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Friends remember action sports icon Erik Roner for his ‘easy demeanor’ – USA TODAY

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Authorities have said an extreme sports and MTV star has died during a skydive for the opening ceremony of a golf event in Squaw Valley.
Placer County Sheriff’s Captain Dennis Walsh said Erik Roner of Tahoe City, California, died on Monday after he
USA TODAY

They all have a story. For Andy Buckworth, it was the time Erik Roner BASE jumped off his hotel balcony in Australia with his wife holding his parachute because there wouldn’t be enough time for him to pull it. Gavin Godfrey remembers a time when he showed up to Austria for the Nitro Circus tour and Roner had a plan to put a trampoline on a rooftop and jump into a bag jump.

For Gregg Godfrey, it was Roner being flung in a giant inner tube as they recreated a human version of Angry Birds. Or taking on a Russian national champion wrestler – a woman who Godfrey says beat “the crap out of” Roner. Or so many more.

Each story comes with a bit of incredulity – they never could believe Roner would do the things he did – wrapped in a deep admiration for the gusto with which he pursued whatever he could dream up.

Roner died at age 39 in a skydiving accident Monday at Squaw Valley in California, those friends who had been to the edge of adventure with him at points all around the globe remembered a genuine person with an ever-present smile, a man who was devoted to his family and pursued all things in life with joy and appreciation.

“He wasn’t afraid to follow his dream and go scare himself to live those dreams,” says Ian McIntosh, a good friend of Roner’s who is a pro skier and BASE jumper.

“It’s about doing what we love and inspiring other people, and that’s what Erik was about. In Erik’s mind, living any other way was a waste.”

Roner left behind his wife, Annika, and their two children. A professional skier and BASE jumper, Roner was part of a skydiving performance during a golf event hosted by The Squaw Valley Institute. He hit a tree while trying to land.

To a man, Roner’s friends – guys who had seen him take on gnarly BASE jumps, ski the backcountry and perform on the Nitro Circus tour – spoke of Roner’s caution. He was not reckless, they stressed, and the accident that took his life was on one of the more mundane jumps he would make. Roner was the one who was careful and calculating, taking the time to plan and prepare before each jump.

“All the crazy things that he did, it was so unique and it was so rare to find someone that had the balls to do that,” says Buckworth, a BMX rider who met Roner on the Nitro Circus Tour.

“The safety precautions he would take, he would doubly and triple check everything he did.”

That healthy dose of caution helped Roner pursue some of his great adventures and establish himself as an action sports icon.

A Northern California native, Roner began skiing at an early age and after playing soccer at BYU, he pursued a career in the ski industry. In 2000, Roner started skydiving and BASE jumping – which is similar to skydiving except that athletes jump off fixed objects. (Buildings, Antenna towers, Spans and Earth make up the acronym.) He helped pioneer ski BASE jumping, which requires athletes to ski down a line that ends in a cliff where they deploy a parachute.

Teton Gravity Research, an action sports media company, featured Roner in 11 films over a decade. When TGR was looking for a host of “Locals,” a show in which the host would literally drop in on action sports athletes around the world who would give them a tour of their sport and where they lived, Roner was the perfect fit.

Roner, who was an executive producer on the show, was a natural, said Todd Jones, a co-founder of TGR.

VIDEO TRIBUTE: Remembering Erick Roner

“There was no better guy than Roner,” said Jones. “He was so perfect, so unique to that because people instantly loved the guy and warmed up to him and trusted him and he had their respect.”

That extended to action sports more broadly.

In 2005, he joined Travis Pastrana for the Nitro Circus MTV show, which aired their stunts from around the globe. Gregg Godfrey, who had helped start the Nitro Circus, contacted Roner to help with jumping dirt bikes in the Grand Canyon. After that, he was a natural fit. He officially joined the Nitro Circus Crew, starring in the TV show, feature film and World Tour.

“He just has such an easy demeanor about him, and he was always happy,” says Gregg Godfrey. “He’s very game for anything that we were going to do.”

It’s that fervor for life that his friends remembered Tuesday. Ever the adventure seeker, Roner quoted Hunter S. Thompson on his website.

“Faster, faster, faster until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.”

That embodied him, says McIntosh. Always with a dose of fear that caused him to be safe, he pursued whatever he could dream. That meant recreating a scene from the animated movie “Up,” attaching helium balloons to a lawn chair that he rode up 8,000 feet before parachuting down. It meant recreating an extreme version of “Mary Poppins,” releasing himself from a hot air balloon and floating down using a reinforced patio umbrella until it gave way and he opened his parachute.

It meant plans he was making before his death to launch himself out of a human cannon into the Grand Canyon in a wingsuit, McIntosh says.

“Roner never tried to be a badass. He was just himself and he was funny and he was a character,” McIntosh says. “He managed to put himself into his lifestyle that whatever he could dream up, he could then go do.

“He’s just so damn inspiring and he wasn’t afraid to face his fears in order to live his dreams.”