skate journal: Boulder fun with a diverse crew (May 22, 2010)
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.