Originally from Santiago, Chile, Francisco Zurita – who goes by “Coco” – learned English in order to get to America – a move that has paid off in a big way. Known for his consistently huge airs and for going all out on every run, Zurita broke onto the BMX scene in 2002.
After making it to the U.S., Zurita lived on a temporary tourist’s visa and travelled back to Chile every six months to work numerous odd jobs and make money. After a gig as a door-to-door salesman selling water filters in Texas, Zurita joined the GT crew for demo shows and worked at Dew Tour padding up little kids in the Festival Village area.
He finally got the nerve to work his way onto the five-stop series and make his Dew Tour debut in 2006. Thanks in a large part to his sixth-place showing at the last stop of the season, Zurita closed out the year in ninth place overall. The following year, Zurita landed the first-ever triple tailwhip on a Dew Tour vert ramp and took 10th at the X Games vert contest, but an injury cut the rest of his season short.
Living full-time at Woodward West in California has paid off for Zurita, who has also claimed back-to-back sixth-place showings at the ’08 and ’09 X Games and third at the BMX Worlds contest in 2009.
Heavily influenced by Taj Mihelich’s style of riding, Zurita loves action sports of all kinds and claims that if he wasn’t a pro BMXer, he would be a Formula One driver or a professional snowboarder.
