IVAN HOSOI:<\/strong> I just did a guitar art piece out of cardboard. It\u2019s kind of Picasso-esque. Anything you do with cardboard and a guitar is just awesome. You have to look for original stuff. It\u2019s a rough go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a rough go, for sure. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of us are creative. So what\u2019s going on, bro? <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I do an interview, I bounce all over the place. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I like that. I don\u2019t go by the straight line anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Exactly. I don\u2019t have standard questions. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s cool. So, Mr. Jones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, Mr. Smith. [Laughs] Where do you come from? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1942, right after the war. I was born and raised in a funeral home. My family history is all morticians. I\u2019m a mortician by trade. I was born in a mortuary. My grandpa came to Hawaii in 1900, right after the overthrow of Hawaii. He said. \u201cI\u2019m going to stay here.\u201d We\u2019ve been dealing with burial since 1900. It\u2019s strictly our family, nobody else. That\u2019s where I come from. Death is not something you get used to. You\u2019re crying. You feel for people. You never get jaded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow skateboarders are doing a lot of high art, and high technical skateboarding. It\u2019s developing into something else. It\u2019s going some place I never thought it would go.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Maybe some people do, but they\u2019re crass. We don\u2019t worry about those types. What was it like growing up in Hawaii? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At seven years old, I had to go out and earn money because we were poor. My momma would let me go shine shoes. I was shining shoes on the street in front of the theatre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Was this in Waikiki? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No. Waikiki didn\u2019t exist then. Waikiki was only two hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What kind of people needed a shoeshine? I thought everyone went barefoot in Hawaii. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, no. There were men wearing sharkskin pants tucked in. It was the zoot suits and the whole nine yards. I\u2019d spit shine them French toe shoes for ten cents, regular. When I was eight years old, my mom says, \u201cYou have to go to the Ranch.\u201d So I went to the Parker Ranch. It was the biggest ranch in the world. My mom says, \u201cYou have to go there and work.\u201d The men were all wearing zoot suits and fighting chickens. I was growing up in that, so my mom sent me to the Ranch and I became a cowboy at eight years old. You go up to the mountains and look for stray cattle and bring them back. Then you slaughter cows and deliver the heads to the hunters. Don\u2019t fall off the horse though because if you fall off, you\u2019re dead. I didn\u2019t think about putting a tether around my waist. I just had to hold on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Laughs] What year was this? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wow. Were they surfing? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They were surfing hollow boards made out of plywood with box rails and no skegs. They were long 14 to 16-foot planks. Three of us little guys would ride them at a time. That\u2019s what we surfed, and we raced canoes. We started the Hawaiian Association of Racing. That was early on. At 11 years old, we were the State Champions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What distance were you guys paddling? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was a quarter of a mile and a half of a mile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You were just mad racing, sprinting. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d just go for it. I was the stroker in front, the person that leads the timing and intensity that everybody has to keep up. The coach said, \u201cWhen you hit that bottom, just pump it up and they have to go. Make sure your team is on it. Don\u2019t just go wild. You bring them along.\u201d I paddled for 18 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When did you start making art? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My dad showed me how to draw when I was eight. He showed me how to draw a fig in three seconds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did he teach you shading and all of it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No. It was just a quick three-second line drawing. It was a Matisse type of thing. I was like, \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll take up art.\u201d I dug art. When I went to my first art class in school in ninth grade, my art teacher hit me in the head with his knuckles. He thought I was the best student and he wanted me to be better, so he hit me with his knuckles, and I walked out of class. He didn\u2019t even care. When I went through high school, I said, \u201cForget art. They\u2019re idiots.\u201d When I graduated, he told me that I was his best student. That was funny. That\u2019s when I knew he was serious about me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, but it pissed you off as a kid? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. He was thinking I was not doing as well as I could. It was like he wanted me to do the Sistine Chapel. Then I was supposed to work for Sam Francis as his prot\u00e9g\u00e9, and Sam did the same thing. He said, \u201cI\u2019m going to make you see something here.\u201d As soon as he did that, I thought of my ninth grade teacher and said, \u201cI\u2019m out of here.\u201d He wanted me to walk his walk, and I said, \u201cI can\u2019t do it.\u201d He got mad. Then I took out his daughter and he got more mad. He brought his daughter over and she was junkied out. I was going to cure her by taking her out so she wouldn\u2019t go with the bad boys, but Sam thought I was the bad boy. He got it upside down. I said to Sam, \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d I respected him. He bought a painting from me, and I thought I was going to get at least $1,500. I guess it was only $150. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He dropped a zero. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n He dropped a zero and I went, \u201cWhat?\u201d It was a good thing though because he put my painting in his studio where he painted. He got the vibe. My guy still worked for him and he told me that. They told him it was an unknown painter. You don\u2019t do that shit. Picasso doesn\u2019t steal from anybody. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before that, did you go to Chouinard? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. They tore me up there. I went to art school during the \u201860s, and I\u2019d pull up every day in my frenched \u201849 Ford Victoria. I was trying to be modern, but I was punk rock. I got on scholarship, so I was rolling. It was fun. Everyone was there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were you at Chouinard with Ruscha? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They graduated just when I got in there. They were the older generations. There were so many generations of artists around. Peter Voulkos was there. John Altoon was my teacher, and he was really out there. He stripped naked and ran down the street and got arrested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [Laughs] He was tripping. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s one of those guys that had to go all the way in everything he did. He was an intellectual. There were intellectuals like Jean-Michel Basquiat. Gary Wong and I would take him to Dennis Hopper\u2019s studio. We\u2019d deliver the canvases, and pick him up and take him to the gallery, so we got to know Jean Michel. He was a total intellectual with fluent dialogue, and yet, you could street talk to him. That\u2019s why I call him a hero. You\u2019re not trying to put it on, but you\u2019ve got it going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSteve Caballero walked under the ramp and said, \u201cWhat are you guys doing? Are you guys doing drugs under here?\u201d\u2002We said, \u201cYeah, man. This is pure oxygen like the pros do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n What music was going on for you as a kid? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201860s was the Beatles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know that, but weren\u2019t you playing music in Hawaii with Elvis Presley? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That was my friend backing Elvis on bass. He had a show with Elvis and he said, \u201cI\u2019m going to play with Elvis. You want to go with me? Good. Let\u2019s go.\u201d Boom. We\u2019re in the stadium and I\u2019m standing on stage with my friend. I\u2019m his roadie and the whole place was screaming. Elvis runs in and does two songs and gets back in the chopper and he\u2019s gone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you know what songs he did? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was \u201cDon\u2019t be Cruel\u201d and \u201cHound Dog.\u201d He came back to do Blue Hawaii and my girlfriend danced behind him. I took her to Elvis\u2019 set. Then I went to Honolulu to go to art school. While I was in art school, I printed RCA records. My account was Elvis Presley, so I was the one that printed the Elvis Presley records. You only print one guy. Mine was Elvis Presley, \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel.\u201d All the 45s are rubbish from RCA because I printed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Laughs] Excellent. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Elvis comes into town one time and he says, \u201cI want to play football.\u201d We said, \u201cWe\u2019ve got a team. We\u2019ll challenge you.\u201d He says, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ll get a team.\u201d He goes and picks up ten guys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was bringing in sandbaggers. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. We were at Echo Park like, \u201cOkay, Elvis, let\u2019s go.\u201d We got up there and they said, \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll play two-hand touch.\u201d We were like, \u201cNo. We\u2019re playing tackle.\u201d Obviously, we let him win. It was funny, but I loved it because I got closer to Elvis every time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were you skateboarding back in the \u201860s? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No. I was surfing. In 1959, it was Pupukea with the big old boards. We were surfing Sunset with Greg Noll. I had custom-made shit like Greg Noll. We\u2019d go to Waimea at 7:30 in the morning. No one was out. It was just 30-foot glass. I was out there one day with my buddies, and Noll was saying, \u201cI can do anything.\u201d I said, \u201cYou\u2019re going to die. If you don\u2019t catch those waves, you\u2019re fish food.