The DC Video
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DC SHOES PRESENTS: "The DC Video" Deluxe Edition

Over three years in making, The DC Video features the talents of one of the most dynamic teams in skateboarding. Individually, DC's skaters have had a staggering impact on the sport. Now, for the first time, their diverse talents come together for DC's first ever skateboarding video. Filmed on location around the world, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Vancouver, Europe, and Australia. The DC Video also features the DC Super Ramp and introduces the revolutionary DC Mega Ramp. The DC Video features Danny Way, Colin McKay, Rob Dyrdek, Josh Kalis, Stevie Williams, Anthony Van Engelen and Brian Wenning. Plus Ams Robbie McKinley, Ryan Smith, Greg Myers, Lindsey Robertson and Ryan Gallant. Also appearing special guest Christopher "Big Black" Boykin, a pro skateboarder's best friend.

The Deluxe Edition DVD Includes:
"The DC Video"
Digitally Remastered DVD
With Bonus Features:
New Footage -- Previously Cut Footage -- Behind The Scenes At The Mega Ramp -- Dyrdek Security, The Second Chapter -- The DC Video Premiere Tour And Much More

Starring: Danny Way, Colin McKay, Rob Dyrdek, Josh Kalis, Stevie Williams, Anthony Van Engelen and Brian Wenning
PLUS AMS: Robbie McKinnley, Lindsey Robertson, Greg Myeres, Ryan Gallant and Ryan Smith
Also Starring: Christopher "Big Black" Boykin
Executive Producers: Ken Block and Damon Way
Directed By: Greg Hunt
2003 DC Shoes, Inc.


Skateboarding videos are unlike anything else.

The amount of traveling, lawbreaking, injury, anguish, anger, joy and pain that can go into even one three-second clip is unbelievable. Hundreds of these clips, when assembled, comprise videos that can greatly influence and affect the sport, all the while fly under the radar of the outside world.

Throughout this video making process a massive amount of documentation takes place. Footage, photos, and endless stories are collected and catalogued, only a fraction of which ever make it into the finished product. What is left in the end are large unseen slices of skateboarding history.

What you're now holding in your hands is a rare behind-the-scenes look into the making of a skateboarding video. The DC Video was a long and sometimes brutal three-year journey. Sometimes it's still hard to believe that it's over. These eighty-six pages offer only a glimpse into The DC Video experience, but ultimately we hope it's something you can both learn from and enjoy.

-G. Hunt

Where did the name "BIG BLACK" come from?

Christopher "Big Black" Boykin:
After my Navy days, I started blowing up. I got big. Everybody was like, "We're going to have to call you Big Black, to state the obvious.

Because you're both of those things.
You know? No need to lie about it!

Tell me the story about how your part in The DC Video came about.
Somehow, Greg Hunt knew this guy at City Event Security. I used to do some executive protection for him --he's got his own security and protection company in San Diego. He called me up one day, and was like, "I got these guys in my office, and they're looking for the biggest, huskiest guy they can get for this video." I'm like, "Yeah, okay." I didn't believe him. I went to the office anyway, and that's where I met with Greg and Matt (Blabac). They took a couple of photos. They said they'd call me back in a couple of weeks. The rest is history.

You're not an actor or anything?
No. As far as acting, you know, you act every day.

You're a natural.
Yeah.

Were you treated like a celebrity on the DC Video premiere tour? Did people approach you?
Kids didn't really know me until after the video. Half of 'em were looking at me like, "Who is this big guy right here?" But after the video, they took a liking to me. But then you had some kids at some stops who had a magazine article and knew what was going on, so they knew who I was. I took pictures, talked to a couple of kids. I got a couple job offers. "I'll hire you! I want to hire you!" I got some business cards and stuff like that.

So you can take the Dyrdek Security thing into the real world.
I could do it, for sure. You skateboarders need protection, they way things are now with all the security guards and cops and whatnot.



