I remember a few years ago hearing that Christian Hosoi, an infamous bad boy skateboarder from the 1980s had become a Christian while incarcerated for methamphetamines. I've been out of the skateboarding scene for a while, and had not heard much more about it. But the first of this month it finally got picked up by the New York Times. The Times ran an article about Hosoi, and Brian Deegan, a freestyle motocross rider, who are Christians who just recently competed in the X-games. The story of Deegan is equally stunning. Deegan is the owner of team Metal Mulisha, a freestyle motocross team known for wild antics and and highly tatted members. Metal Mulisha has often been called "the most bad-ass Freestyle Motocross team in the world" and is probably the most influential motocross team in the world as well.
After a near-fatal crash in 2005 while attempting a back flip during filming for a television show, he lost a kidney and four pints of blood, and found religion. When a surgeon told him he might not survive, Deegan, 34, who has won more freestyle motocross medals at the X Games than any other rider, made a pact with God. If he lived, he would mend his ways. When he finally pulled through, he sought a pastor, began reading the Bible and “gave his life to Christ,” he said.
Soon his fellow freestyle riders Jeremy Lusk, Ronnie Faisst and Jeremy Stenberg, who is known as Twitch, began attending Bible study with Deegan.
“All the heavy hitters of the Mulisha are born-again Christians,” Deegan said.
Deegan also mentions concern about how fans would react to the guys conversion. You see Christianity is not highly looked upon in the motocross world, especially for a team known for being badboys.
The story about Metal Mulisha is amazing because while in the mainstream, these guys may be anti-establishment, but in the world of freestyle motocross these guys are the establishment. Several of the guys mentioned in the article won medals at the X-Games this past year.
