Christian Hosoi

I don't know if I wrote about this already, but a couple of weeks ago I was skateboarding to Enterprise Rent a Car to pick up a vehicle as I do most Tuesday afternoons. Except this time I took an alternate route.

On the way I noticed in a courtyard between buildings, a big crowd and a mini-ramp with a bunch of kids skating.

Of course I'm thinking, "Mini-ramp. I wanna skate the min-ramp. At a closer glance I see Christian Hosoi at the base of the ramp narrating through a loudspeaker phone. He is the host of some kind of big event. It is then that I notice that the location is a church named "Word of Life"

Then one of the kids on the other side of the fence notices me and my board and says, "Hey man you can skate too. All you have to do is sign up."

To make a long story shorter, I get the car hustle back and Christian is saying can anyone out there do a layback?
First person to do the best layback gets these set of wheels"

Coincidentally the layback is one of my signature tricks because one of Christian's signature tricks is the layback.
You see like thousands of other skaters around the globe from 80's, Christian was my role model... Hero if you will.

So I say, "I can" and jump onto the ramp.

Christian says "Oh, here we go."

I drop in and Christian says to the crowd, "O.K. this guy's got style" and I'm thinking "Christian my teenage hero known as the "most stylish skater that ever lived" is saying that I have style.
I'm so stoked and I do a layback and the crowd cheers.

Then I notice the soft wheels I'm riding are too soft for the ramp. So I say" Christian. Can I use your board?" and he says, "Sure." and hands me his board and...

Actually this is one of the main reasons I'm writing this story.
His board was so elite.

His board was light in weight.
Trucks the perfect looseness. Not too tight, not too loose.

Perfect tail length.
Perfect pop.(the wood so fresh and hard) the sound of smacking the tail made the highest pitch "DAK!"
His wheels the perfect height...
actually very low to the ground.

The center of gravity of the board so low.

and the board the perfect length and with.

A big board yet so light.

It even had a thin set of rails on it.

and the board still weighed so little.

I rode this board and it was magic.

I rode it until he took it back.

We then got into a deep conversation about Jesus.
I told him that I was just randomly skateing by and i saw this ramp and wanted to skate.
Then I saw you inside hosting and was like, "No Way!"

He was stoked about the randomness of my experience and said, "How do you know that Jesus didn't put this ramp for you to skate and talk with me right now. Jesus has the power to do things for you individually and for others at the same time."

Then he said lets skate. And we run up the ramp and Christian drops in for a flawless epic run as usual. To see Christian bail is kind of rare. Long 5-0 grinds to fackie. Big backside disasters to smith. A frontside floating olllie. Long frontside 5-0 grinds. A hand plant, and of course a classic layback like no other. Then dismounts onto one the deck.

He climbs off the ramp into the crowd. And I take my run. A hard act to follow, but do anyway.
I then here my name from below.
Its Christian. He says, "Manny!" and gestures for me to come down. So I do.

Christian says, "Lets say a prayer. Repeat after me"
"Thank you lord for giving us this ramp to skate and have fun. If there is a god out there, give me a big sign that I will notice"... Amen.
.... It was something along this line.

He then said here take my number down. I had it previously from when I did an interview with him for the Honolulu Weekly a year ago but had lost it with a new phone.

He said, You're gonna call me when you get blown away at the power of Jesus. You are gonna be blown away."


We parted as he was scheduled to speak during the next part of the event...

I stuck around a little while and listened to him speak to the crowd of about 500 people or more. I was touched to hear him speak about our encounter... about how I randomly rolled through that street and found the ramp. And how Jesus possibly put that ramp out there for me. as well as he did it for all of us...


I was like wow. what a day.
Kind of surreal.
I feel blessed actually.

God has bestowed a wealth of good times and moments to me... and my surroundings.
I am blessed.
God is with me.

And that is what my hame "Emanuel" means actually.... God is with us.