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Marc Johnson, an iconic and influential professional skateboarder, has died. He was 49.
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His cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
Fellow pro skateboarder Louie Barletta honoured him in a tribute on Thrasher Magazine’s Instagram page , where he noted that the news of his friend’s death “hasn’t fully set in.”
He went on to call Johnson “one of the most talented and creative people to ever step on or off a skateboard.”
Barletta recalled seeing Johnson, who was named Skater of the Year by Thrasher in 2007, less than a month ago.
“He was sober, healthy, and full of life. We had a blast reminiscing about the old days,” Barletta recounted of their hangout in San Jose, Calif.
“When it came time to drop him off at the airport, he handed me an envelope. I waited until I got home to open it,” he detailed. “Inside was a three-page list of his hopes and dreams for the future. Never in a million years did I imagine that less than a month later, he would be gone.”
Thrasher’s Instagram page also shared video of Johnson’s part in 1997’s “Seven Steps to Heaven,” which was described as “truly sublime.”
Friends and fans grieve
The skateboarding world felt the loss, which hit those particularly hard in San Jose, which Johnson put “back on the map” for skateboarders, according to Barletta.
“Rest in peace Marc,” skateboarder Steve Caballero wrote. “Thank you for your commitment and contribution to skateboarding. Wish this could be avoided and we don’t have to read this but know that you are and were loved. Praying for his close friends and family.”
Former skateboarder Jose Rojo shared that his “heart is broken.”
He continued: “If it weren’t for Marc I wouldn’t be where I am today. As a young kid he picked me up at my parents’ house in South San Jose and showed me the way. He made the most profound impact in my life. He made sure I was taken care of and I will forever cherish those memories.”
Struggles with alcoholism
Johnson was open about the emotional and financial pressures of professional skateboarding, as well as his recovery and sobriety from alcoholism.
In a 2013 interview with Jenkem Magazine , he revealed that he had been “clean for a long time.”
As for the skating industry, he noted in that same interview that “the average pro career lasts five years, and most pros walk away from skateboarding with nothing except two video parts and a room full of old pro models.”
He noted that once big skateboard companies let a skater go, they are left “practically unemployable” outside of that world.
“Pro Skateboarder killed himself jumping down the handrails and the stairs, made that company ‘cool,’ gave his heart and soul to the company, and after that he is on his own,” he ranted at the time.
“The company paid him a tiny bit of money to do all that amazing skateboarding, he got to live his dream for awhile, and then after that, he’s useless.”
Barletta noted his struggles and described Johnson as a “genius and a tortured soul” who only wanted to be remembered for his skateboarding.
“He was just a poor kid from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who grew up in a trailer at the end of a dirt road. Yet he made it out, traveled the world, and touched so many lives,” Barletta wrote. “He will live on through the video parts that nobody can recreate. He gave opportunities to people who might never have had a chance otherwise.”
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