\u201d We caught that wave together and he almost died. They took a picture of that, and put it in Life Magazine the year that Kennedy died. I called up Life and said, \u201cHey, that\u2019s my shot. Can I have one?\u201d They said, \u201cYeah. No problem.\u201d Bingo. They sent me that shot. People don\u2019t think it\u2019s me, but I don\u2019t have to prove it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When bullshit is bullshit, people know that it\u2019s bullshit. What was your obsession with the blues? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I would go to the Ash Grove, and I saw Howlin\u2019 Wolf and Muddy Waters there. It was crazy. They came through with so much style. I guess that was it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wait a minute. You were working at RCA printing \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I printed \u201cDon\u2019t Be Cruel.\u201d \u201cHound Dog\u201d was on the B-Side. I said, \u201cI want to print 33s now.\u201d He said, \u201cOkay. Get over there.\u201d You had to do it perfectly and wear white gloves to print a 33-1\/3 rpm. Pretty soon, I said, \u201cI\u2019m out of here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then what did you do? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I went to art school on scholarship and made it through. It was big time fun. The year I graduated, Disney took Chouinard over. Disney would come in everyday and go, \u201cHi students, you know I own this school.\u201d They would go, \u201cYeah. Right. Mrs. Chouinard isn\u2019t dead.\u201d When Mrs. Chouinard died, it was so sad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What was it like going to Chouinard? You had cats coming out of there that were banging. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Everybody in L.A. came from that time. Bob Irwin was teaching there then and he was becoming the pop guy. Hans Hofmann walked through one year in the \u201830s or \u201840s. The place had some vibes. Rico Lebrun and all of those guys walked through there, so it had some history. So many guys from that school made the L.A. art scene, but they made the L.A. fetish. That\u2019s what pissed people off. They were all fetish guys. Everybody could become L.A. artists under that kind of regime. Art and technology was busting loose and I was not into that. I love it, but I don\u2019t do that kind of thing. I could never get into that scene, but I was building art structures for them. I worked for Ganzer and made glass boxes so they could pour glass cement without even polishing. I used to go down to Bob Iriwn\u2019s studio. That dude used to make high tech acrylic stuff. They were all innovating. I met his son and he said, \u201cI was there with my dad. All those artists just used my dad for his technological skills and he never made any money.\u201d I said, \u201cNo way. I thought he was banking.\u201d I used to hang out and watch his techniques and I wanted to do that kind of stuff. I worked for Ron Davis making his high tech stuff. I was cutting them and buffing them out. Talk about high tech. Those were going for $150,000 a piece. It was crazy. L.A. was happening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ferus Gallery was happening too. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019d be at the Ash Grove and we\u2019d walk across the street to Ferus and they\u2019d have all those balloons and Brillo pads. We were like, \u201cWhat the hell is this guy doing?\u201d It was good times. L.A. was fresh. Everyone was going against the tradition of making salon art like Matisse and those guys. It was too classic. So they said, \u201cScrew that.\u201d It was the Dadaists and all that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How long was that movement popular? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It just started. It made things change. Things have to change. If they don\u2019t change, you\u2019re going to lose it. Now there\u2019s new blood like you. It might be skateboarders next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What year did you graduate Chouinard? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1967. It was the year Christian was born. After graduation, I was either going to go to Berkeley or I was going East. I got accepted at Berkeley, so I went to Berkeley. At that time, Berkeley had never accepted any art school student from anywhere in the world because it\u2019s a top science school. They told me that I got accepted as a test to see if an art student could handle the Berkeley program. David walks up and says, \u201cI\u2019m going to have a contest. Why don\u2019t you put some stuff up?\u201d So I put my stuff up and he walked around and picked mine. It was great. There were some heavy hitters at Berkeley at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The hippie thing was going on too, no? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We started the People\u2019s Park Movement. Mario Savio was the intellectual in that department. His idea was to get all of the scholarship students in the frontlines of these protests. Obviously, I was one of them. Savio says, \u201cWe\u2019re going to protest. We\u2019re going to walk down and block the school and protest.\u201d I said, \u201cI\u2019m not into this, but I\u2019ll do it.\u201d The cops came that day and they had declared martial law, but we didn\u2019t know it. The cops shot their guns with live ammo and I was right there. I heard ammo zinging over my head. You could hear it flying. I was all for peace, but I had a baby at home, so I walked away. The whole town was on fire. That was the People\u2019s Park Movement. Kent State killed four kids the next week, and Kent State was supposed to march the same day we marched, but they couldn\u2019t organize. It would have been East Coast and West Coast. Boom! After that shooting, we went, \u201cWhoa.