It finally feels like summer has arrived. With a temperature pushing 90 degrees I rolled over to creekside with Ollie and Sam. We went to the back where I tried a few flippers and the kids skated like 8 year olds. I tried a few lines and struggled at flip tricks. I landed a couple 3 flips, but they were horrible. I almost destroyed my ankle on one too. Ugh. Kickflips were rocketed. I would land tricks not knowing I was landing them. Totally over the I-Paths. Good bye thick cupsoles. I was almost bummed enough go get vulcs. Instead I got fake vulcs though ..

I picked up Rick, then John, then Carleigh and we headed out on a nice evening for a kinda late night Brighton session. On the way there it was sprinkling and it looked like there was thunderstorms where we were going. Well, there was. We finally got there and the park was kinda dry. John and I had a few warm up runs on the halfpipe area, but then it started raining. We hung out in the gazebo for awhile and attempted to wait it out. Apparently this was going on nearby. After awhile the rain stopped and we started shuffling around looking for something to dry the halfpipe area with. Finally John donated his shirt and it dried off in a few minutes. John was rewarded for his good behavior by ripping it up and then taking a super bad slam. He skated more, but I’m sure he’s done for a few days with a bad hipper. He had good ollies both ways, blunt back ds, slasher reverts, everything. Rick killed it of course. Lots of tricks I don’t know the names of, slashes, ripping and everything that makes Rick so rad. Carleigh put down most of her basics pretty quick and beat me to front d. I did most of my easier tricks and threw in a front d at the very end. It was fun. Wish it could have been a longer session though.

On top of this awesomeness J has a new solo album coming on Sub Pop. “Mascis is currently touring Europe with Dinosaur Jr. and putting the finishing touches on a solo album for Sub Pop Records”.

Met Nate up at Meta.  After peeping some footage we rolled out.  My shoes were feeling especially thick and awkward and I was more tired than I thought so everything felt off.  After a few minutes at the slappy curbs and a few basic tricks each we ended up in front of the theater and noticed the ledge off the 5 stair is waxed now.  After a fast ollie up ollie off Nate went and front 50’d it.  He had to do it a few times though because it took me forever to just land the ollie on ollie off.  I was bummed on that, but at the same time it’s about a 6 stair drop and that’s been awhile for me.  We cruised around a bit, stopped at the student center, got some water and then ended up at the steep wallride area near the weird curved 1 – 7 stair.  On the way there I did what felt like the best nollie back 180 I’ve ever done.  Rad.  While we were attempting to skate the loading dock nearby Carleigh rolled up.  Nate was trying back 50s and I was trying noseslides.  We told Carleigh this was a great warmup ledge.  Ha.  Then we skated the wallride.  I got a really bad backside wallride pretty quick then started trying frontside.  I eventually put one down.  So hyped.  I’ve never rode out of that trick before.  Feels so weird.  I had some kind of weird groin pains throughout this part of the session which worried me, but it seemed ok after all.  Nate and Carleigh worked on backside wallrides for a long time and both got them.  I also got a little fakie wallride and a silly no comply f/s wallride.  We went over to the super mellow bank to 2″ curb.  Carleigh got front and back pivots.  I got a kick back pivot, back tail, and then Nate and I tried kickflip front pivots.  I put down a kickflip front 50 quickly that was intended to be a bail.  Ha.  I put down another kick front pivot which was more of just a f/s flip scratch on the curb.  I finally got a decent one.  Hyped!  Two new tricks in one night.  Nate was trying f/s flips on flat and did the most awkward thing ever.  I’m not sure how he did it, but he almost broke his back ankle.  He only turned 30 degrees at the most.  It was the oddest thing, but that was pretty much the end of the session and we cruised/walked back up the hill.  Nate wasn’t hurt, but it freaked him out and he had to get going to soccer anyways so we finished up.

This clip rules!  Gotta love how similar the low cut shirts are!

After dinner I went swimming for a couple hours with the kids then immediately picked up Jake and Jason and headed to Valmont.  While Jason waxed before testing Jake and I did a couple laps around trying to manual every possible manny pad on the way.  That’s 9 each way.  So hard.  I think we each got about 3 of them total, but hey we were just warming up.  A little ways into the ledge session Jason slammed and got a shinner.  Not, just any old shinner, but a horrendous and horrible shinner.  Click here to see the blood.  Not for the weak at heart.Anyways, Jake and I skated for a bit longer while Jason laid down with his leg elevated.  I was actually skating better than I have been lately.  The new shoes don’t have very good feel though and I’m kinda all over the place.  Jake and I both did runs with ollies up the ledge, kickflips on flat then front 180’s off the dock.  I tried another one with sw front 180 up the ledge, no comply shove on flat then front shove off the loading dock, but I didn’t commit.  Felt like it was possible at least.  Jake had some good front tails.  We tried to race to 3 3 flips, but neither of us got there.  I landed two of them, but they were both so bad I think it adds up to less than one.  I was feeling pretty good on energy and trying lots of flippers in between ledge bails.  I really didn’t land much, but it felt great to skate hard finally.  All this swimming has really helped the groin.  The ledge tricks I got were back noseslide, back board pop out, front board pop out, front noseslide to fakie, weak front tail (but I suck at that trick so yeah!), front 50s, crooks, back 50 and came close to front 50 shove and front 50 to front board popout.Right before leaving we had a little kicker session off the low part of the escalator.  Jake got nollie and halfcab.  I got kickflip and close to front shove.  I did a few kickflips, but they all felt rocketd.  Ugh.  I blame it on the bright blue shoes.

