One of my favorite dudes ever. If you haven’t already, go buy The Holy Crail DVD here and support a great shop that has done a lot for Colorado Skateboarding.

Yeap folks. We have found the price in which I sellout. It’s called a shoe that PJ Ladd skates and it costs me less then $50 (sometimes running a company and getting hooked up at shops has it’s privileges!).   NB+ Stratford 479.  They aren’t even broken in, but I could not find the will to try those DC Mikey Taylors anymore.  Instead I went with a brand I see every day at the gym on every retired man that goes there.  It’s hip to be old?  Anyway, after bringing some new boards to Crisis, Rob, Ollie and I went over to the Safeway ledge.  Ollie wasn’t stoked, but was cool about it.  I on the other hand was super hyped.  The PJ shoes were hyping me up in ways I thought they would.  I’m the ultimate PJ nerd.  For the first time in awhile I landed the first kickflip I tried.  I went on to have a pretty good session in general, especially for a new pair of cupsoles that didn’t really have a chance to be broken in.   I was happy to get a couple kick back 50s, almost good front tails, lots of kickflips, halfcab flips, and the surprise for me was multiple switch front 180 to front 50s.  Rob was killing it.  He called kick back 50s on the drive, but ended up settling for front hurricanes instead.  What!  They were sick.  He had also tried a bunch of nollie lipslides to front 50 and didn’t quite get one.  Ollie mostly just cruised around, but did a few front nose taps and back boardslides.

It got dark so we went to go meet Carleigh at the park.  Only every teenager in the area was there which bummed out the old and the young so we said to meet at yellow curbs instead.  It was my idea so I take the blame, but upon getting there it felt wrong to skate there when it was nice out.   Rob and I managed some nose and regular manuals.  Ollie did some ollies up the curb and back 180s off.  Carleigh tied her shoes and after maybe a couple ollies we got the boot.  Doh.  It was close to Ollie’s bed time so we just bailed.

Had back to school night at the kids middle school. Got out a little earlier then I thought we would and Ollie said he wanted to skate. So a little after 8pm we went to the Louisvill park. CJ, Brian and Darin were in the hockey rink skating all kinds of boxes, rails and stuff. Ollie didn’t want to skate it though because he said everything required an ollie. Geez Ollie, learn to ollie higher already. Ha. Off to the park with the rollerbladers and bmx’ers. The first thing I did was try to ollie up onto the little manny pad and it resulted in my falling with the board not even making it up onto the ledge with me. It was at that point I wanted to throw the DCs away and leave. But I was with Ollie. Gotta be somewhat positive at least. We skated for awhile. He had fun, cruised around, pushed mongo and flowed around the way he does. It was cool. He did a ton of front 180s off the tall part of the ledge. Some were really good. I was unable to front 50 the tall part of the ledge, unable to back 50 front 180 the little ledge, unable to front 50 the qp, etc. The only good was doing crooks and a kickflip to fakie. These shoes will not be on my feet for skating again.

Had a nice morning with a hike and lunch date with Liz then Jake, Rob and Neil showed up at my house wanting to go hit Safeway ledge. Awesome! It was quite hot out and all of us struggled initially. I was thinking “oh great, here we go again”. I had taken the insoles out of the Mikey Taylors hoping I would get some board feel at least. It seemed to help a little. I voiced my frustrations to Rob and he said to just huck something I shouldn’t land. I went kickflip back 50 and landed it. Ha. So that definitely made me feel better and made up a little for the horrible ollie attempts over a small box. Neil and Jake tried to put the box upright and ollie it. Jake looked like he was gonna get it first, but ended up slamming pretty hard and gave up. Neil got it once and the box was promptly put back down. Rob was killing it. Front 180’s over the box for days and lots of no comply shoves and a million ledge tricks. Back 270 front tail, front tail, slappy lip, bigspin front nose, the list goes on for days. Neil had some good lipslides, sw boardslides, back 50s, halfcabs over the box, crooks to fakies. Slaying. I took a lot of tries to get over the little box, but once I did I put down a line that really hyped me up. Ollie, treflip on flat, front 50 shove. Also got several kick back 50s, a kick back 5-0 and almost kick back 50 shove. John had arrived and amazed us yet again how graceful he is. Tailslide, almost front tail to fakie, front shove front nose, bigspin front nose, I don’t even know, so much more.

