Lewis Kristian Marnell (3 December 1982 – 18 January 2013) was a professional skateboarder from Melbourne, Australia who was Slam Magazine's 2008 "Skater of the Year". Marnell died in January 2013, following complications related to type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, a condition that was diagnosed when he was 10 years old. Numerous tributes were published following Marnell's death and his longtime skateboard deck sponsor, Almost Skateboards, continues to use the hashtag "#LewisMarnellForever"—on 15 and 29 July 2014, the company published the hashtag with 2006 video footage of Marnell skateboarding in Japan.
Early life
Marnell was born in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia and grew up in both Australia and Sweden. His parents were Janet and Jan, his brothers were Andrew and Jonas, and his sisters were Jessica and Ebba Louise. Marnell's older brother Jonas was an early skateboarding influence.
Marnell dropped out of high school in Sweden and moved back to Australia to pursue a career in professional skateboarding. In 2008 Marnell provided his perspective on leaving school: "I actually do wish that I just did it, straight up and got it out of the way. I ended up just dropping out. I went to a bunch of schools and was always behind. It became really repetitive, go to year 10, drop out, start year 10 again, drop out." Marnell continued to travel between Australia and Sweden before finally settling in Australia in 2002. Dustin Dollin, Marnell's friend at the time and now a popular professional skateboarder (his primary sponsors are Baker, Vans and Volcom), provided Marnell with skateboard decks from the Baker company during his early years skateboarding in Melbourne.
Marnell also spoke about his time living in Sweden with his father, who was a television and film producer at the time, a role that Jan Marnell continues to fulfill:
Sweden, I moved to Sweden in '96. My dad is Swedish, he moved over there from Australia, lived there for 6 months and after 6 months he asked me if I wanted to come out there and live there for a bit. It was only supposed to be a year but it ended up being 7. I ended up staying there for a while, did some school, did some skating, and tried the Swedish food. It was good.
Marnell also discussed the Swedish climate in relation to Australia:
Sweden has long winters, but their short summers are amazing. Australia is easy living, but so far away from everything ... It's pretty hard for anyone to deal with long cold winters, but being a skateboarder and dealing with it is way harder. I used to play a lot of video games and skate the local indoor park. But you get bored of skating the same old park every day for like nine months. I tried snowboarding a couple of time; it was pretty fun. My homie's dad owned a house in the hills and I would get to go kick it there sometimes and snowboard.
Professional skateboarding
Marnell was initially sponsored by Menace Skateboards and Axion Footwear, before signing with Nike SB, Volcom and Almost. Prior to his promotion into the professional ranks of global skateboarding with the Almost company, Marnell was featured on the inaugural cover of the publication Pop Magazine.
Marnell was featured in the Volcom videos Chichagof, a part that he shared with Dollin, and Let's Live. Marnell was also a resident at a Volcom-owned house that was located in Newport Beach, California. Australian skateboard photographer Andrew Mapstone wrote a series, entitled "Now and Then", for the Volcom website, in which he recounted: "Joe [Pease], Lewis, Shane [Cross] and I spent months away from home in California's Newport Beach living at the Volcom Surf House on the sand. We had the most amazing time and we really lived life to the fullest." In 2004 Cross, who died in 2007, and Marnell filmed together in Melbourne at the time that the Globe World Cup was held.
Marnell was one of the first skateboarders to be sponsored by the Nike SB brand and, in 2007, he was the only 'official' Australian skateboarder on the international team. Marnell explained that he was recruited to the team when "they kinda rang me out of the blue one day when I was in Melbourne in 2004, asking me if I liked the shoes to skate in and it all just blew up from there." Marnell remained with Nike SB for the entirety of his time as a sponsored skateboarder and explained his experience with the brand in an interview: