Played soccer with the kids for awhile, ate, helped with homework a little then went to Denver to bring boards to Emage. Didn’t really plan anything because I didn’t know that I would actually go. I considered Denver park for a brief second then realized I would be much happier skating downtown. So I parked on 15th near the granite wedge spot, did some warming up curb ollies, pushed. Ended up at a spot I skated with Fuzz and Carleigh a long time ago. I was carving a curb cut corner and ollieing onto a little ledge in hopes of ollieing off a big part of it, but people kept walking by with their dogs and they would freak out barking. It was so annoying. So I moved on. Ended at the cheese wedge spot and was in the process of getting warmed up and got the boot of course. I had ollied onto a wedge and off already and normally that takes me several tries. I looked at a perfect ledge over rail spot that would be a gnarly ollie for me. I should have at least tried it, but I didn’t. I ended up at the slappy ledge against the wall spot on the corner that I’ve wanted to skate for awhile The slappy part was easier then I remember and oh so fun. I tried to line it out with the 3 stair which I kind of did, but I started noticing people in the buildings still working at 9pm and they were clearly annoyed by the noise I was making. Argh, I really wanted to line out something fun. Oh well.

I moved on to this spot (both photos) which has two sets of small stairs which I love. Last summer I had tried a line there, but got the boot. I tried the same line. Ollie up the curb, back 180 off the two stair (top photo), fakie bigflip on flat, front shove the 1.1 stair (bottom photo). It was hard getting used to so many people being outside and skating around them. It feels like it was just winter a week ago and no one would be outside. Anyways, I tried the line for a long time. I got the fakie bigflip quite a few tries early on and bailed the front shove for various dumb reasons. Then I couldn’t land the fakie bigflip for awhile, but eventually I did and got a great feeling front shove. It felt really awesome to get that line. I was also hyped on all the back 180s because I normally struggle with that trick. I think the bigger setup helps for the basics. And three days on the Indys and no complaints yet. Crazy. I headed home after that.

Got stuck working all day missing out on a miniramp/ditch session with friends. So around 7 when I got done working I asked Ollie if he wanted to skate campus with me and he said yes. Awesome. We started out in the area above, I’m not sure what building that is. Ollie and I dropped in on this little thing. Then we ollied the longer two stair in the middle of that photo and messed around. I started trying a line of kickflip off a curb, ollie up the long two, curve down the handicap ramp then front 50 the 2nd stair of the curved set on the left. Took me a few tries and Ollie was losing his patience and swinging a branch at me saying “The swamp man is after you!” It made me laugh and I got the line with a really bad front 50, but whatever, I’m still getting used to new trucks (I think I finally found the winning combo for the bigger setup though!!!) and how they turn. Then we ollied a 3 stair and came upon this four stair which Ollie did this coffinish grass ride and I just ollied it.

Then we came up on this rock ledge which I have never seen before. It doesn’t grind too well and it took me a few tries to get a couple. Long enough for Ollie to get bored and download a new game onto my phone (Don’t Tap The White Tile), set a high record and shoot a photo of my butt sticking out on a front 50. So with kids these days that tells you it was only about 5-10 tries.

Then we ended up at these long sets of stairs. Ollie beat me to doing all of them and it made me happy. The last couple were a little scary since you barely land before the next set. We each did it a bunch of times and decided to film each other. I tried to ollie the 5 stair after it and failed as it was a little long for me and has a big crack before it. Ok, so the crack just looks big, but doesn’t effect anything. Doesn’t mean I don’t use it as an excuse to try the stairs. Then we did the hill down from the basketball stadium a couple times. Ollie didn’t even foot drag the second time. I had fun ollieing some cracks going relatively fast for me. That was pretty much it. Hyped that Ollie was down to skate and was so fun to roll with. I had eaten gluten the night before and was pretty stiff. That’s the third time I’ve tried to eat/drink something with gluten and every time it’s resulted in pain. Lesson learned. I just really, really, really want to have a good beer in the summer. Oh well. Argh.

