Monday, April 7, 2014

Aaron Ngo Interview + Scooter Hut USA Video

Aaron Ngo may be a name you're familiar with, or maybe not.  The first I can remember seeing him is online through Facebook, commenting being a little troll like many scooter riders.  But then I saw a clip of him trying to wallride the Hollywood High 16 (on someone else's scooter) and I was like "Who is this kid?"  I got some more background after talking to Anton Abramson, who filmed his Concrete part.  Finally I decided he would be a good person to interview, so now that his video for Scooter Hut USA is finished, I hit him up.

Photos by Matan "GUAT" Geller.

Jordan Jasa:  Aaron, what have you been up to lately?

Aaron Ngo:  Basically I've been filming a lot of last minute clips for my edit with Anton. I've also picked up skating again so I've been doing that when I'm not filming.

Again?  You used to skate?

Yeah, I actually started skating basically on my 12th birthday when my sister's boyfriend at the time gave me his old skateboard. I never really abandoned it but when i picked up scootering around November 2010, I started scootering a lot more.

Back before you picked up scootering, what did you think of scooters?  Can you remember like what your first exposure to "real" riding was?

I think it was around the summer of 2009, I went to my local skatepark in Menlo Park, CA and I remember seeing Rayan Simian, Dominic Gullo, Shuo Liu, and Danila Popov just doing tricks that I've never seen before in my life. I just remember Rayan pulling out briflips and triple tailwhips which absolutely mesmerized me. haha

Downside whip.
A lot of scooter riders get flak for trying to "copy" skateboarders.  Do you think thats whats happening? Are people ride scooters because they can't skate?

I don't think people choose scooters just because they can't skate. I mean we all know that we started doing scooter or skateboarding or anything else because we were interested in it and it was fun. "Copy" wouldn't be the right word to use at all but skateboarding does influence some scooter riders such as me and I think that people are just looking at it as a negative thing.

Word, I think it's just from people's differences in taste that causes that thinking.  Many of those same guys are drawing inspiration from BMX, with the box jump and quarterpipe tricks.

Yeah exactly. Growing up skating, I always skated street doing gaps, stairs, and ledges. So when I picked up scootering, I wanted to ride the same way I skated which is why I always stuck to street riding.

You're not exactly a stranger to gaps.  I think the first clip I saw of you (that made me remember you) was the Hollywood 16 wallride attempt...what's the story with that?

haha that's actually a funny story. Basically me and the BFCM crew (Cameron Poe, Issac Padilla, Aaron Watson, Tyler Rehard, Nathan Franco, Ryan Hoyt, Alex Lopez and Nic Politi) took a trip down to LA with Zack Martin, Ryan Day, Brendan Kim, Sam Dybeck and Gerardo Gonzalez. Near the end of the day we decided to go to Hollywood because I wanted to see how big it was and if it was possible to throw a wallride down it. So we all went and I kept saying I wanted to do it but wouldn't try it. Then Aaron Watson comes up to me and says, "What if I try to 360 this?" I immediately said that I would go for the wallride if he goes for the 360. Then I just remember Aaron hucking the 360 down first try like it was nothing. Then he looks at me and says "Yo we had a deal." So basically I was like fuck it I'm gonna do it. Oh on top of that, I actually left my scooter at my parents house back up in Norcal so I had to borrow one of Zack Martin's old scooters that had  like 24 high bars and a prototype AO deck. I think I basically ran up to it bitching out for like 15-20 minutes until I finally went for it. I don't really remember what happened during the wallride but I basically bitched out and jumped off my scooter and landed on my feet at the bottom of the stairs which ended up giving me a fat heel bruise that took like 2 months to fully recover. I tried to go for it again but the pain in my foot pretty much discouraged me from trying again.

Nuts.  Whats the biggest thing you ever wallrode before that?

Probably the 8 stair in my concrete part haha. Basically tried to go big and do something twice the size haha.

The other thing I remember about you is the whole "mom" thing on facebook.  What even started that?

