Pod Recaps – The Pursuit – Episode 65

The Pursuit – E65 – Eric Porter

Hello, welcome, and thanks for catching up on The Pursuit with us, here on the Out of Collective. This week on The Pursuit, Mr. AdamX welcomes Eric Porter to the pod. Eric has been a professional mountain biker in some way, shape or form for over 20 years. Over that length of an extensive career Eric and his path have had to evolve. He and Adam talk about those changes, as well as product design, and content creation and YouTube. So clip in, and follow along with the recap, and it starts right now!

Eric Porter  – Pro MTB

Eric is a lot of things, but the thread that ties everything together is mountain biking. The kid from Kentucky got his first bike at 12, and had a love for snowboarding, and was influenced by Sean Palmer who shredded on snow and on a bike. The bug really took hold in college when he joined the mountain bike team and started racing.

Bikes, style, and trails and the entire sport have come long way since Eric started. Even the idea of being a “pro” was a fairly foreign concept. The driving force in the beginning was essentially to get his hobby to pay for itself, and he was trying to make it as a downhill racer after college. But, instead of resting or training, he and his buddies would just ride freestyle. Eventually this lead to some filming amongst friends, and resulted in a magazine cover grinding a handrail. Dirt jump, streetstyle and slopestyle contest s continued to grow and pop up, and Eric was in the right place to ride that wave.

He turned down jobs on the industry side to be product manager, but money wasn’t great and wouldn’t mean riding bikes. But he bet on himself and within a year he had an athlete contract doing exactly what he loved, with a signature frame in tow.

YouTube Sensation @portermtb

These days kids recognize Eric more as a YouTuber than a Pro-Athlete, and it’s just a label, and all fine by him. His channel, @PorterMTB,  which boasts over 170k followers has something for everyone, not just elite riders. His videos showcase tips, tricks, bike fixes, jump builds and brings you along for the ride on adventure trips in crazy countries, and lots of good quality fun on bikes!

Eric has evolved in every phase of his career and really enjoys this stage as a content creator. He appreciates and acknowledges that today there are more paths to live your dream, and ride your bike, than there used to be. His wheels aren’t done spinning yet and we look forward to seeing what turns he takes next. Check him out on YouTube and listen to the full interview below!