Eric Kirkwood
 In july of 1986 I found what would become my passion, addiction, and life affirming goal... to eat, sleep, and breathe skateboarding. Up to that point I had been an avid soccer player. from the age of six, I had been playing soccer and, at age ten I had even been the ballboy for the Detroit Express which was Detroit's professional soccer team. This summer however, my friends had gotten skateboards from this local skater who was sponsored by Skull Skates. From the moment I first stepped on a skateboard I realised that all the years of soccer was to a large extent just to get my feet smart for this, the greatest invention of all time! (that is of course besides the wheel). In 1988, I began to enter local contests, street, ramps, anything I could find. It was amazing that you could go somewhere and know no one and leave with a dozen new friends. That is still one of my favorite aspects of this lifestyle. Shortly after spring of '88, I began to work at a shop who's contest I had entered and won in the sponsored division. In late '88 I had started to get flowed through the shop by H-street and I realized that although I had'nt been skating long there was nothing I had ever had in my life that gave me a true feeling of accomplishment like skateboarding did. In 1989, Dave Metty, a local skate shop owner, had been nice enough to put in a good word for me at a skateboard camp that he had been invited to counsel for. The camp was Visalia Skate Camp, which skateboard pros and enthusiasts such as mike ternasky had started. At the time I was riding as an amateur for  Vision and VSW. My application was accepted and In 1990 I flew out to California to teach at skate camp. . . a real dream come true. After that summer I lived with Kevin and Dave Bergthold at the infamous Blockhead house where I got to skate the best bowl/pool/ramp ever until I went insane (there was nothing else for miles and I had no car!). I then moved to Marin county where I did whatever I had to do to continue my summers as a counselor including, but not limited to, working at Victorias Secret as a sales associate, but that's a different story. In 1993, I began riding for a skateboard company called Poorboy. I was pro for that company as well as the team manager/strike leader. It was a short-lived but fun time. In 1997, I became the lead counselor at skate camp and last year I was given the position as program director, an honor which I still hold today. Life has once again stoked me with the opportunity to work with the amazing talent that comprises the World Cup staff. I look forward to hearing from anyone interested in Visalia skate camp, Nor-Cal skateboarding, or any other questions any person may have. I don't know how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop however, so don't ask that. Thank you to Venture, to Jim at Deluxe, and to Sasha at Sole Tech for cushioning my old feet!
<< Back
|
|
