One of the best dudes ever and one hell of an awesome part.

Well my NB+ Stratfords died an early death. The inside of the heel blew out and rather then repair them I decided to move on. The shoes were close to being done anyway. So I once again tried some non-NB+ shoes. Etnies Highlights. Aka the Bledsoe’s. Aka the shoe with the all foam sole and weed graphic insole. They are insanely comfy, but I started to have my doubts about the grip pretty much right away. Ugh. Anyways I tried some warming up and it didn’t go well. Jason and Lindy were on their way so I was chilling. Then randomly Sean Flaherty and Meta Sam showed up to film some stuff. Sick! Sean rules. He got to business quickly and did his trick in a really good line. Dang. Stoked that Jason got to see that. And stoked that I got to see it. I had cruised around and done a few things. Got a line of front 180 into the handicap ramp, halfcab flip on flat then a crooks jib on a bench. Sean and I had a treflip race which I won. Ha! Sam was hucking some kickflips and popping ollies higher then he thinks. He also ollied a hat. I don’t care what you say Sam, that was rad! I went home and put my next skate shoes on (Fallen – Vibe) and did a couple kickflips on them. Rubber soles are so much better. So far I’m 0-2 on ending the NB+ reign of awesome, but perhaps the Fallens will change that.

Neil, Ollie and I started at Wilville on a super nice day. Oh wait, I skated flat in front of the house for awhile to try and loosen up. I didn’t get very tech, but I did have fun trying some faster 3 trick lines of basics with no pushes in between. Wilville is a great warmup. Ollie likes that spot a lot. He was goofing around skating the way only he skates. He did the manual above as well as some funny ones into grass over a plastic cover. Neil was still dealing with his plantar fasciitis so mostly just rolled and popped some little ollies. I did some flatground up top (included a treflip) and was trying a line of switch ollie up the curb (hyped I was able to do that!) and halfcab flip into the downhill. Never got the hc flip. Settled for an insanely fun line of nose manual into the bank, then a kickflip on flat then manual into the mellower bank near the front of Wilville. So fun.

Then we dropped off Ollie, went to Longmont and picked up Rob and met Dave at Rocky Mtn Elem (aka one of CO’s best spots). We were here a very long time. As you can see by the gram above Rob did a really sick beanplant over one of the brick medians on the bank. Dave and Rob skated the bank section for a long time. It’s so hard, you have to push uphill through the parking lot then ollie up the curb to get on it. Rob did a b/s pivot on the sideway curb. Also ridiculous. I was forced to take it kind of easy by soreness. Still tried some lines though. Dropped in the far left brick median, kickflipped up the curb and did crooks on the ledge. Also tried a dream one of drop on on the far left median again and drop to manual on the sidewalk, ollie up the curb, manual a brick median, kick back 50 the ledge. Got kinda close, but not too close. Didn’t do anything special the f/s way. Dave back 50’d the ledge and crooked it. He also got a cool line of ollie a median on the bank, then back 180 another one. The three of us had a double flip session for awhile! Yes, a 40 year old, 45 year old and a 39 year old trying double flips. I was trying fakie double flips to get my March trick, but came up short. Then the three of us skated the bank to curb pushing up the parking lot. I got a no comply to pivot (was trying tail) and a kickflip to fakie that felt great. The kf to fakie was followed by a sw 180 in the parking lot and then a manual on the sidewalk. Rob got another back pivot and another trick I am blanking out on for some reason. Dave did front 50 to fakie (photo above), nosepick fakie, some more tricks and had such good ollies up the curb.

Then we went back here. Dave wanted to 50 it. I wanted to get a boardslide filmed. Dave didn’t get the 50, but he did land like 5 kickflips. And since kickflips are the best I bet he felt good regardless. Ha. I got the boardslide much quicker this time. Thank you for filming it Rob. I kept trying with the dream of manualling out, but slammed a few times and Dave had to go so we called it a day.

Was super tired after work. I’ve been trying to get out of rut of taking a nap after work every day. I was really sore, but wanted to try some flatground since I haven’t gotten a new trick yet this month. I went by the rollerblade park, but it was crowded with kids at the skatepark and hockey rink. Doh. I ended up stopping behind the old Albertsons in north Boulder as I saw they had repaved a little section of the parking lot. I think it’s a Walmart now? I haven’t even been out front of it. Anyways the first few kickflips felt hard and when I couldn’t get close to heelflips I just decided to huck away at some tricks I’ve never done before. Didn’t get even remotely close to nollie f/s flip. Nollie back heel felt doable, but I was not close. Switch b/s flip felt the closest although I never put my feet on it. I did manage a first try 360 flip. I skated for about 20 or 30 minutes and then went home and took another darn nap. Doh. The funny thing about the flatground session is how my board did not feel big.

