We all met at Crisis. Dave was a little later so Fuzz and I played on the red curb in his shop for awhile. Nothing serious, just kinda doing different slappy stalls and stuff. Then we piled in Dave’s car and headed to Denver. First spot was the bank to curb behind the church on Broadway. Perfect warm up spot. We played a game of SK8 that kind of dissolved, but was fun and full of basic tricks (until Dave started doing eggplant variations). Fuzz learned a nose stall body varial. Fuller learned the Rattray River Dance trick. And since I don’t have a good name that starts with Fu (although I’m sure you can think of one) I did the typical Glen kickflip pivot thing (although it was more back smith). We were laughing pretty hard at times. Fuzz did a nose stall revert that had a late extra revert. Things like that get us laughing and stoked. We pushed on, ended up at 18th & Welton. The barriers had snow on them. The ledge had a bit, but Dave put his gloves to use and cleaned it off. He then proceeded to do super long boardslides then worked on boardslide to fakie. It took him a minute, but he put it down. That’s a ridiculous trick. Fuzz and I were struggling with the boardslides and switch boardslide attempts. Fuzz had some sick slappy back 50s though. I got me a fun feeling run of slappy feeble stall, wallride a barrier then kickflip a steaming manhole (man that sounds bad) cover. I tried another line coming the other way of back 180 off the curb cut (man I suck at back 180s), switch mongo push (yeap Jack), sw 180 up the curb then front 5-0 the ledge. Never got the ledge trick. We moved on. It’s all kind of a blur for awhile. We hit a bunch of different parking garages. Dave did some really long boardslides. We almost got locked in a stairwell. We did some 50s down some parking garage curbs. We rolled by the elevated bank spot and all got ollie up to frontside wallrides first try. So we left. Spot destroyed. Hit another plaza for a bit. Fuzz went for a crazy ollie up then manual, but didn’t have the hops. Dave and I tried some boardslides. I got kinda close to crooks. It was pretty crazy with all the christmas lights shining all bright everywhere. We ended up at the Chase garage with the good manny pad. That place has crazy flat lighting and it was messing with me pretty bad. Dave was the only one to land a legit manual. I got a kickflip up, no comply 180 off. Fuzz was kinda chilling. Then we hit the granite two stair area that is one of my favorite spots in Denver. Fuzz did the rad little grind on the skate stopper. Dave did a cool wallie. Last time I was there my knees sucked and I could barely ollie up a two. This time however I felt great. After taking a bit to get a front shove down a two I had a rare streak of skating where I actually felt great. Did a run of front shove down a two, ollie up two and then back 180 off two. Simple tricks I know, but felt so good. Then for one of my favorite lines ever. First try kickflip down two, ollie up two, back 180 down two, roll a bit, turn around, heelflip on flat and then come back and almost backside flip a two. It was so close. I got back to the b/s flip one more time and didn’t get as close. Also came really close to kickflip up a two. Got switch front 180 down and was gonna try to line out til b/s flip again, but we got the boot which was kind of a blessing as I was breathing heavy and tired. That is the best I’ve felt on a skateboard in a long time. Made me really happy. I guess I haven’t done tricks down anything in a long time as I felt like I was landing really hard. Like my body would get jolted all crazy. This is only a two stair. Ha. Oh well, need to keep street skating like this. It’s the best.

My picks for parts of the year and stuff. The online stuff is easy to post, but a real part on a DVD still counts the most to me. So part of the year goes to Cory Kennedy in Pretty Sweet. Video of the year is the 5Boro video.

Best online part – Mark Suciu – Cross Continental.

Best not-a-full-on-part part – Austyn Gillette – Quik.

Honorable mention – PJ Ladd – Cruising NYC

All in all a pretty good year for skateboarding in my opinion. Now if only people would stop supporting the mega corporations.

