The news came yesterday that a good friend, Eric Stricker, passed away. The cause is unknown. The news is a shock.
I met Eric in the late ‘90s. He was at Strength Magazine and we instantly clicked. He was funny, silly, unpretentious, and made interesting observations. He had the unassuming personality of a Midwesterner (or a Canadian).
Over the years his career flourished, with a move to Transworld Skateboarding. He made his mark and did great things for the mag. But more importantly to his friends – he never lost the quality that made him a great person.
The bro can be brutal. There is lots of bullsh#* and fakeness, orange tans, upgraded body parts, and the most irritating of LA/OC games – I see you, but I won’t walk up to you first. Stricker never subscribed to that, he knew that was crap and he knew what mattered.
A couple of years ago, after I’d been back in Oregon for awhile, Stricker and I had a good long catch up call. One of those deep - how is your life, how the world – calls (of course, interspersed with banter about bad style, bad bands, etc). We talked about the best part of the skateboarding industry and the real friends we’d made – and how we both felt lucky to have met each other along that road.
I count myself lucky to have known Eric. He made my days better. I always looked forward to talking with him and seeing him at tradeshows. And I guess my last memory will be of a random talk in Vegas about Hawaiian shirts with him and his lovely wife.
Eric made the world a better and friendlier and more real place. You will be missed, my friend. My heart goes out to his wife.