\u201d Then I was rolling down to West Oakland and teaching ghetto kids how to draw. It was heavy. They were organizing the Black Panthers then. The cops were totally persecuting Huey Newton, and Rap Brown was doing little meetings that we\u2019d go to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were you guys tripping on acid at all? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. Remember Norton Wisdom, the lifeguard at Malibu? I knew him at Berkeley. He bought a Mercedes Benz from an old ambassador from Italy, so Norton and I were rolling around in this Mercedes. It was an eight-seater with five doors and the Italian flag was still on it. We were working with Peter Voulkos, so we drove all over the place in that car. We hung out and gambled with Voulkos and Altoon. They were good guys. [Laughs] <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s called art. You\u2019re not selling your soul. It\u2019s just like changing your skateboard. It\u2019s a vehicle. You just make more art. You don\u2019t have to sell your soul.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n When did you bounce from Berkeley to SoCal? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1969. I got the Chancellor\u2019s Award from Berkeley and then they said I couldn\u2019t have the award. They said, \u201cGet out of here. We don\u2019t want you around here.\u201d I said, \u201cWhat?\u201d I could have called the chancellor, and let him know, but I never did. It was stupid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then it was back to L.A. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. Stecyk and everybody were at the ARCO Building in downtown L.A. and art was going big time. Stecyk asked me to get in this show of young turks. He did this installation with a TV in it, so I decided to do my powder paintings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s in the powder? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s color pigments. I buy 50 gallons of raw pigment and start throwing the stuff all over the place. It was micro powder, like dust in the morgue stuff. Marshall Weisman said, \u201cOkay, this guy is going to be in the show.\u201d So I go to the show and everybody has a nice wall. I said, \u201cWhere the hell is my painting?\u201d My painting is in the corner some place in the back. It\u2019s okay though because Sam Francis walks up to me. Everybody was following Sam Francis around at the opening, because he was the local artist. I really didn\u2019t know him, but he says, \u201cI like your painting.\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, but they stuck it way in the corner.\u201d He says, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about it. Your art is the shit.\u201d Everybody standing around him was going, \u201cWhat?\u201d I was just having fun. That was my first show in L.A. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What year was this? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was 1971 or somewhere around there. In 1973, I went to Hawaii. I said, \u201cI\u2019m going to raise Christian out there the way the Hawaiians do.\u201d He was six years old. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were you still with Bonnie? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. We stayed together until Christian started skateboarding, and then he got wild. After a few years, we moved back to L.A. I said, \u201cI have to take up art again.\u201d I moved back to L.A. when Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cThriller\u201d was being filmed right there in that graveyard. I grew up at that graveyard, so it wasn\u2019t scary. It was a big old haunted house. Nobody wanted to rent it, so we took it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Was it really haunted? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Christian grew up there. It\u2019s cool. It\u2019s right there at Normandy and Washington. Michael Jackson was out on the street and I was standing out there singing \u201cThriller\u201d to Christian in his buggy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When did you start working at Marina Skatepark? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That was 1979. Christian wanted to go there, but the guy was not running the place right. I said, \u201cHey, you need help. Let me give you a hand.\u201d He asked his mother if he could hire me and she said okay, so I got the job. At least, it paid for gas and food and free skate time for Christian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You were there every day? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was there at opening and closing every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I used to see you. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember the video that you guys did when you guys broke Devo\u2019s camera lens? Was that you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. We fucked them up. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That was classic. [Laughs] <\/p>\n\n\n\n How about that? Devo at Marina. That was insane. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was full tilt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you remember when they had gigs at the freestyle area at Marina? I played there. It was funny. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember. There was a pit with all the broken beer bottles in there and the girls were jumping in. That was gnarly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That was a fun park to just hang out in. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All those bowls are still under the ground. They never wrecked them. They just took the coping off and the deck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you see them bury it? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. I had to be there to make sure nobody was skating. We closed it down and Christian would skate with his buddies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was a fun time. A lot of kids came up out of Marina. Your kid came up out of Marina. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. We would see you guys roll through. Those were the early classic days. There was Brad Bowman and that whole crew. You guys were doing classic stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was Valdez, and all the boys from Venice, like Polar Bear. It was crazed. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was so much soul there. There were also people like Marshall Chess. When Christian was in grade school, Marshall Chess was rolling into the skatepark with his kids. He\u2019d roll out because he would have to go record the Rolling Stones. Christian grew up with the Chess family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What was it like watching your kid go up through the ranks from the brown bowls to the world? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, I knew the bad boys were dangerous, but you can\u2019t stop that, so I just hoped and prayed that the kid had some sense. He always had sense. Some people have sense and some people have more daring than sense. That\u2019s what I believe. It\u2019s a whole different game. I backed off on him because I knew he had sense. As a parent, you can\u2019t be around all the time because it becomes too much. At the time, especially with Christian, I was always there, so I tried to sever the leash a little. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You guys have a tight relationship though. Even more so than a tight relationship, there was trust. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. That\u2019s the thing. I guess trust would be a belief and faith that you have to go for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the beginning days of the brown bowls, we were already veterans of the sport at age 18. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You guys took it to the classic level though. Kids like Christian wanted to do exactly what you guys were doing, but then there was all the new technological stuff like better bearings and better wheels and bowls too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s evolution. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s part of it. Your generation thought that you were shut out by talent, but you weren\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s called art. You\u2019re not selling your soul. It\u2019s just like changing your skateboard. It\u2019s a vehicle. You just make more art. You don\u2019t have to sell your soul.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s go past Marina to when it was nothing. It wasn\u2019t a popular sport, but they were still skating. That\u2019s why I have mad respect for those cats. It\u2019s not about money, but first place at a contest paid $100. All of those kids were in it because they dug it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian beat Tony Hawk on home turf closing day, and it blew Tony Hawk away. Tony Hawk came to Marina to blow Christian out of his home park and he couldn\u2019t do it. Stacy Peralta promised Christian a model that day and Stacy couldn\u2019t come through. He said, \u201cIf you beat Tony, you\u2019ve got a pro model.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How was it as a pops being in the mix? You love your kid. You want to do what you can for him. All of a sudden, he just takes off, literally. You had to feel good, right? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. You feel good, but I hear about so many people that get good at what they do and they are always searching for another thing. It\u2019s like they\u2019re unhappy or something, but it isn\u2019t unhappiness. It\u2019s that level that you push yourself to every time and when you stop you still have to push other levels in your life. As a dad, I felt like it was only Tony Hawk\u2019s dad and I in the whole world. There were no other dads. Every country we went to and every contest we went to, we would stand around as the other kids\u2019 mothers dropped them off. They were like, \u201cHere\u2019s $5, kid. I\u2019ll see you when it\u2019s over.\u201d Bang. Nobody was there. The parents that were there treated it like Boy Scouts. They went just to support the kid. I would drive out to the desert and pick up Gator because his dad couldn\u2019t go anywhere. As a dad, I was just happy with the fact that I had a kid that was making it through it. He didn\u2019t have to be the top guy. Sometimes, if you push too hard, they start blaming you for stuff that you don\u2019t know. Skateboarding has a crazy industry too. Through it all, Christian was forgiving, but I can\u2019t forgive. Tony Hawk and Christian got signed to Dogtown the same day, so we go to Dogtown\u2019s office and they\u2019re gone. At that time, they were New York swift cats. So I went to them and I was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s up?\u201d He says, \u201cWell, it\u2019s over.