Last night after the Black Dots show John amused us all with his Home Alone impression.

Macaulay Culkin is proud.

It’s either the car bombs or the secret love for Thunders.

Carleigh, Fuzz and I were supposed to go see John’s band after going to 303 and then skating downtown a bit. But Carleigh was blowing it big time so we missed 303 and skating. I had stepped out on my street and done a couple kickflips while waiting for Carleigh to be late. The foot felt like it was up for skating. Stoked. Now if only Fuzz hadn’t stole my board (He is jealous of my Thunder trucks (the poor guy rides Indys)).

Not only did I fall asleep filming, but I got a DGK sticker put on my back:

Apparently it was there for quite awhile:

Thanks Jack. At least you made up for it by posting all these wonderful video clips. Oh yeah, so this is supposed to be a “skate journal” entry. Fact is I only pushed a lot filming lines and did a couple little ollies on the filmer board. The foot is jacked (no pun intended) but should only be a few days.

Brian, Neil, Carleigh and Jason showed up in the kind of late afternoon on a pretty SF feeling day (upper 50s). For whatever reason we started trying ollie grabs in the street in front of my house. It was a pretty comical display I’m sure. I don’t think anyone got a legit grab, but we did get some little snatches. Brian got a melon, Neil melon and frontside grab, Jason mute, Carleigh kickflip (wrong trick Carleigh), I got a couple frontside grab scrapes, couldn’t get the tail on a one foot tail grab and scraped a cannonball. After all the street grab action we decided we should go to a launch ramp. The Basemar kicker was agreed upon and Brian bailed. Neil was the only one that stuck with the street grab theme and lofted some good melons. I had troubles with ollies, but put down kickflip first try. After awhile Neil and I tried some lines. He was trying either melon or pop shove off the kicker, ollie into the bank, kickflip out. He never got the kickflip out. Jason had some poppy ollies and put down a back 180. Carleigh had some good ollies, pop shove first try, then got really upset about kickflips not being easy. I had a fun run of manual coming the other way, ollie into the sidewalk bank then front 180 out. Off the kicker I was trying treflips and put down an amazing feeling one. Maybe my best treflip ever. It felt so good. I went back to kickflips and was struggling and at one point landed really weird and stretched my back foot out pretty weird. I tried to walk it off, but no luck. I skated through it knowing I probably will have to take a few days off. It took awhile, but I got a kickflip off the kicker, ollie into the bank then front shove out. It was a super fun session until the foot part. It’s gonna be a few days ..

Today was the last day in SF. Boooo! The morning started kinda slow. I spent a lot of time freaking out how I was not going to ruin another pair of good socks since I only brought good socks on the trip and had worn a whole in my shoe. Luckily, some duct tape and cheap dollar store socks were acquired and things were good. Fuzz, Nate and I started at the 3 up 3 down around the corner to get things rolling. We all started slow, but eventually some things happened. Carleigh had joined us, but sat and shot photos. Eric and Neil rolled in late and we moved on. But first, some photos.

Fuzz killed it. Manual. Maybe even manual front 180 out? Front 180 up fakie ollie off (first try). Front 180 up, f/s halfcab flip off.

Nate manualled it and nose mannied it. He got into some back 50s too, but we were leaving around then.

Oh yeah, the way we started warming up was pretty bad. Fuzz and Nate decided to try what I tried. I think half the time I would bail so early on they couldn’t even tell what I was trying. A couple time Fuzz just kicked his board toward the stairs as a joke. The warmup back 50s felt good though and I got a little scraper front blunt on the button step. Then we decided to get gnarly on the stairs. Ha. I was really struggling to ollie up it, but after awhile it started coming and I posed kickflips for awhile before finally putting one down. Don’t let the photo fool you, as soon as my back foot connected it went down and it was a hella rocketed kickflip.

We moved on to see what the city had to offer. We hit some fun mellow hills, kickers, flat gaps, etc. A highlight for me was kickflipping into a driveway bank, but I was going really slow. Eventually we ended up at a tall ledge that Nate, Eric and Fuzz skated really good.

Eric did a real front board. Mine were slow and lame.

Although, once again, my shirt is way cooler. See photos of Fuzz and Nates 50s and 5-0 at Carleigh’s blog. As if you didn’t already know to check her blog all the time though. We got kicked out of the ledge spot pretty quick and ended real close at a sick looking flatground spot. A game of SKATE was gonna go down, but some weird lady started walking on the maze painted in the circle and she got lost in it.

We got some mediocre food, hit a couple more hills, stopped at DLXSF and called it a trip. My favorite SF trip yet. I had a blast with everyone. TF, you guys rule.

