BY SARA KEDDY
Kings County Register
Ben Bouchard would do wheelies and steer his bicycle straight into a curb and fling himself over the handlebars and onto the ground – on purpose.
“There’d be two or three old ladies at the bus stop, and they’d be all over me,” the professional stuntman says now. “I was mischievous.”
He was kicked out of high school – for driving his bicycle in school – but that hasn’t stopped him from going on to be, he figures, one of the five best motorcycle stunt drivers in the world today.
From his first $150 job to do bicycle stunts at the Montreal expo as a teenager, he’s since toured with monster truck shows, performed around the world and set a number of unofficial world stunt records: the latest was a four-man wheelie over a half-mile on a Harley.
Bouchard is back in the Valley – he lived here for four years from 1988, keeping up with tours and then starting his own stunt company. BB Stunt Shows.
“I was very aggressive and would sell myself everywhere,” he says. He performed at car shows, drag races, smash-up derbies, exhibitions. “I got bigger, did the Skydome and Olympic Stadium.”
Finally, one day, “my friends gathered me up and kicked me out. I took it hard, but I had goals of conquering the world. There was no way that was going to happen from here.”
A year later, he was thankful he left. He’s since been living and performing across North America.
“At Christmas, I came back to Nova Scotia for a vacation – I went back to Montreal and said, ‘Guess what?’ to my friends. They knew – I was going back to Nova Scotia.”
He’s been on his bike for a month, admittedly in some snow, but putting in more time on two wheels in that short a time than he did in a year in Montreal.
“I’m not going to be doing wheelies professionally all my life”
Through the years, he’s picked up skills around filming stunts, taking pictures of bikes and packaging it all.
“I’ve got a production company, and that can be another life for me.”
That doesn’t mean, though, he’s done jumping and popping wheelies. He’s looking to fill the upcoming season with shows around the region. Sponsors such as Frasers and Valley Glass and Mirror have already said they’ll back him again, and he’s picked up some new support already, in particular Computer Shack, which is building his webpage.
”I want to stay here and get back to normal – not go in fourth gear all the time. It’s important to do the basics – just ride, do a wheelie and see a smile on a kid’s face. It’s fun.”
The stunts have always been fun – not dangerous.
“Juggling with chainsaws – that’s dangerous. I don’t get it. Motorcycle stunts, they’re all controlled – the bike’s been checked, no one’s coming out in front of you, it’s all planned out. If you’re nervous, you’re not ready.
“Everyone has to be impressed, but I have to come out the other side, too.”
WEBLINKS
www.bbstuntshows.com
