Jason is the first in our crew to turn 40 and some celebrating was in order! First was dinner at Sherpas and Kathy came out from SF and made Jason a cake! Yum!

Next up was 40s since it was a 40th birthday party! Ok, so maybe Jason and Fuzz were the only ones drinking 40s. And maybe Fuzz is the only one that finished his. So yeah, maybe we’re all getting old.

Next night was an impromptu get together at Fuzz’s with pizza, beer and endless games of Cornhole. Neil and Fuzz were the undisputed champions winning something like 10 games in a row. Neil had his patented one leg in the air throw in effect.

I may have destroyed a couple cigarettes.

Anyways, happy birthday to Jason.

Carleigh and Jack picked me up and we showed up at a crowded Broomfield park that was anticipating a demo from the RVCA team. We skated a bit before they showed up which signaled it was time to sit down for me. It was a short demo, but those dudes killed it. Cory Kennedy, Leo and Donovan Piscopo especially. Brian, Neil and Fuzz had shown up and we put on what some would call another demo (and by some I mean nobody). I carved around the bowl a little with Jamie and was surprised at how different the wider trucks carved. Then we went and played on the mellow bank where most of TF joined, but not much went down. The park was super crowded. We were mostly doing tricks on the black ledge and brick qp. I started trying kickflips into the starting bank and landed most of them. A few I was actually moving going into it. It took awhile, but I got a line of kickflip into the bank, 5-0 to fakie on the brick qp then fakie bigflip on flat. I was hyped. Carleigh was doing lots of good pop shoves into the bank. Fuzz did 270 nosepick on the brick qp. wtf. Brian did a million tricks but was struggling with blunt to fakie on the quarta potty extension. Neil was cruising all over and falling a lot on lipslides. Jack was killing it as usual. The blunstlide late front shove out attempts down the double set hubba were crazy. At the end I played a game of SKATE with Jack which he won pretty solidly. Fun times.

My dad was an avid biker and had a few expensive bikes. My mom decided to buy our family new bikes with the money from selling my dad’s bikes as a memory of him. So here we go. My new bike for cruising around the town. It’s a 21 speed and I love it. Already made a few grocery store runs and a beer store run.

Got the full on rally fun pack with this one.

India’s new cruiser 3 speed. Ollie and Liz already had relatively new bikes so they didn’t need new ones too. Liz got some new accessories like fenders and basket though. Now we’re an official Boulder family biking around everywhere.

On our way to Ft Collins to go to the Launch fundraiser we stopped at Fossil Creek around 5:30 with a goal of only skating there for about an hour to get to MRKT. It ended up being way too fun to even consider leaving. The crew was Jack, Carleigh, Bernie and me. There was a couple other dudes there that were fun too. We started out at the top area just doing our own things to get warmed up. Pretty early on Jack ollied up the 3 stair to manual and snapped a fat ollie down the nine. Ridiculous. I got a line I liked of crooks on a tall ledge that went up a curb, kickfip off the curb, ollie up another ledge then noseslide off the three stair ledge (done poorly). Bernie was doing lots of kickflip manuals and kick nose mannies. I had come with the goal of ollieing the 7 stair. Carleigh and I tried some doubles down the six stair, but I failed everytime. Ugh. I was skating pretty good, but just didn’t have the trigger on anything bigger than 3. I even popped over the ledge off the 3 stair which stoked me out quite a bit. I think I got Jack’s back on something like a first try back salad down the 7 stair. Bernie manualled the curb, dropped off the curb still in manual then ollied up the 3 stair ledge. So sick. Bernie and Jack skated the slanted manny pad for awhile while Carleigh and I skated the 3 stair manny pad at the top. I joined Bernie and Jack for a bit just long enough to embarrass myself and get out of there. Everyone ended up back at the top area. jack was killing the ledge off the curb. He would do a transfer trick up onto it then turn around and do a trick down it. He did so many tricks it’s impossible to remember them all. Front 180 fakie crooks transfer. Kick back tail (kind of). Boardslide 270 shove. Nollie back lip transfer. So many. I got a couple slow ollie over to tailslide and tried to do a shove out, but couldn’t get that. I skated the three stair for awhile. Took awhile to get front shove down it, but got a first try kickflip which hyped me up. I was finally able to get some front 50s on the bigger board on the somewhat tall ledge up top. Bernie, Jack and I skated the ledge combos from the top for a bit. You could ollie up one ledge, drop to another, ollie up to another one, up yet another then go down the 7 stair hubba. I couldn’t get the ollie transfers between them, but did little rock transfers. I only made it that far once and when I rode down the 7 stair hubba I slammed pretty hard. Jack had some cool combos like manual gap to back 50. Bernie almost got manny drop to manny up to manny up to manny. Wowsers. The last part of the session was Jack losing in SKATE off a drop, Carleigh doing noseslide shove, Bernie almost doing tall kick back tail and me taking a long time to get a run of kickflip up the curb and treflip off. Whew. Long session. Super fun session. Exhausting. I think I’m finally sold on the bigger setup. With the exception of not being able to ollie down the bigger stairs (I did land the six stair once though) I skated about as good as i can. Jack, Bernie and Carleigh killed it. The art show and pizza later on was a blast too.

