http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/sports/othersports/15skate.html

Perhaps it was inevitable that skateboarding would produce the 9-year-old Puehse twins.

Michael Puehse, with son Tristan, started sending videos of his sons to potential sponsors when they were 6. With tremendous talent, Nic and Tristan Puehse (pronounced PEW-zah) of Shingle Springs, Calif., outside Sacramento, have become a grass-roots marketing phenomenon. Their ability has taken them to China and onto “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” They have 14 sponsors, including Nike and Gatorade. And they are the stars of one of the most popular skateboarding videos on YouTube, a clip that has been viewed more than 2.5 million times since it was posted in January.
Sonja Catalano, the president of the California Amateur Skateboard League, had to create a new division for sponsored skaters 10 and younger to accommodate their growing ranks.

“These kids do videos there on YouTube,” she said in June at a league competition in the Santa Cruz Mountains. “They’re on MySpace.com. They have résumés. Down South, it’s a little crazy. Half of them have Hollywood agents.”

For now, the Puehses have simple goals. “My goal is to become a pro skateboarder and do the MegaRamp before I’m 10,” Nic said about a nine-story ramp that launches riders more than 70 feet.

After that, the sky’s the limit.

Thanks to Bill.

Discuss Skating at the Oz Report forum
   
 
 
del.icio.us