Erik Christensen is a professional surfer and skimboarder that has been leaving his mark around the world. He is a super cool guy, with an amazing talent for all board sports. Erik is spending his summer in Dewey Beach teaching skimboarding and surfing at Dewey Beach Surf Shop.
Name: Erik Jorgen Christensen
Nickname: My friends here in Dewey Beach like to call me "Pickle" cause ever since I was really young I really liked pickles, if you are eating a sandwich with me and you have a pickle on your plate its guaranteed that I'm going to get that pickle.
Age: 31 yrs old
Weight: right now about 175lb
Stance: regular foot, but I like to switch it around too. I can do some switch stuff
Home Town: I was in born in Laguna Beach CA, but raised on north shore of Kauai, Hanalai Bay
Home Break: all of them, in laguna beach, Rock Pile, and in Hawaii Pine Trees, Hanalai Bay
Board: I love to surf, skim, skate and snowboard! I'm consistently better at surfing and skimming 5' 9" fish right now that's working for the smaller waves around here, but if I'm surfing the north shore, anything form a 6'2 to to 7'4" depending on the wave size.
Sponsors: volvom, electric, dewey beach surf shop, grape skimboards , Tamba in Hawaii
you grew up in hawaii, what was that like?
It was great, living in a small island, really tight group of friends, we were all pretty much groomed to be pro surfers at a really young age. Everyday we would get picked up from school, we would go to school bare foot, it was so mellow you could here the waves all day in the classroom.
Me and the Iron brothers and a good hand full of other surfers that have turned out to be really good surfers would run to pine trees and go surf until he sun went down, rain or shine. Kuai is a magical place, its beautiful there.
how long have you been skimboarding? what did you get into first?
I got into skimming and surfing around the same time, I was born in Laguna and moved to Hawaii when I was seven, I started skimboarding and surfing at age five, my dad had me on a surfboard at age 5, I had my own boards, we were at the beach every day. I had to be running around with a board in my hand. I just took to it.
Do you think your dad had to do a lot with it ?
I think its something in our genes, something in the Christensen blood, definitely in the Christensen blood, my whole family, even my brothers in law, sister, mom everyone is very ocean oriented.
How would you describe the skim scene in Laguna?
Its great the waves are really really good year around, that's where a lot of the top pros are from, its a good scene, that's where the world championship skimboard contest is, kind of the birthplace for skimboarding.
what about the waves in Hawaii for skimming?
Waves in Hawaii are great for skimming but really really good for surfing. Its a toss up, when the waves are going off for surfing you are gonna surf and when they are smaller you normally skimboard.
what are some of your other hobbies?
I'm really into music , I like art.
didn't you use to have a band?
Yeah I was the lead singer of a band named Hairy Palmdale, about 5 or 6 years ago, me and my friend Grady Archbold and couple of other friends. It was a punk rock band, I was going through that little punk stage in my life. I still got some some punker in me but I don't play music anymore. Believe it or not I would get a little bit of stage fright. I don't really like to be in the spot light all that much. I'm pretty low key.
front side or backside-
it doesn't matter, I like to demolish a lip front side as much as I like to hit it back side.
favorite place to skim-
I lived in Cabo San Lucas for 5 years, I skimmed some amazing waves there, sol mar beach, lovers beach, those are beautiful amazing spots with a side wash and a shore break that comes out from the middle of the pacific and dumps rights on the tip.
favorite surf wave- I love surfing pine trees and I have some secret spots in Kauai that I would get killed for, so I can't tell you my favorite spots . So pine trees!
