Ben KarpinskiLewis launches a serious 360 flip on a visit to Bellflower, Calif.

It's hard not to be a fan of every skater to ever come out of Australia. They seem to look at life differently. (And spots. Did you see the new Dustin Dollin Baker ad? Kickflip over the gap to wall bash? Come on!) Almost skateboards' Lewis Marnell is no different, despite spending a good amount of his life in Sweden. He suffers from a serious case of Type 1 diabetes that calls for around-the-clock monitoring of his blood sugar levels and often injecting himself in the gut with insulin. Yet, he is the mellowest, most easy-going, life-loving dude you're going to meet...unless there's another Aussie in the room.

Ben KarpinskiLewis takes a switch frontside flip for a ride over the rail and the stairs.

You're on Almost with two of the most amazing skaters of all time, Rodney Mullen and Daewon Song. Any chance of you beating either Daewon Song or Rodney Mullen in a game of SKATE?
I highly doubt it!

What's a trick that each of them has that you don't?
Well I feel like I'm still learning tricks that these guys invented over a decade ago. Even if you never see them do a trick you know they still got it there somewhere.

I wanted to talk about your diabetes. When you were at my house I saw you had to shoot yourself in the belly with insulin. What type of diabetes do you have?
I'm a type 1 diabetic so that means I'm insulin dependent. So pretty much every time I eat I need to inject. I found out I had it when I was about 10 but I felt the symptoms a few years before that; like if I were to get a low blood sugar level I would feel shaky, weak and blurry vision but I just thought that's how everyone felt when they were hungry so I would just eat something and then I would feel normal again. It was not until my mother noticed me drinking loads of soda and still being thirsty getting a real dry mouth and still pounding back the soda, but what was happening here is I was giving myself a really high blood sugar doing this. So I was not feeling good, my mother took me to the doctor did some tests and that's how I found out I was diabetic.

What kind of restrictions does that put on your life and your skating?
I just really have to monitor my blood sugar levels a lot and make sure I always got some sweet stuff with me incase the levels drop to low. Apart from that I can live pretty free, its just that when it comes down to a food spot a salad ain't gonna cut it; I need wholesome.

Have you ever had any situations at a skate session where you went into shock or passed out?
Yeah actually I have had a couple times when the flashes have been set up and the photographer is sitting there and I have had to call it off because I had a low blood sugar level. Another time we were driving around with Andrew Mapstone and some of the Volcom crew. We pulled up at this spot just to look at it. We couldn't skate it at that time of day and I had seen it before so I kicked it in the car and by the time everyone got back to the car I was tripping balls like I could not make sense of anything or even move properly. I pretty much lost control of my body. Mapstone did the drive-by to the candy store and got someone to run in and buy a fat bag of candy.

Ben KarpinskiMarnell powers a switch heel with the help of a boosted San Pedro sidewalk bump.

Are you the only Swedish/Aussie/dread known to man?
I say yes, but I think there has to be another out there somewhere.

What's the best/worst thing about each place (Sweden and Oz)?
Sweden has long winters, but their short summers are amazing. Australia is easy living, but so far away from everything.

What's it like dealing with Swedish winters without very much sunlight?
It's pretty hard for anyone to deal with long cold winters, but being a skateboarder and dealing with it is way harder. I used to play a lot of video games and skate the local indoor park. But you get bored of skating the same old park everyday for like nine months. I tried snowboarding a couple of time; it was pretty fun. My homie's dad owned a house in the hills and I would get to go kick it there some times and snowboard.

What have you got planned for 2010?
I want to stay healthy. I'll be in The States a lot more since I got that Visa and I want to keep filming for these next Almost and Nike flicks we got coming out.

Ben KarpinskiLewis launches a serious 360 flip on a visit to Bellflower, Calif.