This month’s cover of Thrasher magazine featuring Aaron ‘Jaws’ Homoki is a particularly important one. Quite simply the image strikes you with awe. A human hanging is space, suspended in flight on a skateboard over an intimidating 25 steps that blur into a sort of wall.
Yet despite its visual impact this image is stirring up all sorts of emotions and controversy. It is a good example of the ways in which skateboarding is infused with sentiments, history, and values that problematise its labelling as a sport. Looking at the depth of feeling about this photograph reveals much about the inner world of skateboarding.
This image was posted on the Thrasher Facebook page 21 hours prior to the time of my writing. Presently it has over 45,000 likes, 2500 shares, and over 768 comments. The discussion is much more widely dispersed than on Thrasher’s Facebook page. Why?
The stairs in question are a legendary set in Lyon that were famously attempted by Ali Boulala in the Flip video Sorry (2002). The stairs feature as the ender in his section and despite not riding away from the ollie, he lands the board. The video and the obstacle have subsequently become part of skateboard legend. More tragically Boulala’s excessive lifestyle and his role in the accidental death of his good friends and fellow professional skateboarder Shane Cross accentuates the meaning of this moment in skateboarding. A recent Vice documentary on Boulala reflects on the stairs, the accident with Cross, and the loss of Boulala’s gift of skateboarding.
To many people the 25 set at Lyon will remain Boulala’s and they should remain, in some ways, sacred. Yet Homoki who has become famous for his prowess at jumping off of ridiculous heights, made the pilgrimage to the 25 set and brought Boulala along. For many the fact that Jaws made the ollie down the 25 set with multiple cameras, body armour, roll in ramp, and strengthened board, all detract from his achievement. An achievement many see as a slight to Boulala.
Some of the comments on the Facebook page highlight the debate….
It’s all about being authentic with what your doing. Ali went out there and tried it. Nothing just a dude and camera and regular ass board. Didn’t grab it. Nothing just tried it. 100% authentic. Hearing the news about this is board/padded thing is disappointing. I don’t really care about it if he used a special board and was padded up.
You guys are missing the point. He’s not showing up Ali. He’s paying homage to Ali. Obviously Ali did it raw as fuck. No roll in, no specially made board or anything like that. Just spur of the moment. That can never be recreated.
It’s a completely different trick once you grab the board , jaws you better actually “Ollie” this fucker
There it is. The end of an era.
A further issue is that Boulala, despite being invited by Jaws for the attempt on the Lyon 25, and attending, has some mixed feelings about it.
What does all this discussion show? 1) Fundamentally that memory of random mundane stairs really means something in skateboarding. That such places, invisible to many, have a hidden cultural history is poignant. Imagine a football pitch hidden in plain sight. 2) Skateboarding has changed, distinctly. The love people have for the spontaneity that Boulala showed in Sorry is matched by the critique directed at Homoki for all his preparation. 3) Skateboarding is a conversant culture, reliant on forms of social media to capture moments of achievement, either on 35mm, VHS, or iPhone. Thus skateboarding constantly produces cultural artefacts. 4) People really care about history, the type of board you use, and if you grab your board. 5) There is a stigma about protective clothing in skateboarding, especially in street skating. 6) in an era when magazines are becoming almost obsolete, this cover has captured everyone’s attention.
The final comments come from this prescient Jenkem article, now just over a year old.
Ali Boulala’s Sorry part is the realest account of skateboarding ever produced by a professional skateboarder. He gets drunk, he pukes, his dog humps his leg, he throws meat at a window, he does absolutely absurd things on a skateboard, and best of all? He bails. He gets hurt. He gets really hurt. And he doesn’t win…he’s just like us. He is our champion.
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