Crazy dude and skateboarding champion Danny Way, fell on his first three jumps, then nailed his fourth attempt, scoring 94.75 points to win his second X-Games 11 title in the Skateboarding Big Air. Along with claiming the $50,000 prize, he defeated his main rival Pierre-Luc Gagnon of Montreal, who finished second (94 points), and Andy Macdonald of Pacific Beach who took third (92.75).
The jump requires a speed of about 45 mph, hitting a lip and flying the 80 foot gap, hitting the landing then, as momentum carries them up another 27-foot quarter pipe where they are launched 20 feet or so in the air, sticking a second landing. Definitely, not a sport for sissies.
Way of San Diego, who designed the 70-foot mega ramp used in the event in L.A., did a frontside 360 jumping the gap and then did a "Christ Air" move (both arms out to the side in mid-air holding the board in one hand) at the end.
Last month, he gained world wide attention for his sport by jumping across the Great Wall of China not once but five times, with a few 360-degree turns thrown in. He was injured during one of the jumps, but Danny craves big air and competed in the Games with a massively swollen ankle, or what he called an "elephant ankle."
, Way, 31, suffered what was called an "avulsion fracture" on his right ankle doing the China jump. (The damaged ankle ligament ripped a small chunk of bone off his ankle.) He then re-injured it last Tuesday when he hit the coping on the ramp at the X-Games and had been limping badly all week, using a cane with a mermaid handle (nice Danny!) and his ankle heavily wrapped and tapped.
After winning, Way told reporters, "This is kind of surreal. After getting hurt in China, I didn't know if I could compete. I thought, 'Well, there goes the X Games.' My goal was just to come out and skate. Once I figured out that I could do that, I wanted to land a run. I saw all these other guys doing it, and I wanted to do it too."
"It's cool to jump over things, but I'm not trying to be Evel Knievel on a skateboard. We're looking for ways to advance the sport. I don't try to group it as extreme sports or action sports. I just call them dangerous sports. We're just all a collection of crazy guys."
Way, 31, suffered what was called an "avulsion fracture" on his right ankle doing the China jump. (The damaged ankle ligament ripped a small chunk of bone off his ankle.) He then re-injured it last Tuesday when he hit the coping on the ramp at the X-Games and had been limping badly all week, using a cane with a mermaid handle (nice Danny!) and his ankle heavily wrapped and tapped.
After winning, Way told reporters, "This is kind of surreal. After getting hurt in China, I didn't know if I could compete. I thought, 'Well, there goes the X Games.' My goal was just to come out and skate. Once I figured out that I could do that, I wanted to land a run. I saw all these other guys doing it, and I wanted to do it too."
"It's cool to jump over things, but I'm not trying to be Evel Knievel on a skateboard. We're looking for ways to advance the sport. I don't try to group it as extreme sports or action sports. I just call them dangerous sports. We're just all a collection of crazy guys."
