Legendary Christian Hosoi

[Music] [Music] what's up everyone welcome to hawk versus wolf versus holmes man it's not as catchy but it's pretty cool or hawk versus world well featuring holmes that's better it's the referee between the wolf and the hawk right now it's definitely the smartest move like if if it's us three you should both be the ref and i'll punch myself in the face for you guys that's the least i could do welcome christian yeah thanks for having me guys thanks appreciate it so we put the word out of uh what do you guys want guess who do you want and christian and rodney wow amazing definitely we're to be you know top of the list demanded with rodney is pretty uh humbling because he's such a i mean not only is he a great skater but he's just this amazing personality that uh i got to know him later on in life because back in the day you know vert and freestyle yeah we were talking we're a little bit like you know they didn't have kind words sometimes but we had mad respect but he kind of yeah rodney broke the mold though especially with the the whole freestyle vert he was so far back that we were still sitting there scratching our heads and sitting there getting ready to skate the vert contest going what did he just do how did the board you know do an impossible it was incredible i have a question yes this is way better show for me than everybody else i'm like [ __ ] yeah you two could just be like what was that like so rodney mullen i remember like and i'm not there but tony is not that cool rodney's not that cool because he's cool with tony those two are friends because they win a lot of contests and they do nerdy technical tricks christian you're not you're the opposite you're like the guy that doesn't do even though you could do technical tricks but you went big and you hung out with a lot of other people that were uh way more into the lifestyle than into like how many tricks i can do you were cool but you were always you never made fun of rodney mullen no because you have respect for people who are great and he was so like beyond like okay for me so beyond his years that we were still in awe so it was hard to hate it's like this the the freestylers definitely there was i don't know animosity but it was it was just kind of like ah they're you know they're they're doing 360s like the other guys that are that own shoe companies now were did you like them well we we got along but but there wasn't there wasn't a reverence when rodney mullen's name was called like at a freestyle event everyone stopped including you guys yes for sure right and the rest was fair game hey man let's be real apologize who i became friends with all you freestyle guys you know wait freestyles came to own the world they they got the last laugh they really did i thought that i i as a you know it wasn't worth it just kidding just [Laughter] [Applause] oh kidding i love you guys like i said i never i remember them and i'm like wait weren't you guys like kind of insignificant and now you own like a big that's gotta feel good right and a few of those guys have said to me like yeah yeah that wasn't bad that wasn't a bad thing for that to turn around and all of a sudden because when they had the money and they owned the pile then a lot of skateboarders whether they liked it or not are like hey oh we're down it couldn't help noticing you've got the greatest shoe company in the world like uh and they're like did you [ __ ] on me at some kind they're like no how about that like i don't know if that ever happened but i feel like they were more business than that yeah i don't i wouldn't say that there was that that it was like hurling insults it just was a lack of interest okay is that worse i wonder which is worse well i think it's all bad when you come to like you know that kind of like for me where i come from so i came from the other side want to be cool guys we're the where the you know the bomb we're we're it right and then these freestylers are doing flat ground completely like harmless you can't get hurt you fall what are you going to do hit the ground you know so and then with how they did their tricks it was coming out of the 70s because i was there when it was like 1980 81 it was so new and it was so like for us we were it was like dancing it was it was stylish we thought it was ice skating because a lot of the moves were very dance dancy um some were just straight up dancing right and i feel like rodney mullen started doing things where you look even if untrained you're like okay i i don't even know if that's humanly possible did he just give you then you start see how you guys can get with it because me watching the other guys i mean at one point like there was like hair flicks involved and i'm like wait what oh if you could look up videos of freestyle there's there's stuff of people like getting off their board and boogieing okay and then getting back on their board my favorite was primo desiderio and his uh wife uh they did seaworld didn't they they would do diamonds they would do a full routine but it was to hip hop and like you know rocket and those types of uh music they performed at sea world that was for a long time a long time yeah all right that was entertaining that was dope see i want to know i know like yeah rodney mullen everybody wow you're so crazy i gotta uh respect him but at one point i saw a video this is me in australia who's got a guy who's a pro guy who came to america and came back and said you know you guys are the you know you know [ __ ] with these two they're you know blah blah blah but at del mar there's some [ __ ] there where a whole bunch of people are talking [ __ ] and everyone's mad at tony and there's a bunch of people that are on christian side and i'm like wait what i'm like i don't know i only see you guys flying in the air you know he's got a [ __ ] pink helmet and you're doing [ __ ] crosses and i'm like whoa these guys must be like you made best buds and then to see this i got a vhs video because it was gregor rankin you know him right he was at the contest so as much as he liked you the crowd was being mean to tony and grego's such a weird dude that he was like oh i'm tony's number one fan because that's like the yeah it's the most wrong yeah he had something it was everyone wanted to beat him up and he finds that i don't know i think he gets off on that someone's gonna kill him for being so ballsy but i watch this video and yeah it's enough everyone's cool stealing thing all the cool people loved you and you had no shirt on you had it coming out of your [ __ ] thing and you also that was he backed it up like you were like whew and i'm like wait are you calling that you're gonna do a five i'm like even when i was a kid i was like holy [ __ ] the balls and this i could tell that pool i would have i would not have had a video part of any move in that thing i would have just had fran fans so funny i think it's impossible watch that del mar footage of that contest that i'm talking about there was only two like that we were we were like at the end 84 and 85 yeah and i just remember doing what you just said and i'm doing the roll out to go and do the five and you're right it was like here we go with the pressure yeah but he delivered but he but he delivered so we all we all thought that was funny and quirky but at the same time we're like but he's doing it but you can't but you can't no one could do it especially that five you had a five that was the most dangerous 540 out of all 540s it was the biggest one it was the most flippy one and close to hanging but i couldn't get over your friends it seemed like because i saw some people in the crowd that i go i know that guy he's a pro too some eddie there was some dreadlock people that were like and i'm like okay when you guys leave and you go afterwards do you are you telling him to go [ __ ] himself or did anybody did eddie no i don't want to say i really think the rivalry of the fans when yeah they were in big stands it was more like it was such a battle between us and the vibe was such a different uh a kind of like tracker indy thrasher yeah trans world so you had so many people in the industry that were fighting for on each side as well so it's not only fighting for us but there was a lot of other things that they were recovering from yeah representing a fascist it was like they were just rooting it was almost like some sort of college football did you understand did you two get pulled into it or were you both always cool with each other no we were cool it was always almost like entertainment yeah it was almost anybody set where they're like okay act like fans now and then they would do it and then afterwards who were they did you're all of us who all hung out together i have a good perspective on it now though and um i i'm pretty sure they've they're announcing that they're doing this documentary about my life sam jones has done it and oh it's done amazing it's done and so there is a big part of that storyline in it from what i know yeah and i have a perspective on it now because i remember it in that yeah it was it was one part of the stands a big part of the stands that was mostly norcal dudes thrasher indy so that was already like not cool with del mar locals tracker bones brigade right okay and then hardcore christian fans obviously because they that's the cool because he was he's the man right the king of style yeah so there was that and then they just started instead of just rooting for him booing me because they just decided they had to choose sides and there wasn't some big faction of people that were on my side but no i know it was like del mar locals were like well that sucks that they're doing that yeah let's let's give it back to them did you ever talk to your side about being a bit more respectful did that ever come up or were you like hell yeah i think it's out of respect because they knew he's probably gonna win it's his home park i'm the only one that's gonna give him a run for his money the fans are like rooting for me booing him hoping he's gonna maybe mess up under the pressure okay so so it's not just booing him it's like booing the results because it's like that's how you do it it's in basketball you see it when you go to a different stadium they're going to be doing this to distract go to another one and then the fans you know they're feeling threatened it was amazing how that worked out were we kind of like oh gosh they're taking it over the top dang why do you want to go there why do you want to now it's like boo soy you know what i mean to his fans they were like booing the fans that were booing tony it was like a heavy kind of like rap i remember seeing gregor flipping them all off and i was like that guy likes me that's like that guy doesn't like me he he he liked you but he al he lied to you way more because of all he liked the controversy he was like wait you're all gonna gang up on him oh well then i'm on his side i'll tell you when when it got more more insulting for me is that one of my runs they threw beer cans in the bowl while you escaped while i was skating yeah and that's when i was like dude this sucks right because you're now you're now you're just straight up [ __ ] the guy's ride like you might have yeah that was that was kind of a bummer but but at the same time wasn't that like the dagger [Laughter] is and being a little guy in here like boom and i'm like wait are they like actually really local by the way right duncan and those guys so it was yeah that's where it got weird i became kind of localish there too hanging out with you guys because it was last park yes but but i do remember tommy guerrero wrote an apology to thrasher that actually did happen for that event on on behalf of flashers we know that that he you know we we were acting out of line was he a part of it he was in the stands so i don't know what how he participated in it but he was definitely guilty by association he definitely would have been and he was a bones brigade dude so i think i don't know if there were other people saying that or what but that happened dang we're talking serious bro that stuff was that's like dramatic picture right there could you imagine it what look if you're looking at like i love skateboard i love vert you two were the kings of ver and to know that it was like i i i related to you more because i was trying to