Grass Dragging: Bringing You One Step Closer to the Darwin Awards

I suspect not many of my readers are too terribly familiar with the Darwin Awards and even less are familiar with Grass Dragging, so let me just go into it a little bit because I find it all curiouser and curiouser. The Darwin Awards honor those who improve the species by removing themselves from it. Nominees significantly improve the gene pool by eliminating themselves in an obviously stupid way.
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I grew up on snowmobiles and while we occassionally ended up dragging across the grass, we certainly never did it intentionally. Who knew a few years later, it would become an extreme sport? Back in the day, there was no such term, but I assure you Matt and I performed a few extreme sports of our own on the snowmobiles and dirt bikes and I have the scars to prove it.
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Snowmobiles, in my day, were not meant to leave the snow; hence, the name. Today you can find the young, the hearty, the future Darwin Award Recipients running their stripped down, tricked out snowmobiles across dirt, grass, sand and/or water, with the water ones not always returning. Of course they launch, you know, as in up-in-the-air, and now they are even attempting backflips. With quarter-ton vehicles. Back. Flips. Go to NHSA Grass Drags to read all about it.
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So, with jaw dropped open, I've been on high-alert for, oh, a few minutes for anything snowmobile related. On New Years Eve, X games champ Levi LaVallee planned to attempt to break the world record for longest snowmobile jump, a 300' launch. Read here a great interview about the preparation process. Alas, when I searched for results of this attempt, these are the headlines I read, in order, as I scrolled.

• Levi Lavallee Injured During Practice.
• Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. Cancelled.
• Levi Lavallee Released From Hospital.

So.... Red Bull: No Limits apparently does indeed have limits.
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Poor kid. But he beat the world record by 60'. It's just a matter of seeing if it gets verified and accepted and I'm sure that's the first thing he asked when he regained consciousness. But the good news: he doesn't qualify for the Darwin Awards. (yet)