Some of you in the know may have heard Kelly Mcgarry passed away in early February from a heart condition that hit him while he was riding his bike. It's hard to write this over a month later and realize that he's gone and I won't see him again. He was a person who I considered a friend and even though I didn't see him that often the time we spent hanging out was amazing and sometimes pretty intense. I spent two Red Bull rampages building for him building and working on bikes. If you have watched or even heard about Rampage you know that there's heavy shit that happens on a regular basis. You learn a lot about someone when you're spending week straight with them and they're dealing legitimate life and death consequences the whole time. It was extra stress for me working on his bike. Bikes aren't really designed to take the kind of abuse that a person like Kelly can dish out and I legitimately felt that he was trusting me with his life. Funny thing he never seemed stressed out about the bike he always said thanks and was genuinely happy I was there. He was one of the happiest and consistently stoked people on being alive people I've ever met. We at Eddy Merkin know a lot about being stoked, but Kelly blew us out of the fucking water, he was like a Japanese Zero to our battle ship Arizona. I rarely saw him bummed and I never saw him ignore a fan or not stop and say hi when someone recognized him. As a person who is genuinely happy most of the time I still have a lot to learn from Kelly. Kelly is gone but I and other people can learn form him and carry on in a way that he would be happy with and make him proud. Kelly it's strange thinking about you and realizing you're gone, but also amazing to think that in a world that has literally spanned billions of years I was able to hang out in the same time and place as you. Fuck yeah Mcgazza, thanks for being the person you are and giving me someone to look up to.
