Translated by Natasha, published in L'Equipe Magazine

Revealed by the internet, the American twins Nic and Tristan Puehse, 9 years old, are not yet finished surprising the world with their skateboarding. The media loves them, and the sponsors bet on them. Under their blonde hair, the two wonders they keep their heads cold. Meet their family. El Dorado, the hills burned by the sun...The small part of California concentrated on cliches. Take a detour on the regional road to Far West, Shingle Springs, a pretty hamlet. Their house is the first house on the left, hidden a bit by the trees. In the garden there is a 5 and half metre high half pipe. Welcome the Puehses. Mike, their father, along with wife Caryn. Following are little blonde heads: Natasha, 5 years old and the twins, Nicolas (straight hair) and Tristan (curly hair), 9 years old. Seven months later after the video that shows Tristan and Nic on Youtube was put online by their Dad the January before, it has accumulated over 3 million hits and connections from all over the world. The video is the 12th watched video ever on Youtube, and the most watched ever in the sports category

"They receive emails from around the world from people who visit their website. Canada, Europe, it's incredible! Three years ago they didn't know how to skate and knew nothing about skateboarding. Nic and Tristan tried it because a skatepark had opened that was close to us." says Mike, 44 years old. "On Valentine's Day, a pack of girls found out house and left flowers at the door," adds Caryn. They have many television accomplishments: The American talk show Ellen DeGeneres, a five minute report on Globo TV, the best sports channel in Brazil. They've been on ABC more than once. “At first they were pretty good. It was to their advantage that they had wake boarded previously, it helped their balance. They were also very strong." It started 3 years ago. Nic & Tristan were 6 years old. Today they have 15 sponsors, including Sony, Nike and Gatorade, the number one company for sport drinks.

“We send them our products for training and competing as soon as they ask,” explains Rachelle Gillerman, director of sponsorship for action sports with Gatorade, who has known the family for five months. “Not only are they very talented for their age group, but they also have a great mentality that corresponds with what our business represents."

“If someday Nic & Tristan want to become professionals, then that’s great. If not, then they still had these great years of skateboarding,” says Rachelle Gillerman. There are approximately 11.5 million people in the USA that skateboard, 43% of them started between the ages of 6-11 years. According to the American Sports Data

The amount of competitions each year is rising and the amount of money being put into it is too. Nic and Tristan have participated in over 60 competitions over the years. The first competition of their skating careers was won by Tristan and Nic also came in second place. The biggest stars in the world of skateboarding have been praised by Bob Burnquist (medaled in the X-Games) and Danny Way (creator of the Mega Ramp, which is now used in the X-Games), who also sent them an autograph saying “Don’t look too much at the others, concentrate on your own skating and how you can improve it”. The twins will be taking a break from competitions for about a year. Mike believes that when they take some time off to learn some new tricks so they can come back in full force.

The tricks? They do them at the neighbourhood skatepark, sometimes off of a yellow Hummer. The twins fly around on the grey concrete. To us, it looks easy. Nic accomplishes a kickflip over the spine right in front of us. He then does a trick on the edge of the pipe, for the first time! His Dad gives him a cheer. Thirty seconds later, he does it again and it looks even better. “The competition between the boys helps them to get better,” says their Dad, who then stops when he sees Nic fall pretty hard. Less than a minute later, Nic’s standing back up and is ready to try the trick again. This makes Tristan laugh because he’s done the same thing.

“Sometimes when I try a new trick it can be scary.” Tristan is more introverted than his brother. Tristan for the most part likes to just go for it and figure out things from trying it instead of looking at it. Mike says that they have pretty much the same skill level. They both have pros and cons about their skating that keeps them equal. Nic thinks more about the dangers before trying tricks, where as Tristan has less fear of taking risks.

They practice almost everyday for around an hour and a half, but this doesn’t tire them. “For me to get tired I need to skate for 5 hours,” says Nic. “For me, its 24 hours,” adds Tristan. Their Dad lets us know that they don’t usually skate more than 12 hours per week. He believes it’s out of the question for them to skate more than that. “We don’t push them to become pro, we know they are only 9 years old, and in a year or two they may want to be doing something completely different.”

Tristan thinks it would be cool to be pro and Nic agrees. They are catholic and attend mass three times per month. Mike believes that they should be good people before they are good skateboarders. Do Mike and Caryn feel pressure from the sponsors surrounding their boys? “No they don’t pressure them,” says Mike. “All they want is their equipment to be seen on TV and for other skateboarders to notice their equipment.” Are they obligated to get good results? “They only follow what they do a little bit, ask for new videos a couple times per year. All these sponsors financially help us. They get equipment (skateboards, helmet, pads, etc.) and drinks from them. These sponsors allowed the Puehse family to travel to China last year for an event.  Being Maltese and German himself, Mike would love to take his children to Europe. But for now, they’re just enjoying California. We’ll see what the future holds.