Vol. 16: Christian Hosoi

I was addicted to cocaine at fifteen, and I had money, and I was famous. I had pictures in the magazines. It's a lot of pressure for a young kid. I'm a good person. I'm not like my friends that kill people for fun. Welcome to Charges. I'm your host, Rex Chapman. Today on the show, we're joined by a legend, a name in person so synonymous with skateboarding and it's rise to prominence that it might shock you if you don't

know it. Christian Hossi was at the front of a revolution that took place on the black tops across America and in the world in the late seventies and early eighties. Oh and he was a pro before he was even able to get his learners permit. But like so many other young stars in the City of Angels, the demons would come for Christian and his fall from grace and ultimate redemption are why we're here talking today. This his charges. Christian, welcome to the show, and thank you for being here,

my friend. Thank you very much. Rex, and uh, I do appreciate the intro. And um, you know, these badges of honor that we have of success stories is you know, it's not always the case, and so being that we're alive, being that we have this second chance, it truly is something that I'm grateful for or and I don't want to take life for granted ever. Again, I'm with you, all right. Well, Christian, look, I'm not gonna lie to you.

A lot of my audience probably isn't. It's familiar with the newly minted Olympic sport of skateboarding, which we'll talk about later on. So for someone who doesn't know, explain the world of skateboarding. When you were starting out, how did you fall in love with it? Well, my father was a surfer in the fifties and sixties, Hawaii, and so he met my mother in college and they moved.

They got married in Vegas, moved to l A. He went to art school, she went to work in Beverly Hills as a secretary in business, and so I grew up. I was born and raised in l A, Hollywood, and skateboarding in the late sixties and early seventies was hot. It was the sidewalks surfing, you know. It went from kind of like surfers on the beach cruising around no waves to the earth thing Wheel came out in seventy three and that revolutionized skateboarding, and that's when skateboarding took off.

And guys like Tony Alva, j Adams, Show Go Cuba, all the z Boys, the Dogtown guys were from Venice, Santa Monica area, Malibu. And I was part of that whole scene because my dad was part of the art scene. And so as a young boy at five years old, even when I was born, his friend Jim Ganzer gave him a Macaha board because he was, you know, distributing and he was a rep for them. So at six months old, I was being pushed across the kitchen floor

on a Macaha board before I could even walk. And when the youth thing Wheel came out was when things changed, and when the surfers and skaters of the day like Tony Alva went to backyard swimming pools. You went from carving the bottom the scum line. We call it scum line because that's when there's water, there's water in a pool and it creates it's a dark line, and that's the scum line. Well, you could only go to scum

line with like clay wheels. You could barely go over the light right, and so now all of a sudden they're getting to the tile, they're getting to the coping and then they're in the air. And so that's when I came in. I came in at six seven years old and the year Thinge wheel came out and we were like, this is incredible, smooth Cadillacs. They were even called Cadillac wheels, and so we were just ecstatic about how it felt at the school yards, down at the beach,

Venice Beach, cruising down the boardwalk. And then the you know, skate park started opening up during that time, and there was a skate park called Marina del Rey Skatepark that my dad ended up managing right after you know, we went there, you know when it opened. It only lasted

probably three years the park's existence. But during that time was when I sharpened my teeth, got involved in skating, and went from just a little grammat two and a gramat is a little peep squeak, a little you know, beginner to that year got a full page in Skateboarder magazine. How old were you? I was eleven, so nine. I went to the skate park ten Marina opened eleven, I

got my picture in Skateboarder magazine. Twelve, I won the biggest amateur contest and then I turned pro at fourteen years old, and so that's kind of like my career. But skateboarding was like surfing on land, and for me, that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a surfer, wanted to be Jerry Lopez, wanted to be Larry Berteleman, wanted to be those guys and buttons and dank kaloha and so surfing, you gotta get up early. It's freezing cold, like the waves sucked. There's a million

people out. I was like this, there's no reward in this, like you know, but I knew that my friends at ripped. There was this passion that they had that I knew. But when I got on my skateboard, I just emulated surfing, and so I got my surfing fixed on land and that's what drove me to skate every day to become who I obviously became in the skateboard world of the day. But even today, you know, skateboarding is still like in my blood. I gotta go, like yesterday I went. Today,

I gotta go. I gotta practice for another event this weekend. And so I'm fifty three years old and still got to go out and perform in front of five thousand people. And I tell you, when you're rusty, you're like, I need to like practice, man, that's amazing and fifty three and I know that. And you're about to be fifty four next week because I'm fifty four on October five as well. My friend, are you serio? What birthday? Buddies? That's right, let's go, let's go. That was a great

day in sixty seven. There we go, there we go. Uh yeah, but I was I was brushing up on you and noticed that what what what a cool thing. But anyway, so I'm fascinated. Obviously, we we all are with sort of people that do things at a young age, and you were you're essentially a prodigy at least considering to how skateboarding was at the time. Did you know you were that good or was it just second nature? I assume you had and have perfect balance and you're

compact and that has to help. But what made you so good and did you know you were that good? I think there's a lot of circumstances and a lot of things that attribute to being at the right place at the right time, you know, having a father and a mother that was supportive, you know what I mean, and my dad going, you want to go skateboard? I want to go every day and he's like every day. He's like, dang, ten bucks every two hours every day. Oh,

I need a second job. And then he was like he's like, you know what, I'm gonna work here and then you'll skate for free. And so he became the manager of the Marina del Rey skate Park and it was my backyard, and so that was a sacrifice that that I take into consideration when I look at all my kids. I have four boys, and just to you know, see the sacrifice that he made for them, you know, and for me, you know, is what I want to do for them. And that's something that really is uh important.

You know. I believe that, uh we as fathers have to you know, kind of like um, figure out what those ingredients are per each kid. You know, I have multiple kids, and so each kid is differently and so when I'm thinking thinking about how my father kind of like guided me, told me, hey, you have what it takes. And then my peers or my my mentors like Jay Adams and show Go and those guys that were at the skate park, they were like Christian, you got, you

got what it takes. And those words, those words light of fire underneath your bottom that no one can put out but yourself. It's only you who could lose confidence. Only you can lose the ability to believe in yourself. And and there is an element of talent, there is an element of balance, there is an element of my size. But really those are just obstacles and you have to learn how to go over those and you can. But

it just takes passion. It takes to dedication, it takes discipline, it takes um dreaming, it takes having goals, and so when I was a young boy, I had big goals. So my father was always shoot for the moon, you know what I mean, And and uh, the only thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna hit a star, you know what I mean, Because if you missed the moon, you'll nail a star because there's a million of them out there. But I aimed for the moon. I didn't settle for a star, and I was gonna go for it.

And Bruce Lee was my idol when I was young, and all I thought about was either being Bruce Lee or Elvis Pressley. I was gonna be a movie star singing to girls, you know, playing my guitar on stage, or I was gonna be beating everyone up with no shirt on, like clowning them, rubbing my nose, going come on, what you know what I mean? You ain't got nothing, you know what I mean, on the big screen. And so for me, those were my like, you know, that's

what I was aiming at. And with my father and all those people around me saying, man, you got this, you got what it takes. I think that's the uh ingredients every kid needs, every you know, child needs to be able to become a champion. What do you remember your fourteen and making a decision to turn pro and what does turning pro in the world of skateboarding mean? At that point, you know, turning pro is everything in a skateboarder's career because it's the moment that you're validated,

you're confirmed, you're basically awarded that. It's like a degree right in school, you get a degree and there's an accomplishment there that has taken place. And for us back in the eighties, a signature model was the pinnacle of turning pro. You had your own skateboard, You designed your own shape, you had your own graphic, and it had your name on it and it represented who you are. When you showed up to an event, you had your flag and it was your board. It's like, you know,

Ford in his car, Ferrari in his car. It was legit. But could you imagine if the driver could design their own car and have their name on it. That's what it would be like. And today it's when you got that first board. What did you feel like when you saw it? Oh, it was a dream come true because you know you you dream about it since you first picked up a magazine, and now it's happening, and you just can't believe it because it's it's it's almost like

winning the Hall of Fame. It's like almost winning that one thing that you can only win once in a lifetime. It's a lifetime achievement. And then you know, today skateboards with your graphics or your name on it aren't as sought after as they were back in the day because the career of an amateur is way longer now. So you could win professional contest as an amateur and stay amateur. We're back in our day you could not receive any money if you received if you received a dollar, you

were now professional. So so we would not receive money until we finally decided to term. That's why it was such a big deal. All of a sudden, you couldn't turn it down. It would get you know, at some point you couldn't just couldn't afford to turn it down, right, Well, no, you could because you're I was fourteen years old, ye, but but at some point for you you were gonna be too good, you know. But but that's what's happening today.

