Somebody put 2016 on notice…it’s only February and this is getting old.

Dave Mirra died yesterday.

This was an odd double blow. Not only did he live in the area, but he was only two years older than me (for some reason, I always thought he was bit older). I have friends from years ago that knew him or had met him.

As a child of the 80s, I enjoyed building and jumping ramps as a kid, rickety things of stacked old car tires and plywood planks or fencing slats. This was all before the X-games, mind, so when they became a thing while I was in college, I had no objections to watching the BMX or skateboarding coverage when it came on ESPN. Mirra was always there, always flying.