Top 40 Quotes & Sayings by Christian Hosoi

I had people telling me I was the best and when it would sink in, I'd feel like I'd have to push things further, otherwise I wasn't worthy of their praise.

Being involved and hanging out with my brothers who skate is really amazing, especially because of our age. I mean, we're in our mid-late forties and we're still skateboarding in competitions. Who'd have ever thought?

I read the different translations of the Bible they had and really just dove into it, almost so I could prove it all right.

Every kid wants to reach their goals in life and be the best. During my Bruce Lee phase, I wanted to be the best martial artist in the world.

God always puts somebody in your life at the right moment.

I'm very careful with what I let my ear gate hear on my own. I don't care if I go out and something is playing that I wouldn't put on myself, that doesn't bother me but when I feed off and get nourishment from music, it's through things that are encouraging and lift me up, things that have integrity and purpose and that's what Christian Worship Music is all about.

I'm having a blast using the gifts and talents that God has given me as a platform to minister to people and love them and shine the light that He wants me to shine.

When skateboarding hit, I wanted to be best skateboarder in the world, and I fought for it, there was nothing that was going to get in my way.

I'd searched everywhere for this thing called love. I went through life seeking something that would be the ultimate.

I was introduced to skateboarding through my father. He was a surfer back in the 50's & 60's in Hawaii, where my parents grew up. They later moved to California and I was born. Skateboarding was the thing for surfers here in California in the 60's and my Dad immediately made me a homemade board.

I want to be an example, the person who when they look at, they say, "That guy is a Christian, there's no doubt about it." I want to be blameless. I want to be an encouragement. I want to be a role model for the believer.

Every question I'd ever had God answered and still continues to answer every one I have today. It's really amazing what God can do.

I think I was around 15 when my Dad was 40 and thought, "Man he's old. There's no way I'll be skating at that age."

Through reading the scriptures I realized there was a purpose for my life, that I was created for a reason, that I was significant, that it was my choices that got me to where I was at and that it would be my choices that would get me to where I wanted to be as well.

I wanted to be the best in the world and at 12 years-old I won my first big amateur contest called The Gold Cup Series Contest at Marina Del Ray Skatepark. That's when I really started to believe I could turn pro, though it wasn't until two years later when I was 14 that I actually did with Sims.

Skateboarding and that whole industry just became so far away. I was trying to find that ultimate place, that place of contentment but I couldn't. I didn't find it in pushing the dark things of life to the limit either.

Two weeks after the arrested I was on the phone with my wife and we said a prayer and I was crying and just so happy, I can't even explain it. It was euphoric. People said I went from freedom my whole life to prison, but in reality, I went from imprisonment and bondage of sin and death my whole life, to finding freedom in a prison cell.

I listen to purely Christian Worship Music, Christian Rap etc. People will give me some old music, stuff I used to listen to back then and when I listen to the words, it blows me away.

It was a revolving door that kept going in circles. I got to the point where I thought, "Man, none of this is doing it." but I'd keep repeating the same actions. I'd go win another contest, open another company, invent a new maneuver.

I 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?"

I love the Lord with my life and through that love, I walk the walk, I don't just talk the talk.

The Bible says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life." - John 3:16 and in that moment I realized, "Wow, there's a love greater than what I know of in this world."

Shortly before my arrest, my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife of ten years, told me she was quitting drugs and going to church. I went with her once but that was it. After the arrest, I didn't know what I was going to do. She told me to trust in God but I mean, I was looking at ten years and was like, "God? I'm not dying, I need a lawyer. I need bail."

I 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.

When I was released from prison everybody thought I'd go back to doing the same things I did before, but I had no desire to do any of that anymore. That stuff steals, kills, and destroys your life and robs you of all the blessings that God has for you.

I could be dead or something even more tragic could have happened, but by God's grace I am still alive. I was hooked on Crystal Meth for eight years and did it every single day, all day long. I honestly have no idea how my heart survived or how I didn't suffer multiple overdoses, I don't get it.

It felt like I was a bucket full of holes. Things kept going in but just as quickly, they'd drain out. So I had people telling me I was this and that and then I'd feel pressure to perform up to their standards, jumping through hoops so I could live up to their expectations.

There'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.

I was literally living on the edge of life, to the point where I didn't know what was going to happen, not caring, taking chances and finally landing in prison and once there, all my lines were cut.

Gerry Lopez was a famous surfer back then and his board had a lightning bolt in the in the middle, so my Dad made me a surf/skateboard with a lightning bolt on it.

Back in the day however, careers were strictly built on competitions, just like surfing, though surfing is changing too so you can free surf and still get paid. So I think that rivalry was really because of the fans and the media who built it up, but it did bring something exciting about the sport, just like in any sport, whether it's Larry Bird or Magic Johnson, I think it just made skating that much more exciting.

I'd gotten to the place where I wanted to quit using drugs but couldn't and finally I landed in that prison cell where everything was cut.

I want to inspire and encourage people and intrigue them to want to know what makes me tick, which is ultimately the love of God, the grace, peace and forgiveness of God that I'm so thankful & grateful for.

I spent five years in prison, a free man for the first time in my whole life.

I wanted to turn pro at like 12 years old when I was riding for Bones Brigade.

Without parental guidance telling you there's another way to live it can be tough but my kids have an advantage over my life. I can tell them I know what it's like and that they don't ever want to go to the places I've been, whereas when I grew up, it was so accepted and normal that if you didn't do it, you were considered weird.

Who would have ever thought I'd find love, contentment and joy in a prison cell, but I did. I knew that I knew that I knew that day, I'd been released, and I thought to myself, "I need to tell everyone about this" because no one had ever told me.

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.

Kids get caught up in technical & electronic things like games & videos when all we had were magazines.

Contests were so pertinent that you had to think that way but today, it's not like that. You have your contest skaters, you have your video skaters, you have your skaters who don't like either of them, but they all are sponsored and get paid.