skate journal: Omaha skateparks fun (June 5, 2013)
After a long day at the zoo, but a perfect early evening I met good ol’ Dan at the Omaha park. We started getting our groove on. Dan had a rad fakie rock 360 on the deck back to rock. Shortly after Drew Newlin showed up with a large crew of Omaha rippers and the session go really heated. Fun to watch, kind of embarrassing to try and get in the mix with. I bailed some crooks, but almost got kick back 50. Dan and I headed out because we were gonna meet Joe and Matt in a nearby suburb for some pizza then a little session at a metal park.
The park itself was a joke, but it has 3 things that most “awesome” parks around CO don’t have. A good ledge, good flatground and a good flatbar. Joe snapped this photo of me doing a front 50 front shove. It’s kind of funny because now that seems to be called the Joe Hamilton trick. Well before he got so darn good people used to call it the Glen Gillingham trick. Thanks Joe. Some day you will be 40 and it will be hard too! Ha. Joe wasn’t skating because of his rolled ankle, but it was feeling better and he could walk ok at least. Matt is really good at skateboarding. It’s crazy. On the box. Back 50, back 5-0, back nosegrind, back nosegrinnd shove, back tail, nollie back 5-0, front 5-0, nollie front nosegrind, nollie front nosegrind front 180 (I get partial credit on this one!!!), front tail, front tail fakie, and probably a ton more I’m forgetting. It was just as good on the flatbar. Front smith, front feeble, front lip, nollie front lip, front board shove, back crooks, back feeble, back lip, nollie back lip pretty much every trick there is. These dudes are so fun to skate with. They were all cheering and having a blast. No bad vibes at all. I started slow and even though I took 10 tries to get a front 50 it got cheers. I went on to get crooks, front 5-0 and kick back 50 (kind of). Came close to front 50 back 180 out, front 5-0 shove. Geez, I feel so lame compared to Matt. My flatground game was on pretty good though. treflips, b/s flips, nollie tre, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, etc. At one point Dan dared me to do a crooks. I got it then followed it with a really bad heelflip. Matt followed suit and did the same thing as me with another not great heelflip. Dan was last. Got the crooks and mr heelflip himself bailed the heelflip! Ha ha ha the crowd went wild. Dan killed it though. Front nosegrind super easy, lots of fakie 5-0 attempts, 50 to manual to 50 and a bunch of other unique tricks. I was maybe most impressed with the first try over willy on the flat bar. That thing is tall! The session was over pretty quick as it got dark. But wow it was fun. These dudes never disappoint.