Profile: Majoring In Anthropology
Knocked out in the VIP section of the Tampa Bay Street League skateboard competition, 42-year-old Eric Larson is sleeping lifeless on one of the red velvet couches in the lounge. Getting off a plane from a 12-hour flight from China exhausted all energy left in him. He jolted awake from the sound of feedback blaring from one of the speakers in the Street League arena. Around him sat and stood some of the best professional skateboarders today. He knew at that moment, it was time to chug a Red Bull and get to work.
“Working with this company has been the best experience of my life. They send me everywhere, which is awesome,” he said. “But, what I like most about it is that I get to cover so many different topics and types of people. I cover everything from skateboarding, to music, to motorcycles, to openly gay professional athletes. So many topics they don’t even know what to call my positions.” (Action Sports Journalist.)
According to ESPN, action sports journalists are the people who work tirelessly, travel constantly just to seek out the hottest stories, make the world think with in-depth opinion pieces, and bringing action sports to life with exclusive interviews with some of the world bravest and craziest athletes.
Born and raised in Lake Forest, California, a middle-class suburban city in Orange County about an hour south of Los Angeles, Larson lived with his mother, father and three other siblings — Laura, Soarin, and Dax. Larson never really took a liking to the surf community of the “OC,” however, the rock music scene and other extreme sports around the area, like skateboarding, he fell in love with. In high school, Larson was in a band and quickly learned how to play guitar, piano, violin, and a handful of other instruments as well.
“I remember that my teacher was super impressed with how quickly I was able to learn all these different instruments in a short amount of time,” he said.
Attending San Diego State University, majoring in anthropology, Larson wanted to major in music production, but he knew that his parents would not be supportive of this because the music industry was so competitive.
“I wasn’t a very talkative kid; I was super talented, but I stayed humble about my talent. I didn’t wave it around like a flag,” he said. “My dad told me I had the shittiest personality for the entertainment industry. So I listened to him and majored in anthropology. Out of all of them…. anthropology.”
He answered this question with a laugh, suggesting the phrase like a ‘what was I thinking’ type of remark.
Larson mentioned the times he would sneak into music classes in college and pretend to be one of the music students and just play along with the class.
“I pretty much was shit compared to the rest of students. In fact, I was so bad, they would catch me off tune and that’s how I got caught being in a class where I didn’t belong,” he said with a large grin.
After college Larson became very good friends with Ben Harper, a popular alternative musician in San Diego. The two quickly became best friends and would “jam out” together in garage shows and local venues as well.
Larson explained how he loved playing the shows but he was more interested in covering them.
“There was this one show where I saw some guy taking pictures, interviewing the cool guys, and partying with everyone, but he just seemed like a regular guy,” Larson said. “I went up to him, asked him what he did, he responded with ‘I’m a journalist from the Rolling Stones, you know the mag.’ I was in such awe of this guy I decided to screw the anthropology major and became a journalist.”
Harper, now Larson’s closest friend, is deeply connected with the action sports industry in San Diego and has numerous friends who are professionals. Larson latched on to the community of action sports and with his enthusiastic attitude the pros eventually adopted him as their friend and “agent.”
“I guess you could say I was their agent, I more so made deals with companies who wanted to sponsor my friends,” he said. “I guess I was good at it, but I really wasn’t in love with what I was doing.”
With his love for music, he continued to play instruments just for fun, not really thinking anything would come out of it. Although, what has come out of his love for music is a career. However, his career does not revolve around music, his career is much larger than that.
Today, Larson has made a name for himself as a respected journalist reporting on diverse topics including music, food, extreme sports, fashion, motorcycle, and lifestyle. He reports for Rolling Stones, Playboy Magazine, and is the editor of Revolver Magazine.
Larson’s normal day usually consists of waking up with the sun, and swiping down on his iPhone 10 mail app, all while his head is still lying comfortably in his pillow, to see how many emails he has received this morning.
“This morning, there was only about 75,” Larson said. “On a busy morning, I’ll probably receive about 150.”
Sitting in his bed for about an hour and a half, he’ll usually reply to the important ones first and then jumps in the shower before checking his calendar, making sure he doesn’t have to be anywhere on any given date, at any given time. Like London in three days for a House of Vans show and skateboarding contest.
Larson checks his email habitually. He said he even had a suction cup phone holder in his shower where he clips his phone in.
“Sometimes I can get pretty annoyed with how often I have to check my email,” he said. “Makes me feel depend on technology, but tech stuff is what lets me do my job from anywhere, so I guess I can’t complain too much.”
Along the way to his to becoming an action sports journalist, he picked up the hobby of photography and became a talented photographer. Larson also wrote Bringing Metal To The Children, with long-time friend Zakk Wylde, the former guitarist of Black Sabbath.
“Working with Zakk, that was interesting, his mind is kind of all over the place all the time but getting to sit down and talk to him on a more serious note, not just as friends, was very refreshing to me,” he said.
Larson is a people person. When speaking with him, one feels like they are talking to their therapist. He gives you his undivided attention. He listens to everything you say and absorbs all information. He mentioned that is probably the reason he has so many well connected and famous friends because he is just someone they can talk to without being judged.
“My listening skills are definitely my strong suit, that is probably why I have so many well connected or famous friends,” he said. “Uh, that sounded kinds cocky, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant I am just a good listener, so I think they flock to me because I talk to them like a normal person would.”
Larson now lives in Newport Beach with his son, Braylen, who has become the spitting image of his father, pale white skin with brown hazelnut eyes and milk chocolate colored hair, usually dress in your basic chino pant, with a graphic shirt and a pair of Vans.
Braylen loves extreme sports and with the help of his father’s connections, he learned how to skate at the age of 3. He quickly became aquatinted with some of the best skateboarders the world has ever seen, like Steve Caballero. Braylen at the age of 12 went semi-pro and continues to follow in his father’s footsteps of success and humbleness.
“My dad’s job defiantly has its perks for him and me too sometimes. I love the fact that he can travel anywhere and I can go with him. We went to the Netherlands last summer for an event he covered! It was awesome,” he said. “The only thing I would say sucks about my dad’s job is that he is on the road a lot, so when we get to see each other, I couldn’t be more stoked.”
Larson did say that his job does require him to travel throughout the year.
“Yeah, unfortunately since this job does require me to travel frequently, I feel like I have missed some crucial moments in Braylen’s life,” Larson said. “But, when I am here I try and make up for it the best way I can.”
Larson is considered by most to having the optimum job as an action sports journalist, but he knows that he is a very fortunate and lucky man. His profession is, to say the least, is very interesting. Always on the go, searching for the latest pro athlete or story to cover. If Larson had a credit card for airline miles travel for his career, he mentioned he would have been in the Mile High Club when he was 35.
“I feel like I have been to every country in the world by now,” he said. “I know I haven’t, but with how often I travel, its feel like déjà vu every time I get back on the plane at LAX.”
The humbleness and positivity that comes out of Larson is something that should be documented. An honest and genuine person, who unwilling graduated with a major in anthropology, is now one of the most recommend and sought after freelance action sports journalist in the nation.
“Don’t get me wrong, I feel very blessed to have this job. It didn’t just fall in my lap, I had to work tirelessly to get it. If you were to see my daily life when I was about 30 you would have thought I was on drugs all the time,” he said. “My mind was everywhere all the time. But, as a freelance journalist, I have the potential of losing my job at any time, that always keeps it so interesting.”
