Endurance Wiki
Register
Advertisement

"Shut up! I'm perfectly fine surfing over here."
— Erika in Drop Out

Erika Cook
Erika
Information
Full name

Erika Lani Cook

Endurance: Tehachapi, 1st place
Hometown

Orange County, CA

Age

15

Team

Red Team

Partner

Franke Sisto

Arrived

Hang Glide

Left

Finale

Erika Lani Cook is a former contestant and winner of Endurance: Tehachapi. She competed alongside her partner, Franke Sisto, as the Red Team.

Endurance[]

This surfing champion enjoys the sport both in the water as well as on concrete with her skateboard. Erika is also enthusiastic about her Hawaiian heritage and dances in hula shows with her sisters. Although she’s competitive by nature, Erika thinks getting along with others is more important than winning. Still, she thrives on pressure and will tap into her competitive edge during Endurance.

—DiscoveryKids.com bio

Erika was one of the contestants that survived the Right to Stay. In the partner selection, she proved her strength as the last girl to be in the competition when she lost. She was partnered with Franke, to their delight, and became the Red Team.

In Blocked, the Red Team was not one of the stronger teams, as they were in the back for most of the mission. Nevertheless, they were spared from the Samadhi. In the next episode, the Red Team was near the lead for most for the mission. Compared with Daniela, Erika was able to get her flag easier, and were within five feet of winning the mission. Along with Green, Yellow, and Orange, Erika celebrated Purple's victory, and they were spared from the Temple of Fate.

In Drop Out, she demonstrated her strength as she beat out not only all the girls, but all the guys on E4 to win the mission. During the mission,she was talking to herself about surfing. When they won, she celebrated with Franke in the lake. Afterwards, the Red Team decided to pick the two strongest teams: the Yellow and Green Teams, to be part of their Superteam.

In the next episode, Super Stumped, the Red Team's superteam was close to the Purple-Orange-Blue in the Temple Mission, until the former Superteam accidentally placed one of their platforms on top of the other. Since she was in the back, Erika tried to move it, but it couldn't. She suggested everyone jump into the water, which they did. They were not able to recover the lost time, as the underdog Superteam won the challenge. Afterward, Red was sent up to the Temple of Fate with Yellow. Red won the first round, but Yellow won the second. In the tie-breaking third round, Red won, and they came back. Jeszie was especially happy because her best friend returned.

The next morning, she is seen talking with Shae about who she was thinking of targeting next. She says someone out of Blue, Purple or Orange to which Shae says likely orange which she agrees. Like some of the other contestants, she was thinking of Orange. In Yellow's elimination, even though Chris referred to Isaac and Jonathan as his boys, they gave their piece to Red, giving them the lead with 3 pieces total. That day's endurance mission, Waterworks, had an extra twist in that the last placed team would get an automatic trip to the temple of fate after the next day's temple mission unless they won the that mission. Green was the first placed team but Red finished shortly after. Purple ended up in last place and thus were hit with the penalty. Jeszie informed Erika that Green might give Red the samadhi so that Purple can win though she promises that Red would be safe if that happened (instead, Blue and Orange would be sent). Erika though thought the idea was messed up and didn't want to be part of a backstabbing scheme. She suggested instead that Green should give it to Blue and Jeszie brought this idea to Isaac. By the time they got to the rock though, Jeszie announced that they were given them the samadhi due to their strength. Erika smashed the samadhi herself, startling Frankie, and it revealed they would have a 10 feet distance handicap in the next mission. Erika said she believed that Red would get sent if they didn't win.

The next morning, Erika and Frankie were talking with Mikey who noted it seemed it was them against Green-Purple-Blue and thus an alliance between Red and Orange was formed. In the temple mission, Fireball, Erika was the catcher for Red. They missed the first shot but were saved by Green (since Jeszie didn't want to eliminate Red and thus took out Blue) and Orange (who took out Purple, guaranteeing them a trip to temple). Red didn't catch it in the second round either though they were once again safe as Green took out Orange instead. Erika caught the ball in the third shot but so did Green. In the fourth shot, Green once again caught their ball but Red didn't, giving the win to Green. Green decided to spare Red from temple and instead chose Orange to face Purple which resulted in Orange's elimination.

