August 7, 2010

• You would think I stalk people, but I don’t.  I can’t even go to the Orange County Fair on Wednesday without bumping into someone…

  

  It’s Christian Hosoi, three days after winning his back-to-back Skateboard Park Legends gold medal at the X Games!  

  Hosoi.  Just the mere mention of it in the skateboard community still draws universal love and awe.  He came up in the late 1980s and ruled, known for his graceful style and for inventing his own vert moves for half pipe competitions.  When I was a kid, all the other kids talked about were Hosoi sightings… that skate park in Anaheim, near Huntington Beach, etc.   Have you heard of a guy named Tony Hawk?  Hosoi was his biggest rival.  They were the Lebron and Kobe of skating.  All those riches that Hawk now has, they just as well could’ve been Hosoi’s, if he didn’t get sidetracked. 

  The first X Games’ featured showdown was between Hosoi and Hawk.  Hosoi didn’t attend because he feared that if he showed, authorities would arrest him since he was wanted for drug possession.  He had a crystal meth habit and was arrested in 2000 for transporting 1.5 lbs of it.  During the time of incarceration and through the support of his wife, he accepted the Lord as his savior and became a born again Christian (yes, funny how the name fits).  Even after the leaving prison, he stayed out of competitive skating until the past couple of years, re-emerging as a force and reclaiming his rightful spot among the elite.   

  Now he resides in Huntington Beach and is an Associate Pastor at the the Sanctuary Church in Westminster, California.  

  I’m not often awed by celebs or athletes, but I was a little this time.  It’s those things I grew up watching and admiring as a child.  Can’t escape it. 

  • 4:00 pm
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