On the Cedar Crest “Go For Broke Jam.” Could 1986. Photograph: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER
7/2/64 — 3/30/25
After I was a child in Ocean Metropolis, I’d press my face so onerous towards the fence, watching the soldiers cost numerous quarter pipes within the bowls on the skatepark. One man at all times stood out to me. His inverts had been at all times the tallest. At that age, with the chain-link sample pressed into my face, it appeared like his inverts may need been taller than the precise quarter pipe he was destroying.
Quick ahead a number of years, and I used to be on the deck, shoulder to shoulder with those self same warriors—and there he was, nonetheless towering above the ramp. His title was Josh Marlowe, and he was the “Bomb King.” I turned mates with Josh, skated numerous classes with him, drank beers, and even went on a highway journey or two. And even after changing into his buddy and peer on the ramp, I at all times seemed as much as Josh—actually and figuratively.
This morning, after I discovered that he had handed on, I pictured him towering above that ramp, bigger than life—palm on the coping, arm straight, nonetheless towering. That’s how I’ll at all times keep in mind him.
Until we session once more. —Paul Wisniewski
Josh in 1987. Photograph: Kevin Thatcher
Tucked and torqued at Ocean Metropolis, 1988. Photograph: Robert Stukey
Frontside Smith for the quilt of Lapper Magazine, 1986. Photograph: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER
Lien on the Crest, 1986. Photograph: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER
One other hardy handplant. CCCC, Could 1986. Photograph: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER
Please depart your recollections of Josh Marlowe within the feedback