Tenacity and talent: How Chris Joslin became an unstoppable skateboarder
Team USA skater Joslin opened up about his tough beginnings, his love for the streets and the reputation he has forged as one of his sport's most dogged riders: “I'm the dude that wears his clothes ’til there's holes in it."
Skateboarding
You don’t need to be an expert in skateboarding to see the relentlessness with which Chris Joslin rips through a street competition course.
The breeze whipping through his loose-fitting shirt tells of the speed he has generated as he prepares to own the biggest obstacle, or widest gap, on the park.
When he nears his prey, he launches himself into the air artfully executing his trick before stomping the landing as if to put a full stop next to the statement he has made.
His skating is dramatic, compelling; the kind no one would ever dream of tearing their eyes away from. And for those that know him, the grit and determination to deliver is Joslin through and through.
Born and raised in Hawaiian Gardens, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, Joslin doesn’t have memories of when he first started skating, such was his age.
“I discovered skateboarding before I could even remember, I was so young.” the 27-year-old says in an interview with Olympics.com at the WST Rome Street 2023 event.
“I actually have my grandma telling me when I first started because I started when I was about three years old which, I don’t know about other people, but I can’t remember that far back so I’ve been skateboarding longer than I can remember - literally.”
Joslin’s grandmother took on a key role in his upbringing with both his parents, then on drugs, unable to initially raise him. It wasn’t until the age of three after she was sober that he got to know his mother. Joslin never met his father, after he passed away when young Chris was just seven.
“My grandma would take me to the skate park every day and I tried to learn a new trick every day and some days it would work, some days it wouldn’t, but the days it would work just made it feel all worth it and I would just try and feed off of that,” Joslin explains about how the sport became something of an escape for him, ultimately moulding him into the skater the world now knows.
“My grandma was an amazing person. So, I’m not mad at the situation I was put in. I think it shaped me into the person I am today, whether that be good or bad, but I’m happy with the outcome.”
Chris Joslin and the Hollywood 12 at 12
Joslin’s prodigious talent at skating began to take shape about the time his age hit double digits. The hours spent toiling away in the parks and on the streets, with the persistence still obvious today, enabled the young American to tackle obstacles well beyond his years.
“I think I rolled down like a 16 ft roll-in one time. It didn't end well, but I made it down the ramp and it just was the ramp after that gave me trouble,” Joslin reminisces.
“I think I was only about like nine or 10 years old. So, I don't even think I even thought about what could go wrong. And then I found out what could go wrong when I tried to go up the ramp on the other end and flew all the way to the bottom and almost broke my ribs.”
At 12, he started carving his reputation as an unstoppable force after successfully landing a hardflip down the famous Hollywood High 12, an iconic stairway in the heart of Los Angeles where many have fallen victim to its size and scale. Then, to prove a point, he ollied the 16.
The 135,000 views of the video speak a little to the immensity of the achievement but Joslin says he never really sensed it.
“I never put myself on a high pedestal by any means. I always just thought like that was just where I was in life and that was just who I was, I guess. I mean, I never really personally felt like I was good. It just kind of was more so what other people were telling me. They were like, ‘Yeah, dude, like you’re progressing fast, you’re like better than this person or you’re doing better than that person.’
Chris Joslin in the streets: "Like an artist painting a picture"
Joslin makes no bones about the fact he doesn’t love contest skating and the subsidiaries that are often connected with it like partying and clothing.
“I'm the dude that wears his clothes ’til there's holes in it; until you can no longer wear them anymore,” he says matter-of-factly. “I just ride a skateboard and slide across the concrete and rip my clothes up and beat myself up for a living.”
Where others might be invested elsewhere and on other things his heart, he says, lies instead in the streets where a world of infinite possibilities awaits with new spots to conquer and angles to film.
“It's pretty obvious that the way I like to skate caters more towards being in the streets because you can only go so big at a contest and then you can also only go so big so consistently because things of that calibre take a little bit of time. They're not like clockwork. You're not like a robot when you're doing those kinds of things.
“Video parts are way more fulfilling and way more special because it's things that you'll never see in contests because you have unlimited amounts of time. You can go to the spot you want to do it on. It's basically like an artist painting a picture at that point. It's like, it's a blank canvas in the world and we get to go and paint our pictures on the world.
“Driving down the street, most people just see red lights and green lights and people and cars. And when I drive down the street, I see stairs and rails and things to skate on.” - Chris Joslin to Olympics.com
Chris Joslin on Paris 2024: "I try not to set my expectations too high"
Striking a balance between feeding his creative side and hitting the contests, Joslin admits, can be testing, but as a member of Team USA’s national skateboard team he knows for now competitions are the priority if he is to make it to the upcoming Olympics at Paris 2024.
On the subject of the Games in general Joslin remains pretty laid back about the prospect.
Having scored his best result on the Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying World Skateboarding Tour at the World Championships in Sharjah, for now, Joslin would make it to next year’s Olympic Qualifying Series as the third-best American after team-mates Nyjah Huston and Jagger Eaton.
But knowing even the biggest, best-placed hopes in life aren’t a guarantee for anything, Joslin remains committed to the process over any end result.
“The Olympics is obviously something that will take my career to the next level. It's never really been something that I aspired to be in. I never really was the competitive type, to have that drive and long for being in it, personally.
"But now that it's here and the opportunity has presented itself, if it happens, that would be amazing. But at the same time, I try not to set my expectations too high.
“I don't like to get my hopes up because getting let down really sucks. So, I'll be here competing and trying to make my way there. But if not, I've got to keep an open mind and be OK with whatever the outcome will be.”
In a world outside of skating, Joslin also takes great pride in his responsibilities as a father of two.
Like a few of his peers on the skate scene who are parents, he is a proud dad.
“My daughter likes to ride her scooter, my son likes to do whatever my daughter does, so right now, he likes to ride a scooter too,” Joslin says about whether his young children are interested in his sport.
“I’ve tried to put them on a skateboard and they’re all right with it. They have some interest in it but it’s nothing too special for them,” he reflected, before adding. “I want them to do whatever makes them happy.”
Keeping up with them on top of everything else that comes with being an elite skater with Olympic ambitions can take its toll.
“It’s tough,” he says, with a pause. “It's hard, you know, it ain't easy. And, when you're out travelling and doing things like this, it makes it even harder because you obviously, you know, it's just, it's tough to be away, you know? It's hard to focus on things like this when you've got things like that going on and it's just, it weighs on the mind a lot for sure.”
One way he has chosen to keep them, and those he loves most, close, is through the tattoos he has inked over his heart.
“I have my grandma's name right here,” Joslin says gesturing to his left side. “The one that raised me, I have my daughter's name on my chest, and I have my son's name right here.
"I put my daughter's name right over the heart because she was my first born and then my son's name goes right here right next to her on the left side, close to my heart as well. And my grandma's on the left side as well. Everything that's pretty sentimental to me stays on the left side.”
He knows it isn’t perfect, but like with everything Joslin represents, it's a commitment he has made with 100 per cent and one he won't ever stop making no matter what.
“I just try to stay focused on where I'm at and be present in the moment and whether I do good at that or not, that's just what I try to do.”