I read somewhere quite a while back that the New Zealand government had banned a bunch of names… Basically a long list that you can no longer legally call your child.
Yeah, they did, and my name was one of them. I think my name was one of the first ones they banned. I remember reading an article about it when I was in High School, and after that people started changing the spelling, and they started banning those too.
I just did a quick google search and found some of those wild spellings people were running with: JAHSTICE
Oh, I definitely rate that one! For sure.
JUSDYCE!
I don’t even know what to think of that one – what’s up with the D?
What about JUSTUS?
I’m rating that one too (Laughs). You know a lot of people mistake my name for Justin. I get that all the time. Sometimes I know people for a while and it’s only later on they go “What? Your name is actually Justice!?’
I know you more as Juzzy. When did that name stick?
As soon as I started skateboarding, I would have been about 12. One of my oldest friends, his nickname was Juzzy and I became Juzzy Junior. But he had multiple nicknames, and I guess Juzzy Junior stuck with me. Then it just became Juzzy. I took over his nickname!
I just remembered another one of those banned names was Royale Bubz!
Oh, my goodness – what are people thinking? Actually, I should probably mention my little sister in called Fynist! So, I definitely don’t have the oddest name in the family. And my older sister is called Harmony…
Fynist and Harmony! Wow!
It’s different, but yeah, I got a bunch of weird name siblings!
You’re currently in Victoria, and in lockdown. How’s that treating you?
It’s pretty LOCKED-DOWN. It’s really restrictive, but you can still make the most of it. But there is definitely a bit of an eerie feeling in the air at the moment. Just with everyone being stuck at home, isolated. It’s just really crazy, I don’t really know what to think of it all at the moment. But I’m lucky, I’m not alone. I live with my partner and roommate and we’re holding it down in Prahran – 3181 baby! We got 2 cats too, Inky and Beau, that’s my boys right there! Beau is short for Bowie, cos he has two different coloured eyes. So, we had to name him after the legend.
What do you to keep yourself busy and/or sane at the moment?
I’m an early bird, so I wake up really early, then I hang out with the cats for a couple of hours, then I usually go for a run or a walk – do the coffee run, hang out with the little lady and then maybe go for a roll around the block or within the limits of my allowed 5km radius.
“Man, as hard as this whole quarantine thing is, you just need to find something that makes you happy and keeps you ticking over…”
So, obviously there’s no travel in the immediate future, but let’s say you could jump on a plane tomorrow – where would you go?
Japan, for sure! 100%!!! Never been, always wanted to go! Heartbroken we can’t travel right now, because we had big plans for a trip there this year. Would have been so good to see all the Adidas brothers over there.
Prahran skatepark is your usual hang spot, right? I’m always seeing clips of you lurking there.
Yeah, that’s the hood. It’s literally like a block from my house. But I just love it to be honest, it’s just a really good skatepark and it has all the fundamentals… The necessities that every park should have in one way or another.
Tell me about the board you just had put out by DEF… It looks great!
Thank you so much. It came as a crazy surprise, man. Chey Ataria, who runs DEF, he had slid me a few DMs with some ideas, and that would have been early 2019. That’s when the seed was planted, then on the casual it was like ‘ let’s work on a clip and some stuff…’ and then 2020 came around, and the circumstances that went along with it, things didn’t really pan out as planned, all, the clips I was hoping to get didn’t quite eventuate. But, none the less, the board ended up getting released. The first board was actually released as a DEF x Capilli series, there was a blackbird and it was for an ANZAC series boards, so I was super honoured to be a part of that. Then my board got released with the Kiwi on it, and I’m so grateful for it – shout out DEF!
I see they’re all sold out…
Yeah, from what I heard the whole series sold out really quickly. Shout out Simon Thorp and shout out Jesse Boonz, the other two skaters that had the other two boards that were released at the same time. I’m proud of the brothers for sure.
I’ll throw a picture of the board up and see if we get the people out there to demand a reprint.
Let’s do it!
Hit em up! www.defstore.co.nz
You are one of the more positive humans I know. Is there anything that comes to mind that gets on your goat? For me it’s Netball…
Netball!!! [Laughs] What? I was not expecting that!
Yeah – it’s the first thing I think of when people ask me what I don’t like. No offence to any netballers out there – but it’s too stop-start. Like watching basketball with a bad internet connection.
Dial-up NBA!!!
Exactly! But, enough about me – Back to you!
What don’t I like? Hmmm, I don’t like mess. There’s something about being messy, and messiness in all forms. There’s something about being messy that I just don’t like. I don’t even know how to explain it, but it just ticks me off. I wouldn’t say I’m obsessive compulsive about it, but I just think everything has its place.
I can relate to that. Leaning back on the positive side of things, what’s your take on providing people with some good Juzzy vibes, in these crazy times of uncertainty?
Man, as hard as this whole quarantine thing is, you just need to find something that makes you happy and keeps you ticking over. It’s like how you can’t always skate even though you want to – you might be dealing with a rolled ankle, a busted collar bone or something, but you just need to find something else to focus on it. This whole lockdown thing has been really hard for everyone, but you’ve just got to persevere and put your mind to just staying strong.