Danny Way & the birth of the Mega Ramp

In early 2003, after three long years, Danny Way's DC Video part was finally nearing completion. The expectations put on Danny for this project, both from the skateboarding world and from himself, were intense. He sat down with director Greg Hunt and DC President Ken Block to sketch out some ideas for what was to be an ending to both his part and the DC Video. Said Greg: "Danny had constantly outdone himself in the past, so what was he going to do? We knew he wanted to do something big. Danny came up with an idea to build this ramp."
Danny's idea came from his experience in the 2002 King of Skate contest, a pay-per-view even that gave skaters the opportunity to build their own obstacles. A massive ramp was constructed specifically for Danny to break his own world records for both distance jump and high air. Although he succeeded, he didn't break them on the same run as intended. What's more, he felt the King of Skate ramp was too confining and he didn't have enough time to really dial in the ramp. He felt if the roll-in had been bigger and the quarterpipe taller, he could have gone that much further, that much higher. He was left with a need to create a more perfect version of that ramp.

In April 2003, VP1 Construction made Danny's idea a reality. Point X Camp in Temecula, California became the site for what was to be the biggest ramp ever built for skateboarding. DC photographer Mike Blabac coined its name: "What's bigger than a Super ramp? A Mega Ramp." Construction took over three weeks. The Mega Ramp was so large that a golf cart was required to transport Danny Way from the landing ramp, up the hill, to the base of the roll-in, and filmers and photographers kept in touch with Danny and each other using walkie-talkies.

"Sometimes I underestimate what Danny's capable of," said Damon Way, Danny's brother and Executive Vice President of DC Shoes. "He comes up with these fantastic ideas. It's almost like, 'Oh god, here we go again.' It's amazing to see what he's put together. It's blown my expectations away."

The Mega Ramp loses none of its drama when reduced to pure measurements: A 27-foot-tall quarterpipe with 2-feet of vert. Two roll-ins: one 48-feet tall, the other 6---feet tall, with a 4-foot extension that could be added to increase the height. Two gaps: 50 and 67 feet, with 8-foot sections that can be removed to increase the distance.

"The video doesn't really capture remotely how gnarly the Mega Ramp is," said Ken. "Danny's worst slams on the ramp don't look that bad, and I think it's because he's so small, and the ramp is so big. There's some footage of him getting knocked out, and you almost can't even tell."

The slam in the intro to Danny's part was only his second try on the ramp on the very first day. He bailed his first attempt, a straight air over the gap. DC photographer Mike Blabac witnessed his second attempt: "At the last second, he tried a frontside 360." Danny lost control, cork screwed through the air, and slid out on his chest, suffering severe masonite burns.

"I thought, 'This guy is worked'" said Mike. "It was definitely a psycho slam. Even Danny doesn't know why he tried that. We were all like, 'Why did you do that?' He said, 'I don't know. There was a glitch in the system.'"

Despite the initial slam, it took almost no time for Danny to feel comfortable on the ramp. "We knew he was going to come through with something amazing, but we were all pretty blown away by how quickly he progressed," said Greg. "Of the dozen days or so that we filmed there, Danny left with at least one trick every time. And every time he skated, he would do something more and more incredible. It was clearly becoming something historic."

Said Danny: "I got to the point where I was comfortable, and knew where my boundaries were. Once I got there, it was easier for me to start making the tricks happen. The more you skate something, the more comfortable and confident you become. Towards the end, I felt I had nothing to lose buy to go for the hardest stuff I could think of."

All told, there were only 14 total filming days at the Mega Ramp over a six-week period. But those were 14 grueling days, often interrupted by injury. Skating a ramp that size took a definite physical toll on Danny. "One time he slipped out on a warm-up trick and hit his head. He messed up his neck from the whiplash, got a concussion and had amnesia," said Greg. "That was the longest he was out. I think he was out for a week. But he would skate that ramp every day that he possibly could."

With the DC video premiere fast approaching, Danny had three goals yet to accomplish: a 720, the world record for the longest air, and the world record for the highest air. He also wanted to set the records on the same run. But besides his own physical limitations, he still faced another, less obvious threat: time. He had a limited number of days left before the deadline, and each filming day at the Mega Ramp was a race to use limited daylight hours.

The day he attacked the 720, it seemed that both physical limitations and time had run out for Danny. Over-rotating, under-rotating, rotating off-axis: on each misfire, the landing was brutal. On one slam, Danny fractured his wrist but chose to keep skating. "I tweaked my wrist really badly," said Danny, "but the most difficult thing was landing and not looping out. I kept landing and just falling off. I couldn't stabilize my board."

