After Eddie Martin's 2005 film "JISOE" - Justin Hughes became a household name in Australia. Almost everybody in the world of street culture world had heard of the name JISOE...

He quickly became an Australian Street Culture Legend.

But, to me... I always knew him as... Justin.

One day in the early 90s, I was sitting on my skateboard in front of an arc of wooden log benches, overlooking Prahran Bowl. I remember it was a hot summer day and could feel the sun beating down on the back of my neck. Among a group of skaters, I sat listening to chatter about tricks, techniques and the latest skate news.

As the conversation flowed, I noticed a slim, unfamiliar face bobbing - approaching me directly from my periphery. Suddenly the figure neared, crawling stealthily on the ground out of the grass and cut straight into the conversation...

"Hey Sean... Have you heard that new UMC's CD that just came out?"

He had a mischievous grin on his face as he asked the question... knowing that he had probably got me intrigued with the topic. I had never heard of the CD and wanted to know what he was talking about straight away.

The unfamiliar face was Justin Hughes aka Jisoe. He knew my name prior to meeting me and didn't even bother to introduce himself. Before I had time to think...

"Who is this?!"

We got right into a detailed conversation with him telling me all his new favourite Hip Hop albums... Recommendations for new mixtapes and releases I had never heard of.

Within 5 minutes he was repeating rhymes from verses he had heard... and even started singing!!!!

In graffiti circles everybody knows Jisoe, but not many people know how good Justin Hughes was at skateboarding. He was one of the skaters on the cutting edge in the early 90s -- innovating and pushing to do the latest tricks.

He always had the freshest new World Industries T-shirts, sneakers, jeans and accessories straight from the US.

I really like the photo above of Justin from Slam Magazine. It was taken by Mike O'Meally at a spot we used to call Bluestone. You get a sense for Justin's fluid style and Airwalk suede shoes in full bold perspective. If you look carefully, you can also see me sitting in the background.

That night me, Justin, Mike O'Meally and I went on a night mission... skating spots in the city with Mike taking photos along the way in the journey.

Anyway...

Both Justin and I used to source clothes -- World Industries, Plan B and other brands direct from the States, because it was really hard to get in Australia at the time. I would order direct from a shop in San Francisco called FTC.

There were no online shops or internet marketplaces then. In fact, nobody I knew had even heard of the internet, so there was no way of even looking up rare sneaker releases.

I had to make telephone orders -- calling up San Francisco when time zones aligned. It was a little intimidating calling the store, because a lot of really famous pros who skated the famous Embarcadero (aka EMB) in San Francisco were sponsored by FTC - Chico Brenes, Mike Carroll, Jovontae Turner and many others.

The staff at FTC were really attentive and would describe in great detail... the colour of t-shirts, jeans and shoes they had by looking at them on the racks. Knowing that I only had a vague idea of what I was ordering. Then you would just have to take a chance based on their recommendation.

Calling up the States in the early 90s was like traversing a great gap - a huge ocean to connect with places I dreamed of night and day.

When a box would come, it was a bit like a mixed treasure chest of US Streetwear straight from the source!! You never knew exactly what colour or graphic would arrive. Sometimes there was something completely unexpected in the box, that I didn't know I had ordered.

I had ordered a pair of light grey and white suede Adidas Gazelles from FTC - which at the time were super rare... A collector's item in Australia.

We had seen the World Industries Team in the Love Child video wearing Puma Clydes, Adidas Campus and Gazelles. They were like a rare gem -- that you couldn't get in any of the stores in Australia.

When they arrived, I was so happy...

So happy, that I would often just sit there looking at them in the fresh new box. There was only one problem...

That didn't stop me from skating in them though. I would take them in the box and put them in my backpack to go out skating -- doing my favourite tricks and then returning them swiftly into the box.

Trying not to think about my toes... being completely sandwiched into a knuckle shaped monkey fist at the toe line.

People thought it was slightly crazy, that I would go to such lengths to wear rare sneakers for just a few minutes a day... but they kind of understood that I loved them.

Looking back, I think I was a bit crazy too.

Justin and I were skating curbs with a big group of skaters, just outside the city. At the time we could never stay at one street spot for long. Usually security just asked us to leave, but sometimes it got a bit more heated. This particular time, the situation became slightly more critical... We heard someone panicking screaming, yelling for us to...

All the skaters scrammed at high speed -- like street cats fleeing the scene in hot pursuit.

I was the first to bolt, skating away on the double...
Hundreds of meters ahead of everyone else. There was only one problem... I had forgotten my backpack and left the Adidas Gazelles near the curbs...

With all my might a let out a huge...

And didn't even look back as I pushed at high-speed... Galloping like a young gazelle... Pushing as hard as I could downhill, on my board all the way into the city.

As I sat on a rough unpolished concrete block, catching my breath, waiting as everybody caught up... Justin came rolling down the hill casually, shaking his head slightly... Carrying my backpack and sneakers. Smiling and subtly laughing to himself. All he said, when he arrived was...

In a slow motion, distorted pitch mimicking my frantic tone.

Every time I saw Justin for the next few months -- He would say the same phrase... "Grab my shoes."

Making fun of my voice in the slow-motion version... Crossing his eyes and distorting his mouth into the shape of a fish to make fun of my frantic face... Until we were both laughing in hysterics, almost crying -- having forgotten what we had starting laughing about.

Justin had the ability to make fun of me to the point that the caricature he had created -- was even more funny to me, than it was to him.

As time passed, I finished school and moved overseas to start exploring unfamiliar streets in foreign lands. By the time the film JISOE came out, I was long gone -- submerged in a new wave of street culture in Tokyo, Japan.

Although when I went home to visit, I would bump into Justin on the streets of Melbourne. The same atmosphere and laughter remained the same as in the 90s... It never wore off.

Most people see Justin as Jisoe...
An Australian Street Culture Celebrity... Graffiti Legend... or see him for the larger-than-life persona, that he became on screen.

I see more than that... A truly artistic and creative person... Whose antenna was always tuned into style way before it arrived. Who always knew about the freshest sneakers, jeans and mixtapes. Who always did the best caricatures of me.

Someone who would put himself in danger... because he knew how much I loved my Adidas Gazelles from FTC.

You see... Justin was already a star -- both on and off the board before there was ever a film about him.

As I have been fortunate to move and experience different cities and countries across the globe, I don't get to see the friends I grew up with. But...

As it was then... It is the same now... I don't think of him as Jisoe... but as the person... Justin.

Always a friend.

*In the photo above of me -- You can see Justin with his hand in the air. Shouting out at maximum volume to the camera, right as the flash and shutter was going off.

*The images are from a 1994 January issue of Slam Magazine, but from memory were taken around the winter of 1993.

Photographs by Mike O'Meally

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