My new knee brace arrived in the mail and I didn’t hesitate to put it to the test. After selling boards to Crisis and 303 Carleigh, Fuzz, I and eventually John hit downtown Denver for some shredding. A few people we knew were at 303 and asked if we wanted to roll with them. We mentioned downtown streets and the reaction was “Ewww”. They mentioned Denver park and we were like “Ewww”. Ha ha.

The three of us started above the downhill 16th st mall ledge spot at a huge set of stairs. 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2. It’s a great warmup because all we did initially was ollie and firecracker each set. It’s a blast. Fuzz and I did doubles without ollies or firecracker. Pretty funny. A couple older 30 somethings riding down two stairs. It was a little foreign to me initially since I haven’t hit any stairs in awhile. I wanted to early grab all 5 holding on the whole time, but could only do two. We firecrackered out and went down to the ledge spot. Carleigh worked on front tails and got a good one. I tried to manual from the curb cut to the two stair, powerslide, then boardslide popout. Never got close. Fuzz and I messed around with some downhill lines that were a blast. The first one was manual a sidewalk section, ollie onto a sketchy ledge and off, ollie off the curb cut then head on downhill for some powerslides. It was at this point I started believing in my knee brace and really skating. I was so happy after that line I probably had tears in my eyes. We messed around there awhile longer. I failed at ollieing one of the white posts. Had a fun front 180 into the street and a downhill switch 180. We decided to move on bombing the hill and heading right. I blew it though and bailed a curb ollie and got to watch Carleigh and Fuzz cruise down while I ran after my board. Dork! I caught up and surprised myself with an ollie up a curb then somewhat quick front 180 up a two. These are the things I’ve missed so much. I ollied the little curb above the 4 stair thing at the World Trade Towers to 30 stair landing (I was worried that impact would hurt (it didn’t! (whew!))). We went to try some wallrides, but got the boot and ended up at the marble ledge between the Sheratons. Fuzz got a boardslide to manual pretty quick, but had to avoid a taxi on the ride out and hit a crack stopping him. He tried and tried, but didn’t get it again. Not even letting a dog attack and slober all over his board would help. I got a front board transfer to fakie. It didn’t slide, but it felt really good. After no less than 10 calls for directions John showed up. He killed some noseslides and switch slappy front noseslides. We pushed for awhile. I slammed trying to front 180 a manhole. It hurt. We skated a mini curb cut thing. John called out back 180’s as the first trick. They did good ones. Mine was horrendous. I’d rather go backside flip. Ha. Which I eventually did with some nice toe drag. Fuzz and John got some good front shoves. Carleigh got back 180. John, Fuzz and I tried and failed at treflips. My back ankle was hurting in an arthritis type of pain. No knee pain though still!

Man this is a long journal entry because I haven’t street skated like this in so long! We hit this ledge area by the Convention Center that is new and amazing. The ground is perfect. I had fun ollieing some manholes quick. Fuzz did front 180 the first sw front 180 the second. So quick wow. John had some good noseslides and then we started trying lines. I did a no comply 270 to back tail stall then kickflipped a manhole (without popping the tail somehow) and then ate shit on a noseslide. It felt amazing. Sure I would have rather landed the noseslide, but slamming is a part of the game and I haven’t done it enough lately. I got up hyped beyond belief that I was skating for real. John did our trick (no comply 270 to back tail) on a bench (so tall for that trick!). So crazy. Fuzz went off for a minute doing noseslides to fakie then coming around and trying some weird no comply sal flip variation to front tail. He was having troubles missing the grab on his board (that wanted to go far away on a Voyage) so he used my board and nailed it first t.

I thought we were done, but we realized we were right next to a fun parking garage that Fuzz and I have bombed into before. I got a little gap to manual quick for me, but couldn’t manage the speed to get around the corner. John bailed at the first sign of security, Fuzz went for his line still of ollie a kicker, manual then hill bomb. He made it all but the manual. Night ever. Glenny stoked to skate for hours and not have knee pain. Lets do it again friends!

This part rules.

insane.

