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.