Jett de Haan is less years old than the number of feet in the vert ramp he won his Australian title on – but not even his tender years will stop him dreaming of becoming the next Tony Hawk.
The 10-year-old from Caringbah became the Australian under-12s vert skateboarding champion earlier this month at Sydney Olympic Park on the Monster Skate Park’s 14-foot vertical ramp.
It is believed de Haan is the shire’s first national skate champion since two-time World X-Games champion Jake Brown.
The Caringbah Public School student took on kids from around Australia, most older than him, in the final event of the Australian Vert Championship junior series having already won the previous two.
Jett’s dad Peter said his son had learnt the ropes the same way as most skaters since starting out as a six-year-old.
“He used to be just another kid out the front of the house,” he said.
“Then he went to the bowl and loved doing it. He’s got the skate park at Greenhills now which is just unreal and he trains out at Kurnell on the vert ramp there.
“Now he can do 540’s. There’s probably no other kid his age in the country doing it. Upside down, 14-foot in the air, rotating 540 degrees. He puts a lot of hard work into it that’s for sure.”
Peter said his son had already developed some lofty ambitions with skateboarding to be included at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
“He wants to be an X-Games champ and now that skateboarding is in the Olympics it gives these kids something to aspire to,” he said.
“He’s a funny, pretty determined little dude. All he’s focused on now is winning and training and making new mates wherever he goes.
“He’s only a little fella. Some of the slams I’ve seen him have I’d be out for six months. He smashed his face the other week and needed stitches in his lip but he was out training the next day because of the Aussies.”