Louie Lopez is my favorite skater of all time. Period. This is going to be a straight fan-boy post so you may want to bail on reading this first part and leave the room. Bigspin wally in “Seize the Seconds.” Back-tailing bump-to-dumpsters. The entire FA “Days of Grace” part. But above all, this piece produced by the Ben Raemers Foundation takes the cake.

Louie opens up about his past experiences with Ben and reflects on what he could have done if he had a better understanding of mental health at the time. He speaks on taking the free suicide-prevention training provided by the Ben Raemers Foundation and how he has used what he learned to be there for his friends by just “giving them his ears.”

The topic of suicide always hits close to home after having experienced the passing of my sister. Although Louie mentions things he could have said to Ben during those times on tour, sometimes it’s just incredibly hard to see the signs. In fact, I think because mental health has become such a taboo subject in modern day culture people have perfected the skill of hiding these thoughts and emotions. Like depressed ninjas (Note to self – Depressed Ninjas tv animation show idea in the style of Rick and Morty). I used to live with a number of regrets about what I could have and should have done to help my sister. Regrets that led to mental torture and ultimately did me no good.

Louie – The topic of suicide surely isn’t an easy one to talk about so from the bottom of my heart man.. thank you. For sharing this with skateboarders and the rest of the world. The more we speak freely about these things, the more the stigma goes away. The more the stigma goes away, the less people we will lose.