August 31-September 6, 2006

City Beat : Philly Blunt

A Religious Experience

by Brian Hickey

I had an audience with Christ last week. In a West Chester skate shop, of all places. About five-seven and a buck fifty, he wore a light-blue short-sleeved shirt, buttoned halfway up. His dark hair was sorta slicked back, leaving his expressive eyes all the more focal. A big old cross dangled around his neck.

He and eight disciples were there to meet and greet followers: the young and not-quite old, the rich and not-quite-pauper poor. After engaging every last one in as much conversation as they desired, Christ double-checked their names, signed a personalized autograph, and thanked them for their time with a pat on the arm. But really, they couldn’t have been happier to meet him. Strike that: The only thing that made them happier was Christ’s willingness to pose for picture after picture, a magnetic smile rarely leaving his face.

Just after sunset, they would accompany Christ a few blocks away to watch the local premiere of the movie about his life. It was a film about passion and temptation, but the protagonist wasn’t God’s only son.

He was a 38-year-old ex-con named Christian Hosoi.

A skateboarding legend, he had everything, and lost it all. He later realized that he actually had nothing when he thought he had everything. That he only found everything when he supposedly had nothing, not even freedom. So now, having emerged from dark depths, he wants to make sure the world knows everything isn’t always what it seems.

Confusing, I know, so let Christ translate it into mortalese.

“I always thought I was a good person, and I was a good person,” explains Hosoi, leaning forward with both his elbows pressed on a display case, making unbreakable eye contact. “But good people don’t go to heaven. People who believe in God go to heaven.

“I mean, my name is Christian, people call me Christ and my signature move was the ‘Christ Air.’ Do you think somebody was trying to send me a message?”

Take that eye-roll back; it’s not here-we-go-again time. Sure, Hosoi’s story of transformation seems as common as the nation’s prisons are overcrowded. Young man gets pinched after boarding a plane with 1.5 pounds of crystal meth — enough speed, in Sports Illustrated‘s estimation, to “wire all of Oahu.” Young man gets 10 years. Young man finds God. And upon his June release — he walks early thanks to good behavior — young man talks as if he’s been God’s pre-ordained messenger all along.

Of this ilk, Hosoi isn’t the first and he won’t be the last. But narrow plotline aside, Hosoi’s tale isn’t run-of-the-mill. This is no mere meth mule. He was his sport’s prodigy, pretty face and crossover star of Walk This Way proportions. Sure, Tony Hawk was already in the game during Hosoi’s formative years, but only one skater (Hosoi) pulled the prime Hollywood vixens, magazine covers, endorsements, fame and a bigger salary than the average NBA baller. That is, until he skipped the first X Games to elude bounty hunters and went the way of cell-bound Bible study while his counterpart became an adored, multimillion-dollar industry magnate.

Now, the onetime free-spending party king of a rule-scoffing subculture travels the land trying to make sure the kids saving their allowance to buy Tony Hawk’s Project 8 for PlayStation (it features Hosoi), realize there’s no shame in having faith. “I was always grateful when people would ask me for my autograph,” he explains, “but I always thought it was because of me. Well, it wasn’t me. It was because of God. … I know now that I have to be available for Him to use me.”

Lapsed Catholic I may forever be, but after talking to Hosoi for an hour, I could sense a passion that enables him to laugh in the face of potential-relapse questions. In fact, he left me being all about reading the two Old Testament chapters that shifted his life into this new gear (FYI: Kings — yes, the title jumped off the frayed pages at him — is impenetrable. Short of funneling a six-pack of Red Bull, or being stuck in prison, you ain’t getting through it without some serious will power.) That said, a Bible-thumper Hosoi’s not. Sure, he’ll sign an autograph “Jesus Saves” and talk about religion after the movie, but he doesn’t force it. If someone wants to talk skateboarding, the proselytizing takes a back seat.

But considering his past — check out Rising Sun: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi when it comes out on DVD in November — he’s got a level of street cred the likes of which no man of the cloth could ever boast. As such, he thinks he’ll be (literally) damned if he doesn’t use it.

“I,” says Christ, “can help these kids make better choices in life.”

If only everybody who wielded religion as a weapon had such noble goals.

(hickey@citypaper.net)