The Danny Way

Jul 26 2006 / Los Angeles, CA Danny Way recently set another world record: World's Highest Skateboard Bomb Drop.  An 82' 3" bomb drop (28' free fall, 56' landing ramp).  The skateboard community has, in the past, seen Danny pull fairly mind blowing tricks & stunts while simultaniously breaking world records.  To list a couple highlights:  the 75' longest ramp to ramp jump, to the 23' 6" highest air both of which were captured for The DC Video in 2003.  Danny also jumped over the Great Wall of China and became the first person to clear the wall without motorized aid, in July, 2005.

Danny Way has been doing stuff like this for years - his 1999 helicopter-to-vert-ramp drop, his 12' kickflip, etc. - but now everyone is really listening, thanks to a solid five year period where skateboarding has been pushed hard into the minds & faces of people throughout the world, along with the fact that the things he is doing now are more or less undeniable, even to the untrained eye.

In an interview regarding his bomb drop spectacle in April, Danny said "None of this is about world records.  It's all about exploration, experimentation, and creativity, and it's all about proving to yourself that something that you envision is possible."  This is great, and who isn't up for the progression of skateboarding?  But if it's not about world records, then why were the World Records people there at all?  Why did it have to happen in Vegas, at the Hard Rock, with full press coverage and hundreds of screaming fans & onlookers?

When you have this type of press coverage & marketing all being thrown on to these stunts, it kind of over shadows anything else that anyone does on a skateboard.  How many non-skateboarding people remember Danny's backside 270 to boardslide on the rainbow rail that was set up next to the place where he did his "longest air" jump?  Not many, because the only thing that the wider world will ever really be exposed to is the things that look obviously unbelievable.  Things that leave no doubt in anyones mind as to whether or not you could die if you did them wrong.

But is this good for skateboarding, for action sports as a whole?  Is it good that the world's only exposure to these activities is stunts, spectacles, and world records?  It could be argued that any press is good press, and that it is a good thing every time someone opens up a newspaper and reads about skateboarding.  Or it could be argued that this is not at all what skateboarding is about, and even if it is, other people shouldn't see it like that.  Skateboarding should be seen as a relatively noncompetitive activity done amongst friends for the joy of it, rather than the spectacle.

In the end, I'm one of the believers in "any press is good press", and I hope Danny Way should keep doing unbelievable stuff regardless of his motivations (which I believe are wholly pure), especially when you consider how ridiculous everything he does is, how it is pushing the limits of skateboarding, and how amazingly fun to watch it is.