Wasn’t really feeling one of those busy drive around nights, but I ended up needing to bring boards out to Community, then Crisis to meet up with a crew and skate the 287 ditch. Driving took a long time, but it ended up being nice cranking up new music by Poison Control Center and Jeff The Brotherhood. I got to Crisis, dropped off boards, started making some weed jokes and we rolled out. Rob and Joel were there, but Fuzz and I are too cool so we just rolled by and went to the far side of the ditch (ha, it was kinda funny). I was feeling pretty awkward on my board, Fuzz was killing it, Jack could hardly stand. Fuzz had some sick f/s ollies and long lines right out of the gate. I tried some ollies at 1/10 scale of Fuzz’s, got a couple b/s stalls on the curb and a front smith popout on the other side, also some silly dork quick flips to stalls that weren’t on the edge of anything. I had a good slam on an ollie attempt and Fuzz almost got a fakie pivot yank out. Then we went to the parking block area, but it was getting dark. I tried a few front tailslides, but failed. We chilled for a minute then called it a night.

Again, way too long between the session and writing about it. Ollie and I picked up Rob then went to Valmont where others would meet us. Rob and I were tired/sore from the night before. I seemed to be worse off though as I couldn’t even manual a curb. Ollie was cruising around doing 180s everywhere and even getting some ollies up curbs. After awhile we went across the street for something new. Fuzz, Carleigh, Dean, Jack and Xander met us there. I put together a fun line for me of nose manual, kickflip up the curb, front 180 down two, sw front 180 down one. Ollie back 180’d the two. Rob nose manualled around the corner and off the two stair. Sick! Everyone else started warming up. The young kids Jack and Xander not needing much warm up of course. It’s hard to remember what everyone was doing at this point so I’ll just keep it about me (which is what everyone wants to hear about right? ha). Ollie and I were skating the mellow flat bank at the bottom. He did a pop shove to fakie and I did a treflip to fakie with a six point landing (4 wheels and 2 hands). Then everyone went around to a different two stair area. Xander, Jack, Rob, Fuzz killed some rad tricks. I bailed ollie’ing up the two stair and shot my board into the window (luckily it didn’t break) and it bummed me out so much. If I wouldn’t have been around friends I would have left for the night for sure. We then made our way back to the main Valmont spot where we skated the ledge. I still couldn’t do f/s grinds to save my life. I had a few jibby crooks and slow back 50s. Jack and Fuzz killed it though. Fuzz had some high speed switch boardslides. Jack did everything. Front lipslide to 5-0 shove out. Front 5-0 back 180 out. He killed it. Carleigh was off the phone at this point and skating too and got some good noseslides. Dean surprised us with some front 50s. Ollie was doing front 180s off the ledge higher than he has before. Xander did a sick front 50 nollie 3 shove out. Toward the end I started hucking kickflip back 50s and eventually got one. Rad, haven’t done that trick in forever. Ended up being a fun session mainly because of the crew. I need a day off of skating ..

