First time with new shoes in awhile. The Supras put up a good fight and showed me that cup soles are better for repeatedly hucking flip tricks which is my favorite thing to do. So I got another pair of cupsoles. This time Vox – Lockdown Cups. They are a bit bulky for my taste, but we’ll see ..

It was a gorgeous evening. It had gotten to 99, but since we’re in a desert it cooled around 7 when we met up. We watched Suciu’s part in Sabotage 3 which inspired all of us then drove up to campus. We started off in this parking lot. Everyone seemed hyped and on their game pretty quick. Rob had a sick no comply shove up the curb and a push down the 3. Ha it was awesome. He also no complied up the 3 and did a bunch of long manuals around banked curb. Jake and I failed at manualling the curb – 3 section. Jake did have a nice ollie up, front 180 down, f/s halfcab off though. I was breaking in the new shoes and having fun. If I didn’t get the manual I would do a 180 off the curb after the 3 then a fakie flip trick. I was surprised at how good the new shoes felt. I managed a switch front 180 up, front 180 down the 3, sw front 180 off the curb.

Then we ended up at the new area where the old brick plaza was. Rob had some good boardslides, front nose to fakie, some creative slams as well as some rad no comply variations. Jake kickflipped the little brick section. I had a couple great feeling treflips followed by crook attempts turned into noseslides.

Next up was the fun little manny pad area. Jake went for halfcab manny and some wallrides on this fun barrier that was on the end of the sidewalk. So you could ollie onto the sidewalk then wallride the barrier down the 3″ to the parking lot. Ha. Rob came close to 180 nose mannies both ways. Had a sick nose manual drop down to nosemanual then turn front 180. I was feeling really good and skated non-stop. Got kickflip manny and nose manny shove. Maybe sw front 180 manual too. Had a really fun line of ollie up the curb then wallride down into the parking lot then lipslide a parking block. Also frontside wallride up onto the sidewalk, then ollie onto the tall orange ledge and front 180 off.

Last spot of the day was the double mellow banks. Jake was looking pretty tired and even kicked his board a couple times. Unheard of for him! He did manage some good lines though. Kickflip into the first, nollie 180 the second (I think?). Fakie bigspin then pop shove. Quite a few more I can’t remember right now. Rob did no comply shove then back 180 and maybe called it after that. I had pretty much the best flip trick showing I’ve ever had there. Pop shove the first, kickflip the second. Halfcab flip the first, back 180 the second. Fakie bigflip the first, front pop shove the second. Anytime I landed the second trick going forward I would loop around and try to ollie up the 3. I bailed most times. B/s flip the first, halfcab flip the second. Treflip the first, kickflip the second. Fakie flip the first, sw front 180 the second. And the ender, F/s halfcab flip the first, kickflip the second and finally got a clean ollie up the 3. Hurray for cupsoles making flip tricks even more fun!

On a hot and lazy afternoon Ollie and I set out to go skate. I was so lazy I even wore shorts. We ended up at this spot and I figure since it’s a ledge spot Ollie would be over it pretty quick and we’d move on. We were just kinda goofing around for awhile then Ollie pretty much did the first line in the video. I figured it would be cool to film it with my phone so we did. I love how he has no idea about what is cool in skateboarding. He’s wearing basketball shorts, he’s pushing mongo and he swings his arms around on purpose. But watching him is the best. He is only doing it for fun and he smiled the entire time. I had a couple runs starting with the tre stair too that were fun. Ollie, ollie up the curb, manual around a pillar, front nose to fakie on a ledge. Ollie the three, front 180 up the curb, sw front 180 up the smallest ledge, front shove off a taller ledge, 3 flip on flat. Ollie the three, kickfilp up the curb (hard because it’s so quick). I’ve wanted to do that ollie up the ledge then ride off ever since Jack manualled it in the snow forever ago. It took me awhile. I kept thinking my big butt would hit the rail as I ollied on. Hyped on getting that though. Ollie was doing lots of front and back 180s off various ledges. The best though was after awhile he was ollieing off the 3 stair then ollieing up the curb after. He was so hyped to be ollie’ing up a curb with speed. The look he gave me after the first couple was mind blowing to me. That is the most hyped I’ve ever seen him on a skateboard. I had a few other things I did that I was pretty hyped on. First try kick back 50 on the low ledge, a couple frontside flips. The crooks then treflip was extra great feeling because I just said if I land the crooks then I would try a flip trick and it worked first try. Ollie was doing a bunch of the quick ollies on different flagstone sections. It was so sick. I was finally able to do it as we rolled to the car. What a fun session. Sharing an amazing skate session with your kid is an amazing feeling. I put this up there with lots of other incredibly fun sessions I’ve had and am so grateful for all of them.

