After a long morning/afternoon of swimming and football I chose to skate flat for 30 minutes instead of nap.  Ended up being awesome.  I totally expected to just do a few kickflips and c all it a session, but after a few basics went down quick I told myself to do 10 tricks then call it.  10 tricks went quick so I went for 20.  I ended up doing 30 some snail paced tricks on the rough street.  Awesome.  All 3 tre variations I can do, frontside halfcab flip, no comply flip, no comply shove, fakie bigflip, heelflip, pretty much most of my tricks.  Awesome.

First full day in WI had a slow start to be followed by lots of heat and sweat at the Middleton, WI skatepark.  My brother tried to pass on skating since he only does it about once a year when I’m around, but Ollie made him skate with us.  So awesome.  My brother still has some moves.  Little ollies on flat, front 180s and some boardslides on flat bars.  He didn’t last too long, but Ollie and I skated for a couple hours and sweat like crazy.  When we first rolled up no one was there.  Within minutes the park was mobbed by kids getting out of their last day of school.  I skated ok.  Took a long time to warm up.  A really long time.As I said the park got mobbed with kids quickly so after a few warmup runs rolling in and some axle stalls I skated the flat bar for awhile.  I almost never skate them.  There was two of them there.  One about 4″ high and the other about 8″ high.  I tried stuff I don’t normally do like front 5-0, 50, back hurricane (didn’t land) and back blunt.  I even tried front smith which I’ve NEVER tried before on a flat bar.  I was so hyped to roll away from hone.  My brother even shot the photo above.  I guess you might not think it’s me since my head is missing, but come on, the foot placement is clearly bad enough to be me.Ollie joined in on the flatbar session and tried a bunch of front boards.  He landed quite a few of them.  Most of the ones he landed he came to a halt on, but this is also the first time he’s tried that trick on a flat bar.  And yes, I can’t do a front board on a rail to save my life.  My brother took this photo too.  Do I look like a proud papa or what?  Or just some sweaty old skate dad?After awhile people started sitting as the heat was pretty intense.  So Ollie and I skated the middle of the park again.  I failed at a bunch of no comply 360s over the hip.  Ollie was trying a run where he would roll into the front of the park, do a kickturn on the steep qpipe a nosegrab to fakie on the flat bank and then a fakie ollie on the qpipe.  He did these a few times.  Then he switched it up and pumped to fakie on the qpipe and did halfcabs on the flat bank.  Eventually he did rock fakies on the steep qpipe.  Wow.  I tried to get his back with a back 50, but it was so hard.  Several tries later and a board in the puddle I finally landed it.  I also ollied a ledge that was sticking out on flat a few times and gapped from a crack to noseslide and boardslide on a good ‘butter bench’ that was probably actually the best thing at the park.   Before leaving I did a bad kickflip and a bad frontside flip over the hip and we retreated to the nearby brewery with the family.  Yum.  It’s been a long time since I’ve sweat that much.A few hours later and a few beers later Ollie and I went to the Stoughton skatepark shortly before dusk.  I had had a few beers and was pretty tired.  I slammed pretty hard right away on a backside ollie over the hip.  Might be because I actually ollied for once.  Speaking of Ollie, he skated well.  Rock fakie before me on the qpipe, backside nosegrabs on the mellow flatbank and over the hip, and his usual smile.  I sucked, but didn’t expect much.  The only newish thing I did was a fakie bigspin over the hip and a bad run of front 180 over the hip, fakie ollie on the steeper flat bank then crooks the ledge.  I did that twice and both times every trick was bad.  Awesome.

