Dan Fisher-Eustance – Centrifuge

I remember the first time I saw Dan skate. It was at Southbank… Here was this kid whipping around the undercroft hitting the ledges and doing flatground, then he pulled out a half cab frontside smith to frontside 180 out on the ledge, pretty effortlessly. It stood out for me, not because the trick was incredibly difficult, but because it’s a trick you usually don’t see someone his age doing. All the other fellow teenagers that day were more obsessed with throwing themselves aimlessly down the 7, but not Dan. I don’t think I properly met him until a year or so later, when he moved to London, but that chance encounter at SB made me aware of his skating. 

Once we became friends my astonishment of Dan’s trick choices only continued: Nollie 270 to switch front nose, fakie backtail to 270 heelflip out, nollie 270 switch back nosebiunt shove-it… Where did this guy get these ideas from? Who inspired him? Well for whatever reason I never asked, until just this week. Dan had shot a grip of photos with Clem Le Gall in France and the UK, so I volunteered to interview him.

I usually like to do these things over a few pints in the evening so the interviewee can relax and the conversation flows, but Dan told me he had to meet his family later, so lunch it was. Over Buffalo wings and mac & cheese we mused about Dan’s life growing up in Brighton, getting on Chocolate, learning tricks at work without breaking a sweat, having his outfits and tricks denied by filmers, and why he was “dressed up” that day in a Gucci gilet and the baggiest “slacks” I’d ever seen. 

Heelflip, Hondarribia

Photography by Clément Le Gall
Interview by Will Harmon

Since you grew up in Brighton I’m guessing you must have found The Level (skatepark) early on. Did you pretty much learn how to skate there? 
Dan Fisher-Eustance: So I learned quite a lot at The Lagoon (skatepark in Hove) in my first two years. Because before that, The Level was quite intimidating. It was the old park before they redid it, and there were a lot of locals… So I went there, like, twice. Harrison (Woolgar) actually was a local there, so I’d go there and I’d meet him, but I was pretty scared. And then when they built the new park at The Level, I was a bit older then, and it was actually closer to my house, so I just started going there every day.

So when did you start filming with Sirus (F Gahan) and Al (Hodgson)? 
I’ve known Sirus and Al since I was probably 14. And at the beginning, they were definitely, I don’t want to say hating, but they were definitely guiding, or putting me in my place.

Haha.
There was a lot of like, switch flip talk, a lot of trick selection chat… But then I kind of listened to them and a couple other locals, who guided me on what should and shouldn’t be done in skateboarding. Then, when I was 16, I filmed my first thing with Sirus. I was pretty hyped, because, like all my favourite skaters in Brighton would film with him, and he actually made the first skate video I ever watched.

What was that? 
He’ll hate me for this, but it was Lads 3.

Ollie, Brighton

Al said he and others used to poke fun at you a bit and stuff, but you’d brush it off. Like it didn’t bother you or anything, or at least you didn’t show it. 
It definitely didn’t bother me, because these were people that I looked up to, so if anything, I definitely wanted to learn from it. At times it made me rethink what tricks I was doing, for sure. I think in the long run, it helps. To be honest, I’m really glad, I think skateboarding needs that, like some people need help and guidance.

Al said you used to do nollie 360 hardflips and nollie 360 inward heels and stuff. So do you credit Al and Sirus for reforming your trick selection?
For sure. It started with them. I guess less is more, they’d say, yeah, and also just stop mobbing your flip tricks. They definitely stopped me from doing a couple nollie 360 hardflip variations, haha.

What skaters were you influenced by at that time?
I wasn’t directly influenced by people that made me want to do nollie 360 hardflips or stuff like that… I think my favourite skater at that time was actually probably Cory Kennedy. But I think the first video that influenced me to actually start thinking about the tricks I wanted to do, and how to do them, was Mark Suciu’s Cross Continental. I watched that, and I was like, wow, you can do different tricks that just look better than other tricks. The guidance from others brought me to the point of watching it, and then watching that made me realise that there’s a whole other side of skateboarding. And then Away Days came out directly after that, and I remember watching that with all my friends, and that was definitely a big influence then.

Switch Spanish grind, Bordeaux

Your friends I talked to said you always loved wearing adidas, like even way before you got sponsored
by them. Was this due to those influential videos you just mentioned? 

