Another fabulous film from Fullertron. That f/s wallie was so painful when I did it. My arthritis was in effect. That was like a year ago.

Headed up to MRKT to sell some boards after work with Dave and Rob. Obviously it was dark by the time we got there. Everyone up there was going to see The Sword so we ended up going to Northside to look at the new stuff that had been poured. We started out lighting up the china bank ledge, but then noticed a really fun looking new volcano thing so we moved my car to point at it. Little did we know it’s deathly slick and Dave went down hard. So hard I thought he might be out for the night just like that. I slipped out too, but knowing it was slippery was able to recover. We didn’t really skate that anymore, but it didn’t stop Dave from having a night full of slams. But he didn’t let it get to him and we had some fun cali grinding over the china pump bump things in lines. Rob was mostly talking to a friend during the first part of the session. My first line was frontside cali grind the bump, b/s flip on the bank then b/s caligrind front 180 out. Then Dave and I started trying switch cali grinds. He was going b/s and I was going f/s. I would do kickflips to fakie on the bank to get setup, he would do nollies to fakie. He got his first. Switch b/s cali grind over the bump! Gnarly. I would eventually get mine too, but with a hand touch. It’s weird grinding “switch”. Rob joined in and initially couldn’t do a regular cali grind, but within a few tries had it down like he had been doing it for years. He also had b/s one foots on the bank, no comply biggee, b/s flip. We had another fun trick of push grind and then get up on both feet halfway through. I added fakie flip and b/s bigflip on the bank as well as frontside cali grind back 180 out. Dave had some cool jersey barrier tricks. Riding up the end to 5-0 on the barrier to rock ‘n roll. Gnarly. Lastly we lit up the pole jam where I did a no comply pole jam in a few tries and then Rob landed his first one ever. So sick. I skated flat for awhile. I struggled. Couldn’t commit to 3 flips for awhile, but eventually got a couple including a hang ten landing. Fun night. As Rob said, even though you aren’t doing much cali grinding over those bumps it’s somehow really rewarding.

I must say something I’m doing is better for my arthritis lately. Its either the gluten-free diet or the fact that I’m sitting more at work. But either way I ordinarily could not have skated well in the cold like this. Especially knowing now that it’s super windy the next day. Normally if it’s going to be super windy my arthritis will flare up before it happens. I’m hyped.

After hanging with Sam at Meta for awhile I rolled over to the fun little alley ledge on a super warm night. I was there about 20 minutes and landed darn near every trick I’ve done there including multiple kick back tails. It rules. Almost got a front smith front shove out which I’ve never done before. Front tail shove out, kick back 50, kick back 5-0, kick back tails where I tried shoves out. Me love my little 8″ board. Then I went home and met Josh to go through his clips and determine what is Null worthy. Ha.

Went back to the fun research center “hill”/ledge. Started oh so slow and could not land anything. Well I when I would hit the ledge it was ok. I had some pop in my legs and front 50s were easy, crooks. I could not land a back 180 to save my life though and it was pissing me off so much. So I decided to scrap that and started a line with pop shove. Felt good, no comply front 180, halfcab flip, heelflip, up the curb, crooks, almost manual the pad around the corner. Stoked on that one and it got the blood flowing. Started trying a way techer line of fakie flip, fakie big flip, varial flip, treflip, but never rode away from the treflip. Doh, the hill isn’t fast, but downhill treflips are still a weird thing for me. That would have been such a good line for me. On the ledge I got into a couple front tails which is really tall for me, switch noseslides, got an ok back 50. Had another line going starting with backside flip, then fakie varial flip, fakie front shove, but slammed really hard on the fakie front shove and decided I should get home and organize Null files.

Brett front 50!

Brett Boneless

45 year old Fullertron crooks!

Picked Neil up around 11:30 and we headed to our favorite spot. This spot is known for having a high kick out percentage and there was a car in the parking lot. We were in the warm up process when the teacher came out, but managed to not say anything to us. Whew. Neil went to killing mode pretty quick. Manual the top main rock, nose manual the one right after it, kickflip, front lip or front tail the next ledge. I was jittery and feeling too excited to skate well. Ha, little kid syndrome. This spot is that good. Dave, Brett and Brian (Brian just said hello). We all got things going. Neil was skated extra good. I guess it’s the same tricks as last time, but they are awesome regardless. I didn’t land a whole lot. I did manage kick back 50, lots of crooks, fakie nosegrind, halfcab noseslide, front 50 shove, switch noseslide. I tried front lips which I’ve never done on anything this tall before. To hype myself up I would try kickflips up the curb, treflip coming down the little hill and then the front lip. I only got the treflip once, but man it was a good one. I got the closes on that lipslide attempt. Dave ripped. Manual the main rock, boardslide to fakie, boardslide to fakie 50 to halfcab out, front 50, front lip, some good slams on kickflips, and dropped to manual on the rock under the stage. Brett was the man of the hour though. He hasn’t skated since hurting his foot months ago. He came out and broke his board right away on a kickflip. Got super mad, chilled, then set up a new board and killed it! Front 50, front tail, front 50 180, noseslide shove, no comply bigspin off the curb, bonelesses, a lot more.