Kids are skating amateur and getting paid so wide term pro you know, all of a sudden you turn pro and it's almost like your exit out. It's like, now you're pro, and you got to compete against real the pro pros, right or no, yes, yes, there there's an element of now you've got to really step it up and fit in and become a a legacy. Now it's not just your getting your wings. It's not just you're you're the rookie of the year. Now it's like you

need to make your stamp. You need to really come and let your presence be known in the skateboard world. And it's always with your peers. Like for me, it was never with the crowd out. It wasn't with I always wanted to impress my peers. I wanted to skate

with better people than I was. You know, me and Tony Hawk would compete and it was great competition because we were so different in our styles of skateboarding, whether it was technical ability to power and height and you know what I did, and you know I came from that school, he came from the other school. And we battled and that pushed us to be better at both our crafts in the style of you know, how we

approach skateboarding, and that's what will push you. You will never be pushed if you're the best, you know what I mean. You could end up becoming a teacher, you become a mentor. But will you grow? Will you will you have something a higher bar to aim at? Most likely you'll relax, you'll step down and next thing you know, the rest comes up and passes you by. And that's not what we wanted to be. We wanted to be on the cutting edge and that was proven through you know,

almost a decade and a half half of skateboarding. We weren't stopping, we were competing. And then the street revolution came in and changed the face of like popularity of skateboarders, and then we had to fight for our own again. You know that vert is the elite skateboard discipline over street or street is oververt, and we're like, no, skateboarding is skateboarding. We do it all. And that's why I street skated and vert skated, backyard, pool, ditches, flat ground.

We did it all just because it wasn't about one or the other. We wanted to be the best at everything, and that's what created our culture and why skateboarding is so unique because it's not just a sport, it's a lifestyle. It's something you do on and off the board, you know, And that's the special factor about skateboarding. How many people there Tony hot Well let it all any day, Chrissie, I saw Chris, Sorry right now, I siding himself up

for all the run to the day. This is it do a guy for both scares, for all the marvels for for fifties six for us on everything you know I read about you or seemed to come across about you as you linked with Tony Tony Hall, just as as far as the timing and the ability and all of that. What was your relationship like back in the day. What was it like when you guys were young with one another. Well, it's funny that me and Tony is the only skaters that had their fathers fully involved in

their careers. So Tony Hawk's dad was running the ns A contest and organizing that. My dad was running my business and helping do all the graphics, the designs. We would hand screen the boards in a garage, two thousand boards ourselves, and we would do all the ads ourselves, and just that whole process. But to think that our fathers were the really the only ones that I can remember being there showing up to support their children, and then we became who we became is not a coincidence.

I really believe there's an element of encouragement and support that you know, our fathers brought to us that no one else did, you know what I mean. And that's something that I cherish. That's something that I'm always you know, thinking about when it comes to like mine and his career. Because of course we had to show up. Of course we had to practice. Of course we had to put in the work, we had to compete, we had to put on the paths, we had to you know, get hurt,

we had to do all those things. But we needed that confidence and our fathers really gave us confidence in that support. That is something worth more than any you know, um degrees, any type of money. There's some things you can't buy in a career, and I think that that was one of them. And of course he was born and raised at del mar Skate Park. I was born and raised at Marina del Ray skate Park. He had his mentors, I had mine. It was just the right

place at the right time. And then when we competed, We were friends, we had no issues, but the fans were just so aggressively rivaling against each other that it was just intense at contest and we we ate it up because it pushed us to fight for something. It's like when your fans in football are out there and you're like, we're losing in Our fans are here, they're all pay it. They're freezing with no shirts on and

it's snowing. I need to win for them to you know what I mean, There's this element of you got something else to fight for other than yourself. And I believe that me and Tony had that you know in our fans rivalry that you know is something that you know, I'm really starting to put together in my head to put a documentary of that together, to create it sounds fantastic, and I'm putting that kind of like a script together.

That's exactly what I was just thinking of in my mind because I'm thinking about, you know, you've got your home skate park, did you skate better on the road, did you skate better at home? All of that stuff and your fans, Man, that would be golden sign me up already. Yeah, I think people would want to know the nuts and bolts of the backdrop, you know what I mean. Kristen Hosi is a pioneer of bringing skateboarding into the public eye, being sponsored by his idols at

age eleven in a foreign on set to most. But it's the only life you had to lead. Tony Hawk helped bring skateboarding to the mainstream. They were friends and competitors coming up together. It should have been Christian Hosi's name hoisted right next to Hawks. Unfortunately, a pattern of drug use emerged and led Christian down a dark road ahead. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. So here on charges. Of course, we talked about the good times, also focus on the dark times as well.

Can you tell me about the first time you did drugs? Yeah, a matter of fact, I was probably say seven eight years old, asking me and my friend Aaron Murray, pro skater friend of mine. We grew up since we're babies. You know, our fathers are they're playing blues guitar in their living room, their artists, they go to art school, you know what I mean. We grew up in that generation to where it was sex, drugs, rock and roll, and so for us, you know, as kids were like, hey,

we want to smoke some weed. They're like, here you go, here's some weed. Here, here's how you don't You don't roll a pregnant joint, you roll it. You know. They taught us how to roll a good joint at eight years old, you know what I mean. And so that's my first you know time. And then like you know, weed, smoked weed probably if we could every day every day. So by ten and eleven, I was smoking weed every day.

