We’re pleased to bring you an ‘Offerings’ interview with Polar’s East Coast representative Aaron Herrington. Dip into this interview and emerge with some recommendations guaranteed to entertain and inspire…
words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Oregonian portrait of Aaron taken after this conversation
Aaron Herrington first visited us at the shop back in 2014 on a Polar tour which saw the team explore the South of England. These were still relatively early days for the brand, and it was a busy year for Aaron. He had been announced as part of the team in the Polar promo two years previously, and been putting in the work on the New York City streets ever since. 2014 saw him appear in Jeremy Elkin’s The Brodies, Josh Stewart’s Static IV, and receive pro status for Polar shortly before his UK visit. This is a role he has dedicated the last decade to, cementing himself as a prolific NYC street scourer whose footage never disappoints. He has maintained a healthy work ethic ever since, happiest with a video project underway.
We caught up with Aaron for this interview hot on the heels of his latest video part Homeward Bound released by Thrasher magazine. Aaron is best known for exploring possibilities in the City that Never Sleeps, but this part filmed by Jon Colyer sees him going to work on the streets of Oregon, the state that raised him. This love letter to his hometown is full of cutty terrain, the potential of which would be invisible to most. Unfortunately, grafting for this part involved some misfortune, a serious knee injury, and a complete reconstruction required. He is still working hard at recovering, and thankfully, it sounds like he will be out of the woods, and back on four wheels very soon. The aforementioned part only just dropped, and another one in Paul Young’s new video is set to hit our screens in just over a month. Even while out with an injury, his hard work endures.
Knowing that Aaron was back in Oregon intent on rehabilitating, it seemed like the perfect time for some distraction, and he got back quickly with his recommendations. Thanks to him I very much enjoyed a new film, have a new book on the to-read list, reminisced over one of the best albums of all time, and rewatched a Ty Evans classic with fresh eyes. Hopefully you will do the same.
Find out why the Transworld Modus Operandi video means so much to Aaron, and which moments made a lasting impact on him. Learn why the New York streets that Prodigy, and Havoc paint a picture of on the iconic Mobb Deep The Infamous album resonated with him so much, that inimitable Queensbridge sound beckoning him to a city he would eventually call home. Then discover why a lesser-known Al Pacino film needs to be added to your watchlist, and an Anthony Bourdain exposé about what goes on when you’re working in a kitchen remains a kind of rock n’ roll tale for the ages. We also took a moment afterwards to speak more about his recent part, the one that’s coming, his recovery process, the positive reverberations of working with the Ben Raemers Foundation, and more…
Modus Operandi – Transworld Skateboarding (2000)
What was happening for you in 2000?
I would have been just finishing Grade school, the first portion of school in America. It was the summer of going from Elementary or fifth grade into sixth grade. I was honestly rollerblading before that, and kind of transitioned into skating that year a little bit. I had already seen Fulfill The Dream, the Shorty’s video, and then a couple of random H Street videos, Shackle Me Not I believe, and also Second Hand Smoke, and a couple of other videos. That was just from a VHS tape someone had copied all those videos onto.
The classic.
Exactly, that tape circulated through a whole crew of older kids, and then I eventually got my hands on it. That was my true visual introduction into skateboarding, seeing all of those videos. But a part of that was that one of them was Fulfill the Dream, everybody loved that video. So when I think about Modus Operandi in particular, in the opening montage there’s a voicemail with someone griping about the lack of titles and names. The opening footage is a guy [Uriel Luebcke] trying to grind that long curved handrail. In Fulfill The Dream Steve Olson grinds the first corner of it and ollies out. Then the opening clip of Modus is someone grinding the whole thing. So for me I was shocked, it was crazy, I was seeing the natural progression of skating from one video to the next. Back in 2000 I was only ten so I wasn’t doing a whole lot but I was beginning to get into the obsession of skating
Can you clearly remember seeing this for the first time?