\u201d Pretty soon it was over for everybody, so we just went underground. One of my first benefactors for the underground was Lilo. She set us up with our underground company. We rocked it, and then everyone started selling hammerheads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was when skateboarding was not popular to the masses. They were doing it because they have passion and heart for skateboarding, but then came the late \u201880s, and it got crazy again. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, the ASPO tried to do the parents\u2019 league. ASPO, which became CASL, was a family thing. Because of ASPO, kids like Bert Lamar and Billy Ruff got real good. That wasn\u2019t for money. That was amateur. Then Mr. Hawk started to think like that, because ASPO was all parents. That\u2019s when you guys left it. I think there\u2019s a hidden message there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of people hated on Mr. Hawk. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, he ran a machine shop, like a military thing. You can\u2019t blame him. I don\u2019t blame him. He did step up, but I couldn\u2019t step with him because we were coming from the old school underground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was coming from a machine shop and you\u2019re coming from a background of creativity and expression of freedom. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And empty pools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes perfect sense. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was kind of nice. Tony and Christian had become perfect partners in the street and on vert. It was a good cop, bad cop thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From what I can remember, it never seemed like, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t like that guy.\u201d It was more like, \u201cYeah. Good competition.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah. I have to tell you, Frank got it close to little league. We would go to Whittier and the Whittier boys would be all little leaguers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [Laughs] Then you had Fausto and the Thrasher boys, and then TransWorld, which put that mad separation in it. It was like the good cops are from the south and the bad cops are from the north. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Those were the Civil War days of skateboarding. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You guys kept your names in the mix. You\u2019re still in the mix. It\u2019s the history of what\u2019s up. That style thing brought your name up every time. We would go, \u201cYeah. History. Those guys know what\u2019s up. Surf. Skate.\u201d [Laughs] Those new guys couldn\u2019t dig it because they didn\u2019t know what water was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who did you have to deal with when you started to do Hosoi Skates? It was like a team. You and C.H. rolled together, which I thought was cool. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I was there as the advisor. Christian was only 12 or 13. After Stacy didn\u2019t come through with the pro model for Christian, we were over it. Sims talked to us, and sent a contract to us, so we signed the contract. Ding, ding, ding! The next week Dorfman walks up and says, \u201cI own Sims.\u201d We said, \u201cWhat?\u201d I was mad at Sims. I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s up? You can\u2019t do this kind of business.\u201d He said, \u201cYeah. We did. We\u2019re going to come out with this board. We\u2019re going to do this for you.\u201d We said, \u201cOkay, do it.\u201d Christian was getting royalties, which was a mistake. We added the numbers up and went to the boss and said, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on? The numbers don\u2019t seem to penetrate the silent shield here.\u201d He said, \u201cYou guys are too young. You don\u2019t know business.\u201d We said, \u201cYou know what? Thank you very much. Goodbye.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The story I know is that you said, \u201cThe bird has flown.\u201d It\u2019s done. It\u2019s a wrap. It\u2019s over. You\u2019re done trying to fuck us. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We just said it was over. They had the contract on us, and we said, \u201cYeah. Right.\u201d Christian just signed the next contract that came in front of him. They said, \u201cWe\u2019re going to sue you. We\u2019re going to tell everybody you walked off the contract.\u201d We said, \u201cTell them what you want.\u201d That seemed to be the thing. We sued one time and there was nothing in it. We had to pay so much money to the lawyers just for the court dates. We said, \u201cNo more lawsuits ever.\u201d Your name gets public and the guys are fighting in public. It\u2019s boring and it doesn\u2019t help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So you bounced from Sims to Novak? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, no. There was a real interlude. There was some heavy hitting with some total underground stuff, and then we decided to split on that. Everybody thought Christian was rolling in the bucks, but he never got the money. When he did have it, he just rocked it and rolled it. Everybody thought he had money, but he didn\u2019t. It\u2019s too bad, but I guess he showed them something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He showed them that it wasn\u2019t only about the money. The kid had flair and his flair comes from the creator usually. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n You have to have the magic from the get-go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverybody thought Christian was rolling in the bucks, but he never got the money. When he did have it, he just rocked it and rolled it. Everybody thought he had money, but he didn\u2019t. It\u2019s too bad, but I guess he showed them something.