5 hour drive from Omaha on our way to Wisconsin to visit my brother and I mapped out a fun looking skatepark only a bit out of the way.  When we arrived it wasn’t very crowded and it was cloudy, humid and hot.  Ollie chose to wear his helmet so I guess the park must have looked a bit intimidating to him.  Warming up was not easy after 5 hours of driving.  I cruised around for a long time not really doing much of anything.  Ollie on the other hand is a kid and doesn’t know anything about warming up.  He was doing longer back 50s up the slappy escalator than me and coming into the qpipe fine.  He also did some where he would come to a stop then grind backwards.  So awesome.  I think I would skate the street stuff a lot here if I lived nearby.  I found some lines I wanted to do, but everytime I’d start really trying them that area of the park would get overrun by scooters, bikers or mall grabbers.  I was able to get a few where I did tricks on a big flat bank, kickflip into a mellow bank then front 50 a ledge.  The flat bank tricks I got were backside flip, fakie shoves, fakie flip, frontside flip, no comply bigspin and eventually a super ugly and rare for me fakie treflip.  I didn’t always get the last part of the run and sometimes I wanted to back 180 out, but I always failed.  I also failed at manual, nose manual and kickback 50.  I got one kinda fast crooks.  The last part of the day Ollie was just doing flyout grabs off a 2′ qpipe into grass.  It pretty much ruled to watch.  He did a bunch of really good nosegrabs where he even rode out of it in the grass.  He tried some melons and indy’s but didn’t get them.  Pretty fun session.  That park is not all that, but the street course has some fun lines for sure.

On a family vacation in Omaha, I didn’t expect to skate everyday and today was too busy to keep the dream alive.  Oh well, my body needed a rest.

Got picked up at Liz’s house at 5pm by Mr Matt Rief and had a long air conditioned ride to Fremont.  First stop was some food by Runza then a warm up and the world famous ledge at Linden.  From Off The Couch to the Berrics this ledge has been blowing up.  Matt and Dan quickly reminded the ledge that they were the ones who made this spot famous.  Dan had manual to bluntslide, front 5-0 front board, manual front shove out, so much more.  Matt had nollie front 5-0 shove, long long front 5-0, back crooks, back 5-0 everything is easy for him.  I was sucking, but having fun.  Got into a few halfcab crooks that could have been the real one finally, but they weren’t.  After awhile Matt and Dan brought out the ‘Secret Spot’ aka Matt’s ledge and put it down the ledge.  They both did a few non stock tricks like they were stock tricks.  I had a couple runs with kickflip up the concrete ledge then boardslide or noseslide down the secret spot.  I was gonna try and get Matt’s back with a front 50 when he landed a back lip, but the deal wore off before he landed it.  Fremont treflip expert Chris showed up and did a few not basic at all tricks before we moved on to the next spot.We drove to a spot “downtown” that was called “Ghetto Spot”.  It’s funny to hear Fremont dudes talk like there is a downtown or ghetto in Fremont, NE.  But anyways, the spot was a torn down building foundation and it ended up being a super killer session.  There was a ledge you could ride along then ollie up a curb height and manual to either a bank ramp or a 4 stair.  We chose to try manuals or just flippers into the bank.  Chris did a bunch of tricks easy.  Treflip, hardflip, nollie inward heel, anything.  Dan did manual front shove quick like, manual casper flip quick like and managed to leave half of his shin on the ledge while trying to ollie south up it.  Almost made me puke looking at the pile of his hair and skin piled on the edge.  Ouch.  Matt did a bunch of nollie heels that went awol and he would almost come to a halt going down the bank. So awesome.  He also front 180’d onto the ledge which surprised me.  Also a quick up to nollie flip out of the bank.  I skated good for me at this spot and was super motivated.  Kickflip, pop shove, halfcab flip all came pretty quick into the bank.  I also nose manualled around into the bank and did a couple runs.  Front 180 up the curb, first try awkward fakie bigflip into the bank.  Kickflip up the curb then ride onto a different ledge and front 180 a little gap.  Also kickflip up and no comply shove into the bank.  It took several tries, but I also got a treflip into the bank which was probably the highlight for me.  It was slow, but I landed it good and it’s probably the hardest bank I’ve ever done that trick into.  I ended with little ollie over the corner to manual down the bank which seemed very basic to me but Dan and Matt seemed to like it.Dan dropped us off as his shin was done.  We were gonna skate a painted curb, but a janitor dumping trash led us to wander around and we found these weird banks that had lots of lines in the concrete and were about ledge height to get onto.  At first nobody had anything on them, but we kept skating them and things happened.  Chris did a kickflip up onto one.  Matt did ollie up then kickflip to fakie.  Yeah Daewon!  100 tries later and I did a lunch breaked ollie up to no comply shove to fakie.  Fun.  The next spot had some wallie curbs, a curb cut pyramid and a little gap.  Chris ollied the curb cut to curb cut jump pretty quick.  I kinda dorked around as I was pretty beat.  The only thing worth writing about would be the end with a front shove up the curb then a weak ollie down the gap.  The gap was basically a long two stair that you could cheat which I definitely did.  Matt slammed a bunch on back 180’s over the gap.  I think he got it in the end.  Chris closed down the day with an epic kickflip over the curb cut jump.  Such a good way to end an epic session.  Fremont, you dudes rule.

