Dennis Busenitz is the best skater of all time.

The last trick seals the deal for me.  Pure awesomeness.  Get those ankles better Chad!

Wish I could have gone.

After a late night of poker and beers Lazer, Carleigh, Jason, Rob and I headed to the TF park (ie Lville tech area) as Rob and Lazer both had tricks they wanted to get for their parts.  Rob got his all quick like.  Boardslide transfer then no comply wallride super good.  Street Lazer was ripping with a little line including a switch b180 over a curb.  Carleigh was slamming on kickflips over a curb for days.  Ouch.  I wasn’t skating too well either, but had a couple b/s flips off the little bump and did a run with a pop shove into the kicker, kickflip on curb, front 180 the next.  I was also trying front board shove transfers.  Couldn’t get close while I was sliding.Next we went and filmed Lazer’s potential new ender then found this super awesome bump to skate nearby.  Lazer straight killed it with melon, stale, tuck knee, back 180, everything he did.  Jason was lofting some huge ollies.  Carleigh got a pop shove.  Rob was surfing his ollies and got a var heel.  I attempted b/s flips for a long time before finally getting one.  If we ever skate there again I’d love to b/s flip over the whole thing.  It’s a bump with about a 5 foot table top, but the landing isn’t as steep as the take off.  It’s soooooo fun.  I also got a front shove, great feeling kickflip and some weak ollies.  Super fun spot and a better day then I would have thought.

The TF met at my house on a gloomy and chilly day with rain threatening and we went to the little manny pad by Mike’s Camera.  One of my favorite places ever.  I was sore to start for some reason, but ended up starting to feel good.  Had two nose mannies followed by tre flips in a row.  Got a kickflip manual somewhat quickly.  Came close to a kickflip nose manny, but the rain started coming down and we split to red curbs.As soon as we got to red curbs I wanted to try a line.  Wallie the rock, either nollie or reg 3 flip, manny, kick back tail.  So I was messing around with it and ended up getting two of the best kick back tailslides I’ve ever done.  One was probably a two foot slide.  Sickness.  After getting a couple of those Brian was willing to subject himself to filming me.  I got a sketchy one somewhat quick.  Wallie, 3 flip bad push out, manual sketch, kick back suski.  Doh.  Then I tried to get it clean, but never came through with it.  Got so tired and was having lots of problems with treflips.  Ugh.  I gave up on it, but Brian encouraged to to try the kick back tails, but I never got another good one.  He was following me without the camera.  It was pretty funny.  I pretty much will never land a kick back tail like those two again.  Fun day though.  That was the hardest line I’ve tried to film.

John, Nate and I headed up to the Fort pretty early.  We were skating Northside by 11:00 am and were the only ones there.  I was very slow to warm up, but ended up trying my same ol line.  Wallie the back bump thing, ollie a hump, roll in, back 5-0 the brick bank then pole jam no comply the new little pole jam.  Didn’t get the pole jam.  Played two games of SKATE with Nate and John.  Did horrible in the first one, but won the second one ending with nollie treflip.  Rad.Off to O-ledge in the heat and was stressing trying to get some footage, but never even got the camera out because I was sucking.  We kinda all were too tired and hot.  We played another game of SKATE that was pretty mediocre.  John bailed difficult tricks like pop shove, nollie shove and some other ones that he’ll probably learn if he keeps skating with us.Next up we hit the new Spring Canyon park.  John broke his board pretty quick on a treflip and I was borderline getting heat exhuastion, but kept skating.  I was trying a run of boardslide to nose manny the ledge, back pivot the qpipe, ollie onto the snake and axle stall the tight qpipe.  I got all the trick, but not together.  Nate landed some front board to nose manny 180.  Sick.  We woulda filmed it if we were closer to the car (read lazy).After some grub and a stop at MRKT we went to an old ditch spot with new quickcrete and it ended up being a blast.  Basically there is this weird bank with a wide curb on it so the curb is at an angle.  The quickcrete allowed you to ride up and grind the top.  The angle is tough and there were bikers coming through fast on the bikepath.  But that makes it fun right!  John was slaying the back smiths and got a run with a back smith and a 43 shifty.  Rad.  Nate was trying the back 5-0 to fakie, but that would have been insane to pull in.  I got a weird nosegrind over it and then filmed a run with a back 5-0, then front ride along then a backside flip.  I gotta go into more details though because it’s way harder then it sounds.  The ride along was so hard.  Basically I rode up the quickcrete then turned 90 degrees and rode on the sideways curb down a hill and then came off it on flat.  I almost took some bad slams just trying to get onto it.  After awhile I had it down though.  It doesn’t show on video how hard it is, but oh well.  I had been trying the run with a heelflip in it, but kept not getting the heelflip.  So on one attempt I decided to try a backside flip just cuz and landed it first try.  People, I never land anything first try.  This was easily the highlight of anything I’ve ever filmed solely because I did one of the tricks first try.  And yes the flatground tricks in my Off The Couch part are the favorite part of my part.  Sorry, I’m still in love with PJLWL.