By twelve, I'm dealing you know, dime bags at the skate park and you're in school, and you're in school, right, Yeah. I was in school, you know, going to junior high, you know, seventh grade, and my dad ran the Marina del Rey skate park. I mean, I'm smoking weed with all my mentors. You know, Ja does your dad know? I was smoking weed with my dad? Okay, Okay, So that's why he gave us the weed. And he's like,

if you're gonna do it, do it right. Well, no, He's like, do the good stuff, you know, don't go out and do some bunk and get yourself in trouble. And you know, I see a lot of parents doing that. Today, they're like, you know what, if you're gonna do drugs, do it at home. And I'm like, that's not the best way to do it. You know, that's the kind of like, you know what, I'm gonna kind of condone you doing this. So for me, it's you know, I don't condone it. I'm not gonna let you do it.

You're gonna not do it at my house. And if you do it, that's on your time, and I'm just gonna encourage you not to do it. What you do at your friend's house when you're not at home. I cannot control My parents could not control me, and I knew that, and I had to take the chance, you know what I mean, of doing whatever. But I just try to educate my kids on drugs, what they are, what they look like, what they do to you, how

they affect you, and the dangers of it. And then all right, have a good day, son, be good, be good, be good. And I think that that's how our father's back and that day kind of did it. So they kept us close, taught us how so they don't have to worry that we're gonna do something, you know, stupid. Smoked some angel dust and not know we're smoking angel dust,

you know what I mean? What was the culture around drugs and skating Because I'm I'm not saying it's right, but certainly I think there was a perception about the culture of skating, uh and what came along with it. Well, there was definitely no perception. It was reality, right, it was you know, from my crew, the surfer skaters and the punk rockers really quickly became the ones that were

the risk takers, the ones that were getting crazy. Because then there was the jock you know, the the freestyle guys that did skateboarding and they did the three sixties and the handstands, and they wore the short shorts and they got the you know, the the uniforms, you know what I mean, and they were like goody to shoe people. Well, we were the opposite. We were the radicals. We were smoking weed, were drinking how all chasing girls were on

the beach. Were there successful skaters who didn't, well, none that hung out with us, because you know, we considered those people kind of like cooks or Barney's, you know what I mean, because it was a lifestyle. We weren't we weren't trying to be professional. We're trying to just live it up and to be the best while living it up. So you know, there was a lot of you know, collateral damage. There was a lot of people

that were dying. There was a lot of people that were you know, their dreams were getting you know, dashed, you know, to the ground because they got into drugs. And then there was people who would lose it because they didn't you couldn't handle the neighborhood, you know what I mean. And all those factors were the ones that we like to break through to be a survivor, to be a person that can make it happen. You know, I can come from nothing and become a rich person.

And that's really you know, I came from nothing. You know, we didn't have money, you know what I mean. We were okay, you know, Mom had money to pay our bills and give me twenty bucks every day, you know what I mean. But I was not a well to do kid. I fought for everything that I had. And then when I started making two thousand a month at fourteen, fifteen years old on my own, because when I realized that I can do it, you know what I mean, that that I can be a professional business person, and

then I started my own company at seventeen. And you know, along with all that pressure and fame and being around your mentors, you end up doing things you really don't you're peer pressured into doing. I smoked more weed, I drank more alcohol. I did cocaine at thirteen, I did acid at twelve, I did mushrooms at at thirteen. I was addicted to cocaine at fifteen, quit at like seventeen, So you know what I mean, doing like how many?

I mean my friends were ads, were doctors in Beverly Hills, you know, hanging out with the Paul Shores, and all these crazy kids were young, just like free, no parents anywhere, doing whatever we wanted. And I had money and I was famous. I had pictures in the magazines. It's it's a lot of pressure for a young kid. I have no brothers and sisters, so there was no one to like, you know, kick you into you know, shape, or or to pull you down or pull you up. It was

just me figuring it out. And I'm glad I had mentors that were like, you need to be the best Christian. And that's what kind of kept me from going down into gang affiliation, um, being a drug dealer, a hustler, being a person who would give it up for a quick dollar. I had a goal. I had a goal and that was and that saved it saved my career. It's the only reason why I have accomplished everything that I accomplished is because you know, Bruce Lee was, you know,

a man of conviction. He was gonna do it. Nothing got in and I studied his life. I studied his work, work ethics, and you know, I did his stretching before contest, and I wanted to just be that elite of an athlete. And you know, when it started happening and manifesting and I started becoming that, it was surreal because you know,

