A Day With: UAE-based skating talent Jan Hoffman

Jay Asser 05:48 11/08/2016
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  • Skate star: Jan Hoffmann.

    Skateboarders truly live an envious life. From the laid-back mentality, to marching to the beat of their own drum, skaters are some of the most unique personalities in sport.

    Jan Hoffmann is no different. The UAE-based, German-born skateboarding talent is one of the leading figures on a board in the region. Yet, one conversation with Hoffmann reveals he’s just a 20-year-old who just enjoys life and skating.

    You can see why as Hoffmann gets to experience some cool things, like shredding the drained and locked-down Aquaventure water park alongside Alex Sorgente and Milton Martinez earlier this year.

    Sport360 caught up with the Red Bull athlete to ask him about the Aquaventure experience, the skate scene in Dubai and his other varied interests.

    What was it like to have Aquaventure all to yourself, along with Alex and Milton, for a skating session?

    It was a great experience because water parks have always been the coolest thing to skate, if you have the chance to skate them.

    Obviously in Dubai, water parks are bigger than usual, so we had to get permission from the managers. Everything worked out perfectly. The ramps were good. It wasn’t too slippery. There were a few cracks, but it was good.

    Where does Aquaventure rank among the coolest and most unique places you’ve ever skated at?

    That was probably the craziest place I’ve ever skated, from the dimensions and the sizes of the slides. Normally skate parks aren’t that big. We took three minutes to go from the top to the bottom and normally when you skate a snake run at skate parks, it never takes that long. It was a completely different experience, for sure.

    How did you get into skateboarding?

    I was 12 years old when I started. One of my friends had an old board in his garage and we took it out because we didn’t have enough scooters. We rode around the house. Then we started to watch skate videos to see what you can do with a skateboard.

    Then we found out there were older skaters in Dubai too, so we skated with them, learned tricks from them and watched more videos. That’s the thing about Dubai, there are not so many older skaters here, so you don’t really get new tricks off skaters, you get them off videos. It’s all on the internet of skateboarding right now.

    I actually was deciding between BMXing and skating at the beginning and thank God I stuck to skating and found some friends in school that skated too. I just thought you could do more with a skateboard and I knew a bunch of skaters and thought they were super cool. I thought it had a cool culture so I got involved in it.

    Once you started skateboarding, were there any idols you had whose style you took and made it your own?

    When you’re younger, you look up to more pros than when you’ve been skating for a few years. I’ve always looked up to a lot of people to copy styles and tricks, but now I don’t watch many skateboarding videos any more.

    When I was younger, it was obviously Tony Hawk and Ryan Sheckler and all those guys. After a few more years, it was more different skaters that people don’t really know, more underground guys.

    What are some of your favourite places to skate in the UAE?

    Right now, the XDubai skate park at Kite Beach. It’s super fun and opened not long ago. Also Deira, that whole part of the city. We usually try to skate around Deira and try to find stuff on the street.

    I’m more at the skate park because it recently opened. But I think in a few months, the hype will die down. I mean, streets in Dubai are super cool, so it’s always a good option.

    What have you seen as far as people’s interest in skateboarding over here?

    Dubai does have a good skate scene. There are people who skate all the time, but not everyone is always super-hyped to skate like in other countries, such as Germany. It’s sort of a hobby here for everyone that goes to school or college. They take it more seriously in Germany.

    Are there any other sports you enjoy in your spare time?

    We just play football sometimes for fun. We also swim sometimes, but not really any other sports.

    How much emphasis do you place on staying fit and working out to help your skating?

    I don’t really do anything for my fitness. I just skate. I try to skate a bunch and that kind of keeps me fit. There are a lot of bigger people that skate too. Everyone can skate. Boards nowadays are super durable too, so it will hold you.

    You’re into making skating videos as well. How and why did you start doing that?

    I’ve just been making skate videos of me and my friends since I started. I thought it would be cool to document new tricks or whenever we have a fun session to look back at it. I still watch old videos when I have nothing to do, bringing back good memories. That’s why I make a lot. That’s just for fun.

    I film it with an iPhone and edit it with iMovie, so I don’t know any crazy camera stuff.

    Since graduating from Dubai American Academy, what have you been focusing on outside of skateboarding?

    I’ve been studying part-time to be an English teacher. I just haven’t spoken English in a while, I only speak German now. I’ve always wanted a job that is required, and teachers are obviously required.

    I also wanted a lot of free time too, because teachers have a lot of vacations.

    As far as skateboarding, what’s next for you now?

    It’s another year of planning a lot of tours with Vans, while other sponsors are doing some smaller trips. I’ll probably do some stuff with Red Bull in the winter too. Nothing is really planned yet.

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