2010 Rallies & Events
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Eddie Wearden’s Great Rio Grande River Jump
(I promised we would always run fresh material online, and not articles from the magazine, but with videos possible online, I felt I had to re-run this article about the Rio Grande River jump that took place this summer. – Mark Barnett)
Story by Mark Barnett, Photos by Ed Cordova Deuces Wild Magazine, Kristin Anderson, and Courtney Nelson, Jr.
I was sitting in my office one day when an old motocross riding buddy of mine, Eddie Wearden, ambled in and told me he wanted to jump the Rio Grande River that separates the USA from Mexico on his 50th birthday on his KTM dirt bike. He thought I’d be shocked and flabbergasted, but I knew he had raced motocross for forty years, and was now racing and doing well in the Over-40 age divisions. I figured he was pretty level-headed; if he said he could do it, he must have measured, practiced, and be convinced of it. “I’ll help,” was the first thing out of my mouth. Hell, I wanted to watch.
We checked out a couple of areas as best we could; that part of the border is a troubled area and the Border Patrol wasn’t that keen on letting people poke about. After we settled on an area that was flat and gave him a bit of a run on our side, we began the arduous process of getting permission. The International Water & Boundary Commission, the Border Patrol, and Homeland Security all needed to sign off on it for the USA. At first, everyone said, “Sure, no problem.” We then let up a little and worried about getting permission from Mexico. That turned out to be surprisingly easy. Juarez was having a party on their side of the river the day before Eddie’s birthday and said if he’d change the date, they’d do everything needed to help him.
As we got down to about two weeks out, we found that getting written permission from the US side was getting more difficult. It wasn’t until the Wednesday before the Saturday jump that all our commissions and agencies said yes. By that time, our confidence was shaken and we decided not to advertise too heavily. There was room for around 400 cars to park easily right by the jump site, but there was construction going on at the break in the new 24-foot-high drug fence through which we wanted spectators to enter. We had a bad feeling about that. Thursday evening before the jump, the contractors said the crowd could walk through the opening. Friday morning, I felt like checking again on my way to work since the week had been so full of surprises and problems. This time, about 12 hours later, they said no, that the opening would be blocked. Now we didn’t have parking, so we kept the promotions to a minimum and figured we would just film it for YouTube. A lot of El Pasoans were disappointed that they didn’t hear about it in time to watch it in person, but it was a chaotic last few days before the jump.
Meanwhile, Mexico was going all out. They grated the landing area, spread pecan shells to keep down the dust and let people know where not to stand. When Saturday arrived, we were greeted with thousands of people on the Juarez side. They brought out inflatable “Love for Juarez” logos, a huge truck with giant speakers for music, and lots and lots of people. I’d guess about 5,000 showed up on the Juarez side and a 1,000 or 2,000 on our side, pretty much through word of mouth in the US since we were so unsure what would actually happen on the jump day.
Eddie was cool as a cucumber that Saturday and set up his ramp with a few friends. He did mention, however, that when he pulled up to the top of the ramp the first time to wave to the crowd and let them know he was ready to jump, that the little river looked like the Mississippi, about a mile across. You can log onto YouTube and search, “Eddie Wearden” to see the jump from four different perspectives. It is worth the watch. He made it with a little room to spare and went much higher upwards than anyone including himself expected, making it look pretty dramatic.
It was another great day for motorcycling and I’m glad he didn’t crash. He was absolutely mobbed with people when he stopped. He signed autographs on hats, shirts, arms, backs, necks, torsos, etc for about 45 minutes and then rode his bike back to the downtown bridge with a police escort. The mayor of Juarez gave him a medal for taking part in the anti-drug violence rally and for supporting the city of Juarez with his jump. If you listen to his answers to the Juarez media’s questions on YouTube, you can tell that Eddie was genuinely pleased about how friendly everyone on the Juarez side was, helping this 50-year-old create a very memorable birthday for himself.