Haha it was actually my good friend and filmer, Ashvin Ashoke who started that. I'm not completely sure if I know correctly where it came from basically he started saying it to me and a bunch of friends from school and I started saying it to other scooter riders and I guess that's how the whole thing came up haha

The other thing on Facebook was about being "homeless not phoneless."  In what is the most stereotypically Asian move ever, your parents kicked you out for not focusing on school and wanting to scooter.  When did that all happen?

My parents always hated how I didn't know how to control my time between studying and scootering. Throughout high school, they always gave me the talk about how if I didn't go to school or get a job, then they would kick me out. So pretty much the summer after I graduated at high school, they pretty much gave me the boot because they had enough of me fooling around and partying with friends and such. I ended up moving in with my brother in LA which gave me the opportunity to explore new spots and whatnot. Then some stuff happened around January between me and my family so I ended up actually being homeless for the majority of January. I spent a week at Danila's house, a day at a 24/7 donut shop, 2 nights at the Stanford library, a few days of couch surfing, and ended up staying at my friend's garage for about 2-3 weeks.

Tailwhip one of the heftiest block sets around.

That's gnarly.  I don't know of any other scooter riders who have been homeless.  How was it for you?  You weren't exactly roughing it in a box but still, not having a solid place to sleep is sketchy.

Yeah it really sucked the nights I had to sleep in the donut shot or the library. I remember putting my legs through my backpack straps so no one could steal my backpack haha. But the nights I actually had a place to lay down, I was extremely thankful for that.

So then, did it work?  Did you straighten up?

well basically because I was homeless, I had to take this quarter off so I haven't really proved to them that I can balance school and work yet. I did get a job though so I've been working and saving up money while paying tuition. I actually start school tomorrow so yeah haha

Congrats on that dude.  I've had a "real" job outside of everything I do with scootering for a while now and it can be tough to balance it with school and riding.  I think once a lot of riders get past high school, it's kind of a turning point for their riding- either they go to school and get a job and their riding kinda falls off, or they go full bore into making riding their life.

Yeah I totally feel that. Im thankful my job only requires 2 hours of my day on the weekdays. One hour before school and another hour after school. It's basically the perfect job if you also want a bunch of time to study and go ride. Oh yeah and I guess if people don't know, I work as a crossing guard at an elementary school down the street from my house haha. I make a good 18.50 an hour doing that job so it's good money even though I don't get alot of hours.

The Jerry Hsu of scooters.

Not too bad at all.  Do you know what you wanna do when you're done with school?

Not to sure about the career path but all I know is that I wanna be able to scooter and skate until my body can't take it anymore.

Spoken like a true shredder.  So your new video is for Scooter Hut.  How'd you get on that team?

So I think it was around Thanksgiving time when Anton randomly told me one day that he might get on Scooter Hut USA. Then suddenly that night, he messaged me saying Steven Tongson was asking about me and whether or not it would be a good idea to put me on. Then the next thing I know, Steven messages me and asks if I wanted to be a part of Scooter Hut USA.

Welcome to the "steven t put me on a team" club.  So how long did you work on the video?

I think i filmed my first clip in mid-November with Cameron Poe in LA. I basically didn't film anything throughout January while I was homeless so I guess like 4 months total. It was hard for me to get a consistent filmer to film my tricks so yeah.

The crew.

Are there going to be more videos from the Hut squad anytime soon?  I heard Steven was coming out with some clips.

oh yeah. We are all filming videos for the hut right now. So expect parts from Danila Popov and Anton Abramson soon.

Awesome.  I think that'll about wrap it up.  Any last words?

Shoutout to Steven T and Scooter Hut USA for helping me out with scooter parts and HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed even to just one clip in my video. Couldn't have done it without any of them. Sorry that I can't name em all because it would be a super long list hahaha.



  1. Homeless but never homieless.

  2. Love the interview. And, "The StevenT Put Me on a Team Club" ... that's a big ass club..

    Seriously this edit is one of my favorite edits I've seen in a while, been saying that since Aaron showed me the unfinished version. Stoked on it

