January 17th, 2011 by MIchelle

It’s 4:49 AM. About an hour ago, Paul let Danny wake up a bit. It was the most lively we’ve seen him yet. With the bed raised up, almost to the point of looking like a big comfy chair, Danny sat with his legs crossed. His neck was pretty stiff so he couldn’t move it around as much as he was trying to, but his eyes met with ours when we spoke to him. I showed him a hat that I made and asked him if he liked it, he nodded yes. When I took the hat off to put my other hat on I apologized for my messy hair and he shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he didn’t mind. He wrapped his right arm around me and rubbed my back. I told him I couldn’t wait to cuddle with him and he pulled me closer. While all of this was happening, Conor and Paul were in the bathroom. I was pretty much focussed on Danny the whole time, but when I realized that it had been a few minutes since Conor and Paul had closed the door, I started to wonder (there’s been a lot of talk about male nurses lately). To my surprise the door opened a minute later and Conor had shaved his head! I laughed a ton and I know that if Danny were able to laugh he would have done the same. I’m not sure that Danny realized why Conor had shaved his head, but he gave him his approval with a head nod. It’s amazing that we can communicate with him on some level now. We can ask him if he’s in pain or if he is uncomfortable. When he wanted a drink of water earlier he raised his hand to his mouth as if he were drinking something. We couldn’t give him water, but we soaked a sponge in ice water and placed it in his mouth…he didn’t like that very much. These last couple of days have been something to look forward to. Danny’s improvements seem amazing since it was only a few days ago that his eyes were still shut and the nuero exams consisted of squeezing hands and pinching his toes to get a reaction. Love you Danny, thanks for putting a smile all our faces!

-Michelle

January 17th, 2011 by Conor

Danny was awake for a good stretch around 2 am and he looked a little bummed out. He was pretty foggy in general so it’s hard to say what he was feeling but he looked kind of sad. I find it hard to say this, but, If he is sad that’s almost a good thing. That means he is able to process what is going on and realize that it’s not good. To most of us that seems like a pretty obvious thing but you have to understand that with regards to brain damage we are trying to find out where exactly Danny stands.

Anyway, to me he looked sad. So I thought I would go ahead and join the ranks with Joe McCusker and Ian Stacey and try to cheer him up. So at 2 am when Danny was the most awake he was all night I decided to shave my head in the bathroom of his room to try to put a smile on his face. Can’t say that I got the reaction that i was really hoping for but I figured it was worth a shot at cheering him up. At some point he will get it. Until then I will do whatever it takes to try to put a smile on his face.

Dad you’re next!

January 17th, 2011 by Conor

Despite the landslide victory and my attempt at advocating for these guys in Montana, the “male nurses” up here now claim that they actually don’t mind their title. So now they are onto the next fun topic of debate here in the ICU. These guys want to find out which of them looks the most heterosexual. They thought this would be fun, I think it’s fun. Period. This is simply an way to solve a joke between the three of them. I thought I could help.

*This is not meant to offend anyone.
*This is not meant to suggest anything about the profession.
*This is fun and should not be taken any other way.
*This is not a time to get into politics.
*If you can’t handle this poll and you will lose sleep about it at night please comment below to let the webmaster know what an insensitive human being he really is.

January 17th, 2011 by Conor

I can honestly say I am horrible with feelings. I don’t like expressing them, and I prefer to hide my thoughts from the world. I work as hard as possible to not let anyone see how I truly feel. I know this isn’t the greatest quality, but it’s the truth. I have been trying to post my thoughts about Danny for the past week. When I first found out Danny was hurt I was in shock for a good 24 hours. Once I started understanding that something had seriously happened to my friend it hit me like a bus. Slamming into me at a speed I was not prepared for. As with every incident like this, I try my absolute best to lock it deep inside and not deal with it. Danny’s roommate and my good friend, Ian, came over after we found out and showed his equal love and support to the matter. I quickly realized this was gonna be hard to run from.

