Had a busy day at work, then Rob and I headed up to Fort Collins where we met Chadmang and did some business with the lovely MRKT skateshop. We got some food and when trying to figure out where to go we decided to just roll out from the shop and see what happens. This new spot was the first spot and pretty darn epic. There is also a little manny pad, smooth parking lot and some gap/stair options on the left side. The right side however is super rough and makes the approach from the right pretty hard. Unless you are Chad I guess who lipslid it a few times and did nose manny or manny across the top into the bank. So rad. Rob front boarded it first try, worked for a sick switch boardslide, popped some nice ollies off it and had some steezy 180’s and no complys as setup tricks. I had some boardslides and a crooks. Then tried a few various lines going the other way trying to end with an ollie into this weird 3 stair. I did a few front boards pulled up into the ramp which were fun. But the line I eventually got was just an ollie into the downhill of the ramp, then a manual then an “ollie” down the 3 stair. I say “ollie” because I surely didn’t pop it at all. But it was fun because the stairs are really close to the manny and I had a brief feeling of being quick footed. Chad ollied a pretty sick gap there too.

We decided to head towards the courthouse downtown instead of campus and after some cruising we ended up here. This little loading dock had all kinds of options. Rob did the back 50 and a steezy backside no comply wallride. I ollied up from the kicker (in less tries then it took Chad!). Chad ollied up too and then kickflipped up it first try all easy and tried to go right to wallride. Then some concerned old lady started yelling at us that we shouldn’t be doing that. Geez she was angry. Chad just sat there “It’s ok lady, calm down, we’re all ok”. So funny. We made it to the courthouse and it was a little anti-climatic. I did a little line of fakie bigflip, front shove then ollie a tiny median.

Around the corner we ended up skating here a bit. I did a front 180 down the top 2, then a switch front 180 down the second. Chad did that line up it just to show off. Rob has surprisingly never done fire crackers before, so he learned them down this. But not after a super funny slam on the first attempt. I got another line of kickflip down the first 2 then back 180 (no pop) the second. Took a few tries to get the kickflip. Oh well.

After all this we needed a break and skated a few more blocks to a gas station. Chilled a minute then headed back. I tried pushing switch a lot. I looked dumb. We skated the curbs in the parking lot for awhile. Rob and I each got a frontside slappy. I got a pathetic excuse for a kick back tail. Some drunk dude hung out with us being drunk. I ended with a little line of manual a little pad, front 180 up one, switch front 180 off, kickflip up the median, b/s 180 off. It was a blast. Then we hit the Perkins bump for what was supposed to be one ollie. But it took me a long time to get it. Guess I was tired and well, I suck at ollies. I got a great feeling treflip on flat though. Chad had some huge ollies clearing two cracks. Rob had a nice back 180, nice boneless and ollie. That was it. One fun night. That was some real street skating and we all had a great time. Lets do it again!

After a run to Crisis and some Subway, Ollie decided he’d rather not hang out drinking beer and smoking and decided we should go skating. Ha. We went by Broomfield park, but it was crowded so we went to Lafayette. Which was not crowded at all. I was tired and sore. Do I need to even say that anymore? I’m always tired and sore. It’s one of the perks of getting older. While in the warm up stage Ollie said “I had a dream I did a fakie 360 shove” so he started trying them and got so close. We just kinda cruised the manny pad, mini section for awhile. I felt like trying some tricks up/down the manny pad. Most weren’t even worth mentioning, but the front 180 up switch-no-pop-back 180 down felt rad. I did a bunch of 3 flips on flat to make me not worry about the high trucks as much. Ollie was doing lots of back 180’s off the manny pad and ollieing off the little qp above. He was following me at one point so I said “do the same trick as me!” and front 180’d it. He was saying “I can’t do that” in the air, but landed it way better then me. Later on I wanted a clip for the blog and suggested he do the 180 again, but he couldn’t. Ha. We skated the flow bowl for awhile. I really like how the Ventures turn versus the skittish Thunders. I had some back 50s and took too long to do a rock fakie. Ollie dropped in and did some good carves in between mongo pushes. He rules. At one point later on I rolled by him and he said “Bonjour monsieur”. Totally cracked me up. Near the end I failed to nose manny the manny pad and then ate shit so bad on a front 50. Ugh. Ollie made up for it by doing the rock rock fakie.

After a really long drive down from the mountains I quickly setup a new board since I had broken my Atlas Nulled in Fairplay. As punishment for breaking two boards in a week I decided to setup the weed graphic. Just Say Null. It’s funny at least and it’s funny how few people get it’s jokingly an anti-weed board. Anyway, after being bummed on how those Thunders turned in the Fairplay bowl I decided what the heck, lets go back to Venture, but this time the highs. Seeing as how I’m a complete freak with almost brand new trucks of several brands sitting in my garage this was pretty easy to do. It was about 9:30pm when I got out and I was dead tired from this crazy adventure park in Buena Vista we had gone to early in the morning. I rolled around the Table Mesa shopping center not doing much. Then found they repaved the area in front of Savers so was super hyped to try and skate some flat. They even repainted the curbs too! Unfortunately though they kept shutting off lights and it was so dark. I managed a line of manual, front 5-0, kickflip. Eh. Then I went around and ended up at some parking blocks behind King Soopers and tried my best to boardslide the graphic off the board. Ha ha. I eventually did a few more flatground tricks. Halfcab flip, heelflip and varial flip. All had a better feel to them without the unwanted squirl of Thunders. Rad.