Lewis Kristian Marnell  was born in Melbourne, Australia in, December, 1982.  He was a professional international skateboarder who spent much of his life traversing between Australia and Sweden, due to his parents ancestry.  None of this stopped him from pursuing the love of his life, a career in professional skate-boarding.

Marnell was initially sponsored by Menace Skateboards and Axion Footwear, before signing with Nike SB, Volcom and Almost Skateboards. Marnell was featured on the inaugural cover of the publication Pop Magazine and in 2007 and he was the only ‘official’ Australian skateboarder on the Nike SB international team.

• A print ad for the promo clip for the Nike SB ‘Dunk’ shoe showcased Marnell performing a trick at the Melbourne Museum, a famous international skateboarding location that has been used by professional skateboarder Daewon Song, in his Skate More video.
• Marnell appeared in numerous promotional features for Almost, both in video and print form.
• In August 2010, he was interviewed in relation to an Almost advertisement that appeared on the back cover of Transworld Skateboarding magazine, in which Marnell executes a “switch frontside flip” at the Melbourne Museum location, described as “gnarly” (skateboarding jargon for something that is extraordinarily good and is often applied to a trick performed under particularly difficult circumstances, e.g. a dangerous location, rough terrain or under pressure) by the magazine’s staff.
• Marnell’s closing trick from his part in the first instalment of Nike SB’s Chronicles series was also used for a Transworld back cover (another Almost advertisement) in 2011, where Marnell executes a trick known as a “Nollie 360 flip” over a model of a picnic table that is typically used in the US.
• Marnell received the 2008 “Skater of the Year” award from the Australian skateboarding magazine SLAM.
• A photograph of Marnell was then used for the cover of the 27th edition of The Skateboarder’s Journal publication.

Marnell’s first board graphic featured a lion waving a Rastafarian flag. He became a Rastafari after living in New York. It was here that he met the love of his life, Nami, whom he married in Melbourne, in late 2012.

Sadly, Marnell died on 18 January 2013, following complications related to Type 1 diabetes; a condition that was diagnosed when he was 10 years old. An official announcement on 20 January 2013 revealed that he had died of a massive hypoglycemic reaction which did not respond to ingested glucose.

Five days later, two street art murals were completed in Melbourne as tributes to the late skateboarder by his older brother, Jonas Marnell.

Lewis Marnell – Irie!

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