Stuntman Karel Soucek

Karel Soucek, “a Czech professional stuntman living in Canada” really came into my focus in 1976 when he attempted a crossing of the famed Whirlpool rapids at Niagara Falls. For those who have not visited Niagara Falls, the Whirlpool is downstream from the Falls in the Niagara Gorge. The Spanish Cable Car travels between Canada and the USA, 250 feet (76 metres) above the Whirlpool on a cable wire 1,770 feet in length.

On July 22, 1976, one year after the successful crossing of the Whirlpool by Henri Rechatin from France using the cable wires on an engineered Bultaco Sherpa T from Sonic Motorcycles, Karel Soucek attempted to cross the Whirlpool on a moped.

Karel’s attempt failed when his moped hit a cable joint bolt less than 20 feet out. A safety harness worn by Soucek saved his life to continue his stunt career as the years progressed.

On June 11, 1977, instead of travelling above the Whirlpool, Karel decided to ‘ride’ the rapids while inside a home-fabricated steel barrel. The barrel Karel constructed was 9 feet long and 5 feet in diameter with padding inside. The short ride in the rapids turned into a long one when Karel was stranded for three hours until an emergency crew came to his rescue.

Although I was not an eyewitness to any of Karel’s barrel stunts reported in the news, I was in attendance at two of Karel’s motorcycle stunts. To verify details of my memory of events I called Bob Lewis who was well acquainted with Karel.

Bob Lewis, the president of the Oshawa Motorcycle Competition Club at the time, says his first meeting of Karel was during the summer of 1977 at the Don Valley Ski Centre right near where I grew up in Toronto, ON located at Lawrence Ave and the Don Valley Parkway.

The event was called the Kawasaki Classic, basically a timed hill climb up the ski hill sponsored by Kawasaki, organized by John Pugh, owner of Ontario Kawasaki at the time. Jump ramps were provide by Bar Hodson, founder of the Canadian Motorcycle Heritage Museum Foundation, for Karel to jump some cars as an added feature.

Bob describes best what happened that day: “Karel jumped some cars, one of them had a Doberman in the back seat, that’s the one he landed on going right through the back window where the dog was sitting. People were screaming especially this one woman. Everyone was worried about the dog and not so much about the rider.” Turned out both the rider and dog were fine, but the car had significant damage.

Moving on to winter that year in 1977 when ice racing was in full swing, Bob Lewis and the OCMC club organized the annual Bewdley Ice Race held on Rice Lake in Ontario where Bob invited Karel to perform another motorcycle jump.

This time Bob says, “On a borrowed KX250, because I don’t think he had one of his own, Karel successfully over-jumped a row of cars landing past the landing ramp and pocketed a cool $1,000.” The following year, Bob invites Karel again who wanted to up the ante on the stunt. Bob recalls, “1978 rolls around and Karel said he wants to jump 10 cars 10 times on the same borrowed KX250 wearing his one-piece leather suit with a ‘K’ on front chest. Not sure if he was expecting $1,000 per jump?

“Anyways like the year before he overjumped the ramp landing on the flat ice surface losing control. Once he hit the snowbank at speed it launched Karel into the air while the bike continued upright crashing through the snow fence taking out 4 spectators.” It was a dramatic spectacle in front of a crowd upwards of 5,000 people.

When Karel had healed he was back in the news conducting some testing on the Niagara Escarpment in Hamilton with his stunt barrel. Unknown to the press at the time Karel was preparing to go over the mighty Horseshoe Falls!

On July 2, 1984, Karel clandestinely climbed into his steel barrel, to float in the Niagara River. A few moments later Karel became one of the few people to survive the falls, a drop ride that lasts three and a half seconds at an estimated speed of 75 mph (121 km/h). Karel was banged up when he climbed out of his barrel presumably from the 45 minutes of bouncing off the rocks below until he was rescued and fined.

January 19, 1985 would unfortunately be the day of Karel Soucek’s last stunt. The stunt, to be carried out at the Astrodome in Houston, TX was created by Karel to replicate his successful drop over the Niagara Falls. Raised 180 feet above a 12 foot by 9 foot open tank of water, Karel climbed into a barrel for the last time. Reports say the barrel, marked on the side with “Last of the Niagara Daredevils - 1984” was released prematurely. The barrel with the 37-year-old Karel inside dropped, hitting the edge of the tank.

For all his failures, I admire Karel Soucek’s zest for life and mantra, “It’s not whether you fail or triumph, it’s that you keep your word... and at least try!” Quote by Karel Soucek. IM