Don't close your eyes because this is going to go real fast.
In my career, vertical skateboarding was the sport.
It was the discipline in skateboarding.
It was riding pools. It was blasting airs.
It was grinding, you know, coping.
So my career really, it generated so fast, it advanced so quickly
that it was almost like getting shot through a cannon.
And all of a sudden I'm about to be one of the best skateboarders in the world.
My passion for skateboarding when I first started was genuine, sincere.
It was just pure.
I was making $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 a month on sponsorship,
whether it was clothing, shoes, wheels, trucks, and my own company.
You know, as I got older, things changed.
I started liking the limelight. I started craving the pods.
I was living this Rockstar lifestyle.
You know, the first drug that I tried was marijuana.
Then it ended up going into acid, mushrooms, cocaine, kwayloons,
speed, black beauties, to pink hearts, 2020s.
I mean, we ordered these things out of high times magazines
and sold them at the clubs at 15 years old.
Then I got in, I'd done heroin and did crack cocaine.
And none of the drugs really hooked into me like crystal methamphetamine did.
Addiction feels like, you know, you have it all under control
and then all of a sudden you're so dependent upon it
that you can't even wake up without it.
You can't go to sleep without it.
You can't leave the house without it.
You don't want to go anywhere before doing it.
And that's when it's got control over you.
It becomes your master.
I was saying, tomorrow I'll quit, tomorrow I'll quit, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.
And it just never happened. And I decided to take crystal meth on an airplane to Honolulu, Hawaii.
And there was all these detectives, all these undercover agents sitting there waiting for me.
And that's when I realized I'm in trouble.
And when I finally got into the cell and actually the inmates told me,
look at, you are looking at 10 years Christian.
And all of a sudden I was thinking, man, I'm never going to get out of here.
I'm calling to the silk-tongue liar,
following the godless slave,
to the backdoor man with the backdoor plan,
getting on a judgement day.
When you go to jail, they always give you a first phone call
and I was going to call my girlfriend.
And I'm saying, look, I don't know if I'm going to make it.
I'm looking at 10 years and she's like, I don't know how we're going to get through this,
but we just got to trust in God.
And she said, go get a Bible, Christian.
Take the Bible. I go to my cell.
I'm thinking, okay, where do I start?
And so I flipped through the pages and I got to King's.
And that's where I went, wow, I can identify with King's because,
you know, I thought I was this king of skateboarding.
And I thought, man, I'm just going to start there.
King David said, if you'll follow the Lord all the days of your life,
obey His commandments and statutes and precepts that the Lord will be with you.
And you'll prosper. I was like, I completely get it.
I said, God, if you're real, will you help me?
And that night, I believe that the Holy Spirit came in and He spoke into my heart.
For the first time in my life, I felt like I was free, meaning I had victory.
And when I got there, I was looking at 10 years.
I got my sentence reduced to five.
And that's half of what I was supposed to get.
As I spent that whole five years in prison, time didn't take advantage of me.
I took advantage of the time to continually grow in my faith and mature
and cultivate that relationship with Jesus.
You know, who would have ever thought that a skateboarder, you know,
drug addict, wannabe rock star could be used by God one day.
But here I am saying, use my life, God,
and God is using every avenue to be able to preach the gospel.
I want them to see Jesus in me.
And I'm just so thankful to just be able to use all my gifts and talents
to be able to represent God's kingdom here on this earth.
