Skateboarding Icon Eric Swenson Dies in Suicide
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Skateboard business icon Eric Swenson, co-founder of the magazine Thrasher who reinvigorated the sidewalk surfing craze in the late 1970s with his Independent Trucks equipment firm, has died in San Francisco.
Police say the 64-year-old Swenson shot himself to death on Monday in front of the Mission police station.
The San Francisco Chronicle says Independent Trucks made a high-quality truck, the metal connector between the skateboard and its wheels that enabled moves necessary for jumps and tricks.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Swenson and friend Fausto Vitello opened the manufacturing company in San Francisco in 1978.
Three years later, Swenson, Vitello and Kevin Thatcher co-founded skateboarding's Thrasher magazine.
Swenson is survived by wife Linda McKay and sisters Rebekah Engle and Sonja Taylor, both of San Francisco.