We moved on to the foundation spot in the photo above. Unfortunately they had taken away the extra toys, but we still had fun. I was sore as hell initially, but after riding down a couple ledges started to loosen up. Rob, Neil and John mostly played manuals. Rob tried and tried to get nose manual shove to manual. I think he got an over 40 make, but he’s not 40 yet. Neil was beat, but still came kinda close to the same trick. John wasn’t too close, but he did get close to switch noseslide to frontside noseslide (whoa!). Fakie back tails and more. Jake and I did more of the start at the top of the spot and end at the bottom stuff. I got an ollie over a small flat gap to manual, kickflip off the next one. Front shove a drop, kickflip the next drop, almost b/s flip the next drop. Front 50 to front board pop out, back 50s, that’s about it. Oh yeah, I should have broken my board about 10 times, but it didn’t even crack. Guess it’s that extra hemp layer (ha). Jake did a bunch of kickflips off the top ledge which was rad because I haven’t seen him kickflip off much of anything. He did it in a line with back 50 and no comply off the next ledge as well. Sick. At the end we helped some neighbors move a big piece of playground equipment. They offered a case of beer, instead we just thanked them for tolerating us skating close to their house and not calling the cops on us.

Last we stopped at a new Arvada skate spot. Basiclly two quarterpipes and a bowled in corner. It was pretty fun. I did a front disaster. John called out a line and did it first try. Jake had a crazy line going to front pivot on the tall qp, but didn’t put it down. Fun day.

I woke up with my body feeling good. The best it’s felt in a long time. Did some cleaning and errands around the house and eventually headed out to Longmont to meet Derek, Blaine and Chad. I went to Rocky Mtn Elem which is one of my favorite spots ever. When I got there there was two random high school age dudes skating. Both had Null boards! So awesome. I said hi and tried not to barge their session much. After feeling so good earlier in the day it didn’t seem to translate to skating well as I struggled bad. The two random kids left and a few minutes later Blaine, Derek and Chad showed. Right when they would almost get warmed up it would shower just enough to be too wet to skate. I never got warmed up. I did one line with an ollie onto a curb, front 180 off then switch noseslide coming out regs. Then we all did some ollies up the curb to tricks on the bank. Blaine did ollie up, ollie to fakie and halfcab off. Tight! I took about a million tries to get a kickflip to fakie. Almost rolled my ankle super bad. Everytime I stepped off my board on the bank my shoes would almost come off. These shoes suck. They are too high off the ground. Chadman tried a line for a bit, but we ended up moving on to Longmont High (above). Derek did that back 180 in like 5 tries. Which is too bad, because if it was in under 3 tries I was gonna get him and Blaine a burrito (Chad wanted one too, but he could just have the leftovers). Seeing the back 180 was crazy. Derek is gonna self deprecate, but I haven’t seen a trick like that go down in awhile. He did it so insanely perfect. Then we went over to the blocks on the other side of the school were Derek got a sick line in a couple minutes. Geez killing it. Chad tried some stuff, but just wanted to eat. I started trying flatground just to get something going, but it didn’t work. Couldn’t even really land kickflips. Stoked on Derek killing it so hard, but man what a tough day for my skateboarding. Maybe one of my worst ever. Oh yeah at the first spot once I kicked my board out intentionally once and Chad grabbed it and wouldn’t give it back until I calmed down. So funny. Chad rules.

