Since my Dad was an artist, I grew up around art shows and openings and that had a big impact on me as well, especially in L.A. So skateboarding was the cool thing to do and I was totally attracted to it and once I saw the magazines... that was it, I knew this was what I wanted to do for a living.
Christian HosoiThere're two different kinds of skating. There's the style skating, and there's the trick skating. He (Tony Hawk) does the trick skating so heavy duty, that he can overcome the style skating. There's always the chance that the style skater can come back, but the whole deal really is learning tricks.
Christian HosoiI won contest after contest until finally I realized, "Ok, I am the best in the world, but now what?" So I opened my own company, but there was still that feeling of, "What else do I need to do?"
Christian HosoiI tried partying and going out, doing drugs and even dealing drugs to support my habit. I was hanging out with people from the underground who were doing illegal things all the time. I was experimenting with more and more drugs to the point where skateboarding was the last thing on my mind and my family was next to last.
Christian Hosoi