Posted on 07/09/2005 8:23:03 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Daredevil skateboarder Danny Way rolled down a massive ramp at nearly 50 mph and jumped across the Great Wall of China on Saturday, becoming the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid, an event sponsor said.
Way botched the landing on his first attempt but then successfully completed the jump across the 61-foot gap four times, adding 360 degree spins on his last three tries, sponsor Quiksilver, Inc. said. "I was aware of the dangers and my heart was pumping in my chest the whole time, but I managed to pull it off with the help of my team, and I'm honored to have my visions embraced by the people of China," Way said in a statement.
A crowd of several thousand people, including China's ministers of extreme sports and culture, gathered at the Ju Yong Guan Gate about a 40-minute drive from Beijing, Quiksilver's greater China marketing director Ryan Hollis said.
"It was pretty fantastic," Hollis said in an interview from Beijing. "He really has spent quite a few years even thinking about this whole idea. It's been in logistical planning for about eight months. ... It was pretty amazing today to see this happen, to see it adopted by the culture, adopted by the government."
Way's made the jump on an adaptation of the so-called mega ramp, a gigantic structure that he helped create near his home in the Southern California desert. He set a skateboard jump world record for distance (79 feet) on a mega ramp at last summer's X Games, and in 2003 set the height record of 23 1/2 feet at the desert ramp.
Event sponsor Quiksilver, based in Huntington Beach, makes skateboard apparel.
Skateboarder Danny Way, 31, from Encinitas, California, jumps the Great Wall of China at Ju Yong Guan, north of Beijing Saturday July 9, 2005. Way was attempting to break his own skateboarding records for distance (79ft/24.07m) and unaided height out of a ramp. (AP Photo /Greg Baker)
pong
Wow, the Chinese are really getting this capitalism thing.
They've progressed to the Bread and Circus stage already ..
Just joking lol.
I thought all skateboarders were daredevils.
I wonder if they have a Minister of Silly Woks.
Did he stick the landing?
Where's there's a Wall, there's a Way.
My last post was a real apostrophe.
I need video!
Funny, he doesn't look Juish.
pong
Get a job.
Skateboarder Danny Way, 31, from Encinitas, California, attempts to set a height world record at Ju Yong Guan, north of Beijing Saturday July 9, 2005. Way, who completed the first ever skateboard jump over the Great Wall of China, was attempting to break his own skateboarding records for distance (79ft/24.07m) and unaided height out of a ramp. (AP Photo/Quiksilver/Mike Blabac)
Skateboarder Danny Way, 31, from Encinitas, California, jumps the Great Wall of China at Ju Yong Guan, north of Beijing Saturday July 9, 2005. Way, who became the first skateboarder to jump the Great Wall, was attempting to break his own skateboarding records for distance (79ft/24.07m) and unaided height out of a ramp. (AP Photo/Quiksilver/Mike Blabac)
He's board with his job.
Who would hire him? He's a skater.
But he knows his roll.
On a skateboard? He's nuts.
On the other hand, one of my favorite clips from the Jim Rome show is of his interview with Evel Knievel. Evel's attempted 1974 rocket-jump across the Snake River Canyon comes up, and Evel says he figured beforehand he had a fifty-fifty chance of not surviving the jump. Rome asks, well, if you figured you had a coin-flip chance of dying trying to do the jump, why try it at all? And Evel replies matter-of-factly...
"...You know who the hell I am?"
The point being that to do stuff like this, you have to be tough, supremely confident in yourself...and, yeah, at least borderline nuts.
"Where's there's a Wall, there's a Way."
Groooooaaaaannnnn!
[;^D
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