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I remember when the Jimmy\u2019Z thing started. It was bumping, and there was the Vision contest in Orange County with the highest air bullshit. Taters was the Indy dude. Everything was just flying. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Christian was getting a $10,000 check from Tony Hawk that day for winning. Christian was holding the giant check, and Fausto goes, \u201cChristian, this isn\u2019t your check.\u201d Christian looked at him and says, \u201cWhat?\u201d Fausto says, \u201cThat\u2019s not your check.\u201d Christian and I looked at him and said, \u201cYeah, but the money is his, right?\u201d [Laughs] He said, \u201cYou can have the money, but you\u2019re not getting this big check. It\u2019s going in my office.\u201d He was funny. Remember the contest at Santa Ana when Christian won the highest air? Christian was doing the 11-foot airs, and I was feeding Christian pure oxygen. I said, \u201cChristian, you\u2019re nervous. Here\u2019s some pure oxygen because you can\u2019t take in air. You\u2019re cluttered.\u201d I gave him pure oxygen with an oxygen mask. Steve Caballero walked under the ramp and said, \u201cWhat are you guys doing? Are you guys doing drugs under here?\u201d We said, \u201cYeah, this is pure oxygen like the pros do.\u201d He never believed it, so it probably got out that we were doing drugs under the ramp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was pure oxygen to get highest. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right. That\u2019s how we got high. It was so far out. I put the oxygen tank in front of the ramp the next day. We didn\u2019t even refute that stuff. It was all good. The kid was solid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your kid could hang. That\u2019s for sure. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me tell you about the last contest at Del Mar, before they closed the park, which nobody really talks about. Tony Hawk lost that contest to Christian. In the middle of the contest, Christian says to me, \u201cGo get this girl. She\u2019s a ten.\u201d I forget her name, but everybody in the whole industry wanted her. Her dad was so strict and her best friend had to chaperone her. So I went 30 miles away, in my Gran Turismo, which was Lilo\u2019s Studebaker, to pick her up. I\u2019m flooring it to go pick her up because his run was going on, and I didn\u2019t want to miss it. I fly out there and then the car overheats at her house. I said, \u201cWe have to wait now. I\u2019m not blowing up the engine.\u201d The father said, \u201cYou can\u2019t take my car because I don\u2019t know you.\u201d I said, \u201cOkay.\u201d So we head back and, finally, we made it to the bridge, and the car blew up. I lost the transmission at Del Mar, so I called a cab. As we were pulling up to the contest, Christian was on his last run. It was time to take Tony down. If Christian couldn\u2019t beat him, he would lose. We pulled up and the whole park turned around. They saw the yellow cab open up and out runs this beautiful girl, and me. The whole park screamed. Christian\u2019s mom was there. Everyone was freaking out. It gave Christian so much adrenaline, and he was doing 540s. That whole scenario blew my mind. This girl was wearing a black cocktail dress with high heels. Fausto and Blackheart were there. Everybody was there. That was one of my memories of Christian\u2019s younger days. I said, \u201cI\u2019m going to miss your run, damn it.\u201d If I had my way, I wouldn\u2019t have gone to pick her up. [Laughs] <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you crack the block in that Gran Turismo? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n No. I blew the hoses though. It wouldn\u2019t run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember that Gran Turismo. I had a \u201855 Studebaker President Speedster. I loved the front end of the Gran Turismo. The Turismo was like the next version of the Hawk without the wings. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right. The Hawk got flatter because it was more aerodynamic. In 1962, they won the Bonneville Flats in a Gran Turismo. They wanted to win it the next year, so they made the hood lower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They did the Avanti. That was dope too. I want to buy an Avanti one day before I go. The style is so ill. What do you think about skateboarding now? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now skateboarders are doing a lot of high art, and high technical skateboarding. It\u2019s developing into something else. It\u2019s going some place I never thought it would go. When Ganzer had Jimmy\u2019Z, he signed Christian for $250,000. Then they went Chapter 11 and he said, \u201cI can\u2019t pay you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re like, \u201cYes! Payday! Whoa. No pay.\u201d The taxman shut them down. What about going to New York with Jimmy\u2019Z? We did the demo at Bloomingdales and went to the Odeon. We were just rowdy. They were like, \u201cWho are these kids?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought it was actually a blessing because Jimmy took me to that girl\u2019s studio. She was a famous French painter. Jimmy was tying stuff in with the fashion industry. I thought Jimmy would take it further, but he kind of backed off it. I don\u2019t know why because he had opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He had mad opportunities. I think he was still in shock that it had done what it had done. All of a sudden, it just took off. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, they wanted their ego to be in front. They thought the skaters were too talented, and they might take over. They didn\u2019t realize that skaters don\u2019t take over. They just roll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know that skaters really cared to takeover. We just wanted to keep rolling. We were just doing what we love and that\u2019s the best payoff. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think the money guys thought we were in there to take over because that\u2019s what happens in world affairs. Another country moves in, they take over and wipe everybody out. It\u2019s the same mentality as the skate industry. Christian never took over anybody. I think he gave more than they paid him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yeah, but if you\u2019re giving, you get whatever it is that you get when you give. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Not if they don\u2019t want to give it to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fuck those that don\u2019t want to give. When you\u2019re a giver, you get whatever the inner part of giving is. You give something just because you want to give it. It\u2019s not like, \u201cHere. I\u2019m going to give this to you so I can get something down the line.\u201d It\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m giving this to you because you dig what I\u2019m giving you. I get that energy from you that you\u2019re just stoked that I\u2019m giving you this.\u201d Maybe that\u2019s the art of giving that\u2019s missing. Maybe people are giving to get and they\u2019re not giving for giving. We just solved the world\u2019s problems. Let\u2019s go to when skateboarding died again in the early \u201890s and the street skating world came into it. You have Rocco, of all people, leading the pack. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he moved to Hawaii. He was over here in Lanai, but they chased him out. He decided he would do these tours with Hummers for the rich tourists, so he brought over two giant Hummers, but he would only take the rich tourist people, and the locals got pissed, so they chased him out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [Laughs] In the \u201890s, what happened to you and Christian? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was drug city, man. Christian was loaded that whole time. He was mad drugged out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n How did that make you feel? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I felt worse than you know. I sent him whatever money I could every Friday, so he had cash, and somehow he made it by. He was going from motel to motel. It was heavy times because of Orange County drugging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019d walk across the street to Ferus and they\u2019d have all those balloons and Brillo pads. We were like, \u201cWhat the hell is this guy doing?\u201d It was good times. L.A. was fresh. Everyone was going against the tradition of making salon art.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n You can\u2019t put it on Orange County only though. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, he was there with those dudes, hanging with them. I couldn\u2019t control that. I\u2019d gone back to Hawaii. I lived on a farm and tried to paint. I was just doing odd jobs. It was tough trying to keep him afloat. In 1999, he calls up and said, \u201cHey, Pops. I\u2019m in town with this guy and we\u2019re doing a roll over.\u201d Next thing you know, he\u2019s in prison. It\u2019s the big time now. Federal. He crossed State Lines. Most people become invisible in prison, but not Christian. They knew his name before he got there. They set him up because he was a skateboarding legend. It was a big surprise to him. He thought that every time he went to a new prison, they were going to take him apart. Instead, he was rocking in there. He\u2019s like, \u201cDad, send some autographed photos right now.\u201d Bingo. I was doing promo for Christian in prison. I couldn\u2019t believe it. The guards and the CIA agents knew who he was. They were arguing with each other over who got to take him to court. They all wanted to hang out with Christian because he was the baddest guy on a skateboard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When did you bounce to Hawaii? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2006. We were in outlaw country. No running water or lights. We were not dependent on all the stuff that everybody needs. In the cities, they want you to fear everything, so you straighten up. Being off the grid, it lets the art come from some attitude. We had to keep the soul running, so it didn\u2019t run amok. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They don\u2019t want you to have a soul anymore. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A rich guy will only want to own your stuff when another guy says, \u201cThat guy has soul. You have to buy it.\u201d Then it sells. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They don\u2019t understand that the soul is not for sale. If you can sell your soul, you don\u2019t have one. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why it\u2019s called art. You\u2019re not selling your soul. It\u2019s just like changing your skateboard. It\u2019s a vehicle. You just make more art. You don\u2019t have to sell your soul. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/IMG_4484-copy.jpg\")
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