Went to Crisis early to do big bidness before Fuzz opened. While I was at it I setup some Independent trucks. It’s funny how I avoided Indy forever and realized I had never put better bushings in them so maybe they are an option after all. And since the Royals were done due to too much wheelbite, Ace were done because the kingpin was loose and the hangers were bent (POS trucks) I was down to try Indy. With the white medium Venom bushings.

We went to the bank spot out on on 120th. I had a lot more energy then last time, but was struggling a bit due to the obvious reason of having an almost entirely new setup. Rob and Neil each had good lines after a short warm up. I don’t remember them exactly but Rob’s was something like kickflip out of the curb kicker, bean plant on the bank, kickflip on the bank, boneless. All done well. Neil also had a long one with Neil comply boneless, backside ollie, frontside ollie, basics done well. Neil and Rob also had b/s 180s out of the curb kicker, Rob had a kickflip on the bank. I struggled with kickflips out of the curb kicker, but eventually got one in a line with a kickflip on the bank after.

Then we went to a ledge we’ve never skated across the street. We should call it the struggle ledge because we all struggled. It wasn’t that tall, but it was just weird. Rob got a few crooks, Neil got into a few crooks, I slammed on a front board, got into front 50. Then a cop came to boot us and we thanked him for putting us out of our misery. He laughed.

We drove around for awhile and ended up at some abandoned government building. We found a smooth section and a curb that slid well for boardlides and hit it for awhile. Rob had a bigspin front noseslide, lap over lipslides, Neil had lipslides. I had a few “switch” boardslides and then almost got a line of kickflip over a hose, 3 flip on flat then kick back tail the curb. I broke my board on a heelflip on the way back though. DOH.

So we went to Crisis so I could setup a new board. I went with 8.5 this time mainly because there was one of the new Neandernulls with a yellow bottom sheet. Freakin’ gorgeous! We went across the street to the Safeway ledges. Neil was sore and didn’t really skate. Rob and I skated pretty hard for awhile. He got a lot of his tricks. Cab front nose, nollie front 50 first try, front 5-0, lots of good back 50s, back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, back 50 back 180 (I think). I got a few back 50s and then one locked in kick back 50, but couldn’t get another kick back 50 (was gonna try shove out), a hilarious “front smith” where I didn’t grind and somehow fell out of it and rolled away, tried front tail shove, tried crooks on the fence ledge but kept doing noseslides. My flatground game was ok, got a treflip and started hucking Rick flips for some random reason. Even landed on one that could maybe count on defense in an over 50 game of SKATE. Rob and I ended with a really fun game of SKATE that went T-T before I won it on a fakie bigflip. Other tricks that went down were 43 shifty, no comply shove, no comply 360, no comply, front shove, b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip (Rob went double or nothing on it and unfortunately came up short). It was a perfect ender for a really fun day.

Woke up around 5:30 am for some ridiculous reason. I slacked for awhile then decided I should go skate. I thought I’d be pretty sore, but ended up feeling pretty good. I had put my Ace trucks back on and some new Null wheels. I of course had the park to myself. Warming up was not as hard as it should be. Maybe it’s because it felt like I hadn’t really stopped skating from the night before. I tried that dumb flyout into the downhill that every 10 year old kid with pads can do, but still failed. Man that’s embarrassing. It’s fun cruising that park when no one else is there. I did more tricks then I thought I would, but nothing really noteworthy. I got a line of rock fakie the little white tooth qp (yes I consider that a trick because yes I am not good at skateboarding), fakie flip on the bank, then carved onto the bench. Ended with a line that I tried for a bit that I could normally never do with people flying around the park. Front shove on flat near the top of the fish pond (I had tried treflip and failed), kickflip to fakie on the narrowish bank to the right of the ledges, fakie flip on the mellow bank next to the round rail, then tried to noseslide the hubba. I got to the hubba twice and on the second attempt I got tossed to the flat. It didn’t hurt. Well, I mean I guess it did, but the people walking the dog nearby reacted like I had been shot or something. It was one of those slams where you just kind of laugh in the air and wait for it to be over. I guess to the average person walking their dog it must look incredibly dangerous.

