As Danny Way celebrates 20 years of being a professional skateboarder, both DC and Plan B have put together a collection of videos parts and pictures that chronicle his career.
Follow the links below to see his amazing impact he’s had in the last 20 years.
DC
Plan B Skateboards
OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE
August 4, 2009
Vista, CA
DC congratulates its team on yet another amazing weekend of competition and medals at X Games 15 in Los Angeles during DC’s second Gold Standard 2009.
Danny Way leads the list of successes with a Gold in the first-ever running of the Big Air Rail Jam on Friday night. Despite a tweaked knee that put him on crutches and a severely twisted ankle suffered during the evening practice, Way was able to drop the crutches and roll into the world’s largest skateboarding structure, finally landing a switch 50-50 on the rail to take Gold. Way invented the MegaRamp and MegaRamp rainbow rail while filming for the now-iconic DC Video, and later used it to jump over the Great Wall of China before finally introducing it to X Games Big Air five years ago.
Later Friday night, in BMX Big Air, Chad Kagy took Silver and Dave Mirra took Bronze in yet another event filled with new tricks and progression. With every rider getting their tricks, Kagy sent a huge tailwhip backflip over the 70-foot gap to a huge 17-foot whip flair on the quarterpipe. Mirra followed that to take Bronze with his signature air traffic controller (a stylish no handed backflip 360), a trick only he can do. Mirra continues his reign as the most decorated athlete in X Games history.
For the first time in X Games history there was a tie for the win in Moto X Step Up, with defending champ Ricky Carmichael (RC) sharing the Gold with DC flow rider Ronnie Renner. With just two guys left—RC and Renner—the bar went up to 35 feet. Both riders knocked off the bar on their first two tries, so it went to a third round. Renner missed, and Carmichael slammed hard. Neither guy cleared the last height, so they shared the Gold.
Great finishes continued on Saturday with Kagy taking the Bronze in BMX Vert thanks to flairwhips, barspin tailwhips, and a ridiculous opposite flair whip. It was his second medal at X Games 15 after taking Silver in BMX Big Air on Friday night.
Nate Adams took yet another medal in Moto X Freestyle, this time a Bronze. With some bad luck in his first and third runs, “the Destroyer’s” second run was flawless with a contest high 46—no-problem 360s and every other trick looking so easy thanks to Adams’ precision.
Travis Pastrana closed out the weekend with a Silver in Rally Car Racing. Having taken Gold for the last three years straight, Pastrana has medaled in Rally Car Racing every single year it’s been at X Games.
To correspond with X Games 15, for the second consecutive year DC officially took over The Standard, Downtown LA for The Gold Standard 2009. Conceived by DC, The Gold Standard 2009 is a hosted hotel takeover of the swanky hotel in the heart of Los Angeles. Over the course of the four-day event, guests were treated to the ultimate VIP experience at the hotel. During the day, guests had exclusive access to lounges filled with entertainment, games, gifting, amenities, and a place to recharge and chill. Each evening The Gold Standard 2009 hosted exclusive events where guests and athletes rubbed elbows while enjoying cocktails, music and live entertainment.
Additionally, FUEL TV joined The Gold Standard 2009 for the second straight year, bringing The Daily Habit, a half-hour daily interview and variety show, on location to the rooftop of The Standard, Downtown LA. Each episode filmed included interviews and footage with DC athletes, as well as providing an insider’s peek of The Gold Standard 2009 experience. DC week on The Daily Habit will air: Monday, August 17 to Friday, August 21, 2009, airing weeknights at 9:00pm ET (6:00pm PT) while re-airing later in the evening at 12:00am ET (9:00pm PT), and the following weekday at 2:30pm ET (11:30am PT) and 5:30pm ET (2:30 pm PT).
EXAMINER.com
By LOIZ CALADO
August 4, 2009
Known for peaks and valleys along its time line, the sport of skateboarding is definitely in a up swing right now.
And the X Games 15 is an evidence of that.
Although the upwards tendency has been going on for a while – with more public skate parks being built, mainstream programs and commercials appearing on TV, big corporations sponsoring professionals – the nature of skateboarding competition is one of the aspects emerging with a whole new level of creativity and progression.
New and improved on day #2
The second day of the 2009 X Games marked the debut of the Big Air Rail Jam contest, which essentially added a rainbow rail over the MegaRamp gap, and competitors were judged on their best rail trick landed.
Despite the novelty of the discipline, the battle was fearless. One after another (during a 30-minute jam session), all the skaters attempted very technical tricks and, while just a few were successful, the competition was an exciting spectacle for the audience inside the Staples Center.
Andy Macdonald is skater’s skater. Not only he has participated in every single Summer X Games held to date, he usually enters more than one contest per event.
The view inside the Staples Center. (Photo: Luiz Calado)This year it was not different and, one day after taking silver in Big Air, there he was again, battling the Rail Jam. But although he landed things like a melon to back lip, he ended up in fifth place.
