Andy DeLisle for The New York Times
The Puehses, Nic, left, and Tristan, competed in an Arizona tennis tournament.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Nic and Tristan Puehse spent six years sailing through the air with the greatest of ease, bending on their skateboards like yogis on mats. They had a clothing contract with Nike before their eighth birthdays, and by the age of 12, they were performing difficult feats like the stalefish.
For their next move, they really made jaws drop. Eschewing a future as twin Tony Hawks, Nic and Tristan decided two years ago to try to become the next Bob and Mike Bryan, the No. 1-ranked men's doubles tennis team. The jump from the anarchistic world of skateboarding to the button-down sport of tennis has been their toughest trick.
It is a huge adjustment, trading thrill rides on the skateboard for the emotional roller coaster of tennis points. Their learning curve is steep because their competitors, in many cases, have several years more match experience.
People in both sports dismissed their decision as a flight of fancy and figured the twins would be back on their skateboards before long. Two years into their tennis adventure, it is as if the twins simply traded one obsession for another. Training as long and hard on the court as they once did at the park, the Puehses have made steady progress.
They are ranked in the top 25 in the Boys' 16 rankings for the United States Tennis Association Southwest Section. Nationally, Tristan is ranked No. 948 and Nic is No. 1,090, but in doubles, they recently won a junior event in Flagstaff, Ariz., and have acquitted themselves well in matches against players who are several years older.
While the twins keep their focus on what's ahead of them, many in the skateboarding world cannot help but look back. On a recent afternoon, Nic sat in front of a computer at the family's rented home here and found the farewell-to-skateboarding video they posted on YouTube in September 2011.
Scrolling through the comments, including some recent posts, Nic stopped and read one aloud, "I bet it was the parents that made them quit." He turned and looked over his shoulder at his parents, Michael and Caryn, who were standing behind him with amused expressions. "That got 10 likes."
Nic said: "We've had people say: 'You had talent that other people didn't have. You could have been legends.' "
Tristan said: "It's hard for people to understand, especially going from skateboarding to tennis. A lot of skateboarders think tennis is a ridiculous sport."
With more than a dozen sponsors and videos that registered more than 13 million views on YouTube, the twins, in 2011, were well on their way to becoming the two-headed face of skateboarding. There was just one problem.
"We were getting lazy," Nic said.
"Not lazy," Tristan said, "but we didn't want to skateboard as much."
He added: "We had been skateboarding since we were 6. It's really all we did."
Nic said, "You want to venture into new things. You don't want to get bored."
In January 2011, during a family vacation in Carefree, Ariz., tied to a skateboarding video shoot, the twins borrowed rackets from the pro shop at the resort where they were staying. They hit tennis balls with their father, who had dabbled in the sport as a child.
In tennis, as in skateboarding, the twins quickly mastered the basic skills. They fell in love with it. Turning to Tristan, who first floated the idea of changing sports, Nic said, "If I hadn't liked tennis, you probably would have gotten lonely and come back to skateboarding."
Their goal, they said, is to attend college on tennis scholarships, like the Stanford-educated Bryans, and become a successful pro doubles team. They have received encouragement from the Bryans on Twitter, where Bob recently wrote: "Keep up the good work guys! We're behind you all the way."
Dave Macpherson, the Bryans' longtime coach, took a look at the Puehses at the urging of a friend and lent them his expertise.
"You can see they have great enthusiasm for the game, and they were so dialed in with their focus," Macpherson said in a telephone interview. "Certainly, it's a challenge, isn't it? They're green, but maybe in the end, it will work out for them because they won't get burned out."
It was a weekday morning in November, and the twins were delighted to take a break from studying isosceles triangles to talk about tennis, a much more enjoyable type of geometry lesson. Until two years ago, the family was based outside Sacramento. After a move to South Carolina, where the Puehse (pronounced PEW-zah) twins received partial scholarships to Van Der Meer Tennis Academy, the family relocated this year to Arizona. Nic and Tristan recently started working a few afternoons a week with Jimmy Mendieta, the director of tennis at DC Ranch Village Health Club and Spa.
The Puehses are a self-contained unit, with the children home-schooled by their mother, whom Nic jokingly refers to as the headmaster of Puehse Academy. Their father, self-employed in sales and marketing, oversees training and publicity, including a YouTube channel and a Twitter feed with more than 92,000 followers.
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