R.I.P. Marc Johnson

[Lowcalcium]

I enjoyed the NY Times article, but the dude who said it was definitely written by non skateboarders was correct:

“He told “The Nine Club” that he thought he had released at least 18 segments, including a memorable section in “Yeah Right!,”

I actually chortled when they mentioned segments instead of parts. They called the shit poop. I think Marc would find that slightly amusing.

[Atiba Applebum]

I enjoyed the NY Times article, but the dude who said it was definitely written by non skateboarders was correct:

“He told “The Nine Club” that he thought he had released at least 18 segments, including a memorable section in “Yeah Right!,”

I actually chortled when they mentioned segments instead of parts. They called the shit poop. I think Marc would find that slightly amusing.

Also surprised Skater of the Year was written in all lower case

[Mr.Jenkins]

Of all pros gone, this one feels most surreal (Except Lewis, but he was a friend so hit me on another level) - its really hard to come to terms with MJ passing, especially with how the industry shunned him and how things escalated. So damn tragic.

[TheDraught]

Nice little feel good clip shot at Marcs house in the mountains (also featuring Kenny, CRob and Eldridge)

[CossRooper]

A beautiful piece on Boil the Ocean:

https://boiltheocean.wordpress.com/2026/05/29/watching-forever/

This is really really good

[The Ghost of Lenny Kirk]

"Big guuuuns baby big guuuuuns" & "College, boy!" live rent free in my head.

Rip to a real boss. Dude was the best.

[dubee]

Kinda wild to think that most of the footage in the Man Down to Fully Flared era, MJ was in his Mid 20's. They looked like Grown ass men to me when i was just a lad. Stayed up until 6:15am watching the whole Man Down, including the Bonus Star Wars segment with "chauncey Peppertooth". Wish i still had an MJ Enjoi Bunny Deck. I learned so much tech shit on that board as a 13 yr old. Watched that video religiously.

[dubee]

as much as i love Carroll's skating (Modus was the shit, and Choco Tour), I wish i never met him as a kid. He was a kook. I remember it was Crailtap / Sam Smyth that introduced me to the greatest Rapper ever Mac Dre. When i went up to Carroll to break the ice and asked him if he liked MD--because i was nervous/intimidated, he said "No." and skated away. I think we all know he's a weirdo though.

[Dwayne Hoover]

as much as i love Carroll's skating (Modus was the shit, and Choco Tour), I wish i never met him as a kid. He was a kook. I remember it was Crailtap / Sam Smyth that introduced me to the greatest Rapper ever Mac Dre. When i went up to Carroll to break the ice and asked him if he liked MD--because i was nervous/intimidated, he said "No." and skated away. I think we all know he's a weirdo though.

what does this have to do with marc johnson

[DemonCarcass]

yeah exactly! not a damn thing to do with marc. it’s irrelevant who freaking cares

[Owen]

Interesting point re it being difficulty to pin down the signature tricks of Marc due to how expansive his bag was.

He did some great fs noseslides on handrails at a time when they weren't as commonly or easily done as today.

I would also link him with pretty all of the hardest spinning and flipping tricks eg cab flips, nolie big heels, fs big heels,  rick flips etc.

Switch fs flips, nollie bs flips and bs flips. All of his bs nosegrind variations.

Plus I would include the broad category of 'unique yet tasteful highly technical NBDs' as being a signature theme throughout Marc's parts.

[shouldn't]

Expand Quote

if you want to try and say his mind was failing him already at that point, i recommend you go rewatch that episode.

[close]

I'm not going to claim that I have a better insight than anyone else about Marc's internal life, but you're evincing a fairly simplistic view of how mental illness and addiction work. It's not just a binary of Having an Episode vs. Thinking Rationally - it can be much more subtle, often totally undetectable by others. It isn't a matter of his mind failing him at any single point in time, but cumulative evidence of disordered thinking/behavior.

If anything, the fact that he's so cogent in that Nine Club interview (but I be hard pressed to say that he doesn't seem altered in a pretty apparent way) strengthens the point that laying blame on others isn't fair. You're really just saying that you missed the signs like everyone else did.

not trying to argue with you, but i disagree. just feel like out of that whole post, you could have left that out. what if someone else close to him or that person posts again clarifying the same? it’s just weird to post this whole heartfelt thing saying we shouldn’t act like we know what happened, then go on to act like you know what happened… not saying you’re for sure wrong though, or that i’m right. i just don’t think it went the way you’re saying, he turned dashawn pro a whole 4 years later in the midst of running a board brand and still being on social media/involved in skateboarding. i don’t think anyone would be in charge of running a company and putting together catalogs/graphics & running sales if his mental had declined that much at that point. it seems like a much more recent development. again, you could be right, you could be wrong. acting like you’re undoubtedly right about something you’re literally assuming on just as much as any of us are is strange.

[Steely Daniel]

Interesting point re it being difficulty to pin down the signature tricks of Marc due to how expansive his bag was.