The next morning, Erika was selected to read Orange's elimination letter revealed that Red was chosen to inherit their knowledge pyramid piece with Kylie also telling Erika to keep Franke in line and win. This put Red in first place in the piece count with 4. In the Hang 5 mission, like the other girls, Erika hanged on the bar while Franke was in charge of moving the platform. Franke struggled with the mission, putting Red far behind the other teams. Green ending up winning the mission though this led to a huge fight between Isaac and Jeszie as Isaac wanted to give the samadhi to Red while Jeszie didn't. By the time it was time for the teams to head to the rock, Green still had not made a final decision. Amelia offered to take the samadhi to stop the fighting though Erika then said she would be willingly to take the samadhi. Green thus gave the samadhi to Red whom were informed they would have to wait an entire minute before they could take part in the temple mission. In Cubed, Red did not get a chance to compete as Purple solved the puzzle in 51 seconds. Purple choose to send Red to the temple against Blue. Red won the first round but lost the second. In the final round, Red won again, ensuring their safety and the elimination of Blue.

For the final 3 Endurance Mission, JD let the remaining 3 teams create their own game. Erika felt the game they were making was complicated and that they would all have a tough time completing it. In the mission itself, Purple were leading most of it though Red caught up during a period where were Purple kept dropping their objects. Red though fell behind in the last moment when they dropped objects they were carrying while Purple finished first. After the mission, Jeszie told Erika that she had nothing to worry about as she was certain Green would get it and hoped it wouldn't be as bad as Red's last samadhi. Erika insisted it might not go to Green which Jeszie thought could be true but it would be a stupid choice to make. Erika agreed that if Jonathan remained true to his alliance with Isaac, it would make him take on the strongest team without an advantage. Seeing that only the winner of the following temple mission would be safe from temple, Purple choose to give Green the samadhi instead of Red. In Circle of Trust, Frankie was the first to let go, leaving her the sole representative for her team. However, she managed to outlast the members of the handicapped Green, marking the first time they would go off to temple as well as Jonathan, who let go around the 13 minute mark while Daniela let go after 25 minutes. The win secured Red's spot in the Endurance Finals. Green was eliminated at the temple fate, making Purple Red's competitor in the finals.

In Spin Fly, she painted the poles with the other four contestants, writing Amelia's name on the Blue pole when the others forgot. In the mission at hand, she got one piece, whereas Franke got two. Despite getting fewer pieces, Red still had a one piece advantage; they had seven pieces to Purple's six.

J.D. noted that Red's two mission wins were thanks to Erika's strength when they all met together, and mentioned how her competition in the end was "the girl on her right-hand side"--Daniela. Erika talked about how she would miss how untouched the Tehachapi mountains were and wanted to seek out other places which were similarly pure. At the final game, Red would win in six rounds, and would go to Costa Rica in the end.

Portrayal

Erika was depicted as a strong, friendly competitor. She was the strongest of all the girls in that season--first shown in Power Play, and most notably shown in Drop Out.

Quotes[]

  • "I'm going surfing, because surfing is so fun." 
  • "Shut up! I'm perfectly fine surfing over here."
  • "I'm surfing in Hawaii, but I want to surf in Indonesia."
  • "I don't want it to be a puzzle!"

Post Endurance[]

Erika went into professional surfing, and competed in various surfing competitions, in addition to being sponsored by the sportswear company, "La Isla".

Erika graduated from California State University Long Beach majoring in English. She went to Taiwan for some time to teach English and also surfed there. Currently, she's a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District.


Erika had an interview with The Intertia in 2017.

Trivia[]

  • Erika was mentioned in Shark Bait, when Jonathan mentions he feels like her in Drop Out.
  • Erika is considered the strongest girl on Endurance.
  • Erika is the only person with Hawaiian heritage to appear on Endurance.
  • Erika beating out all of the guys in Drop Out made the top ten list of greatest moments from Endurance's first four seasons.
  • On the Endurance Rankdown on the ProBoards forum, Erika placed seventh, making her the highest-ranked contestant from Endurance: Tehachapi.
    • In addition, it also made her the highest-ranked contestant from any Red Team.

External Links[]

Gallery[]

Please do not upload personal images of the contestant unless you have received permission.


Advertisement