Europe
North & South America
Oceania
Name: Erik Foster Burrow
Date of birth: 12 / 23 / 1987
Current Location: Toronto, ON
Skating Since: 1999
Current Skate Setup: Size 9 Blank Pigeons with the Blank Flat Frame, Hydrogen Wheels and ILQ 9 bearings.
Explain the feeling you had the first time you put on skates.
My first experience on skates was terrible, we had the worst driveway in the neighbourhood and my bearings didn’t spin. I was definetly discouraged.
Flash forward 3 or 4 years and I got to try on my friends older brothers aggressive skates. They fit my feet so well, rolled fast and had me jumping around all afternoon.
It only took one day of skating in something solid to motivate me to convince my dad to buy me my own set. I promised him I would use them everyday. That was over 20 years ago :)
What is your inspiration to keep skating?
When I was young I didn’t feel like I would ever be the greatest skater. A lot of my friend group were natural athletes and I always felt a pressure to keep up with them, even if the tricks they were good didn’t necessarily work for me.
As years passed I started skating more skateparks and had the opportunity to be mentored by Stuart Campbell. He helped me understand the importance of being able to skate backwards over both shoulders and challenged me to never do backside stalls in mini ramp as a setup trick.
My current motivation is seeing myself constantly progressing. I haven’t had any breaks in my skating since I was 12 years old and I keep pushing myself to be the best version of myself possible. After over 20 years of skating I’m always learning new tricks and having a really diverse friend group of skaters always keeps inspired to try new things.
We truly believe skating makes a better world. How do you think skating makes the world a better place?
I think skating makes the world a better place because it is a way people can get outside and use your body.
Skating can be used for transportation, for tricks or for fitness. It’s a way to focus on yourself, a way to make small achievable goals and most importantly it’s fun.
When I do lessons with kids I think the biggest take away is that positive self talk is essential. Skating teaches you that you will fail and that is ok. It teaches you patience and it gives you something to work towards.
The people who really get into skating become very resilient. They realize that hard work pays off, but they understand that the reward is never instant.
This creates a generation of people willing to work hard for what they believe in and willing to push forward even when times are tough.
That’s the kind of mentality we need. I want to live in a world where people will fight for justice. Imagine if skating created a society where people weren’t willing to settle injustice and inequality.
How do you keep progressing and reinventing yourself?
I keep progressing and reinventing myself by living by what I call the Rule of 3.
I know that for every 3 sessions I have:
1 will be awesome and a complete rush
1 will be challenging and be mentally draining
1 will be average, but will contribute slowly to my progress.
Thinking of skating this way helps me look at the big picture. It lets me realize that my success is completely linked to how often I skate. I know if I get out there enough the magic will happen.
What’s the most helpful tip you want to share with any skater?
Learn how to skate backwards looking over both shoulders. When you look over your left shoulder your left leg should be your lead foot. When you look over your right shoulder you should be leading with your right foot.
This will create a symmetry in your skating, it will give you awareness of your surrounding when skating backwards and it will make it easier to avoid falling when you land in interesting positions.
Imagine a world filled with animals who can skate. If you could be any of those animals what would you be and why?
I would want to be a Leopard Tortoise. I love turtles and this one can live up to 100 years old.
This would allow me to witness so much history and would let me enjoy every moment. There wouldn’t be a rush for me to do anything, instead I could just focus on what makes me happy and everything would fall in place in time.
Slow and steady wins the race!
