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Tommy Fachiri

HE USED TO BE DON BRIDER!

Updated: Sep 29



Don Brider is a good friend and a massive inspiration for us at Back and Forth, we wouldn't be where we are today without him. Don has been printing since 1989 and skateboarding since 1977, full of knowledge, stories and secret tricks on how to get the near perfect print...Don specialises in stickers, but in the past has printed skateboards, t-shirts and ocasionally tote bags, all with-in the shed of doom at the bottom of his garden!



Forty Skateboard Co, Pro model for Don Brider now available online.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

  • Don Brider guest pro skateboard deck

  • Artwork by Don Brider

  • 7 ply Canadian maple deck

  • 8.5 inches popsicle shape

  • Hand numbered and signed limited to 40 pieces

  • Hand screened in the UK by Don Brider and Back and Forth Prints

  • The finishing of these decks are not factory manufactured as each board is individually printed by hand. This may add slight imperfections to the product from piece to piece that only add to the uniqueness of each individual board

  • Each board features a random and unique colour way selected at random so no guarantees can be given if it differs in colour from those in the photos


AVAILABLE ONLINE - fortyskateboardco.com




A FEW QUESTIONS WITH THE DONZ

How did you come across skateboarding? At the end of August 1977 my Gran came back from a holiday in Cornwall and gave me a Morris Vulcan 'skateboard'. I'd never seen or heard of one before, it was just a peice of flat wood with a roller skate screawed to the bottom of it. I found out later that the 'trucks' weren't even screawed on straight, it was a good start.







When and how did you start screen printing?

I started on the 2nd of October 1989. That's when Wear and Tear started with the help from The Prince's Youth Business Trust. I started with T shirts and didn't really have a clue. The Victim street wear T's we did as samples to show what I could do were done at Deathbox by Wurzel, with me just learning how it all worked. It was the next six months learning on my own how to print five colour T's with out a carousel which was the 'Fun' part.






What does skateboarding mean to you?

People. All the people I've skated with and now know as friends. The body gives up on skating long before you will stop thinking like a skateboarder and that's a little annoying. Also, having all these skateparks around now days, when we had to make our own ramps and things...Time machine and new body Please!








What were the first boards you printed?

They were probably my own Blackmarket one's. So, I could work things out with cheating graphics and little tricks like that, but I did do one lot of Flouro blue on the Alex Moul popcorn deck at Deathbox. I found out later the ink was illegal in this country and that's why my eye's were blood shot when everyone turned up to go to the Planet Earth demo at Lemington Spa. Health and safety? Wot's that ?





Who did you screen print for back in the day?

I did some of the original Death decks and Clown one's, lot's of shop boards. I did Player's decks, Radlands, Ortaga, Insane, Ennvi and stuff for Network Distribution; Too many to remember. My own Blackmarket ones, all pretty limited numbers by todays standards.







How has the quality of screen printed boards changed over the years? (from when you started skateboarding to the last Black Market decks you screened?)

Even now with the internet where you can see videos of people just throwing a screen at a deck and dragging a dead budgie across it to print, you know that'll be shit. There's still secrets to getting a good print and getting that nose to tail line print is always the hardest part. I still sometimes think of other ways that might work, but as I only print stickers nowdays, hopefully it's just ideas. Making jigs and getting mesh stretched just right to try out an idea is time consuming and can be expensive! Saying that, when something works out it is very satisfying.






Are screened boards better?

I like them, but that's all there was back in the old days. Your more free graphic wise with heat transfers but there's not that built-up thickness of each ink going down. If your printing them as well, when that last keyline run goes down and it all works, that's pride in your work right there.






Whats with the Sketchy Forty graphic? Did you do the original artwork?

The cartoon is from Sketchy zine back in the day. The Moon's from the old Wear and tear T's. So all ripped off really, Herb did the moon as part of the hippy front graphic of the T, and Mr Sketchy did the cartoon in the usual piss-take way from the zine that just turned up at comp's, taking the piss out of everyone. I like the graphic, the reason it has the 'I used to be...' bit on it is that's what i use to say to people when we were out skating and they asked "Are you Don Brider?" because I wasn't even then the guy in the magazines that could do that stuff anymore...Maybe a fitting end.




X-ray after Don's most recent skateboard injury shooting footage. Get well soon mate!





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