Surprisingly the day after seeing Pissed Jeans I was not wrecked. Bernie and I took the Metro to downtown DC with no idea what to skate other then Freedom Plaza. We didn’t want to start there though. First thing we found was this little flat bar that you didn’t have to pop out of. I was feeling really weird, maybe it was old age. I’m gonna say that at least. Bernie did a bunch of front boards and some to manny off the curb. We saw these dollar bill people walking and he asked them to pose for the money shot. Ha ha. I had a fun run of back board pop out on a different one, then crooks this one then a b/s flip to stop. Every trick landed like I was about 55 years old.

We found this a few blocks later. It was another frustrating session for me. I actually slammed pretty hard and rolled down a couple of them. Ugh. Bernie was killing it though. Manaul the low one ollie up to the 2nd still manualing and ollie the 2. Mannies, nose mannies, 180s out, kickflip out (with a sore ankle even). Bern was ripping. I got one lousy manual and a bunch of frustration. Some dude in an I Love Haters DGK shirt came up and did a heelflip on my board in some thick basketball shoes. Pretty tight.

Pretty sure we ended up here next. Bernie did this ride over the grate a few times. So sick. I struggled to ollie that high, but ended up getting a couple wallrides and a front 180 fakie one like Bernie did a bunch.

We pushed downhill through crowds of people and ended up at Freedom Plaza which was totally mobbed with people. We didn’t even try to skate. Those ledges are not short. It was cool to see such an iconic skate spot. The Suciu back tail gap out is pretty nuts.

Saw the gold rail nearby and whipped out this NBD first try.

Then we hit this fun somewhat downhill area for a bit. There was a circle of stairs. 3 or 4 down, 2 up. And some good asphalt in the street and sidewalks above it. I started with ollie up the curb, ollie down the 3, 180 up the 2. Bernie manualed the sidewalk then ollied the 4. I ended up doing my favorite line of the trip with kickflip up the curb, manual a sidewalk section, ollied up the curb then ollied the 4. Put a smile on my face. It was a narrow 4 too and my knee almost hit the ledge. It felt cool to ollie it. We moved on.

We found this little kicker in a back alley that had lots of weird traffic. I guess it was kind of an art studio area or something, but it was weird. We both had some some ollies off it. Mine didn’t pop of course. I back 180’d it with some nice tic tacs that Bernie called steezy since his phone took the photo way too late.

Real close was a sick ledge as a manny pad or off a 3 stair. We went around the corner just to see what it had to offer and it was this cool downhill long ledge with flat gaps in it. Bernie ollied one then ollied the next to manual. So sick. I couldn’t ollie one of the flat gaps to save my life. We got a friendly kick out and kept going. There was the same downhill ledge going the other way which was more of a frontside ollie and I was finally able to ollie a flat gap.

This was right nearby and easily the hardest I’ve laughed in awhile. Bernie would ollie onto it and when he would ride off he would fall into dirt every time. It was so funny. I had to do the lame ollie up to rock and yank it up onto the ledge to ride it. Then we spotted a weird ledge. See where Bernie is in the photo above? Click on it, blow it up, analyze it. The runway is a narrow step. If you go off into the metal grate you hang up. So no angle at all in the approach. The ledge was a bit taller to get on then it looks, but still not tall. The landing has a handrail if you get too out of control.

Bernie back 50’d it a bunch then back 5-0’d it first try.

I took a million tries to get a front 50 both hands down that would only count if you were 50 or older. Oh well. I normally take a lot of angle into front 50s so it was really weird for me. Hyped to have mostly landed it though. This was pretty much the end of downtown. We found a little granite ledge that I did a few crooked grinds on. It was not waxed and sharp and felt pretty raw to grind. It put some crazy grooves in my trucks too. I thought we were done for the day, we took the Metro back to Alexandria, but got off at a different stop to meet Josh.

