Took a couple days off after St Louis and did lots of icing the knee. Went for a short hike with Liz in the morning and my knee was still feeling weird. Not painful, but numb and weird. Max and I met up with Bernie and Crew, Dean and the Crisis crew at a new spot in Longmont. There was a sick looking gap that I didn’t touch at all. There was a mini bank to ledge and Fuzz and I played a game of SKATE on it. In the end I think he won it, but it was a fun filled game of basics, slams and a few tricks we can be hyped on. At one point I did the funniest slam I’ve done in awhile which is saying a lot. Ha. I tried a kickflip pivot, but went a little over, shot out, kind of rolled my ankle, landed on my side on the ledge and was stuck there for awhile looking like an idiot before I could recover. Whew. The last trick that got me was a fakie pivot. Kudos Fuzz.

We rolled to Loveland. We skated a ledge spot. My knee was feeling pretty good. Maybe from icing it, maybe from the hike or maybe from starting with a mellow bank to ledge session. Anyways I pretty much did a line of noseslide on a tall ledge, 3 flip on flat, boardslide a 3 stair hubba. Max was hyped on it somehow and insisted he film me. Poor guy didn’t know it would be an hour before I could do it again and I had given up on 3 flips and settled for heelflips. Filming freaks me out, even though Max put no pressure on me whatsoever my legs were shaking. I managed the noseslide, heelflip, boardslide decent. Typical Glen speed and the heelflip was not popped. Oh well, decent line for me. Thanks Max. Other people were killing it. Fuzz had a sick long boardslide into the kink. Conor did a varial heel then back 50 into the kink. Chad was doing kickflip noseslides and nosebonks (until I went to film him later). Max did a rad boardslide popout transfer thing. I was filming Chad at this point and everyone else went over to look at a big six stair. I guess Max tried hardflipping it for awhile and when we got there he looked really tired and sore. We all dorked around on the playground for awhile. Justin did a rad kickflip into the downhill then boardslide to fakie on the slide. I dropped in on the frog.

Then we went to the skatepark and it was 20 minutes of everyone skating the whole time. It was awesome. I mostly skated the ramp as did Fuzz and Dean. Mellow ramps with small coping like that are weird. Fuzz had a gnarly slam on a front 5-0. Dean had the longest run I’ve seen him do with some moves like fakie pop to disaster. I didn’t do much, but was hyped on a front d. Max and Chad were killing everything. Chad skated the ramp super good. Huge kickflip to fakie was bangin. At the very end I attempted to do nose manuals and setup for nollie treflip out. Yeah right. Fun day, hyped I could skate without knee pain even if it feels really weird still.

Had another long day of work couped up in the basement of a building installing software. Followed with a late dinner and desert and I got back to my hotel around 9pm. I did a few stretches and hit the streets again. The knee wasn’t feeling so good and the first attempt at an ollie up a curb hurt super bad. Ugh. I rolled around aimlessly for awhile thinking I should probably not be skating because of my knee. But it was my last night in St Louis and I had been thinking about a spot all day.

Oh yeah, this thing was across from my hotel. Pretty gnarly, not a lot of run up, but pretty much perfect. Too big for me.

I ended up here for a boardslide which hurt really bad. Ugh, I thought I would stop skating, but pushing didn’t hurt so I just rolled around into sketchy areas that I probably shouldn’t have been.

This is one of those handrails that my friends would probably say “Hey Glen I bet you could boardslide that rail” and I totally wouldn’t be able to.

After quite a bit more pushing and not seeing anything fun I ended up at a good window sill ledge. I reminded me of the famous PJ Boston spot, but it didn’t grind so I moved on. Seriously St Louis skaters must either be lazy or there are so many other ledges that they just don’t care. Next I ended up at the little curb cut kicker above. My knee wasn’t hurting too bad at this point. Ollie’ing it was harder than I thought it would be because of cracks. I lined it out with some Oyola feeling lines with some faster than normal (for me) kickflips up the curb then ollie from cut to cut then got one with a bad back 180 off another curb cut. It was fun though. Next I ended up at the AT&T place again which is where I was working so I didn’t stay long. It was vacant and creepy. I tried a line of ollie up a curb to quick ollie down 3 then then crooks the perfect marble ledge, but it stuck. Argh St Louis, a 200 foot marble ledge that is perfect, not a bust, and no one skates it? Some old man with not very many teeth asked me if I was a professional after I ollied the three stair, so maybe there just aren’t any skaters in St Louis? I mean clearly I don’t resemble a pro skater ever.

