It’s nice to get a few of these where the dude can actually skate alright.

We had made plans on this one earlier in the week. I knew I’d be up in Buena Vista for most of the day, but back in time for a late skate with a fun crew. It ended up being as fun as we had hoped. We started out across the bridge on 16th, walked over and started at the black slanted slabs that I’ve never skated before. Fuzz had already been skating and was warmed up and ripping. Lipslides up, down, manuals up /down, bluntslide up and a nose manual up which he hasn’t done before. Carleigh was trying to line out a boardslide down followed by noseslide up which would be sketchy because the slabs aren’t even and it could stick. She may have gotten one noseslide I’m not sure. I dorked around and got a couple things I was hyped on. A line of wallie the corner of an electric box stand then a manual up a slab. It wasn’t pretty. I also ollied into them a few times, but could barely do that. I also did some kickflips out of a little curb cut and slammed on some front pop shoves. Slamming felt good though. My new shoes felt better and I’m getting somewhat used to them too. Still not as hyped on them as regular vulcs though.

We peeped some big gaps. Fuzz ollied a rail. Then I tried to ollie a little bench which took awhile. I was having lots of fun though and a little kickflip into a curb cut felt great. Some more cruising around. We ended up at a little downhill backside ledge. Fuzz back 50d the lower part, then did the higher part too. I posed some noseslides before trying crooks. I eventually got the crooks even after a Teva wearing jock borrowed my board and almost noseslid it. Pretty funny actually. Fuzz also did a slappy on the lowest one then noseslide the taller one. I tried for that too as Carleigh felt out some front 50s after she made friends with a big M&M in the store window.

More cruising. Ended up at the 16th St mall and a really fun spot that was a bump and about 20 feet later a 4 stair. Fuzz did kickflip bump, ollie 4 stair first t trough a crowd. It took me a few tries, but I honestly blame a couple of my attempts to lack of effort due to the distraction of several scantily dressed women. Whew. I got the line too as did Carleigh. Oh wait, she slammed on the 4 stair, but we all know she could do it. We bailed out quick as we knew 16th st is a bust.

We stopped at 7/11 for some snacks/drinks. After that we were pretty beat and decided to play tourist and look at the big 4. Man it’s huge. We got warmed back up by riding down the long six stairs and ended up at the Tabor Center which ended up also being a blast. We all ollied the 3 then did ledge tricks. Fuzz did front 50 pretty quick then chilled in the nice warm air. Carleigh and I battled our tricks for awhile. I finally got front board and she did noseslide. I had done the front board once probably 6 or 7 years ago. I was hyped. We all were. Such a fun night and crew and spots and weather and everything one could ask for.

After lots of chores/cleanup around the house Ollie and I set out across the street to the school. We played on the long two for a bit and I hadn’t done much more than some sw front 180s off when FedEx came with a delivery so I went home to help them unload. Then I came out and did a couple kickflips and a heelflip before leaving for Buena Vista.

On a super nice friday evening Carleigh, Dean and I rolled toward Arvada to sell some boards at Community then Crisis. We hit this school I remembered for some reason and ended up skating a long time. Well, I did at least. We started down below at the rainbow ledge area. After some warming up and rolling around and over the rainbow Carreigh and I settled on some stuff. She did switch front 180 then noseslide and she was getting on the tall part. I was trying to front 50 the whole thing, but due to cracks had to get on right at the very start which was a little odd. I never got past the top. I had some little crooks down coming back and a few non-popped 3 flips.

Then we went up top. I posed a bigger gap for a bit before settling in on a line to this thing. Carleigh ollied the 3 block straight on and over the first ledge. Sickness. I was trying a line of kickflipping off a curb above, then ollieing onto this thing, one push and ollie the 3 block. It took forever. Literally. I was having a lot of trouble with kickflips. I guess I’m still getting used to the new shoes. Plus the crack in the landing didn’t help. I also had lots of problems ollieing onto the ledge as there was a big crack then I would basically have to ollie and turn 90 degrees backside then one push and ollie. I had a few close ones before finally getting the whole line right after Dean said we needed to leave to get to Community in time. Glad I got it, but it shouldn’t have taken that long.

When you pop ollies as high as I do these types of photos are bound to happen.

See much more on Carleigh’s blog.

Another day of standing all day at work all day followed by more yard work. Whew I was tired. I quickly setup a new board before the session. This was mainly because I had one day to decide if I liked some new eS Square Two’s with the Fusion sole (Fuzz was gonna order Sole Tech the next day and I might have wanted more of these). So I setup a snappy new Abstract deck to go with the shoes. And wheels because it’s been awhile and I’m pacing to have the perfect setup in Boston in two weeks. Aka shoes should be perfectly broke in and then I’ll setup a new board (Yes I’m a total new board pansy now. I mean not to Janoski’s level or anything, but I do have a pile of boards in my room).

