CHRISTIAN HOSOI, VENICE ORIGINALS, VENICE, CA

I was that kid—the one who took a jigsaw to his old board, hacking out a half-assed hammerhead shape and getting roasted by every so-called friend in sight. Didn’t matter. Hosoi was the best, no debate, no discussion. Style incarnate.

This was one of the rare times I ever "directed" a skate photo. Christian was known for big airs, effortless pool lines, and a flow that defied physics, but I wanted something different—something street, something raw. So we rolled up to Block’s legendary Venice Beach skate shop, a temple of West Coast skate history, and set up for a proper shifty tail scraper—a relic from the days before tricks had names.

The real challenge? Wrangling his son, Classic, into staying put in the background. He nailed it a few times naturally, but I wasn’t done yet, and keeping a kid in one spot longer than five seconds is like herding lightning. In the end, it all lined up—the shot, the moment, the legend. Hanging with Hosoi in his natural habitat? That’s easy. His element is everywhere.

• 10 mil (0.25 mm) thick
• Slightly glossy
• Fingerprint resistant
• Paper sourced from Japan