Originally published in the 30th Anniversary Issue of SNOWBOARDER Magazine, Mountain GOATS celebrates the most influential snowboarders of the last thirty years (1987-2017), otherwise known as the Greatest Of All Time list. With over 70 men and women riding into the ranks of the Mountain GOATS, check back as we release their bios and celebrated accolades over the course of the next few weeks!

Mountain Goat: Dan Brisse

What makes Dan Brisse so great in the canon of snowboard culture is the plain and simple fact that he single-handedly created a new discipline of snowboarding with one giant leap for shred-kind. Growing up with the blue collar ethos of the midwest, Dan knew that in order to be considered a first ballot Hall of Famer, he would have to put in the work, and that’s exactly what he did, moving out west and focusing on filming mind-blowing video parts—first with Bald-E-Gal Productions and then moving up to the renowned kingmakers of Absinthe Films, Dan stepped up and stood out at every session, but then, things got crazy.

With one gap, Brisse took the snowboard world by storm and ended up on the cover of TransWorld Snowboarding with one of the most talked-about front page shots of all time. It was dubbed “The Gap Of Death,” and it was unbelievable to witness. Shot by famed photographer Andy Wright, Brisse hovers above a building-to-building gap, dozens of feet in the air going from one staircase to another, and with this single frame, Dan ushered into snowboarding a “bigger is better” mentality that kicked off a cold rush of sorts and dared others to step up. And a few did. Taking inspiration from Brisse, Dylan Thompson, Pat Moore, Bode Merrill and a smattering of others put their life on the line in the streets with winch-fueled features.

Brisse has garnered a stack of X Games Real Snow hardware and put out hair-raising parts in which he would quite literally leap an entire city block with one full-throttled send. Dan also furthered his resumé with insane backcountry riding from the backwoods of BC to the steep and deep of AK and was featured in CAPiTA’s ever-expanding library of films. Dan is most definitely one of the all-time greats, and we applaud his efforts and accomplishments in snowboarding, no matter how crazy they seem at the time. Congrats, Brisse!

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