Jonathan Franc
Jonathan Franc is a cool 17-year old kid from Belgium, who can have a nice skating career if he sticks with it.
I started skateboarding 3 and a half years ago when I was 13 years old. I was interested in skateboarding because I had the game “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” on Playstation, and I had just stopped playing soccer so I had to find another sport. I don’t call skateboarding a sport, it’s more of a lifestyle but physically it isn’t just chillin. I mean I never saw a fat skateboarder, I’m joking. My mother wanted to buy a skateboard for me so I tried it and I was immediately addicted. My life changed, thanks Mom!
There are skate companies in Belgium like “Transind.” The boards are not cheap but not that expensive either. I think it’s a little cheaper in the US but it depends on how you skate. If you break a board every month it won’t be cheap. Some people who are rich will say it’s cheap but others who have to work hard to get a board will tell you that skateboarding is an expensive lifestyle.
It depends on the brand of board, trucks, wheels, bearings, clothes and shoes. Some brands are more expensive than others. It all depends on what you buy but everything is a little more expensive in Belgium than in the US.
Skateboarding is getting more and more popular here but I think it’s not as popular as it is in the US but I surely know that skateboarding is getting more popular because every big city in Belgium has a skatepark, indoor or outdoor. Street skating is not so bad here either. I mean for a country like Belgium which is 350,000 square kilometers, we have some good spots and the positive thing about the spots is that they are all near each other. It’ll take me an average of 5 minutes to skate [from one spot to the next. I’m talking about cities. I live in the country and we have nothing over here. I have to take the train for an hour to go to good spots but now it’s a routine. I don’t mind the hour ride on the train, I have my Ipod Video and my PSP.
Switch Heel
When I’m not skateboarding I’m chatting or I’m chilling with friends. I go to school but between school and skateboarding I don’t have much time to do anything else.
I do enjoy eating though. I like to eat Belgium fries and not French Fries. Fries are originally from Belgium and not from France! I like to eat Pizza, Pasta and things like that.
The way I got sponsored is too long to explain, but I’ll try. First I got sponsored by a skateshop called “BF13 Skateshop.” The owner sponsored me because I won a local contest and because he saw that I had fun when I was skating and not just doing the contest to win but more for the vibe and the ambiance.
Six months later the same guy from BF13 skateshop called me to tell me he found a deal for me to skate for Etnies. I was so happy that day, it was just a year ago. So I went to “Transind,” the distribution company to talk about the deal and they proposed to me a deck sponsor too, DGK. I was so happy. It was unbelievable I was sponsored by a deck sponsor and shoes and clothes all on the same day. That was my luckiest day ever and that’s the way I got my sponsors. So everybody out there, skate, have fun and never think about sponsors, they will come to you, just show you have fun.
I have a lot of friends who I skate with it depends where I go. Since I’m sponsored I skate a lot more street so I made new friends with the guys who skate for Etnies too. The friends who taught me how to skate all stopped, but they are still my friends. The friends I skate with when I go to skateparks, are allover the country. It’s unbelieveable, but I like that they are all different but all so cool.
I like to skate with all my friends. It’s always different and I like doing different things, not always the same thing.
I really want to go to the US but I don’t have the money to go. I already traveled around Europe to skate but not very far because it costs a lot and I’m still going to school so I don’t have money like that, so I can’t take holidays in the US. I say ‘holiday’ because traveling is always a holiday for me. It’s just so nice to visit another country to learn new things and live with other people of other cultures. I really like learning new things!
If I had to choose somewhere in the US to go I think it would be New York or California. I know California is huge but there is so much to do. The US is so huge I can’t choose, but if I could I would visit every interesting city to skate first and then the places to chill where there is sun, chicks and always something to skate.