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Where In The World Is Christian Hosoi
Apr. 8th, 2010 10:04 amI was into skateboarding for a little while when I was 15, me and my family had just moved back to the southern California suburbs, I was too young to drive so a skateboard was the next most economical option. I was never good enough to do many tricks, but I was plenty enough poseur to paper my bedroom walls with pictures cut out of skateboard magazines. TransWorld Skateboarding was my favorite - the photos were awesome, filling my little teenage head with daydreams of super-aggressive grinds to gravity defying aerials and insane jumps. This one dude Christian Hosoi was the coolest - he had the most style, rockstar flair and effortless talent. My skateboarding phase lasted about ten months, up until the time my friends and I got driver’s licenses. Never thought about it much after that.
Fast forward ten years to 1995: the first X-Games explodes into Providence, and a few years later Tony Hawk becomes a household name from his video games. I’m happy to see skateboarding capture the world’s imagination again, but I kinda wonder whatever happened to that Christian Hosoi guy.
I just caught this documentary that answers that question: Rising Son - The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. It’s an awesome film, and the story is so perfectly classic you can hardly believe it: immensely talented kid becomes superstar, rockstar lifestyle goes out of control, he gets mixed up with drugs, goes to prison, finds Jesus and gets out on good behavior, now with a beautiful wife and kids, back skating and part-time minister at his church. You just can’t get more redemption archetype than that. The film doesn’t feel cliché tho – he had a really interesting relationship with his dad, and more than anything else his supernatural talent, charisma, and goodness shine through, he puts it all together with a style that nobody else can match; I swear it’s like Christian Hosoi comes from another planet, and everyone on that planet skates. So. If you’ve got even a little skate rat left in that punk-kid heart of yours, you should really see this movie.
Fast forward ten years to 1995: the first X-Games explodes into Providence, and a few years later Tony Hawk becomes a household name from his video games. I’m happy to see skateboarding capture the world’s imagination again, but I kinda wonder whatever happened to that Christian Hosoi guy.
I just caught this documentary that answers that question: Rising Son - The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi. It’s an awesome film, and the story is so perfectly classic you can hardly believe it: immensely talented kid becomes superstar, rockstar lifestyle goes out of control, he gets mixed up with drugs, goes to prison, finds Jesus and gets out on good behavior, now with a beautiful wife and kids, back skating and part-time minister at his church. You just can’t get more redemption archetype than that. The film doesn’t feel cliché tho – he had a really interesting relationship with his dad, and more than anything else his supernatural talent, charisma, and goodness shine through, he puts it all together with a style that nobody else can match; I swear it’s like Christian Hosoi comes from another planet, and everyone on that planet skates. So. If you’ve got even a little skate rat left in that punk-kid heart of yours, you should really see this movie.