be cool i i wanted to like the the things that came natural to me were going big and doing a method there versus doing a indie 360 it didn't com i couldn't relate to him because everything he did i was like i'll never do that i was doing like little weak ass versions of your [ __ ] but here's like uh you know like airwalk i was like i can't i've never done one i still can't do one in my prime i wasn't going to do that one but i did you know some lazy looking christian method errors and and and started to get the you know that's what made me but even even in my shoes i just wanted my tricks to look like his you know what i mean like even even learning all the tricks and stuff i was like but but i can't crossbone like that and that's that is the that's the standard by which each everything should be measured christian that he started doing where they were like you once definitely one that he did good yeah you know you mean that and over time very rare people who can do it completely flat you know other than that but that was it i i watched i there was a photo of you at upland and then that was it i was like that if i'm ever gonna do that trick it's gotta look like that did you feel like was that okay for him to do that like because you didn't feel like somebody was trying to have you ever felt like someone doing your [ __ ] have you felt nothing but gratitude have you ever felt like complimentary okay to me no matter flattering it's complimentary and i encourage it i would i mean me and him skated forever we've done demos together staying the same hotels and we're always supporting each other since day one i don't remember any type of bad vibe between me and tony at any ramp at any pool at any contest i've never seen him really i've never seen but also actually beyonce it was never it was never up to us anyway we just decided no the the judges decided yeah the crowd had their favorites and whatever but but but at the end of the day we just skated our best and it was it was art against art and and however the judges saw that's just what it was i think the pressure between us how we process pressure and in the competitive nature that we have i mean we strive and thrive on that moment i think if you watch tony skating contest when i would watch him you could just feel his intensity that he is not he's not going to bail right and for me that was like what drove the adrenaline in me to take my skateboarding to another level every time he'd learn another trick i'd have to figure out how to compensate it with my style of skating and how would you go about things like that when he started doing all these new tricks did you start thinking i went farther and i'm like well how far can i go right till i have to start getting technical so so when lip tricks came in okay ben schroeder and all them and lee ralph and i was like man i need to learn lip tricks so i had to learn lip tricks to even stay competitive with his tricks you know what i mean and then it became okay he's not skating at his best and you could take advantage of that that's been a lot of times tony i was like i was like he didn't get that run like his the run before yeah okay and it's finals and you know what it's crazy we would go semi font prelim semifinals and then finals and it's like two runs there's not three runs we're talking two runs is all you get combined score even right i think combined yeah or best two out of three something like that it was either that it was either best two out of three or it was head to head head to head was the worst i had was insane i'm from the older era and they only did it one time in my whole career and yeah i agree i hated that i was like wait now it's like you of against me i did not like that i liked it better when it was just all of us against television there's a little like ego when it comes to that though because i remember going dang i gotta go head-to-head with my friends and then you know you look and you go man okay i have to like build up so in your competitive like strategy you have to be almost strategic in what tricks you reveal in the quarterfinals then into the semifinals then into the finals if you don't save those tricks for them but you still got to kill it so the pressure's still on to like be even more impressive with your other stuff versus pulling out your you know banger tricks in the finals right and but for sure if you were to do those banger tricks in the semis and then you did the same thing in the finals you're gonna get a lower score see only you two though like other people might get away that's the little bit of like that's that little margin of error that we knew when i skated with him there was just that little margin of error it's so minute you know i mean but it was so real and i think that's really what and the judges would would definitely uh punish us for it right i felt like you guys were always really consistent for being the for doing the hardest two runs of the day you were i don't remember many times where you both didn't make your ride and the judges had to decide like i don't know yeah but but you could tell if it was all on or if there were little wobbles or little sketches like they were they were subtle it was nuanced but we could both tell and the judges were so in tune with what we were capable of that that they were pretty harsh right so if you didn't go above your level the judges fly into town we nsa is all over they would never see a skate except at the contest right because there's no way to watch escape so we go in on wednesday ramp open wednesday thursday friday contest saturday every single contest was like that i'd fly on a tuesday be there early wednesday they're finishing the ramp and i'm getting first runs on the ramp telling them move the coping out i'm like move that coping out and i'm like just like you know making it for the bomb yeah and they're like get out of here christian when's practice not till later i'm gonna just hang out right here you know i mean yeah but that that was kind of like the the thing you had to do you had to like almost not perform in practice in front of the judges and then all these guys would come in you know and they'd just do their contest run and be like here they go they're just doing costumes and they're going bigger than they're going to go in the finals i know they're not going to do this in the contest right because it's just so much pressure in a contest that you're just going to go lower you're not going to be as powerful and i kind of know who's going to just go all out miller of course is just going to go all out lester's going to go all out there's no stopping those guys they're going to do their best run in the opening first run yeah you know what you mean all or nothing it's it's like that too yeah the rest you know we have some conservative people but that's where you have to like be strategic on what you reveal then the judges i would always just come in cruise around there like dude he's not practicing what's going on well i already know that i have to do these tricks and i'm like i just need to get warmed up right i don't have to practice that trick five runs in a row before the contest run and all these guys are just banging out contests running contests around contest run i'm just like and then i come in i do a mellow run and they're like whoa that was sick and i'm like they didn't see me skate so it's all you know full-on first impression did you do that i did it in a way that i had i had a line of whatever i want to hit on the ramp and then interchangeable tricks okay so those increase in difficulty every time okay so the first run like he said first run is it it's just an india on this wall but on this run it's gonna be a stale five okay or something like that yeah where i would always just bump it up and then and then like he said you just keep increasing it so so even in the finals you don't you're not phoning it in but for sure the first run isn't the best it's just one you want to get on the board right and the second one it's like i'm for him he just blasted higher or just some harder have to like there was there was no holding back i think that's the nerve that you had to have you know to actually have my style of skating go up against his style of skating because you know progression and advanced technicality versus power speed and style that type of skating that you know just had to increase and i think that pushed me i think it pushed him and we were just on this crazy you know creative path you know what i mean doing what we love to do it's funny how you say you're not technical but to be able to land where you land and pump the way you do i mean it's not like sergi's the only person i've ever seen that like comes as close as you as when it comes to it doesn't look like you're [ __ ] trying it looks like you've got a little motor going and you're cheating i mean it's a freakish thing have you always had that when you because i noticed you guys uh were like amateur shredders little little guys you were like cab like little with the mushroom head because you were so little were you were you flying around when you were a short person like a little kid i think you know what there was a little bit of it you know what i mean from the fire get back and i already just try to imagine what my life was like when at 10 years old skating marina del rey and hanging out with you know dennis agnew polar bear and shogo and george wilson in the brown bowl and just trying to figure out skateboarding but i was going and copying their tricks invert and i would just do it more extended i was going for it back you know when i was little yeah and i think they saw something in that and they're like whoa look at this little shredder and then i got my photo in skateboarder magazine doing the front side ollie that was the that was the moment and really they were telling me i had you know the style you're going to be you know even at that page oh yeah you know what in the photo he's were you landing disaster on that you know what i don't i did it in and i did it as a disaster so that one looks probably the disaster but but either way it's it's it looks like a four foot front side ollie right from uh you know a little chicken yeah and and he's got long hair i thought he was a girl because i said christian a soy and i was like is that is that a girl's name and then you know it's just blasting and we at we as kids his age that we're skating we're like that is insane oh so you didn't know him yet when you saw that photo so that's the first thing of christian i saw you ever saw was that francoli yeah yep and then you from that photo everyone starts talking to you like you're the next big thing in that my dad managed marina del rey skate park so oh i was friends with like all those guys the jer you know what i mean kent senator shogo kubo we sat there at that park every day i would sweep the bowls i would open up the you know pinball machines foosball tables so when's run the snack bar oh okay so this is free cokes and for all my friends let me get to this let me get to this ariel like the back side is it the backside of this your first aerial or is these fronts or fronts of dollies like how do you start flying around and you go wow this is pretty easy to me well j adam's first cover he's like doing like a full-on like two-handed air on the cover like a weird air so when we're little kids you're i was at skateboard world this is 77 maybe and we're doing full bunny hop airs really great out of the bowl at the end okay or jumping off your board and over the fence and leaving your board in the box okay so those are kind of like the first like trying to go big you know what i mean and everybody's doing high jumps you know what i mean i was just jumping over the stick thing harold tony alva barrel jump in the magazine you're using transition to catch air for us it was like almost like that moment when it went from freestyle and kind of you know 360s and pad ads right all this crazy kind of advertisement that was just 70s to like 80s bones brigade 1980 boom came in hot wide six-track mag trucks and it it was it was such a fast transition and evolution at that moment everything changed everything changed like all the skaters the pros that were pro at gold cup gone in 81 right after right yeah like literally overnight because we were so hungry at