The same time I watched Cross Continental, like, I think Suciu’s Philadelphia adidas part had just come out… That made me really want to just wear black trousers with all black shoes with white stripes, because that was just what he looks really good in.

And then you just kept buying adidas from then on?
Yeah, I looked back recently, actually, to see when I started wearing adidas. And I think it must have been since 2015. It was just like Puig’s, Puig’s, Puig’s, Busenitz every clip…

What year did you move to London and why did you decide to do that? 
So at age 18, I was visiting a lot. So I met Jarrad Carlin, when he just arrived in London, and then I became friends with him, Nick (Mason) and Mac (Christie), when they were living in the room.

The room!
I stayed in the room a couple times, in the surfboard bag. That was primarily a summer in London for me, 2018. So I stayed there and at another place in London for a bit with some family friends, that was when I was like, “Damn, I want to move to London.” And then right after that summer, I hurt my knee. I couldn’t skate for what must have been six months to a year, but it was only because of a misdiagnosis that I couldn’t skate.

Ah that sucks.
So being back in Brighton injured and just like being in the same house as my family, it just meant there was a lot of… We were arguing, and halfway through being injured, I was like, “All right, I need to get out.” And then I moved up to London a couple weeks after I turned 19.

And the argument was: “What are you doing? Why aren’t you in uni, you’re injured, moping around…”, stuff like that? 
At the time, yeah. They’ve always been super supportive of me doing what I love, my whole life they’ve been like that. But when I was injured and not skating, they were saying, “All right, you need to get a plan B. You need to work on some other stuff.” And I was mostly agreeing, but I guess that was also probably the cause of some of the arguments. They were like, “You can’t just be injured and still be living at home…”

Ph. Clément Le Gall

Did you not have a job or anything? 
I worked at the skate shop in Brighton, but it was just… I guess I just turned 19 and I was pretty stuck. And I just had that really nice summer in London, like meeting all those people… And even though I couldn’t skate, I needed to get out. My friend, Casey Brown, put on his story that he had a room going, so I took it.

And how’d you pay rent back then? 
So I’d saved up from working at the skate shop and I got a job working at a restaurant in Soho. I was a waiter, but it was pretty tough because I was injured, and it was a three-storey building, so there was a lot of going up stairs. So I was there for four months, and my knee was just getting worse, like every shift. So I quit, I used all my savings to not work for three to four months in London, and then my knee started getting better, and I got the job at Selfridges.

Tell the readers what that job at Selfridges was like. 
So Selfridges have a bowl. It’s on the same floor as all the menswear stuff, in the corner, and my job was kind of like a skate teacher. It’s almost like a lifeguard if anything. Like, you teach lessons a couple times a day, but the rest of the time if someone wants to skate, you make sure they sign a waiver and they can skate, and you just have to be there, you have to monitor them, same as a lifeguard.

I know in a lot of the down time you would do these Instagram stories, like, “What trick should I do?” Quite a few people said I should ask you about that.
Sometimes it was really boring working there, but you can’t really complain, because you’re being paid to be in a place where you can skate. But skating on your own all day, every day, in an environment where you don’t really want to sweat, because you could have to teach a lesson at any minute, was a challenge. I guess it was for inspiration, like, “Can someone help me? Give me an idea to learn a trick.”

What are some of the tricks you learned there?
Some pretty weird ones, like switch sugarcanes, that was a suggestion. And there’s some odd combo tricks, like nollie bonk rock to nollie back 180 noseblunt.

Wow. It must have made you a lot better at skating transition.
I guess I learned to skate transition at The Level because it has loads of two-foot quarterpipes, but everything else came from Selfridges. It got me really, really comfortable, and I think learning to skate transition definitely helps with balance and street (skating).

Nollie frontside 270 to switch backside nosebluntslide, Biarritz

So you’re living in London, in a skate house, and working at Selfridges. I think this is around the time I met you, just before the pandemic, but I remember then you were already riding for adidas, how did you go from buying the shoes you loved to getting them for free?
That summer I was visiting London (2018) and I met Jarrad, a load of other people from Melbourne came over, like Clocky (Liam McCulloch), Lincoln Square (Ben Lawrie) and the filmer Leo Carroll-Capp. I filmed a lot with Leo and it came out in his video Shakespeare’s Head. So I ended up filming like a minute for his video, and Jarrad showed the video to Benny Fairfax.

