After a long day at work I stopped by Meta for a bit to sell some wheels. I had about 30 minutes before dinner so I rolled into campus. I was in a class at work so didn’t have a chance to do my normal stretching. I was so stiff and sore. Ugh. Anyways the first place I ended up was the banked manny pad spot. After a couple super basics I started trying quick up to f/s flip. So hard. I did one, but it was horrible. Did I mention it was insanely windy? Well, it was. I had altered between tre and nollie flips between attempts. Neither of which I landed. Both were close though. After that I went to the double set boardslide that was on my list. I got on it from the top, but didn’t have the will to stick with it. The furthest I got was the middle before I jumped off into the grass. Ugh. Then I did a crappy little rock wallie and called it a day.

Had a really fun Mothers day with my parents and my family. After a little afternoon snack I went to go skate. I put the Adidas on before going skating and the little toes yelled “NO!” So I went with the shoes I was breaking in that I had gotten from Fuzz. The Kenny Reed Lows with some fancy “waxed suede”. I’ve had the non-fancy version of the shoes before and they were awesome. These didn’t dissappoint. A few minutes info campus and I was trying a line. Halfcab flip on flat, ollie a metal grate, ollie onto the tall ledge at the engineering building. That didn’t take too long. I did some noseslides on that ledge too. It’s really tall. I cruised around for a bit and ended up near the gym at the tiny manny pad and kicker spot. Surprisingly it took me a long time to get a kickflip out of that stupid kicker. Ugh. Then I manualled the long manny pad near the theater before going up to the theater itself. I scoped out that 5 stair ledge and was determined to 50 it. But right after a couple ‘JT to Laters’ a couple squirrels pinned me in a corner and seemed determined to deter me from skating there. Not wanting to start a fight with rodents I left. I think I might put that on my ‘by 40’ trick list though. Maybe 50 shove or 50 180 out. Before long I ended up at the newly repaved parking below the 14. I had done a little nose manny and was looking at the ledge. I want to ollie over one of those. I don’t have an ollie like that on my list either. I want to add that too. Ollie one of the ledges near the spot that Bernie did the fakie manual fakie flip out in the previous null teaser. Anyways, there was a bmx’er cruising around so I wasn’t really feeling it and then a cop drove by so I definitely wasn’t feeling it. I played dumb and cruised on down the sidewalk. I ended up near the two downhill-narrow-skatestopped manny pads and 5 stair. I tried to huck the long 5. It’s not tall at all, but long. I almost committed to it before feeling over it. Before leaving I ollied off the ledge above it though. I didn’t have to clear anything, but it was a lot taller. I went faster than normal and landed it really good. It felt great. It’s one of the taller things I’ve ollied off of and I’ve done it several time over the years. Although, never that fast. I cruised off down the bikepath and actually tried a bunch of flip tricks. I was happy to have shoes that I couldn’t complain about. I did fakie big, heelflip, tried nollie tre, etc then saw a gap I’ve never seen before. Off a narrow ledge about 4 feet to a sidewalk. Nothing big, but it was fun. I started heading home I thought then saw this manny pad that was 1 up with a long 2 down. I remember trying to manual it years ago and failing. I setup a line to it. Dropin on this little 4 stair thing, kickflip then try the manny. The kickflips got the best of me though. It was on a downhill slope which always freaks me out and as much as I loved the new shoes I didn’t feel all that confident trying kickflips at speed. I did the kickflips quite a few times, but when I did I never matched it with the manny. Doh. Then it was time to go back to Mother’s Day chilling with the Mighty LZA. I was happy to have finally skated hard and couldn’t use my shoes as excuses.

Being the famous celebrity that I am I was called upon to help judge the YMCA Spring Fling at the Boulder contest. When I got there no one wanted the boards I had as prizes and no one needed my help judging. So John and I attempted to play SKATE, but it was quickly interrupted by his true stardom status as him and Sam recieved an award from the YMCA for all the effort Meta has provided over the years. Meta rules. John and Sam are way more famous than me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t remember the score before John had to “leave”. SKA – S. That’s right Johny Stardom. Anyways, joking aside for a few sentences. I actually had fun. For awhile I cruised the bowl and was pleasantly surprised to get a backside scratcher grind in the round bowl. Later on I played a game of SKATE with Max’s brother where I missed every go to trick I can do (all 3 of them). Then there was an organized game of SKATE that I thought involved Josh Steele and others. But no, it was me vs 15 young kids. It was hilarious. Ric called out ‘age before beauty’, but I still went first. I landed kickflip, heelflip, front shove, fakie flip before bailing. I thought it would get all tech after that, but the next trick was front 180. That’s when I realized I had been a jerk. There was a couple kids in there that had some moves though. I ended up losing out with tricks like cab, nollie flip, sw flip, some other dumb switch trick and another dumb switch trick (I’m kidding, it’s just jealousy). Anyways, around then my feet really started to hurt. I’ve worn the Adidas a few days, but not for more then a few hours before. It got to the point where I didn’t want to walk it hurt so bad. Those shoes are too long and too narrow for me. One of the worst fits I’ve ever tried. Hopefully they’ll work for JP. Before calling it a day with the Eating Factory I skated the curb for awhile and did a couple front 5-0s with back 180s out. I might have done that trick before at Red Curbs, but never grinding that far. Oh yeah, the Advanced contest was crazy. It was a Max demo. See a bunch of photos here on Carleigh’s blog. TF went to a nearby bar to get food/drinks. It was fun. Sam and I watched some basketball. I knocked a glass off the table and broke it and I wasn’t even drinking. Then I got a call from an annoyed wife and went home to clean the bathrooms. Not so fun.