Skater Jay Adams, one of the most iconic and influential skateboarders in the world, died from a heart attack Thursday, while on a surf trip in Mexico.
Adams, who helped put Venice Beach on the map as an original member of the Z-Boys skateboarding team and would turn heads when he paddled out. He was 53.
With his flowing, sun-bleached hair, explosive skating style and ebullient personality, Adams became one of the sport’s most iconic figures when it moved from empty backyard swimming pools to international competition. The tattoo-covered skater, who spent later years in Huntington Beach and San Clemente, struggled with drug addiction and was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2012.
Many locals shared their sorrow after news of his death.
“I’m so heartbroken,” said surfer and local pastor Sumo Sato, who met Adams in the 70s in Hawaii. “He was so happy.”
Sato saw Adams in Huntington Beach just before his trip to Mexico, and Adams’ last words to him were: “If anything happens, you’re doing my funeral.”
“That’s the last thing he said to me.”
According to the surf website theinertia.com, Adams’ skateboarding was influenced by Larry Bertlemann, a professional surfer who was known for dragging his hands along the waves as he rode them. In 1974, Adams joined the Zephyr surf team.
When asked about Adams, fellow Z-Boy Tony Alva said, “Some kids are born and raised on graham crackers and milk, he was born and raised on surfing and skateboarding.”
Hurley founder and friend Bob Hurley was just surfing with Adams this week in Mexico, and said Adams was healthy and “ripping.” Adams gave Hurley a skateboard which he rides every day. Adams – along with the Stecyk III and Dog Town crew – had a “definitive impact on the surf/skate scene in Southern California,” said Hurley.
Skateboarder and documentary filmmaker Stacy Peralta would memorialize the group in his 2001 documentary “Dogtown and Z-Boys.”
“Watching him when he was 14, 15, 16 was pure entertainment,” the filmmaker recalled Friday. “It was like watching energy itself evolve. You never knew what he was going to do, and no matter how great he was at something, he never repeated it.”
Although he wasn’t technically the best skater out there, Peralta said, Adams’ influence on the sport was as great as that of X Games gold medalist Tony Hawk.
Adams was sponsored by and once worked for Hurley, which posted these thoughts on Instagram: “He didn’t reinvent the wheel, he redefined what you could do on four. He didn’t follow the rules, he made his own. … Surf and skate once had a missing link. And that link was Jay Adams.”
“Jay brought a lot of personality and style wherever he went…We are really going to miss him,” Hurley said.
Adams was at the opening of the new Vans Skatepark in Huntington Beach in March. He said he started skating when he was 4, and said it’s a great way for kids to stay out of trouble.
Adams for years struggled with drug addiction and was in and out of jail. At the height of his fame in the early 1980s, Adams was convicted of felony assault, launching a string of prison stints over the next 24 years. He recently sobered up, got married and was spending a few months surfing in Mexico on a vacation.
Adams had recently cleaned up and was devoutly religious.
“He’s had a hard life that was really publicized. He changed his life,” said Huntington surfer Mike Butler, who was friends with Adams for 10 years. “It’s almost like a gift from God, he scored perfect waves all summer.”
Johnny Denney, of Huntington Beach, has known Adams for more than 40 years.
“He had his life together, found God and was living clean and free for once,” Denney said. “We’ve been through everything together. It’s just hard to think he’s gone.”
Adams is survived by a wife, Tracy, and two children.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