that moment gold cup you could see that the amateurs were just advancing probably within months you know within months they were like advancing so quickly that you didn't even win an amateur contest and you're already on the barnes brigade because stacy saw your skills i was on yeah but but at gold cup i was on dog town oh [ __ ] and i was i was at that contest that marina contest when it was definitely there was a there was a whole shift going on but but all the old school guys were still there and we were coming up and doing some tricks i told the story i think maybe on this show but but um that's when i did uh half cab frontside rock yeah and he wrote and i did that at the end of my run in the gold cup series and i was whatever i could barely you know i was doing like tiny backside ollies and and thrusters and just barely getting to the top but i did that for fast one wheel cars with his hand on his knee pushing through yeah yeah yeah i just remember him doing that yeah pushing on me well like when uh you weren't here but there were those little japanese kids here the other day yeah and they're eight i saw the video you posted those guys are pushing on their knees through the flat bottom and i go i feel that yeah you'd feel that like in a deep wave you guys your whole body's pumping yeah manipulating but i did that trick and and like a half hour later i saw eddie algeria trying that trick in the brown bowl and i was i was blown away yeah you were doing burials down at the bottom remember the full burial errors yeah i was like this kid is tricky you know what i mean and i'm doing backside channels yeah he was going to challenge the channel was reserved for a select few right because you've already figured out how to kind of launch yourself by then well it was my home park yeah but it's interesting but i mean it's an eight-foot channel that goes in right so it's not like so you're gonna pull out but you got to pull out full-on yeah it was really nice there are maybe four people that had done it at that point all right and he's doing it and then he's like scraping up the all up the coping into a tail tap but like air to tail tap and and we you know i was his age i was like [ __ ] do that heirs to fakie yeah oh wow back then big back side ollies and lay back arrows lay backs yeah lay back i did the full like eye contact with the judges all the way to the bottom like this if you see the video ray oh yes the video and i'm like i'm looking at the joker and i stay on the flat bottom looking at the judges like this he was already showman you know attitude from the you know jay adams and jogo bill euron those guys man so then when you get into contests and it becomes like uh you know everybody starts to blow up and skateboarding's never been bigger before and you verse what skateboarding is and you are the two vert guys what like is is that the heyday to you or do you see that as like you weren't really paying attention what to what was happening do you remember it like do you look back fondly on it i think it lasted a long time like it lasted years and years that's what was so incredible from late 1980 all the way to the 90s like mid 90s i mean i was still around but you know i obviously went into my dark side you know in the 90s and just kind of left skateboarding i still kind of like come in here and there to one contest they think at the hard rock my last contest i got the cover of slap magazine doing a method and then uh was that the one that in newport maybe hardware or las vegas i don't know which one but both of those what was the san francisco street contest that you you went in was the one in the fountain yeah where he like he had some girlfriend that he made out with for like a long period of time and i i can't tell i can't remember if it was in your contest writer right after or right before but i was like what the [ __ ] is going on was that on video i this is before like i was there like oh you were there i don't know if anybody posted the video i'm sure somebody did kinda but it was um you know there was a few new street dudes that were good and but but it wasn't enough there were virtues that could keep up christian was there he was doing you were learning tre flip flip on the on the flat ground i was like [ __ ] he can do that with these flared out tail boards like that's crazy you're even trying that you know i think gonz was there and um guerrero you know [ __ ] like it was san francisco i think tommy won it right i think so yeah is that the second or third one you did the one that was in the fountain with the spines yeah yeah yeah yeah and you did you would get away with the with the nose wheelie around the whole thing oh yeah but i don't know who it was but you there's some girl that was like a pot she was your girlfriend i'm sure of it but she was like part of your contest right like it was he i think you made out with her and they were like christian you rise up but you're just tongue in it's jig and i'm like is he gonna go no he's not gonna go and then and then it was like you totally heard your name like you were like i don't care 15 seconds yeah and then you rolled off into the street course and it was when it was like small wheels and narrow boards maybe focus i was doing focus at the time oh yeah wow focus yeah yeah that's right so i had this like seven and a half inch wide board like custom made and it was my little skinny shape with narrow trucks yeah and i just learned heel flips this is the only contest i've ever done a flip trick in it's the only one and i said to myself man you know what i can't compete with these guys they're all doing these crazy tricks i think this is the second one or something like this okay it's not the first one because the first one i'm doing board slides and on the banked wall in the back that was yeah yeah and that's the one he's talking about with the spine in the middle jason lee's doing back kick back tail for the first time okay yeah that's so the next one was when chef he's doing like nollies over the couch and everything oh blasting late shovits okay i saw the first one then it was the first one okay yeah okay because i thought it's a little blurry it does here i'll talk to you about that heelflip so i'm sitting here going you know what i'm not gonna place if i don't do a flip trick so i said i'm gonna start with heel flipping over the you know eight foot you know bank debate right so i'm like what do i got to lose just go for it and just bail at least i look like i'm progressive right swear i sir they'll think i'm like really good i'm trying hard to keep up and then i'm like damn man i usually make that all the time and i pow landed oh sweet and i got fourth place i think something like that because of that trick i'm sure that worked out yeah so yeah that was a great memory of that's pretty sick what about limousines to contests do you recall doing those and and what was your uh your theory on that because that was very impressive also do you recall any of those where you would travel with a limousine yeah yeah you know you got to have an entrance you know yeah i mean no you didn't listen when you show up i'm still working on it you [ __ ] up big time dude you could have [ __ ] been huge all i could think of is tony and the bones brigade cruising in the station wagon yeah the volvo across country not cool yeah i love the way lance tells it in my documentary he tells it funny about it and holmes is doing demos for a thousand bucks yeah you know what i mean and i'm for sure show up in a limo come and hang out give them everything that i got all the shoes and all the clothes everything yeah and be like yeah love it thanks thanks for having me it was great yeah vans contest i go to advance contest where they made a really crazy ramp where they had an oververt section in the corner i remember that one transition and like a taco bell thing or something there was a lot of [ __ ] on that ramp it was a [ __ ] mess uh you show up in a limo and this is i've been in america for a couple months you know i've seen a i mean i've seen you in australia but i never met you and i and am i oh [ __ ] christian's coming and you go through the parking lot in a white limo and that girl's in the back with you once again i don't want to add to it but you you're with her in the back and i'm like what the [ __ ] you know me and you're in the back like whoo just in a white limo with the girl and then you showed to the cons it's like whoa and i'm just from afar going holy [ __ ] dude like you're just like yeah whatever and i'm like what limo the other guy that's in the contest with you doesn't have anything like nobody had a limo no i drove him i drove up my honda civic yeah like yeah nobody had a good car and you had a limo and then i'm super excited to watch you skate and you're not on it you're not in it at all you do two backs it is in your contest ride and on the second one you kick it over the deck and do this big whoo in the air you go with no board and i'm like that's your [ __ ] last ride what do you mean woohoo you're just i saw your eyes you're like i give a [ __ ] man and i'm like how could you you got a limo here to do a [ __ ] backside and kick it over the side of the ramp and be like woo let's leave i'm like what are you it was really impressive funny and it's funny but i remember i love how it's so vivid in your memory too because we're all still just like anybody that touched the overview was like atticus i do remember danny wave doing a blunt or a rock that he dropped to fakie they both yeah the two freaks did it cool i was like yeah yeah you two would do that yeah that was ridiculous i mean him i could understand because he was so tall right i'm like okay i get that oh okay you're putting it down but i was like danny he was like a [ __ ] right he was literally tiny yeah but he just went up and he just went rocked a figure and it didn't even look like anything for him yeah because he threw it up above him and then it was almost like a blunt to fakie but a rock did look like he ollied into it but he seemed especially at that time he was about to introduce the world to how new skateboarders skate like that scoop the pop out like the street ollie into a virtric nobody was doing that he was doing that and everybody else tried to do it because there was a schulte's out there that was scraping around like a mongrel as well but danny wayne made it look like oh [ __ ] we should all try and figure i remember there was a time there where i was trying to get that and i was like [ __ ] 80s i can't you know i mean like it's oh under my belt to get that [ __ ] thing going i'm just like whoa my my that's what i'm talking about that's what i'm talking about ellis you see my [ __ ] body child lately it's pretty good my my we're going into eccentric uh christian stories mine was i remember you showed up one day because everyone just we're at every event it was every month or every few weeks right and christian shows up one day and his hair is down like almost to his butt in an instant extensions yeah i was like how is this hair long come on i go i then i actually asked you because like how did you how did you get your hair along and you're like extensions bro yeah and i was like how and you're like thousand bucks yeah yeah they were they were like 1500 bucks you didn't even know hey you got to be just that's how much they cost i mean that was real hair that was like 80 real hair what are we talking about 87 88 it was 85. uh holiday havoc wait so i should get it 85 1500 bucks for hair whose salon do you go to in hollywood to get that like who's in beverly hills i was like i want to i want to show up with long hair and they tied individual like things everywhere so you could it took forever it looked real yeah like everybody looked at me like this i could just they look at it and they're like whoa i guess he held his hair up extension he had his hair up people didn't yeah it was so good it was so good figure it out know that and then with the locker pants did you ever burn your hips or your king of long hair micropants went very well with them i was like there's no one else there's no one else i remember a guy tried to do it and i was like hey man don't do that get your shorts back on right now he's like what are you talking about i'm like i'm [ __ ] deadly serious that's not cool whatever you're