This spot was crazy too. Lots of good ledges, no recent marks on them. Maybe I was just having the luck of the century and not getting booted? I manualled this thing which took longer than it should.

As I was walking/rolling to the next area I snapped this photo. There were three ladies nearby taking photos too and one of asked if it was the state capitol. I said “No, it’s the old courthouse”. One of them said “Oh, we don’t live here” I said “Me either I’m just staying near it” and then one of them said “We’ll clearly your a better person then us”. Ha ha wtf?

I wish this spot wasn’t a quick bust and I wish the homeless lady wasn’t sleeping at the other end of it. I didn’t get to skate this spot really at all.

This is the spot I was thinking of all day. It starts here, but behind where the photo was taken. Ollie up the curb, ollie up the two, lots of good flatground then the following set of stairs.

A totally epic spot. All day at work I had thought about my dream lines there and was saying to myself that I’d skate until 4am if I had to to get every line I thought of. Well, maybe I should have taken into account my knee acting up again. That and I did the first line first try and it felt so good I almost didn’t want to touch it. Ollie up 1, ollie up two, fast kickflip on flat, ollie the 4, front 180 off the curb. Sure they are all basics, but it felt really cool to do a line that spanned a block. Once again someone asked if I was a professional. So weird. I really wanted to go with ollie up curb, kickflip up two, no comply 180, fakie flip, front shove down the 4, but I didn’t. I gave up and called it a night. Part of it was the bum sleeping near the 4 stair, part of it was doing that line first try, part of it was too much solo skating, being tired, etc, but most of it was my knee and me wondering if I was damaging it. It had swelled up pretty crazy. Ugh. I’m super stoked I had the motivation to skate in St Louis though. Skating the city was a blast. I can’t believe I didn’t see one other skater though and I can’t believe how many spots there are that no one appears to skate. Weird town.

Had a super long day of work stuck inside a small conference room with no windows. Ugh. After work I walked about a mile with my coworker past the Cardinals stadium (I don’t even know the name and I walked by it) and had some banging catfish enchiladas and jumbalaya for dinner.

The food and bread pudding for dessert was amazing.

After that I walked around and saw the arch. It’s weird looking east at the “Gateway to the west”. Looking to the west is the old courthouse:

It’s pretty cool that the horses and stage coach are still there waiting for someone. After all this I went up to my room, dropped off the laptop, grabbed the skateboard and went right to hitting the streets. I went the other way from the hotel this time. I didn’t have the same energy as last night though and my knee was hurting a bit making the ollies up curbs not as fun as the night before. I found the ledge I had really wanted to skate. One boardslide, one bailed front board and one crooks later security came out. Bye. I ended up at another plaza that had tons and tons of stuff. So many granite ledges and none of them were waxed. I don’t get it. Made me think it was a high bust factor so I didn’t stay too long. I didn’t do anything worth a crap anyways. I really wasn’t able to skate well. My knee felt really swollen, I was exhausted and it’s weird skating solo in a city you don’t know much about. Check out this hubba thats in the plaza though.

I wanted to try nosesliding it, but having a bum knee is a great excuse to not try stuff. The kink at the end would have messed me up I’m sure. It wasn’t tall to get on. And if you wanted you could actually grind the flat after the kink all the way out past the next set of stairs.

I ended up at this ledge spot. The ledge is kinda sticky, but low and the brick area is super fun to bail flip tricks. Tonight there was actually a few people around so it wasn’t as creepy. I skated it for awhile. I thought it would be a bust, but security came out and one point, waved, checked something and went back in. Awesome! I skated here for awhile. Once again, I was really feeling out of my element, but I managed some things for me. Got a run of back 50, back 180 on flat, fakie flip on flat, halfcab flip on flat. It’s cool because that way is downhill and you don’t have to push at all. I also got a line of back 50, kickflip on flat, 360 flip on flat (with another 5 point landing). I struggled at fakie bigflips again. Got a run of f/s halfcab flip then front tail (horrible). Other tricks I got on the ledge were back noseslide, back crooks, halfcab noseslide, front 50 and a rare (and horribly done) kickflip back 50. Hyped on finding a spot I can skate without too much trouble other then the occasional rapper trying to sell me a cd or weed.