This came out pretty good I think.

Super nice evening in the upper 70s.  Ollie and I rolled up to a very crowded park.  It’s always weird for me being at a crowded park with Ollie because I gotta keep a closer eye on him.  Anyways, Joe and Dan were there ripping and skating the street area.  Ollie was intimidated by the crowd so we went into the snake run section where Dan joined us and we had a good ol’ time.  Dan did a switch polejam on a fence to start an epic run but bailed rolling in.  Ha.  I was kinda sucking but having fun rolling in.  At one point Ollie rolled in too.  It’s funny because he tried it earlier and I was kinda scared and made sure he knew it’s different than dropping in.  He ended up doing it a few more times, but not where the qp was as tall.  So sick.  Joe joined us for a bit, ripped it, but then we went back to the street course.  Ollie ripped some rock to fakies on the weird bank to curb and followed them with ollie nosegrabs off the curb.  Joe skated the tall ledge like a man.  Front smiths!  Dan was trying over willys on the tall flat bar.  I was kinda dorking around.  Got some back 50s on the little ledge and front 50s on the main ledge.  Tried a few frontside halfcab flips on the flat bank and failed.  Rolled into the top qpipe.  That park is so fun.  Toward the end a kid broke his arm and it kinda freaked out Ollie a bit so we took off.  Fun session though.  The Fremont crew never disappoints.

Neil, Fuzz, Jason, Carleigh and I headed up to the Loveland park to meet up with the MRKT dudes who were hosting a little demo of sorts.  When we got there it was really hot out and really crowded.  Neil started killing it right out the gates.  No comply tailslides, wallrides, no comply up the 3 stair.  It amazed me as I posed on the deck without wanting to embarrass myself with my bad skating.  Fuzz started killing it too.  Jason and I eventually moved up to the bowl and carved around that while people destroyed the main area.After awhile I went down and noticed Fuzz pacing around by himself.  I thought he was just angry at skating, but it turned out to be way more serious and he thought his heart was having some problems.  Not cool at all.  We all piled in my car and went to a nearby hospital per Fuzz’s request.  He didn’t actually go in, but we hung out there for awhile to make sure he was doing ok.  Things came back to normal and after a smoke and some water we returned to the Loveland park.When we returned there was a best trick contest going on down the 12 stair.  Dudes were hucking themselves.  I didn’t see anything actually get landed, but one dude came close to a heelflip and another dude was trying 3 flips over the 12 stair rail.  So gnarly.  Anyways, Fuzz and everyone started skating again and I went and played a game of SKATE with Chris in the hockey rink.  It was a pretty rough game for both of us.  He kept trying fakie heels and slamming.  I had him at SKA before I had any letters with dumb tricks like fakie flip, pop shove and halfcab flip.  He came back quick with stock tricks like nollie flip, sw heel and sw flip that I can never land.  I added a fakie bigflip and he did a varial heel to tie it up at SKAT.  He landed a fakie heel which i miraculously landed on my second try then I finished him off with a 360 flip that took awhile.  Awesome.  I skated the bowl some more with Neil and Jason and we were having fun while Fuzz murdered the street area and Carleigh landed her first every downhill park rail.  Rad.After that we ended up going to the nearby high school that has the weird bank spot.  Jason had hurt his hip so he was out.  Carleigh skated it way better then last time and did ollie over the curb onto the platform then ollie into the bank lickety split.  She followed that with a ollie over the curb then front 180 into the bank.  Even though Fuzz had cracked his board at the park he was still ripping.  I don’t remember the tricks so much, but sometimes you can really see why he was a pro skater years ago.  Neil was killing it and skating hard.  Toward the end he did a bluntslide followed by a quick ollie over the handrail to shut down the session.  Shortly before that I had done a b/s flip into the bank that had taken 100 tries.  I was skating hard, but didn’t land much of anything until pretty much the end of the session.  I got that b/s flip which felt really good.  I did a smith pop in on the ledge, ollie up, turn around ollie in, 3 flip on flat, ollied the 4 stair nearby.  After Neil shut the session down we lurked for a minute and I noticed a little ledge to ollie over with a drop on the other side.  I tried it a few times before Neil laughed and did it super easy.  Ha.  A few more tries and I landed it.  Felt good as it was pretty scary to me.  We lurked awhile longer and Jason dropped in on the ledge and rolled between two poles.  So gnarly.  FUN DAY.

