Went to Valmont feeling tired, sore, unmotivated and uninspired, but looking at the weather it probably wont be dry for a long time so I still went. I parked before realizing there was a puddle in front of the ledge too so that sucked. I skated the manny pads for awhile. Almost had fun for a bit for awhile. Tried a long line with kickflip up a curb, manual, nose manual, back 180 up a curb, fakie bigspin off. Got to the bigspin, but almost died on it. Going the other way I tried sw 180 up a curb, ollie off, manual, front 180 nose manny (never landed) then a fakie ollie off a curb. I was obsessing over how low my board felt and hating on it and how cracked my tail was. I skated a bit of the ledge and tried a front tail shove and got close. Then I lost all motivation and left after my foot finished off my board. I hate how I obsess over setups. You would think after skating for 25 years I would remember that low trucks will eventually bum me out. Oh well, at least this time I landed a few tricks while I had them.

Finally made it to the Launch ramp! After work, driving to Ft Collins, doing business at MRKT then eating a burrito I met Chad at Launch where he volunteers. No one else was there. Rad. We walked in and before I even set my drink down Chad nose mannied up the box then came back and switch manualed it. Geez. We moved the boxes after it was clear I couldn’t ollie yet and skated the ramp for awhile. It’s a bit harder then it looks, but still really fun. I got a few grinds on the pool coping side and a few front disasters on the other side. It’s fun carving around the pool corner. Chad a super sick nollie front 360 and a bunch of rad ollies and basics. He wasn’t afraid to carve the corner then come flying at the manny pad and do a trick at full speed. One of my favorites to watch. Then we went back to the ledge off the ramp config. For awhile it was just one of the boxes off the ramp as a manny pad. Chad straight up ripped it. Nollie back heel switch manny down it first try. Frontside flip sw manny. Tricks that made me feel really old. My self deprecation was in effect. I was sucking. It took me forever to get a manual.

Ok, so every time I’ve skated low trucks I love it for awhile. Then I start to hate it. The last few times skating I’ve still liked it, but I’ve definitely started thinking it’s stupid. The problem is I’ve landed a lot of dream trucks on the low setup. Hardflip, cab flip, kick 50 shove. The thing I dislike is how tall ledges start feeling and it really hit me hard. I could not do anything. We started our runs out by ollieing over the blue barrier into the ramp. It looks super easy, but it’s kind of awkward. Well, for me it was. Chad did like 10 tricks into the ramp. I did manage 180s both ways and a kickflip or three. Ollies felt weird. I kept landing on my tail and cracked my board a bit. It took me for f’ing ever to commit to a front 50 off that thing. The blue wood sticking up weirded me out so much just saying “hey roll your ankle right here”. I managed to back 50 up it, turn around and front 50 down while setting the slowest speed record ever recorded at Launch. I almost got a kickflip up onto the ramp and a b/s flip out. I was feeling so old and awkward. Chad slayed that thing. We played a couple games of SKATE that Chad one. I proved that I can land a nollie treflip and not have a good day. Chad ripped it all night and was fun to be with, but my skating was some of my worst ever and I should have just skated the ramp. Ha. Now, time to obsess over taller trucks ..

Got out of work and what do you know, my car wont start. Had that problem in the morning too and had to jump it so it looks like it needs a new battery. Rather then taking care of that I did a few things and watched the Nuggets somehow destroy OKC for their 13 win. So awesome and so nothing to do with a skate journal. But its the reason I didn’t get out until 9pm. It was way colder then it should be. In the mid 40s, but with a cold wind. I had setup some new wheels. Some little Pig 50mm wheels. They had been taunting me at Crisis for a long time so I got some. My first non-Null wheels in years. Out of the gate they seemed great. And I warmed up pretty quick and had the drive to push a little faster then normal (not saying much). I had some boardslide pop outs and noseslide pop outs to get warmed up. Then came kickflips and some stalls on the curb. The box in the photo wasn’t there initially. I got some crooked grinds on the middle section. They felt super good. So good I kept doing them. I guess the narrower wheels let me lock in a little better. I got a couple treflips after, but both were super bad. Looking back I hardly landed anything frontside. Did I even try? Man, I landed like two front 50s and a really bad front tail. Oh and a couple front noseslides to fakie. I tried a bunch of flip tricks. After bailing a frontside trick I would do a nollie heel or nollie flip attempt. Those weren’t close. Well, the first one was close, but it must have been luck. I tried a bunch of fakie big flips going fast. That trick isn’t working lately. I got one. Coming back I would try the fastest nollie tres I’ve ever tried. I got one. I landed on almost every one of them though. That trick rules. Later on I put this box after it and ollied it in a couple tries. It felt neat. I put it upright too which was way taller and didn’t have the cajones to commit. I got tired quick around then and the wind kicked in overdrive so I went home. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a bad day skating when I land a nollie tre. Love that trick.

