C: Hahahah…

J: Hey what’s up man,

C: That was a long answering message.

J: I know, I thought they were gonna put advertisements on it, some commercials, hahahah, try get me to buy something (collect call announcement). That’s funny.

C: What was the question?

J: How has the scene changed, how have tricks changed, how do you see the skateboarding industry going in the next year or so, how big it is now, and what’s going to happen with it.

C: What I was saying is that it’s going wherever these kids want to take it, they definitely need some love in their life, they definitely need some foundation; there are some kids with good families and there’s a lot that don’t have any family at all that are brilliant and awesome skateboarders that are making money now that can travel the world, do whatever they want, but some of us make the wrong mistakes and make bad decisions and I was one of them. I could go anywhere I wanted and skateboard and make money do whatever I wanted, but yet I got caught up in drugs and it ruins you.

That’s where I think skateboarding needs some relationship with people that have been through that kinda like myself. I don’t think they have anybody that have gone through this amount of trials and tribulations that can actually help, that have a big huge influence on kids back in the days, you know in the 80’s; I read every single letter, they’re all people who are in their 20’s and 30’s and they talk to me about what an influence I was on their life, and how much they wanted to be like me: skateboard and be free to travel the world and be famous and all that.

Now I think that skateboarding kinda is coming to that limit where a lot of people think it’s played out, there’s a lot of skateboarders that go, "That X-Games is kinda little too much for me, that’s not the lifestyle of skateboarding, it’s more of an artform." And it’s true, it’s a little bit too much for the guys but yet it is helping them get famous, and make money and you gotta give and take a little bit to get a fair amount of everything. It’s now becoming more where there’s skateparks everywhere in every single town, there’s some free skateparks, so you can actually be an older guy, you can actually be a kid that doesn’t want to do it professionally and you can still have fun doing it.

That’s where I think it’s gotten to that point where it is something that people just leisurely do. It’s not like you have to find a ramp in some backyard if you want to skate a vert ramp and that’s all that you skate. You don’t want to go ollieing over picnic tables and over curbs and go sliding down rails. There are some guys that are old and they just wanna do some little airs, inverts, tail taps, rock and rolls and get their fill like that; do some smith grinds. Then there’s the kids that just want to down the street and go do some slides, powerslides or whatever they wanna do.

Skateboarding it hasn’t changed and it never will because the skater is in you. I believe the magazines; they’re getting so thick now, they’re like Vogue magazine, Cosmopolitan. It’s great to see how thick they’re getting, the publicity it’s gotten. You’ve got tons of advertisements from all different kinds of places, not only skateboarding but other kinds, cause they know how big it is.

J: You said that skateboarding needs more of a positive figurehead, could you see yourself…

C: Yea, positive identity, kind of like how Lance Mountain’s company is founded on religious beliefs you know, I believe that people need to see that that’s okay, and they don’t see it enough. Say if somebody like Tony Hawk was grounded in Jesus, but he’s still there wondering what the higher spiritual level is. I read the ‘Do you believe in God’ interviews in Transworld (magazine), and they were just like, " hmmm, I don’ know."

J: Yea it’s a big question.

C: And it is good question and there’s a lot of skaters that do believe in God, you know. There’s guys like Mike Valleley, he’s a real good big brother kind of guy, he does the ‘Ask Mike Vallely’ questions, he gives real good answers, he’s real intelligent and I like that, cause he’s got an edge to him. He’s an aggressive skateboarder, he’s doing his wrestling or whatever. I believe that’s good, that’s fun, there’s a lot of entertainment there and I think it’s great what he’s doing.

Without getting that foundation from some skaters, you don’t really know what they’re like, you don’t know what their lifestyle is, like Caballero or Lance Mountain or Tony Hawk. You have to know them to know what they’re like. You think they’re just all this stardom and money and cruise around and a bunch of girls and this and that, but really they’re just human beings just like every single one of us. Every single person in this whole world is just like another, it’s just you’ve gotta make goals for yourself, you’ve got to set some standards and values and work at working up that ladder. Everybody can do it if they just put their mind to it, and it’s to each his own.

J: I like that, and it’s true, a lot of people think they’re stars, but it’s true, everyone is made from the same stuff and it’s just all about their personal goals…

C: Yea, we come from the dust in the ground and we go back to the dust in the ground. Life is what you make it, we can make our lives into something completely incredible, something that’ll last forever, or we can make something that goes up and is just a time bomb; it’s gonna explode and disappear.

