The skater who helped push “Dirty Sanchez” past “Jackass” on MTV, then turned his hometown’s industrial reputation into a clothing brand, has died.

Michael Richard Locke, the skater and stunt man known to MTV viewers as Mike “Pancho” Locke, died at 47, friends and family announced Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, in a statement posted on the Facebook and Instagram pages of San Portablo, the Port Talbot clothing brand and shop he co-founded with former steelworker Nigel Hunt.

A date and a cause of death have not been released. Locke, a father of two, was from Port Talbot, Wales.

“It is with profound sadness that San Portablo and the Locke family write of the passing of the father, son, brother, uncle, friend, skater, stuntman and all-round goodfella Michael Richard Locke,” the family wrote. The statement called him “an absolute Welsh Treasure and San Portablo King” and closed: “Rest In Peace brother, your legend will never cease, it will only gain momentum.”

The shop closed that day, according to the statement, and its doors stayed shut as the news spread. Fans gathered in the comments under the tribute post and on Locke’s Instagram account.

“Dirty Sanchez” ran on MTV from 2003 to 2007, built around episodes in which a group of men harmed themselves and each other. The cast paired Locke with Mathew Pritchard, fellow Welshman Lee Dainton and the Englishman Dan Joyce.

The show started in Newport, and later episodes filmed elsewhere in the U.K. and internationally. MTV broadcast it in the United Kingdom and Ireland, MTV2 carried it in the United States under the titles “Sanchez Boys” and “Team Sanchez,” and the first series went out in more than 64 countries, reaching about 400 million people.

“Dirty Sanchez: The Movie” followed in 2006, and Locke and Pritchard turned up as the Pain Men on Channel 4’s “Balls of Steel.” A sequel film reuniting the original four-man cast has been announced as in development for 2027; Dainton confirmed it on a podcast earlier in 2026, giving the reason that the cast are now sober, and said the sequel would likely be “more wholesome.”

A Tribute From Everest Base Camp

Pritchard, his co-star, posted a video recorded on a trek to Everest base camp. He said he woke up that morning “to the awful news that Pancho has unfortunately passed away,” that his “little friend of over 35 years has left the building,” and that he had known Locke “since he was about 14 years old.” He described getting “a text off Nige saying ‘give me a ring’.” “I’m devastated, I love you Panch, until we meet again rest in power,” he said. Still on the mountain, Pritchard said he would dedicate the base camp trip to Locke’s memory.

The Section They Never Told Him

Dainton, the fourth “Dirty Sanchez” cast member, posted his own tribute alongside a series of shots featuring Locke. “When you grow up skating with your friends you’re in your own little world,” he wrote. “You never think about losing anyone from it. In your head those days and the people you shared them with live forever. Since hearing the news all those memories have been flooding back.”

“I can see Panch hear the laughter and remember all the best times like it was yesterday,” Dainton added, “Then it hits me that he’s gone and I still can’t believe it.” Recalling the spinoff “Pritchard vs. Dainton,” he said: “We decided to give him his own section without telling him.” He went on: “Premiere night came and his name appeared on screen, Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore’ kicked in and the whole cinema erupted. Panch had absolutely no idea. It was brilliant and he was made up. A newspaper wrote ‘A star was born’.”

Just to Watch Him Fail

Welsh comedian Sandro Ford, also from Port Talbot, said Locke and Hunt backed him from his earliest stand-up days, telling people to turn up to the shows he ran at the Surge, the Red Lion and Afan Ales and expecting nothing back for it. Locke would travel to open mics with him just to watch him fail on stage, Ford said, then laugh about it on the way home. “People might know him from the TV stuff, but he was much more than that; he was a clever, hilarious, and loyal person,” Ford wrote.

The Joke With a Point

Hunt started San Portablo about 10 years ago, after the Port Talbot steelworks made him redundant. The name was the joke with a point, answering decades of derogatory remarks about the town’s industrial landscape with a glamorous, Californian-sounding twist.

Locke came aboard as an official business partner, bringing his stunt-skater fame and creative energy to the brand’s frontline. The business grew from pop-up stalls to a permanent flagship store inside the Aberafan Shopping Centre, becoming a South Wales cultural hub rather than simply a clothing retailer, and it also runs an outlet at Cardiff Airport. This year marks a decade since the brand launched.

Locke talked about what that meant for the town in an interview earlier in 2026 with Hunt. “It’s the key to celebrating us, and the town and not being seen as this pass-through town that’s hiding in the shadow of the steelworks,” he said, and added: “It’s become like Cymru Cool, like Port Talbot Cool, you know, it’s got that vibe about it.”