This is Josh again, reporting from the Big Air jump. I caught Danny Way's warm up tonight—it consisted of chewing Titanium into little bits. When the competition began, he put the Titanium down and all sorts of madness ensued. This included, but was not limited to, Mr. Jake Brown hucking a no-handed 360 (my personal favorite) and Burnquist throwing 360 Indys 20 feet out. Andy Mac did something, too.
Darren Hendrix
Danny Way! Danny Way! Danny Way!
But back to Danny: Out of a massive backflip across the kicker, he boosted a 19-foot McTwist straight to his shins and did the most violent penny drop I've ever seen, landing on his back. Way got up slowly, took a 10 minute "one of the gnarliest slams I've ever seen" break and came back out. At one point, a media lady asked him how he was doing and Way said, "I'm pretty sure my foot's broken." Just the words made me feel like less of a man as he climbed up to the roll-in.
Have you ever seen that part in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where two knights have a sword fight because one wants to cross a bridge and the toll-keeping Black Knight ends up getting his arms and legs cut off? Dismembered, the Black Knight starts yelling at the other knight to come back. "It's just a flesh wound," he says, "I can still bite you." Well, that's kind of what I think of when I see someone as gnarly as Danny Way. I mean, he got up after all that and pulled the backflip and then added a varial to the McTwist. His foot was broken. Everyone started screaming. I felt like a puny shell of a man. To top it off, Danny went back up there, blasted the thing again, slid out, smashed his dome on the flat bottom, writhed a bit and then landed another flawless combo. After all that, he was in first.
Then Bob Burnquist got his chance. He floated the switch backside 180 and a backside 360, coming into the wall of doom to fakie. The crowd went wild again. Bob rolled back up the wedge, arms extended into the air. I thought, Danny Way. Bob's arms came back down. They held his helmet. I thought, Danny Way. Bob yelled heroically into the air. I thought, Danny Way.
Burnquist won it, understandably, but I kept thinking Danny Way over and over to myself until I walked out of the stands down into the back hallways of the Staples Center and found him leaned up against the wall, holding his kidneys, grimacing in pain as someone took the shoe off his broken foot. I wanted to find him some Titanium to chew on, but all I could do was stand there and think of how gnarly Danny Way is.
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Contributors
Josh Brooks
Josh is a skater and a scientist. He's written for Thrasher, lurks in Long Beach, has a mean tré bomb and isn't afraid to call your favorite pro to get perspective on the latest news.
Adam Salo
Adam is one of the biggest skate nerds you'll ever encounter. It can be a little frightening. He also really likes pushing fast in traffic and wallrides.
Mike Sinclair
Mike Sinclair is a man of many talents and skills. He's particularly good as a Skater, Dog Owner, Team Manager, Eater, Baller, Comedian, Writer and Friend.
Chris Nieratko
Chris owns three skate shops (NJSkateshop.com), writes for numerous skate magazines, has a column for Vice and is pretty great at making things funny, or awkward, or both.
Noah Johnson
Noah lives, writes and skateboards everyday in Brooklyn, New York. His favorite things are clean grip, extra crispy bacon and sweatshirt weather.