These two awesome people picked me up on a windy Sunday afternoon with no real plans that I know of. We ended up at the steep banks – aka the Neil banks – aka Inotech (not quite Initech from Office Space). No one seemed overly hyped on the spot and Jack and I dorked around on bank wallie to sidewalk stall to trick back in. I never landed anything, but Jack got a wallie back 50 shove it to axle stall or something crazy like that.

We moved on and ended up at the weird basketball court/skatepark near Neil’s house. Neil even joined us for a bit and landed a rare (or maybe his first ever?) nollie nose manual. I had a blast. I’m not sure why I found it so funny, but everything was making me laugh. Neil falling, Jack doing wallie 180s sidweways up a ledge or hanging up in the crack between picnic table boards, everything was funny. Even when I fell which I did a lot of. Fortunately for me if I’m falling that normally means I’m actually trying stuff that hypes me up. I had a couple lines on the little curb like kickflip up, b/s flip off. Front 180 up, f/s halfcab flip off. Got a line of nose manual the little one, then ollie up the taller curb and then a board stall transfer up onto the top of the ledges and go the other way and ollie onto a picnic table. I did quite a few kick back 50s and started trying shove it’s out and got a sketchy one. I was super hyped. Last thing for me was an ollie onto the table and front 180 off. It was propped up after the tall ledge so it wasn’t much to get on it. Carleigh did some of her first front 5-0s ever, posted up front tailslides, came somewhat close to shove out, did some back 50s and hucked a lot of flip tricks. Jack seemed to be having a blast too. He had a lot of funny falls too. He tried a lot of drop down 50s, did a crazy late shove to disaster from the upper ledge to the lower one, tried to no comply up from the low curb to the top ledge, and a lot more that escapes my mind right now.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means quick break in period)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 10 skate days

Another couple weeks and another shoe review. I’ve been blowing through shoes like nobody’s business. Vox shoes run a little wide and the Class X is no exception. My feet aren’t that wide so I had some discomfort with my toes sliding around in them. They do have great board feel though and these shoes take almost no time to break in. The uppers help up pretty good and it was several sessions before I had to shoe goo the section where my razor toe sticks out. I superglued the stitching on the toe cap before skating them though which I think gave the upper a longer life. The soles didn’t hold up very well and I only skated them 10 days before the hole on the sole appeared which is my signal to move on to new shoes. If you have wide feet and want a slim, stylee shoe the Class X might be perfect for you.

Went to Denver with Bernie and Scotty for a Bernie day. We went to the new spot which is all the rage. It’s so fun. I tried to skate while Bernie warmed up, but I was so sore/stiff/exhausted from the day before that it was tough. I slammed ollieing down the 3 stair right as Daryl drove by and yelled “Glennnnnn!”. Ha. I responded with “I’m old!” Things didn’t get much better for me and Bernie started trying a long switch nose manual. He came close. The majority of the time I was filming that I pushed switch. So for about an hour and a half I pushed switch and it felt kinda cool. He never got it, but we went to the ledge in the back area where Bernie easily took out my soreness in a game of SKATE. Then we both skated the ledge for a bit. I got a few basics (noseslide, boardslide, crooks) when Bernie did the trick he wanted to do perfect. Front tail 270 out to super quick feet front 180 down the 3. Doh, I should have been filming. He did it again before I got the camera out. He did it a few more times on film, but probably not as good as the first couple. Oh well, he added a couple more tricks on to his bag for the day and we called it a success. Then we went to Crisis and hung out for a bit. Good times.