J: How would you guide kids; say you got out, how would you have them change their lives to take more responsibility for their actions and to teach them that they can do anything they want?

C: Well, through skateboarding, I guess, get them focused on their family morals, standards, and get them realizing that there’s the wrong road to go down and then theirs the right road to go down, and there’s the good things to do and then there’s the bad things to do. Here’s what you get at the good side of the road, and here’s what you get on the bad side of the road. And if you wanna go down that road, cause there’s gonna be a fork in the road, you’ve gotta make the decision. And if you want to end up like those people on the bad side of the road, you’ll end up like what I had to go through.

From having it all to having nothing; to having no freedom, that’s something I think will wake up a lot of people with a real true image as to what it’s like to go out there, you know. "Oh yea, I could go do drugs and hang out and have a ton of girls", but that’s not the lifestyle you wanna go down, You’re gonna regret it later on. It can change your life, one thing just can make you have a bad incident in your life and it can change the whole way you think of life and then you’re gonna be insecure about a lot of things.

Here’s a good parable: When you go up to do a trick on a ramp, you’re learning a trick and you slam on it and you get really hurt your first time trying it, now you have this phobic feeling of, "Wow, I can’t try that trick now". Like I’m going it drop in on the vert ramp for the first time and you just get whipped out from under you. Are you going to go up there and try it again? You’re going to be scared. Some people have a phobia and then it can never be changed.

J: If you don’t try it you’re not gonna do it…

C: You have to concentrate and you have to have a clear focus and you can’t be like just, "Balls to the walls and I’m just gonna go for broke and if I die, I die and if not I’m gonna be a hero." That’s a good way to look at it, you have to break through that barrier. It’s tough when kids go out there, and you’re in front of a crowd, and they’re good, and then they fall and eat it. It ruins their whole life. Next thing you know, they’re in a gang, they’re going down the street shooting at people because they’re all bummed out. They’re going out with chicks, and they forget about it and they do drugs. That’s why it’s so easy to slip into a bad lifestyle.

J: That’s a good example like when you said, look at you, you had everything, and now you have no freedom. Like a kid with a trick and skateboard on the ramp, how he could try it and go for it, and if he fails; if he doesn’t try it again and just keep going, he’s not going to go anywhere. So how does that relate to you, say like where you are and your life?

C: I think mine is really tragic, I don’t know how I ended up in this position from just doing drugs, I’m not like I said, this isn’t my lifestyle, I’m not a drug dealer so it kinda sucks that this is the federal system. If I was in state, it’d be a lot different, I just hope that the judge has mercy on me and understands the situation that I was in, and can understand what I can do for the community instead of what I can’t do for the community and what I can do for the kids, even his kids that are hanging out with the wrong people on the street instead of the right people on the street.

I believe that I would be the perfect speaker for something like that and I believe that’s God’s calling just like it says here in Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose". And I believe I’ve been called according to his purpose. I’ve been going down this road to end up here so I can come up a shining light instead of a burnt out bulb…

J: Everything has a purpose.

C: Everything does. Like I said, it’s hard to be in this situation…

J: What could happen?

C: I get depressed every now and then, but God picks right me back up. I’m looking at bars every day, but you know what? I have a beautiful, wonderful fiance. Jennifer is just so awesome.

J: How long have you been with her now?

C: Almost 3 years, 2 1/2 years, and we just concentrate on God, concentrate on Jesus, we let the Holy Spirit lift us up and know we have a purpose in life now and that we’re out of the wages of sin, and the wages of sin is death. If you’re sinning, you’re dead to sin in your body. You can’t realize what life is and freedom. You don’t realize what freedom is until your freedom is taken away from you. Then you figure it out but it’s too late.

Look at the situation I’m in. It’s tragic like I said, it’s a tragic situation. I’ve been a good kid. I’ve never stolen a thing in my life. I don’t steal gum at the store, ok Jay. I don’t steal nothing, I’ve never robbed nobody, I don’t rip nobody off, I’ve been a perfect gentleman throughout my whole life. I just got… I had a drug problem.

And then you know, boom, one thing led to another, and you know… I went to church before I went to Hawaii and I was stunned to get a foundation, and there was so many times that God was calling into my life, but I was stuck in a rut, running from authorities scared to go to jail, but look at what happens when you do that. You don’t face up to what you have to deal with and you just get into worse problems. This is a terrible situation and I just hope that God has mercy on me and I know God does have mercy on me, I just hope the judge can see the situation and know.

