DURBAN North’s Jamie de Villiers has been making a name for himself on the skateboarding circuit and hopes to secure a podium finish at the African Skate Champs Ultimate X competition. Last year, De Villiers won three back-to-back competitions. De Villiers, a Grade 9 learner at Northwood School won the Kimberly Midway Mayhem, No Pro’s Jam Skate and BMX contest as well as the Menlyn Skate Park Easter Festival in the U13 category.

Now he is hoping to replicate that success at the upcoming champs.

“I’ve been training hard in the holidays, I had an opportunity to skate at the Red Bull Unlocked event over December at Moses Mabhida Stadium. It was the first time I was competing in the open division and I was knocked out in the quarter-finals, which I was really pleased with. I’m hoping to replicate that form at the Ultimate X competition. The caliber of skaters you come up against is much harder and it’s a great learning platform for me. What has helped me is skating with older people, it’s thought me to overcome my fears and take on guys older than me,” he said.

The local skater said he started skating when he was just eight years old.

“Nothing compares to how skating makes me feel. I started skating when I was eight and at first I fell a lot. I even had stitches in my shin, but every time I fell, I knew I wasn’t going to give up. I got up each time and practised and tried harder to perfect the moves,” he said.