Rough-and-tumble skateboard pioneer LOS ANGELES -- Jay Adams, the colorful rebel who helped transform skateboarding from a simple street pastime into one of the world's most spectacular sports with hair-raising stunts and an outsize personality to match, has died at age 53.
Adams died of a heart attack Thursday during a surfing vacation in Mexico with his wife and friends, his manager, Susan Ferris said Friday. Adams is survived by his wife, Tracy, and two children.
Adams became one of the sport's most iconic figures during the years it moved from empty backyard swimming pools to international competition.
But at the height of his fame in the early 1980s, Adams was convicted of felony assault, the first of a string of prison stints over the next 24 years.
The member of the Skateboarding Hall of Fame, who had proudly been clean and sober for the past several years, blamed his troubles in part on the sport's early years, when seemingly any outrageous behavior was tolerated.
He rocketed to fame while still a teenager as a founding member of the Zephyr Skate Team, a group of surfers turned skateboarders who came together in a run-down, dicey neighborhood known as Dogtown that straddles Los Angeles' Venice Beach and Santa Monica.
Stacy Peralta, another member and documentary filmmaker, memorialized the group in his 2001 documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. Adams was also played by actor Emile Hirsch in the 2005 feature film Lords of Dogtown.
7-term congressman, federal prisoner BOISE, Idaho — George Hansen, a former Idaho Republican congressman, died Thursday of natural causes at a medical center in Pocatello, Cornelison Funeral Home said. He was 83.
Known for his colorful antics as well as his time in federal prison, Hansen represented Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District for a total of seven terms in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
In 1979, Hansen went to Iran to attempt to negotiate a deal during the hostage crisis, angering the Carter administration. He was the only member of Congress to visit Iran during the 444-day crisis.
In 1984, Hansen became the first congressman convicted under the Ethics in Government Act for filing false financial disclosure statements, serving two six-month stints in federal prison. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated his conviction 10 years later after finding fault with the act. In 1993, Hansen was convicted of 45 counts of bank fraud for a multimillion-dollar check-kiting scheme. Despite the conviction, nearly 100 of his alleged victims submitted affidavits to the judge saying they didn’t want Hansen sentenced and that he was still considered their political champion. He was sentenced to four years in prison by a federal judge.
He earned the nickname “George the Dragon Slayer” for his stance against federal government overreach and persistent criticism of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. In 1980, he wrote a book, To Harass Our People, about the IRS abusing its power.
Hansen’s wife, Connie, died in 2013.
Hansen is survived by five children, 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Metro on 08/17/2014