Enough gear talk. We started out with a game of SKATE in the alley next to The Med. My new stuff felt decent, but I was definitely off. Jake won. Then we cruised around a bit. Well, Jake pushed down the street. I bailed kickflips. Next was the rooftop of the white ledge parking garage. Jake tried some wallies out of a corner. I tried and landed a line of kickflip, manual, ollie a tiny gap (man that is one tech ass line). Then we cruised down the garage, hit the white ledge for about 2 seconds before security rolled by and we bolted to the Wells Fargo qp where we stayed awhile and it was fun. Jake did 5-0 fakie quick (maybe first t?), blunt to regs quick and a blunt front 270 or two as well. I was all over the place. Some tricks were first t like back smith, back nosegrind, hurricane, front 180 fakie 50 fakie, yeah. I tried a bunch of kickflip 50s and failed. Jake posted up by the window so I could try back smith to fakie and I eventually got one. Before leaving I ollied into front pivot on the qp and then out of nowhere did two front pivots to fakie. I was so blown away that they came easy. We hit the manny pad for a while. I did manual and nose manual and we were trying more but it started sprinkling and I wanted to do a quick run down the super fun brick area with the 3 stair, but I failed and then it started raining a bit harder. Doh. Then Jake and I went and grabbed two beers at Catacombs and I got home late. Ha. Fun night. Oh, and those Fusion soles are weird. I can’t say whether I like them or not yet, they are different then any other shoes out there though, that’s for sure.

this rules

After reading some depressing articles like this I decided I don’t want to sit for 8 hours a day anymore. I mean my Dad did just die of a heart attack and it says you are 54% more likely to die of a heart attack if you sit all day. So why not? It’s been two days straight and although my legs feel a bit tired, they feel way better than they did after sitting all day. Maybe one of these is next?

That would rule.

Carleigh and I were both in kinda down moods. We both had our reasons and weren’t sure how skating would go. We went to the new bikepath ledge on 30th that is a downhill backside ledge for regular footers (me) and frontside for people that skate the wrong way (Carleigh). Before we skated the ledge I posed some ollies over a little gap that Carleigh did first try. Ok, so the gap wasn’t tiny, you had to go over a curb and it was probably the height of a 5 stair from the top. So yeah, after Carleigh dropped that first t we went and posed at the ledge until we got confidence to lock into tricks. We got 50s about the same time. Then Carleigh was going for 50 shove and I was going for a run of back 50, backnoseslide the tall ledge (which is under the gap that Carleigh already ollied) then I would walk up the ledge and go setup to try and ollie the gap. Carleigh got front 50 shove way before I got my line and it was bolts! I committed to the gap quite a few times and would slam pretty hard. Initially it was fun, but then it got old. I eventually gave up on the line, bailed the gap, got mad, then did it. It was way too small of a gap to take that much time on. Oh well. We played around at a gap above in the car dealership and Carleigh ollied the big part of it. 2 flat 1 with about 5 feet of flat. Sickness. Glad we skated.

Neil, Max and I headed up to Fort Collins to do business at MRKT and then skate at Northside. We met up with Chad, Jess and most of the normal Ft Collins heads were at the park. I warmed up real slow as usual. I dont even remember much of what happened for awhile except the dudes that skate that park everyday destroy it. Taylor front 5-0’ing up the jersey barrier is nuts. Xavier doing back lip followed by back tail over the shallow stairs was nuts too. Max ripped it all day and him and Jess did some back to back 360s over the hip and played big pop all afternoon. Neil skated, rested, skated, rested, skated. During the skating parts he ripped it. Boardslide the jersey barriers. Chad skates that park different than most locals. Not as much gnar, but some big pop and crazy tricks. So rad. I had a good time and landed most of my basics there. So like 3 tricks. I managed to manual the mj ledge with a tiny scrape that I think sits fine in the “over 35” category. Not enough of a scrape to be in the “over 40” category. I also spent a lot of time trying to b/s flip over the mj hip which I finally did with a nice wall hold to stabilize myself. Mike got a nice no comply shove over it and Neil got a really poppy no comply over it. Chad did nollie heel (almost to manny) and Max did treflip (not to nose manual like he wanted). We had a good time and the warm weather felt great. I tried a bunch of ollies over the little mound up top with the goal of some day hitting my chest with my knees. I probably didn’t get close but it was fun trying to suck them up so high. Lastly for me was wallieing the littlest part of the jersey barrier. I took a few slams before finally getting it. Neat. That park rules and so does the Ft Collins scene.

Had a long drive down from Buena Vista stopping at DIA on the way to drop off my brother. Got home in the afternoon, chilled for awhile, then Jason, Carleigh and Jake showed up and we picked up Lazer and headed to Broomfield. We chilled at Crisis for awhile then went across the street to the ledge where we ended up staying almost the whole time. Unfortunately Carleigh couldn’t skate due to a board hitting her ankle while shooting a photo earlier in the day. Lazer actually skated the ledge a long time. Neither of us go front smiths.

But at least Lazer’s looked like a smith grind as opposed to my mutant smith/5-0/wtf.

Jake was ripping and man it was good to see him again. He also got a front 180 nosegrind at the end and some nice ollies over some safeway debris.

Bernie met us at Crisis and managed to still rip even though he had rolled his ankle the day before. Bernie and I had a race to kick back tail. He won obviously. He also landed kick front tail and fakie varial flip back tail. Wow.

As tech as Bernie got it was nothing compared to this 2mph kick back 50 wall push out. First try of course. Ha, I was hyped to do that though. I also ended up getting a few front crooks to fakie. They were slow as well, but man, that is a fun one.

Fuzz showed up after work and busted the basics before we rolled to the church behind his shop. It was a blast. Some kids joined in and we had a good session. Jake did a front blunt transfer into the bank. Fuzz did front lip to fakie (gnar). Lazer did front lip transfer. I got a weak front blunt transfer and a front board front 180 transfer that felt really fun until my straight legged ride away came to a halt. I also got manual to back lip. Bernie did manual to boardslide and eventually nose manny to lipslide that shut down the session. Other stuff that went down before that were Fuzz struggling to ollie three curbs after Chase did it second try, me taking way way way too long to do a slappy lipslide, Lazer spilling his beer twice, a little kid doing a front 50 transfer into the bank, and lots of laughs. Awesome.