The irony of this is that the skate shop in my hometown was called Slam City. They had a couch in there and stuff so you could watch videos. I remember that they got The Reason, and Modus Operandi, and they played both of them back to back. We had a kind of little premiere in the skate shop, there were maybe ten kids there. I think The Reason is just as important, or monumental to me as Modus is but Modus has always stuck out a little more to me. I would have been about eleven years old, we would have watched it after it first came out, but we definitely first saw it playing in the shop. Then the skate shop would allow us to take the videos home for $2 or $3 a night. I took The Reason, Modus, Foundation’s Nervous Breakdown, and 411VM issue 34. Then I put all of them onto a VHS tape. So then I had my own video compilation, and I watched those four videos probably a thousand times. I can almost recite Nervous Breakdown and I’m not sure that’s even on many peoples radar.
I watched this again the other day, there are so many amazing people in the video, and there are so many spots in there that people still skate to this day. There’s a curved handrail that people have back noseblunt slid now, and I believe Ishod [Wair] did a front blunt shuv on it, but HUF [Keith Hufnagel] boardslides it in this video. Also at University College of California in Irvine Kerry Getz fakie ollies the stairs, it looks so sick, it’s amazing, and it’s just a fakie ollie.
What are some other standout moments for you?
So many things stuck out, [Mark [Appleyard] does a switch tailslide bigspin on one of the Arco rails in LA. Jerry Hsu backside overcrooks a handrail, and I don’t think anyone was doing that at that time. Jamie Thomas has a heavy little hammers section. Little things like that stand out, I’m not sure if it made the impact on my brain that something like that coming out now would. But seeing it now, and looking back at some of the stuff that went down, it’s like ‘Holy shit!”. The progression that was happening at that time was so good.
“The progression that was happening at that time was so good”
I’ll segue that into talking about MJ [Marc Johnson]’s part. He’s someone from that time who was probably one of the most technical skaters, he was doing manual tricks that nobody else bar Daewon [Song] or Rodney [Mullen] could do. There’s that big white handrail, he does a front board to fakie on it, and then the next trick is a perfectly balanced backside 5-0, he has a button up shirt undone over a white T-Shirt. It just looks super casual, effortless style, it’s timeless. Then there’s his opening dialogue about taking something that’s pure thought and turning it into reality. That’s like the best thing in skating, it’s so true. Then there’s that rail in Miami that I don’t think is there any more, it’s the one he does the frontside noseslide on, the blue one in the hallway, that’s so sick. I’m just going to rant about this video if that’s okay.
That’s perfect, it’s what we’re here for.
In the 16mm montage in the middle there’s footage of Justin Strubing skating that Berkely park, there’s an almost depressing Bowery Electric tune playing, Jayme Fortune has footy in that part which I think is sick, and him and Matt Beach skate together which is really dope. Chany Jeanguenin’s part is amazing because not many street skaters have a vert intro. He switch backside lipslides a handrail in that which no-one was doing. [Brandon] Biebel has a full ender section in his part because of the Expedition link which was tough, his footage was really fire for back then. I also love that Chany is skating in those OG Converse Heliums, those big old Converse shoes.
Then there’s BA [Brian Anderson] of course, he’s skating to a [Chad] Muska song which is pretty hilarious. His intro words are amazing, he’s talking about envisioning a trick that he’s trying, exactly how it should look, and envisioning that he has already done it, I think a lot of us do that. He has a lot of sick stuff in that part, he does a nollie smith grind down the Beverley Hills High handrail, and it’s probably the only nollie smith grind that has ever looked good in skateboarding. He does a front blunt to fakie on Hubba Hideout, there’s a bunch of stuff at UCI, then that back tail ender is incredible.
Talking about envisioning how a trick should look, that back tail couldn’t look any better.
Yeah that posture on the back tail is insane, the way he’s perched up on it. One of the sickest things I also forgot is that he skated for Axion, he has an Axion T-Shirt on in that part, and is skating in the shoes throughout.
Right, it’s time to talk about Mike Carroll.
Everything about the Mike Carroll part is great, from that first bit of voiceover about it dangling by a strain of bone marrow onwards. He’s explaining the thought process behind falling, the risk assessment, and how it’s a “little bitch-ass excuse but whatever”. That part I think is everyones favourite part in Modus, it has been one of my favourite parts for a very long time. Scott Johnston’s in there, Rick Howard’s in there and he does a front shuv back 50 on a handrail in 2000 which is nuts. Mike’s super long feeble grind is so steezy. That opening line with the beat dropping at the SF library, and how the last trick of that line is the casual hard flip off the ledge, it’s just so crazy.
