Good Day to You!
It’s raining here and I’m excited that my trees (orange, lime and fig) are getting some water from Father Sky.
I had a busy day yesterday getting my blog written and having a lunging workout before we headed home to change clothes and head to the grand opening of Danny Way’s new movie about his life, which I’ll share more about below.
This morning, I got an email from Gavin Jennings, our UK distributor. Gavin is staying in the same flat we stayed in last year for our annual meeting at Fit Pro where I give a series of lectures and workshops.
Last year, I found this pile of rocks behind the house we were in next to where we park our car so I built something to add a little beauty to the rubble pile.
Gavin sent me this photo to show me that my rock stack is still standing a year later! I love it when my art withstands the tests of nature.
I also got a text a few days ago from my massage therapist friend in Tulum, Mexico informing me that my stacks are all still standing on the beach there and that there are still a lot of people coming to take photos of them.
That was great to hear as well. I love adding a little beauty and intrigue wherever I can.
My rock art has inspired so many people to begin engaging in unbound play now that I can’t count all the emails and communications from people who have expressed their gratitude for inspiring them to express their creativity.
That makes me feel good inside and motivates me to focus on creating beauty wherever and whenever I can.
One thing life has taught me for sure is that whenever we authentically express our love as an unbound offering, it inspires others to do the same.
If we all gave a little love and creativity each day without expectation, the world would very soon be a more beautiful place to be!
WAITING FOR LIGHTENING!
After several years in the making, Waiting For Lightening is completed. This is the movie feature of Danny Way’s life.
For those of you unfamiliar with Danny Way, he is one of the greatest skate boarders that our planet has been home to. He’s broken and set several world records in skateboarding now and has pushed the sport to an entirely new level.
Though some may think that watching a movie about a skateboarder would be somewhat mundane, like watching kids skate in a parking lot!that’s never the case with Danny Way!
Danny constantly pushes the boundaries of human possibility and frequently does tricks that defy gravity, logic, and stretch the imagination of all who witness him.
When Danny was only 19, he had a severe spinal cord injury and atlas subluxation that was miss-diagnosed, and unfortunately, made much worse by a chiropractic adjustment.
His spinal cord was pinched by having his head driven into the bottom of the ocean floor while surfing, causing a hyper-flexion injury with rotation, which caused the atlas (top cervical vertebra) to slip out of position and pinch the spinal cord.
Because the chiropractor he saw for help didn’t perform a comprehensive enough evaluation, he tried to help Danny by manipulating his neck and the shock of the manipulation damaged the cord even more.
So much so in fact, that for about two weeks, Danny couldn’t use his arms or legs! He saw medical doctors and a variety of experts for six months and only got worse.
A surfing buddy I had rehabilitated sent him to me. With four months of intensive manual therapy, corrective exercise, and diet and lifestyle modifications, I was able to effectively rehabilitate him against the (medical communities) odds.
Danny won his first skate tournament back on the job and has been pushing the field every since.
Danny’s almost 40 now, so we’ve had a beautiful, productive relationship for 20 years and I’ve been blessed to have him as my friend and participate in his career.
I also worked with his brother, Damon Way (one of the founders of DC Shoe) to recover from a serious brain injury so I’ve gotten to know them well. Amazing people!
I am featured in the movie in several spots sharing my experiences working with Danny and my feelings about the challenges he’s had to face and often still does.
It was quite interesting to watch the movie because I counted seven people in the movie that I’d worked with as a therapist to help them over injuries.
Once we got to Hollywood, found a place to park, and found some (pseudo-) food at Baja Fresh, we rushed back to get in line to pick up our tickets.
Penny and Vidya left to get in line before me for fear that we may miss the beginning of the movie. They were wise!
Here you can see what it looked like when I arrived to try and find Penny and Vidya. The place was crazy with people trying to get into the movie opening.
What’s even more interesting is that all these people were specifically invited. This was not a public access event.
I was amazed at the number of people there. So many in fact, they had to have a second overflow theater to hold them all!
Here you can see my ticket to the event. I don’t normally hold onto things like this, but this is my first time to see a movie several months before the public gets to see it.
I spoke to the producer, Jacob Rosenthal and he said the movie will be in theaters late this summer. You and your kids won’t want to miss this movie when it comes out.
This movie really helps us all see what’s possible for a human being to accomplish when we have a clear vision and are powered by our love.
Once I got inside the theater complex, it was like entering into a beehive.
Practically every top skateboarding star and many Moto-X and extreme sports athletes were there to see this very special movie about a very unique and gifted man.
Here you can see the red carpet entry for all the stars that came to the event.
Just past the man in the photo on your left, you can see skateboard and TV star Rob Dyrdek being interviewed.
Here you can see the movie title as it appeared on the screen when the movie started.
It took a long time to get everyone in and seated, and then!Danny made his usual late arrival.
It was funny because after all the waiting, the movie projector crapped out right at the beginning of the movie and we all had a little giggle about it. Once they got the film rolling though, it was really worth the wait.
The movie was centered around Danny’s biggest event as yet, which was being the first person to jump the great wall of China on a skateboard!
Here you can see a photo of the film showing Danny standing on top of this huge 100-foot tall ramp.
If you’ve ever seen Olympic long jump skiing, this ramp looked very much like the giant ramps that long jump skiers use, but bigger!
Danny had to get going very fast to jump the 70 feet or so to cross the Great Wall. Not only that, once he crossed the wall, he went into a giant ¼ pipe on the other side that tossed him up for a giant air as well.
The movie is created by counting down to the big jump, and is interspersed with footage from the very beginning of Danny’s skateboarding career when he was a tender three years of age.
Each step of the way in the movie, you are learning about who Danny is, and what challenges he had to overcome in his life to get to this world record event.
