He does it all with style, personality, flair and fun. Christian rips every kind of terrain: backyard pools, street, vert and mini ramps. He’s talking about his life and hoping to let kids know about the right path. He had a spiritual awakening in jail, and now he’s one of the saviors of skateboarding. Beginning in 2000, Christian was in jail for 4 1/2 years, and now he’s out and back on track.

He started hanging out with sketchier people and that led him to jail. As skateboarding blew up again in the mid ’90s, Christian missed the connection with the X Games and all the big vert contests because by that time he was already in trouble and having minor problems with the law. When the ’90s came in, vert was dying and street was taking over and Christian was right on top of it, getting his street groove on. Once he shows up, he’s going to put on a show for you. He might be late, but he’s worth the wait.

When we’d go to contests, no matter what place he got, he’d hang out and sign autographs after all the other pros had left. Every time someone gave him new clothes, he’d tear off the sleeves or the bottom of his t-shirts and make his own fashion statement. He has that magnetic personality, which I think came from growing up around skateboarding and being able to be yourself. What was cool about Christian was that he’d skate and have fun. As skateboarding grew in popularity, Christian became one of the kings. At the time I met Christian, there were only 17 pros in the world of skateboarding. He got to travel the world, and every weekend he was in a new town skating. Hosoi lived in the heyday of the ’70s and into the ’80s and he carried the ’70s torch through to the next generation. He got sponsored by Dogtown and then moved on to Powell trying to find his way. He was concrete surfing at Marina early on. They set the dream in his eye of what the good life was about, surfing, skating and hanging with your friends. Those were the influences Christian had when he was 10 years old.

He was around with guys like Jay Adams and Shogo Kubo when they were skating Marina Skatepark back in the day and they were the kings of skateboarding. Through him, you can see the history of skateboarding. JUICE MAGAZINE 13 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL:Ĭhristian Hosoi is skateboarding.

Hosoi skateboarder