as the person, everybody hear the guy. You're on this pedestal, you're the man, you're dominating, you're winning this, and you're cool, you're you know all this stuff, and I'm just like, it's such a like a sigh of relief, all that hard work you put in. But then you gotta reproduce that again next month. You gotta do it again. The next month. You gotta go and you gotta come do and if you don't do it, you feel lesser than

next thing. You know, people are chomping at your heels and you're just like, wow, Okay, this is a real game to play, and that pushed me to continue to excel. The perils of pressure for a professional athlete presents enough problems as it is. Christian was facing all of that and was a drug addicted preteen in the spotlight. It's hard enough for an only child to try and find themselves in adulthood under normal circumstances, but nothing about Christians

life and those who surrounded him was regular. My addiction issues with opioids have been well documented on this show, and we've had all kinds of amazing guests tell their tales of overcoming adversity, but none like this. Unfortunately, no one can see what was coming next. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors. Well, I know, I think you know. I had a problem with opioids for fourteen fifteen years, painkillers, rehab three times, and so

I asked these questions with all due respect. H I knew from the moment that I and I didn't my whole playing career, I didn't take drugs, I didn't do drugs. But the second I took a painkiller late in my career. I knew something was different and something changed. I want to know what that experience was like for you, And if that the first time you had crystal meth or any other drug that really sent you to a place where, oh this is different. This is something I don't know

that I can do without. Yeah, I had that experience. I mean I did speed, I did Black Beauties, you know, back when I was you know, in my fifteen you know, doing cocaine and all that. You know, we smoked cocaine, you know, free base, we did qua ludes, you know, I mean, we did so much of that. Yeah, I was fifteen years old doing all this stuff, you know what I mean. And I would stay up all night and enter a contest and then I'd I'd get second place, and I'd be like, how did I get second place?

I could have smoked those you know, you know, and and then I realized I can't do that anymore. That was kind of like one of those moments where me and me and Jay Adam stayed up all night party in doing coke with a bunch of people, and I'm like, I got this contest in the bagless stay up all night. I'm gonna go skate this contest and win anyway, And I went and I basically fell on an easy trick, and I was like, and I should have won, but I fell on an easy trick, and I was like,

I'm never gonna do that again. And so no, no, I was pissed because I know how good I was. You know what I mean, When you know that you could just beat people when you could stay up all night and on drugs, I mean, you're pretty confident, right, You're you're thinking I could do this in my sleep, one handed tied behind my back. But then I was like, Okay, I'm not superman. I need to really focus and not allow that to happen. Because that's when I started winning

contest was right around then. I was already a prodigy at twelve. Right Everyone's saying I'm gonna be the best, And so it took me a minute to get there in competition because those guys were already the best, and there was a good competition, and I had to like step in and become you know, uh kind of refined skateboarder. And so none of those drugs really did it for me, you know, marijuana. I smoked weed every single day. I

saw Bob Marley twice. I saw him when I was seven, saw him when I was eleven, you know what I mean. So I was a Rastafarian through and through. I thought, if there was spirituality, I'm like, definitely highly Selassia, you know what I mean. I and I right and so um. But then later on in my I think it was like nine one. I had a girlfriend, you know in Hollywood, lou Roll's utter and for three years, and then we

broke up. And then I was a single guy running rapp at crazy in Hollywood, like single life, playing the player life. And then everybody's doing freebase crack cocaine is big with all the models, the actors and all the industry people and all the parties. And I was still not into it. I was like, I'm like at a therapy session. All I would do is sit there and have to like talk talk them off the cliff of depression, talk them off the cliff of like, you know, relationships.

And it never affected my brain the way that it affected a lot of my friends, where they'd get paranoid, they would get you know, schizophrenic, you know what I mean, cocaine did a number. Ecstasy. I did ecstasy a fifteen years old when it was over the counter, and and so, you know, for me, drugs wasn't a big deal because I really didn't lose my mind when I took acid. Nothing melted. When I did my shoms, I just laughed. So I was fortunate not to have that, you know,

well unfortunate because then I'm a functioning user. So now I can use drugs and it just didn't affect me. But then when I started doing speed and I moved down to Orange County. In Orange County was like kind of like, we're a lot of the bikers, and in the underground scene was like they were smoking speed, they were shooting speed, they were eating speed, and it was all different kinds of speed. And when I tried that, all I did was snorted, and I was like, dang,

I'm ripping. I'm like killing it. Well, all right, this is like coffee in a in a in a line, and it doesn't make me feel like and I'm not having to like basically therapeutic. Everyone around me, we all just want to go out and and do stuff longer, faster, and more days in a row. I mean I'd be up for two three days at a time, you know, I mean trying to, you know, find that euphoria of it.