I feel like back then the progression is obvious. Dudes were already skating big rails. I’m not saying that Mike Carroll was a specific style of skater but his ender being that big back lip on a handrail, i’s just timeless, it’s perfect.
My takeaway from watching this back is that a lot of people who you don’t associate with skating handrails per se were doing some incredible stuff on rails with finesse.
Totally, Rick Howard does a frontside 180 over a rail to switch crooked grind, and [Eric] Koston does a fakie ollie switch crook on it. It’s crazy to think those tricks went down 24 years ago. I will go back to watching this part again always, the Kurupt song, the steeze. I also know a fair amount of those spots from living in San Francisco for quite a bit of time, I think everyone knows the LA spots
Would you often revisit this video as a whole?
I don’t think I watch any video back as a whole but as far as video parts, this is a video I go back to from part to part. Because we were doing this I watched the whole thing from start to finish the other day and it’s a really good watch as a whole, the editing, the montages versus just going to YouTube and watching one specific part. It did actually make me want to watch a lot of old videos from start to finish.
The voiceover at the start begins by highlighting the gripe about no captions for skaters names before a heavy montage without any. Where are you on that debate?
I feel like back then it was pretty easy to tell who was who, there weren’t millions of skateboarders. Nowadays if it’s an independent video, like a homey video, and they don’t have titles, that’s really bad because I don’t know who these guys are, and now I really don’t know who they are. If it’s a team video, like Baker Has a Deathwish 2 is coming out, I think that works fine without titles, or a Static video when you already know who is going to be in it I don’t think they’re super important. It’s definitely always helpful to name everyone in the credits to list who was in a montage for instance
Is there anything you do today that will always make you think of this video? Or anything you learned because of it?
Good question. If anything it’s given me my own bit of madness at times. Mike Carroll talking about wondering if he’s going to chip his tooth on the corner of a ledge. That resonated with me, often thinking about the worst case scenarios. Then at the same time BA [Brian Anderson] offers a counter, the idea of envisioning already doing the trick, that’s something I like to do as well. I do get scared skating I’ll be honest about that, skating can be a frightful thing. If I’ve taken anything from it it’s how to fall or being prepared to fall because everyone is talking about it.
One thing I thought I’d mention is there’s a montage after Mike Carroll’s part of slams, and nearly makes. There’s footage of Marc Johnson locking into a backside 180 fakie 5-0 on a rail, he grinds the whole thing but doesn’t make it. That always looked amazing to me, and is a trick you are part of an elite club to have wired.
I feel very privileged on that one. Henry Sanchez has a really good one on that rail in SF, and Joey Pepper as well, he probably has my favourite one ever, the one he did at LA High
The Infamous – Mobb Deep (1995)
This is the hardest record of all time maybe, is it a desert island disc for you?
I don’t know if it would be a desert island disc, it’s definitely in my top ten. My music spectrum is pretty across the board so I don’t know if I would want a grunge album, or a hip hop album, or a Morrissey album to be my desert island companion. But when it comes sown to albums I can resonate with for whatever reason I will always come back to this one. There are songs on it I will always come back to. I’m not from the hood, I’m from a small town in Oregon, which is maybe why it does resonate with me. I can’t relate to the subject matter entirely, but being a young adult male, there are certain things we all go through, and this covers some of that. I’m big on lyricism, and delivery, so hip hop is my go-to genre, and it always will be.
But when it’s 90s hip hop, for me, it’s going to be East Coast, Queens hip hop for the most part. So Mobb Deep, Capone-N-Noreaga, Nas, The Firm, AZ, even though he was actually from Brooklyn, all of those dudes. I’ve never been a Jay-Z fan, I don’t like that type of music, it just doesn’t sit well with me. There’s just something about Queens specifically, Queensbridge hip hop. They’re all talking about the same areas, the 41st Side of Vernon, they all refer to these projects in Queensbridge.