(Sorry for how lame facebook videos are to embed)

Met up with Jack, Carleigh, Rob and Crisis. Then rolled to Broomfield park with Blaine and met Derek and Nate. Warming up took a bit for me. It wasn’t as easy as it’s been the last few days. Jack and Carleigh seemed on a mission to skate the brick qp. Jack and a nice texas boneless (I think that’s what it’s called) and some lofty ollies both ways. The backside ollie with the cali grind out was hot! Carleigh had a quick front d. Rob and I were kind of all over. He had a nice halfcab boardslide shove out. Derek was trying front tail bigspins out down the double set rail. He got kinda close. I didn’t get much there I haven’t done before. I had a good feeling 3 flip on flat though and added backside crook (kind of) to my bag of only like 4 tricks I’ve done on the brick qp. Then we headed out to a street spot which ended up being this newly creted barrier.

Kudos to the dudes that creted this. Hopefully they keep at it as it needs some work, but it’s a good start. It’s infinitely harder to skate then it looks. Jack didn’t look for excuses though and did a back boardslide, back feeble and maybe even a back 50. I got a frontside ride from one crete section to the next. Pretty sure I set the record for doing it as low as possible.

After this we just started skating flatground. There was a slight downhill. Rob manualled the whole thing and almost nose mannied it too. My style has gone to crap and I linked up four tricks that would be cool if I didn’t know how badly I did them. Halfcab flip, heelflip, treflip, backside flip. Looks good on paper at least. Ha. I tried another line with fakie bigflip, front shove then nollie tre, but never got the nollie tre. We settled in to different tricks for awhile. Frontside flips,hardflips, etc. Not much was landed. Then I posed a halfcab double flip that came close. Ugly ass trick I’m sure, but I’ve kind of wanted to do it for awhile to just say I’ve done it. Jack did one first try. Ha. Carleigh tried backside flips while Rob and I tried double flips for quite some time. We both got close for awhile. Jack was trying cab double flips and getting just as close. Shortly into it Jack had offerred to buy me dinner if I landed one. Well I did. It was kind of a fakie 90 double flip, stop, put the hands down and laugh before riding out. But I’m 40 and have constantly lowered the bar on steezy landings all my life so it counted. Ha. Pretty fun day for sure. After we hung out at Crisis and watched skate videos and bet on Street League. Jocks.

Another post work Friday session here. The park aint great, but it’s location and lack of crowds is. There was even a couple other people skating for awhile. And they were pretty good. But no one wants to read about how good young skaters are on this blog, it’s just about old people. Unfortunately we skated pretty good for old people today I think. We mostly warmed up on the bank. Dave and Rob both had sick no comply bonelesses. Or whatever you call a boneless that’s grabbed backside. Dave had a pretty bad slam on a switch shove or something. I was in a flip trick mood and went with it. Got a few treflips and a couple in lines. I still can’t ollie up the middle ledge. Man it’s tall. At one point all three of us got tricks in a row that we had worked on. Mine was front 50 kickflip out (little kid trick!!). I think Dave’s was nollie into the bank. I don’t remember Rob’s trick at the moment. Whatever it was I’m sure it was steezy though. I had a blast and landed lots of tricks, but I felt like my style was extra bad. Seemed like after every trick I would have a weird hand motion or tic tac or something. Dave also had a good front board to fakie on the flat bar, front 50s on the ledge, slash on the bank to sideways ledge, and a first try fakie flip on the bank. Rob had some no comply 360s on the bank, front board on a tall ledge and lots more. I couldn’t get a b/s flip on the bank. So funny. I landed lots of flippers though and since thats my favorite stuff I had a blast. Good start to the weekend.

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.

On a humid afternoon in Omaha Ollie and I went out to investigate what the surroundings to Liz’s parents new place had. This was the first find. Too small for me. Ollie kind of did a wallride and my phone took the photo way too late.

Then we went to a nearby school that has a basketball court and I had seen the above staircase and thought it would be rad to ollie over the curb into the bank.

But the cracks killed it. Between the wall, the cracks and the weird approach I didn’t have it.

So I tried to hype myself up by doing a flip trick in middle section here before heading down the sidewalk on the right to hype myself up. As you can see the ground is less than ideal. Either way though I seemed to be landing tricks quicker then normal. Maybe it’s because I stretched more then normal, maybe it’s because there was a new PJ part. It didn’t work though I kept coming up short. I struggled with 360 flip though. Landed a ton of them and fell off. I blame the little rocks everywhere getting in my shoes. I finally landed a 3 flip and ollied in. Probably didn’t even really go over the curb, but I don’t care. It was really weird and hard for me. Ollie was cruising around and skating in between shooting hoops.

When he skated he carried his basketball. He did do a legit ollie up to manny on this tiny pad even though the only photos I have of him he’s scraping his tail.

This photo cracks me up. I manualled it too and down onto the sidewalk into the beautiful parking lot. Skated flat a bit longer too. Did a nollie three shove that was supposed to be a nollie 3 flip. Ha. Then the next try landed the nollie 3 flip. Did a line where I kickflipped into the little curb cut on the far left of the panorama, push through the rough parking lot, front 180 up the curb, then a fakie bigflip on flat. Also pop shoved into the curb cut then kickflipped up the curb which was way hard in the roughness. I got another 3 flip at one point that felt great. Then I gave in to Ollie’s demands and shot hoops for awhile. Horrible spot, but I managed to have fun at least.

Finally got to this park! Granted it took a nearly 7 hour drive to do it which was about 2 hours longer then I thought it would be. Oh well. The Gillinghams pulled in and Eric, Matt, Joe and Richard were there getting their warm up on. I ate some Taco Bell standing up to try and get some blood flow to the legs, but they felt really bad after the drive. Matt was straight killing it already. He is so good. He was skating everything. Back 5-0 across the bank to ledge and across the ledge(s). Joe and Eric were getting busy early too. You can tell Eric skates there a lot. Richard was setting up a board, but still almost managed kickflip nose manny nollie flip out within seconds of skating. He is to Fremont what Shawn is to Cheyenne. I took a few runs around the park. As every park does, it felt different then the photos seem to show. The bank to stairs were way weird. Well, perfect, but weird. The bank to ledge is incredible. The ledge contraption requires starting from the middle of the mini ramp. The mini ramp is pretty good, one side the coping is way higher then the other though. There are pretty big cracks at the bottom of every bank. With all that said though, the park is awesome.

So much skating went down it’s impossible to list it all. We didn’t take any photos. Ollie skated with us. He had some cannonballs over the kicker, back 180 flyouts, boardslide the little ledge first try for a milk shake, body varials, grass rides by the mini, mongo pushes and spoke a few words that were actually audible. Eric next. He took off with Matt and Richard for awhile to film some stuff. He cruised around as he always has without ollies, but he skated faster and took some risks I was hyped to see. It’s probably because he gave up wearing jogging shoes to skate in. Ha. The manuals into the bank to ledge were hot. The cali grinds. The tricks I don’t even know how to describe. Skateboarding is awesome. Poor Joe. He ripped it so hard throughout. Boardslide threw the sideways kink rail. Front smith, front 50 to front board to 270 out, front 50 shove and a sick tailslide on the bank to ledge. I think he even did a fakie front 50 halfcab out on it. Well he did on the little ledge for sure. He also had this new move that was just a powerside into a boardslide. So funny and so cool. We tag teamed a line. Ollie up the little ledge (or if you are me then kickflip up), boardslide the taller ledge off it, backside flip on the upper double bank, then front 180 off the ledge into the bank. I think we did it back to back. In other words he was just being nice and waiting for me to finally land something. I struggled, not insanely bad, but enough to feel really old as everyone gets so much better around me. Got a front smith on the bank to ledge, crook grind on the ledge, barely could front 50 the middle ledge, couldn’t get a kickflip axle stall on the bank to ledge, got a bigflip on the bank, fakie flip, ollie onto the 4th stair, front 180 into the bank, and almost a front 5-0 shove on the bank to ledge. Joe was going for pole jam and I got a great feeling no comply pole jam before he ran over his foot trying a pole jam. Ouch. Session done. Joe’s ankle wrecked. Ugh. Dr said it wasn’t broken at least. I still need to talk about Matt some more though. Wow he was killing it. Front tail, front nosegrind, front 50 back 180, back 5-0 across the top bank to stair. Front 50 the middle ledge up to nose manny the tall one. Ridiculous stuff.

These dudes are so fun to skate with.

Forgot to take photos of this spot. Doh. After a fun day of watching Ollie’s football team win a playoff game then get right back into another game and win the championship I hit Community and then Crisis selling boards. I met Rob at Crisis and after brohing down with Fuzz for awhile we rolled across the street to the somewhat newly paved ledges behind Safeway. The main ledge was better then ever and the ground now is incredible. Once again Rob started off quicker. And he kept going. I swear he came close to his age in tricks. 39. There is no way I’ll remember them all, but here’s a few. Front nose, front nose 270, 180 nosegrind, sw boardslide 270, sw boardslide, back 50s for days, fakie nosegrind, front tail, front smith, a million more. Or rather, 30 more. I started slow, but ended up getting into the groove pretty good. I’m loving these Supra Stacks I have. Front 50, front 50 front 180 out, back 50, halfcab noseslide, slappy tailslide, a few kick back 50s, crooks, switch front 180 to front 50 (slow!). We also skated the smallest of the ledges against the fence and I had a lot of crooks on it that felt so good. That ledge is perfect for it. Flatground was feeling better then it has in awhile. Got a treflip in the Supras finally and a few heelflips which have been a pain lately. Fakie bigflip and halfcab flips. All in all fun. Oh yeah, I had tried a bunch of kickflip noseslides. Got pretty close. Gotta keep trying it.

On a breezy and somewhat cool day I picked Rob up after work and we headed up to Fort Collins. First stop was the MRKT to take care of some bidness. We met up with Mike and rolled into camps. I was bummed to see the nearby slappy curbs pretty wrecked, but we ended up at the spot above quickly and skated there awhile. I was rusty after 3 whole days off. Ha, that’s seriously a long time for me though. I had a new board and it felt really good (Spread The Null). Rob seemed to kick into warmed up mode the quickest. He had boardslide pop over, front board pop over to fakie. Mike had some long boardslides, slappy front noseslides. After awhile I had a couple fun lines starting with slappy the first curb, then front board transfer and front board to fakie transfer and followed up one of the runs with a 180 over a manhole and then a fakie flip. Mike had some no comply 180s over manholes. Both front and back. Backside is crazy. Rob and I were doing fun little chinese nollies over the yellow manhole things then trying kickflips over a manhole. Rob kickflipped a manhole. Well, mostly. Ha. I kickflipped a couple of them and followed one with an ‘both hands down over 40 make’ ollie over the curb and gap in the back of the photo.

Next we trained at the Megaramp for awhile. We all started by taking a few steps, throwing our boards down, doing a kickturn and ollie’ing off. I somehow managed to ollie up the ledge (first try!), do a kickturn and then a front 180 off. Very hyped on actually ollieing onto something kinda tall. That’s been hard lately.

Then we posted up here for awhile. On the far side is a two stair. Mike and I did ollies up the 2 then ollies down the 3. How’s that for tech? I added a front 180 down too. The windows make it a bit sketchy as I’m good at worrying about breaking windows. Luckily all was good though. We ended up skating the 2 stair part for awhile awhile. Tricks up, tricks down. It was fun. Rob killed the no complys and almost got a no comply flip up too. Back 180s up and down. I got a rare back 180 up and a no comply up. Down I got switch front 180, back 180, front 180, front shove and a kickflip that was considered a ‘Baker Maker’. Thanks hammer dudes! Now try to kickflip a 2 stair! Mike struggled with front 180s up for a bit, but had some awesome reverts that I thought ruled. He back 180’d up pretty easy and got a no comply up. Rob and I did a couple tricks on the marble bench there too.

We had told Rob about this “hip” and when we got there the look of disappointment was understandable. Ha. Rob didn’t even try to skate it. The cracks seem way worse then last time I was there. Either way it’s still skateable though and I tallied a few tricks. 180s, sw front 180, front shove, back shove, kickflip, no comply 270, but could not get a backside flip. Started feeling pretty tired. Mike did back 180 quick then did a cab. Tight!

At one point I tried to recreate my line from last time with Carleigh, Jake and Jack. Front 180 the 3 stair, turn around then pop shove, ollie onto this ledge and ollie off. I totally misjudged the height and went splat. Totally made me laugh. Hurt my elbow a bit, but man loving the cupsole suppose because my legs felt fine. We had a couple parking block wallies on the way back, but that was about it.

Until we saw this skating threw an alley across from MRKT. I did a few slappy crooks that felt amazing then a few more that felt even more amazing. I kept trying to do them as good as Fuller does. Mike had never done that trick and after a few tries scraped some out. So sick. Night over. Fun session.