doing over there don't do that you'd already been doing it for like eight years before this guy showed up with those on i was like don't no one no one can do that but i'm a guy that has i have pants on and i have i used to tape my ankles because i would because i blow my knees out so much that i would do this weird little scoop thing and i would uh melt the side of my leg a lot let her know in my hip did you ever burn your ass unlocked with lycopenes doing [ __ ] 10-foot airs all day it's so funny i thought about that like all these recent years and i'm like never touch the ground like i only got a hipper at wallows a scarf from a hipper at wallows and i was wearing the iridescent like surf trunks i wasn't even wearing lycra so it probably saved me a little bit if i would have been in my you know straight lycra shorts you know he never spandex just he seemed fall it was always like like that was a trick if you could fall like christian that would be a change you have a lot of injuries like spandex shorts right yeah no shirt yeah i know doing the whole day of skating in backyard pools ditches and never got a back scrape never got like you know hip i just got a hipper a couple times skating vert but not no marks i did a telegraph five and got a sequence of it in thrasher or trans or something saying alice is doing target fives with no elbow pads you did fives with no [ __ ] you had no shirt no elbow pads your knee pads if i'm not mistaken you were one of those people that had the the basic one with no knee gasket you wore the minimum amount of knee pad as well yeah and and it held up all the way until you got older like did you ever have any manipulated falling because you know i was a little lighter like now i'm actually 157 and i was at 170 right before the tony hawk demo and uh utah and so i basically oh feel 100 better when i skate because i'm about 12 pounds lighter yeah wait you've recently did that recently like i've that was that was a month and a half ago and you guys were you and especially you and cab just clicked into something where it was like oh these guys are serious about it now but since then you're blasting even higher yeah i feel like you and i are around like i see new like i started skating and then i seen you and i was like oh that's where i want to be where i can just do like you know three foot airs cruising around and then now you're blasting going over here and at you but i'm like you're just a little hi like i'm just just right behind you happily right behind you going yeah yeah flying around doing airs i mean it seems like you know we can still get better you know i mean we're a little wiser now you know than back in the day where you're just trying to push the boundaries and what is you know kind of like the progressive side of skateboarding now it's like let's enjoy it right feel it it's like let's like participate in it and then together with other people and then it's like oh wow we're back it's like getting the band back together and having fun right in in the you know practice room like when you're jamming you know can you imagine all these bands that we like worship and idolize when we're kids all the way through to our 20s and like watch them how they learned yeah where they learned how you know what i mean that to me is probably the most precious part of skateboarding is the the process of getting to the stage to the contest to the demo you know hanging out with the homies pushing each other thinking about what just happened at the contest what we need to do and i think that's that culture and environment you need to have a progressive mind to really push things to a whole nother level because without that i look at skaters today and i can see that they're kind of stuck in this like image thing fitting in thing peer pressure thing it's a you know what click you're in what team you're on trick of the month you know and all that stuff there's a lot of pressure but we felt that in a different way and we took advantage of that and i just i always try to encourage the new generation to to do something believe that you could take it farther you could push it to a better place and then you got guys like you know uh jimmy wilkins skating vert that's just as pretty as it gets moto shabata like these two guys on vert besides you know the lincoln awaiters the the sandra diaz and you know the the people like that i think that it's it's just incredible that they can still push skateboarding to another place that we appreciate more i was going to say it warms my heart watching jimmy wilkins skate like i feel like the other day he did a ride and i dropped in and crossed over and just said hey man i'm just super happy that i live long enough to see you be a skateboarder because i'm so proud of you existing you know i mean like just watching to be able to witness it even zach miller too like i don't care if you're like the you have the gnarliest trick recorded if you have that style you can't you can't uh learn that like that's a he's a that's one of those one for the ages right there for me like that friends today i'm like oh zach you i know you probably thank your dad several times but you need to thank him again because that you can't have nobody else gets to have that francia there like you you have a it's yours it's zach it's not chris but it's still excellent yeah it's because something's inherited there yeah like you can't make an ugly one you only make brilliant yeah beautiful aerials yeah there's nothing like you you cannot buy that there's no learning that and that's what's so special about chris and his son i mean both his sons his other son is like incredible lucas he's awesome so it's definitely in the blood but to live long enough like you were saying getting older and liking skateboarding for just skateboarding because i i also feel like there was a time there where you compete you both competed and that's all you thought about all the time but that was your pocket of where you thought about competing and it meant everything at all times and now you skateboard and you go isn't it cool to still be skating and to still know you and whoa look at this little japanese kid that pumps with his [ __ ] hands on his knees like you're you're ex you're excited about all of it like i feel like there was a time there when i was competing and i was trying to be the best that's all i could think about was that which meant there was a lot of stress like you were saying unnecessary stress i think you also miss out on on camaraderie and friendships when you're so stuck in that too see i'm glad you said that because that's what made me want to bring up he does have one little regret of not being as social back then which means hanging out with you like you guys after a contest you would go hang out and drink and whatever it was it wasn't the after it was more it was more just the the in between well i just remember you know why did you guys never hang out like well i just wasn't i was thrilled to tell him you know stay away from soy's van in the parking lot one time i believe he's like wait was there one i think some of the team was like yo christian smokes what's the big deal and he's like well that's him you can't do i think that was steve i think something like that yeah yeah yeah he said that because oh oh oh i i've caught wind of that i'm not saying but i was but i was just like well i'm i'm not gonna do that because i just know i'm just gonna mess with my skating right like i it wasn't helpful to me so i was just like i'm not doing that but i remember hearing something i remember and i think it was like indiana or something we did a demo together we were young probably 16 like right around there we weren't even of age yet and i think we're staying in this hotel together i mean we're playing quarters with a bunch of girls in the hotel room i brought back to the hotel of course the demo right and tony's sitting there and i'm like tony our first like you know out together and you know he's like killing him i'm getting embarrassed he's killing it right now and i'm like you know his competition and now they request us to go do a demo together we're like yeah we'll go we meet and then i'm like girls back at the room we got a full bunch of girls we're playing quarters and i'm like tony's playing quarters right now this is insane i was like i was like he's sitting there i didn't miss out on everything existed he is it you do not don't go to the hasson van ivery what do you mean he comes back there's a whole group of girls yeah but with that comes so other stuff wow yeah it's so you've always been able to uh get air really easy and girls to go to the van and play what [ __ ] play what whatever hang it like you girls come naturally you smoked a lot of weed back then that's pretty much what we did when you were no when i was 11 and 12. oh wow hanging out at the uh gold cup series 12 years old for the first place i i didn't but the first place i ever got offered weed was at marina del rey when i was maybe 11. uh and i'll never forget i was skating i was skating the um the dog ball i think there was in a little contest there right was there yeah yeah dog ball and this dude yes and i was maybe 11 probably 10. and this dude's like yo man you want to smoke and i thought he just meant cigarettes i'm like no he's like oh man took you up and i go no and he's like you're a straight skater and i was like i'm a [ __ ] one-year-old what are you talking about about that what about what about what put whatever you want on the but the first bit was 10 and then whatever job you want to have on the end of it yes i'm sure i'm so bad i'm just saying i just broke that up because it was so rampant right at marina it was that was it like it's how we grew up you know i grew up fast i mean i'm sponsored by jay at 10 years old 11 before i got that photo in the mag so does that mean you're smoking with those i'm smoking with jay shogo all of the guys at the marina with my dad we're just i'm rolling the joints you know what i mean it was just part of our culture seven days was like all about you know weed back then it was thai stick and since emea and skunk never even came in right indica wasn't even around yet yeah you're older but not that much older and i'm from the same kind of thing just in australia so we had this weed was everywhere yeah and just that whole generation was so different you know i mean we had no one looking over our shoulders like now i'm i'm a parent that you know takes care of my kids and guides them in this right way so that they don't end up in prison like i did right but you also have to allow them to make mistakes to figure it out to learn because i learned probably more from my mistakes than i learned from any successful thing that i've ever done and i think that that's something that you know just being open and transparent about your story things you struggle with the things you went through in life can really help a lot of people and i share that with my kids transparent you know so that they know that these are the things that happen repercussions happen with these choices that you make and so for me you know now it's just such a trip i was the opposite you know i grew up the opposite my dad was totally open to whatever we were like test kids you know during that time of parents and you know what's crazy is his dad and my dad were the only dads at a contest yeah literally the whole event was no family just your dad ran contest as well right his kids would get dropped off yeah yeah but but not in the early days he didn't run them he just would bring me but but ivan was there and well soon 1981 82 i mean they were down like they were they were down together because they were only dads and they were just like yeah hey they were the only dads and it's just so spectacular to see what happened with tony and even myself you know i mean how that kind of support encouragement and just you know being there for us put us on this like almost like confident place yeah we can like really go for it and not you know feel like we're being oppressed or we have to do this or that and they weren't even like this okay so you're gonna learn how many tricks today tony oh yeah they they didn't even care they would come bring us you want to stay here all day whatever yeah i'll pick you up and drop you off it was uh uh such a i