About 4 weeks ago Jarne Verbruggen sent us a DM on Instagram, “Yo, a friend of mine made a part, would you be down to check it out?” well yes, we where! The thing is we can’t have eyes everywhere and obviously we get sent videos a lot (don’t stop doing that) but most of them don’t come with a Jarne co-sign. Anyway, we got the link, checked out the part and loved it immediately, it gave us a Beauty and the Beast kind of vibe. So we responded to Jarne by confirming our interest and the rest is what you see before you, a small portrait on a Belgian skater named Pieter De Clus.

Intro by Roland Hoogwater.

Main text by Ben Daeleman who runs Jean Jacques Distribution.

About 1,5 yrs ago Pieter’s school contact me to let him to an internship with us in Jean Jaques. Of course, I was stoked on this, so was he. In the beginning, we didn’t do much besides talking and soon I could tell he was a misunderstood kid with lots of capacities. You can’t blame the teachers since they only act on what they know but I could see it was not working for him. 

When the teachers asked me how the internship was going, I could only say positive things (besides him never coming on time but still, what is being on time? So I kept that to myself), they were surprised. Sometimes you just have to listen instead of trying to put your thoughts in someone else’s mind just to be the one who is right.

Pieter’s eyes are open, he is aware and a bit ahead of his time, he sees things through and I can understand it’s not always easy to put a mask on just to fit in. Luckily in skateboarding, you can throw off your mask and be you. Pieter might not be the best person to be put in a classroom, listening for hours to someone in the front of the class telling him what to do and how to behave, but on a skateboard, he knows how to express himself.

If I think back on what Pieter was like as a kid, cruising around in our local park of Mechelen, in fact, not much has changed. He is still doing just that but with more power and a bigger bag of tricks. He knows the park like a squirrel knows the forest and it’s great to watch him use every inch of it. This past year he was doing more and more trips, extending his horizon and developing his own style. During this process, he felt he was ready and decided to film a part. The last trip we did was the one to the US with the concrete dreams crew. We landed in Seattle and drove down the west coast all the way to San Francisco. We skated all the crazy concrete madness that the guys from Grindline built, nasty parks, scary as fuck (laughs).  Pieter went all in for every session and pushed his limits, it was so great to witness.

Some of the highlights from that trip are in this video. Honestly, some shit seems random on video but once you’ve been there, at the spot you will look at things differently, believe me! Like we all know, it ain’t always easy to film the right trick on the right spot and then throwing it all together to make a part that satisfies you. This was the same for Pieter, a process with ups & downs. The same ups & downs that he has in his character. On the one hand, he has got this ‘not a single fuck has been given’ mentality but on the other hand, he cares a lot! I guess that’s also the thing that girls like about him or maybe it is his eyes (laughs).

Anyway, press play and enjoy Pieter De Clus’s part!

Photos by Ralf Goossens.

Film + Edit by Onnosaerens.