I needed something comforting, after taking Michelle to the airport, I still had friends like Will and Ian around to help keep my mind positive. We decided to make Danny a scrapbook, this scrapbook has helped the last two weeks pass. Being with the boys and working on it has only brought back amazing memories and laughs that Danny created in us. It brought so much positive energy to the situation, and helped all of us lighten our hearts.
The other morning I sent Danny his book, and it was almost difficult. I instantly needed something new to put my thoughts of Danny in a good direction. After Michelle had asked a couple times for me to write on dannyisthebomb.com I finally decided to open up and reflect on my friend Danny Toumarkine.

I can call Danny a great friend, but what Danny is to me is a big brother, a motivator, and an inspiration, someone who I want to do better for. In life you meet many people, there are people brought into your life for a reason and their energy pulls you in with force. It is so strong that they can create an inner drive in you to work harder and to be successful at whatever it is you love. You can share an equal love interest in something or have a common personality. These types of people create amazing friends. You almost don’t realize how strong they’re energy is to you, how much they are the fuel to your energy in life. Danny is an example of a person in my life that I know fuels my fire. He only wants his friends to move in a direction that motivates them to be happy. Regardless if he could relate to what it is you are passionate about, he is always supportive of any goals or aspirations his friends have.

We spent a great deal of the past few years snowboarding together. He was one of my first calls whenever I went riding to see what the plan for the day was. Just being on the mountain with him was a guaranteed good day. He would always take time out of his run to watch what I was doing, and would critique me. Tell me anything he thought wasn’t looking the greatest. In my book, there’s nothing better than this. Creating this inner drive in me when I was doing something, I was doing it as best I could to hear him tell me, “lookin good Nicki Jean.”
Becoming really close to the Toumarkine’s over the last few years, and pretty much owing a lot of my progression to the both of them. Whether it’s Conor mentally talking me through snowboarding, careers, life, whatever or Danny showing me anything I could ever wanna learn. The two of them inspired me to want to work my absolute hardest at what I loved. The past two weeks have been a struggle to even go out snowboarding. I never realized till now, how much the love and support from your friends influence you. I have never had someone so close to me have an accident like this.

I am currently flying to go to the 2nd stop of the Winter Dew Tour. I knew I had to get out on my board during the previous weeks if I was gonna have any chance of doing well at this contest. Everyday I have been on my board since the accident I let my imagination run wild, and pretend Danny is there just as any other day. I hit everything as if he is watching, waiting to hear him critique me. I am going into this contest really only riding for him. I want to put a run together that I know Danny would be proud of, something that he could be impressed with. Danny’s continuing energy is my guiding light that will not go away. I can only hope that when he gets out of this I can be a guiding light for him, as he has done for me. Giving him as much love and support that he has given me. I can’t wait for the day that I can return this to him when he needs it most.

Danny I love you very much, you are an amazing person, an amazing friend. I am here with as much support and help I could ever give. Please continue your fight through this, and come back to the Tahoe crew.

~Nicki Slechta

January 17th, 2011 by Conor

That’s the second time that Danny is the Bomb has been to the Washington Monument! Soo cool!

Keep em coming: 603-496-6621 or donations@dannyisthebomb.com

January 17th, 2011 by Conor

Danny T! I always said this when saying hello to Danny. He would always return and say Scottyyyyyyy B in some comical voice that made us both crack up with laughter. Hanging out with Danny was always a pleasure. I always go back and think of how I met Danny and even his brother Conor and it seems so odd to think how it evolved into so much more. I met Danny when he was promoting FLIGI (pronounced Fly Guy, before I met the bros I always pronounced it fleegee) his clothing company. I met him through Preston and soon Danny was introduced to the whole “Cranny Crew” haha. We had a blast all shredding together and before long Danny offered us to give us some gear that we could show off to promote his business. The crew dove into the FLIGI bandana line and steezed hard. Or at least we thought we did. The crew met Conor when we did a FLIGI photo shoot at Cranmore in the Lucky Loop and we had a blast hitting the rails and taking some pictures.
One of the biggest things I will always remember about meeting Danny was how comfortable he was at riding and how good he was at it, but when we talked with him about pursuing it further than just a hobby he told us he was too old! Sure all of the Cranny Crew was only in high school but he was only just out of college! We all thought it was ridiculous! Danny was always a great rider but when he finally convinced himself that he could make it in the pro snowboarding world, his skills took off like a bullet.
I have followed everything Danny and Conor have been doing with Shreddy Times and am very proud of them! They are role models to me as business people and also as people who are loving life and following their passion.

