By Joey Krieg, Staff Writer
When the school year started, sophomore Ezra Snyder had about 12,000 followers on Instagram. One repost later from big-time skating company, Berrics, Ezra now has more than 17,000 followers – not to mention the 40,000 followers he had on TikTok before he deleted the account this winter.
One follower comments on Ezra’s post that they had watched his video nearly 50 times while another inquires about how Ezra managed to get so good and thought that he should have more followers than he currently had. One of his videos on Berrics has half a million views. Snyder draws a lot of attention on social media and rightfully so. He is a very talented skater.
Fame is nothing new to Ezra as his dad, Noah, once competed in professional surf competitions.
“It’s a lot different,” Ezra said when asked about the similarities between surfing and skating. “It feels like a whole new sport. Surfing helps with my style when it comes to skating, but not new tricks.”
Having your own unique style is important when it comes to winning things like contests in the skating world.
One of Snyder’s favorite moments was winning a skate contest in March of 2020, when he won a cash prize and a new board. Snyder wants to pursue a career in skating and hopes to compete in more competitions in the future.
Snyder’s dream is to skate with his idol, Louie Lopez, at Linda Vista in San Diego and land a blizzard flip. Linda Vista Skatepark is the largest skatepark in San Diego and features stairs, ramps, several bowls and a street course.
“Treflip for sure,” Ezra said when asked about his favorite trick. The treflip was created by Rodney Mullen and is a combination of a 360 pop shove it a kickflip. This is moving the skateboard around in a 360 while it is flipping in midair.
Possibly the most impressive part of Snyder’s skating career is that he hardly ever gets hurt. This is notable, as nearly 70,000 trips to the emergency room are caused by skating every year.
“I think probably the worst one (injury) I had was when I was pushing really fast for this trick,” Snyder said. “And a kid ran in front of me, I jumped off my board, and flew down the whole ramp and fractured my wrist.”
Snyder has only been skating for about five years and hopes to continue for many years to come. Watch Snyder on his journey to becoming a better skater by following him on Instagram @ezrasnyd3r.
Junior Joey Krieg can be contacted at 22kriegjo52@daretolearn.org.