worst wipe out- I was on a trip to indo couple years back on a boat, surfing Lances Rights and I was surfing with CJ Hobgood, one of the Hobgood brothers, CJ and Damien where both there, we were both pushing each other pretty deep, deeper and deeper off the peak I just got too deep on this one, dropped to the bottom, I could see the thing closing out in front of me, could see the reef sucking dry right in front of me and I just I bailed, broke my board, broke all my skags out and hacked a good 4 and half inches of my shin. I was on a boat with Terje Haakonsen pro snowboarder and Hans Hagen pro surfer, when I got to the boat they pulled me up and there was blood squirting out of my shin with my heart beat. I passed out, I fainted, I don't know if it was from losing blood or from freaking out. When I woke up they were trying to put staples on my shin. I was afraid it would hit the bone, I didn't let them do it so I had to duck tape it up.
oh wow is this it? yeah it healed up pretty good, but I really cant feel anything in my shin, because its all bone cartilage, both are of them are beat. I can tell you stories about all my scars. This one is from a fin. (shows me a huge scar on his leg) I was chasing some cows off of my property on Kauai and had to jump and barb wire fence cause the bull started chasing me and I cut my leg , got 30 stitches on that one. I won't bore you with all my stories though.
Skimboarding wipe outs- everyday i get a crazy wipe out skimbaording. The bigger the wave is the more is gonna hurt, and the closer to the shore the more is going to hurt. With skimboarding you are going to eat sand to get good. You pull sand out places you didn't even know you could get sand in. I've gotten some good beatings at the Newport wedge and Cabo.
lets talk about your travels ? recently got back from a surf trip in New Zealand I was there for 3 months, my family has a house there as well, we are on the east coast about an hour an half from Auckland, a place called the Coromandel, surfing like crazy , found some other secret spots that I cant tell you guys about, I'll show you the photos and you can guess for yourself. (laughs) Then after NZ I flew back to the big island , my family has a house on the east side of the island and I just been surfing and shooting photos, having a good time, had a couple of friends come into town, and then got a call from Blair Cherico that owns Dewey Beach Surf Shop here and he was like why don't you come down for the summer, and teach surfing and skimboarding, show the kids a good time and hang out for there summer, so here I am.
What do you think about Dewey? I love dewey I've been coming here since I was 16, ever since Harry Wilson has been throwing his contest here. I've been fortunate enough to have sponsors that fly me out every summer, I have a good friend base here, I love it here! the people the food, the waves get really good here, some of the best front side liners I have ever skimmed in my life. and the way the wind blows off shore in the morning, sometimes you can be at southside and it looks like you are in Cabo San Lucas at Solmar.
what are your plans for the winter? I got some travel plans and I'm starting a sandal company its called BHD Beautiful Human Decor, its fashiony, more high end like Havaianas but with a more vibrant flare to it focusing on woman footware with guys stuff as well, I might take atrip to China, doing some research there, I have a team of people that are working with me and we are hoping to lauch the first of the year in NZ. There is also a contest in France that I might be doing coming up in September. I'm going to be making my way back to Hawaii probably in the middle of winter and maybe try to squeeze a trip to nZ.
best advice you have given someone? I don't know......you would have to ask the person I gave advice to, (laughs) thats a tricky question!!! When giving advice to people I like to think I give all my friends good advice. My advice come from what I have learned through my experinces l and travels.
What advice can you give the kids around here ? Keep at it, Have confidence, a lot of confidence in everything you do and apply that confidence to your board sports. If you feel you can skim and surf the biggest waves you will belive that in your head and you will get that.
best advice given to you? pretty much that advice..... be feraless, fearless in anything, its just water when it comes to surfing, its not going to hurt to much.
oh yeah what about skateboarding?
I love to skate unfortunatley every time I skate I get hurt and I cant be in the water but I love skatebaording, I'm actually going to jersey to skate at a park later on today with some friends. Its nice being here in Delaware , you can catch a ferry and really bounce around. Being a guy from an island its nice to venture around on road trips seeing new things.
Any thanks you would like to give? My mom and dad for always being there and supporting me, all my friends in Delaware, the Cherico family ofcourse, all my sponsors, volcom , electric they had always had my back since day one. Keep the beaches clean, tell Carissa thanks she told me to spread the message
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