Professional stuntman and extreme athlete Erik Roner died on Monday, Sept. 28. According to the L.A. Times, Roner was performing a three-man parachuting stunt at a charity golf tournament at the Squaw Valley Institute in Olympic Valley, Calif., when he missed his drop zone target and crashed into a nearby tree.
Known around the world for his daring feats and work on MTV’s Nitro Circus, Roner left a wife and two children as well as several friends on the show who are reportedly devastated. They said the stunt wasn’t performing anything out of the norm.
Fox 11 Los Angeles interviewed Travis Pastrana of Nitro Circus, who said, “It’s tough because he was one of our most calculated members on Nitro Circus. This jump was just a regular skydive, nothing fancy. It would have been like any of us driving to work. It should’ve been a piece of cake.”
LA Times reports all other skydivers landed safely. Freshman Pete Clok, a graphic design major from Utah, speculated Roner was possibly casual about this stunt in particular. He said, “I used to watch Nitro Circus as a kid, and I saw the movie. Maybe he was out of his element because he wasn’t doing a crazier stunt.”
Roner was 39 and, according to Fox 11, was well known and loved among his Tahoe City, Calif., community. Times reporters quote Roy Tuscany, founder of the Lake Tahoe-based High Fives Foundation, as saying, “He hit a tree ... he hit a tree so hard. I don’t know what happened from there.”
Of the inherent risk of performing extreme sports, California freshman and computer science major Brandon Rootsaert said, “I’d say it’s a known risk going into any stunt. He probably knew the possibilities before he performed the jump.”
Jamison Bradley, senior in business marketing and also from California, agreed. “That’s what his fame was based off of, and the athletes take proper safety precautions.” Bradley went on to explain that Nitro Circus is more stunt-based and finely tuned compared with past stunt shows on MTV. Pastrana also mentioned in his interview that Roner had stopped doing a lot of the crazy stunts after he was married and had children.
Said Pastrana, “You, know, he wanted to spend time to be a good father and a good husband.”
Marshall Smith, a freshman in biology from Washington, feels respect for what action sports stuntman such as those on Nitro Circus do for a living. “When I see those dudes I’m like ‘Wow, that is the ultimate lifestyle.’ I think it’s inspiring that they’re doing what they’re passionate about.”
Smith also reminisced, “One time they jumped a tricycle from one building rooftop to another.”
Sophomore Amanda Hee, a psychology major from Maui, feels the same, although she said she would definitely be reluctant to complete any jumps or other feats herself. “If you do live life to the limits, it’s not really living, but I’d actually be scared to perform any of the stunts, so I give them props,” said Hee.