It was insanely windy in Boulder as Matt and I left to meet up with Rob and Dave. But not so bad at Broomfield. There was a big game of SKATE going on the quartapotty so I had to find somewhere else to warm up. Doh. We were all at the top mostly. Rob was trying to manual out of the bank to the hump to the wallride. He got really close. Fuller was doing steezy backside ollies and really good qp tricks on the brick qp. Front smith, cab pivot. Matt was ollieing the little rail, back tailing the black ledge, lipsliding the little rail, all kinds of tricks that are easy for him that the rest of us couldn’t do. Rob and I played a game of SKATE. He got me with some no comply tricks at the start, then I got him with flippers at the end. Everyone was kind of doing their own thing. Matt did a fakie 5-0 first try and then did switch back 50 before I could do regular back 50 (or kickflip back 50). I got a front 50 shove that felt good, almost front 5-0 shove, treflip, nollie treflip!. Rob pulled out a three trick line. He’s getting it back! Dave did a low to high pivot. We were tired. Rob and Dave left and Matt and I went to maybe skate more. He did a treflip. So did I! We called it.

Rob and I met on a very windy night at the Valmont garage and mostly just did slappies for an hour or so. It was mellow and fun. I got quite a few for me. Slappy crooks, crooks fakie, feeble transfer. At the end learned a new one. Slappy crooks 270 out. Hyped! Rob had a nice slam on a back pivot attempt, sick feeble transfer real quick, almost a crazy no comply front slappy.

* insole note * the black sti lab insoles are the winning ticket!

After driving to 303 I didn’t have the energy for a downtown solo session so I headed towards home and stopped at Louisville. There were quite a few people there, but it worked. It’s been too long since the session for me to remember everything. I struggled on the bank to ledge, struggled with back or kick back 50s on the ledge. Managed to front 50 the taller ledge pretty easily and try back 180s out. Got a back 5-0 (grinded to a stop) with a front 180 out on the little ledge. Kickflip to fakie took a few tries. Bikers clogged up the snake run. At the end of the session I took a long time to get a 3 flip on flat then called it a night.

insole note * the black emerica leo ones also suck.

Man this part is awesome. These dudes rule.

ps .. buy the DVD here.

Jake and I played a game of SKATE in front of my house on a crisp spring morning. I got letters on kickflip and fakie flip. That pretty much sums up how I started. I blame getting used to the new setup a little, but missing those is ridiculous. Then we went and picked up Dave and started at this spot. It was a hard warm up unless you are Jake. He was ollie’ing up the the dock like it was nothing and lined out lots of tricks off. Front 180, front 180 off the nose, nollie, f/s halfcab, ollie over the bench and one heck of a stomped no comply 180. Dave and I eventually ollied up it. We did little grab plants off while putting our hands on the top of the bench. I got a back 180 version as well. I had some slams on some no pop back 180s and landed a no pop front shove off. I could’t commit to the ollie over the bench.

Then we went around to the front where Simon and his friends Tyler and Aaron met us. All nice dudes. They all ripped the bank. I avoided it. After an incredibly embarrassing fall up the curb (not on purpose) I went and hid on the manny pad. I tried a bunch of manual kickflips out (have never really tried for some reason) and got remotely close, but just felt dumb. Jake and Dave got axle stalls on the bank. It’s so gnarly. Dave also did some fakie ollies. Simon’s ollie to fakie is crazy. Aaron did a boy varial that was crazy.

Then we went here and did a little landscaping to make this board slideable. It was epic. Simon was the first to get it. He got it third try! So sick. He got a few more too, but they weren’t all easy. He came remotely close to back 50 too. Coming off the end denied Aaron for a long time before he got a few of them. Coming off the end looked weird. Most of my attempts were not close at all. I would only slide a couple feet then bail out. Jason and Lindy had met up with us to watch and I felt so dumb bailing in front of Jason.

I would eventually get it though! (Dave’s video camera died mid make. Doh!). I can’t believe that when I finally got to the end I actually landed it. Whew. Felt amazing. One of the hardest boardslides I’ve ever done. Not scary, just difficult.

Jake got it a few tries after me too. We were hyped!!!

Poor Dave was the only goofy footer at the session. He did manage to front 50 it with a couple scoots and a couple where he popped out early all sick. He tried some lipslides at the end too that he could have probably eventually got.

But we ended up at Dave’s house where Jake and I skated awhile. Jake slayed as usual. Back blunt, front blunt, a bunch more, but couldn’t put down the no handed nosepick he wanted to do. I did alright for me. Got a front d on the parking block side which I thought was new, but then I remembered I did it a few years ago when Brian said “If you disaster it this try I’ll learn nollie tres”. Ha. I was hella sore after all that skating. Neil, you need to learn how to post photos/screen grabs without reducing the quality!

Since switching back to my orthotics I haven’t found the right insoles to skate with yet so am going to make a note of which ones I tried because I seem to forget and try them again. I had tried Etnies ones. They aren’t so good. Bad board feel.

This is insane.