“There’s just something about Queens specifically, Queensbridge hip hop. They’re all talking about the same areas, the 41st Side of Vernon”
One song that always sticks out to me the most is “Q.U.-Hectic“, that beat gives me goosebumps, the delivery, everything about it made me feel like I wanted to get the fuck out of my hometown. Listening to that music gave me a sense of nostalgia for a place that I had never been before. They were so good at telling a story, and the imagery their lyrics created was powerful, I could envision it
This album literally transports you to their reality.
Exactly. When we’re all young adults, we’re all confused individuals. I feel like at that time, with what I was going through personally, this album just helped with that. “Shook Ones, Part II” is another song, everyone knows that one, everyone knows that beat. Then Eye for an Eye with Raekwon and Nas, that’s another one that gives me goosebumps. Then “Survival of the Fittest“, that song is telling the truth of reality, the truth of the world we live in. I’m not from the hood but there is something about it, it really hit. This album helped me dive into all aspects of hip hop.
This was the gateway for you.
Yeah it was the gateway to everything I like to this day. I’ll be honest, Eminem made an impact on me, I think he is one of the most talented artists. But when it comes down to what people would call traditional hip hop, or East Coast hip hop, this was what I always stuck to. I wasn’t a Tupac, or a Biggie kind of guy. Mobb Deep’s music, not just this album, but everything they have done, you can feel it, it comes from the soul. Not every Mobb Deep song has the best lyricism, I’ll admit that, but they create these stories with imagery that pulls you into their reality.
Was there any hip hop tourism on the cards when you moved to New York?
I live in Bed-Stuy, so this diner I would eat at a lot was on St James Place which is the street Biggie grew up on, so I would walk past his old house a bunch. I’m sure for the time period he was living there it was super hood but it’s pretty gentrified now. I didn’t really pilgrimage to anywhere specifically. When Prodigy passed away though I went out to Queens and saw his memorial. At the Queensbridge Houses there was a huge memorial, a candlelight vigil. I went the next day and saw all the candles, and murals that had been painted.
I feel like all of New York is a kind of hip hop pilgrimage, it’s all part of the story. When you’re in Astoria, Queens, and you walk down to the waterfront towards Long Island City, you’re walking alongside all of the Queensbridge Houses. There are projects everywhere in New York, and that type of housing. But with those ones you can see how once you’re in it, it’s hard to get out of it. You could do a crime on one block, and then run through the project buildings for like ten blocks and not get caught. You can see how the infrastructure of that housing development is almost helpful for committing crime. What’s cool is that if you’re in the Bronx there are Big Pun murals, in Harlem you’ve go Big L murals, in Brooklyn you’ve got murals for Biggie, Pop Smoke, ODB, tons of people. There are sick murals everywhere commemorating those artists. I wouldn’t say there’s anywhere I went out of my way to visit. I took a picture of the sign that says “Welcome to Jamaica Estates” because of the movie Belly.
Would you still listen to this album from start to finish?
Maybe not the whole thing these days. I probably have half of it on playlists but “Q.U.-Hectic” is a regular occurrence. I’m sure I have driven my parents, and my girlfriend crazy with that one.
How would you have been listening to this when it first made its way into your life? Was it a CD or a tape?
I wish, I’m too young for that, C.D’s were almost on their way out. I grew up on the MP3s unfortunately. The only hard copies I own of anything are a couple of records, and half of them are meant to be given to my friend Paul Young. I have the CNN War Report album on vinyl which is cool, but that’s actually for Paul. I had an iPod shuffle back in the day, now it’s Spotify or Apple Music to listen to everything. I like to go back and watch the music videos on YouTube a lot, listen to the song and see the visuals at the same time, everything that went into it.
Who or what would you credit with turning you on to the most new music?
When I was younger my neighbour Dusty Ponzoa, he was a kid I skated with, and who I still talk to now. He basically put me onto underground hip hop, and the different genres of hip hop. There was website before Soundcloud where you could play all the new music. This was at a time when 50 Cent and Jadakiss were beefing, they were doing diss tracks back and forth. Then 50 Cent dissed Nas, and Nas basically destroyed him. My friend Dusty was putting me onto all of that new music back then.
