Page 35 - THE ENDLESS WAVE | Skateboarding, Death & Spirituality

THE ENDLESS WAVE | PART ONE
News of Noel’s and Alice’s death spread through social media. Ray called me and left one of the most gut-wrenching voicemails I have ever received: “Mi- chael, it’s Ray Korman. Noel is dead.”
At the funeral, hundreds of Noel’s friends turned out. The Shook funeral home normally didn’t allow skateboarding in its parking lot, but for that day, they posted a sign that said it was ok. The outpouring of grief on social media was truly breathtaking.
The sudden death of Noel and Alice shocked the East Coast skate community. It was such an unbelievable event and to this day I still find it incomprehen- sible that Noel and Alice lost their lives this way. Fortunately, as a funeral di- rector’s assistant, I have only encountered a handful of deaths that have been sudden. One guy was a lifelong motorcycle enthusiast and he got killed by a car. Another died while canoeing on a lake — he was hit by a jet ski.
In the months following Noel’s passing, I became more active in trying to keep his memory alive. I became very close with Ray and tried to support him in any way I could. One of the key things that Ray wanted to see happen was a law that would mandate that all commercial buildings in New Jersey had carbon monoxide detectors. At the time, only houses and apartments needed detectors.
The proposed law was a way to prevent future tragedies. You’d think this law was something of a “no brainer” but somehow, politics got in the way. The Parks/Korman bill was something that Ray was adamant about getting passed in the New Jersey legislature and he worked tirelessly to make it happen. Ini- tially, Ray received a tremendous amount of support and worked with local politicians and the media. But things seemed to get bogged down in the actual passing of the bill.
In the fall of 2015, almost a year after the tragedy, I distinctly recall asking Ray what was happening. I had assumed the bill had passed. It turned out that the New Jersey legislature had indeed signed off on it. But there was one person who was holding things up. The culprit turned out to be Chris Christie — the
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