Then we went to a hip spot after picking up Derek where I did a couple kickflips before turning into filmer Glen. My feet were hurting like crazy because my shoes are too small. I can deal with filming much easier if I get some good skating in first. Derek got a couple bangers and Fuller got one too. Sick!

Had a busy morning of going to Crisis, playing football with Ollie and other errands before heading out mid afternoon to pick up Neil. We went on a spot searching mission. We went to a school neither of us had been to in a long time. It sucked. We moved on and ended up finding this spot which was so good. Good enough it’s on the list of spots to hit again in Louisville. The ledge with Neil posing is on the far left of the panorama shot. Neil was beat, unmotivated, drained. He didn’t do much more then not land boardslides and do some no comply 360s. I skated pretty decent. Neither of us boardslid as long as we wanted to on the ledge and popping out at the end was harder then we thought it would be, but it was still a good ledge. I was trying to line stuff out. Boardslide/noseslide/or/crooks the ledge then kickflip, heelflip, ollie the 3 stair. Didn’t get there. Going the other way, starting in the basketball court I did manage a treflip, ollie the 3 (chickened out of a front 180 because i’m a pansy), b/s flip, halfcab flip then bailed a front board pop out. DOH! Ended by waxing the 2nd stair in the middle of the stairs which could be really good. Got a few front 50s on it. Coming back I was committing to nollie bigflips, but not landing on it. They were close though. I probably would have skated a lot longer, but Neil was done and I needed to organize my null hard drive for editing to begin. Fun.

Brought boards to 303 and Emage then went to meet up with Chad and Connor. Had a few minutes to kill so I just parked on a random block that looked fun to skate. Good asphalt, curb cuts and even a ledge. I had new shoes and a new board. I had some Emerica Laced (Romero). I had tried to break these shoes in months ago, they gave me blisters, gave up on them, gave them to my brother, then while visiting my brother in Wisconsin I took them back. So they are broken in. I even skated them for a bit while in Wisconsin. Anyways, I felt ok initially then slammed super hard bailing an ollie out of a curb cut. Ouch. I also couldn’t seem to land a kickflip. Ugh. Chad showed up and cruised around with me. He’s got pop. We both just cruised the block hitting stuff. Chad front boarded a tall flower planter and started feeling out a potential line. I started feeling somewhat ok on my board, but then we got the boot. Then I filmed the rest of the night. It was one of those frustrating nights where we got the boot from every spot before people got tricks. Ugh.

After meeting Rob at Crisis for the surprise surprise we went to yellow curbs. The crew was Dave, Rob, Fuzz and I. We were all wearing our new Crisis hoodies. We looked good. Ha. It was late when we started. Around 10pm. We arrived and found that most of the lights were turned off. Doh. We still had fun though. I had a couple manuals, slappies, wallies, kickflips before breaking my board on a pop shove. Doh. Last thing I did was a powerslide tailside since I couldnt ollie anymore with a broken tail. Dave did a wallie manual wallie over some parking blocks. It was rad. Rob did ollie over a parking block to manual to transfer over a parking block. Great stuff. He also had his patented slappy/back 50s on lock regardless of what he says. Fuzz was grinning ear to ear. I powerslid his “best wheels ever” Spitfire Fours and flatspotted them. So funny. He had some cool feeble transfers, slappy tails, boneless grinds and a bunch more smiles. Then we got the boot by a security guard that makes Carleigh’s bipolarness seem stable. He was freaking on us one minute then our best friend the next. Crazy.

We started here. It was rougher then it looks. I dropped in a couple times then filmed. Jack got a good one, Max slammed hard and Josh walked away with a few epic accidental tricks.

We went to another ditch. Smoother concrete, but steep. The Nuller’s killed a crazy ledge to drop into the ditch. I did a couple b/s flips and bailed a kickflip to fakie.

Then we ended up at this amazing ditch. Josh front blunted this beast. I kick back tailed the curb under the ledge. Jack did a crazy wallie sex change. Max did a line with a bunch of ollies. Chad filmed a trick for a long time and didn’t get it. Doh, he has had a cold streak lately. We messed around here for awhile. There is another curb below this spot that was really fun too. Then the trip was over. It was a blast. One of my favorite Null trips. It really helped that other filmers were along and I wasn’t 24/7 filmer, but everyone on this trip was awesome and the vibe the whole time was great. 3 weeks til deadline. Crazy.

No matter how much I sleep or how little I drink it seems like the second day of a skate trip is rough. This was no exception. Especially after an insanely fun, but late night of jello shots and late night skating with sleeping bags to another house. We started kinda late and met Monico at UNM. We started in this fun little plaza area that I could probably skate like crazy had I not felt so tired. The Nullers were doing some pretty crazy stuff. Monico’s pole jam was crazy. I did get a little line going with a few basics that I dont’ remember anymore. We moved on. Some filming was done. Last chance I had to skate was this amazing plaza with benches everywhere, 3 stairs, etc. I was so tired, but managed a line of ollie a tiny flat gap, noseslide a bench, ride off a 3 stair (it was an attempt at an ollie), crooks the fountain ledge. Then I filmed Chad try a sick line for awhile, but not get it. Then we went to downtown ABQ. That was a bit much. Two places where I was skating carrying my camera bag and my filming board. I don’t remember doing anything I cared about. Josh and Max got some rad stuff. Then we retired for the night. Exhausted. I was asleep before 11pm.