skate journal: CSU with Carleigh, Jake, Sean and Mike (March 12, 2010)
Brought boards up to MRKT after work and invited a crew to skate campus after since it was so nice out. Carleigh and Jake signed up for the session. After selling boards we rolled into campus and were quickly exposed to this. Pretty creepy. After that we headed out to the Clark building area. The first spot we sessioned was the hip there. It was dark and crack ridden, but we skated it for awhile anyway. I was feeling pretty good for once and had energy. With the exception of front shoves, tricks came surprisingly easy. Kickflip, b/s flip a first ever halfcab flip over a hip, sw front 180. The b/s flip felt great. It was slow and small, but I landed without my normal tic tacs and it came quickly. The front shove took the longest. I even took a few tries to huck big flips without getting remotely close. Carleigh got pop shove the hard way first try, front 180 to crack slam, and started her unsuccessful night of kickflips. Jake came close to front 270s and got a kickflip or two.I posed a couple ollies down the 5 stair into the bank and told Carleigh if she did it first try I would do it too. She went for it, but slammed pretty hard. Luckily the light shut off and none of us had to huck down it anymore. Then we went to the 3 stair area where Sean and Mike met up with us. We tried various lines up and down the stairs. I got an ollie up 3, front 180 off. I made a couple week attempts at ollie up 3 then quickly ollie up the next 3. Nope. I also failed at ollie’ing off the ledge over a trash can. Oh well. We all ollied down the 3 to quick ollie down the next 3 which was scary because of how close they are to each other. Carlie and Jake then added front 180s to that. Sean had some sick fakie ollies down the 3 and Mike back 180’d up. After a quick ollie to wallride fakie on this weird metal art we ended up at a short white ledge. Sean and I got no complies over it. Carleigh came close to kickflipping over it. Mike back 180’d it. I also did a fun little cali grind slasher thing on it.Next up we went to the manny pad that Chadman does the ender for the Flow section in Null and Void. I couldn’t seem to land a manual to save my life so I went for nose manny and did it first try. Rad. I eventually got a regular manual then tried a bunch of manny drop to manny. Came super close to that, but had some minor tail scrapes. I tried to be cool and hit it the other way too, but my feet aren’t quick and I could only do ollie up ollie up. Carleigh got a manual and Sean came close to front 180 nose manual.Nearby is the ol’ bridge kicker so we hit that up. It’s lit super good at night. I was feeling really good with lots of energy still and went for kickflip right out of the gate. I was going faster than my normal comfort zone, but still went for it first try and landed it. Felt amazing. Three tries later I rolled away from 360 flip. First try pop shove. A few tries for a bad backside flip and I’m already content with the spot. What a rare feeling for me. I almost never land tricks quickly. I tried some fakie tricks, but suck at pushing switch/fakie mongo so couldn’t get the speed. Front shoves took awhile again, but I eventually got a bad one. Mike put down a few nice front shoves and a mean fakie f/s bigspin. Sean was rattling off tricks too. One foot, no comply, half cab and more that I can’t remember. Jake got kickflip and tried quite a bit more. I don’t remember what all he got, but fakie flips wrecked him and he called it quits. Carleigh was in a battle with kickflips. She took a quick break for an easy pop shove, but was eating shit on almost every kickflip attempt. Ouch. Sean shut down the session with a b/s 360 no comply. Rad. Super fun session. Some of the best I’ve felt on a skateboard.