Some great experiences that I would never have had if it wasn’t for Danny are:

-All the excitement that came from being “sponsored” by FLIGI. I’m still enjoying the gear to this day.

-The River Trips (everyone from the Valley knows what Trip in particular I’m talking about) funny thing is that the first year I did it Zach wasn’t, therefore the only image I had of the man whose birthday we were celebrating was the Zach that was illustrated on Danny’s poster board haha.

-All the awesome people I have met around town because of Danny.

Deep into the future I will continue to enjoy Shreddy Times and the relationships that formed from Danny. Thanks for everything bro! Can’t wait till your better. I owe you some riding, I’ve been slacking hard!

Attached are some photos from the Fligi shoot taken by Conor. Also are some great shots from the 2nd annual river trip (not taken by me). And Ken decided not to post it so I thought I would, the result of the Twix/Snickers bet (also not taken by me).

-Scottyyyyyyyy B!

January 17th, 2011 by Conor

I put together a series of photos of my brother and I. It gave me an excuse to look through all the old photos that I have, in search of of some fun memories. We have spent 2 weeks in the ICU thus far, and this is certainly going to be a memory with my brother that I will never forget- but absolutely not one of my favorites. I wanted to dig up some of the fun times as a reminder that we will continue this journey sometime in the future. This is a speed bump, well, more like a land mine, but one that Danny WILL heal from. Let the adventures continue Danny.

January 16th, 2011 by Conor

I also saw Danny’s sponsorship video a few years back. I have since
watched it too many times to count and have also shown it to a bunch
of my snowboard friends. I was amazed the first time I saw that video,
and even now, it gets me more pumped to go snowboarding than any other
video. I only found out about his accident a few days ago, and since
then I’ve been reading updates and stories from his friends. Danny, I
hope you get better soon and can take a look at all the love and
support that is around you. I know that you’ll have the strength to
make it back on the slopes someday. You are an incredibly talented
athlete, and I just wanted to let you know that I consider you my
favorite snowboarder. Get shredder!

-Rosanna Kwok

January 16th, 2011 by Conor

My name is Brenden Smith I am a Mount Washington Valley life long skier. I am 26 and have been following Shreddy Times since the beginning because I know Bobby Blake pretty well. Through Bobby I was told about how he makes awesome custom hats. I asked Danny and he made two great hats. I have met Danny only a few times in passing and have thanked him for his awesome trade. I have followed you both and the success of Shreddy Times.

I went to Jackson Hole this week with my girl friend Abby Rich who is also a life long skier and boarder of the Mount Washington Valley. We were in the backcountry of Jackson Hole yesterday and I wanted to wish Danny a fast recovery from one of the best places to shred in North America. Danny is the Bomb! He will be better soon the NH crowd roots for Shreddy Times and supports your every move.

Utmost Regards,

Brenden J. Smith and Abigail Rich

January 16th, 2011 by Conor

It’s 3 a.m. here in Australia, and again my mind is on Danny. I seriously considered flying to Montana to have a 3 day laugh fest with all of you. I looked up plane tickets and apparently u can’t pay with Monopoly money. Bummer. I visualized suprising you in Danny’s room with hugs, tears, and laughter. i would think of the funniest jokes on the plane ride over and tell them all to Danny when i got there. would really love to be there for his first laugh. that would be Epic!!! also would have to insult him and therefor be there for his first middle finger. He has really been the best friend i’ve ever had and I consider it an honor to call him my friend. especially when hot girls ask if i know him, i’m like “ya I know Danny Toumarkine, no big deal” it doesn’t bother me that even in his state right now he can still pull more tail than i could… (no offense michelle) You seem like ur starting to really come around and that makes me sooo glad to hear, and I’m sure about 3,000+ other people. Damnit you’re popular!! I love you to death bro and would trade places with you in a heartbeat given the chance. so please wake the hell up soon and call a brotha. I could use a good laugh! Much love and hope -Ian