J: What can happen in the trial? Can you talk about that? Do you know what the chances you have of getting out early, what the maximum time you can serve? Stuff like that?

C: Well, you never know. I’m putting it in God’s hands. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen, I just know they’re trying to tell me that I have a 10 year mandatory minimum.

J: Wow.

C: Stuff like that just really makes you think about life in a whole different way. Because I was a drug user, because I was carrying drugs or whatever, they’re really putting it on you. There’s a lot of technicalities there that the reason why they’re just trying to stick me to it. But you know what, I believe that God has a purpose for me like I said and no matter what happens I have God in my life now and the gift of God is more valuable than the gift of life itself. My family are there, the friends, the skaters, the magazines, you guys right?

J: Yea, definitely.

C: It’s just awesome to see who your real friends are. If you never get into a situation like this, it’s hard to really know who your friends are until you get into a serious problem. And then you find out who your real friends are, you find out who’ll be at your side, you find out who’ll help you out with financial troubles. You’ll find out all that in just support in a caring, loving way, you really find out who your family is and all that. It’s a real realization to understanding the truth and the life of being a person, not only being somebody special or somebody famous or anything, just being a true real person, and that’s a blessing.

J: Did this maybe bring your family closer together?

C: Oh, it’s a bonding that you would not believe. Like I said, I wish I could go through something like this and come out of it early, you know? But it’s God’s will if he wants me to do however much time that I have to do I’m going to have to do it and I’m going to keep my head up and I’m going to believe that God has a purpose for me. That’s my whole outlook every day, that’s what keeps my head up, that’s what keeps me smiling and that’s what keeps me happy and content with dealing with jail…

J: Are you planning to marry your lady? Can you marry in jail? I don’t even know.

C: Yea, I definitely think we wanna marry as soon as we can

J: Tight.

C: We love each other more than anything in this world and I believe that is something that you learn from knowing the love of God; how much God loves us is how much you can know how much to love one another. To really understand love is to know who God is; to know who Jesus is. It’s just awesome. My life has been so awesome, you know, making up Christ airs, all that. My name’s Christian, being an only child, being able to travel around the world, owning my own company, being myself and to know so many people…

I do have to say that when I look back I was a good kid, I wasn’t a corrupt kid, I didn’t go around terrorizing, I wasn’t a punk. I just loved going around skateboarding. That’s what took me to the level that I was at. Even today when I see interviews in Thrasher and all of them talking about me and I read Tony Hawk’s interview and he says, "Who would be one of the best skaters if they were still skating?" And he says my — and that right there is just truly a blessing to know that they have me in their hearts and in their minds too, you know.

J: People are out here looking out for you.

C: They’re just thinking about me.

J: Yea, definitely.

C: I did make an impact on a lot of people’s lives, and not in a bad way; some people have a bad image, some people have a good image. I believe I had a good image my whole life, I just got caught up dealing with drugs at the end here and it’s all because of that things went down hill with companies and all that and skateboarding was kinda dead. Things weren’t working out and when you have bad business relations, things go opposite ways and you tend to get a little aggressive about life and you want to do destructive things to yourself, not to other people.

And that’s where I feel that I can be of incredible amount of help towards kids that go into that depression state, that fall into that, "Oh, given up on life, and I just wanna do drugs and hang out and go find girls and go and cause trouble and get locked up in jail." If they truly want to seek out their goals, there’s a lot of that type of motivation that people need in their lives. If they had that, if there was a group of people that are going out and helping kids that are from drug families or have problems in their families like child abuse and all that. They can get a foundation from something they can go to, like a Big Brother thing or a Teen Challenge type deal…

J: I’d like to see that.

C: Where we’d go out and speak to kids that are having problems. That come from problem families. I think those types of things are very valuable and are needed, and are a necessity right now, like you said, there’s too much going on for these kids to handle it all on their own.

J: How can kids help you now? How can people get in contact with you and help you with the trial. I know there’s a couple of addresses I’m going to put up about the legal defense fund, but how about in general?

C: I’m going to court in a couple of weeks, and if they wanted to send it out, it’d have to be right now to…

J: The address in Honolulu I believe.

C: Yea, Jennifer will give you all the information on that.

J: So basically send…

C: Character reference letters of what they think I was like and what I meant to them and what I could actually be for the kids out there that are needing help today; that I would be a bigger help outside than inside. That’s basically what I need from as many people as possible, especially strong business figures: company owners… I would think that any type of stronger older people too. I think that kids are awesome, but the judge is gonna look at that as kids. Older people that have a better idea of what would be better for our community and for our country.

