Jaws: A History Of Hammers

Over the last 10 years, CCS team rider Aaron "Jaws" Homoki has gone from a stunt fetus rocking a helmet at his local skatepark to being one of the most respected and one of the gnarliest skateboarders of all time. Being known for the worlds biggest Ollie is probably Aaron’s claim to fame for most of the world, but I’ve seen him so many insane things on a skateboard that no one has ever even witnessed. Getting to travel together for years and having known him at an age where his dad was dropping him off to go skating with us, I have seen Aaron progress so much and really earn every single thing he has received because of skateboarding. Aaron doesn’t take being a professional skateboarder for granted and he lives up to that title. I went through my archives and pulled some memorable moves that I have shot of Aaron over the years, because I thought it would be cool to tell the stories and show some of these never before seen photos that follow Aaron from one of the first times we ever shot, to some of his more recent destruction. If you get a little too pumped after looking at these, just remember to sleep on it before heading up to your roof to unleash some of this inspiration.

1. This park was a skate spot right next to Aaron’s parents' house and he skated there all the time growing up. The spot had the most amazing banks that were shaped like prehistoric creatures that were built up and around the slides, but as a baby adrenaline junky, Aaron gravitated to random roof around the corner. He would Ollie off this thing for hours as a kid. After mastering the drop he decided it wasn’t dangerous enough and decided to Ollie on to the 12-inch wide bench below. The second time we ever went skating he brought me here to shoot this. I have been constantly scared for him every time we shot ever since.

2. This was another "what the fuck moment" for me on an earlier session with Aaron. We went to Tucson on a weekend trip and ended up at the "Super Ditch" where everyone skated a hip into the giant bank. Leave it to Aaron to find the highest possible thing he could jump off into the biggest bank there. I thought it would be kind of funny to shoot an artsy black and white silhouette of such an insane stunt and I was right. Look at how ridiculous it looks!

3. This was the scariest skateboarding I have ever witnessed. Aaron was doing these little ollies into this steep, quick bank on a trash compactor and we got a few good photos and decided to call it. I stupidly asked to shoot a fisheye one since the Ollie was kind of small and I wanted to show how insane it still was. When shooting the fisheye angle, he started popping them higher and decided he wanted to film another one and go higher. That was a bad idea...

On one of the next attempts Aaron caught his back wheels on the lip and went straight to his head off the top rope.

4. His eyes rolled into his head and he looked like a zombie. I wanted to take him to the hospital, but since he’s tough as nails he wouldn’t go and wanted to go home. At home, his dad figured he just had a concussion and made sure to wake him up throughout the night. The next morning he had terrible pain in his stomach region and ended up going to the hospital. It turns out he had torn an artery in half that was attached to his spleen and had been bleeding internally for the last 16 hours. He had emergency surgery and ended up alright, but the doctor said he was bleeding so bad that if he waited another night to come in he would have died.

5. This night was so memorable for lots of reasons. We had been to the infamous Blockbuster Rail in Phoenix before and he tried to Back Smith it and got broke off real bad after planting his foot firmly on the rail with no board under it. The night we went back was on my birthday and we had been skating all night and at about 5 am he decided he was down to get that Back Smith that had destroyed him before. My rule has always been that I will shoot as long as someone can keep skating so I slammed some coffee and spent my birthday morning shooting this photo as the sun came up and he rolled away before morning rush hour traffic. Skating all night until the sun comes up will always be the best.

6. Aaron and I went on our first trip to Europe together in 2008 on a Bones tour. Rumor has it, that Aaron went to his high school graduation, lost his virginity, and got on a plane to Europe for his first time leaving the country all within 24 hours. That’s not a bad way to enter the world of adulthood. One of the places we ended up was Amsterdam and we stumbled across this 12 flat 13 hubba which normally wouldn’t be much of a spot. To Aaron this was the first thing he wanted to do after breakfast. So sure enough, we set up and after he rolled up on the terrible ground about 50 times and flailed over this thing boardless a few times, he was rolling away. His Bones teammate, Dallas Rockvam, had partaken in some of the goodies that Amsterdam has to offer and was laughing so hard that he couldn’t breath on the first few attempts. He just kept saying, "Imagine what these people walking by think! They probably think we’re just making our retarded little brother try and kill himself!" He wasn’t too far off.

7. This was a spot we’d all been to hundreds of times growing up, and never once did I think that this was something a human would do. Sure enough, Aaron called me up and explained to me something that barely made sense until I showed up. It was one of the most epic splats of all time. It was almost straight down with no horizontal movement whatsoever. It’s the kind of thing that only Aaron could pull off.

8. This was a photo we shot on a Birdhouse trip that was both of our first times in Australia. We were in Brisbane and had enjoyed ourselves quite a bit the night before. Tony Hawk had a friend who took us all out and took to calling me Kung-Fu Panda all night and wouldn’t stop buying me drinks. Long story short, I peed the bed and everyone including my childhood hero, Mr. 900 himself had a good laugh the next morning. It wasn’t devastating or anything. Aaron probably felt bad for me so he got this photo and had it used as his first Ipath ad so I could make a little money to patch my emotional wounds with.