But really I was just a social person. I was into girls, and I would love to talk, and I love to go out, and I love to do things. So it's what kept me kind of going. Yeah. Yeah, the X Games, the first X Games. You know, from what I've read, it seems like it was going to be a big, you know, pretty big deal, you and Tony back together competing again. But then you don't go.

You don't go to the X Games. A why and then what in your mind were the consequences of you not participating in those first X Games, because you know, the speculation seemed to be that you didn't go and therefore somewhat missed out on your rightful place in the minds of people who were, you know, first learning skateboarding was a sport. Well, here I got a possession charge, right, having a pipe with some speed. Now I have a Mr.

Meaner drug charge. Then I got another misdemeanor drug charge with it being on probation, and now that is more severe. Now I have a bench warrant out for my arrest, right and so here, I am going to Japan. We're about to go to Rhode Island for the first X Games. I got a bench warrant. I'm not gonna go. I'm running from the cops. I'm running from bench warrant. And I was like, you know what, I don't need the X Games. You know what, it looks kind of dorky. Anyway,

it's gonna be whatever. And then I saw it on the TV and I was like, yep, there it goes kind of dorky skateboarding, you know what I mean. I'm like, I'm too cool for school anyway, you know what I mean. I'll come back when I when I when I get my bench warrants taken care of. Well, I never got my bench warrants taken care of. And I ran from the cops from all the way to two thousand when

I got arrested. Ran from the cops. No idea on me running around town, you know, oh yeah, And I had a ninety day sentence to do that I ran from. Then now I needed to do a six month sentence because I ran from that. And now I'm just like, I'm not going. And what was I thinking? I was thinking, you know what, I'm living this thrilled life. And this is where the romance comes from, when it comes to underground, when it comes to like taking risks. You know, I thought,

I've never been a bad guy. I've never been a kid running from cops. In my life. I paid, I spent twenty to forty thousand a month on my credit cards. I traveled the world with my team. I you know, I never had an issue with money, and here I am now kind of having issues running around the streets trying to play this. You know, like I'm having a fun time, and you think you are, you know, having a fun time because you're doing things that are like risky.

I'm running from cops. You know. I feel like I'm kind of like Bonnie and Clyde, you know, gonna go rob another bank and can't we get away with it? You know what I mean? And I really thought I was having a good time. But as I look back, I can see the despair. I could see the wanting knowing who I was, but not being able to get unstuck. I was stuck in a rut. And that's the two lives that a lot of people live when it comes to this, this addiction lifestyle. You you you get addicted to

drugs or alcohol or anything. You could get addicted to money, and next thing you know, it consumes you to the point where you'll sacrifice everything for it. You know, my list of priorities was family, friends, skateboarding, then parties, then drugs and and all that that list turned upside down.

It was drugs, then it was parties, and then it was business, then it was family, friends and family at the because you're so shameful, you're so you know you're guilty, and you're just not the person you and when you know what's good and you know what's right, and you've been there, done that, You've been on pedestals, you've been a world champion. I know what it takes. But at the end of the day, I was missing something. I

didn't have my own identity. If you'd been arrested for the same thing in state cort albeit in California or Hawaii, he would have looked at immediate probation or something close to it, even with prior convictions. And it makes some difference you're involved in the case, whether you were a courier or you're a minimal player, or you were a significant distributor. It really depends on how the government he uses you in the end, and the only way to

avoid end the federal system is you cooperate. His response was, I'm not going to write anyone out. I'm not going to point the finger at anyone. Uh and he paid the price. The ultimate irony is that everyone else around him granted him about everyone else around him had no problem pointing the finger at him. So when push came to shove, he was left out in the cold. Let's talk about the Honolulu airport. What was happening in your life at that point? You're arrested a pound and a

half of crystal meth on you. When did it set in like, oh shit, I'm I'm probably going to jail. Um And what happened to you as a person at that point. I've traveled to Hawaii a million times, right, carried as much weed as I could carry everywhere. I've taken it everywhere around the world, two places where you'll get kicked out of country's forever for life. And so you know, I just thought they're never gonna check me. You know, they've never checked me before, Why would they

check me now? And then little did I know I was set up and that they were waiting for me, and all these you know, agents were waiting for me, and I didn't know. I just thought they were like hand picking me out of the bunch, you know what I mean. I was like, you're crazy, I don't know what you're talking about. You know this is illegal. You can't search me. How old were you? Thirty one, thirty two years old? And so I'm just sitting there and you know, I didn't know i'd go to jail for

ten years, you know what I mean. I just didn't think, so, you know what I mean. But no one informed me of the circumstances. No one informed me of the repercussions. No one informed me that how to deal with a

