Barney was rad!

Shawn "Barney" Barron really grasped life at the root. So let's celebrate his art, his airs, his fever!

Yesterday the surfing world woke to a bummer: Shawn “Barney” Barron had passed away at 44.

Barney’s exploits – documented in shakey, lo-fi glory in Josh Pomer’s The Kill series, and especially some of Volcom’s early masterpiece –  were something to behold.

Honestly, do you remember how radical Stoney Baloney was when it premiered? Or fucking Magnaplasm? Remember his barrel roll attempts or his throw away back flips? Were they actually called Barney flips?

Barney, along with a young Bruce Irons, was the face of Volcom for the brand’s infant years. Pre-Ozzy Wright, Barney was Volcom’s weirdo artist/air guy, his surreal, cartoony paintings featuring occasionally in Volcom’s campaigns.

We could look forward to him mugging for the camera for Hotline in every Wetsuit Preview Surfer ever did or to him ripping in in those epic Spiderman wetsuits, punting airs at the Lane, getting slotted all around Santa Cruz’s Westside reefs and slabs and mysto spots.

Of course with Barney, like virtually the entirety of his Westside crew, there were always rumours of something gone awry – stories of excess, stories of doomed, desperate darkness amid the playfulness of his persona.

Though he hasn’t been as present in the surf world in recent years he did put out a few goofball episodes of Barney Barron Web-TV! in 2013, which were basically clips of him doing airs and weird, radical grab-rail cutbacks, then talking nonsense into a microphone…

Barney died Tuesday, at his home, after a “23-year-old woman who lived at [Barney’s] home… went outside to an area between the home and an in-law unit, and saw Barron on the ground.”

He wasn’t breathing.

Here’s some reminder’s of Barney’s bouncy, boyish brilliance:

From Josh Pomer’s The Kill 4 (Click here) 

The first episode of Barney Barron Web-TV! (Click here) 

A few peeks at his art and lifestyle. (Click here).