Jason Lee and Mike Vallely were in town for a contest at the Jeff Phillips skatepark. It was something like 1990. The skatepark locals were in full force drinking beer and skating late into the night. Out in the parking lot, the two pros had an impromptu ollie-to-manual contest that took them across the whole parking lot, out into the street, and down the block. Except for those mega-manuals, I can’t recall anything else they did that night. It was a long time ago, so it shouldn’t be surprising that my recollection of that evening would be hazy.

One moment that does cut through the haze, however, was something a friend of mine did. We weren’t so much friends as guys who were in the same group of people who skated together. And within this group, Donald D (aka Double D, Donald Diederich, and DD), was in the upper echelon. Shit. His skating put him in the upper echelon of any group of skaters. Street-skater gone vert, he was an all-terrain destroyer. On this evening, like so many others, he rolled around the park with a 40-oz’er of cheap beer. Who knows how intoxicated he was. He set the bottle down, rolled back from the open loading dock doors and gave it a few hard pushes, knees bent for an ollie. The picture at the left details the loading dock doors I’m speaking of. Only on this occaision, it’s dark outside. That photo, by the way, is not of Donald D. Before reaching the edge of the loading dock, he snapped his ollie and cleared the 6-ft.-wide sidewalk below. As he flew over the railing, he turned backside and bonked his front truck on it while rotating 180. He landed it to fakie and rolled away into the dark. The same dark where Jason Lee and Mike Vallely were holding their longest manual contest.

First-try makes were a Donald D hallmark. They had to be because the stuff he was doing didn’t come equipped with an escape route. For instance, he’d start out his vert runs with a drop-in frontside revert. That’s the kind of trick where anything less than 100% committment sends you to your head in the flatbottom, which is where he metaphorically finds himself now. Donald Diederich is serving an 8-year mandatory prison sentence related to drug trafficking. Four years down, four to go. The best I can make out is that someone got popped on a possession charge, the cops offered a plea bargain deal for naming a supplier, and so they worked their way along with each link in the case turning over on the next guy to avoid doing time. As Donnie describes it, when they got to him, he wasn’t going to snitch and the case against him was so meritless, he decided to go ahead and face it in court. Sadly, he didn’t have as good an attorney as ex-Dallas Cowboy Nate Newton had, and he got hit with a minimum of 8 years in an Ohio prison.

As bad as prison can be, it sounds like Donnie is making the best of things. He’s got a guitar and he’s playing in three different bands. He’s got a friend named ’shotgun’ who he hangs out with in the yard while strumming his guitar. He’s working on a college degree in restaurant and hotel management and has found buddhism. Things aren’t entirely blissful in the lockup, however. As he was writing a letter to me the other day, the prison guards were stripping down his cell searching for contraband. Confidently, he assured me in the letter that he “didn’t know what they’re looking for, but I don’t have shit.” I doubt I’ll ever ask him about the anal rapings and other tidings that are normally associated with the prison atmosphere. I got enough of those stories from J. Finley.

The Double D Contest

In the meantime, I’m launching a small contest in the hopes of bringing a smile to Donnie, even if for just a moment. It’s an easy one. If you wanna participate, just create a graphical homage to Double D, shoot a digital photo of it, and email it to me (seth[at]austinpublicskatepark.org). Feel free to be as simple, creative, or elaborate as you like. A chalk scribbling of “Double D Lives!” on a sidewalk is fine. As is the same slogan tattooed on your forehead. Austin Skate Notes readers from around the world are encouraged to submit an unlimited number of entries. After two weeks, I’ll pick the best work and mail the creator a Mike Crum skateboard deck and an ultra-limited edition Banana Farm t-shirt in long or shortsleeve in either medium or large size. Then I’ll also mail Donald D a copy of all the entries.

Oh yeah, Donnie wanted me to extend shout-outs to the Bobans and Lee Brooks.

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