was an amazing thing that it happened people say that turned out with my son they're like is he going to be a skateboarder he's going to be whatever he wants to be and like you're not going to push him to be one i'm like no i'm like what he if he wants it he'll get it and if he needs help i'll give it to him but i'm not like how many tr like have you been down there or even soccer like he loves soccer i'm like go play soccer like if you don't want to play soccer don't play soccer like his mom sometimes gets on me for that like he said he's sick he doesn't want to play well he made a commitment so he's going i'm like okay guess we're going buddy yeah i know that conversation because him and i were about to just check out and go to the beach but somebody else calls the [ __ ] it's weirdo i'm just happy to be here christian i was like okay we'll go to soccer let's go everybody quick real quick go to the generation of our kids it's more common that they do skate even just a little than not yeah yeah yeah like it's not a weird thing it's not a weird thing it's it's more of them it's weird that they never did yeah yeah and it and i've seen your kids they're all just they're non-stop mine too they're just out and it's almost like you can't you there's no way you're gonna stop that yeah i think that's the organic way you know what i mean we grew up with that kind of fathering and culture where we allow the person to be what they want to be not let's mold this kid into like the next you know thing you know we're we're like andre agassi i believe and i think that kind of he did not have a fun life makes the uh outcome organic you know if they want to skate and so but i mean as a parent that skateboards right i'm sure he feels the same way when they're skating you're like yes yeah i was gonna say that oh that's insane oh that's incredible thank you jesus my god he's doing he's doing and then you know they start going you know you're like oh okay do anything you want son yeah yeah have fun yeah then you're like just they could they could really man i can't even do that yeah yeah tony's probably doing the same thing i can't even do that it's funny our kids end up being street skaters too right now that's where i was gonna go i remember the day that i knew riley was better than me at street skating because we were skating here we used to have a different setup here and there was a there was a little pyramid would look like a curb ledge on top of it and he's like dad um how do you do a frontside kickflip to tailslide and i was like riley i'm honored you asked me that but i don't know i can't do that and then show you and then he goes and tries it and gets into it and i was like that's how you do it yeah and then he learned it and i was like there's all right he's got her proud moments though as a father i gotta say man you're both excellent fathers i feel like uh as a dad watching you guys tony makes more sense because tony's dad like you're you you you don't look sorry dude smoking weed at 10. it's not a good start that's not a that's not a good start someone should have said that's probably not a good idea but to see where you're at now like i feel like you guys are in the you know i follow like a bunch of people i don't know as well you're your kids dad is around all the time pushing them helping them encouraging them like you guys are super dads i put you in that category of super dads because i know dad's they love their kids but they're not a rent like dude video your instagram is just i know what your kids are doing i know how good they are at skateboarding because i see the posts every day does it bother you that they don't skateboard no it doesn't it doesn't because you know would you like i'm like an artist right and you want somebody to do what they want to do okay you know what i mean and so for me of course i want them to skate vert through christ errors and rocket errors and you know 540s flipped upside down and blasts huge tweakers for sure body jars of course you know yeah because i invented that maneuver by the way no just kidding yeah you're welcome but it's definitely something that uh you know it really makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside when they just skate anything you know what i mean because that is the way of the skateboarder these days is everybody skates everything but also you have the i feel like there was a time there when you guys were 16 that there were some cement parks that were awesome and you're excited to get your parents to drive to them and ride and i'm from a spot where they didn't have that but then the next era then they started building things where uh i think i was on the tail end so when i came here there were you guys had vert ramps vert ramps available to skate they were like vision had one and some people had them otherwise it was a public one that was kind of shitty but then the cement parks came and now they're everywhere like i feel like if i went to australia i don't haven't been there for so long but i see video every now and then where i go oh is that in melbourne like where i'm born yeah and they're like yeah dude you don't know about that i'm like no i don't know about that giant cement skatepark with vert bowls and snake runs and i'm like man we had i called it the coke can it was a vert ramp that was metal and it was three inches of vert and i was like it's pretty good yeah exactly but i think i ran right yeah yeah my favorite ramp i tell you that's one of my favorite ramps on the planet the old one the silver one yeah wow cause of the coping because you could bonk everything like everything about it like how the [ __ ] was the coping was the the texture of the ramp like even the brick wall that you're skating next to the building like i took it all that just had this rad like vibe latimer road in in england was another ramp that had just this vibe that was just you remember that you know spectacular but yeah pray ran ramp that's your home park i saw it i think i saw it i wonder your video well but that same thing like the parks we skated yes they were they were they were famous and iconic they weren't great right upland was super gnarly crazy vert super rough marina was pretty sick del mar was kinked and and crazy but we that's all we had and we figured it out and then we could go anywhere right because if you mastered the dirt ramp that had perfect [ __ ] we were like this is amazing yeah but like but but perfect training he's like perfect but then going to pran or or like pizzy park which is yes terrible yep we could skate it because yeah we skated shitty concrete of our whole lives yeah yeah and uh the appreciation just to skate anything back then was a high meter versus like okay we need this type of oh please kind of like you know ramp they're like here's the ramp here's the bowl we're like sick let's get it we weren't even thinking because we were so happy to get together that's one thing about skateboarding that i see a lot more today is that people like the brazilians and people even the americans now are like celebrating each other's skating time together when they're doing like video parts they're like fully vans videos are fully supporting each and you could feel the celebration part of each trick versus just a banger trick after bang or trick and you know great filming i think there's an emotional side that comes to the the skateboarding that i have continued to skate for not just for the picture in the mag not for you know going to these events not for doing demos but for the getting together with your friends feeling that vibe pushing each other talking smack to each other like let's try this trick today because i remember as i grew up that was how sessions were at my ramp it was like what are we doing today what's going to happen what are you going to do and we all know each other's like you know level of skating so we're always pushing each other past the mark so that we're always sharpening each other and it's always a heckle it was never like oh yeah let's work hard okay we're gonna jock it up today no we were hecklers i've been friends and i don't think he's ever said one nice thing to me ever and he's one of my best friends this is how we talk to each other what's up [ __ ] you know what i mean how's your day [ __ ] i'm like good [ __ ] kooky and i mean like go [ __ ] yourself it's like that's it that's the conversation i'm like i'm pretty sure we still love each other all right yeah yeah i remember going to your ramp i only only got to go once or twice um but it was a fun vibe did you go yo yeah i got stories i remember i got a commercial with you guys and then they took me out of the commercial because i didn't have a uh i was australian the frosty the flakes they're a great commercial and they filmed at your ramp and i was like i was out of town and i couldn't do the commercial dude oh that's why you didn't get it wait and they filled it at your ramp it was me scheduled to do it and then i couldn't be there i had to be like some out of town thing i didn't do it i did one with chris miller no it was celestion was celestion in it or something like that steve celestion no no i can't yeah i think so but somebody tastes okay you know what i mean but i had it it was 30 grand and back then that was that was yeah i was like wait american i'm like well i'm a millionaire i'm going home to retire and then they're like wait you're australian you don't have a green card or a sag yeah i'll give you yeah and i was like oh yeah is that bad actually yeah yeah national commercial what what i remember from your house though i remember we uh you showed me around your house your entire bedroom and closet was leather jackets like covering the floors all like i don't even know if you had any other clothes besides leather jackets well it was definitely jimmy's leather jackets and vests i had like literally no shirts vests stacked upon each other 10 feet long in a closet so did you just go shopping a lot every day like uh at expensive places or what kind of for sure like down on melrose there was all these vintage stores i'd get like motorcycle jackets from the 50s and stuff like that belts they're like 500 bucks like it was ridiculous and were you making enough money to to buy stuff like that or were you kind of living in shoes and boots i'd wear patent leather i wore i got a good story i wore spurs to the club like actual spurs on the back of my patent leather cowboy boots with ripped levi's mard varks on on melrose no shirt vest on long hair rings on every finger full-on like coming into the club like spurs i never seen anyone wear spurs at the club and i was like i'm going to be the first bringing it to hollywood you're saying nobody jumped on that that was just that was well that's the real reason why you do things like i knew i knew no one's gonna wear spandex right i was like i'm doing this because no one's gonna do it they're like man holmes is out of his mind he's crazy that's duck you're like bro all my homies i'm like why didn't you like kind of like go bro it's a little bit you know i don't know it's questionable and then looks a little work out you know what i mean but no one said a thing to me they were like dude sick and they're like i'm not putting them on no but it was because you always could back it up with your skating no matter what so it was always like oh that's funny but wow same kind of goal though do what no one else what about what about your birthday party that just came to me was that your 21st 21st birthday i love you i love how he knows the number what happened well it's 21. so it's you know u.s and yeah it was ecomouse played at my birthday party walked out and sang happy birthday it was a it was a a full escapement like his own lollapalooza it was wow at the um 500 people showed up like you know remember that the club the scream it's at um the parkview plaza right down near uh macarthur park and all yeah yeah we went i saw i only saw you for a minute yeah 3 500 people multi-floors it was incredible how do you how do you like it seems like you were just all about going to nightclubs and living that life for sure dancing was like our main thing shooting pool going dancing and skating kind of dancing were you doing well disco hip-hop seoul motown then it was like you know oldies you know and you would go to clubs that had like