Now I veer towards trap as a genre in my older years, artists like Lil Baby, other artists who have good delivery, and are good at storytelling for lack of a better term. I just really like Atlanta rappers. Nowadays I listen to older Three 6 Mafia, and older trap in that sense, real trap music, chopped and screwed. Lean music, not what is portrayed as trap music now. Unfortunately he passed away but I really liked Pop Smoke before he died, his music was good, he had a very unique voice, unique delivery, and a different style of rapping. Having the American version of Drill music was cool.
Sea Of Love – Harold Becker (1989)
Thanks for recommending this, it’s one I had never seen. What made you pick Sea Of Love?
I had been wanting to watch this for a long time, I hadn’t seen it until about a week ago actually, but it was sat on a watchlist of mine. I like Al Pacino movies a lot. You mentioned Richard Price who wrote this, and also did the movie Clockers. I actually haven’t seen Clockers but that’s on my watchlist too because I’m a big Harvey Keitel fan also. Sea Of Love kind of falls into that 90s crime film category. If you haven’t seen Bad Lieutenant with Harvey Keitel, that is a movie that is a trip back into a forgotten New York, corrupt cops, and they’re the most corrupt. That is such a gnarly movie, it’s savage. Sea Of Love I chose largely because of Al Pacino, I love Serpico, HEAT is one of my favourite movies, The Devil’s Advocate, there are tons of them. His acting is super good in this
Do you appreciate this as a time machine for a city you know so well.
That’s the thing I like about it the most, it’s old New York City. There are Diners, there are these Hot Dog places called Gray’s Papaya, Pacino is walking by them and they look just like they look now. In the movie they’re able to drive through Times Square, I don’t know when the last time you were able to do that was.
“That’s the thing I like about it the most, it’s old New York City”
It’s a good storyline.
Yeah, they’re trying to find a serial killer who keeps killing people that have put wanted ads in the paper, a lonely hearts thing to find love, or to date. It’s quite a relative movie in terms of our society and how we date now. How we put ourselves out there on social media, or dating profiles, and meet a stranger. This was like the analogue version of that, so the story sounded good to me before I even watched it. Ellen Barkin is really great in it too. Pacino has a way of showing himself, in HEAT he’s a cop but he could never show his badge in that movie, or mention that he’s a cop but people know he is one. In this he is a cop but he’s letting love and lust get in the way of his work.
He perfectly plays the obsessive, dysfunctional detective in both films.
Yeah he portrays that obsession with his work. I feel like not too many people have seen this one. I love The Big Lebowski also so having John Goodman in this is amazing. He’s just hilarious, lots of funny stuff happens in this movie. I liked it a lot
What movie genre would you say you enjoy the most? Is there a golden era of film for you?
Probably the 90s when movies were rated R. Now everything is PG13 or PG which is fine, but I feel like so many of the monumental movies came out before 2000, so many great films from that time period, I would say the 90s is my go to era. I like a lot of crime drama movies, I wish there were more of them. I love heist movies, bank robberies. I watched Pride and Glory last night. Edward Norton, and Colin Farrell are brothers. One is a good cop, and the other is very corrupt, it’s a good one. I watched The Usual Suspects again the other night, that movie’s great. I feel like after 2000 movies started sucking more. With a movie like HEAT, that thing is three hours long but I think I could watch it from start to finish, once a week, and not be disappointed with it.
Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain (2000)
How did this one reach you?
I read this book when I was in high school. Anthony Bourdain wore Kitchen Confidential, and another book called The Nasty Bits. I’m not sure how I got into reading it, other than knowing who he was from his television shows. I think my father, or my mother gave it to me. I was working in the restaurant industry at that time, I was doing back of house stuff, food prep, and all of this other shit so it resonated with me in that sense. Also when I was younger I was definitely experimenting with drugs, and other substances unfortunately. So there was a lifestyle that came along with being a chef, and being a cook. Certain substances fuel that industry, and your ability to stay keen. I think nowadays in kitchens it’s not so much the case but I think back then it was very much the case.
What did this book open your eyes to? Are you wiser when it comes to ordering food because of it?
I have definitely taken things from this book. He talks about how you never want to eat in a restaurant that isn’t busy. If it isn’t busy then it’s not good, if it’s busy it is. Always eat somewhere that’s busy even if you have to wait. He talks about working up in Cape Cod or somewhere up in the North East. He was working shucking oysters, and promised himself that once he had shucked his millionth oyster he was going to quit and open his own restaurant. There’s actually an amazing movie called Burnt with Bradley Cooper that depicts this whole story.