After another afternoon rain storm Ollie and I set out to skate after his first day of school. It looked like it would rain any second so we stayed close. I somewhat randomly chose the newish research center as it has quite a variety. We messed around nearby on a curb for awhile and did some 180’s off it and stuff. Then we went up to the area above. It’s not as good as it looks, although we really should wax those stairs up, they would grind really good. I ollied the four stair a few times. Then had a where I started on the 3rd stair by the handrail where Ollie was coming from in the photo and ollied up one stair, then went around the corner and front shoved the 2 stair, then manualled the little section of ledge on the front left of the photo. Pretty fun run actually. Took longer then it should because I’m not used to the thickness of my new DCs. Ollie had fun. He ollied twos and three and pushed mongo going along stairs. That kid is close to kickflips! And fakie bigspins. Can’t wait to see him land a kickflip. Then we went to the front and rolled down the long two stairs next to Max’s gnar. But someone was studying up there so we moved on. I took a few tries and crooked the ledge and then many more tries to manual the long manual pad. If I didn’t do the manual I would do the little quick gap. Ollie slammed a couple times trying to ollie up that curb with speed. Poor kid. He’s finally coming around on them ollies though. It’s rad. The Thursday Night Bikeride came by and Ollie hid behind some pushes and yelled at them. That was pretty funny. Then we headed home because Ollie wanted to be rested for day 2 of school. What a good kid. Then he told me I should go skate some more. Great kid!

Then I went to the old trusty spot. I mostly just wanted to skate flatground because I knew it would help me get used to these new thick shoes the best. I did wax the ledge though so when I did skate it it grinded better. I only did a few basics on it. Some faster then normal front 50s though. Flatground didn’t go so good. I wanted to get at least one rare trick, but between varial heel, front heel (never done it), fakie hardflip, nollie tre (probably shouldn’t count it as rare) and fakie f/s heel I had nothing. Doh. I did have quite a few treflips though. I put a box after the little kicker (by the grate) and tried a run of manual next to the wall, treflip on flat then come around and ollie the box. Never did them all together, but I did ollie the box on it’s own which was high for me. Then I got tired and went home.

What a crew! We met at Crisis. It was Carleigh, Neil, Dave, Blaine, Fuzz, Rob and I. While Fuzz rested up a bit after work we skated his curb. It was pretty fun. Rob’s kickflip fastplants were so good.

Then it was off to Denver where we started at the Greyhound station slappy curb and more. As you can see in Blaine’s Instagram clip above Fuzz was ripping. Neil and Rob were going off too. They were hopping over the little median like it was nothing. The funniest part was that Neil could not slappy onto the totally angled slappy curb. He had to ollie.

Next we went a fun building with a few options. I chose some noseslides off a two stair which I had never done there before. Fuzz chose 5-0 across a skate stopper the wrong way on a bench. Neil eventually nose grinded it too! Dave came close to hippy jumping one of them.

We skated off and ended up at this weird kinked curb going down a set of stairs. I struggled to ollie onto the curb and ride down the narrow kink. I think everyone eventually did it. Dave and I went over to the bigger set and did it with doubles. We went on to try it with manuals out. Dave did it. Fuzz took the cake on slam of the night shortly after trying to kickflip into it. He’s fortunate to have just gotten out with a bloody knee. Dave also got back 180 off the curb into the street which was fast. Rob no complied in. I got switch front 180 in. Connor joined us and manualled in all easy.

Some parking garages were hit. Curbs slappied, 50d. We managed to not get arrested. We hit so many spots. There is no way I can remember them all. Fuzz, Rob and I had a fun downhill ride at one point with Blaine waiting at the elevator below telling us the cops had been called and we needed to split quick.

This spot entertained us for awhile. It was skated many different ways. Connor would do drop down manuals. Including fakie manuals or nose manuals. Pretty rad. Fuzz powerslid under the bar while holding on and tried to pull himself back. Neil nose mannied around it. Dave surfed under it (late photo above) and had some cool 180/180 combos down it. I had some 180s too, lots of kickflip slams and then a kickflip down the first one and front 180 the second. Blaine and I wussed out of ollie’ing it. Neil did it though.

We kept pushing and rolling and cruising through garages. We hit a 3 stair that everyone firecrackered. I think Carleigh did it first. It was Rob’s first 3 stair firecracker after learning on a 2 stair last week. Connor ollied a tall ledge to drop with ease. Then we found the dream curb spot we’ve been looking for every time we’ve been downtown since we found it the first timne. We didn’t last long before getting the boot, but it was a blast while it lasted. I got another back 5-0 that felt great and some slappy crooks. Fuzz had some rad slappys up a curb cut and around a corner. Carleigh was going frontside. Dave back 50’d into the curb cut and I think did slappy crooks up a curb cut. Rob was cruising it too. I think next we ended up were Connor works. Ha, American Apparel. He had to leave though. I was the only one skating at this point. Oh I think Carleigh and Rob were doing some flatground. I tried a line of ollie up a weird curb, horrible back 180 down a 2 stair, fakie bigflip on flat, then front shove another 2 stair. I struggled with the fakie bigflip. Doh. I only got one. Then we got the boot and decided to call it a night.

But of course we found a good ledge to skate first, next to the Greyhound garage again. Fuzz did front tail and switch boardslide to forward and a back 180 off the curb. Fuller got his back with a boardslide to fakie then switch back 180 off the curb. Carleigh tried to relearn boardslides to fakie. Rob did a sick boardslide to manual. I went off in the distance and rode off a ledge onto another one then posed a bunch of kickflip front boards on the ledge. Then we was really out. These nights are awesome. My new shoes definitely messed with me enough that I didn’t skate all that well. The heels are really high. Doh. Fun times though, these Denver night missions are so great.

Had a short amount of time after going to SOL and before date night with Liz. Since I was in Longmont I hit up Fuller and we skated Longmont High for about 30 minutes. The normal area was covered in teenagers so we went to the main ledges. It was super hot outside and I had new shoes. Some DC Mikey Taylors. They are cupsoles and were not very broken in. Dave struggled a bit more then normal. Got some rad no complies though. My flatground game was back to the drawing board with the new shoes. The heel is really thick on them. At least they aren’t vulcs though. Can’t believe how bad those Lakai vulcs felt for just one night. Anyways, I didn’t get much. Tried a line of ollieing onto one ledge then front 50 another one. Never got them together and I never actually landed the front 50.

Had some new shoes. Lakai – Picos. They are vulcs. I wanted to try vulcs again and see if I truly am sold on cupsoles or not. Well, I made the idiotic mistake of getting 10.5s again. Right out of the gate I didn’t like them and felt like I was swimming in my shoe. We got to the spot and after a couple bad ollies and failed manuals I wanted to quit and get new shoes. But John was already ripping and Rob showed so I had to skate. Rob was totally ripping. Manny and nose manny the long way no problems. Almost with back 180 out of the nose manny. He also had some good flatground no comply moves and a back 360. So jealous of that trick! I took a long time to do the long manny, but came remotely close to doing one with a front shove out. I want that trick! I did a fun line of ollie onto the manny pad, quick back 180 off, fakie flip on flat, switch front 180 up the curb then ollie a gap into the parking lot. John came super close to halfcab manny back 180 out. Did treflips, but struggled at kickflips (so weird!). Had some good flatground as well. Some lady came by and told us the noise was amazing and John sat down. Kinda ending the session.

So we went to Valmont and skated a pretty dry ledge. We ended up doing some tricks though. I got noseslide, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, front tail stall, almost front tail shove, back board pop out, bad crooks, bad back 50, horrible nosestall 270 pivot out. I was hating swimming in the shoes and new I couldn’t even skate them another day so I was pretty lazy. John got front 50s right away, killed his patented switch front noses and much more I can’t remember. Rob did a few front noseslides. All with epic extra reverts on accident.

Oh yeah, this was the first time I’ve skated in glasses in awhile. It was fine. Gotta get some different shoes for skating though.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

These shoes lasted 14 skate days

This is the closest I’ve experienced to the perfect skate shoe in awhile. For a cupsole the board feel is really good. They broke in quick, they look good (can’t go wrong with black suede, white sole, and a skater owned logo). My only complaints are that the sole wore out sooner then I wanted it to. 14 skate days is still pretty high for me though. The other issue I have with them is the weird cracking noises they make. Kind of like the sound of snow packing under your feet. I never noticed it actually skating though, just standing. So whatever, this shoe is about as good as it gets.