a a dance floor for that kind of stuff and it didn't like you'd be like oh it's so and so not i love that music well we followed who we knew dj'd right so there was a club every single night of the week okay and then there was blues bars like the king king so we would go to like the blues they were tapped in i mean of the week was a different place and we just rotated every night so how long before that lifestyle chewed into your skateboarding ability well i this is like probably so 80 say eight i turned 21. yeah i'm now moving into like wc fields house i got my ramp in hollywood you know and everything are you buying all this with the money that you make from skateboarding yes yes [ __ ] hell so and this is at 21 yeah yeah that's what i was making in when i was in i think 9th grade 2000 a month selling for a dollar a board sell 2 000 boards a month my sims model right so i'd go to school and i'd have like 500 bucks in my pocket i'm like it's my money she's like it's your money you can do whatever you want my mom i'm like give me 500 bucks i'm taking it to school what'd you do with it don't spend it whatever eat you know kind of like what i do now i take everyone out to eat you know i mean i've been doing this my whole life you know taking care of my friends but 88 yeah sam that's when i moved to fallbrook bought and built my big ramps and did just so money was just flowing flowing out too not just in but flowing out i spent as much money as i made i'd make like 20 to 40 000 a month and i'd spend it right at just as fast and i was like yeah we're all going to hawaii boom let's go yeah i did that a couple times everyone leather jackets but then no so so at one point then it all dries up before you go to prison right oh this is like 10 years before right so for 10 years you ran what kind of a game where you got no money well yeah i was back to square one kind of like uh trying to figure things out and uh chicken and kelly belmar opened up their pools in orange county in 1991. yeah i heard about it yeah and mickey alba called me there's these pools down in orange county you got to check out i was like sounds sick and the club scene in hollywood i was single at this moment i was just out of my mind with a lot of drama going on and i was like you know what i'm gonna go check it out i went down orange county and it was like such a sick little scene like backyard pool skateboards were still not quite you know skinny and small wheels yet baggy pants and then we were having to wear coppers at their pools at that time that's right i was like this is strange copper's in a pool yeah i was like and they're like yup coper's in the pool i'm like well whatever we're skating these perfect pools and then i slowly you know because being single you're kind of trying to find your identity in everything and i was trying to find it in party girls fame again that whole thing where you're the guy you know going out stroking your ego trying to figure things out and then street skating came in and that's when i started milk skateboard goods msg yeah and it was the upside down star trek logo with the m in it that was with me and chicken and we got into sponsoring the new street kids so i picked up like ethan fowler it might be he might be up for focus but this was like jeron wilson richard mulder um western korea all these little rippers that we were sponsoring for street you know and then jose ceredas and all the local orange county kids that we sponsored as well but we just got into i thought i was going to be a businessman like tony he started doing birdhouse you know and i was like okay we're doing this we're like the new company owners that are going to sponsor this new generation but i was still skating i was still raging if there was a contest i was beating everyone on my team i always you know kind of like was skating that's why when i changed the name to tough skates right before that and then the skate culture rising so i did it with vision change from team soy santa cruz to tough skates on vision and then went to skate culture rising with uh herbie fletcher and christian fletcher so you're trying to find you're trying to find well we're in a transition stage like no money's coming in so we're having to recreate our identity again how's it i don't want to be too weird on it but addiction-wise is that are you pretty heavy into it around that time this is right before it so after i moved to orange county all of a sudden speed became a little bit more of like a kind of like a social drug in orange county versus when i was in l.a we would go out to clubs smoke weed do ecstasy and do coke until the coke ran out and then you're smoking crack you know what i mean at the party i remember that with all the you know your friends the models and the actors and everyone i was just doing it with losers but anyway go ahead yeah and so you know when i moved down to orange county i tried speed okay and i was like this stuff is dope wow because it doesn't turn you into like this marshmallow like coke does and then you're just like and you now you got to therapy people because i was always a talkative person right so i'm talking and next thing you know they turn into these just weirdos when they get on you know ecstasy and cocaine and crack right you know so now you're just up a lot well now i just did a little though i just snorted a little speed and i was like going faster going higher wait you were doing it in skating oh yeah oh yeah and it was helping well at first how long's that first like a month no the first you know year you know i was just a little bit here and there so it was only social it wasn't every day all day to where it became that in the mid 90s okay i started smoking it and then i started eating it i shot it for a little while yeah oh yeah so that almost that's when it got kind of like my skateboarding was hindered when you see me at these events now i'm not progressing i'm just showing up doing a hire and just trying to you know party really right i was just living that that was like a trip to japan yeah even then like i was like pretty gnarly radical just embracing the whole underground you know drug scene like not afraid like i was crazy in japan you were doing it oh yeah in japan i stayed you know we went to japan for demos was uh you me 95 wade spire omar who's the next month yeah and so yeah the next game is the next month and and there was a big push at the x games that it was going to be like christian and tony are back and you know but for a new audience and so they did these profiles on us and i knew it was going to be i didn't know how big it was me but i knew it was you know pretty significant and then when we were there uh the the distributor or the shop said oh do you can you guys stay to do more demos and i was like no i'm we're going to this event in rhode island this espn event and i'll never forget you're like bro i'm here whatever you got i'm here i had a bench warrant right where in american california i didn't i had a bench warrant so i was already kind of like running from my uh a bail bondsman locally so i went to japan and now i'm like i'm gonna fly back and i'm going to be going to the x games they're going to know where to find me at all these places so that was the moment i never showed up to another public event except for when i flew back six months later after spending three months in japan three months in hawaii i was just like staying at st as long as i could until i had to face the music and come back and now there's a vert demo at the trade show at asr in san diego right in san diego six months later they're like christian you missed the x games it was amazing i'm like i don't need no stinking x but really i was running from all these you know legalities and i just played it off but then their bail bondsmans were at the asr trade show waiting for me right to show up i fly in from hawaii into san diego i get there they're like they're here and i go man i wish i could skate the demo and duncan i think duncan was like we'll just not say your name i'll call you holmes on the ramp your name will be holmes and i was like let's do it they sat there watched me do a demo named holmes on the ramp right we're killing it i'm blasting big huge benihanas across the ramp i'm like dude skateboarding feels amazing right and i'm just like thinking to myself don't act like holmes don't act like you know that possible i get off and my booth is down there and i stayed away from my booth oh good few aisles over the one that say christian or someone else and somebody runs up to me and they're like dude they know you're here there was a kid in the booth they were sitting there and he's like dude christian was ripping that demo and they're like what christian was here they're like yeah you didn't see him on the ramp and they're like what and all of a sudden they were like on full like checking the whole place and then he saw it came and told me and i'm like i'm out of here i'm starting to walk to the door i'm walking to the door acting like just hopefully nobody sees me and i'm get i'm almost to the like lobby doors right and i'm going and all of a sudden i feel somebody grab me like one of my friends just like grabs me i go bam like literally exploded thinking it's them and i looked at the guy i can't even remember who it was i just looked at him i said get away from me and they kept going to the door and i just i feel bad if that's you bro and you're watching i am sorry i'm sorry he's like that was me that punk i still can't believe you would do that oh now it says i wouldn't feel bad now and i made it and uh that was the last public place that i ever showed up for wait a minute and i was out running from a how much did you say five years the next five years until i got arrested i was running with a bench warrant from 95 all the way till 2000 when i got arrested so that's the kind of life i lived that was like full bonnie and clyde kind of like living and in those five years were you you you weren't sorry but you were still on it right no i did it every day speed every single day so you go to jail and you get sober in jail yeah and then in jail you find yeah i mean that's that's when i opened up the bible for the first time in prison and it's so funny i get there and i'm like what happened to my life how come he's not here my friend man he's done so much more terrible stuff i'm like trying to figure out why it's unfair for me to be in there right i'm doing the woe is me and then you know my girlfriend at the time saying hey christian you know what god's gonna help us get it through and i was like my name's christian nicknamed christ i invented the christ there and i've never opened up a bible right so i was like looking around and then there happens to be this o.g hawaiian dude who was in there for a long time he's like what you're looking for i go a bible and he goes here you can use mine because there was none available and i took it back to the room and i'm looking at it and i'm like wow it's all worn out he's got writings all in it and i'm looking and i'm like god get me out of here get me bail i'll never do drugs again i sat there right before i read i'm like get me bail i just want to go deal with my family make things right come back i'll do the time and i'll promise i'll speak to kit i did this whole like thing in my head and then i started reading it was genesis i was like star trek movie what's that revelation i couldn't get it psalms proverbs i was like what are these books this is psycho and it's all like numbers and columns and two columns of uh sentences with numbers behind them scriptures right i was like this book is cr it's like an index i'd never read one word in it and i finally got to kings is that that's where i opened it i was like okay this must be cool and it was when king david was about to die and he was charging his son solomon saying hey if you'll follow the lord all the days of your life there'll always be a king on the throne and it'll prosper you and immediately the holy spirit spoke to me saying this is true christian and that's two chapters into my first opening of the bible how many days of reading it is this first day first day this is like a few days into prison so then you that guy i take it like puts you like you start asking more questions and people start helping you along that path that