After dinner and some football tossing with Ollie we headed out to Valmont shortly before sunset.  When we got there Ollie said he’d wanted to skate that spot after seeing it in the Null videos.  Awesome.  I had a new Nulltron board complete with round 2 of the old man griptape idea.  All this stuff was supposed to be on the last one, but I ended up liking the old man too much by himself.  It’s obviously a complete exaggeration of the jockish things I feel like I need to do to skate without groin pain and to prevent other injuries.  Note that I couldn’t put a checkmark next to the ‘no beer’ one which I tried to hide anyway and is obviously not really on my checklist.Starting out was rough for me as my groin was feeling really sore.  It hurt to ollie.  I wasn’t sure I should be skating, but I kept at it mellow for awhile and the sharp pains went away.  The first part of the session was pretty bad for me and I skated slower than normal and just tried to get my body working.  I did a few basics on the ledge like front 50, front tail, front nose, back nose, back crooks, back 50.  Ollie was ripping.  He was having so much fun cruising up the escalator and ollie’ing off higher each time.  He got about half way up which seemed pretty tall for him.  He likes doing halfcabs a lot and tries some halfcab noseslides.  He kinda landed one, but it was more of a halfcab with a jib in the middle.  He tried some boardslides too and landed one to fakie with a bit of a lunch break.  Still sick though.  He had this little run going where he would ride through this little gutter that I’m sure no one else will ever skate, ollie the metal grate then front board (stall) 270 out then ollie off the loading docl.  So sick.  I was trying lots of flippers and failing so I started trying flippers I can’t normally land because it doesn’t fail as bad not landing something you shouldn’t land.  I’m good at run on sentences.  Anyways I ended up getting insanely close to switch flips.  There was a couple that I thought I was gonna ride away from.  Nollie flips and switch heels weren’t too far away either.  Near the end I started trying front 180s over a little crack gap followed by f/s halfcab noseslides.  I eventually got a really bad one and we called it at that.Next up we went across the street to explore and it ended up being a blast.  There were a bunch of manual pads, a 2 stair, a loading dock with a 4 stair on one side, some more bigger drops, etc.  Ollie ollie’d (damn it once again I never thought about how weird it would be to have a son named Ollie) the loading dock and did nose grabs off the 2 stair.  The 2 stair had another stair about 10 feet after it and I tried to ollie up then ollie up the 2 which I did.  But it was weird because of the downhill before the curb.  Ugh.  Anyways after awhile I started trying a run of a nose manual, ollie up the loading dock, then manual a sidewalk that drops to another sidewalk.  I got the first two almost everytime, but couldn’t get the manual manual.  Doh.  I blame it on the new board that feels huge and has more kicktail than normal.  Anyways I was having a blast.  Ollie was cruising around smiling having a blast and then after a few tries put down a legit back 180 off a curb.  Session done!  Super fun night.