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Christ Air
Christ Air is an aerial skateboarding trick. It is the trick where, while flying in the air, the skateboarder picks up his board into one of his hands and then spreads his arms and straightens his legs forming a pose that resembles Jesus Christ on the cross. It was invented by skater Christian Hosoi. Recently, Denmark's Rune Glifberg has become the Christ Air's most famous practitioner. In April 2007 professional skater Martyn Jackson performed a 14ft high Christ Air, the second highest behind Hosoi himself. Also known to do the Christ Air is Danny Way.
Aerials are a type of skateboarding trick usually performed on half-pipes. It is also performed on pools or quarter pipes where there is a vertical wall with a transition (curved surface linking wall and ground) available. Aerials usually combine rotation with different grabs. Most of the different types of grabs were originally aerial tricks that were performed on vert ramps before flatground aerials became common. Aerials can be executed by ollieing just as the front wheels reach the lip of a ramp, or can be executed simply by lifting the front wheels over the coping. The former is preferable on shallower ramps where the skateboarder has less speed to lift them above the ramp.
A Christ Air is no small maneuver. Christian Hosoi, or its resemblance to Jesus Christ’s famed 33 AD photoshoot on the cross, and more to do with the fact that in order to successfully do one you’d have to be infused with the supernatural god-like powers, or at least in the case of Hosoi, lots and lots of crystal meth. Although to be frank, if given the choice, I think I’d trade the Christ Air for the ability to turn water into wine. Nonetheless, the trick has been getting increased coverage lately. On April 2007, “Martyn Jackson performed a 14ft high Christ Air,” which still doesn’t top Hosoi’s own record, which goes to show how hard this fucking thing is to do. Of course, freak of nature and overall skateboarding machine Danny Way has done a giant 25ft Christ Air on the X-Games Megaramp in 2006, which, while certainly impressive, warrants a separate set of standards considering the megaramp is basically a skateboarding monster truck rally.
Skateboarding Christian Hosoi Christ air video
The trick carries with it a cross of its own. Speaking of style, here’s a video for those of you who aren’t totally skate-nerded out yet. Filmed at Raging Waters in San José in the mid 80s, it features Hosoi demonstrating the Christ Air at its best, along with some other generally awesome old school vert skating by Hosoi, along with other 80s skaters Rob Roskopp and Claus Grabke. Hosoi’s Christ Airs might have been the surprising circus act of the day, but those tweaked judo grabs still look great today. Fascinating how in current skateboarding videos, slow-mo has become a way to actually show all of the ridiculous shit going on underneath a skater’s feet, or merely as a stylistic editing technique, whereas here it’s used primarily to express the feeling of flying through the air and to demonstrate the flawless execution by the skaters. They really do look weightless because of it, despite the fact that their boards must weigh as much as a toddler hurtling through the air. It’s easy to laugh at some of the trends in skateboarding’s past, but all this video makes me want to do is put on a pair of turquoise shorts and hope that’s really all it takes.
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