The forecast was for upper 70s so I took the day off work. I started it off by listening to Green Mind while cleaning for awhile then watched Shape Duece while setting up a new board. A new board already? Yes, Derek broke his filming so I gave him mine at the end of the night. Since everyone skates big boards now my 8″ pile is just sitting there so I decided to trim down a little and skate one of those. The plan was to meet Neil, Brett and Dave at the new new Thornton park (above). Everyone had said it’s a “Glen park” meaning it’s full of dumb, mellow stuff. Ha. I got there first and indeed it is a neat park. I’m not gonna call it my favorite or anything though. Brett showed second and brought his boombox hooked up to a Pandora station playing a few good rap songs mixed in with mostly really bad rap songs. Neil showed shortly after that and it was just the three of us for quite a while with one other dude. It was fun. Neil had lots of ollies everywhere, wallies, krooks shove first try on the ledge, boardslides and a nosegrind or two. Brett had some cool nose stall body varials on the little bank to curb (in the back ground behind the hubba/bank), but then broke his board on a kickflip fakie. He got so mad. I struggle to skate in the morning and although this morning went better than normal I still struggled with some basics like a back 50 on a little rainbow ledge and ollies into the bank. But I did do some stuff I was hyped on like a few kickflip pivots on the bank to curb, front 50 the bank to curb, fakie bigflip over a mellow hip. Dave showed up and did a lot of cool stuff. His friend Simon showed too and ripped the place. It started getting really crowded though with bmxers, scooter kids, skaters, parents letting their toddlers walk around in the skatepark, etc. We left after Dave got a couple feeble grinds on the bank to curb and I got a line with a front 50 on the bank to curb, a nose manual on the tiny manual pad and a backside kickflip on the bank above the bench then frontside 180 off the bench. Fun.

We went to a nearby light pole with a bit of transition up to it next. Neil had gone to work. We skated this awkward thing for a good hour or so. I should have taken a photo, but not having a data plan anymore and not being able to Instagram makes me forget about shooting photos. It took a bit before we got some pivots and axle stalls on it. Simon killed it with wallie, wallie melon and wallie indy to the street. He also did a front pivot and a pivot fakie. So ridiculous. Brett got a couple nose stalls and rock ‘n rolls. I did a axle stall and eventually a few frontside wallies which I was really hyped on. Dave did some smooth pivots, wallies and a awesome street plant to fakie.

Then we went to Northglenn park and met up with Bernie. Brett had left. My Vox shoes had totally died at the last spot so I was rolling in some new shoes. Emerica Liverpools. They seemed good although a bit bulky. I mostly just skated flatground with Bernie as I was really sore. Nollie tres came pretty quick. I also had a run with boardslide the ledge, treflip on flat then a bigflip on a flat bank (although I landed at 90 degrees and stalled for a second). After a bit I joined Dave and Simon skating this little qp at the top. Simon was doing switch frontside 5-0s. Dave was working on back tails. I scraped a little backside slash to fakie and threw in some flip tricks after. What a fun day. After that I went home and grabbed the family and we went to the Nuggets game which ended up being a crazy game where the Nuggets somehow won. Awesome.

It was a super nice night out. I went to Denver to film with Derek. We went to warm up at 18th & Welton. I had done a couple wallrides on the jersey barriers and slappy 50s on the banked ledge when Derek did a front blunt to fakie (into the tranny) in a couple tries. It was off to filming after that and he got a line with the front blunt in only a few tries then we spent a long time at the courthouse before getting kicked out and Derek finished off his badly cracked board.