Clearly he’s my kid picking PJ Ladd and Busenitz.  He didn’t know who Billy Marks or Chris Cole was.   So awesome.

Above is what I would love to see.  I would love to see Busenitz take out PRod and PJ win the whole thing.  But that probably wont happen.  It’ll probably be something lame like:

Nursing a hangover and not that motivated to skate I needed to bring Ollie to SOL to pickup a new sweatshirt as we had promised him awhile ago.  After he picked out the most expensive Spitfire hoodie we went to one of the metal parks there.  I skated like crap as I expected.  The only thing I did that came easier then I thought was boardsliding the flat bar across the table top.  I also boardslid off the taller ledge on the other pyramid. I spent a long time trying front tails on the smaller qp and failed.  Ugh.  I blame the new shoes.   Ollie was skating pretty well.  He did rock fakies on the 4 foot like it was nothing.  Lots of cannonball cali grinds with huge smiles too.  He’s so fun to skate with.

Had some morning basketball fun with Ollie then some waiting around video watching with Brian, Neil, Jason and Ollie.  Greg and his photographer buddy Dean arrived and we went off the the Canyon center.  It was a big day for Ollie as he joined us.  A big day for me because I had to be on good behavior and keep an eye on him.  After the previous session I decided I need a more legit excuse to totally suck on a skateboard so I started up with my new bright blue shoes.Yes, this is really what they look like.  The brightness kinda bums me out, but at the same time they remind me of something Louie Barletta would wear so they make me smile.  They are some I-Path Lyndhurst shoes given as a gift by my buddy John.  Thanks John!It was windy at times, but mostly it felt hot as we rolled into the Canyon Center.  Everyone warmed up on the metal banks.  Brian was trying front rocks on the tall one, Greg was trying feeble to fakie, Neil and Jason were just kinda cruising around, and to my surprise Ollie wasn’t being overly shy and was doing little wallrides to fakie and even rock fakies on the smaller metal banks.  Stoked me out so much.  I was just kinda being mellow and warming up too slow.  Eventually Greg and Brian started trying wallies and I filmed them.  Greg got wallie, wallie front 180 and wallie stalefish.  Brian got wallie to front 50 down the other side radness.  We rolled nearby to this wallride spot but got asked to leave right away.  Darn old people.  After Brian put down trick #2 for With A Vengeance (wallie gap) we left for the Canyon Center.First we stopped at a little grocery store to get some snacks.  I let Ollie pick out whatever he wanted and he chose Junior Mints.  We don’t have too much candy lieing around the house so he was super excited.  We got to the Canyon Center and Greg went to work immediately on the 9 stair.  He ollied it a few times, then fakie ollie, then posed some fakie dog piss’ since he’s already landed it on video.  Dean was taking photos and was nice enough to show Ollie.  Greg also did fakie melon about 5 times.  Sick!Neil and I were skating around on the ledge area.  Neil put down a sick line of pop shove over the cone, halfcab over the ledge, heelflip, crooks fakie.  So sick.  I was trying front 180 over the cone, halfcab flip, no comply over the bench but never got all of it.  I wish I could blame it on the new shoes, but they were fine.  Eventually Neil and I tried kickflip up the ledge and then kickflip down, but neither got it.We were leaving when Greg scoped out a gnarly ledge ride to drop on the corner of the Canyon Center.  We stopped and filmed until Greg got it.  So gnarly.  I filmed it and Dean shot a sequence.  Ollie was hyped to see the big stuff Greg was doing in person.  All of us were though.  Greg rules.Next we went to the old folks home bank to curb, but the wind was too much for that spot.  Lastly we ended up on campus where I had seen a monster gap to manual that was bigger than I remembered and too much for Greg.  We all skated around and Carleigh went nuts and ollied, pop shoved and kickflipped a larger than normal 5 stair.  So sick!  Jason ollied it super good too.  Dean and I had tried a few, but had not committed when Greg offered us each $1 for the next try.  I committed, but didn’t land it.  Dean didn’t either.  I can’t believe how foreign jumping down a five stair felt.  It felt good to actually commit to it, but the ollie felt so bad and it also made me feel really old.  Oh well.  Ollie was having fun cruising around the place and riding through grass.  I scared myself and dropped in on one of the ledges, but didn’t ollie off.  I also got a first try 360 flip in the new shoes.  All in all a pretty epic day for me.  I didn’t skate all that great, but seeing Ollie having a blast all day and knowing how stoked he was made it such a great day for fatherhood.   That night TF went out and it got roudy.  Beers, shots, fights, etc.  Fun times.  Mostly.