And you’re obviously wearing adidas the whole time in all your clips…
Yeah, so Jarrad told me he showed my stuff to Benny to try to get me on flow, and I’d always dreamed of it, but I’d never really thought anything would come out of it. And then I was back in Brighton, I was injured at the time, but I got a text from Benny, just being like, “Hey Dan, it’s Benny Fairfax, do you want to skate for adidas?”

Haha, did you think it was a joke at first or something? 
Yeah, of course.  I remember I was at The Level. I was still hurt, but I was chilling with my friends there, and I was just like, “Yo, I just received this text, is this real?” I replied, and then I still didn’t really know if it was real, and then he followed me on Instagram, and I was like, damn, okay must be. I think that was the point I showed my parents that even though I was still injured… And they said, “Okay, cool, let’s help you put everything you can into getting healthy.” And they kind of understood that maybe I could make something out of this.

I watched some of your old clips from various edits before you properly moved to London, like Sirus’ edit London void, and you have some shorts in there that are basically half the size of the shorts you wear now. You’ve changed it up a bit eh?
I do still wear a lot of shorts… But I think the only way, sadly, that you can learn what looks good and what doesn’t is by wearing it and looking back at the footage and being annoyed. Like I wore a pair of shorts in this video that you guys are gonna release soon…

The one Al Hodgson is making?
Yeah. I wore a pair of shorts, it’s gonna be in the video, but I looked back and I was like, “Damn, those shorts are way too big.”

Gear crisis, haha. When people read this, they can try to figure out which ones that you’re talking about. 
I still like the clips. It’s not like I would ever even think of taking them out, but I just look at it and I’m like, “ugh.”

Speaking of Al, he said you often tread the line in tastefulness and questionable tricks, but you like the debate on the tastefulness of tricks. I’ve had these debates with you before, “Is this trick stinking?” Is this something you constantly think about? 
Definitely, when I started filming this new thing with Al, I think the first day we went out filming, two of the tricks we filmed were dumb.

Switch backside lipslide to switch backside nosebluntslide, Bordeaux

“You lot are on some dumb stuff!”
Haha, yeah, and I said to Al, “Can we just make it dumb, this part?” And he was like, “Yeah, I’m down.” But now, recently there have been a couple tricks I’ve suggested, and he’s refused to film them.

Classic. 
But I love a trick that should be bad, looking good. I watch a lot of people do stuff like that, and there’s that guy that did the frontside willy in New York, on the out ledge…

Kyota Umeki.
Yeah, he did the frontside willy. And the world went crazy because they’re like, “Wow, frontside willys can look good.” I think there’s definitely a line, there’s a boundary you can’t cross, but I think almost every single trick that doesn’t have too many flips, can look good, if you do it on the right spot, in the right way.

Someone that has a lot to say about that topic is Quentin Guthrie, whom you’ve filmed two video parts with. The first one you did with him, your Free part, your good mate Dougie (George) had quite a few tricks in there as well, and one of Dougie’s tricks (a nose manny up the cheese to backside nollie flip into the bank at SB) got number one on the Quartersnacks top ten, and one of yours got like, six or something. What was your reaction to that QS top ten? 
I was so stoked, because I’ve skated with Dougie since I was 16, as he went to uni in Brighton. it was cool, and it wasn’t like he was getting really good reviews and I was getting bad ones, like the whole thing was received really well. So it was like there was nothing for me to be upset about. It was really cool to have Dougie in the video with me, you know, because, in our formative years of skating, we were skating together.

And then you guys both got on Chocolate together after that part.
Gotta thank you for that one.

Hey I didn’t do much, just introduced you to the right people. You guys did all the skating!
I’ve got to thank you, you’re part of the story. You basically said, “Wow, be really cool for you guys to get on something together, yeah?” And I think you sent the part to Matt (Anderson) at Form (Distribution), and then two weeks later, we were skating, me, you, Quentin and Dougie, and you said, “Guys, you’re on Chocolate.” And you were like, “Rick Howard’s stoked on the part.” We were like, ”What!?” It was crazy. And since then we both met Carl (Aikens) and we just became good friends, and we met a lot of the Girl guys too on one of their tours over here.

