When i was a kid, I really used to hate this dude.You see, I was Bones Brigade to the bone marrow as a beginner and here was this joker... all glammed-out and hangin-loose with his long hair, his crazy headbands and his neon-everything with nary a sleeve in sight. I couldn't stand him.
"Why's he so cocky?" I thought. "He can't even do 360-sex-change-bodyjar-chink-chinks-to-revert like Tony. What a jerk!!"
Full-on rockstar... rockin 4 t-shirts simultaneously without actually wearing any of them on his torso. A blur of sunglasses and a cape on some superhero shit. Essentially, remember all that nice stuff I wrote earlier about Ray Barbee... pretty much the opposite of all that holds true for Christian.
But my stern anti-Hosoi stance would soon change though, the day I got to see him do a three hour demo in a parking lot while I was on vacation one year. I remember he had little more than a launch ramp and a parking block... and he killed it. He skated the whole time and was actually super nice to everyone, much to my surprise. So damn cool. Still got his autograph.
That demo was a master class for me as to not only what it meant to look good on a skateboard but also to look into and appreciate more of the different styles that are all part of skating. And it also served as my introduction to that great x-factor component i now know of as "steez". And this was the "secret" to Christian Hosoi. Dude was style supreme. A no-brainer to most but for some reason, it took six-foot-high judo airs for my dumbass to figure it out.
The next day after that demo, I went out and bought a pair of zebra-striped Jimmy Z shorts and some hair gel and proceeded to look like a complete idiot for the rest of the summer of 1988. I consider those purchases and the embarassing photos that resulted from such ill-advised fashion choices as style lesson numer two.
If you haven't seen Rising Son, do so.
8 comments:
Q: Who else gous this high?
A: No one!
I'm pretty stoked on that first picture with a 12ft wide vert ramp with PVC coping.
Holmes always looked so good in photos. Best looking method airs ever. I never really saw a lot of video of him back in those days and when I did, I couldn't really relate to vert skating primarily because there were no ramps in my area.
I was never on the jock of the Bones Brigade. I didn't really have a favourite pro when I first started skating. I just skated. Hensley and Barbee were the first guys I looked up to aside from shredding locals.
I still haven't seen the Hosoi documentary but I'll try to get a hold of it. Haven't seen the Gator one either.
I am with you on this one, never got to see him in person. But once I got out of drawing rat bones on everything in sight, I realized just how sick his skating was/is.
Remember the photos that came out right after he was released? From lock down to blasting airs! Pretty amazing.
I remember meeting Christian a block away from my house once. I was walking down the street and all of a sudden I hear someone yell my name out from across the street and it was my friend Rick I. He was hanging out with Christian and he introduced me to him. I remember he was wearing a mesh flourescent green tank top with some really bright green Cross Colours Jeans. At that point in time, most people had already gone away from that whole steez, but I just remember thinking to myself, "Man, if anyone can get away with this look, it's him". I really got that Rock Star vibe from him. It's like what Charlie Murphy was talking about. I seen his "Aura".
love this website. es la hostia!
Hosoi is dope!
Holmes is the man. He did his own thing, did it smoother than anyone else, and is still relevant 25 years later. Much respect.
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