Eric Willett, born and raised in Breckenridge, Colorado, is a kid who just loves to snowboard. This Breck local can be found on the hill every day riding with his younger brother Chris Willett. From the age of six years old the two mates have woken up every morning hungry to learn and land new tricks.  

Eric is best known for his fun attitude while riding with style in slope style competitions. While flying under the radar, Eric has competed at the Burton Opens, while also placing top ten overall in last season’s Winter Dew Tour. Although Eric is relatively new on the professional snowboarding scene he was quickly noticed in 2008/2009 on the Swatch TTR tour thanks to his early season ranking points, which placed him in an advantage after the Southern Hemisphere seasons.

In 2009/2010 Willett’s early season was no exception and he made a leap in the TTR ranking with a 3rd at 5Star Burton New Zealand Open slopestyle and a 2nd place at the 3Star Boost Mobile SnoSho. He headed north banking another great result taking 6^th place at the 5Star O’Neill Evolution slopestyle in Davos and winning the 5Star Burn River Jump slopestyle in Italy he moved into the TTR Top 10. He was invited to the 6Star Oakley Arctic Challenge where he made it into the final and in a nail biting final he placed 9th moving into TTR World No.5. Eric finished the 09/10 season in World No. 23 but is definitely a fun kid to tag along with on the TTR Tour.


Interview with Eric Willett in January 2010.

Do you have any brothers and sisters?
I have a brother and sister, both younger than me. And they are both probably the best brother and sister ever, everyone should be jealous!

How many years have you been riding? And how and where did you start? I have been riding for 16 years. I started because in school, we had a thing called winter rec where we went skiing and snowboarding once a week, and I had already skied before and wanted to try snowboarding. And once I strapped on a snowboard I never wanted to go back!

Who do you love to shred with and who pushes you?
I love shredding with my brother Chris Willett. We always have tons of fun together and push each other every day we go out.

How did you find your first sponsors?
I had to work really hard for my sponsors, they definitely did not come easy for me. My first sponsor was with Smith, I just got the TM’s phone number from someone and decided to call him up.

You are quite a new face on the TTR Tour this season. Tell us a bit about how, where and when your competitive snowboarding career kicked off?
It all probably started two seasons ago when I went to New Zealand and competed in a few comps there and did really well. That’s when I realized I wanted to start competing in a bunch of the bigger comps.  

What have been the greatest moments of your young career so far?
My greatest accomplishment has to be getting 3^rd at the first stop of the Dew Tour in Breck this season. That was a big goal of mine for the season and to make it on the podium at such a big event was awesome!

Your career kicked of pretty quickly. Did you ever dream of being in the TTR Top 5 beside riders like Peetu Piiroinen and Charles Reid? How does that feel?
It’s kind of funny because when I first heard about TTR I really had no idea what it was. But when I started to get more into competing it became a pretty big goal of mine to do well in TTR. It’s rad because there are all these riders that I’ve looked up to for so many years and now I’m actually competing with them.

What are your plans for the TTR Tour and outside of it this winter? Do you have any filming projects going on?
I plan on doing as many TTR comps as I can. I hope to make it out to Norway for the Artic Challenge and also compete in the US Open. I’ve never done either one of those events so it’s going to be awesome to ride at those events. And I also plan on filming this year with a company called The Nations Foundation. It’s a film company out of Oregon, they are such a rad group of guys to work with and they produce really good films so hopefully I’ll be able to film a good video part with them.

What is your dream to achieve on your snowboarding career for the future?
I want to be able to make a name for myself in the industry and take my snowboarding as far as I can. Right now it’s pretty tough to make it the industry with the economy and everything, but all it takes is a little more hard work and dedication. Another big thing I’ve always wanted to achieve is to compete in X-Games and this year I am actually getting the opportunity to do that! I’m so pumped to just be a part of such a huge event. And I always want to have fun. So many people take it for granted, and I just feel super blessed to be able to do something I love!

Are you still going to school? And what are your plans for your future besides snowboarding?
 I graduated high school in 2006 and just kept snowboarding. I decided college can wait till after I’m done. I don’t really know what my plans are after snowboarding, I haven’t really thought that far ahead!

Is there a specific event on the Tour that you would love to compete at? I’ve always wanted to do the Arctic Challenge but I’m not too much of a quarter pipe guy, but luckily this year they added slopestyle so hopefully I’ll be able to make it to that event!

What are your hobbies besides snowboarding?
This past summer I really got into mountain biking. Once I got a bike I was out on it every day! It’s so much fun and it’s a good way to stay in shape. I’m also really into skateboarding but it’s super hard and scary, pavement is way harder than snow.