Stoked for you man. Back to Quentin, he’s obviously a massive part of making you look good in footage, but he’s also notorious for making skaters do their tricks over and over again so it’s executed and filmed just right. Do you think this has made you a better skater because of this? 
I think yes, he definitely made me a better skater. And that Free part was my first proper video part where I was at an ability where I could actually make it interesting I think. Sorry, I’m going off on a tangent, but basically, I just remember one of the first times we filmed together, I did a line, and it ended in a front tail front shuv, at that Walthamstow drop down ledge. I did it, and he asked me to do it again, which I think was like the first time someone had asked me to do that. But then he filmed it how he wanted to, and when I saw the footage of the two next to each other, I completely understood. When we watched back the clips, the difference was insane, like he pulled in front last minute, and it made the front shuv… I don’t know, it gave movement to something that maybe otherwise would have looked static. And from that moment, everything he did, everything he said, I was like, “Okay, cool.”

That was quick.
Well there’s a little backstory, I had actually messaged Dom Henry before, because Dom works for Keen, my first hardware sponsor was Modus Bearings, and Wayward Wheels, and he was sending me them. And Dom had just been in one of Quentin’s videos, so I remember emailing him and being like, “Yo, I would love to film with Quentin, I love his videos. Like, do you think that’s possible?” And like, one way or another, I ended up meeting Quentin a couple years later, pretty naturally. And so I was already a big fan of his filming, so when the opportunity to film something with him arrived, if he told me to do something, I was gonna do it. Because, like I said, I absolutely adored his videos.

Frontside 180 to fakie 50-50, Brighton

And Quentin has definitely told you to not do certain tricks as well yeah? 
Quentin was way more strict… Al and Sirus, were like the first two, but Quentin was like the solidifier. Quentin really helped me understand that I just wasn’t allowed to do anything, haha.

Hahaha…
There would be so many times where I’d be, “What about this?” and he’s like, “no”, but then the video came out and I was really, really happy with the video, everything he did, all the songs, the way he ordered the tricks… And to me, that meant that my trust paid off.

And then you filmed another part with him…
Yeah Rotating Asset. Really happy with that one as well. But going back to what you were saying before, it made me a better skater by having to do things multiple times. I think it was really important that he was like that, and it also just made me realise, that yes, you can do tricks that you shouldn’t do and make them look good, but basic, nice stuff done well is going to have more longevity. It wasn’t like, controlled, but I would say managed. He would be very particular about the spots, similar to how Al is now, but I think Al gave me more freedom with tricks.

Al says he’s never said anything to you about your outfits, but I’m sure Quentin has…
Quentin definitely used to monitor me, but same again with the way he monitored me in my skating. I’m happy he monitored my clothes, because it meant that a lot of the tricks looked better than perhaps they would have if he hadn’t. I think that’s going back to fashion, that’s why I changed my style, like quite a lot is because of people like Quentin saying “You look better in this.”

And they’d show you the footage and you’d agree with them…
Exactly. The only thing Al has ever said about my outfits is, “Please, can we get some trouser clips?”

Haha. So Harrison said something funny when I talked to him, he said you can’t turn clockwise, is this true? 
Hahahaha…

He said all your tricks are anticlockwise. 
Haha, I don’t know what it is… My theory is that because we drive on the left-hand side of the road here we’re always turning left, which is anticlockwise. And I think because I’ve always been turning left, it’s pretty natural to turn left.

Lol!
I have been trying to do clockwise tricks, to turn right. It’s like a Zoolander, right?

Switch frontside 180 to 5-0, Biarritz

Haha, yep. Let’s talk about your madness and increments of the number four. 
Damn, going deep!

Dougie was telling me you were trying this trick at Wandsworth roundabout, and you’re like, “I’m only going to try to land it every eighth try.” And I was just thinking about the filmer, like, “What’s he doing those other seven tries? What’s going on here?” And apparently, your madness always involves increments of the number four, yeah?
I think it started off with… I would just like to say, first, I’m way better. I don’t think it’s a problem, but yeah, I’m able to try things every two tries now. This only goes for things I’m scared of, it’s not like doing a ledge line. It’s if something is really scaring me, I like doing it in even numbers. I think it originated from three and one for luck.

