I started off by asking Jean Postec about his start in skateboarding. Jean explained that he first got interested in skateboarding simply as something to do, but then fell in love with it. “I was just skating street, mini ramps, and vert. I was skating, and I really loved it, so I got into it more and more. When you love something, you just want to do it full time.” Jean used to do gymnastics. “I was good at gymnastics, so I knew what to do with my body. It’s important to have good coordination with all your arms, legs and everything. I think that helped me a lot, with my progressing faster.”
So what’s Jean’s biggest difficulty in skateboarding? “The truth is I still have a hard time making the 720 in contests,” Jean explained seriously. “You don’t want to fall, you want to make a full run, so you usually do your hardest in the first run. Then, you try your hardest in the second to do a 720, or a really difficult and technical flip trick.” Most people don’t realize the amount of strategy that goes into skateboarding competitions, but Jean Postec is definitely aware. I asked him how he practices to get up to doing something like the 720. “First you learn your basic tricks, like your grinds and you learn more and more. You start with a 540, then get to a 720. When practicing for the 720, I usually crash like 6 or 7 times on the same hip or elbow! You gotta focus on tomorrow, and get even better.”
I asked Jean what he does for skateboarding practice. “You just skate every day. I usually skate like 5 days out of the week. I take the weekend off and hang out at the beach, with my girl friend, just to have some cool time and rest. And then you come back to your skateboard and you are full of energy, and you get better and better! If you skate every day, you get so tired, little bit by little bit, and you don’t get to progress as fast as you would like to. So it’s important to know when to stop for a little bit. Sometimes you just want to skate all the time, but the hardest thing to do is take some time off to rest. So, I try to take all the weekend off. Then I go surf and stuff, in San Diego, and skate like 5 days a week.”
Quite the life! I told Jean as much, and he laughed and said, “Yeah, I love my life!”
Jean Postec is definitely a pro vert skater to watch in the next year, with his rapid progression and technical skill. Check out the Jean Postec Profile for more info, and take a look at another photo of Jean Postec in the Dew Action Sports Tour Photo Gallery.
