"If something goes bad it could be a tragedy," Hawk said. "It's not like you blow out your knee. You could fall 15m."
The professional Brian Patch fractured several bones in his left foot when he fell 4.6m to the deck of the quarterpipe at the X Games.
"If you go down here you're going to get broken," Burnquist said.
He has fallen hard and rolled his ankle, but sustained no breaks. To protect himself, Burnquist wears pads on his hip, tailbone, ribs, elbows and knees. He also wears a helmet and knee braces. All skin, except for his face, is covered by neoprene to prevent severe friction burns. He can wear through a pair of sneakers and gloves each session from sliding on the ramp's surface during wipeouts.
Although Burnquist said he felt scared riding his ramp, he did not appear so on a first run during a solo session recently.
Rolling in from the lower platform, he shot over the gap, spun a 360o mute grab, touched down and zipped toward the quarterpipe before floating into an elegant method air more than 12m up. Landing cleanly, he rolled away.
Afterward he walked off the ramp, plopped into the passenger's seat of a golf cart and was ferried 91m uphill. At the top he climbed two sets of stairs to the platform and set up for another run.
Alone at the pinnacle of skateboarding's newest discipline, the sky was the limit.
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