Perhaps it’s this superhuman, mind-body connection that enables Way not only to recover from so many surgeries to skate again, but to handle pain as if it were a mere curiosity. While in Austria for a knee surgery, Way stayed awake, only numb in his knee, to actually film the procedure with a video camera. He describes the experience: “The sound effects of what’s going on, too, and the smell…the tools are like what you’d see at Home Depot. I was watching them do it. I could feel it!” In fact, he stays awake for all of his surgeries, preferring that to an adverse reaction from anesthesia.