Nate and I showed up to a crowded park.  My legs were really tired still from the kick back fail.  Was taking awhile to get warmed up, but almost got a line of tailstall on the top of the cradle, then crooks the ledge then manual back.  Didn’t get the manny.  We took a break to the gas station so Nate could nourish his ailing body then came back and the park was even more crowded.  We ended up skating the long ledge/cradle area the entire night.  Nate got some nose manny front 180s and almost nose manny front big.  I managed to manual it from the taller side which I’ve never done before.  I got a lot of tailslides kinda on the top of the cradle and a few crooks.  Almost some front nosegrinds, nollie tres, no comply back 360s, was having fun.  I also got on crooks before the end of the ledge and tried to pop out of it.  Didn’t quite get it.  Pretty fun session even though we only skated 1/20 of the park.

Kind of a late start the Icebox rounded up the Factory and we headed to Lakewood to hit some spots near Lazer’s place of employment.  We hit a couple sketchy/weird bank spots.  Kinda fun for sure.  Then the Icebox died and the rest of the day was spent pushing it and buying a battery and waiting,etc.  Get well soon Icebox.

Met up with Little Jack at Meta then went to the old little KGNU manny pad.  Jack was really sore from the day before and I was thinking of a line I wanted to get so I was guaranteed to suck.  At the manny pad I got a kick manual with no scrapes which is very rare for me.  Tried a few fakie bigspin manuals.  Failed.  I don’t even remember what else I tried.  Jack and I played a game of SKATE that I won.  Only because Jack was super sore and I landed a nollie treflip first try.  Sweet!  We went over to the ledge where I wanted to get a line and I couldn’t even land the first trick I wanted to do, front 50 front board popout.  Jack slammed hard a few times on some nollie lipslide things.  Neither of us seemed overly hyped.Next we went out to the Lville Tech area where I posed as a skater/filmer and Jack landed neat tricks.  After some lunch back in Lville we hit the ol’ 6 lots of flat 6.  I skated the manny pad in the back for awhile while Jack broke bearings and bailed ollies.  I got a 2 mile an hour run consisting of a manual then a nollie back tail.  But nollie back tail is a huge exageration.  It was a pivot on the front wheels while the tail slid across the curb.  Rad.  Jack ended up getting it together with the power of an extra bearing of mine and we filmed a bangin’ 1 -2 line.Next up we went to the carwash bank to curb.  I knew Jack would rip it and he did.  But not for long as I was getting close to kick back tails and Jack knew it was a trick I wanted for Off The Couch and he was kind enough to offer filming it for me.  I got into the first one.  I got somewhat close the second try.  I didn’t get as close the third try.  YOu get the drift.  It went downhill.  I got into a few more, but 2 hours later I gave up.  Yes, 2 hours.  Poor Jack.  It was easily the hardest I’ve ever tried to land a trick.  Ugh.  I felt sooo defeated.  Jack, thank you so much for filming me.  I will go back and get it sometime so you can get your kickflip lickety split.  Ha, as if that has anything with it.