"Sporting a thick goatee and a wicked Tijuana-born facial scar in true Savannah pirate fashion, Don Fisher couldn't hear his name very well when it was called. That was because he wasn't near the loudspeakers - he was across the arena, hanging on to a railing, standing on his board's tail, sixteen feet above the rock hard Civic Center surface. All that separated him from the grey anvil-like surface was eight feet of vertical and eight feet of bent plywood. The warped nature of the tranny reflected Fish's warped mental situation as he let go of the railing and plunged. The crowd erupted in a six mega-stoke explosion. Fish hit a ding and took a heavy dive, but this didn't make one bit of difference - he had gone for it, and that's what counted."
The man, the myth, the legend.
Fish earned his place in skateboard lore when he dropped in on the Budda Budda Wall at the Savannah Slamma #3 contest in May of 1989. The Budda Budda Wall was a large quarter pipe to vert wall with two machine guns painted on it. In a possible nod to Roy Lichtenstein, the words 'budda budda' were also painted on the wall, hence the name. I had planned on including Fisher this month anyway, but after recently watching Thrasher's King Of The Road 2004 DVD where Skate Coach mentions him in the introduction, I knew I had to have something on his infamous tail drop. There were no pictures of the drop in either Thrasher or Transworld. The article in Transworld didn't even mention the trick. I'm guessing if there is video, it's on YouTube somewhere.
I do not know much about Fish. He was one of the founders of Think, with Keith Cochrane and Greg Carroll. I'm not sure who his board sponsor was. He rode for Venture and Speed Wheels.
For the contest, Christian Hosoi won, Tony Hawk was second, and Danny Way placed third.
The photo is by Chris Ortiz.
Miles Orkin wrote the contest article.
For the quote: Thrasher - September 1989 Volume 9 Number 9
Thrasher - August 1989 Volume 9 Number 8
3 comments:
first demo I went was a Vision demo and he was there, might have been a team rider or manager.
Vision is a possibility. It's a little hard to tell, but he's wearing their shoes in the photo. I read online that he might have been on Toxic. I wasn't sure on that. I also think he might have been getting boards from Dogtown since he was in at Think from the very beginning.
he invented the modern day bolt patern on trucks.. just ask ben schroeder
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