I really needed a day like this. After a nap, basketball with Ollie and some leftovers the kids wanted to watch one of our family favorites, The Incredibles. Even though that movie completely rules (especially the part when Dash starts running on water) we have seen it so many times. I opted to go skating. I decided to wear my big knee brace until the tendonitis brace arrives. I had a brand new board that was still hot off the presses! This is the new 8.125 shape. Seems good. I got deep on the griptape art. Looks simple, but really it’s a pile of rocks to remind me to be patient and get my skating back one step at a time.

I went for a solo session for several reasons. First, I just want to dork around to relearn stuff and I’m too embarrassed to try some stuff with anyone around. Second, who knows how long my knee will hold up. It could be five minutes and I’m done like it was in Denver the other night. I started with slappy tailslides, worked up to front 50s, manuals and then pretty much started trying everything. I didn’t land much and if this was a year ago I’d probably be complaining about how little I did. But for where I’m at right now I was hyped. I skated hard, broke out in a sweat and even slammed hard a couple times. Man it felt great. I tried a line of front 5-0 on the little curb, front tail the taller one then b/s flip on flat. Never got a legit tailslide, they all stuck and I’d get off right away. Got close to halfcab noseslide the taller one then kick back tail the second. Took awhile to get a manual, tried to line it out with kick back 50, but never got kick back 50. I did commit every time and they were close though. Tried a few nollie tres. Got some back 50s. Ollie over a yellow flat bar. Almost got a nose manny. Mostly basics and I have a long ways to go to be happy with my skating, but man it felt so great to skate hard, sweat and fall down.

I obviously did not know this person before reading this, but thank you for making skateboarding better. RIP.

This is a rad interview with one of Colorado’s finest.

Tired from the late night before, work and then eating a large meal with Liz. Had a few minutes while she went to pick up India so I decided to roll over to the yellow curb again. This time I was determined to try and actually skate a little more. Didn’t really work. I waxed a section of curb, but it still stuck quite a bit. The asphalt there is horrible so trying to actually move and do tricks is frustrating. With that said I did a couple crappy lines. Back 50, ollie up a curb, back 180 off. Ollie off a curb, kickflip on flat, front 50. My knee wanted to start hurting. I did a few flip tricks in the street and called it a day. I am not hyped on my body and how long it’s been since I’ve been healthy. Tomorrow marks seven months since the knee pain started.

This day had all the makings in the world to be a weird one and well, it was. The day started early enough as birthday boy Dean, Jack and eventually Carleigh showed up at my house. We headed into Denver, said whaddup to Jeff, picked up Chad and ended up at a fun loading dock spot. I did some warming up as others did. It was a reminder to what a bad state of street skating i’m in. Worrying if every ollie will hurt is not good. The only things I did badly were a crooks on a step and a horrible front shove into a bank. After that Jack and Chad slayed while I pointed the camera. We also met up with Rachel which was cool. After some driving and mingling we drove to downtown where Jack slayed a rail and we were to meet up with Tyler. Tyler and Steve showed. Rad. Then most of the of the Denver skate scene showed up too. Ha. I filmed Chad for awhile almost get a sick line, but we got the boot. We ended up at the hill spot around the corner where lots of lurking ensued while the girls skated the ledge and some random shredding started. It’s impossible to remember what others did because I was kinda being weirded out and hiding. Some dudes started going for the longest powerslides and a good ol’ powerslide session ensued. I was up top taking 100 tries to get a little manual though. Ugh. I did get it and the mellow hill bomb after felt pretty fun. We eventually left, stopped by Tabor were Rachel and Jack got buck, CARLEIGH LEARNED TO FIRECRACKER A THREE STAIR OH MY GOSH and we called it a day. This entry is way more boring than the day was. We went on to have a fun BBQ at Fuzz’s in honor of Dean’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dean! Thanks Fuzz and Leslie for being such good hosts and awesome people. Sorry for making all the hornets nests.

Bummed to see he’s not on Cruz though ..

I’m even a TPuds fan and I can’t believe this would win Tampa Pro. Not a single tranny trick. I don’t mind that he’s just chilling and walking around instead of running, but man, that is not flowing. You gotta link your run for the most part. Getting up on the deck a couple times is ok, but between every two tricks? Not cool.