9. The Love Bowl drop-in is one of the most historic skate tricks to ever go down in Arizona. When something sits in the same place for 50 years and literally every single pro skater from every generation has been there, and something hasn’t been done, you have to know that it’s completely insane. After seeing it for the first time, within five minutes Aaron said, "yeah I think I could do it". The next day we were back with a crew of friends (and his dad for added support) and Aaron was climbing up a rickety piece of fence to the top of the 16-foot, crusty wall. I’ve always said that Aaron is the only person who could do this because on the first attempt he got cold feet and ended up jumping off to flat. No one who is capable of dropping in on something this tough could also take a 16-foot bug splat to the soles of their shoes. That’s why he’s him.

10. In addition to Australia, Europe, Mexico City, and China, Aaron and I also shared our first ever trip to Thailand together. We were full blown traveling buddy’s for about 4 years. This rail in Bangkok was perfect, but security was relentless. Our buddy Ohio Dave and Freddy Gall managed to distract security long enough for Aaron to get a Front Board and Lipslide in a few tries. We celebrated with a box of Chang’s (Thailand’s finest warm piss beer) and 5 dollar massage on the beach.

11. On another trip to Australia we ended up at this monster of a fire pole in Sydney and since no one else was gonna touch it, Aaron felt obliged to get down. Right as he rolled away from this feeble, a very well-dressed, grey-haired man was walking out of the building. He was American and he was stoked. He congratulated Aaron and told us to send him a copy of the photo. When he gave us his card he turned out to be the C.E.O. of some giant corporation that I later found out owns and works out of the building. I emailed him the photo and he said he was going to print it out for his desk. I really hope it’s still sitting on his desk somewhere.

12. This 16 stair kickflip in Sydney was a surprise for me. Up until this point I hadn’t really seen Aaron have enough confidence in his flip tricks to take them down the same size of stairs that he was capable of just hucking down. We have this ritual where when he’s afraid to do something we high five and lock fingers, and then I give him a huge bear hug, squeeze him as hard as I can, and lift him up. That usually gets him pumped enough to stick whatever he’s spooked on. It took a few bear hugs before he rolled away from this one, but at least he felt loved after he landed it.

13. Skating FDR park in Philly is no easy task, so trying a new trick on the biggest wall in the place is pretty daunting. Aaron’s tranny skills have always progressed at the same rate as his street skating, because that’s what he grew up on and I think he just likes to fly. On this Front Blunt it was awesome to be able to shoot the bowl from the backside. It’s pretty rare that you get to show this angle of a bowl this size. Just imagine that fall to flat. I guess it’s nothing new for Aaron, but it’s still scary.

14. This 15 stair Noseblunt was at a shitty hotel in Phoenix and you would get kicked out so damn fast. I never understood why they cared so much that your noise was bothering the person smoking crack rocks in Room 215, but for whatever reason they got really mad. A Noseblunt on a big rail requires a bit more precision than an Ollie, so in a kick out situation you really want to be sure that you’re gonna get on right, on the first try. Sure enough, he didn’t and we got the boot. This happened a few times and we had to circle the block and come back. Right as an angry front desk worker was calling the cops, we got the photo and I didn’t get a board to the face even though I was in the danger zone right next to Kenny Loggins.

15. There’s not much to say about this one, other than that we were at El Toro for our friend Derrick Tracey to skate, and Aaron was just there for support. His idea of support was to chuck a street grab down 20 for no reason other than that he was there. It’s ridiculous to see this stuff go down.

16. So Aaron’s dad is pretty enthusiastic about his skateboarding and anything else that involves the possibility of dying. He’s constantly finding Aaron impossible spots, dreaming up lines to 42 stair rails where you need to build the runway and the landing, and pretty much getting stoked on the idea of his son jumping off buildings. This is one time where he pulled through with a gem and he even built that little piece of cement runway for Aaron to pop off of. He didn’t bother to clean up the cheese grater texture on that bank he was landing into though. Probably because he wanted him to have some scars to remember it by.

17. This is another impossible spot that every skater in Phoenix has dreamed of at some time or another. It had gone so long without being touched that I was starting to think it wouldn’t ever happen. When Aaron and I were shooting for the first ever, "One Day In Skateboarding" issue of The Skateboard Mag, I knew it would be the day for him to do it. The poor guy had taken an early morning flight back to Phoenix that day, got his board stolen at a demo the night before, and was wearing shoes that were two sizes too small. Talk about a trooper. He threw together a complete from the misfit toy bin at Cowtown and Ollied this monster without even eating breakfast. It was last try too, in case you didn’t notice that inconspicuous cop.

18. Remember that drop-in from earlier that wasn’t a spot? Well this was when Aaron was filming for his Push Project part, and he decided he wanted to go back for an even more impossible stunt. The wall you ride on for this roll-in is literally 8 inches wide. Aaron rides an 8-inch board. If falling wasn’t going to hurt enough we made sure to go on a summer day when it was 113-degrees out so any time on the ground longer than 5 seconds would result in second-degree burns. It was a splat for the ages!