RIP IN PEACE: Josh Marlowe
4/01/2025
At the Cedar Crest “Go For Broke Jam.” May 1986. Photo: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER7/2/64 — 3/30/25
When I was a kid in Ocean City, I’d press my face so hard against the fence, watching the warriors charge various quarter pipes in the bowls at the skatepark. One guy always stood out to me. His inverts were always the tallest. At that age, with the chain-link pattern pressed into my face, it seemed like his inverts might have been taller than the actual quarter pipe he was destroying.
Fast forward several years, and I was on the deck, shoulder to shoulder with those same warriors—and there he was, still towering above the ramp. His name was Josh Marlowe, and he was the “Bomb King.” I became friends with Josh, skated countless sessions with him, drank beers, and even went on a road trip or two. And even after becoming his friend and peer on the ramp, I always looked up to Josh—literally and figuratively.
This morning, when I learned that he had passed on, I pictured him towering above that ramp, larger than life—palm on the coping, arm straight, still towering. That’s how I will always remember him.
Till we session again. —Paul Wisniewski
Josh in 1987. Photo: Kevin Thatcher
Tucked and torqued at Ocean City, 1988. Photo: Robert Stukey
Frontside Smith for the cover of Lapper Mag, 1986. Photo: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER
Lien at the Crest, 1986. Photo: Andy “GBJ” BITTNER
Another hardy handplant. CCCC, May 1986. Photo: Andy “GBJ” BITTNERPlease leave your memories of Josh Marlowe in the comments
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