Had a rough day at work and all kinds of stuff going on. It was cold, but I wanted skate more then Rampy. I went outside and 30 degrees didn’t seem so bad so I hit Red Curbs after dropping off a box of boards to FedEx. There was a lot of puddles so mostly just the two main curbs and the 2 stair ledge were skateable. I warmed up with lots of slappy tails and stuff. I had all tracks from Dinosaur Jr on shuffle which was hyping me up. I got some lines early on like noseslide the ledge, boardslide the curb then quick little kick back tail the next curb. Slappy front trail coming the other way then front tailslide the next curb. Crooks the ledge, boardslide the curb, kick back 50 the little curb. Halfcab noseslide the ledge, kickflip a puddle, almost another kick back tail. Front 50 slappy the curb, front lip the taller curb (took awhile), bailed a b/s flip over a puddle. I tried a lot of flippers which always makes me feel like I’m actually skating. Got a rare f/s flip. Also hucked some ledge tricks like front board pop out on the ledge, fakie nosegrind a curb. A few 360 flips with 6 point landings (4 wheels, 2 hands). A fun little dork trick of manual to a little grind on the far side of the manny pad to rock ‘n roll tap out (whatever that’s called). I ended up having way more fun then I thought I would. Can’t wait for the warmer weather coming!

Dave had been wanting to do a Denver parking garage mission for awhile and made it happen today. We met at Crisis and rolled to Denver around 6pm on a cold day. We started at a Chase parking garage with lots of yellow curbs and manny pads. Warming up took me awhile. We were all kinda doing our own thing. Dave ran into a random dude he knew from running a shop in Alaska. I starting trying flip tricks and on the first heelflip snap went my tail off. Crap. First spot, 20 minutes in. I knew I should have setup a new board after cracking it so bad the day before. It was too late to make a run to 303, but luckily Dave had his vert setup in the car. It was a pointy nosed, square tailed deck with 59mm wheels. So quite a bit different then my normal Venture low, 52mm setup. Ha. I skated it though. Not so much at this garage. Fuzz slammed really hard shortly after that then we got the boot by an angry security guard.

We ended up at some hotel garage for awhile and hit this weird slappy to slappy curb. Fuzz did it frontside. Dave did a long one backside. I did some silly boneless to tail over it. Then we got the boot by another angry security guard. We checked some other spots out for awhile. Fuzz had some sick downhill mannies in one before another really bad slam trying a powerslide on rough concrete. It was really bad. After that we dorked out on one of those plastic speed bump things. Lots of chinese ollies/nollies/180s/grabs/etc. Fuzz slammed yet again on a gap to 50 attempt. He was hurting. I tried Jason’s crack trick of fakie body varial chinese fakie ollie, but never committed. Dave did a sick switch back 180 version. We rolled a bit more then ended up in another garage where we lasted a long time and it was super warm. Mid 60s probably. Sweet!

Some fun hillbombs in this one. Ended up finding this tall ledge that Fuzz noseslid, front boarded and front 50d it. So sick.

Fuller got buck with a caveman front 50 too.

After a hillbomb I found a little hip that led to a couple parking blocks. We slappied one for awhile. Dave did the best, steeziest, slappy crooks ever. Fuzz and I were in disbelief. I don’t even want to try that trick anymore after that. Then we moved one of the blocks around as you can see in this picture with two dudes pointing at the block. Why they pointed is a mystery to me, but the curb put a beating on us. I slammed hard on a wallie to manual attempt where the big ass wheels i was riding just went over the parking block and into the gap before the curb. Ouch. Dave had some pretty bad slams too on tricks like no comply to manual. We had a blast though. Dave got no comply manual. Fuzz learned no complies up. I wallie manual and almost no comply to manual. Dave tried a bunch of crazy tricks. Wallie back 180 nose manual. Switch no comply. He didn’t get them, but came super close. I had started going some flip tricks on the vert board and managed a b/s flip over the micro hip and a halfcab flip. It’s gonna be so easy to flip my little board after that. We eventually got kicked out by a security guard that really didn’t want to kick us out, but had to do his job. That was pretty much the evening. Dave did a downhill back 50. I kind of bombed a hill. Dave slammed pushing. Then we got some yummy pizza and headed home. Super fun night.