ORFN Forever

AARON-ZO-LEAD-BRYAN SF-OAKLAND ANDREW

Aaron was one of us. There were only a few across the country. A squad of 4 or 5 in most major US cities that would eventually connect and grow through races and zines and letters and phone calls and word of mouth and travel all before the internet made the world tiny. Aaron linked with the crew in officially in. 2007 and stayed in Germantown for a few months in 2011. he was a true Landlord before all that -he checked all the boxes and more. I knew about orfn years before I’d meet him. Maybe a decade of hearing the name. When Nemel moved to SF they immediately connected. So he was sending back info that lead to everything falling into place. The specter of death has always stood in the background of our collective story. We’ve lived in the fringe for so long. Skating, hardcore show participation, riding bikes with no brakes in traffic, writing on private and public property all require a self destructive element to excel. You can’t be good half stepping. Everything must be set to 11. You accept this because everyone that matters is going as hard or harder than you. If you weren’t committed like that you had to just get the fuck out of the way or face the consequences of verbal destruction or physical violence. Tell me which one is worse- getting punched in the face or getting aired out for being a poser in front of a squad of the harshest critics out there? The rest of the world was just noise and distraction. The addiction to adrenaline easily lead to the addiction to substances that were released directly in the middle of our timeline. This was not how Orfn went out. He left the world through cancer which makes the loss somehow more tragic. Nothing lasts forever friends. Hold on to what you have now and cherish and champion what you’ve lost.

tim