Finally got Ollie out on the skateboard again. Don’t worry I didn’t force him. We skated and had fun. His first run was pretty rad and had a big fakie ollie in it. After awhile he dropped his board during a dropin then jumped on it when it came back. So that became the trick for a bit. I thought it was terrifying the first time I jumped back on, but it wasn’t too hard and since Rampy is so small it’s basically jumping to flat (although the other side comes up quick!). Ollie got a front rock then Liz kicked him out for bed time and claims he can’t skate it again until I figure out to prevent cement dust from littering the air. Doh. I skated a bit longer and had a total blast. I tried a bunch of those lien boneless things to tail. Maybe got a couple. Tried to do a regular boneless to tail, but my little wheels bounce so weird off the big ass pool coping. Got a Joe Hamilton (fakie front 50 to rock ‘n roll), frontside pivot, front ds, front d off the nose (which I havne’t done in a long time) and skated pretty well for me.

Jake came over on a chilly night and we went out to Rampy with the intention of chipping the coping some more and kicking up dust. As you can see we succeeded. The good news though, is that since most of the gray paint has already been chipped off the dust was no where near as bad. In some ways I think it’s still funner to skate then it was with the steel coping. We skated about an hour. Jake did quite a few tricks as usual. Pivot fakies and back blunts are the norm for him now. He tried to add front blunt, but didn’t quite get it. I had some decent runs for me. Put down quite a few front ds and front ts, even a couple front pivots which is the scariest trick ever. I gotta learn that one though.

I saw my uncle Frank over summer and he gave me another folder of Psycho Unity comics to scan and post. I’ll try to upload one a week. So here’s the first one, going political again.

On the coldest day of the season so far I had a busy morning, played some basketball with Ollie, ate some nachos, watched some football then got out for a quick session before some Christmas Tree shopping. It was in the middle 20s. And when the wind kicked in it was really cold. I haven’t been to this school for a long time. I wasn’t expecting a day that epic and I surely didn’t get it. I did have fun though. My favorite thing about that spot is doing tricks up/down the curbs after a ledge trick. I got close to back 180 up, halfcab noseslide then no comply 180 off. The other way I almost got kickflip up then front 50. That ledge is scary to 50 because each section between the stoppers is only like 3 feet long. The cracks mess with me too. On top of that I seem to have less pop then ever. Ugh. Other tricks ledge tricks I got were front noseslide (horrible), front board, crooks, noseslide, boardslide, noseslide fakie. Posed halfcab noseslide to fakie, front tail. After about 20 minutes the bushings had froze up and stopped turning. Ugh. That’s one of the worst parts of winter. I didn’t really land much, but I did actually try a few things that scared me and made me feel like I was pushing myself. I should go to this spot more, it’s fun. Maybe when it’s warmer and the wax actually sticks to the ledge.

Picked up Jason, then met Dean, Derek, Blaine, Connor and John at Crisis and went to Valdez in Denver. Super fun spot. Lots of ledges. A really long ledge. Max, Jeff, JJ and Sam met up with us. Max is the only one I saw land anything on the long ledge with a lipslide. All the other young kids came close. John and I had some fun lines going. John had noseslide shove, no comply 180 then switch noseslide 270. I never saw him get too close on the last one. I was kinda dorking, trying halfcab noseslides and then coming the other way a boardslide firecracker down the side of the 3 stair. Pretty fun. Derek did a sick switch front tail 270 out. Connor almost got bluntslide across the gap. Crazy. Then we got the boot.

