Stricker was one of the good guys. ________________________________________________________MIKE V MAIN TEAM PAGE

I first worked with Eric in 2002 when he was the editor of the now long defunct Strength Magazine out of Cincinnati, Ohio. A young guy and super-fan named Mike Montgomery conducted an interview me and in spite of potential industry backlash, Eric being the editor ran the article and gave me the cover of the magazine doing a street plant. This turned out to be the last or one of the last issues of Strength to ever hit the newsstands as I remember shortly after the magazine coming out having a conversation on the phone with Eric who I’d gotten friendly with through the course of working on the interview, and him telling me that Strength was folding and he didn’t know what he was going to do. I remember encouraging him to maintain his confidence in himself and his abilities and to follow his dreams out to California to work in the skateboard industry. I remember this conversation vividly as I was going through some tough shit at the time as well and by talking with Eric I was also steeling myself for the road ahead.

Fast forward to 2005, Eric is now the editor of Transworld, I’m thirty-five years old, skating for Element and I’m way out of favor with the core industry types, more so than I’ve ever been but I pitch a story idea to Eric for the magazine and he’s all about it. We meet up in Hollywood and spend an almost 24 hour period together, skating, talking and shooting photos with photographer Seu Trinh. The article hits in October 2005 and is written by the very complimentary Stricker and remains one of the better features I’ve ever had in a skate magazine.

The next time we worked together was just less than a year ago. I had pitched Eric an article idea for Transworld based around DRIVE TV road trip photos and he was all for it. But when it came time to do the actual interview Transworld hired Mackenzie Eisenhour to interview me and instead of asking me about DRIVE and focusing on the positive aspects of my career the interview took on a very confrontational tone by asking me to explain my actions at the recent Downtown Showdown Contest where I had slapped the shit out of some guys from the Creature Skateboards Team. Not feeling like I had to or needed to explain myself to anyone I came close to pulling the plug on the article and had several back and forth dialogues with Eric where I basically told him that I felt the magazine was picking sides (Creature’s side) and in turn trying to make me look bad just by asking me to explain myself. I told him I didn’t need the coverage and that I would pull the article if his intention with the article was to make a smear job of this thing. Eric went back and reedited the article and although a lot of it still had me on the defense I realized that it was the reality of my situation with this particular crowd anyway and I felt I that could stand behind my answers and so I let the article run. When the magazine hit in early January of this year Eric and I had an email exchange that turned into a bit of a love-fest. He thanked me for being “a real, true pro” and complimented me on my work with DRIVE. I thanked him for continuing to support me and my efforts, then he said he had nothing but respect for me and he wished my family and I a great 2009 and then shared the following story with me of the first time he ever skated the Brooklyn Banks in New York City:

“The Banks are probably the best spot ever. Unfortunately I didn't make it there until March of 1998 when I dropped out of college. I still remember the setup I had -- a Mike Frazier 8.75 width Toy Machine with Indy 146s and Pig 63mm (no typo, yes, 63s for street).... I ate up everything east coast because I could relate being from Chicago... I Amtraked into NYC and drove to Vermont a few days earlier for the US Open of snowboarding (gay, I know, but I still love snowboarding no matter what anyone says), and then I came back to snow in NYC as I was watching a Knicks game.... Took the train downtown from around Astor place early in the morning and just sat at The Banks in the snow and watched the sun melt it off the main bank and dry it up until it was skateable by noon or one.... and dropped my few flip tricks I could do back then... one of my best skate memories ever. I love New York.”

I ran into Eric at the end of July in Newport Beach at the Element Make It Count Video Premiere. We stood out on the curb after the film and talked for a bit, we ended up being some of the last people to leave the front of the theatre. It was always good to run into Eric as he was a true skate nerd through and through and he was a guy I always knew could appreciate some stories from an old salty dog like me.

Death is death and I guess like many others I’m selfishly sorry to see Eric go. He was a guy who took his role as the editor of the biggest magazine in skateboarding seriously and always strived to do good for skateboarding and I respected him greatly for it. I lost a true supporter yesterday but I’ll say this for certain, I really appreciated him while he was here.

-Mike V