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N 2 14 B. C ., during the Qin Dynasty, China’sfirst emperor commanded the constructionof the Great Wa ll to prevent enemies from ge t-ting into the country. Some two thousand yearsl a te r, Danny Way passed over China in a plane,l o o ked out the window and thought to him-
s e l f, He y, wouldn’t that be a good landmark to jump?¶ The answer, most would say, is no way. But skate-b o a rd i n g’s most innova t ive rider is determined to find new avenues to keep the sport pro g re ss iv eand, as he puts it, “inte re s t i n g .” On Ju l y 9, the 31-y e a r-old pro will attempt a great leap fo r wa rd overthe ancient structure. Ca rrying a speed up to 55mph, Way will ride down a 65-fo o t-high ra m p,soar 70 feet over a section of the wa ll and land
ONCE AGAIN TAKING HIS SPORTTO NEW HEIGHTS, SKAT E B OA R D E RDANNY WAY PLANS TO JUMPOVER THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
I
A3J U N E 2 7 , 2 0 0 5
RAMPIN’ UP In 2003 Way built the Me ga
Ramp with an eye to record-setting jumps.
WHERE THERE’S AWALL THERE’S A WAYWHERE THERE’S AWALL THERE’S A WAYONCE AGAIN TAKING HIS SPORTTO NEW HEIGHTS, SKAT E B OA R D E RDANNY WAY PLANS TO JUMPOVER THE GREAT WALL OF CHINAB Y Y I - W Y N Y E N P h o to g raph by Mi ke Blabac
s i g n e r, John (J. T.) Tyson, made a
trip to Be ijing and scouted their
p roposed site at Juy o n gguan Pa ss,
30 miles from the Fo r b i dden City.
After ge tting governmental clear-
ance, Way had to postpone the
stunt three times over two months
b e cause of production iss u e s. “I
had him booked on David Let-
terman after the last [scheduled]
j u m p, and the other guest wa s
Tom Cruise,” says Way’s publi-
cist, Valerie Mi c h a e l s. “You ca n
imagine how bummed out I wa s.”
The hype, though, guara n te e s
that thousands will show up at
Juy o n gguan Pa ss to wa tch Way.
The pass, a major tourist spot,
was once a crucial imperial mil-
itary post near China’s nort h e r n
b o rd e r. Way will have the sy n-
thetic take o ff ramp set up on one
side of the wa ll and the big- a i r
q u a rterpipe ere c ted in a sto n e
c o u rtya rd on the other side, below
a temple that stands atop the
wa ll. The $1.7 m i llion spectacle,
b a c ked by a priva te company, the
Ne va d a-based Global Vill a ge
on the other side, where he will
i m m e d i a tely go down a 40-fo o t-
high landing ra m p, then shoot
up a 30-fo o t-high quarte r p i p e .
If all goes as planned, Way, who’s
f rom Encinitas, Ca l i f., will set
t h ree Guinness World Re c o rd s —
for longest distance jumped,
highest air on a vert pipe and
f a s test speed—using the bigge s t
s k a te ramp ever built. “No
[ s k a ter] wants to do that. Ev e r y-
o n e’s sca red of dying,” says pro
v e rt rider Jason Ellis of the wa ll
j u m p. “You have to be f- - -- - -
c razy and have a lot of confi-
dence. Danny is a freaking mad-
man. But there’s no doubt in my
mind that he’ ll make it.”
To a skater who once jumped
35 feet out of a helicopter onto
a vert ra m p, the Great Wa ll
d o e s n’t seem such a fo r m i d ab l e
obstacle. “For Danny to jump the
G reat Wa ll, that’s nothing,” pro
v e rt rider Colin Mc Kay told SI
last year. “If he says it’s poss i-
ble, then it’s going to happen.” In
Fe b r u a r y, Way and his ramp de-
Media Gro u p, will be bro a d ca s t
l ive in China, Eu rope, Au s t ra l i a
and the U.S.
Although Way will be the fir s t
s k a ter to attempt the Great Wa ll ,
other aerialists have made it over
the landmark. In 1992 Ko Shou-
l i a n g, a celebra ted stuntman and
m a rtial arts star from Ta iwa n ,
made history when he beca m e
the first to clear the wa ll on a
m o to rcycle. Soaring 180 feet over
the wa ll 93 miles north of Be i-
jing ab o a rd a 250-cc bike, the
Chinese Evel Kn e ivel landed on
a giant foam pad. Afte r wa rd he
held a glass of champagne and
said, “I wish I had 10 ladies here
to celebra te with me.”
The fo llowing year British dare-
devil Eddie Ki dd promised that
his moto rcycle jump would be
even more spectacular. Mo re than
60,000 people gathered to wa tc h
Ki dd fly over a steeper and more
p re carious section of the wa ll in
Simatai, a mountainous re g i o n
75 miles nort hwest of Be ijing. He
gripped the handl e b a r s, landed
on a 100-foot ramp and cra s h e d
i n to a barrier of ca rdb o a rd boxes
at the end. Ki dd, who had jumped
over 10 buses in a Be ijing stadi-
um two days befo re, ca lled the
INTRO HERE Dummy text and
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STA RT
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DROP SHOT Way launchedhimself to a win in the Big Airevent at the 2004 X Ga m e s .
