ericcambeachvolleyball • Eric Grabowski

Who Is Eric Cam?

On the beach I’ve certainly become associated with the Eric Cam Beach Volleyball YouTube channel.

Others know me as a player, video editor, filmmaker, coach, producer, or definitely the guy standing behind a camera filming a match and talking too much.

The truth is, beach volleyball is only the latest chapter.

I grew up outside Rochester, New York. My father was a firefighter. My mother was an entrepreneur. Like a lot of kids, I was into sports. BMX, motocross, wake boarding, skiing, gymnastics. I was always drawn to things that required skill, precision, problem-solving, and a willingness to figure things out for myself.

By the time I was fifteen, I was already coaching gymnastics.

That experience probably shaped me more than anything else in my life. Gymnastics taught me how to learn how to learn. It taught me how to break complicated ideas into simple pieces. It taught me how to observe people. Most importantly, it taught me that people are often capable of far more than they believe they are.

I competed NCAA gymnastics at SUNY Cortland and eventually spent nearly two decades coaching high-level athletes.

Watching people grow became something I genuinely enjoyed.

At the same time, I was developing another interest: storytelling.

That eventually led me into film, television, and post-production. I moved across the country, landed in Los Angeles, and worked my way up through the entertainment industry. Over the years I edited everything from film/tv trailers to reality television, documentaries, corporate projects, and marketing campaigns.

Along the way, I learned that storytelling isn’t just entertainment. Sometimes it can have real-world consequences. One project involved helping a law firm tell the story of hundreds of families who had been wronged. Watching that work contribute to a major settlement was pretty awesome.

For more than twenty years, storytelling became my profession. Looking back now, I can see a pattern that kept showing up.

Whether I was coaching gymnasts, helping producers, editing advertising campaigns, or filming beach, I always seemed to gravitate toward people who were trying to become something.

Athletes chasing a dream… Kamila, Hagen, Logan, DJ, Chase, Jeff Samuels – this list is long

Entertainers trying to get a break – Chansky, Brycen… all of my stunt performer friends

Entrepreneurs building a business – Burik / Joyner / Better At Beach is probably my best example

The underdog nobody was paying attention to yet – remember the run Eric Beranek had with Bill Kolinske?

For whatever reason, those stories have always interested me more than the finished success story.

Around 2015, I started diving into philosophy.

Some people listen to music while they drive.

I listened to Alan Watts.

His ideas, along with a handful of other thinkers, challenged many of my assumptions about success, achievement, identity, and what actually makes a meaningful life. I don’t agree with everything he said, but his perspective definitely changed the way I look at the world.

Not long after that, I found beach volleyball.

At first, I just wanted to learn the game. I didn’t realize that it was going to tap into that feeling of a time when I had coaches holding me accountable in gymnastics.

I went down the rabbit hole. I took lessons. I trained. I studied technique. I obsessed over leveling up (and still do).

Then one day I started filming.

At first it was just for fun.

I wasn’t trying to build a brand. I was simply documenting something I enjoyed.

Then the views started to add up.

Players started to actually take notice of me.

Enthusiasts started recognizing my voice before they recognized my face.

Somewhere along the way, Eric Cam was born. I remember Laura saying “Eric Cam, Eric Cam, Eric Cam” Of course I made the Eric Cam channel after that moment.