In the book Anthony Bourdain talks about the perks, and the disadvantages of working in the food industry. The perks of living in New York City, and running a restaurant there, and all of the antics that go on behind it. Sleeping with people you work with, or doing drugs in the freezer to maintain your ability to continue working. Doing bad things to peoples food because they were rude, just about everything. There are good stories in there where he talks about having to stay up for days decorating a cake, and doing meth the whole time. It’s kind of grim, but it is this kind of rock n’ roll story, a rock n’ roll environment before he was even famous. It’s just a really good book.
“Anthony Bourdain talks about the perks, and the disadvantages of working in the food industry. The perks of living in New York City, and running a restaurant there, and all of the antics that go on behind it”
It teaches you little things about working in the kitchen too. Like if you are ever seeking validation from your boss, your boss will never give it to you, so don’t try and get it. This is unfortunate, but he says you are going to kill yourself if you’re looking for gratification in the kitchen. It’s a lot of confessional narratives, and commentary on his experience, and far from any of his television shows.
It’s an easy read?
Yeah, I think he was a great writer. I would say he writes in the same way that he communicates on television. It’s very engaging, he’s very good at pulling you into what he’s talking about. I thought his show was good because I couldn’t care less about whatever town he was in, or the food they serve, but he made it interesting.
Are you a fan of cooking shows and documentaries?
Not so intentionally but I watch The Great British Bake Off quite often at my apartment with my girlfriend. I also watch classic Food Network shows like Chopped, and stuff like that. If I’m cooking certain things I’ll go on YouTube and watch how someone else does it, to get an idea of how to do it properly. When I was younger I worked in restaurants, and kitchens. I wouldn’t want to do that now but it was an experience. I feel like everyone, at some point, should work in the service industry, particularly the food industry. It humbles you into realising that you could work your ass off and only earn $80 that day, then other days you get tipped out really well.
Are you currently inspired in the kitchen?
Currently I am, since I tore my ACL I have been eating lot of red meat and definitely cooking more. If anything my inspiration right now is learning how to prepare steaks perfectly, and using certain types of beef fats, and natural fats instead of butter to cook meat in. I’ve been buying good cuts of meat, and even buying bad cuts of meat, to run a comparison. There are times where I’ll buy a $4 steak and see how good I can make it, or I’ll buy a $40 steak and I don’t have to do anything to I because it’s perfect. I’m inspired to keep messing around with that. I make smoothies all the time and switch up the recipes with that. There are time periods in my life where I go through highs and lows, I would say during the lows I don’t cook so much, then during the highs, like of late, I’ve been cooking a lot more and just appreciating the food more. I wouldn’t say I’m some expert chef though by any means but I can definitely put some food together. With things I’ve prepared most of my life I’ve perfected them, things my mother taught me.
Do you carve out time to read on a regular basis?
No, unfortunately I do not. I’ve been trying to read HEAT 2 for over a year, and just blowing it. I’m a visual learner, I prefer watching my content, or listening to my content. When I read, in my head it feels like it’s taking a long time so I get discouraged by that. It makes me feel unintelligent when I know that’s not the case. I admire people who can, if you’re able to sit there and just take in a book that’s so sick. But I’m high strung, I’ve always been kind of anxious so I think that just goes hand in hand with that. I can read interviews and stuff like that but if someone passed me a 200 page book to read, I’m probably not going to.
We really enjoyed your Homeward Bound part. This interview finds you back in Oregon, where is home right now?
New York is still where I live, I still have my apartment there, and I still pay my rent, I have a really good living situation in New York. Then in Portland, my girlfriend lives here so I live with her when I’m in town, then she lives with me when she’s in New York. But I’m from Oregon originally, my family is in the area, my father lives in Portland, and my mother is a couple of hours away. So when I’m back here I have my family to see, and friends. Home base for the most part is still New York City. With working on the Homeward Bound part, and then getting injured, I’ve spent more time in the North West.