Met up with Rob a little after 6:00pm and we went to Crest View elementary, one of Boulder’s best spots. Rob found a partially waxed curb up top by the two stair that would end up entertaining us the whole session which lasted a couple hours. We would try lines and start at either the curb and end up off the two stair, or go the other way starting at the two stair and ending at the curb. We started out more basic and worked up to some old man “gems” ha. I think my first line of any value was front 5-0 on the curb followed by no comply 180 off the two stair (yes Jack this was inspired by you doing them the other day) and the other way ollie up the two stair then back 50 the curb. Rob had his steezy back 50s going quick and some with a back tail at the end. He followed them with no comply boneless, no comply shove and/or back 180. It’s hard to remember the early lines. He started working on back 180 up the two stair, fakie bigspin on flat, back bigspin to front nose to fakie. That line took him awhile, but he got it. I tried front 180 up the two, halfcab flip on flat, kick back tail for awhile and never got the kick back tail. Sometimes I would kickflip up the two instead and attempt heelflip (bigger board was sucking at these) or treflip (1/2 not too bad), but still never got the kick back tail. Another trick I got I was hyped on was switch 180 to front 50 which I probably followed with a kickflip miss off the two stair. Rob slammed pretty good on some back 5-0 attempts. He got another sick line of no comply of the two stair, back 180 on flat, fakie b/s nosegrind with an extra revert. I had another line going that took awhile. Front 50 front or back 180 out, fakie flip on flat, sw 180 off the two stair. I got the line which started with the front 180 out of the 50. It was hard for me because I had to do the fakie flip fast enough to have speed to sw front 180 the two stair (yeah i know, you don’t need much for a two stair) and there wasn’t much room. And for the record, I pushed switch which was partly why it took me so long. What a blast we had. We were both covered in sweat when we left. The big board is ok. Not totally convinced yet, but it does seem more suitable for me and my tallness. I blame it for not getting a kick back tail though. Ha.

Please go to this fundraiser and support this great non-profit organization that is doing it’s part to better skateboarding. This friday night, August 5th!

People are so good these days.

Well it’s official, I’m on the big board bandwagon. New 149 Thunder “Light” Trucks and an 8.25″ board. I guess Fuzz gets the most credit for the upgrade because I don’t want people to think he has a bigger deck than me (oh man such a bad joke). But at least mine is lighter (still a bad joke) because I got light trucks instead of the regular ones. I mean why even get the regular trucks when you can get the same truck, but lighter? Now when he can’t ollie something as high as me (which will never happen because Fuzz could ollie way higher than me even if he was skating a shopping cart) I will make sure to point out that his trucks are too heavy.

Ok, time to talk about skating. Oh wait, first, it was almost 100 degrees and I was lazy and starving. We went to a covered manny pad to start things. Nothing special went down. We went to a nearby building where Jack beat himself up to get a rather unique and cool trick that I didn’t film very well. After some driving around we ended up at Valmont which ended up benig a blast. Jack started out with a manual up the escalator ledge balanced to a stop then went fakie and did a fakie flip out. Ridiculous. The kid in him couldn’t resist the loading dock, but the old man in him couldn’t do a little kid trick. He did a few no comply 180s down it while I jibbed some front tails on the sticky ledge. I did a few crooks and back 50s and flipped the board around a bit to try and get used to it. It was going ok. Jack did an early grab off the loading dock so I tried too. Three tries later I got it and it was fun. Jack added early grab one foot and almost early grab late shove wtf? Then he did a boneless pole jam bonk thing that I had to try too and somehow came away first try. After that we played a long game of SKATE without too many kickflip variations because Jack’s ankle is still sore. Overall the big board/trucks felt good and maybe I’ll end up liking it.