Okay. 
It’s a saying. After your three tries, you have one for luck and that’s where four came from. I know I have certain numbers that I really like going for it 100% on those numbers.

And they’re increments of four always, right?
Yes and no. I like four, eight and 11. I’m more likely to commit to something on those numbers. I don’t know why, but I think it helps. This is dumb, but now I purposefully try and commit to things on number three, because I’m trying to get rid of my superstition. So on number three, I’m always like, “I can break my superstition right now,” and I go for it on number three.

And has that been working?
Yes, I’m breaking it. In the last like two years, I’ve been way better. I commit on multiples of two now.

Progress… Our friend Jim Silver says you’re playing life on hard mode, like in a video game. What he means is the tricks that you’re good at are the ones that are so hard for everyone else, but for you, they’re easy.
Like you do a switch Spanish grinds like it’s nothing.

Ever since I started skating… Like I remember Liam Teague, this guy from Brighton, he said to me, “Why are you doing these tricks? You haven’t even learned backside boardslides!” And I think it’s the same now, I look at something and I’m like, “I want to do that.”, so I kind of skip every step in between and learn that. And then in learning the hard version, the easy version is unlocked.

Switch frontside bluntslide, San Sebastian

Ah interesting technique, hadn’t really thought about it like that before. Quentin told me you started painting recently. 
Yeah, that was a while ago. I actually haven’t done any in a while, but, yeah, my gran was and still is an amazing painter, but she doesn’t paint so much these days. And so when I was young, I used to always paint with her in her studio, like me and my sister. Then a couple years ago, I think it was during Covid, I found the love for it again. But since then, it’s spurred other creative interests.

What else? 
I was making some jewellery for a bit. I’ve been doing lots of sewing. I made some trousers. I’ve been making some bags, which I’m pretty excited about. And yeah, just like tailoring all my own clothes, which I really enjoy. A couple days ago I got a new sewing machine, as before I was using Tara’s grandma’s old one, so I’m pretty hyped to start sewing again.

Tara (Dan’s longtime girlfriend) has just moved to LA I hear. That’s a big development for you. 
Yeah, so she got a really good job in LA, and, I mean, it’s great for me to be able to visit, so that’s cool. So I’m gonna go in December for a couple weeks to visit her for the first time, which is exciting.

And you can hang with the Crailtap crew. Dougie mentioned that he’s gonna try to go to the Chocolate 30th anniversary party. 
That would be cool to go there then, to be there at the same time. I’m just trying to work out dates with Tara…

So what’s next for you? You’ve quit Selfridges as you’re making a bit of money from skating now, right? 
Yeah. Even though I’m not working as well as skating, which was tough, this year has been really hectic because I’ve been doing a lot with adidas, filming this part with Al for you guys, and I’m working on two, no three other projects. But I enjoy all of it; I like being busy.

Switch backside tailslide, Worthing

And what are you up to tonight, being all dressed up? 
So I recently got an Austrian passport, through my grandad Otto, because he had to leave Austria during the war, because he was Jewish. His family sent him to England alone when he was 14, in 1938. Shortly after that, his dad, brother and step-mum escaped to America, with only the possessions they could hide in their clothes. On top of that, they lost their Austrian citizenship.

His mum didn’t make it?
Sadly no, he never saw his mother again. In England, the head of a British boarding school took him in and took care of him. He also changed his surname from Fischer to Fisher and became a devout Christian. He died when he was 93 so I was maybe 16, so I knew him for a long time in my life, but he never really talked about the war. I think that’s why he became a Christian. He blanked it all out. He just wanted to be British and he wanted to have his British life. So recently, since Brexit, my uncle has been working for my whole family to try and get us all Austrian citizenship as a new law was passed to help families of descendants who were wrongfully expelled. So we managed it. I got my passport a couple months ago, and tonight – that’s why I’m dressed up smart – we are going to… Well I’m unsure what it’s going to be, but it’s a reception with the ambassador at the Austrian Embassy.

Wow. 
It’s crazy. I’m not sure how it’s gonna be… Me and my whole family are gonna go and meet them right after this. It’s a nice gesture. I guess they want to give back and show remembrance for all the displaced families, like mine.