Ahead of him in the final results came Adam Taylor, one of the up and coming young generation of professionals that is pushing the envelope even further – for instance, he stuck a flip indy to 50-50 and finished fourth.
In the medal dispute, Rob Lorifice added another bronze to his collection (he got another just the day before, on Big Air) – his backside lipslide was nothing short of textbook.
Silver belonged to Bob Burnquist who threw in more attempts at different tricks than anyone else, from frontside noseslides to switch back lips. Such variety is likely to be the result of skating his own MegaRamp. At any rate, the X Games’ structure is rather different, with a much steeper drop in.
Whether that made a difference or not, in the end, gold was awarded to with Danny Way who landed a switch 50-50 – regardless of competing with injured knee and a hurting ankle.
Those who are familiar with him are aware that a bum knee is not the kind of thing that is going to stop Danny Way.
On his own right, the guy is a legend – not just for his astonishing resilience, or because his renowned stunts (like jumping the Great Wall of China, dropping from a flying helicopter or breaking a land speed record) – but, by and large, because of the intuitive foresight and outstanding role he has played in what skateboarding has become nowadays.
For all the work he has done – even in the making of what the X Games is today – a gold medal is nothing but deserved.
Skateboard Big Air Rail Jam – Danny Way wins gold on first ever Big Air Rail Jam with an injured ankle and knee!
Skateboard Big Air – Congratulations Jake Brown on your first a gold medal at X Games!
BMX Big Air – Anthony Napolitan lands first ever double front flip!
BMX Big Air – Kevin Robinson wins gold!
UNION-TRIBUNE
August 1, 2009
LOS ANGELES – Danny Way was limping.
Scratch that. Danny Way was hobbling.
Wanting to put on an impressive show at X Games 15 in a new skateboarding event he created, the Encinitas rider crashed Wednesday in practice and spent the next two days looking like a candidate for a knee replacement.
So what happened in last night’s Skateboard Big Air Rail Jam at Staples Center? The 35-year-old skater kept missing tricks, kept limping off the deck, kept trying, then collected the gold medal.
Way scored 92 points on the only ride he cleanly landed. Vista’s Bob Burnquist finished second (89) and Encinitas’ Rob Lorifice took third (87.33).
Walking into the press room on crutches, an ice bag wrapped around his right knee, Way said, “I don’t know why I always have to be the guy that has to get hurt and prove you can keep going. I don’t know if I like that title very much.”
At last year’s X Games, Way crashed so violently on the Big Air ramp that he was hospitalized, suffering torn ligaments and tendons in his right foot. He came back limping after that crash to win a silver medal.
“Everyone saw last year how much of a mad man he is,” Lorifice said. “He’s got a high pain tolerance.”
Way is a skateboarding icon. He introduced the huge, drop-in MegaRamp in a 2004 DC video that has become a fixture at the X Games. He jumped out of a helicopter. He cleared the Great Wall of China in 2005.
And he’s paid a price for his daredevil, push-the-limits style. His surgery count is up to 13, eight on his right knee, but no one doubted he’d compete yesterday.
Asked when he knew Way would skate, Burnquist said, “I knew before he got hurt. That’s the way Danny rides. Unless maybe his foot’s completely off. Even then you can kind of numb it and try to do something.”
Said Way, “I was very lucky to get out there today. I didn’t have too much expectation because I was hurt.”
The Big Air Rail Jam featured five skaters swooping down a 50-foot ramp, then trying to slide across a 28-foot rail and cleanly landing on another ramp. The riders had 30 minutes to land tricks.
Way crashed on his first attempt, awkwardly twisting his right ankle.
“He was barely able to stand up,” Lorifice said. “I don’t know how he does it. He’s amazing.”
Way kept skating, kept falling and kept riding back to the elevator that transported the riders to the rafters. With eight minutes remaining in the contest, Way finally landed a trick, called a Switch 50-50.
The Switch comes from Way leading with his right foot instead of his left. The 50-50 comes from grinding across the rail on his skateboard trucks.
Way was hoping to land a more difficult trick, but after hurting his ankle, he kept trying the Switch 50-50.
“Luckily, I made what I made,” he said.
Way now owns four X Games gold medals. He won Big Air the first three years it was held. He took the silver last year and thought he deserved the gold.
He passed on Big Air this time, wanting to expand his repertoire.
“It’s not like I set out to win gold medals,” Way said. “It’s nice to win gold medals, but it is not what my skateboarding’s about. It’s about trying to show people what’s impossible and what’s not. That’s what drives me.”
Meantime, he expects his right knee will require another surgery.
“I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “(But) I’m not done taking risks. I’m not done pushing the envelope.”
| RANK | NAME | SCORE |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danny Way | 92.00 |
| 2 | Bob Burnquist | 89.00 |
| 3 | Rob Lorifice | 88.33 |
| 4 | Adam Taylor | 87.33 |
| 5 | Andy MacDonald | 85.33 |