I will say that the Cruz Rollerskate party was one of the craziest party nights of my life.  I’m not gonna pretend that I’m gnarly and have seem the craziest nights or anything, but that was a crazy night.  After such a fun night I woke up to the sound of a dog lapping up something about 6″ from my head.  I was on the floor and I turned around to see Cole eating dog puke (mostly dog food) right by my face.  Not a good way to start the day.  Especially an eating contest day.  Anyways,  people work up, we got things rolling and some of us decided to go street skating.  The crew was Nate, Fuzz, Carleigh, Neil, Eric Fauvre and I.

The first spot was this wallride and ledge spot nearby that we saw when out walking in the rain the day before. I was hurting big time at this spot. I even sat down for awhile. Eric was killing it. Lots of flippers just rolling down the street. Not the basics either. Nollie tre, nollie flip (even harder then nollie tre), sw back heel I think. Fuzz was ripping as usual too. I think he was the first to put a grind down on the ledge. nate was in there too. neil had a front 50. Carleigh may have gotten a noseslide and was trying a run with pretty much every trick I’ve seen her do on flat in it. I was so out of it I would either run into the ledge or miss it completely. I had a blast doing slappies on a round curb though.

We moved on, hit some mannies in an alley for a bit after picking up a longboarder bro. Neil, Nate, Fuzz and Eric all did long manuals. I kind of did one. It’s funny though because I was still hurting pretty bad and when I got into it Fuzz said I made a horrible face like I was super bummed because I had to do the manual. We moved on again and cruised down tons of mellow hills toward EMB. It was SOOOO fun. We were just cruising having a blast.

Then we made it to EMB! Carleigh didn’t even know what this spot meant. WTF???? Ha. I thought it would be good time for an epic game of SKATE, but instead Carleigh went gnarly and ollied, then pop shoved the six stair. Not only was it a pop shove, but it was PERFECT. Seriously an epic pop shove.

Fuzz also had a cool ollie over the handrail sideways. I was thinking of ollie’ing the 6 stair, but instead went with the hangover cure of trying to make it over all the skate stoppers

This isn’t the make, Fuzz’s phone died after one take. But both Fuzz and I did it. It was seriously fun. That nipped the hangover pretty good. It was super funny though, Neil gets tired kinda quick. He had been ripping, but started crashing and could not even get up onto the ledge to the first stopper. He got pretty bummed, but that stuff happens at our age. We skated a nearby ledge for a bit too. Nate killed it with non-basic ledge tricks first T. I tried a run of ollie over the ledge, noseslide, bluntslide off the curb, but never got the bluntslide. Nearby Fuzz and Eric were trying to boardslide what looked like a really tall ledge:

Little did they know, you didn’t have to boardslide the top of it, you could just boardslide the side:

Eric went on to get a sick noseslide before we headed over to Pier 7. Fuzz killed it. Kickflip manual 2nd try. Eric got nose manny pretty quick. Nate too. Nate tried nollie shove manny and came super close, but we got the boot. I could not manual to save my life, but got close to nose manny. I’m gonna put my picture, solely because of my magical shirt.

After that we pretty much headed to the eating contest. It rained a bit, we walked a lot and we were all tired. Perfect for eating! I went on to win. 7 chili dogs, 6 beers for a score of 13. My fatness applauds me.

Oh, did you notice Tommy Guerrero watching us eat? Yeah, he’s starting Real Eatboards. I’m the first pro.

Go to Carleigh’s blog from the day and see tons more photos.

Woke up to rain and the forecast called for rain all day. Doh! Carleigh, Fuzz, Neil, Nate and I went walking trying to find a parking garage, but came up short. Gordon made fun of us saying “I haven’t looked for a parking garage rain spot in 15 years.” Poser. Ha. At 3 we went to the Log Shop. Most skated the bowl. It looked really fun, but it was super crowded so Nate and I just skated the little street setup the whole time. Mostly we skated the ledge which was a blast. Nate had back smiths, nollie front tails, back nosegrinds, etc. He kills ledges. I was hyped on landing lots of back crooks, front 50 shove, front 5-0 shove and almost getting front 50 back 180 out. We also messed around with some other stuff like wallrides and a flat bank where I hit my head on a pipe. Turns out Gordon had hit his head too. Doh. That night was the crazy Roller skate party night. Wow, what a raging party.Go to Carleigh’s blog for lots of dudes without shirts.