I was half an hour late to meet up with Rob at Red Curbs on what was supposed to be a rainy night, but instead it was just cloudy and a little cool. Rob had been there for awhile so he was warmed up and doing nollie 50s already. I warmed up with some ride on front 50s and some regular front 50s. Then we kinda skated the non-red-curb for awhile. Rob posted up on some back lipslides (the slide aint no typo!) and landed a few of them. So sick! And with Rob’s steeze too, dang. I eventually got a front lipslide. I had to cheat over the corner of course and when I tried to get on in the middle of the curb I cracked my board a little. Doh, although still totally skateable. Rob took off. I debated going somewhere else, but ended up staying. I tried a few lines. Ollie a box, front lip the non-red curb, kick back t on the red curb. Never got the kick back t. Also tried front 50 the red curb then kickflip noseslide the 2 stair ledge. Never got the kick noseslide, but somewhat close. My flatground game was sucking. Well, especially treflips. I was also getting a lot of wheelbite which was annoying considering how small my wheels were worn down to. That will be the end of the Royals and their short lived stint. Well, at least until next week probably. I ended by trying to get a new flip trick. I tried heelflip body varials for awhile, but couldn’t commit. Then did a sex change to get warmed up and tried them fakie. Got one. Lamest new flipper yet this year.

I work the later shift which means til 6pm this week. I didn’t feel like organizing a crew up to FoCo because I was lazy. On the way to the Fort I decided to stop and my Dad’s grave and it ended up being pretty tough. It’s been almost 3 years since he passed. Anyways the rest of the drive was pleasant and I enjoyed some tunes and rolled up to MRKT at closing time. We did business quick and hung for a bit before Chad and I rolled onto campus. It was apparent immediately that it was going to be a fun night. Especially because the first place we looked ended up having this freshly painted perfect slappy curb. Slanted and everything, The whole spot was amazing. There was perfect asphalt on the street, a new ledge (like the rainbow ledge in Boulder), a different slappy curb, the slappy curb in the photo and then this parking lot filters into another parking lot down a mellow hill with a few options. We both just kind of did our thing and would smile at each other going by saying “this is so fun” or “this spot rules” or something. I had one run with front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, crooks the ledge, slappy one curb, slappy the next curb, ollie onto a curb, ollie off, kickflip on flat, ollie a 3 stair, nollie off a little bump, front 180 off a curb, fakie flip on flat. Fun! Started trying with f/s halfcab flip instead and kinda got it and after the slappies I did a little gap in gap out median that Chad manualled. I didn’t see all of what Chad did, but they started with fakie flip then switch heel, halfcab up the curb, back 50 the ledge then into the abyss. We were here for awhile. It was a freaking blast.

Then we ended up at this thing. Chad ollied up, b/s ollie on the bank, ollied off. He darn near kickflipped onto it too. It’s taller to get onto then it looks. I took several tries to get up, but managed. Oh yeah, I was breaking in new shoes:

Yeap, I’m living up to the “Corporate” in my name. I’ve been wanting to try to Adidas for awhile. These are the Busenitz vulcs. They seem decent, not as grippy as Vans, but also not as painful. Anyways, we pushed on. Ended up at some little mini bank and played on it. Then a four stair I should have ollied first try like Chad did, but I didn’t. Chad wallied this weird metal bin off a ledge, I bailed it. We saw some cops lurking so we bailed. Then we came up on a “hill” where we saw a longboarder slam earlier. Bad enough he limped off. We both laughed because it was the tiniest hill. I ollied a little gap into it to start my “bomb”. Then we played a game of SKATE that I lost miserably. I missed a fakie flip, got two letters on front shove since I missed the double-or-nothing and it didn’t get better. I blame new shoes! But I started skating them before the Vans were completely dead because they need to be broken in in a week when the Fremont crew comes out!