night i just read so much because i was so enamored with it i was like how come i've never read this it's just let me ask you dawn on me could have you got speed in prison yeah you can get anything you want in prison so you were just like no i'm [ __ ] getting sober and i'm getting my life together but that was that radical you know mind change like i i realized with the spiritual markers just my name and the tricks like my name on the cover of thrasher christ inventing the christ there in 85 i'm 2000 i've never read a bible before and i'm sitting there going this is nuts at what point at what point crazy you know did you do at what point did you realize there was a chance you could get out early well that's the thing i realized i couldn't get out and that's what caused me to really think about what my life was about and why i was here that was i just here to exist and be the best skateboarder in the world for a moment enjoy life and do good as possible and then you know die with some sort of you know eulogy saying hey this was a great man or is there a greater purpose is there is there meaning is there an afterlife that's a huge one for for me because i i traveled the world 10 times over i read taoism books buddhism books because bruce lee was my idol wait back then you read those books and you still had for sure because i worshipped bruce lee right since i was young so whatever he did i did and philosophy was a part of my life with my father if you know my dad he was like he's like that kind of like yoda back when when i was young you would always school all of us sitting down while we're smoking weed on things in life and what we're going to be doing and the kind of inspiring things to cause us to want to be who we want to be and so that really you know was a moment in my life so i was like you know what god if you're real show up that moment it's like that one moment when everything hits you and you have this encounter and i just remember all this like guilt all the shame all that hurt all the pain kind of like washed off my shoulders at that very moment literally i'm in jail just like a week and i could feel like there was a new purpose for my life it wasn't just spontaneously um like supernaturally and let me get this right you were under the impression that you were not getting out of prison well when you like how long until you find out that you might have a chance of getting out soon well i walked in you know general population i've never been in for anything i don't have any issues with people so i go into general population they're like christians christian what's up right when i get there okay saw you on the news knew you were coming i was like whoa what are you here for he's like murder i'm like sick all right and he's like yeah i go so what about my case he goes 10 years bro no worries you'll be out of here no problem i'm like how long are you doing he's like 140 years life in prison you'll be out in no time i was like well that's kind of like a good way to look at things right now compared to his it eased my life 10 years i thought his life already at 32 i was like 10 years is like life in prison fair enough and so all of a sudden i was like what is going on and all those moments of like trying to process what kind of choices you made that got you there how could things be different and i embraced that moment and i just had to like dig deep you know so how many years total did you do almost five years so four and you know like a half three quarters anybody trying to beat up christian or soy in prison i didn't have any issues with awesome you know thank you that skateboarding is cool yeah i mean i i knew it was cool you know grew up in venice all the homies thought it was cool it's kind of like a rebellious kind of like lifestyle it's a survivor thing it's kind of like gangs you have you like look at me and tony's fans were like ganging up you know i mean so there's that that seriousness about it that in prison everybody was a fan so i was like sick the sheriffs were a fan the ceos were fans all the gang members were fans so i ended up getting you know pretty you know good you know it was a good chance you stayed out of trouble obviously like you didn't piss anybody off so right from the get-go we were doing bible studies every after every dinner every night in county jail and all these people that are doing bible studies with you are they not [ __ ] crazy half of them were hawaiian inmates because there was 400 of us that had to be um we were at the san bernardino jail because there's no room at the county jail in hawaii so they would move us from there and we were all housed here and then if there was a court date we would have to get flown back to hawaii for our court date and flown back so i was trying to figure out because i know i know the day you got out you went and skated in hawaii right so you when you were released you were released in hawaii while i was there they were trying to give me another well they appealed my case you know i got 70 months under my case it's a mandatory 120 months case right i had the mandatory 10 years oh okay over my situation so my judge there was a case law in court for like a couple months that took away the mandatory minimums and my judge loved me my testimony i already did the thrasher interview sharing my testimony i've got people writing letters on my behalf i'm speaking to scared straight programs i had six sheriffs write letters on my behalf saying this kid has changed he's helping it'll be better to be out than to be in and this is probably a year and a half into my sentence oh [ __ ] okay so i've i've already like did a lot of post rehabilitation and it's like what happens after you mess up what are you doing are you progressing post rehabilitation is post rehab so yeah so i did a whole bunch i had a sheriff bringing his whole church because i'm now running bible studies even inside there oh [ __ ] the sheriff would come in and sit in the bible study with us and it was a rad rad time because i didn't grow up in church so i didn't know how you're supposed to preach or read the bible or how a church is ran i didn't even think of that i was just reading you're learning all this stuff all this stuff in prison and the whole time i mean i'm an addict you didn't you didn't think of like did you have a sponsor are you doing n a in prison like are you just you're now um you've given your life to the lord and that's what's keeping you sober yeah i mean really i had this whole new mindset that man i can't wait to get out and share the love of christ with people because he turned but when you when you got out were you tempted at all no no not at all because i know you could get it in prison but i'm just wondering if you had once like all of a sudden i had this new identity you know second corinthians 5 17 says all those who are in christ are a new creation old things passed away all things become new so when i read that i went you mean i'm not that guy responsible no i've forgiven you all of a sudden i wasn't that old guy anymore i don't have to beat myself up over my old choices all of a sudden i have this newfound freedom to own who i am and to be the best i can be now and to do stuff to change the world that i lived in and that's people so right when that happened six months into my sentence i was on fire for god it was changing my whole mindset and i couldn't wait to get out but i'm looking at 10 years so for me all i sat there and did was focus on my inner man and not the outer man which i don't think i would have ever done out here no with all the distractions of life i i trip out on people who find like that that ability to spend time in the word of god to spend time in prayer to love to go to church to want to hang out and talk about god it's like so difficult in in this society because you got to fit it into family time work you got to fit it into you know friends you know hanging out and so for me that time was so probably pertinent for me to get to wherever because you realize how important it is to keep that for the rest of your life because if you don't have that but it was just real like i can see when things are like kind of up here in their walk with god and it's just not down here so it's almost like a ritualistic religious kind of walk right but then there's those that have been really touched by god that their lives have been they know they've been delivered and completely set free for sure because i'd be i'd be killing it right i mean you know me tearing people to pieces high as a kite running i mean i don't know about tearing people to pieces i just remember you highway there was a lot of collateral damage no because of my addiction and i was having fun that's right but you weren't fun to you weren't fun to be around well if if i like how he's disputing that he thought he thought well to somebody who's not into speed for sure it wasn't into their thing but for the speed addicts and the drug dealers you were great and we were rock stars right you know i'm just saying i remember you before you went in and as a person that's always looked up to you i remember those last couple times not being my favorite times to hang out with you and then to see you come back and be even better than your best day when i knew you because obviously i'm not tony and i knew you've coming up but your attention your focus to like being a friend being uh concerned about other people's lives it's so apparent that you're here yeah you're present right as as opposed to what you were so i've always thought that you and stevie are the only two people you know i don't believe in that stuff but i don't have a i you especially and caballero are the two people where people have tried to sort of join me in bashing religion where i've gone look you can each to their own sure what works for me that's great but i know two people personally where i i god hasn't talked to me but i'm [ __ ] happy he talked to you dude because i was super sad what you were going to be and now you're awesome you're such a great dad and an inspiration to everybody you're still skateboarding like you're a great dude and that person was almost dead thanks to drugs so if religion pulls you out then [ __ ] yeah man yeah i'm not fond of those days but now i realize that you know if god can change a person like me right yeah that that's that's a miracle right and that's when you have to question whether like you're like hey you know christian and cab well maybe you know what i mean it's pretty convincing they sure do believe it who's who's believing what what and what's believing who so for me i think that that's the authentic side of what we love what we do how we treat people how much we care and i think that's what's going to reach people like me reaching you to to say like check out what i'm into and me check out what you're into i'm all for that like i've always been for that and so for me that's how i share my faith with people and it's always like it's got to be authentic and real i can't stand posers never did right back in the day it was a big deal for skateboarding posers when he says that he was kidding you you know exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean i don't know how serious that is and it's the same thing like you know i think it's you got to be the real deal or else it's just going to be phony and fake and that to me is what's going to either you know be understood or not and then it's a good conversation now we can have a great conversation it's not an offense i'm not over here trying to like sell you guys on what i have and you're not selling me on what you have right but we do you can see how much we're passionate about i'm just like everything that we love are you happy is everything good with your life then awesome that's where i stand you know oh it's so great it's so great to see you out out about and skating and the the the reverence that people have to see you like i see it from afar you know when we were in salt lake city and when we're doing stuff it it's so exciting and i do remember in those darker days when things were starting to be on the rise i said it many times with people i said christian should be here like he would love this i mean especially x games late 90s when it was like dude we're back vert is back this is crazy this is christian's element right here you