Saturday was the big Poker Run day. It was epic. 150 skating through the streets of SF from spot to spot to get poker hands. Gordon ruled it. Such an epic day. Check Carleigh’s blog for way more photos as well as Cruz, Lowcard and while your at it try googling it. It was a lot of pushing around the city. The last stretch to Thee Parkside was a long one filled with some funny memories. Brian trying to go about 5 miles without taking his foot off, tic tacs only. He was sweating like crazy and the rough concrete wasn’t helping. This other dude went right through a red light without looking or slowing down. He almost got hit. Gnarly.After a couple glasses of water and some resting Nate, Joey and I played some SKATE. We thought it was gonna be super bad after all that pushing, but it ended up being insane. Nate got a first try nollie tre. Joey got his back and then surprisingly somehow I landed mine too. Back to back to back nollie tres? Awesome! Joey went on to win that game, it was a good one. We played another no repeat game. Joey probably won that one too. Lots of tricks went down. Last Joey and I played a no comply game of SKATE and I think that one got cut off early as we moved on to the Ice House gap where I could make $30 (soon to be $40) if I ollied it. Unfortunately there was a truck two spaces away from the landing. I wanted to, but the way I shoot my board out prevented me from mentally getting into it. Carleigh ollied it though. So sick. Joey went buck on it. Ollie, tuck knee and back 360 bolts. Joey rips!After the hammers Fuzz, Nate, Joey and I had a totally epic little dork session. We skated the side of the kicker near the building where you can do cali grinds and stuff. Fuzz did a full cab to rock. Nate had some crazy grind to nose manual variations. I got a soft rock horrible kickflip out. Joey did cali grind to manual kickflip out. We also started messing around with the laybackish mute grab off the side of the loading dock. I almost broke a tail off and kind of did the trick. Nate though, he made things epic because he could not do it to safe his life. He just kept doing early grab mutes and slightly dragging his fingers before rolling off. It was hilarious.Then we hit the black ledge spot for awhile. Joey killed it with the above manual manual manual gap out, 5-0 through the opening in the ledge, back 180 nosegrinds, etc. I started trying this line with an front 50 on a ledge ollie up to front tail on a slightly taller ledge, noseslide through a corner then crook jib on a black ledge. Never quite got all three, but I was hyped to do the 50 to tail a couple times. Fuzz was trying the same line and he did it super good. Nate took forever to get the 50 to tail. It was funny because he kills ledges, but for some reason couldn’t get it. He eventually did though and then closed out the day with a nose manny on the long black manny pad where Busenitz did sw bs flip nose manny (retarded). Another fun day in SF. Go to Carleigh’s blog for more.

Believe it or not I was the last one to wake up and it threw me off big time.  I got ready as quick as I could and we all rolled to Eagle Donuts.  On the way back we hit up the first spot we found which was probably the hardest spot we could start with.Click on the photos to go to the complete coverage on Carleigh’s blog. Anyways we all struggled at this spot, but were hyped. Fuzz slammed hard a lot and we all felt bad. I think he was just so excited he couldn’t warm up. Nate, Fuzz and Joey got 50s on it. Joey is goofy (footed) and crooked it too. So sick. Neil and I tried to get on it, but it was pretty weird and we did nothing more then get into the grind and jump off immediately. Rob pulled out his patented slappy on the curb. Jason was ripping it too. I got into a few kick back tails on the curb, but never landed one. Neil had some rad nose manuals. Carleigh warmed up her sore back with some 180s up the curb. Nate ended the session with a back 50 from the 3 stair side. Sick!Next up we hit this granite ledge that Nate, Jason and I skated in the last few minutes of the last SF trip. It’s still amazing. We where there for a long time. Joey had some crazy moves. Back 180 nose grind to forward. Noseslide the flat bar to back 5-0 on the ledge (seriously). Nollie shove front 5-0. Probably a million more tricks. Nate did some amazing back 5-0s. Fuzz and I worked on crooks pop outs and got a couple. I got a tiny front crooks to fakie. Carleigh worked on varial heels on flat and front 50 shove out. Neil put down some 50s. Rob did the ol’ front nose 270 out. At the end I wanted to do a line of kick back 50 then crooks, but never got the kick 50. On to the next spot ..This spot is awesome. We hit it for awhile. Joey did a bunch of tricks. Pole jam fakie, body varial, alley oop wallride, one foot off, everything basically. Nate did f/s ollies. Carleigh had some good wallrides to fakie. Rob too. I did some low switch wallrides. Then we headed back to Gordon’s to get going to Lowcard.Joey killed this thing too. Blunt up to rock fakie on the extension, rock kickflip out on the extension, a million tricks. The crew was huge at this point. Gordon ripped it and has huge b/s airs. Rob from Lowcard skated for awhile too which was rad. Fuzz skated pretty good and almost got front noseblunt on the extension, but took some gnarly slams. Brian is one of the funnest people to watch skate a ramp. Lazer kills tranny. I sucked more then I should have. Only two tricks I was hyped on were front feeble on the pool coping (50 tries deep) and the little fakie smith fakie. After awhile I felt too tired to skate the ramp and just started doing flatground kickflips. After 25 in a row I stopped. Then we skated back which took a long long time and we stopped and skated a couple things like a long 4 stair. Such a great first day of skating. That night was fun too. Go to Carleigh’s blog and see it all.