What Christian Henry Is Up To
interview and photography by alyssa davis.
A skater, an artist - Christian Henry is quite possibly our favorite Floridian.
Now in LA, the Favorite Floridian prize is honorary, though well-deserved. What is the criteria? Simple. You get to be our favorite Floridian if you have style, have ambition, and are able to wallie nose slide something as high and gnarly as that which is photographed below. Christian, the purveyor and operator and hand-craftsman of Henry’s Jewelry is a bit of a star in the making and one that we are always happy to check in on, so we sent photographer Alyssa Davis to do exactly that.
This photo of Christian was taken by Ben Colen.
Okay. Christian. Where are we at?
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
How are you feeling?
Never better.
What are you working on? What’s coming up for you?
Some skate stuff, some Henry’s Jewelry stuff, some friend-related things. You know, the future is always bright. A lot of things are possible.
Where are you at right now with skating?
I’m Am for Real, skate for Dickies - we just dropped a video part. Getting flow shoes from Adidas. It’s going good, people have been helping me out a lot and I feel like I’ve got some solid people in my corner in the skate world, and I’m thankful for that.
How’d it start up with Real?
Through the old team manager, Nate Alton. He just asked me at a contest one day if I’d be willing to skate for Real, and it was one of those things where you can’t really decline. I was like, whoa, super hyped.
What about with Dickies?
That happened through homies as well. I didn’t know Joe Face then as I do now, so mutual friends of ours got us connected.
How’d you meet Ish [Cepeda]?
I met Ish through Foy a very long time ago… we might have been in Palm Bay? It was a video that Ish was in by Bobby Bils called Bojangles. The premiere for Bojangles is where I met Ish, Bobby, Tyson - a bunch of those homies.
How old were you?
At the time? Or right now?
At the time and now.
I was a jit when I met those boys, maybe like fifteen? Sixteen? I’m twenty seven now.
So it’s been a minute. How did Henry’s Jewelry start?
Henry’s started off the top, off the brain. I was influenced by some homies from Spain a while ago like, damn it’d be sick to make your own jewelry, and I just kind of learned how to do it. I have some friends who have a jewelry spot in Downtown LA; they don’t have a jewelry school, but they have really cool tutorials and that kind of showed me what to do, and I put my own twist to it.
What do you hope to accomplish with it?
Just to expand - elevate.
Growing up in Florida, what influenced your personal style and skate style? Let's start with your personal style, actually.
I think it comes from my family, my friends. Not saying I’m biting swag or anything but it’s cool, you just put two and two together. My brother was a big influence on me as a kid and even now.
There’s a difference between biting swag and being influenced.
Yeah, yeah, but you know what I mean, people be biting swag. I’m influenced by a lot of the people that I’m around, that’s where it comes from for sure. Skate style, do you mean like, who influences my skating?
Yeah, when did you start, actually?
I started skating like thirteen or fifteen years ago. My brother put me on, he was the first one with a board and I just took it up more than him.
Who were the big skater influences? Your brother?
I don’t know, just growing up watching all types of skate videos and different skating. Rodney Mullen was sick, Cory Kennedy, Grant, Ishod’s raw - I’m close friends with Foy so it’s even easier now, I can watch it in person and see his process and that rubs off on me. I get influenced by these people.
It must be awesome to be in a position where your biggest influences are also your friends.
Yeah, super happy for that. It’s crazy, and it doesn’t have to be on no weird shit.
Having that intimate relationship with them definitely helps and you can take them off the pedestal a little bit. How was the New York Henry’s event?
It was dope! It was very cordial, a couple friends I haven’t seen in a while pulled up, some family pulled up…
Where’d you do it at?
My friend’s shop in Brooklyn called Tenant. Really dope shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Very nice stuff, great vibe in there. Hang out spot, I fuck with Tenant.
What’s next for you in skating?
I’ve got some footage in the Real video, a couple other homies will be dropping some projects and I’ve got some footage spread out. I don’t have a part for me coming up, but I’ve got some clips spread out across projects.
Right now you’re making jewelry in front of me, what are you making?
Oh yeah, I’m making these hat charms. People been liking them. It took a little minute to get the pieces that I needed but I finally got em.
I don’t see people doing that so when you popped out with it I was like, damn that’s hard. You did some stuff on Nicole’s shoes…
Thanks! Yeah, Nicole let me freak her shoes out a little bit. Her shoe came with jewelry kind of based on it so it was dope to be able to just add onto that for sure.
There’s such a prominent scene of skaters from Florida, what is it like being a part of that?
Hmm… I’m grateful. Grateful, and it makes me proud to know as far as we came, and that people recognize that. We can’t just drive back super quick - it’s the opposite side of the country, so far away from our families, we can’t just go home. I appreciate that some people respect that these fools came all the way out here, they on a mission. I don’t even mean just people that are my homies - anybody that are from out there and that have gone this far have been on a mission their entire life. It’s cool to know that people appreciate that in all hobbies and aspects, not just skating.