know and so i'm just so thankful that you're back and i remember hearing all you guys talking like that and that made a difference for me it did you know especially after i got arrested everybody was like man if you were here things would be different man we're just glad that you didn't die man you know we're stoked you're not still on the street you know what i mean and to me that made me a stronger person going through my affliction and trial and tribulation huge all them coming to you know my defense and supporting me during that time while i was in because who knows what i was going to be like when i got out everybody was like what's holmes going to be like now that he's out you know all of them were betting that i'd be back in the club raging again right you know what i mean and you know it feels good to to be able to be a man of your word to have conviction to love your family and your friends and really what you do because skateboarding to me is so precious right i can tell we love it we're kind of like completely obsessed with it that's pretty much our show yeah and that's why the show is so just organically real and every story i think is is genuine it's not coming from a pretentious place no no and it's not being told for any reason that's going to benef like i'm not i don't have a plan in my pocket that this benefits me by having this conversation it's just this is what we are these are things that i've learned these are things i find entertaining hopefully you do too yeah that's the that's the show is you know but with skateboarding to me is up like as a guy that left and pursued another career and then came back to skateboarding like it i didn't go to school i didn't get an education i got a education from skateboarding and it was almost as good if not better because i i make good money and i have a really good job like it's a job that's not work and you know they say that those are really good jobs when you get those in skateboarding you know if i could just skateboard for a living i wouldn't have to work a day in my life because it's not working you know what i mean i said that young i was like 14 turning pro i wanted to turn pro at 12. i told stacy peralta i want to turn pro stacey's like christian it's not your time i'm like when will you turn me pro he's like two years i go i'm out i said i'm leaving you know that's why i got it well here so he said the same he's right in your dog yeah and gator right that you're writing for dog town i'm writing for bones brigade with ray bones and cab and mcgill and you know alan gelfin and then i'm like i'm out you know what you're not gonna do it i went to dog town there yeah christian right for a hot minute it was it was a crazy team and then he went to bones brigade i went to dog town dogtown went out of business mike smith was on and he was going to get his model and he shows up to marina with like a madrid model he's a christian dogtown went out of business i just got a model from madrid and i was like you're kidding me i had my graphics i'll show you my graphics it's like it's a yin and yang with samurai swords christian hasoy model samurai stories my dad did with the cross on top of it that says dog town it says christian his soy model big old flash beam of light my dad did and it's all dog town skates yeah i can't wait to like get with jim like mirror and do like a reissue or something with it i was on dog town as well just to try and hang out with you guys for a little bit i believe it was the end of my career as well that wasn't that wasn't that there error there were literally four of us on the team and hey mom i got i got the call he he mike smith told him i got the call from stacy peralta at home just like hey tony stacey probably what's up i heard doctor went in business like they did that sucks you didn't even know because he was calling to kick you on the team yeah so you really did you left and he replayed you replaced him just i mean it was kind of like that for sure it was like that and uh well still here how's this i it took me two years to finally turn pro so i turned pro at 14 but i went from dog town so now i'm at dog town i'm like sick i'm gonna have a dog town model shogokubo bob beniac jim here paul can say i'm gonna have a a dog time in that one boom exploded i'm like dang and bowman was like hey christian take you to tom sims i go to tom sims i'm like tom sims what pure juice snake wheels comp twos i'm like dude this is insane i went from stacy peralta to dog town now i'm at sims in his office and he's like yeah we got a deal you're going to turn pro for sims i'm like sick this is amazing talk to mama and say what i was like lonnie oh yeah i was like what are you kidding me right now this is insane bowman bum's like yep i told you and then he sold the license to brad dorfman and his sister was doing mad rat shorts at the time down in costa mesa and i was like of course i'm gonna get like jacked again right i think i was 13 turning 14 or like i just turned 14. and then i go down to meet brad and he's like hey i'm like how's it going he's like yup so we're looking forward to doing your pro model i was like oh sick right he's got i got the guy working on it i'm going to show you next week and then i pull up the next week and then he showed me the rising sunboard boom and he goes this is your model i was like that's sick that is a sick graphic right there yeah it is and it was like the launch of my career but it was 14 instead of 12. i was like man i wanted to be young didn't happen i wanted to be younger we were both 14 we turned pro yeah and stacy i was like stacy looking at him he's like two years old and all i can think of is he said two years i'll turn you pro so you were like i was like you know what i would have been pro i could have stayed on powell but immediately you know i was already on a journey i was going to say you don't fear yeah you never did yeah it was almost like it was a good it became this good uh uh um almost culture of skateboarding the people from different groups whether it was southern california yeah it really just made it you know yeah that was a good thing that's too much that's every single good vert dude oh yeah if he was on pal yeah i remember i i got to go to winchester around that time i skated winchester once and i went with cab and cav was the king of winchester and uh the first thing he said to me i just got on pal first he goes what do you think about christian leaving powell and i was like did he i don't i don't know anything you know san diego i was like i don't know he's like i think it's a big mistake like okay i don't know you couldn't change at all like from 14 right now like 15 i was 12. 11. four years older than us yeah so he's 57 yeah so he was 16 at the time yeah wouldn't you i just that's that's like i remembered that and skating the washboard of winchester it was the only two things i remember but it was sick cab advice but christian is always great uh you're you you are a pioneer of so many things thank you for being here and you are now the pioneer of having our longest podcast way longer than we've ever done before but i'm stoked so if it was a higher contest we'd be breaking records that's what's up you would be yeah we would just be happy whatever we're breaking records we'd be bailing them out we've been trying to bail him at that height kicking our board over the fence it'd be like i've been in this [ __ ] demo before like it's happened where you've done that i've gone [ __ ] you know not really but okay and then you're like well he japan was the second biggest there anyone's done besides this awesome no but but japan air my knee would drop and they would they would mark the low the lowest part and i would never get it oh no we we fought for that i remember fighting for that because they would do that to me too with the method so now you're your lowest part of your body and we're like no it's the board and it was like it was kind of like an argument but he's always going to win a new it didn't matter i was going to say that i mean we're still going to get why why am i why am i splitting hairs christian did the highest there was a contest where tony was the guy who went nine and a half feet i've seen you both and i was like i was like this tony just went nine and a half and i had to beat him i went 10 right yeah and beat him but i was like you better yeah this is pressure right now thank you tony was so skinny you're not getting away with it i need the full 10 feet and you're coming to my town i believe how high tony went i think it was i can't even remember where it was oh but it was insane okay one last thing you beat sergi you beat everybody i think you got second i i had yeah once a while once a while i'd get a good landing and i could make it like if i got a good landing i could make the next wall you know a lot of people get good landings and they just blow up you gotta take it together i remember that but this is funny so we're at manches at the at the contest that happened a couple months ago launches ramp the backyard b team backyard blast and chris and i are the only you and i and who else tony magnussen was there yeah so there were four or five of us in the legends division which is already just exhausting there's only five of us and they got a half hour so oh man you got to keep taking rides we're already old yeah cool and then uh and then duncan was like why don't we see some doubles what are you gonna do some doubles duncan no it's gonna be nice no i know i'm just trying but then we realized that we had never actually done doubles ever ever ever yeah insane but i guess it's funny and so he's looking at me what do we do i go well i don't know you want to like i could i could go over you and i'll never forget the look on your face was like no i'm not going over me i don't know who you think you're talking to but it's like what trick do you want to do that's what i'm asking you yeah and i was like oh yeah yeah yeah you go over me yeah i know i get it yeah immediately goes over grind i was like all right let's do it and then we're like okay i'll do the the opposite we'll do the same yeah we had a plan so too but the reason i brought up because this is here got a photo of it and it's still for sale yeah this is a huge thing guys to support the skateboard project yeah you know it's goes to building skateparks tony's been doing this forever with the tony hawk foundation now the skateboard project right uh skatepark project yeah but but and this was not supposed to be some pitch but it's here i love the story that we got to do this first time this is documentation we we signed 2500 of these 500. yeah so half the money goes skatepark project uh tonyhawk.com it's a huge pitch because you're part of helping all this and this is the this is the one and done right here you know the only time we did this being a part of something like that is a blessing tony thank you for thanks for your doing that work because you know i definitely want to hopefully be the uh ambassadors for the next generations coming up and by doing these things you feel like you're really part of you know creating the spaces where we grew up a skate park it's incredible yeah i mean there are very few of us that got that yes that had that place and that sense of community and that sense of salvation and and you're one of them but that was our home away from home that's where we found who we were so well the cameras are on so i have to say thank you both of you for existing in my life and helping me decide uh correctly on being a skateboarder for all my life i really owe you both a lot and it's my mum might get it like look mom [ __ ] podcasting christian sorry tony oh [ __ ] yeah man why me it's awesome stays thank you guys thank you jason you've always been uh don't leave me kind thanks buddy you've always been kind you've always been i love you dude you're you're an inspirational great not just the 80s i'm like you're a great man great father all around great thank you and you too tony thanks buddy always respect see you next week everybody like and describe [Music]

Channel: Hawk vs Wolf

Views: 208,161

Keywords: Tony Hawk, Jason Ellis, hawk vs wolf, podcast, skateboarding, tony hawk pro skater, Christian Hosoi

Id: GTWLtNDGpok

Length: 103min 45sec (6225 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 22 2021