After a long day of watching Ollie play football (he had two games (not back to back)) I went out in the early evening and skated flat for a bit. Warming up was a pain. I got through a lot of the basics including treflip and started hucking nollie tres and varial heels, but came up short and called it a night.

A gloomy start to a Saturday, but it ended up being super nice out. Neil, Blake, Rob, Ollie, Lazer and I started at CU. We messed around at the Physics building (I think?). Some little ollies up curbs, down, up ledges, etc. Everyone seemed to be struggling a bit. Lazer slammed on a nosebonk, but ended up ollie’ing a the gap over the ledge. Cops drove by and as Carleigh arrived told us that we couldn’t do any “acrobatic skateboarding”. After watching us skate for awhile clearly doing tricks. I guess they weren’t acrobatic enough. Anyways, we moved up near the student center. Rob no complied up a 3 stair, Lazer had a steezy ollie down it. I tried a line of riding through the skate stoppers then something off the bench, but it didn’t work so well. Then the cops came by again and gave us the official boot. Doh.

We went to Casey. It was a strugglefest. I ended up just skating flatground. I got through a quite a few of them and got stuck on treflips. Then I cracked my new board on treflips. Doh. It wasn’t bad at all though. I started getting really frustrated with my trucks as they weren’t turning tight enough and sat down for awhile as most everyone else was too. Ollie was playing basketball. Rob was crossing a dream trick off his list though. Wallride nollie out. He got a few. So sick! Looks for the documented proof in a Gnarly Carleigh photo somewhere, sometime.

Next up was the bank to curb/ledge. On the way there I stopped at home and grabbed my Venom bushing that I liked in my Ventures and put them in my Royals. Then they were super loose and I was hyped on them! Neil was having a tough day which is a bummer since it’s one of his last weekends before moving to Hawaii. He did manage to lipslide the two stair and front tail the curb though. Blake did his front 50 transfer again, almost dieing on some attempts. Lazer was boardsliding for miles. I managed quite a few tricks on the curb; front board to forward, switch boardslide, front tails with no slide, and geez, I guess that’s it. Probably not “quite a few” after all. I also got noseslide and boardslide on the taller part which hyped me up. Rob had a nice back feeble that grinded pretty far. Carleigh chilled and snapped photos. She wasn’t skating much because she hurt her elbow.

Then we went to Southern Hills after a stop at Que’s to say hi to Jack and then picking up Jake. I engaged in some of Colorado’s finest with Lazer and Rob and it made for an interesting session for me. My heart was pounding and I thought I would pass out, but man I felt extremely motivated to skate. Jake was killing it out of the gates. Rob went nuts too. It was a great session and a lot went down that’s hard to remember. Jake tre flipped into the handicap ramp, front tail and front tail to fakie on the ledge, quite a few fakie flips, halfcab boardslide, probably a lot more. Rob had some really long runs. Tricks like front shove out of the handicap ramp, kickflip into it, front noseslide on the bench, back noseslides, no complies. I’m blowing it on remember what all he did, but he was honestly skating some of the best I’ve seen him skate. Almost stomped a varial heel out of the handicap ramp. I tried a bunch of lines. First the ollie onto the narrow bench, kickflip off and back 180 off the 2 stair, but I kept not rotating enough on the back 180 and slamming so I gave up on that. Slammed hard trying to kickflip into the handicap ramp. Ha. Did some lines with heelflips or treflips to start then noseslide/boardslide/crooks on the bench. Or started with front board on the bench of the picnic table. Came really close to a line of halfcab flip into the handicap ramp then front 50 shove out on the bench. Lazer didn’t skate much and Carleigh kept it mellow with some ollies and cruised around a little. Blake had left. Ollie too. At the end Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It was a fun one, that I finally won. He normally beats me. I got Jake to do a f/s halfcab flip which he hasn’t done in forever. He got me on a treflip. I have decided to not try varial flips in SKATE anymore because when I don’t land them I get really mad. Anyways yeah, what a long day of skating. Felt great, weather was great, tight crew, good times.