situation when agents come up to you. Because now I'm a professional now, if they would have done that to me today after going to prison, I would have known what to do and they wouldn't have been able to catch me, and I wouldn't have been busted, and I probably would have been dead or eventually in jail again anyway. So I'm just fortunate that I didn't have that information because it led me to this path that I'm on

right now. And I'm here on the you know podcast with you talking about you know, the charges, and and when they're sitting there telling you, you know, look, Christian, you're not a drug dealer. You're we know you're christianssy and you need to you know, tell us you know where you're going, who you're to. And I'm like, you're crazy, I can't do that. You do the crime you're doing

the time. They're like, well, no one retaliates. I'll go, well, I'm from Venice Beach and snitches get stitches and you know, haven't you watched all the movies And they're like, you know what, that's the movies. And I'm like, well, they said, has no retaliation. Well, I told them I fit into the two percent because if I were to tell on me, it would be a problem. And I'm a good person. I'm not like my friends that kill people for fun, you know what I mean, just because you don't pay up,

you know what I mean. And so I just was like sorry, and they were like, well, you're gonna do it, and that at that moment, you know, it didn't really sink in until I went in and I walk into the pod where they have all the inmates and these kids from Christians, soy, what's up? So you're a celebrity right when you walk in? Yeah? Yeah right, and they're like, dude, saw you on the news. You were on the news. And I was like, what's up? And I was like sick.

I was like, so what are you here for? He goes, I'm here for murder. I'm doing a double life sentence. And I'm like, oh, sick, nice to meet you, right, just a kid twenty one years old, right, And he's I'm like, so what's the deal with my case? They're saying I'm gonna do ten years, and he goes, yeah, bra, easy, kind Bra, You'll be out no time. Ten years, Bro, I got a hundred and seventy years. And I was like looking at him and I was like, ten years

is good compared to one seventy, you know. I was like, wow, you put it that way. You put it that way, dude, I'm out no time. But in my heart I was like sinking, like this is true. And that's when I really started to like think what is going on? And you know, why me? Why me? When you showed up to prison though, what was it like being finally forced to well, to get clean and how did you how

did you manage that? Are their programs? You really don't even think about that when you're under this kind of pressure and stress of like, oh my addiction and do I need a fix or do I need to or am I gonna have any withdrawals? That was the farthest thing from my mind. But I was never a person who had withdrawals with anything, you know, in my life and with speed, you just go to sleep, you wake

up and you're fine, you know what I mean. I'd stay up for two days, I'd go to sleep for twelve hours, I'd wake up, I'd be a little groggy, sleep the next night and I'm back to one, you know what I mean. Because that drug comes in and out of your system within twenty It's like comes in and goes out, and so we're opiates. It's it's a longer, alcohol, longer. All those are just such a longer um recovery, you know, in your say withdrawals, right, So I really didn't have

any because I cried out immediately. I'm like, what happened? And then my girlfriend at the time saying, you know what, we just got a trust in God. You know, God's gonna help us through. And that's when I went, I need to get a Bible. Went and got a Bible, and it was like the first time I'm going to open up a Bible in my life. I've been in a million hotel rooms. I've stashed my weed underneath the Bible in the drawer, going protect my weeds so that

the maids don't steal it. You know, Hey, that's about as much as you know of the Bible. I knew like I opened up at one time. I believe in my whole life. And I saw columns and numbers with scriptures, and I was like, what it's like an index? So what a weird, weird book. I guess it's a bunch of like you know, Buddhism, Taoism, you know, we're of wisdom things. And and I just didn't read one word, never read a word in the Bible, never sat there and said what does this say? And here I am

opening it up for the first time. Second day in jail, and that's when I had that encounter with God. And it was me reading in the Book of Kings where King David was about to die and he's charging his son Solomon, and he said does. If he'll follow the Lord all the days of his life, it will prosper him that they'll never be a king, not on the throne, and you'll you'll succeed. And I just went where have I been? How come nobody speaks of these words of wisdom?

What was it like for you? You know, you've skated your whole life. I assume they didn't have a skate park in the yard. What was it like going to prison and not being able to skate and then you get out and you can skate again? What was that like? And once you got out? What were your playing ends? Immediately right when you got out? Well, you know what I told God while I was inside, I was like, God, you know what, I'll give up skateboarding. I'll give him my family. I'll go to the uh, you know, to

the desert. I'll go to the jungles, I'll go anywhere you send me. You know what I mean, I'll sacrifice my life and immediately the Holy Spirit. I'm on my triple decker bunk bed by the way San Bernardino County Jail, and I'm sitting there underneath my blanket where I get with my Bible, and I'm sitting there and all of a sudden, the Holy spirits like I gave you your talent, I gave you your family, I gave you your gifts. And I went like it, Wow, I said, you know what,

I'm gonna be the best skater. I'm gonna be the best father, I'm gonna be the base husband, I'm gonna be the best everything. And then I will also go anywhere you send me and do anything you want me to do. It's like this, you know the charges with Rex. You know what I mean, Like here I am Lord send me, I'll go here. I am stepping into where God will send me to go. And that that was that moment where I was like, you know what, I need to just do what God has called me to do.