By the time the story gets into the real-time of the China Wall jump, you are already amazed that Danny is A. Still Alive!, and B. at the level of magnitude he performs at considering the many very bad injuries and surgical procedures he’s had to recover from just to get there.
On that note, though their names were not mentioned in the movie, two of my personal friends that have also been instrumental in helping Danny in his career were in attendance.
Many years ago, I referred Danny to my favorite orthopedic surgeon, William Previte, D.O., founder of the San Diego based S.P.O.R.T Institute Medical Group (www.sportinstitutemedical.com).
Dr. Previte and I have shared a wide variety of injured armature and elite athlete patients over the past 20 years. Dr. Previte is a highly trained, meticulous surgeon.
Of all the surgeons I’ve worked with, he’s certainly one of the very few I’d feel safe having operate on me! Because Danny’s work is very dangerous, he’s had over 20 surgical procedures to repair broken bones, dislocated joints, damaged tendons and ligaments and more.
I knew early on Danny needed a surgeon he could trust that understands the nature of extreme sports and Dr. Previte has done a fantastic job of keeping Danny in the game for many years now.
If you need a good surgeon or a reliable second opinion, he’s your man!
Doug Hetrick, DC was also there.
Doug was working with Danny when I was rehabbing his neck injury, and many other injuries over the years. Doug is a very skilled chiropractor that developed his own system of applied kinesiology.
Doug has been there in Danny’s corner for at least as long as I have or longer and has been a big support to Danny.
Though Doug has retired from chiropractic practice, he turned his practice over to his daughter and she now runs Hetrick Chiropractic in Escondido, CA. (www.hetrickchiro.com).
Here you can see Danny at the top of this giant ramp connecting to Spirit.
It’s quite hard to imagine how Danny manages to convert his fears into productive outcomes when the odds are often stacked against him, but he does!
Danny is deeply spiritual, and like myself, has an authentic care and concern for both the planet and humanity. His life is not just about being a wild skateboarder.
He’s committed to showing young people what is possible when you have, and are committed to living your dream. I applaud him for that.
In the movie, they showed Danny standing at the top of the ramp and Danny showed everyone watching the film that the ramp was actually wavering back and forth under the influence of the wind and his own weight.
Considering that being off just half an inch could be the end of him, this is some pretty serious stuff.
There was a lot of stress due to challenges with the Chinese engineers working with the DC Shoe engineers not communicating effectively as the ramp was being built.
As you can imagine, the DC Shoe team were VERY concerned because Danny’s life was hanging in the balance. After a lot of work around the clock for days on end, the ramp was finally ready.
As crazy as it may sound, Danny missed his first trial jump and fractured his ankle and tore ligaments.
His on-site physician worked as quickly as he could to manage the swelling and kill the pain with drugs so Danny could try again.
Nothing can stop Danny way once he sets his mind to a goal. I’ve seen him come back from dislocated shoulders, blown knees, ankles, bad scrapes and cuts and more to make another attempt.
He almost always pulls the rabbit out of the hat under even the most extreme pressures. Amazing!
Laird Hamilton is personal friend with Danny.
In fact, Laird and his wife Gabby Reese were referred to me many years ago by Danny and I still maintain a great friendship and working relationship with Laird and Gabby.
Laird was featured throughout the movie. Laird is about the closest person to Danny Way’s bravery I know of. They are like twin flames these two.
Laird is also very grounded in reality and a very spiritual man and his commentary made the movie even more special. Laird uses no spare words! When Laird talks, all should listen.
Being around Laird and Danny is like being with the King of the Dolphins and the Mighty Thunderbird! I was hoping to see Laird and Gabby at the show, but there were so many people there I didn’t get to see him. Another day.
For those of you that want a great book with lots of effective training advice, check out Force of Nature: Mind, Body, Soul, And, of Course, Surfing, by Laird Hamilton.
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He’s actually got a couple pages in the book about me as well, which is cool! You can learn more about Laird at: www.lairdhamilton.com
After the movie ended, I was swarmed with people that recognized me, had worked with me in the past, or who wanted my help.
When this movie comes out this summer, I suspect it will result in a huge surge of athletes looking for CHEK Practitioners to help them because the medical community at large is still a long way from having the knowledge of how to effectively train and/or rehabilitate extreme athletes.
I’ve given the CHEK Practitioners all the essential tools they need to do the job well.
In fact, after the movie, I was talking to Ken Block, one of the founders of DC Shoe who is now a successful professional rally car racer.
Ken was telling me how impressed he’s been with Faculty CHEK Practitioner Robert Yang. Robert is one of our instructors and is also a certified Nutritionist.
Robert is very thorough and is a great example of health and athleticism! Great job Robert!
Ken also works with Ryan Hughes who uses a lot of my teachings in his work with professional racers.
I also got to see CHEK Practitioner, Alex Laws at the movie. Alex has worked with Rob Dyrdek and a number of top professional athletes for many years.
Alex was one of my first interns back when my institute was on Pearl St., in La Jolla, CA. She’s come a long way and helped a lot of people. Alex is now based in Los Angles, CA.
Penny, Vidya and I had a great time at the grand opening of Waiting For Lightening. We got home quite late last night, but we preferred to wake up at home instead of a hotel so we made the journey last night.
I’m very excited that this movie will be available for public viewing soon.
The movie is beautifully produced by the Bandito Brothers and is sure to serve as a source of inspiration for potentially many generations of athletes to come!
I feel grateful I was able to help Danny Way when he really needed someone with my skillset and that he and I have had such a long and loving relationship together.
In many ways, Danny has been like a son to me and I’m very proud of him!
Big Love to you Danny!
May Great Spirit All-Ways be with you Bud!
I hope you all have a lovely day today and I’ll look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
