Chris Joslin: a long road from Hawaiian Gardens to becoming Trasher's Skater of the Year

Born in Hawaiian Gardens, California on March 10, 1996, Chris Joslin grew up under circumstances that would have broken most people. Both parents were dealing with substance abuse — he didn't meet his mother until age three, once she was sober, and he never got to know his father, who died in a police confrontation in 2004 when Chris was just seven.

His grandmother stepped in and raised him, taking him to the skatepark every single day. Skating wasn't just a hobby — it was structure, purpose, and escape all at once.

A debut for the ages

Joslin announced himself to the world in 2014 with his part in Plan B's True. The clip that stopped everyone in their tracks: a 360 flip over the UC Davis gap — a spot so massive it had ended sessions for countless pros before him. He was 18. The following year he turned pro, and the trajectory only steepened from there. X Games Real Street gold in 2016, bronze in 2018, silver in 2019. A reputation built on going to the heaviest spots on earth and making them look almost reasonable.

Life off the board

Joslin's personal life has been as complicated as his trick list. His first daughter, London, was born in 2016 when he was 20. His son Liam followed in 2021. A divorce and ongoing difficulties with his ex-wife added weight to an already demanding life.

Substance problems — present since childhood — have been part of his story too, one he's been open about. Through all of it, his kids have remained a constant anchor.

Four tricks, four legends

What separates Joslin from most of his peers isn't just raw power — it's his relationship with iconic spots. His 360 flip at the Davis Gap put him on the map. His blizzard flip — a backside 360 kickflip — at the Cologne rail station in Germany stands as one of the most technically demanding tricks ever executed on one of the most unforgiving spots in the world.

In 2025, he added a backside bigflip at Wallenberg, a spot that has humbled generations of pros, to the list of never-been-dones.

And then there's El Toro.

The El Toro 360 Flip

Few tricks in skateboarding carry the mythology of a 360 flip down El Toro's 20-stair set. Joslin first attempted it roughly 15 years before finally landing it clean — and the story has a chapter in between that the skate world has never fully resolved. Around 2017, he came agonizingly close: he rolled the trick, but his truck snapped on impact and he stepped off the board early.

Whether it counted was debated endlessly. He never claimed it.

In 2025, for his part G-Ma, he came back and settled the question for good. He landed it — in front of his kids — and the reaction said everything. The trick earned him Thrasher's Trick of the Year, and the part, a deeply personal tribute to his grandmother who had died of cancer in October 2023, earned him Skater of the Year.

Full circle

Joslin had kept his distance from the Olympic program the first time around — the coaching structure, the rules, the whole apparatus felt like a bad fit for someone who had always done things his own way. By the time Paris 2024 came around, he'd changed his mind, made Team USA, and competed on the world's biggest stage.

His grandmother didn't get to see it. She didn't get to see the El Toro make either. But G-Ma exists because of her — and so, in a real sense, does the skater he became.

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