningham Skatepark. San Jose, CA

Masters
1. Christian Hosoi
2. Steve Caballero
3. Duane Peters
4. Jason Parkes
5. Greg Aguilar
6. Steve Alba
7. Josh Nelson
8. Mitchell Mendez

Pro
1. Benji Galloway
2. Tim Johnson
3. Josh Sandoval
4. Sergie Ventura
5. Josh Balogh

Women
1. Julie Kindstrand
2. Megan Brown
3. Annie Sullivan
4. Amiee Jay Papelera
5. Lexi Barclay

Gremlin By Day, Photographer By Night. © Jay Watson Photography

Man, do we know time! We know that it is with us everywhere we go. So why not enjoy every second of it. Why not put yourself into a completely unique situation that you have never been in before? What would come out of it? Recently I have had the chance to go to new places with photography, and I am not talking about locations. I am talking about that place in between your ears. Mindful places that we hardly get to visit during the daily (frontside) grind. The image above was shot at 4am in the middle of nowhere. A place and time I had never been before with a camera.

I’ll be posting more stuff from these new “places” next week. In the meantime, my mash-up of events from the past few weeks goes like this: Vans Skatepark, Flapjack, Eddie Fiola, So-Cal, Rodeo, Nor-Cal, trenchcoats, GT Bicycles, G-Boy, Chocodiles, Noise, 103 degree heat, Tinker, Oprah, Bulls, Pacheco Pass 5X in 6 days, Belly-boxes, Beef Jerky, Cigars, and Tecate.