7-9-2005

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                                               7-9-2005

 Danny Way jumps the Great Wall of China on a Skateboard

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Skateboard legend Danny Way is the subject of a new documentary, "Waiting for Lightning" by Jake Rosenberg, which follows his career from childhood to a spectacular 2005 jump over the Great Wall of China. The native Californian based in Encinitas is known for imagining and executing extraordinary jumps, such as his 2008 "bomb drop" from a helicopter onto a ramp.

The documentary is structured around your jump over the Great Wall of China. How long had you had that dream and what prompted it?

I had a dream of doing something on a grand scale. I had for a few years been looking for something special to jump, because I figured out a new ramp design that would allow me to go bigger than I had ever gone. I went to China a couple of times on business, exploring factories to build some skateboarding parts and flew over the Great Wall of China on one of my trips. Also on Air China, in the airline magazine there were a couple of pictures of the wall, and it just came to me: How obscure would that be to jump the Great Wall?

It was an interesting cultural experience as well. I thought, China being so populated with so many kids, skateboarding is a very inexpensive hobby for kids to get into. Since that jump there's been quite a bit of movement on that level in China — the world's biggest concrete skate park is built in China now.

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