Football
Danny Way, as told to Jon Hanks 17y

D's Nötz: The Danny Way Blog

Danny weighs in on the Jake Brown crash:

There's no question that when the first place guy goes and nails a 720, which he's never nailed before, on his last run, you know that his mindset was he was gonna snap the 540 and make it. If I had put that 720 down, my brain would've been on autopilot: 540's a done deal.

I saw Jake shift his back foot as he was coming down off the 720 and as he was rolling up the quarterpipe he didn't have it in the right place. He was still trying to get his foot in the right place on the tail of his board and you could see he kind of lost his balance and looped out and went into crazy ejection mode to the flatbottom. It was basically a four-story drop. That would've killed most people.

To be Bob Burnquist and follow that run, knowing you're in second place, Jake's leading the contest, one run to go, and then the energy just completely shifts. It's a catastrophic situation, and then the expectation to come back and put down what you need to put down , that's a hard position to be in. But Bob's a professional. The first time he tried that frontside five, the run before, he almost did it, so I think his confidence was there. Obviously his heart was there for Jake, but at the same time the show goes on. It's like any competition: you have the guy on the NFL field, when he gets broke off, they put him on the stretcher, they roll him off and the game goes on. Bob was up at the top of the ramp screaming for Jake and I know that Bob felt real bad, but this isn't his first contest. He knows that if you fall into that vortex of rolling with the crowd and the energy that it can throw you off. I think he paid his respects up there, got it out of his system, and then dropped in and made it happen. That's a true professional.

I'd rather have the win than slam, but that slam said a lot about Jake's personality, ability, who he is and what he's about. As sore as he may feel right now, maybe that was what was supposed to happen. Maybe that will give people a perception of what Jake Brown is capable of and how gnarly he is, and what respect he does deserve. Jake's unique—he doesn't really care about the limelight. He doesn't skateboard for any other purpose besides the pure love of it. Jake's one of those guys that does it because it's embedded in him. He's a true skateboarder.

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