Rest In Peace-Friend and Fellow Surfer Fisher Culbreth

posted 11/20/2009 11:35:42 AM, updated 11/25/2009 11:26:33 AM

Paddle Out for Fisher Culbreth

Captain Fisher Bain Culbreth, III, 37, of Wilmington died Friday November 20, 2009 at his home.

Fisher was born in Portsmouth, VA. July, 27, 1972 the son of Fisher Bain Culbreth, Jr. Fisher resides with his mother and step father Betty Dees Robert and David Roberts, and brothers Ty' Quay Roberts and Wesley Carter.

Surviving in addition to his parents are his wife Angela L. Culbreth and step daughter of Carolina Beach, brother Joey Culbreth of Lakeland, FL. Also beloved Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, Nephews and his precious beloved dog Snapper along with many cherished friends.

A surfers funeral (paddle out) will be held 2:00 PM, December 12, 2009 at Pelican Watch in Carolina Beach.

I first met Fisher when he was a young CB local kid surfing in the Boys devision of the ESA back in the 80s. He was an extremely good looking surfer with a very aggressive style of attacking waves. He was also a very nice person under all that hard core Local Boy enthusiasm. I liked him instantly.

When I first surfed CB, Fisher was there. He and the other Boyz would suit up anywhere on the island and control the crowd with their hard ass attitude. They'd paddle into the lineup and strategically place non-locals in the 'cheap-seats.' (Cheap-seat = the position sandwiched between two surfers so that when a wave comes there is someone on each side that can shoulder-hop. If done right, if and/or when the person takes off, they find themselves with a late drop-in and nowhere to go. My bother and I did this a lot in Huntington Beach.)

Fisher was a yeller. I'd hear him loudly tell non-locals that the wave they wanted wasn't going to happen, then Fisher would take it. When surfers say,"The grass is greener on the other side of the fence." we mean the waves are better at the next peak over. Fisher had no fences. He surfed both greens, he was that aggressive. And the thing about it was, he was so damn good at surfing no one could argue, nor would. Fisher never backed-down.

This handsome young kid was always nice to me. He never took off on me nor did he ever yell me off of a wave. In fact Fisher cheered me on. If Fisher liked you, he had a way of making you feel important. I was always flattered when he'd paddle over to me in the line-up and ask how I was doing.

"You want this wave or the next one?" he'd ask me during our conversations. Not too many people got that question from him. It made me blush. Fisher and the other CB Boyz grew up doing hoodlum things but they never treated me with anything other than respect. I was honored by it. I knew that under that hood was a platinum heart.

Pelican Watch

After 2000 I saw Fisher very little. Occasionally we'd find ourselves surfing the same break, but mostly, all I knew was that he was fishing the open seas and having a family. I'm sad that our paths will never cross again on this earth. He was always a friendly face. There's something he took from all of us when he took his own life.

Mark is holding Fisher's white board on the far left

Memory: Once, at an ESA contest, the teen age CB Boyz dug a hole two and a half feet wide and over four feet deep. The youngest Donaldson boy jumped his skinny little body in it and started giggling about the fact that he could stand up straight. He was literally up to his neck in it. You could see the hoodlum's faces get sinister. I watched them fill in the hole complete with the little Donaldson boy. Then they walked away to go get lunch before their finals. All that could be seen was little Donaldson's screaming head. It was the funniest thing I ever witnessed at a contest.

It took a very long time to dig young Donaldson free.