Aaron’s recently released Homeward Bound part filmed in Oregon
I wanted to spend the time out here to film that video part because I drank for so many years, and always talked about wanting to make that part, and do an interview to accompany it. I wanted to put on for Portland but never did it. Then a couple of years ago I met my buddy Jon Colyer who is an amazing filmer, and I’ve known Joe Brook for a long time, so figured it was time to finally work on something. It took a couple of years, and I’m really happy with the results. New York is still home but at some point in my life I definitely want to move back to Oregon. You have everything out here, there’s a lot to do, and a lot not to do. If you want to go hiking, swimming, or fishing, outdoorsy stuff, you can do all that, and you can skate too.
We have the best summer. Then winter sucks but you can go snowboarding, and hiking. It’s a slower pace, I’ve lived in New York for thirteen years now, and it’s been great, I’ve loved it. But as I get into my mid-thirties I’m ready to slow things down a tiny bit city-wise, not skate-wise or physically. When it comes to getting from point A to point B taking an hour I’m kind of over that. I’d rather be in a smaller city, and skate with a smaller crew. That’s also very difficult because I value my friends, and the friendships I have in New York so much, it’s trying to find that balance.
How is your ACL recovery going? Are you back to skating regularly, and is everything good?
It’s all good for where I’m at right now. It feels really good, it’s feeling strong. Of course there are some days where there are some setbacks. It’s insane when you have a complete reconstruction, it’s been six months, and it basically feels like nothing ever happened. I’ve been told I can start skating but I don’t want to push myself, and end up hurt again because I tried too early. I want to wait until it’s been a year from my surgery, or at least from my injury before I start pushing around. I was told to make a cruiser board and start pushing around but I’m just continuing with the PT, and the physical therapy, and working out until I feel completely strong enough to start pushing around.
Because I tore my left knee, my bending knee, bending it, and putting force on it, in that pushing motion, can feel a little funny sometimes. I have so many different exercises, and regimens, things I need to be doing, that it’s hard to do all of them. I’m doing my best to do as many as possible
What part of your rehabilitation do you think will remain a regular fixture when you’re back skating?
I think I will have to maintain a lot of it for general soreness, and stiffness. They’re the stretches we already do, but doing them properly, then doing them for longer, and really stretching. It feels great but we know ourselves mentally on skateboards. I know for a fact that if I stood on a board I could do a tre flip right now and it would be no problem, I could probably do it first try. I just wouldn’t want to risk landing primo if it didn’t work out first try. I have a key to the Nike SB park here in Portland, and I could go there, but I don’t want to get overzealous, and start skating the hip, or the flat bar when I should just be pushing around. I just remembered having a dream about skating there last night actually, I was trying to ollie down the step up into the bank, and it felt really insane.
“I know for a fact that if I stood on a board I could do a tre flip right now and it would be no problem, I could probably do it first try. I just wouldn’t want to risk landing primo if it didn’t work out first try”
I think keeping up with all these stretches will be a full-time thing after I’m back to skating. Even working out in general, I go to the gym a lot now, and I was never a person to do that. You start to enjoy the results you start to see from going to the gym. Now if I’m bored, or have some downtime I just go to the gym. No just working out my knee, or that part of my body, but being in the gym to just stay fit. From here on that’s my main plan even when I’m skating again. Brandon Biebel, Neen [Williams] I’m coming for y’all.
Wade Desarmo is a good example, there are more, and more people benefitting from that regime.
Wade is 39 or some shit, I know Wade a little bit, he is next level. That Primitive part he put out, the Thunder part he put out, that shit is next level. He has been the greatest of all time, for all time. It’s so insane, he’s so good, and the definition of fitness. Clearly doing sit-ups, and jumping rope does a lot, it’s inspiring. Silas Baxter-Neal just turned 40 too, and he’s ripping.
Putting on for Portland. Elite move from Aaron’s Homeward Bound part filmed by Jon Colyer
We’re looking forward to your part in Paul Young’s Down By Law video. The hour is near right?
It comes out in March, that video as a whole is going to be really, really good. Paul is somebody that I truly admire, and respect a lot. I would say that everything that he puts together, and everything that he does is flawless, not to kiss my buddy’s ass, but he is just a very talented individual. Talk about somebody who knows the knowledge of hip hop. Homey scratches on his turntables to make beats, and does all of that stuff to this day. He is like a little, young DJ Premier up in his apartment. Paul’s the man, that video is gonna be so good, everyone that’s in it. I think that video is going to blow some minds, honestly, and truly. Especially as people haven’t heard of everyone in there, I think that will be really sick.