This spot again. The two times I tried it before I didn’t get up the 3 stair and security would be out by the time I got my board. Since my knee has been hurting ollies have been hard. This time though, I won. First t ollie up ollie up ollie off to quick powerslide before rolling off the curb because a big SUV was driving by. I know it’s three basic ollies but it made my night. I cruised and looked at a few other spots, but didn’t really skate anymore. Saw a sick marble ledge from the other night I wanted to skate a bit, but the prostitutes hanging out at it were a bit much for me. Ended up being a fun night. Skating a city is the bomb. You get to really see the city.

What a day. My knee hurt really bad all day. I went to work for half a day then took the bus to DIA, flew to St Louis then took a light rail to downtown near where I was staying. The train ride was horrible. Some young punk yelling at white people and dropping the N bomb and pointing at me. Yippee. I got off at my stop and walked up the stairs into a city I know almost nothing about. I walked about 20 feet trying to figure out which way to go then dropped the board down and started pushing. I immediately felt awesome. I didn’t push it as I had a laptop on my back and all, but I quickly felt great. I went to my hotel, checked in, dropped my stuff then hit the city. It’s one of those weird cities where the downtown area vacates at nights. It was pretty weird, but I found spot after spot after spot. Directly across the street from the hotel is a marble ledge off a nine stair if anyone wants to get buck. It’s waxed even! I wanted to take it easy on my knee so I mostly just cruised, doing ollies up, off curbs. So fun. I went by the baseball stadium. There was a ledge there, but I wasn’t ready for it. Some more fun cruising ollie’ing manholes and I ended up at the AT&T building that I’m supposed to help install some software. It’s got a sick marble ledge which caused me to break my streak of 20+ ollies without a bail. I went around the building thinking it was a big bust and came back and just ollied onto it and 180’d off. There are no marks on this ledge. WTF St Louis? It’s perfect. The next building over had lots of marble too. I did a little front nose to fakie, noseslide and crooks all first t. Moved on. I ended up at the 2 up, 3 up, 4 down I wanted to find really bad. So stoked! I didn’t get up the 3 first try and by the time I grabbed my board to turn around security was there to say no more. Doh. Ended up at some other stadium that had a long brick section with a sick low granite ledge. I skated that for a minute and had a blast. Just did some crooks and front 50s, but just cruising and doing some back 180s, sw 180s, kickflips. So fun. I rolled around the area seeing lots of other fun spots, but started to get weirded out in an area that looked sketchy. I managed maybe my best wallride on a jersey barrier ever though. I started to get pretty tired and my knee was finally hurting a little so I decided not to push it. I found the 2 up 3 up 4 down and tried it again real quick but slammed on the 3 up again. Ha. I left to get some food and cruised back to the hotel. Turns out there is a super super sick marble ledge on the one side of my apartment I didn’t look at before. Wow. No marks on it either though. Weird.

Met up with Bernie, Sam, Garret, Max, Jack, Dean, Sean and I think that’s it. We went to some spots where I did some filming. Some not so easy, others really easy like above. Gotta love when there is a chair at a spot nearby. So awesome. The only not awesome part of that spot was watching Lester (Dean’s dog) fall off the loading dock. Ouch! Then we went to Crestview where I kind of skated. Got a boardslide popout, but started to feel some pretty good knee pain so I went to filmer mode again as Max wanted a couple lines. After filming Dean, Jack, Max and I kind of skated for awhile. Jack did some really cool slow tricks on the curb. Back big fakie 5-0. Some other stuff which was fun too. I kickflipped up the little two a couple times, but that was about it. Then we went to get a Gillinghammer for Nullozine. A crook on a flatbar against a wall. I got it, but it was horrible and didn’t feel very good at all. I think my leg/knee was beat and I couldn’t get a good ollie. Pretty fun day. Yet again at the end of the day though I can’t help but wonder if I should get my knee checked out. Sure it didn’t have intense pain this time, but it didn’t feel very good either.

