I was lucky enough to meet marc when i moved to LA 13/14 years ago, I was helping Ty, Federico and roger while living on rogers couch. They were at the last 2-3 months of filming so the majority of the team were filming their enders. I mainly helped out federico as a second angle and he took me on a handful of sessions with marc. Mainly the Front nose nollie heel fakie on the concrete rails and some other tricks he wasnt able to land before the deadline. -- Funny enough feds ended up posting one of the clips,
Marc was quite possibly the nicest dude, he was super grateful for me being there and helping out and being along for the battle.
At some point he hit me up to help out with a skit for monster children chocolate board collab, and honestly i was shocked and stoked he wanted me to do it. We had a ton of fun filming it with this old el camino he had gotten, and he was so fucking into it too. A week before he had gone to a big hollywood costume shop and got these hobbit pants that were out of lord of the rings for the "kids" who ended up being Stu Kirst, and our other homie from the skate park Ross. He and Chris Roberts obviously went full back 40 and had wigs and what not. You could tell how excited he was for the idea. Which going back to my emails about it was.
"Marc cruising around in an El Camino ute, dressed semi creepy with the candyman song as a soundtrack, handing decks out to kids. This Marc's idea and he'll no doubt make it super cool."
And honestly we just freestyled the whole shoot, he had a main idea he wanted to do but there was no script, we'd shoot a scene until we felt like we had something and then go on to the next and just pieced it together as we shot. I got to keep the board and I had him and chris sign it. Now it hangs over my computers next to his other board I got which was the feeling good the new mood therapy board.
vimeo.com/video/65623882I keep seeing all the instagram posts about him and started to think back about hanging out with him, and the last time i saw him was at a vape shop during middle of covid and I talked to him for a solid 45 mins just about life during covid, the industry, him wanting to do more with buisness and company but that other board companies were over paying and buying out boards from manufacturers at the time and then the whole shipping fiascos. He had asked me then to film more skits for business and company but i had just started a full time job and wasnt really available at the time which sucked because i fully wanted to.
And in seeing all the posts it made me kinda think back about growing up and skating and I didnt come to the realization till now about how influential from the start Marc Johnson was for me. My first hand me down board was a A-Team marc johnson board, Most of my favorite boards/shapes were marc johnson, in highschool for photography class i did a self portrait like his "Big guns" Tilt mode intro, and I had the MJ White shirt matix brown cords and beanie kit just like most people skating did at the time. Kinda blew my mind when i really thought about it and although I know he prolly woulda hated it I wish had said something about how much he help influence me growing up. I also wish I had shown him my big guns photo haha.
I hope wherever MJ is now he is at peace. I will forever hold that time skating with him and hang out as a really special time for me.