Danny Way

Way was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in San Diego, California. His childhood was marked by significant adversity. His father, Dennis Way, died before Danny's first birthday — jailed for failing to pay child support to a previous wife, he was found hanged in his cell after nine days, his death ruled a suicide. Danny's mother Mary later remarried Tim O'Dea, who introduced both Danny and his brother Damon to skateboarding and surfing before also dying. Way's childhood mentor Mike Ternasky was later killed in a collision with an elderly driver. These losses shaped a resilience that would become a defining trait of his professional career.

Way entered competitive skateboarding early, winning the first contest he entered at age eleven in 1986. In 1989, at just fifteen years old, he became the youngest person to win a professional vert contest, taking the World Skateboard Association Pro Vert Contest in Lansing, Michigan. He was introduced to wider audiences through Powell Peralta's video "Public Domain" and H-Street's videos Shackle Me Not and Hokus Pokus.

In 1991, Way co-founded Plan B Skateboards with Mike Ternasky under the Dwindle Distribution umbrella. Ternasky assembled the company as a deliberate "super team," recruiting riders including Colin McKay, Rodney Mullen, Mike Carroll, Matt Hensley, and others from H-Street. The original Plan B iteration ran until 1998. Way then rode for Alien Workshop from 1999 to 2004. Around 2005, Way and McKay revived Plan B with financial backing from Syndrome Distribution, with both retaining co-ownership.

Way was also the first professional skateboarder signed to DC Shoes when the brand launched in 1994, a relationship that lasted until November 2023 when he was removed from the team.

Way's career trajectory moved increasingly toward large-scale record attempts and high-profile stunts. In 1997 he set a world record for "Biggest Air" with a 12-foot kickflip and became the first skateboarder to drop into a ramp from a helicopter. By 2002 he had extended the world record for long-distance jump to 65 feet and the biggest air record to 18 feet above the ramp lip.

In 2003 he surpassed his own long-distance record with a 75-foot jump, then raised the biggest air mark to 23.5 feet. At X Games in 2004 he won a gold medal and set his third long-distance record at 79 feet.

Way's most celebrated single achievement came in 2005, when he became the first person to jump over the Great Wall of China on a skateboard via a custom megaramp, doing so with a broken foot sustained during a failed practice run the day before. At X Games XI in 2005 and X Games XII in 2006 he won consecutive gold medals in the Big Air event. In 2006 he performed the "El Camino" — a rocket-grab backflip — for the first time on a megaramp in Mexico City, and dropped into a ramp from the guitar sculpture atop the Hard Rock Cafe and Casino in Las Vegas from a height of 82 feet. In 2009 he set a world record for land speed on a skateboard in collaboration with Rob Dyrdek, and won the inaugural Big Air Rail Jam at X Games XV.

Way has undergone at least thirteen operations over the course of his career, including surgery following a broken neck sustained in 1994.

In 2012 Samuel Goldwyn Films released Waiting for Lightning, a documentary on Way's life produced and directed by Jacob Rosenberg. The film covers his childhood, his career development, and a large-scale megaramp project being built in China concurrently with the film's production. Way toured Canada and Australia in support of the release.

Way co-founded a skateboard company, set records that have defined the outer limits of vert and distance skating for over two decades, and brought the megaramp format to mainstream awareness through the X Games and high-profile public spectacles. His brother Damon Way co-founded DC Shoes with Ken Block. Danny Way's career, conducted through repeated serious injury, remains a benchmark for commitment to progressive skateboarding.