One year ago today skateboarding saw the passing of one of the best dudes out there. Lewis Marnell was not only an incredible skater with one of the best bags of tricks I can think of, but a super positive guy in general: generous, friendly, and humble. There've been a few deaths in skateboarding that I've heard about, but none hit as hard as this one. Though it's very saddening to see such a great human leave us, Lewis will never be forgotten. Almost Skateboards has done an incredible job of keeping Lewis's spirit alive in the skate world, and this tribute that they created for Episode 3 of Almost Famous is my favorite yet. Not only is it one of the best trick compilations for Lewis, but it pays homage to how great of a person Lewis was and how thoughtfully people have reacted to his passing. Along with this great video, Thrasher also released the remarks and stories from Lewis's teammates at Almost with another touching tribute.
I would like to include an additional post for this week's content of switch backside kickflips. There's no doubt that Lewis Marnell was a master of all flip tricks, which allowed him to perfectly land them down stairs and then take them into ledges to get as tech as he wanted. Not only that, but his style is truly one-of-a-kind (I doubt anyone else could make SB Dunks looks that good) and also manages to display his uplifting personality through his tricks. In regards to the switch backside flip, Lewis did possibly the most memorable one ever in his firing line above with an unmatchable style. He's done plenty more throughout the years as well, but to keep it as respectful and tasteful as I can, I will just highlight Manolo's Tribute to Lewis Marnell, which is the best edit I can imagine to celebrate Lewis. In this edit, Lewis pops a terrific switch backside flip in the opening line and then lands another one down a large set at 1:28.
It is always difficult writing about those who have left us, so I will just keep it to a short story about meeting Lewis. The first time I ever met a pro skater was at a Zumiez Couch Tour event in NJ, about two hours away from my house nonetheless. My dad had driven me the whole way and let me go check out everything going on with the local skaters trying to get noticed in the contest. Some kid was trying to ollie off the top of some huge quarter pipe and after a few tries finally committed to it, but snapped his tail off in the process. The kid was totally bummed, but out of nowhere I suddenly see Lewis making his way onto the park area and moving towards the kid. At this point, the Volcom pros were still in the bus behind the park while the kids were skating, so seeing Lewis walk out amidst the locals was a really exciting surprise. I had always kind of felt that the skate pros were like Hollywood Red Carpet superstars with fame and glory, yet seeing Lewis walk right out into the crowd of locals felt very humbling in that he was really just your average good dude with incredible skate skills, nothing like your standard superstars. Anyway, Lewis walked right up to the kid trying the ollie and just handed him one of his Almost decks and told him to go right back up and keep trying. A few tries later, all thanks to Lewis's selflessness, the kid landed his ollie and the crowd went nuts.
Lewis Marnell, you were too great of a person in every respect to have gone this early. Ride in Paradise brotha!
