I’ve loved skateboarding from the first time that I started. I can’t really believe it but I still feel and act like a kid most of the time. That’s when I really started to get into it and tried to learn tricks. Out of all the skateboards in the shop, that one just caught my attention. The first time that I got a real skateboard of my very own, I must have done something good, because my whole family took me to a skateboard shop and let me pick one. Every time we were starting from higher and higher up the hill, and eventually starting from the top. We lived on a small hill, so we’d practice riding down, over and over. My brother and I would go to their house after school everyday and they would let us ride their skateboards. At the same time that I was into BMX, I started hanging out with my neighbors Tim and Carlos. I liked to jump off of curbs and go fast, but I got hurt a lot on my bike. I thought, “Whoa, that was cool.” Then I got into BMX for a couple of years. One day, I got really mad and picked it up and threw it super hard on the ground and it snapped in half. My mom bought it for me at Toys’R’Us and I’d always ride around my neighborhood on my knees.

When I was four, my first skateboard was a blue GT. What were you into as a kid growing up? Were you skating or BMXing or what? My mom and dad were both born in concentration camps from WWII.

I’m from the East Side, so I’m pretty much a Samurai vato loco. I remember going to intermediate school and being one of the only Japanese kids in the whole school. I was born in East L.A., Montebello to be exact. Bennett Harada loves skateboarding and spends part of everyday passing on the tradition to the next generations.

He is a solid rider with a smooth, powerful style. Bennett Harada is a skateboarder with a warrior’s heart, a modern day Samurai, but what lies within is a humble and focused soul.

Hosoi hammerhead