J: What’s the trial’s date?

C: The 23^rd of April.

J: April 23^rd, wow that’s coming up soon. Pretty exciting, or pretty nerve-wracking.

C: Yea, I’m nervous, scared, but I just keep concentrating on God and I read my bible, and Jennifer lifts me up spiritually and we just speak to each other and constantly keep each other happy and warm inside and know we have a better life now. You know, we have Jesus in our life and her family is behind me. Her grandmother Lillian, and Tom, her grandfather and her mom is behind me, Karen…

J: Good.

C: It’s just so awesome. Her whole family is behind me, and to me that’s so awesome because sometimes in this situation they just block you and they don’t want you. They know my heart and know my intentions. My mom and dad are behind me, my mom’s new husband Mitch they’re just so caring and so supportive. And even my cousins and my whole family, they’re really showing me love like never before, it’s really amazing Jay.

J: Dope, dope.

C: You can actually feel true love.

J: Yea, for sure.

C: But, when you’re out there in the world, it’s so hard to find it, because you’re just so bombarded with it, constantly with it every day, you just disregard it. You take it for granted and then next thing you know, a family member dies and you wonder why you didn’t spend more time with them, right?

J: Right.

C: That’s the type of thing you realize when you go to prison. You go to jail, you get taken away from every single thing and then you realize how much love you got and no one else. There were a lot of friends that were there for you when you’re outside but now you’re inside, where are they now? But you find out who your true friends and family are.

J: That’s real, that’s real.

C: It’s so real.

J: It’s cool. Hey Christian I wanted to end with a couple of cool questions that I’ve been dying to ask you since —I’m 26 now —but probably since I was 12 man, since I started skating. Like, what’s up with the G-turn? What’s going on with you doing G-turns at contests just like 5 minutes?

C: Yea, the g-turn, it’s a graceful thing, it’s something that you can actually keep everybody, it’s something where everybody will stop and look and stop cheering and really- it’s a long trick so everybody’s like (panting), it’s suspenseful and it was a good finale, and I like to end with that because you end up kinda coming to a complete stop.

J: Like a story.

C: And it’s something where you finesse something, you know when you finesse something, it’s not really aggressive it’s just graceful. It’s kinda like ballet. I had fun doing it, it was something that was fun and no one else did hahahahahahaha, it was more original too.

J: I’ve got this one picture of this cat Danny Gonzalez, you heard of him?

C: Yea.

J: He’s doing this G-turn at Ocean Beach (San Francisco), and it’s just beautiful, sunset in the background and it totally reminded me of your style.

C: Awesome, awesome.

J: It’s tight. Another question: What’s going on with the Hammerhead; the shape of that skateboard?

C: I look back and I’m just so in awe over how I came up with these shapes, the hammerhead, and how good they worked… I wanna get out and try and make another one of those somehow to where it’ll work for the new skateboarding…

J: For the tech stuff.

C: Just an up-to-date version of it, I’ve just been concentrating and concentrating on it, I’ve been looking at old pictures cause my dad will send me old pictures of me riding on some Hammerheads, and I just go, "Wow, how they worked so good!" and yet I look at it now and I go, "Whoa, that must’ve been hard to ride on!" Hahahahahah.

J: So big…

C: But yet…

J: What’s your ideal setup now? Like board length, board width, truck size:

C: Well I don’t really know, I haven’t been out long enough… it’s been awhile, I was coming up with my own style grooves in my board and stuff like that before I came in…

J: When you get out no matter when man, are you going to keep skating?

C: Well, of course, it’s all I’ve ever done since I was a baby, since I was 5 years old. It’s my love, anybody that does anything, if it’s your lifestyle, if it’s your hobby, if it’s your career; it’s my career, it’s my hobby it’s my love and it’s just natural…

YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE LEFT TO TALK

C: Here you go, I wanna share another scripture with you:

J: Dope, man.

C: Matthew 23:12 "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted". Now I think a lot of skaters really got to think about these types of things in their life. I was a very humble type of guy yet I seemed so extravagant and popular, yet I believe humbleness takes you farther than being super super…

YOU HAVE FIFTEEN SECONDS LEFT TO TALK

J: Truth. Hey, thanks a lot Christian, man…

C: Yea…

J: I’m going to get in contact with Jennifer and I’ll let her talk to you after that…

C: Okay, call her and tell her I’ll call her after dinner.

J: I appreciate that man.