Professional snowboarder Dan Brisse, a native of Richmond, Minn., is pledging to donate $10,000 of potential prize money to slain Cold Spring police officer Thomas Decker's family. Decker was shot Nov. 29, leaving behind a widow and four young children. Brisse and Decker both attended Rocori High School.
"Tom was a couple years older than me, but we met a few times here and there," Brisse, 29, said from his home in Salt Lake City. "I think this is a good opportunity to do something cool and give back a little."
Chasing his dreams, Brisse (pronounced Breezy) headed west a decade ago after graduating from Rocori. It took four years until he started getting paid. But the last two years, Brisse has won back-to-back $50,000 prizes and gold medals in the X Games' "Real Snow" competition. The money goes to the boarder whose 60-second video of his best jumps wows the judges. Separate fan voting at www.xgames.com/realsnow is underway. Brisse will learn Monday if he's one of two finalists. Fan voting from Jan. 22-27 will determine the winner. If it's Brisse, he'll kick $10,000 to the Decker fund.