6 5 F E E T
2 8 F E E T
4 4 F E E T
3 1 7 F E E T
7 0 F E E T
1 0 0 F E E TBuilt by China’s first emperor in
2 1 4 B.C., the Great Wa l lruns for 1,500 miles
a c r o ss the country, asg ra n d an obstacle tod a r e d evils as it once
was to inva d e r s .
Danny Way plans to build a
g r e at ramp at the Great Wa l land on July 9ta ke off on a5 5-m p h run
t h at will carry him over asection of
the wall to setrecords for the
longest leap,highest air and
fastest speed in a s k ateboard jump.
THE GREAT LEAP FO RWARD
stunt “one of the most te rr i f y-
ing experiences I’ve had.”
Then the inevitable happened.
In 2002 a cyclist from Shaanxi
Province atte m p ted the wa ll on
his mountain bike. Wang Ji a
X i o n g, 30, cleared the cro ss i n g
at Ti a n j i n’s Hu a n g ya Pa ss, 55
miles northeast of Be ij i n g, but
tumbled from his bike in midair.
Wang fe ll more than 50 fe e t ,
landing headfirst, and died late r
that day.
Way won’t get a chance to te s t
the Great Wa ll ramp until he ge t s
to China. He has seen pro to ty p e s
and says he is confident that his
p re p a rations will result in a safe
landing. He has spent the past
two years practicing on the Me g a
Ra m p, a towering structure fe a-
turing a take o ff ramp and a land-
ing ramp set 55 feet apart and
another pair with a 75-foot gap.
The Mega Ra m p, which Way built
in Aguanga, Ca l i f., in 2003 as a
way to push the limits of skate-
b o a rd i n g, is not unlike the setup
h e’ ll use in China. “I’m going with
the accumulation of trial and
e rro r,” he says of his Great Wa ll
j u m p. “I don’t have engineers
or physics involved. This is knowl-
e d ge obtained by experience.”
When pro skaters first heard
about the Mega Ra m p, they
questioned Way’s sanity. “I to l d
him, ‘Yo u’re a freaking idiot,’ ”
E llis says. “It’s going to be a
big wa s te of money. Yo u’re go i n g
to chicken out.’ ”
In s tead, using the Mega Ra m p,
Way blew away the skate b o a rd-
ing world in June 2003 when, in
one continuous run, he set re c o rd s
for distance jumped (75 feet) and
height out of a vert pipe (23'5").
Last summer he took his big- a i r
show on the road at the X Ga m e s
in Los An ge l e s. As five other pro
riders in the event struggled to
m u s ter the cojones to clear the
7 5-foot gap, Way flew acro ss to
win the gold, hitting 44 mph and
b reaking his own distance re c o rd
by five feet in the pro c e ss.
“ D a n ny’s changing the world of
s k a te b o a rd i n g,” Mc Kay says. “He
has cre a ted the boundary of
w h a t’s believable and imaginab l e .”
With the Mega Ra m p, Way
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A6 s p o r t s i l l u st r a t e d
“ Danny is a FREAKING MADMAN,” says another skater of Way’splanned jump. “But there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll make it. ”
FROM THE TO P Way
(at the X Games) says
his records have come
from an “a c c u m u l at i o n
of trial and error. ”
has also fo rced skate b o a rding to
become more phys i cal and rig-
o ro u s. Little things that go wro n g
on an av e ra ge vert pipe can mean
big problems on the Mega Ra m p.
“The impact is brutal. The day
a fter you skate, you’re 10 times
s o rer than normal,” Ellis says.
“When you skate and land, you
can feel your skin melting
t h rough your shoes. When you
bail, it compre sses your back and
s to m a c h .” To tackle the Me g a
Ra m p, Way rides a board that is
t h ree inches longer and a half-
inch wider than ty p i cal decks.
“T h e re’s only so much g-fo rc e
that your legs can handl e ,” he
s ays. “T h e re’s a certain sweet
spot you have to hit. If there’s
too much, you’ ll buckle. If it’s
too little, you get lost on the
ra m p. It’s like riding a mountain.”
While most skaters bold
enough to ride the Mega Ra m p
fly over the gaps going stra i g h t ,
Way pre fers to do a 360 spin. “I
think it’s harder to keep your
b o a rd straight for 80 feet than
it is to spin for 80 feet. As far
as a 360 go e s, it keeps my board
s t ab i l i z e d ,” he explains.
In pushing his limits, Way has
t a ken a few beatings. He has un-
d e rgone eight knee surgeries in
the last five years; his left ACL
alone has been re c o n s t r u c te d
t h ree times. Knowing that his
body won’t hold up to the hits of
the big-air ramp fo re v e r, Way has
m e n to red several younger stars,
such as 15-y e a r-old Ly n-z Ad a m s
Hawkins and 11-y e a r-old Tay l o r
Smith, who both recently cleare d
the gap on the Mega Ra m p. “T h i s
is the new ge n e ration of kids com-
ing up. They’re going to be used
to seeing this stuff and not know
a ny diffe re n t ,” Way says.
Pe r h a p s, but in taking on the
wa ll, Way remains the pioneer.
He has chosen to jump in a spot
with sweeping hillsides and a
d ramatic thre e-t i e red pav i l i o n
in the background. “I just wa n t
to have a couple of photos fo r
my personal diary,” he says. “Ae s-
t h e t i ca ll y, the photos are go i n g
to be so cool. That’s enough right
t h e re to make it worth it.” ±