In pursuit of his off-kilter dream — creating a suit of armor that could withstand the attack of a grizzly bear, Troy Hurtubise has endured much: Slugs in the chest from a 12-gauge shotgun at a range of 20 feet. Falling, on purpose, off the edge of the 150-foot-high Niagara Escarpment.
Assaults from burly friends and relatives all too willing to cuff him repeatedly with road picks, knives, bows and arrows, two-by-fours.
Eighteen times he has stood in the path of a three-ton pickup doing 30 miles per hour, and 18 times the truck has knocked him from here to next week.
On several occasions, he has stood at attention while a 350-pound log, winched 30 feet up in a tree, swung down broadside to topple him like a human bowling pin.
In each of these encounters, Hurtubise explains over oil-slicked restaurant coffee, he was safe inside his invention: the Ursus Mark VI Bearproof Suit, 147 pounds of titanium alloy, rubber, plastic, and chain mail standing seven feet, two inches tall. [The photo here is courtesy of National Film Board of Canada, which produced a documentary film about Troy: "Project Grizzly".]
Sounds like a heck of a suit, doesn't it? Would probably save a lot of lives if people wore them behind the wheels of their cars, don't'cha think? Of course, some of them might then also think they were invincible and keep the pedal to the metal...similar to Thai drivers with their strings of 'protective' medallions and a backs covered in religious tattoos!
One other major problem I'd have with the suit...soon as I got it all on, I'd have to pee!
See ya, eh!
Bob
PS: No oil slick on 'my' virtual coffee!
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