Oh yeah I had some new shoes on. Ipath Derelict. The eS shoes weren’t dead, but I couldn’t wear maroon shirts at work in St Louis and I didn’t want to pack more than one pair of shoes. These shoes are awesome.

Met up with Dean after a long saturday of trying to get stuff done, but failing. We met at Valmont. My knee felt pretty good and I was able to ollie up curbs without pain. I went nuts, just ollieing like crazy, trying manuals, etc. About 10 minutes of that and boom, intense pain in the knee. Ugh. Pushing doesn’t hurt it so i just cruised around while Dean did some manuals. Then he went over to the ledge so I folled. Ollies still hurt (bad) so I just did switch flip attempts over and over and over. Some were close. None hurt. After awhile I noticed that my knee was feeling better so I skated “for real” for a bit. I got a line of crooked jib grind, 360 flip 5 point landing (4 wheels and one hand). I did a few front tails without much slide and a front 5-0 shove out. Dean almost got a sick line of fakie ollie off the early part of the kicker then quick into frontside halfcab to front noseslide. Get that Dean! Happy I was able to skate after an hour of pain, but I’m wondering if I’m doing more damage then good.

Epic.

My knee felt better the last couple days so I decided to risk it and go skate with everyone on old man skate night. In the first couple minutes I tried to do an impromptu axle stall with Fuzz on the brick qp, but just rolling up it the pain shot into my knee again. Ugh. I thought I was done that quick. I stood around for awhile which is kind of what all of us were doing. Brian’s back has been hurting him too. We’re old. Fuzz was wearing a “fat suit” (hoodie with hood tied tight) to sweat off some pounds. Ha. Half of the Denver Shop dudes showed up which made for some good skating to watch. Josh Murphy killed it. After some standing around the pain in my knee subsided and I tooled around on the smallest stuff at the park, the blue ledge and the quartapotty. I didn’t do anything great for me, but I was skating and I was able to do crooks, manuals and back 50s without much pain. Everyone else was playing a big game of add a trick. I think Conor won it. Dean boardslid the brown ledge. Eventually most of us moved to the other side of the park. Brian and Fuzz were doing some willy grinds to fakie on the brick qp. Dean front 180’d the rail out of the bump. Locals were killing the gnarly concrete bank hip. Neil was being elusive. I was trying noseslide 270 shove out over and over. Got close a lot, but the board kept hitting the ledge. I should wait longer to do the shove, but that would require skill. After some sitting around Fuzz, Dean and I played a game of SKATE that turned more into SKATERBOY or something. Eventually Fuzz and I just tried treflips over and over. He did a ton, I did a couple. We tried to pretend we were busting them in a line down a hill all easy. Kind of helped. But yeah, my knee worked!!! There was some pain for sure, but it kind of felt like it was working itself out. Hope it keeps on improving and doesn’t continue to need an hour to loosen up.

Day 2 of being Mr Mom. India went to a friends and Ollie wanted to skate. We went to Southern Hills. I did one ollie and the pain in my knee grounded me again. Ugh. I watched Ollie for a bit. He did a front 180 down the 2 stair and let me drag him out of there. Ugh.

Later on I was depressed and wanted to see how skating felt on Rampy since Ollie went through the trouble of cleaning it off. He ripped it with runs of backside and front side scratch grinds as well as front and back rock ‘n rolls. He also did lots of fakie ollies, body varials in the flat, manuals, etc. He rules. I sucked at everything, but ended with a first try front feeble. It’s crazy how tight Rampy is. After not skating it for so long it felt like two walls with no flat bottom. My knee had a constant pain, but not the intense pain that stopped me earlier in the day.

Skated in front of the house for a bit. I would try some tricks, wait a bit while the pain settled in the knee and go again. I tried a line of frontside 180, fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip, but never got it. Around the time I tried 3 flips the pain seemed to hurt more so I didn’t want to push it and went back inside and iced it.