You know, Christian so so well. Put. I want to circle back to sports. Um, something I'm just fascinated by. You know, I was fortunate in sports and had some success, but growing up, you know, your dream of being on the USA team, on the Olympic team. I was a basketball player. I ended up playing on the USA team, but basketball was in the Olympics from well beyond when I was you know, from the time I was born.

It's been going on forever. What in the heck is it like for you to have I mean, you came along at the invention of a sport and to see where it's gone from from when you were nine years old, nine, eleven, twelve years old, two, now almost fifty four that what you you were doing in backyard pools and in Santa Monica is now an Olympic sport. How does that feel?

How does that make you feel? Well, you know, it's incredible because you know, when I was fourteen, I remember saying we should be making as much as basketball players. We should be in the Olympics. And you know, that was big dreams back then because we were just a rough around the edges sport, barely like getting new equipment, all the equipment, whether it's wheels, trucks, boards, Everything was advancing really quickly, the protective gear and all the maneuvers.

I mean, everything was advancing so quick from to like eight seven nine. It was astronomical. But to look back and to think about how I felt then, I still feel the same way. I thought that we are the dominant lifestyle sport in the world because it brings in all the other cultures into it. Because we are connected to music, were connected to fashion, We're connected to surfing, We're connected to snowboarding, were connected to um almost like it's it's living. It's not something we pick up and

put down. And nothing against basketball, football, soccer, you know, or any of these other sports that you know they do because some of them are passionate. They go and play after work and they do their thing. But skateboarders are like lifers. It's like you're all in. You bleed for this. And you know, when I when I think about it being in the Olympics this year, I always thought that, you know what, the Olympics need skateboarding, not

skateboarding needs the Olympics. That's been my mentality since I was a kid, Like they wish we were in there, but we we we you know, we we we do our own thing. You know what I mean. You can't you can't tame this. You can't put us in a box. You can't control us, you can't conform us. We are non conformed, arming and we're gonna be rebels, We're gonna be radical. And then how did that do me? While I went straight to prison with that lifestyle, you know, and a lot of my dreams were down the drain,

and and and but God revived them. God supernaturally healed my body, healed my mind, and to come back out and to see skateboarding the way it was and how things were going in the early two thousands to where I actually wanna two gold medals at the X Games, you know in the Legends divisions the only two years that they had them, and then multiple contests you know, in our in our careers of just you know, the Legends or they called the Master's Divisions and all that.

But for it to finally make it and to even have a rider from Brazil, Dora Varella was one of my riders that she was a woman who made it into the Olympics in my Brazilian you know HUSSOI Team Hassi division. It was something special because up, I saw you light up right, you just got yeah. Because you know, I'm a competitor, Like competition is in my blood. Like if we're gonna play pool, I'm gonna want to beat you. I don't care if you know, you know you need

some sympathy. I'm gonna smoke you and I'm gonna talk smack doing it, and I'm gonna do a triple bumper shot just to like rub it in. And that's just the school I come from. And so the Olympics is that stage. It has nothing to do with personality. It's got nothing to do with anything. It's a little bit you know, difficult when it comes to the process where it's like the qualifications leading up to it. All that stuff is a little bit unusual for a skateboarder because

skateboarders are usually a little more formal. Right, It's just formal, very formal, very controlled, and you have to want it. And if that happened when it was my day, I would have quit smoking weed. I would have went for it, and I would have done everything that I could to get that gold medal, because that's that's just who I am. You should be. I'm thankful that you're here. Uh. I

can't thank you enough for joining us today. Man. While I might not ever be able to do uh any cool tricks on a ramp, I want you to know, man, I do think you're a well, you're an icon, your legend. I think what you've achieved in the sport UH is absolutely incredible. My door is always open to you. Thanks,

my friend. I appreciate that Rex, and it's a great and honor to be on your show and I can't wait to do it again, and uh meet you in person and UH give you a fat hug and say thank you same here, thanks for joining us Christian Charges Less and the tennis and balls and charges the Celebrity Ganks charge if we came along with from Living Long Charge severing a Runnians with the law charge Ship Lee send the Tanis and ball is a charge is celebrity

gang forms Charge we came along with from Living Lawless Charge. Charges is created by port Lay and Control Media is produced by DV Podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts