RIP
RIP
Respect.
Great post, Kirik
RIP brutha, a true pioneer
Talk about a coincidence. Once a year I try to send Kirik a little gift, usually mma related. This year I bought him a Tapout Mask memorial T-shirt . I got it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Put it in a box and it sat on the counter for a while. Last Saturday I had some other stuff to mail, so I took his box. Sent it regular mail, cross country. And I had completely forgotten that the one year anniversary was so close.
So he'll get it today.
RIP Charles
RIP
mrzipplokk - Talk about a coincidence. Once a year I try to send Kirik a little gift, usually mma related. This year I bought him a Tapout Mask memorial T-shirt . I got it about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Put it in a box and it sat on the counter for a while. Last Saturday I had some other stuff to mail, so I took his box. Sent it regular mail, cross country. And I had completely forgotten that the one year anniversary was so close.
So he'll get it today.
RIP Charles
Respect.
ttt
The Man, The Myth, The Legend...Best there is, best there was, and the best that there will ever be...
Love ya Mask...You will always be missed...
RIP you are missed....
RIP
Mask
RESPECT. B3LI3VE. Kirik, as always, has pointed out the proper.
by Mike Williams on March 11, 2010
Three-hundred sixty five days ago, mixed martial arts lost one if its greatest ambassadors when Charles "Mask" Lewis was tragically killed in a car accident in Newport Beach, California. Mask co-founded TapouT clothing in 1997 by selling apparel out of the back of a car and along with his friends and partners, Punkass and SkySkrape, established a multi-million dollar empire of a clothing line. The company was built on the concepts of positive vibes and believing in your dreams so on the anniversary of that tragic night, FiveKnuckles celebrates the life of the man who inspired and influenced millions while teaching us all "that through tenacity and patience anything can be achieved ....if you simply believe."
Punkass took time during the TapouT signing tour to talk to us about the memory of his long-time friend on the eve of the first anniversary of his passing.
FiveKnuckles- From everything we know about Mask, on this day we believe he'd prefer a celebration of his life rather than a mourning of his passing. You're his friend. Do you agree with that?
Punkass- Absolutely. That's pretty much what I've been communicating to everybody. Nothing about his life was a negative and he pretty much was the guy that pushed negativity out of his life. If there was someone around him that was acting negative, he just found them a way out. If we wanted to choose tomorrow for us it would be our choice to celebrate it in a positive way remember him by watching his videos and different media pieces that we have on him and just enjoying ourselves, going out, going to a movie or something, just doing some of the things that we used to do with him and just remember him that way. We're on a month and half-long signing tour with fighters and that's the way he would have wanted us to celebrate his life. Tomorrow we're actually not going to do any signings on purpose. We're going to take the day off to just remember him and just kind of have our own personal remembrance of him and watch some of the videos of him that are on our website and I encourage everybody who wants to remember him to do that; go on our website, there's a Mask website that you can go to from our site and it's a whole celebration of his life. It's different medias and all the shorts (videos) and stuff that kind of represent him and different sayings and quotes that he had. That's how we choose to celebrate and that's how he would have wanted everybody to celebrate his life, in a positive way, so that's what we're trying to tell everybody.
FiveKnuckles- You guys have inspired so many people. Mask reached for the stars and people who followed him might have thought that they would never reach the level of success that he reached but if they really listened to things that he had to say about believing, they would have to think "wow, maybe I can, maybe it is possible."
Punkass- We're just normal guys, brother, and I really looked at Charles as kind of a father figure or brother figure, I mean he was like ten years older than me but he was the guy who when I had a problem I went to, when I had a question I went to. He definitely led by example and he pushed me to push myself. He didn't want any negativity in his life. He didn't want anybody in his team thinking negative and he pushed the positive aspect of what we do and how we help people and by helping people, knowing that would be reciprocal to us but not thinking about that, thinking about how we can go out and change people's lives by using the conduit of TapouT so that's what we do. We just try to stay focused and keep doing the same thing and even though he's not around we know what he would have wanted and we're going to keep doing that in his memory. I know we talk a lot about him and we use his name a lot because he's not around to do it anymore and we're still here and there are parts of us that still feel guilty for still being here without him but I think the best thing we can do to celebrate his life is to keep TapouT in the forefront of people's lives and keep it growing like it is and keep people remembering his name and remembering what he was all about.
FiveKnuckles- It's always sad to lose someone that you care about but would you agree that sometimes it can take the edge off the pain just a little when you know what that person would want you to do and know what they would want from you?
Punkass- Abolutely. I mean, there are a lot of people that have said stuff behind our backs, that say "they should be doing this" or "why aren't they doing that?" and it's like hey man, I was friends with him for 20 years. Those people didn't know how we were. We still feel like he's there with us. When we go someplace, we just talk funny about him. We just fool around and play like he's still there with us because we know that he would not want to be the downer of the party. He would want to be the positive light and the guy that made everybody smile so we gotta make sure we keep that memory alive because really, who are we really feeling bad for when everybody starts getting down and starts crying or whatever? We're only feeling bad for ourselves. We're feeling bad because we're not able to talk to him anymore but he's in a better place now so we're only feeling bad for ourselves when we're thinking like that. We just keep him in the forefront of our thoughts and remember him the best we can in a positive way and keep his name alive for everybody else so he's never forgotten and that's kind of my promise to him. He wanted to build this company and use TapouT to help people and in a way I think he was setting the stage. We just want to keep his name alive so that twenty years from now when a lot of people are thinking about TapouT, they never forget where TapouT came from.
Help celebrate Mask's life and keep his memory alive by visiting these websites and sharing them with your friends.
TapouT.com
Mask Tribute Site
Rest In Peace Charles "Mask" Lewis 1963-2009
Thanks, Kirik.
very nice tribute, Kirik.
It's amazing that he sponsored guys with all the money he made during the dark ages. Shows that he really cared for the sport and the fighters.
R.I.P. Mask. You are truly missed.
Simply Believe:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIzLLspcRIk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k99N8v99c3w
Great post Kirik, TTT