Eric Lowery

The part of Virginia that I live in is very unique and full of history, in fact, our little town dates back to the late 1600s. We are only about 9 miles away from Washington, D.C. with all of it’s museums and art galleries, so its been a great place to grow up. I started skateboarding when I was a teenager and was really interested in 80s skateboarding, specially the “Bones Brigade.” All the skaters seemed like they each had a unique personality in their style of skating. Before I started freestyle I enjoyed skating the bowl and other tranny objects at the local skatepark (Powhatan Springs.) Then I tore my ACL playing soccer at age 15 and was unable to play on the team for roughly 16 months. After a year of rehab I wanted to start skating again without injuring my leg, so I started freestyle because of the creativity in it. You can easily combine challenging tricks with beginner tricks and still make it look interesting, unlike any other form of skating. I was at the Skate Fest Skateboard Contest last year, that was held at the Wakefield Skatepark, when I met Pete Betti. He was skating the street course, while I was skating the vert section and practicing freestyle between runs. Pete came over and introduced himself and told me about this freestyle contest in Philadelphia, then he introduced me to AJ Kohn who was MC’ing the contest. He told me about the Philly contest and said that I should come up and enter the amateur division. My father and I made the 2 1/2 hour drive by car which paid off because I came in 8th place.

I am currently taking online courses from  Liberty University and plan to go into the Youth Ministry when I graduate. While I’m not skating I enjoy watching the Washington Capitals play hockey and/or fiddle around playing hand drums, Djembe or other auxiliary percussion instruments. I love playing percussion something I have done with my church’s youth group for years and more recently with a small cover band with friends from school. Speaking of bands, my dad sings base in the Army Band here in Washington. As for my mom, she is my mentor and is totally behind my skating.

This past year I have been watching Mike Osterman and Daniel Trujillo’s creative YouTube videos which have inspired me and really pulled me in. It’s guys like this that have helped to spread freestyle. They’re a pretty big influence on me, as well as probably many other freestylers. It’s a good reminder that there are other freestylers out there all around the world. It’s mentors like these that have helped to popularize freestyle.

I have gone to the past few World Round-Ups which have been the main highlights of my skate life. Having a freestyle competition like this is amazing to see in person, and being around the community is awesome. I am very thankful for being able to have gone these past few years. I hope to meet other freestyle skaters and to expand my world of freestyle knowledge

2019 Phillidelhia Freestyle Contest: 2nd Place Amateur
2019 World Freestyle Round-Up: 8th Place Amateur
2018 Phillidelphia Freestyle Championships: 3rd Place Amateur
2017 Phillidelphia Freestyle Championship: 2nd Place Amateur