One Of The Most Iconic Skateboarding Tricks Ever Done | The “Christ Air"

In "One Of The Most Iconic Skateboarding Tricks Ever Done | The Christ Air", our favorite skater, artist, and Storied host Jeremy Wray sits down with the man whose style, creativity, progression, and attitude on a skateboard inspired generations — Christian Hosoi. Shot on location at Vans Footwear HQ in Orange County, California, the two reminisce about skating's early days: the unknowns, the excitement, and the era when every single day a new trick was being invented. Legends like Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, and Rodney Mullen were the pioneers — and Hosoi takes us all the way back to the mid-1980s to describe how the iconic Christ Air became one of the most recognizable tricks in skateboarding history.

The Trick That Defined an Era

The Christ Air. Two words that every skateboarder knows — a trick so visually arresting, so perfectly named, that it transcended the halfpipe and became a symbol of skateboarding's golden age. Arms outstretched, board held beneath the feet, soaring above the coping: it was equal parts athletic feat and performance art. And it came from the mind of one man: Christian Hosoi.

In this Storied episode, Hosoi walks us through the exact moment the trick was born — the session, the mindset, the creative impulse that led him to try something nobody had ever done. It's a rare, firsthand account of skate history being made in real time, told by the person who made it.

Christian Hosoi: Style, Charisma, and the Soul of Skateboarding

Christian Hosoi didn't just skate — he performed. In an era when skateboarding was finding its identity, Hosoi brought a rock-star energy to the halfpipe that set him apart from every other skater on the circuit. His style was fluid, expressive, and unmistakably his own. Where others were technical, Hosoi was theatrical. Where others were precise, he was poetic.

Alongside Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, and Rodney Mullen, Hosoi helped define what professional skateboarding looked like in the 1980s. But while his peers pushed the boundaries of technical difficulty, Hosoi pushed the boundaries of what skateboarding could feel like — and the Christ Air was the ultimate expression of that philosophy.

Jeremy Wray: The Perfect Host for a Conversation Like This

Jeremy Wray is one of skateboarding's most respected figures — a technical street skater whose career spanned the transition from the 80s vert era into the 90s street explosion. As a Storied host, he brings a skater's perspective and a genuine reverence for the history he's documenting. His conversation with Hosoi isn't an interview — it's a dialogue between two people who lived through the same era from different vantage points.

Shot on location at Vans Footwear HQ in Orange County, the setting itself carries weight. Vans and skateboarding are inseparable, and there's something fitting about telling this story in a place that has supported skate culture for decades.

The 1980s: When Every Day Was a New Trick

It's hard to overstate how creative and explosive the 1980s were for skateboarding. The halfpipe was a blank canvas, and the skaters of that era were painting on it daily. New tricks were being invented at a pace that's almost unimaginable today — and the culture around those discoveries was electric. There were no rulebooks, no established playbooks. Just skaters pushing each other to go higher, go bigger, and go stranger.

Hosoi's recollections of that period are vivid and infectious. He describes a scene driven by pure creative energy — where the only limit was imagination, and where a trick like the Christ Air could emerge organically from a single session and go on to define a career.

Watch the Full Episode

Hit play above to watch the full Storied conversation between Jeremy Wray and Christian Hosoi — a deep dive into the origin of the Christ Air and the golden age of skateboarding that produced it. This is skate history, told by the people who made it.