We got to the stop before Josh and this was directly across from the Metro stop. WTF!!! There were 4 of these in a row and they were not even touched. We got to skate for about 30 minutes, all of which was a blast for me. I thought this spot was beyond amazing. Wallie’ing the corners ruled. Bernie did a front wallie to manual. These did not grind unfortunately. Some wax would have made them go, but we didn’t have any. I just had a blast lining out wallies and different stalls. Got front feeble, back smith, back crooks, a lot. Finally didn’t feel old. Got a wallie front 180. Then we was out.

This band was at the top of my must see list. Mainly because I love their music, but also because I’ve heard they put on one hell of a live show. So when they announced they were playing on my 40th birthday in DC where I’ve owed my homie Josh a trip for years it was on. Bernie signed up for the trip too and the three of us showed up at the Black Cat before the doors to upstairs were open. We were in high spirits and got to meet the band and chat a little. I made a song request of Dream Smotherer. The song that changed me from fan to fanatic. White Lung was the opener. Bernie liked them, but Josh and I were happy when their short set ended.

Pissed Jeans hit the stage and opened with Dream Smotherer. Oh man. And it just got better from there. They only played newer songs from Honeys and King Of Jeans. The material from Honeys was insanely intense. Romanticize Me, In Vain and Bathroom Laughter almost made my head explode. The band was giving it their all. Matt Korvette is a lunatic on the stage and it rules. Saluting flags, swinging his legs around, climbing the wall with his hands on the ground and feet on the wall, standing completely still during Cafeteria Food, rocking a hilarious mohawk, a million things that made amazing music even more enjoyable to watch. The guitarist Brad was rocking out super hard too. They seriously killed it. Their closer was False Jesii Part 2 and they seemed like they had finally ran out of energy. It was a short, but sweet set. They came back out on different instruments and messed around a bit starting off Boring Girls before bringing in a random fan from the crowd, pulled his pants down and gave him the mic. He didn’t really know the words, but the crowd did. Then the guitar switched to a fan and it just kind of fell apart into this hilarious noisy mess where the only original band member still on stage was the drummer. Then it was over. Amazing show. Not sure where it fits in my all time list, but it was pretty darn epic and I’m so glad I was able to finally see them.

After the show the band was at the merch booth again so I asked for a photo op. Sean decided it would be funny to stand right in front of me for the photo. So funny.

Once again, so funny.

“Thanks for coming to our show” – Matt Korvette. Sure thing. It’s always cool when you meet a band and they are nicer then you would think. Thanks to Pissed Jeans, Bernie and Josh for making my 40th Bday so awesome!

After a long day of site seeing and walking in a rainy morning in DC Josh brought Bernie and I to this skatepark near his place. It was really crowded with high water pants, plant life socks and tiny wheels. We did a few boardslides and stuff on the edge of the park. Bernie had hurt his ankle before the trip so he was testing it out. I did a few early grabs off the launch ramp which was more air then I’ve got in awhile. It’s a tall launch ramp. I saw Bernie get a nice front tail front 270 out. I had a little line with boardslide the tall flatbar, b/s flip on a flat bank then front 50 a little ledge. I added a front 5-0 on it and maybe a crooks. I tried to lipslide a tiny flatbar, but kept cheating and it was basically just a boardslide. Got a 3 flip with both hands down and Bernie yelled 40! Ha. In the parking lot on the way back to the car I did a bunch of power slides that were super fun. Then we went to see Pissed Jeans!!!

