Totally awesome.

Kind of a late start to go to Lafayette, but I wasn’t really feeling any street spots in particular and Carleigh liked the sounds of Lafayette. We got there around 8:15. The drive there sucked. That is one of the worst drives ever. Everyone drive well under the speed limit and it’s just annoying residential streets. Anyways, the weather was threatening rain and there was lightning nearby. I like skating in that kind of weather. We started off kind of all over. The park wasn’t super busy by any means. Oh yeah, I had been in class all day so my legs felt sore from sitting in one place all much and not doing my normal stretches and stuff. But after some cruising around things felt pretty good. Carleigh did a f/s halfcab into the mellow bank and I got her back with a boardslide down the rail then noseslide down the hubba. That is a really fun combo. Carleigh also got pop shove into the bank. I wanted to noseslide the pier 7 tripleca, but the stupid street side lights shut off at like 8:40. WTF? Come on City of Lafayette, that is pathetic. Carleigh kept skating the bank. She did like 6 tricks into it total. Nollie shoves, nollie back 180, kickflip. We skated the snakerun for awhile. Carleigh got a frontside wallride on the bank to bank. She could dropin on it too. I was terrified of dropping in on that for some reason, but eventually I did it. Then I started trying to do kickflip wallride on it. Less than 10 tries later I did it. That really really hyped me up. I did cruising around the snakerun with some little ollies. Fun. Right at the end I tried ollieing onto one of those round planter things up by the vert bowl and had almost got it when the rest of the lights shut off. Doh. Gotta say I’m bummed on the city of Lafayette for blowing it so bad shutting off the lights so early.

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.

Got off work on a really nice day and went to meet Bernie at the gnarly industrial bank in Longmont. I had a few minutes to kill before he arrived and messed around with some wallrides on the bank in a spot I didn’t have to ollie onto, but there was a big crack coming back. I did a few each way. Bernie arrived and we played a couple pathetic games of SKATE. Well, pathetic from my point of view. I absolutely hate the Adidas. Too long and way too narrow. Anyways Bernie was skating pretty well so I started filming. Unfortunately he didn’t get his trick, but he tried pretty hard and the wind definitely took it’s toll on Bernie. After that we skated the nearby weird stair spot that Bernie and Max have tricks on in Bernie’s video. I was sucking initially with my filmer legs, but started trying a run of ollie up all three curbs (the last one has no setup time) then kickflip down the three. I didn’t get there before we got booted. Doh. I can’t believe how easy it was for Bernie to do the quick ups. Then we went to a nearby school and just kinda messed around a bit before Bernie ollied on top of a tall picnic table. I started trying too and got remotely close. I got up into rock pretty easily anyway. Hyped we did that. Bernie is so fun to skate with.

I laugh everytime I see this.

Ended up having a busier evening then I figured running errands and shooting some hoops with Ollie. Carleigh came by at around 8:30 and we went to campus. There wasn’t much parking as it was graduation, but found a good spot. We ended up first at the double set with the curb I want to boardslide. It’s not lit very well so there was no way I was really gonna go for it. But it was kinda fun just dorking around. Next we ended up at the round stair spot that goes from 1 stair up to 6. After ollieing the 4 we each settled into our own things. I was trying a line of ollieng the 4 then doing a quick manual where the big crack starts right after the stairs. That took a long time. Actually, after a couple slams and lots of bails I started trying it different. I ended up doing crooks on the ledge, ollie the 3, then the manual. I think I finally landed it after Carleigh nollied the two stair for her first nollie down “something”. My next line was a noseslide to fakie then a front pop shove down the two going 2mph. 2 for 2. Lastly I did a back 50 on the ledge then kickflipped the two. Kinda hyped on that one. Then we went to the nearby flatground area and Carleigh broke her 1-0 kickflip record for the day. She struggled, but got one. I took awhile to finally get a treflip in the clown shoes, but managed to rattle off several other tricks and felt decent. On the way to the car we had a fun downhill ride through the new parking lot with the 3 stair manny pad. Fun.

Seriously, this hypes me up more then half of the Real video.

Kind of worn out feeling and had just sat around and had a movie/popcorn date with India (Despicable Me).  Decided I should go skate and get them new clown shoes broken in.  I refer to them as clown shoes because of the colors and the fact that they feel about two sizes too long.  Anyways, I was pretty motivated once I got to Valmont surprisingly.  I mostly skated the manny pads and after a few flatground kickflips settled into a couple line attempts.  Going one way I was trying to do a speedy manual, nose manual on the next one, front 180 up the curb, f/s halfcab flip off.  I was trying to go fast enough on the first manual that I wouldn’t have to push again.  It took a bit, but I did get it.  By the time I got to the f/s halfcab flip I was going pretty slow, but whatevs, I was hyped.  Kickflips are the best way for me to break in shoes.  So going the other way I was doing kickflip up the curb, kickflip off the curb then trying kickflip manual.  I got this one too with a scrape.  But the kick manny took forever.  I must have done 100 kickflips total.  Since I had gotten the f/s halfcab flip line I started trying another ridiculous line for me.  Nose manny, manual front 180 out the next one, front shove up the curb, b/s flip off.  The front shove was the initial roadblock, then for some reason I started becoming unable to do nose manuals.  It was really annoying.  I tried a few other flippers and long nose mannies when I would mess up.  I couldn’t get a treflip in these shoes to save my life.  I slammed a lot and it felt good.  I tried ollie’ing off the loading dock a couple times and slammed both times.  Total wheel bite slams.  Ugh.  St Julien will never happen.