He did some great fs noseslides on handrails at a time when they weren't as commonly or easily done as today.

I would also link him with pretty all of the hardest spinning and flipping tricks eg cab flips, nolie big heels, fs big heels,  rick flips etc.

Switch fs flips, nollie bs flips and bs flips. All of his bs nosegrind variations.

Plus I would include the broad category of 'unique yet tasteful highly technical NBDs' as being a signature theme throughout Marc's parts.

Marc had a great fs nose slide. The cover of Modus is such a good photo

[Atiba Applebum]

Interesting to learn from Greg Hunt’s own memorial post that Ty tasked him with filming MJ’s modus part

[pointandclick]

Of all pros gone, this one feels most surreal (Except Lewis, but he was a friend so hit me on another level) - its really hard to come to terms with MJ passing, especially with how the industry shunned him and how things escalated. So damn tragic.

this is amazing art, who did it?

[Alexactly]

I feel you, I didn’t mean to speak with any kind of authority about how a stranger’s mental state at a specific point in time. I just wanted to emphasize that mental illness almost always afflicts its suffers from early adulthood on, and it manifests in ways that can be difficult to recognize and which continuously change over time. It just really seem to me that, if MJ had been incommunicado with Carroll on the lead up to his move to Adidas, it feels likely he wasn’t making decisions with a completely clear mind, and not that he was intentionally and with full cognizance intending to mislead his friends and owners of the board brand he was still on.

[1xz5h]

RIP

[dubee]

didn't MJ say he filmed those Tricks on a Sunday 3-4 days prior to the premier of Away Days. If so, how could he have known? I don't think MJ would have expected his footage to be in there since the project was already ongoing for 3 years.

Crail wasn't paying him for 5-6 months--yet we expected him to be honest and fully transparent? at that point, he didn't owe Carroll any explanations.  According to interviews, he did disclose that he was leaving for Adidas, but Crail wanted him to wait said 5-6months (without pay).....in his shoes (no pun intended), i would have done the same. And sometimes, its easier to just not say anything. Perhaps it was a struggle for MJ to say "Sorry Mike, I don't have time to wait, i gotta go. Bills need to get paid. The IRS is on my ass for back taxes that i neglected because I was on Tour filming for Fully Flared"..

[Mr.Jenkins]

Expand Quote

Of all pros gone, this one feels most surreal (Except Lewis, but he was a friend so hit me on another level) - its really hard to come to terms with MJ passing, especially with how the industry shunned him and how things escalated. So damn tragic.

[close]

this is amazing art, who did it?

I did that one. The MJ text is lifted from an Chocolate ad. The forever part from a Keenan graphic.

[Mr. Jax Taylor]

didn't MJ say he filmed those Tricks on a Sunday 3-4 days prior to the premier of Away Days. If so, how could he have known? I don't think MJ would have expected his footage to be in there since the project was already ongoing for 3 years.

Crail wasn't paying him for 5-6 months--yet we expected him to be honest and fully transparent? at that point, he didn't owe Carroll any explanations.  According to interviews, he did disclose that he was leaving for Adidas, but Crail wanted him to wait said 5-6months (without pay).....in his shoes (no pun intended), i would have done the same. And sometimes, its easier to just not say anything. Perhaps it was a struggle for MJ to say "Sorry Mike, I don't have time to wait, i gotta go. Bills need to get paid. The IRS is on my ass for back taxes that i neglected because I was on Tour filming for Fully Flared"..

Longballs Shut Fuck Up Challenge

[rawbertson.]

This has taken me a lot of days to process
I just keep hearing goodbye horses
I watched most of the parts over again too
There was a lot of people bummed when a lot of famous musicians died, but this actually hits way harder than any of that ever will imo because skateboarding is the kind of thing especially at that time was basically your entire identity. Marc really embodied that and was a massive part of my early exposure to skateboarding. Modus was the first legit VHS I ever purchased. Another layer to this is that Marc was with us for seemingly such a long time. He really poured his heart out to deliver such an insane amount of content before that was even really a thing. He did what youtubers do in hammer time. Matrix Mode shit. looking back, he is the first to do so many insane combos that would were considered illegal before that. he actually has legal hardflips in the high time of muskas too (check out his 411 profile he has a proper hardflip to manual in 1997 which id like to see if anyone else has footage of?!?!?)

[fur lined sea]

^

My favourite MJ part. This is so upsetting.

1:17 you mean this one?


Yes Marc had a proper hardflip. Rarely filmed them. He sets a perfect one against Rick in BATB.

[fur lined sea]

Expand Quote

Interesting point re it being difficulty to pin down the signature tricks of Marc due to how expansive his bag was.

He did some great fs noseslides on handrails at a time when they weren't as commonly or easily done as today.

I would also link him with pretty all of the hardest spinning and flipping tricks eg cab flips, nolie big heels, fs big heels,  rick flips etc.

Switch fs flips, nollie bs flips and bs flips. All of his bs nosegrind variations.