Feeling good on my last day of 39 and had the day off work since I’m leaving for DC in a couple hours. Went out front of the house with the intention of doing 39 tricks. Got 40 instead. With the exception of the last trick everything came within 3 tries. Crazy. And being the nerd I am I wrote them down in the order I landed them. It was a blast.

ollie
front 180
fakie ollie
switch front 180
bs halfcab
fs halfcab
nollie
nollie back 180
back pop shove
nollie front 180
fakie bigspin
front shove
kickflip
one foot
hippy flip
fakie flip
bs halfcab flip
no comply
no comply front 180
fakie back shove
fakie front shove
nollie front shove
nollie back shove
no comply fingerflip
heelflip
fs halfcab flip
pop shove revert
boneless
boneless 180
boneless 360
fakie bigflip
fakie varial flip
switch front shove
360 flip
fs flip
bs flip
no comply front shove
no comply 360
and nollie tre.

Had a long night at India’s ballet rehearsal and had a late dinner. Went out to Rampy because my legs felt like they needed some skating and well, I try to skate every day anyway. It was the first time skating Rampy with the Thunders again and it was way funner then I thought it would be. I rattled off most of my tricks and a few flatground tricks in between runs. Favorites were boardslides, front d revert, first try front feeble (kind of) and fakie crook stalls. I’m still adjusting to the Thunders with flatground. I kinda miss the lows for that on heelflips, but treflips feel good with Thunders. I’ll take tres over heels any day though. I had a super good feeling front shove right as Carleigh and Jack showed up to grab some Null stuff to bring to SOL/Crisis for me. Thanks dude(tte)s!

It was 64 and super nice on my walk to the car from IBM. There was some clouds coming, but it looked like a quick skate with Dave would be fun. But 5 minutes later at this little park by IBM the wind was howling and the temperature was dropping like crazy. We braved the weather for awhile though. We mostly skated this flat bank which you didn’t even really need to push for because the wind would push you up it anyway. Dave did the first kickflip I’ve ever seen him do and I happened to capture it right when he landed BOLTS! Ha. I couldn’t do a kickflip. I blame the wind for now, maybe soon I’ll obsess and blame it on the taller trucks, but for now, it’s the wind’s fault. We each did a few tricks. Each one was a struggle though as the wind was so intense. Dave did some switch ollies, fakie shoves, nollie shove reverts and more I can’t remember. I did some fakie shoves too and some bonelesses that felt really fun. I should do that trick more. We didn’t roam the park too much as everything was hard to skate. 50s on the ledge were super hard because the wind either stopped you are made you go way too fast. I tried to ollie up onto one of the taller ledges that I’ve ollied onto before, but I couldn’t even get close. That one felt like old age was to blame instead of the wind. Argh, my ollies were already bad enough.

Then we did some boardslides for awhile. We got on halfway and it’s still a challenge, but it’s really fun how it launches you off the end. Dave got one to fakie too. At that point it was getting so cold we lost our motivation and called it a day.

Needed to make a run to MRKT and Jake, Carleigh and Jack had expressed interest in it. Jake had his girl friends car and offered to drive. I cannot even remember a trip to Fort Collins that I didn’t drive. Ever. Sick! We picked up Jack after work (thanks for the burrito!) and made good time up to Fort Collins. After stopping at MRKT we rolled right into campus and ended up at an old epic spot that I skated with Jason and Josh a long time ago. It’s two ledges going down a banked sidewalk that has been knobbed for a long time. Forever ago Josh, Jason and I did quite a few things on it. I know I got front 50. Josh probably did lipslide pop out (he’s goofy) and I’m sure Jason did boardslide popout. Next to it is a weird 2 flat 2 flat 1 flat 1. Jack ollied the 2 flat 2. Carleigh rode down all the stairs. I took a long time, but rolled down them all too. Jake started doing tricks into the bank and that ended up being the spot for quite a while. Jack did like 100 tricks into it like 3 flip, nollie heel, impossible, a bunch more. Oh yeah, I had to setup a new board after cracking it the day before. So I had a new board and decided to put my old Thunders on instead of the Ventures. I also had some new wheels. Bones STF 51s. I’ve wanted to try them for awhile to compare to Superthanes (they flat spotted right away so clearly not as good). So flip tricks to start the day were a little weird. I did get kickflip and front shove pretty quick. We were all having fun. The rain was holding off. I did a front 180 off a nearby 2 stair and got a first try halfcab flip into it. Jack backed me up with an impossible to accidental manual (so sick!). Then Jake got his back with a kickflip. Then to complete the 4-4 Carleigh came in hot with a nollie shove. Everyone was hyped. Rather then take off we stuck around. Carleigh got some kickflips. Jake and I failed at fakie flips. Jack added more tricks like switch front heel. I should have gotten the fakie flip. Oh well, ollieing up the 3 felt pretty good.

Sean, Mike, Taylor and Jason showed up and we went over to the Clark building area. Us older dudes skated the hip mostly for awhile. I managed kickflip in a couple and front shove first try. Carleigh and Jack ollied the stairs all easy. I failed getting Carleigh’s back. But after Jack ollied the rail then boardslid it I had to get his back and scratched a little 12 year old no pop ollie and landed. Felt great. Jack went off for awhile. Boardslide, feeble and bluntslide the 5 stair rail. I have video of it, but the youtube editor wont work now. Look later. I got a few more tricks on the hip. A really bad frontside flip and a halfcab flip where I popped after the hip. Ha. Jake got a solid kickflip and Mike did a few front shoves, a full cab and more. Sean was skating it like a bank to curb. Carleigh starting going for kickflip. Jake got a buttery fakie bigspin over the hip. I started messing around with a line starting with a front 180 off the top 3 and ended up doing one of my favorite lines ever. Front 180 down the 3, curve around then pop shove, ollie onto the little ledge near the 5 stair (on the left of the photo), scrape the tiniest no pop ollie off the drop (tall for me!) then did one of the best frontside flips of my life over the hip (that’s not saying much though). Seriously, one of my favorite lines I’ve ever done. The frontside flip wasn’t even in my plan, I guess I was just surprised to land the drop and kept going. Carleigh kept attacking the kickflip, but we ended up getting the boot. Off to Northside it was.

Northside was pretty packed with the Fort Collins heavy hitters and of course they were ripping. Xavier and Dana are insanely good. I didn’t really seen any of our crew skating as there were so many people. I had a couple lines around the place that felt good. Some little wallies and grind on the brick qp. Then Jack and I played a game of SKATE in the parking lot that lasted a really long time. I landed pretty much all of my tricks except for nollie tre and was up SK to SKAT, but couldn’t land anything else to win it. The treflip felt great. I liked having the Thunders. Maybe I’ll stick to them. But wow, what a fun day of skating. Thanks for diving Jake and Jack and Carleigh for being such awesome friends and being down to skate anything.

Had kind of a long annoying first part of the day with the family. Both the kids were super grouchy and Liz wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine either. Jake and I headed out and skated for awhile before Jack and Carleigh showed. Someone was there getting filmed by his girlfriend do front 50 kickflip out. So Jake and I gave him some space and played a game of SKATE that started really slow, but I ended up winning with some decent tricks for me. We were starting to hit the ledges. Skateboarding was not easy. It was frustrating and annoying like my family. Ha. It took us a bit to get front 50s. I had a few noseslides and crooks that felt really good. Jack and Carliegh showed. Around then I had a pretty good line for me. Ollie onto a ledge and ride off, noseslide to fakie a ledge, fakie bigflip then almost halfcab noseslide. I might have even landed it I’m not sure. Had another line shortly after that with front 50 a ledge, 360 flip on flat then almost a front board pop out. Maybe these aren’t good lines at all then. Jake got a few front 50s too. Jake went to work pretty quick and killed it with noseslide bigspin, noseslide nollie heel, noseslide shove back to noseslide, noseslide 270, etc. Some nice 3 flips off the 2 stair. Carleigh did a bunch of kickflips into the handicap ramp and followed at least one of them with a noseslide shove. I gave Jake a ride to the bus stop then came back. Everyone kind of struggled for awhile. Jack was slamming when he didn’t need to and was understandably annoyed by it. At one point I tried shooting my board out like him which did make me feel good for a bit, until I had to walk to go get it. Ha. Jack landed a 3 flip on the tail and broke the tail off. Doh. Cheap null boards. We kind of just chilled for awhile after that, did some powerslides and messed around with flat ground. My wheels were so tiny and even more so after 20 powerslides. I got across the whole four square thing once I think. I hucked some cab flips and Jack gave me some pointers. For awhile I seemed close, then it was gone. Carleigh has never gotten close to fakie bigspins before, but landed on like 10 of them. So rad. Then I was off for a date night with Liz that was super fun.

Such a nice day. Was still pretty sore even though I had an off day. Got home from work and the new Mudhoney and Thermals LPs were waiting for me. So rather then meeting Jack and Carleigh right away I had a couple listens, a brief nap and dinner. Then I met them a this bikepath jump ramp spot. I’m not as big of fan of this spot as those two, but it is pretty fun. The downhill into the kicker is pretty fast, but sets you up perfect. When I got there Carleigh was in her pouty-struggling-with-a-kickflip mood. That changed soon though as Carleigh got a kickflip and then an even better kickflip. Maybe the best kickflip I’ve seen her do. So sick. Jack did treflip, impossible, hardflip, backside flip, only threw his board once and eventually a switch front heel. Dang. I sucked it up and didn’t land anything, but a couple tiny ollies. A little scraper b/s 180 into the kicker was my favorite trick.

Then I went back to this ledge spot solo. I started off sucking for awhile and couldn’t kickflip to fakie on the little bank. Ugh. I kept at it though and eventually was feeling pretty good. Got a line with a long b/s noseslide then a kickflip to fakie on the steeper part of that little bank. I was skating the ledge uphill too and did one of the taller front 50s I’ve done in awhile. It’s kind of unrewarding to do tricks up it because you land without speed, but it beats just walking back up I guess. I had quite a few treflips and a first try nollie treflip (yeah low trucks!). Got a good crooks, tried some longer ones, but failed. Couldn’t do halfcab noseslide because of the downhill scaring me. Got a couple switch b/s noseslides and sw front 180 to 50 and a front tail or two. At the end I had a fun line just ollieing off the ledge, a kickflip over the frontside hip and then a horrible treflip on flat that had me laughing and thinking that I’m almost 40 and still having a blast skating.

I went to Red Curbs again. It was colder and wetter and I was really sore. But I had my little trucks on! Whew whew! John was supposed to meet me, but he was running late. I just dorked around mostly on the little wedge near the top of the garage. I did some side rock 270s out. It was amazingly dumb, dorky and what I needed to get going. I had a couple lipslides before John showed. So fun. For all the haters out there it’s amazing how much more manueverable boards with low trucks and small wheels are. John showed as a lady walked out of the building to kick us out. Doh.

So we went to another garage (above) and skated the tiniest curb we could. It doesn’t grind or slide really so we skated it slow (as if that changes anything HA). A lot of tricks went down. John had some crazy ones. It’s hard to remember it all now. I got a lucky first try halfcab to front 50 stall. John tried to, but got several to 5-0 which is way sicker. I couldn’t get another to 50. John did front 180 fakie 5-0 shove out to walk away instead of ride away. Ha, he got really close. I went the boring flip in route as usual. Took a bit to do kickflips that low (joke), but did a couple kick back 50s, one with a shove out, tried kick back tails and got suskis instead. Started trying kick back disasters/lipslides and after 20 tries I got one. It stalled and doesn’t count for much, but it’s new to me and it felt doable on something else that might slide. Hurricane stalls were had. John did a first try back 270 front tail first try. Neither of us could land treflips. We were both beat though. At the end I kickflipped then front shoved a parking block. Then John gave me some tips on popping my kickflips better. Look out Lizard King here I come!