So we can expect some tracks originating from Queensbridge?
I can almost guarantee it yeah, I’m almost positive it will be all New York hip hop. I want to say Paul may be scoring, and mixing the music himself, but I may be wrong. It will be a very New York video for sure, it’s going to be dope, I’m really excited for that.
Dipping back a few years now but wanted to speak quickly about your SMiLe interview for the Ben Raemers Foundation which was really powerful and honest. Do you continue to receive positive feedback from doing that?
I still receive positive feedback to this day. Some people may have only seen it recently which is totally okay, it came out four years ago now. Some people have stumbled across it. They may be people I know or don’t know, other pro skateboarders, or athletes I look up to, or people I don’t know very well who reach out to me. There has been a really good, positive response. I have had so many messages from people telling me that it’s helped them through a situation, or out of a situation. I have had my own dialogue with those individuals. There have been times where I have allowed myself, and certain individuals, to overstep personal boundaries. “Tell me what’s going on with you?” , or “text me whenever you want”. I became a kind of therapist for certain people over social media because I felt I had the experience from my own experiences to be able to talk to them about it. It’s been a positive experience. From such an unfortunate event, lots of positive things have come from it, and lots of people have had the opportunity to do those SMiLe interviews, they’re all great.
I think things like that are important, and The Ben Raemers Foundation is only growing. There are very similar foundations within the snowboarding community, we need those things everywhere. I’ve been down and out, I’ve been in my dark places too, but therapy, and medication, certain practises are always needed.
“Unfortunately I think in every community it takes these negative things to happen to open positive dialogue, and conversation”
Aaron’s SMiLe interview for the Ben Raemers Foundation released back in 2020
There was a point where those important, open conversations just weren’t being had.
Right. Before I stopped drinking I was in Barcelona with Ben {Raemers] and I went into alcohol induced psychosis, so I was being pretty nutty. I was beating myself up, and going through all this crap, but Ben would just be by my side. I had to keep drinking to stop myself from going more crazy, as crazy as that sounds. Ben was supportive, suggesting we go and get pints, or go and get coffee. I just remember him patting me on the back because I was beating myself up, he said “stop beating yourself up so much, you’re a good guy”. I couldn’t believe him at the time but when I look back at that moment he was just trying to be there for me, and he was.
It sucks because I miss the guy a lot, and I’ve had more friends pass away since then. Unfortunately I think in every community it takes these negative things to happen to open positive dialogue, and conversation. All of the outreach and help that’s out there now has arisen from us losing Ben. Susie Crome from the foundation came out to Portland in the summer actually, and we did something for the foundation at a skate event which was really nice.
What are you excited for in 2024?
Getting back to skating when I’m 35, Paul Young’s video premiere, being healthy, and skating as much as possible again once I’m able to. I just want to take care of my wellbeing, I don’t want to go through the experience I’ve been through this last six months again so if I can take a break from injuries that would be great.
Any last words?
I would just say to people life’s short, have fun, try not to stress too much about the small stuff, or the things that are out of your control. It’s ignorant, but out of sight, is out of mind. As skateboarders, and people in general, I feel we like to hyperfixate on things that can be negative, or positive. I would say to live one day at a time, and try to be as present as possible. Don’t worry about the past, or the future, just try to be in the present. Love your family, and love your friends, and try to be the best individual you can be.
We would like to thank Aaron for his time, and for sharing his recommendations, and thoughts with us. We would also like to wish him the speediest of recoveries, and look forward to seeing him rolling around again in no time. We would also like to thank Mackenzie Eisenhour who provided Modus Operandi assets, and Luke Davidson for the Mobb Deep image taken at his home studio.
Previous ‘Offerings’ Interviews: Rowan Zorilla, Beatrice Domond, Chris Jones, Kevin ‘Spanky’ Long, Helena Long, Tom Karangelov, Bobby Puleo, Ray Barbee, Zach Riley, Ryan Lay, Casper Brooker