We went to the nearby curb cut hill spot so Derek could do his b/s flip which he did rather quickly. I skated the hill a little after too and had one of my favorite runs in awhile. I did nothing cool, but did a bunch of powerslides that were super fun. Powerslide, ollie the curb cut to the street (barely popped it), a bunch of powerslides, barely ollie a manhole, powerslides. I wasn’t going all that fast, but normally I lose control after awhile and just bomb until I run out of it rather then control it the whole way. Super fun. Jeff popped over the big gap too and had some fun hill lines. Next up we went to a little curb cut over a bench that the kids weren’t feeling so much. They moved on and I tried to ollie it a few more times, but couldn’t quite pull the trigger. Doh. It had a weird backside carve into it. Last spot is what you see in the photo. I filmed Connor get a rad line, then played a game of SKATEBOARDBEYINDTHEREALSPOT with Connor and John that was uninspired, clumsy and kind of fun. After that it was a night at the movies and we went to see the Danny Way documentary. Pretty gnarly.

A cold front was moving in and it felt way colder then it’s been in awhile. The kids were having sleepovers at friends so Liz and I were gonna have a date night. That gave me a little over an hour to do some skating. So I stopped and hit campus. First spot I found was this. Carleigh and I had seen it a long time ago, it’s a little off campus. But somehow I remembered and after some pushing around I went at the ledges. Frontside there is a weird crack right before you ollie, but they are still really good. I was skating pretty bad, but I think it’s the first time the bushing had frozen up in awhile and I wasn’t used to it. I did a few front tails on the lowest one and was trying halfcab flip noseslide coming the other way. I actually got into one and was thinking today would be my day. Instead some lady that claims to have raised 10 million dollars for the building decided I shouldn’t be destroying the concrete. I think she was a little weirded out when I peacefully asked her what other purpose the ledges served. Ha. I left though. Ended up near the rec center area and took a bit to get a fun line of back 180 up a sidewalk, switch front 180 off, wallride a jersey barrier then pole jam this little midget pole jam that was on the edge of a sidewalk. Next I ended up at the parking lot below the 13 where I posed some ollies over one of the red barrier things. I almost got to the point where I could pull the trigger, but not quite. I went for some flat ground by the art building and since I was sucking I told myself I had to do 20 tricks before I left. It took a long time. There were a few 180s, no complys, etc in there, but lots of flippers too and I eventually got 20 tricks and bolted home. My flippers are not on point lately. I couldn’t even get remotely close to a treflip. Glad I skated though.

Unloaded a bunch of boards, set up a new one then did a few kickflips in the living room. Not sure this should count as a skate journal entry, but it’s more then some sponsor me tapes I’ve gotten.

On a super warm night (55!!!) I headed downtown craving bricks after unloading a bunch of new boards. I parked right by Wells Fargo and started on the QP area for a bit. I would do a trick up the curb, trick on the qp, then trick off the curb. It started with ollie, pivot, 180. Then 180, fakie pivot, back 180. Kickflip, front tail, kickflip. Rad. Moved onto the brick section, skated the red ledge for a front 50 or two, but the lights turned off. Moved over to the corner and was working on line of ollie onto the little ledge and ride around it, cross the street, ollie up the 2, kickflip off. Came kind of close to first try, then got worse and then got kicked out.

Then I went over by the tea house which I have no idea why I haven’t headed over there before. There was all kinds of fun to be had. I posed a few ollies down the 5. Not sure why I didn’t commit. Ollied up the curb above then over the curb in the back to the bike path. Came from the bike path, ollied up, 180’d the 2. Really fun. Tried a line from almost Arapahoe where I did a no comply 180, sw 180 up the curb, ollie onto the second stair of the 5, but I couldn’t commit to that. My legs were not somehow not hurting after all these ollies. I rolled around for a bit looking for a good flatground area to do a few tricks before calling it a night. Ended up by the Walnut rail when some wasted girl came over wanting to ride my board and would not leave me alone so I left. Ended up at the Wells Fargo parking lot and did a few treflips before cracking my board really bad.

Which is kind of awesome considering I got new boards that night. I had a blast. It was such a warm and awesome night. I had my mp3 player on shuffle. My legs felt good. I think there was an exercise at the gym I was doing that was hurting my knees. I stopped doing it and my knees feel better. Hopefully that’s the case and skating gets a little easier again.