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Skateboarder clears Great Wall of China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-10 08:57
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.
Skateboarder Danny Way, 31, from Encinitas,
California, drops his board as he attempts to set a height world record at
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] |
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.
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