'Love Child's' Jed Walters has sadly passed away
With great sadness, we share the news of yet another legend in skateboarding and 'World Industries' most elusive Love Child, Jed Walters, has sadly passed away. Strangelove Skateboards had said, "Took a minute to confirm, but we are saddened to learn of the recent passing of Jed Walters, one of skateboarding's greatest enigmas and South Dakotan legend. Our sincere condolences to his friends, family, and loved ones. Rest in peace, Jed."
Shortly after the release of World Industries' Love Child' in 1992, Jed was truly in the limelight and was about to turn pro for the well-established company World Industries. He is most recognizable for his switch tre flips and big pop.
Jed Walters entered the skate world and made a huge impact when doing so, switch 360 flipping his way into skateboarding history; then, as quick as he made an entrance, he vanished—leaving behind a monumental part in one of the most iconic skate videos of all time; World Industries 1992 Love Child. People were left confused as to where and why he had disappeared for so long.
"Jed showed up out of nowhere and wanted to really learn how to skate. He was this tall, lanky, big ollie kinda skater that ended up skating a lot with Rodney and flat ground guys like me and got pretty technical and consistent in the end but totally 'caught' all his flat tricks and did everything with a pop. He was kind of an early skater to really put the 'English' into his tricks. Jed had a lot of integrity and just did his thing, stayed his course. He has an interesting story about telling Guy he wanted to climb some nearby mountain and then just going and doing it. I don't think anyone else even thought he was serious, and everyone was surprised he actually climbed it. That was Jed, though. He was a loner in a good way, thinking for himself." —Brian Lotti.
Moving forward into 2018, it would come to light in an interview that Jed believed himself to have been a "bad person when riding a skateboard." Because of his religious views, he was convinced that he was betraying himself when doing so. There was no resentment towards skaters or skateboarding itself; it's not like he thought it was evil or the devil's toy or anything like that. Because Jed grew up with strong religious beliefs, and when he was out rebelling as a skateboarder, he just felt like he was not being true to himself, and so he needed to pull back from it.
"I didn't quit skateboarding so that I could become a Christian again; that was just a byproduct of it. The thing with me is that my head was so screwed up I had to rebel against my form of rebellion. It just so happened that my rebellion was skateboarding. I had to swing everything so far back the other way in order to get my head straight again." Jed said.
Jed's death was due to a sudden and tragic accident at work. This GoFundMe account has been started to provide for his beautiful wife, Kristen, and their two precious daughters, Emma and Agnes.