Eventually Danny realized he was running out of time. "How much light do I have? How many more tries?" he asked from the bottom of the landing ramp.

"Two more tried-but that's it!" he was told from the camera platform. In reality, it was nearly too dark.

Danny reached the top of the roll-in. Three cameras were primed to film, and Mike was set to snap photos. The light was waning. Danny rolled in. Cameras whirred. On his second-to-last try of the day, under pressure and in he pain, he landed it.

Said Ken: "That 720 is so big, and it took so many tries. He beat himself up really hard on it. He was told it was his next-to-last try because the light was going, and he did it. I'm so glad I was there to be a part of it. I felt like I was watching history being made."

After the 720, only the world records remained. Danny left his last two goals to the very last day of filming. "I felt like once I had all the other stuff out of te way, it'd be a ot easier for me to risk getting hurt," said Danny.

June 12 was the final day to film Danny and get what footage in the video for the premiere. Even though the premiere was days away, on June 19, it would take a full week to process the film, transfer it to video, and edit it. If he was going to set new world records, this was the only way to do it.

That day, in the middle of the session, Danny tried a 16-foot kickflip indy on the quarterpipe. "He was just trying tricks," said Mike. "It was the same day he did a 15-foot Christ air, too. I think he got blown over the back of the deck, and was trying to guide himself back into the ramp with his feet extended. He bounced his foot off the coping. You could hear it. When he gets hurt, usually I just let him marinate, but this time I ran over to see if he was all right. It was pretty bad. He was on the flat-bottom for a while."

Danny received a severe heel bruise, and he thought his foot might be broken. His physical trainer bandaged his foot, and Danny took a break to figure out what to do. Even he didn't think he could keep skating.

"I thought he was done," said Ken. "I was like, 'This is it, let's pack up and go home.' I didn't think there was any way he could keep skating."

After more than two hours, and after the encouragement of his trainer, Danny again climbed the roll-in. He could no barely walk. His hurt foot was taped up, but his wrist was broken, and his neck was still hurting from when he hit his head days prior. Despite all of this, he proceeded to set tow new world records, back to back: a 75-foot 360 for the longest air, into a 23-and-a-half foot backside air for the highest air.

"Every time that we've done a project like this, he's pulled it off," said Ken. "Every time it's been an escalation. This is the gnarliest one, and cost the most money. He pulled it off on the last day, in pain, totally injured, to finish the video."

"There's an aspect that's lost in the translation to video," added Damon. "it's Danny's determination to make each on of those tricks. It was the kind of determination you just don't see in people. H eput himself through the wringer."

The film from the world-record-setting session was hand-delivered on June 12 to a lab in Los Angeles for processing and then video transfer. And on the night of June 19, 2003, says after nearly wrecking himself in the hot desert sun, Danny sat in Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood for the premiere of The DC Video. His part was projected on the big screen, and he and more than a thousand people watched the result of his years of work, determination, pain and effort. With only 14 fllimg days and absolute secrecy about the footage, Danny's Mega Ramp part came as a total surprise.

"People were expecting a lot from Danny," said Rob Dyrdek. "But they weren't expecting that much."

"It was very moving," sad Damon. "I've watched Danny his whole life, throughout the evolution of his whole skateboard career, and it's absolutely incredible to me that he can be pro for 15 years and just now be at his peak. I loved watching people's reactions at the premieres when Danny's part was on."

He continued: "The interesting thing about Danny is that he doesn't think the next video will be anything less. He's like, 'I'm already out there. I'm going to do some sh-t, wait until you see the next stuff.' It's like this is nothing to him already."

After completing his first full part in six years, and introduction skateboarding to the Mega Ramp, Danny is just getting started. "There's so much more I want to do. Each time I get the opportunity to do something like this, I walk away knowing a lot more. I'm going stir-crazy, thinking about other things that cane be done."

What does he mean by "other things"? "The Mega Ramp IS ONLY ONE KIND OF DESIGN," SAID Danny. "There are different ramp designs that would give you the magnitude to do bigger stuff---more mega-sized structures."

"I don't want to give anything away," he added, "but I've got some good ideas."