Plus I would include the broad category of 'unique yet tasteful highly technical NBDs' as being a signature theme throughout Marc's parts.

[close]

Marc had a great fs nose slide. The cover of Modus is such a good photo

I think you nailed it down to what he liked filming the most. He made the hardest flip tricks look so good. In PS he took it to the next level with all the late shuv stuff. He even makes a bs late flip look fluid. He had done it all…

On the bs nosegrinds… he definitely had fs shuv bs nosegrind on lock, too. Never got sick of them.

Agree on the fs noseslide. He never overdid them on ledges like we see now (calling myself out here too), just perfect ones on handrails and then if it was on a ledge it had something in or out.

I love in his Man Down part the massive bs lip on a handrail. It’s thrown just in the middle of the part. My favourite bs lip of all time, it’s too casual.

[Tear Up a Trick]

Nice little feel good clip shot at Marcs house in the mountains (also featuring Kenny, CRob and Eldridge)

That was amazing, never seen that before, thank you for posting.

Just the fact that his personal TF is like difficlut, imperfect spots and not perfect mellow stuff seems like mj to me.  I bet that bank is way harder to skate than it even looks, and he made it look easy he made everything look easy.

[Miserable Old Sack of Shit]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Of all pros gone, this one feels most surreal (Except Lewis, but he was a friend so hit me on another level) - its really hard to come to terms with MJ passing, especially with how the industry shunned him and how things escalated. So damn tragic.

[close]

this is amazing art, who did it?

[close]

I did that one. The MJ text is lifted from an Chocolate ad. The forever part from a Keenan graphic.

I say this as somebody who's a pretty harsh judge of art: this is fantastic. I thought this was a legit tribute put out by Crail or somebody. Also, there was a short period of time where I tried throwing those behind-the-baord pushes into my lines after seeing Marc do them. I had to give up pretty quickly. They're a lot harder than they look. I nearly ate shit a couple of times trying to do them.

[charade]

Modus Operandi was the first video I saw. Putting aside the tricks, I thought if I could ever look as graceful as he did just pushing I'd be happy.

The best. 

[Alberteinstein]

Rest easy

He was and always will be one of the greats
Style, tech, creative

To me what really stood out was him battling tricks for so long. People saying he’d battle a trick for 8hrs. You see it in his fully flared part. Every single ounce of his existence going into a trick. Every skater has felt that dread and then relief when you roll away

Thanks for everything you did Marc

[Lenny the Fatface]

didn't MJ say he filmed those Tricks on a Sunday 3-4 days prior to the premier of Away Days. If so, how could he have known? I don't think MJ would have expected his footage to be in there since the project was already ongoing for 3 years.

Crail wasn't paying him for 5-6 months--yet we expected him to be honest and fully transparent? at that point, he didn't owe Carroll any explanations.  According to interviews, he did disclose that he was leaving for Adidas, but Crail wanted him to wait said 5-6months (without pay).....in his shoes (no pun intended), i would have done the same. And sometimes, its easier to just not say anything. Perhaps it was a struggle for MJ to say "Sorry Mike, I don't have time to wait, i gotta go. Bills need to get paid. The IRS is on my ass for back taxes that i neglected because I was on Tour filming for Fully Flared"..

Marc getting kicked off Chocolate is whatever, crail was at a low point and they were probably tired of each other’s shit anyways.

The Jenkem character assassination and the implied blacklisting Marc got afterwards is some gross bullshit tho.

But, this isn’t the thread for that tbh.

[Cuban_Lynx]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

Of all pros gone, this one feels most surreal (Except Lewis, but he was a friend so hit me on another level) - its really hard to come to terms with MJ passing, especially with how the industry shunned him and how things escalated. So damn tragic.

[close]

this is amazing art, who did it?

[close]

I did that one. The MJ text is lifted from an Chocolate ad. The forever part from a Keenan graphic.

Amazing work! I love the watercolors. That jazz push was divine.

[dubee]

Expand Quote

didn't MJ say he filmed those Tricks on a Sunday 3-4 days prior to the premier of Away Days. If so, how could he have known? I don't think MJ would have expected his footage to be in there since the project was already ongoing for 3 years.

Crail wasn't paying him for 5-6 months--yet we expected him to be honest and fully transparent? at that point, he didn't owe Carroll any explanations.  According to interviews, he did disclose that he was leaving for Adidas, but Crail wanted him to wait said 5-6months (without pay).....in his shoes (no pun intended), i would have done the same. And sometimes, its easier to just not say anything. Perhaps it was a struggle for MJ to say "Sorry Mike, I don't have time to wait, i gotta go. Bills need to get paid. The IRS is on my ass for back taxes that i neglected because I was on Tour filming for Fully Flared"..

[close]

Marc getting kicked off Chocolate is whatever, crail was at a low point and they were probably tired of each other’s shit anyways.

The Jenkem character assassination and the implied blacklisting Marc got afterwards is some gross bullshit tho.

But, this isn’t the thread for that tbh.

glad someone gets it.