There was literally over 20 new web parts this week. It was ridiculous and almost to the point of over saturation. It was tough to keep up. My pick for favorite part goes to Rowan Zorilla in Shep Dawgs 4. Dude has a really unique eye for lines and tricks and it’s awesome.

Which says a lot considering there was also a new Cory Kennedy part. Clearly a goof around part, but still proving CK1 can do anything he wants on a skateboard.

I’m obviously routing for David Reyes for the Real Street thing.

But oh man Wes Kremer is the man. A three trick line of no complies? So sick!

After work and a tiny nap Neil came over on a beautiful night and we cruised over to Boulder Ditch to meet Dave and Rob. Boulder Ditch is really hard to skate, but a pretty good warm up for the legs. Neil boardslid the ledge pretty quick, lots of ollies, front tails on the pvc, front slashes on the little qp. Dave rolled in on the wood qp, front pivots on the tall qp, long boardslides on the pvc, front 5-0s on the pvc (photo). Rob didn’t skate this spot much, but still managed to boardslide the pvc all steezy. I had a couple hard slams. One just sliding on the concrete and it didn’t slide so I landed on my back. The other trying to crooks the box and I still have a headache from that. But I had fun doing a line with kickflip over the “hip” and boardsliding the pvc or nosesliding the box or not landing crooks.

Then we went to campus. We started out at the main parking lot with the little manny pad, tall manny pad, ledges, and the frustrating two curb spot. This was an epic part of the night, we were all struggling so bad. You know when it takes Neil multiple tries to ollie a curb that things aren’t going well. Basically this spot is a wallie curb followed somewhat quickly (10 feetish) by another curb that drops onto a sidewalk. Neil ended up being the first to get it, Rob second and they both were lining it out with some manual/nose manuals around some cars. I cracked my board pretty bad on a pop shove. Doh. It was still skateable though and I ended up getting a line of fakie flip, sw 180, wallie the wallie curb, the worst ollie ever done over the 2nd curb and then a back 180 off the sidewalk where I landed not moving. Perfect. Ha. Dave had some nice fakie bispgins, helipops, and put down the wallie/ollie combo, but didn’t quite ride away. Oh well.

Then we went over the the newly waxed slappy ledge and it was even more waxed up. Awesome. Dave went to work immediately with a slappy front 5-0. Ridiculous. He also went on to do slappy back 50, a bunch more slappy front 5-0s and then a proper slappy crooks after dropping in on the narrow stair ledge nearby. Rob did front tail right away and got a few slappy back 5-0s that were all inside and steezy. I liked how he carved it more then I was posting up on it. I managed one slappy front 50, some weak slappy crooks, slappy back 50s, front 50s and one front 5-0 which felt fun because you can kind of drop into the bank on the land. I tried to get more 5-0s to start a line, but couldn’t do it. Ended up settling for front 50, kickflip, wallie onto a similar ledge, back 180 off it, manual scrape the little manny pad, flung myself up the taller part of the red ledge. That felt fun. Neil was lining out the spot as he normally does. Ollie onto the red ledge, ollie off over the corner of the manual pad, front tail the ledge, almost front tail to fakie.

Then we kinda of looked at some other stuff. Dave was thinking boardsliding this. Ha, not the handrail, the curb. But he ended up dropping into 50 instead. So rad. We played on the little rock to narrow flagstone path for a bit. I had a couple front tail to fakies, Dave wallied into blunt. I ollied a gap off a narrow ledge and then we skated back to the car. Super fun night. I haven’t felt that good in awhile. My legs didn’t even hurt all that bad except after we had stopped for a bit.