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.

Uncle Outside

I surfed "Lighthouse" yesterday morning. It's one of the high performance waves on the South Shore.
Every spot of course has it's regulars. At Lighthouse there's this one Uncle who sits the farthest outside waiting for only the big set waves. From further inside where most sit, Uncle sounds like he's speaking in tongues...mumbling.
He'll be like, "Ober der inside yeah!... oops maybe not. Hmmm. Maybe... mmmm..No. Sorry eh!" or" Der inside! Going brah!"

Then, Uh Oh! Here dey come (talking about approaching waves in the far distance.) "Here we go, ha ha ha grrrrrhhm. Yah!" as he paddles to into position. He'll be what looks like just a little too far inside where the wave is gonna crash on his back... And the wave does just that. He'll do the latest of late take-offs. The wave jacks up. the lip crashes on his back as he is saying, "Uh. Oh." under his breath and make the drop somehow. Any second later a total wipeout. then he'll go left sometimes instead of right (the way the wave is known for breaking).

Most people think longboarders are not welcome at lighthouse.
But the way Uncles rides, he is an obvious exception.

If you paddle next to him, you realize that it is not the sound of waves and distance that muffles his voice, but he actually speaks that way, in grunts... but I totally understand him... Probably because I speak like him as well at times like when I speak to my lady Marisa. She can't stand it. But somehow it makes sense to me.... or isn't worth articulating.

Unga bunga.
Aloha yeah?
-Manwell.

Michael Peterson

Reading a book right now titled "MP the life of Michael Peterson"

4th of July Ding Repair

I'm not bragging about this moment. I just found it funny and a little scary.
At the supermarket with my pregnant lady Marisa.

We're buying groceries of for a BBQ at our friend Rob Duncan.
Marisa is being good and buying veggies and fruit.

I'm almost totally broke and all I want and can afford is chicken and beer.

And all I want to do is do ding repair and sand my surfboards.
We get to the register and pay separate and the beer cost more than the chicken,
which she points out.

I almost feel guilty but not.

I can't focus my mind on anything else but sanding my boards. And its Marisa's only day off.

I felt so selfish.
So she says go sand. It's too late I had to leave.
I go to Rob's because he has a big backyard for me to make a mess.
For the next 2 hour I sand and drink a few beers while Marisa stayed home and cried.

I felt terrible, but there was nothing I can do.
I already dropped in.

When I finished, I hustled back home, got down on my knees and apologized for a while and finally got her to come with me back to the BBQ.
but first we drove up Tantalus Mountain and watched the fire works in the rain. We sat in the back of our station wagon hatchback until the fireworks started. Then I held two layers of straw matting over our heads for perfect romantic shelter.

Those fireworks saved my relationship.
If we would have missed them, I may have been a gonner.

The fireworks went off right on time at around 8:30pm.

Then we went back to the BBQ just as Rob started Q-ing it up.
We ate big.
then went home and crashed.

That was a close one.
I almost lost my lady to ding repair.
-Manny

Tokyo Flashback

Cruising through Tokyo Part 1 from unclefunkys on Vimeo.

Slide

More Style Sessions II from unclefunkys on Vimeo.

Fathers Day: Solitude in Ding Repair

sol·i·tude
1. The state or quality of being alone or remote from others.

During moments of solitude, I can relax my mind from my weekday routines. Weekday brain patterns.
I tend to pack in so much during the week. My mind on go twenty four-seven.

I've been known to be the guy to wax poetic or be a little too nostalgic, but I don't give a shit.
These are the moments when I kick back and appreciate life. When times get a little rough and I got 11 dollars in the bank,
I just kick back and dig into the archives of my memory and find one of the many fulfilling moments I've had.

A lot of the time we just eat up life and just keep on eating. Sometimes we gotta give thanks.
During moments of solitude I can find the time to do so.

Today I received my first Fathers Day card from my lady Marisa and my unborn baby yet with no name.
Any one out there have a good name, Please drop a comment.

At first I was thinking Ocean. I try to imagine being at a playground and yelling "Ocean! Time to go."
Wifey Marisa likes Nico. I'm also thinking Ethan.

Woke up with a pretty bad hang over.
Yesterday I kicked it with my bro Rob Duncan. We watched Roller Derby at 5pm and then went to the local bar Anna Bannanas
for the after party and ended up staying til 1am I think. then went back to Rob's and he fed me a salad and an enchilada until I fell asleep on his couch as he was telling me some deep shit. Felt bad about that, but heck, I don't drink as much these days
and we threw back about four pitchers worth of beers.

So I woke up pretty bent.
Met up with Marisa during her break to dip into the Ocean.
Then a visit to Uncle Ethan Valeting at Tokurrei Tei.
He hooked me up with 3 fat avocados.
Ethan is the fruit hook up master.

Thank God for Fathers Day and Marisa so extra sweet.
Like a get out of jail free card, she let me off the hook.
So its 8pm Marisa works til 10pm and I'm doing Ding repair and writing the blog.
Both activities of precious solitude.
Til next time.
Aloha.