Went to Southern Hills after a really hot day that included a strenuous hike with Liz, watching MI3 with Ollie, laundry, dishes and napping. The purpose was to skate flat as I only had a day left to get a new flipper. I started by going through my bag. Got pretty far on the list which included a nollie varial flip, fakie treflip, treflip and fakie bigflip. Landed on a few varial heels. Since the fakie bigflip came so easy I thought fakie bigger flips might. Nope. At the end I was trying nollie f/s flips one way and treflip rewinds the other way. Got somewhat close to nollie f/s flip, but ended up getting a 360 flip rewind! Was so hyped. That’s been a dream trick forever. I didn’t do it well, but I was so tired from two hours of flip tricks that I just stopped at that point and called it a night.

After being on vacation for a week the whole family was grouchy. So I kinda just left with my skateboard and went to Southern Hills. It’s coming up on the end of the month and I haven’t done a new flip trick yet. Flatground went ok. I wasn’t too confident as skating Ventures again felt a little weird. But I really liked the 8″ trucks and how quick the flip was. I got through quite a few of the basics though and added a nollie varial flip. I was struggling with treflips when I noticed I had worn through the sole of my shoe and was skating on the insole. Doh, can’t have that. So I went home to get new shoes and then grab my camera before driving to Longmont to meet Dave.

Got me some Herman G6 Vulcs. They seem good.

It was hot when I got to Rocky Mtn Elem. The ledge didn’t grind because the wax was melted. I goofed around for awhile thinking of a line I wanted to do. Dropin on the narrow brick bank by the entrance of the school, front board popout the ledge, front 180 off the curb, fakie bigflip. When Dave was warming up I asked if he thought it was worth filming and did the line perfect. Great. Of course once we started filming I struggled with the front board, but I did end up getting it and it did feel amazing. I skated lightly after that then filmed Dave get a rad little line too. Then we both felt like we were getting heat stroke. Guess it was over 90 degrees and we were right in the sunlight. Really stoked on getting that line.

Put my old 8″ Ventures on a 8.25″ board. The board looked so small. I skated in front of the house for a bit before Ollie was ready to leave for a short Louisville session. I was able to ollie while hitting the tail again (ha), kickflips felt easier, halfcab flip felt great. I did end up liking how Indy’s turned, but for now I’m just gonna skate the Ventures and not think of getting 8″ Indys unless I actually end up disliking the Ventures (unlikely). We went to Lville. We skated the skate run thing first. It was fun. The Ventures carve differently then Indys, but the grind felt better and I actually landed tricks I got into instead of just stopping. Ollie pumped better then he has in awhile and followed some lines I showed him to keep his speed more. I got a front d, but bailed out of roll ins. Thanks JP. Ever since making that roll in bet I’ve been completely unable to commit to a roll in. Goofed around on the street section for awhile. Didn’t do anything special and definitely noticed that crooks are harder to get into with a smaller truck. But it was cool. Ollie had some nice front 180’s off the ledge. We were both so tired from vacation and driving that we called really quick.

After swimming a mile around the lake at the reunion and a round of golf (never playing again) I met up with the Fremonsters at the York park. It ended up being such a rad session. Those dudes all rule.

Dan claims to not have skated well. Maybe he didn’t, but he still smiled the whole time and manualed the box to front board off followed by a manual to back board off. As well as the rad grass stall above and a fakie inward heel on the bank followed by a fakie heelfip first t.

Eric fell a lot at the start. I made a lot of jokes how that isn’t the Eric I remember. He killed it in the end showing that he skates that park every day and pushes himself. He killed the mini ramp (staplegun, feeble fakie) and all kinds of unique lines around the park. He even ollied at the end of the session. Yes, an ollie!

A friend of Eric’s named Justin was there. He ripped. Front nosegrind across the stair, ollie up the tallest ledge, front tail to fakie the mellow bank to ledge, back smith the weird kinked flatbar, back blunt on it too, pole jams like they was nothing, a lot more.

I skated decent. Got a front smith on the mellow bank to ledge and a first try front tail. I didn’t skate the mini or flatground too well. I had a lot of problems just ollieing up the curb because I kept missing my tail. I had fun with the early grab cali grind even though I took a couple good slams on it. Also had a fun line of kickflip over the hip then front 50 back 180 out on the little ledge. Got frontside flip on on the top mellow bank then b/s flip on the bank to the mini and some other flippers on the bank next to the stairs like fakie varial flip. At the end of the session I gave my deck to Eric as his was totally trashed and I don’t want such a big board anymore.

Matt is so freakin’ good at skateboarding. Back nosegrind the top stair, almost back 5-0 front 180 out, front nosegrind the mellow bank to ledge, quick up back 50 off the ledge contraption, boardslide shove the kinked flatbar, back feeble it, tricks that started with nollies (ha), so much more I can’t remember right now.

Joe took more tries than me to land a front smith on the mellow bank to ledge! Ha ha Joe! He killed it though. Front 50 to front board, front 50 shove, front smith on the mellow bank to ledge. Did his patented “Joe Hamilton” on the mini. Did a line of front tail on the top bank, turned to boardslide off the ledge into the lower bank then front smith on the lower ledge.

All in all a really fun session with a really fun crew.

At a cabin in Nebraska on a family reunion for Liz’s family.  In my stupidity I decided to use a few free minutes to skate in the driveway at the cabin.  It went OK initially which was surprising considering how much I had swam and stuff earlier.  I did several of my easier basics, but struggled on the harder ones.  Landed on a nollie varial flip, posed double backside flips, ended with a crappy treflip.  Getting sick of how hard flip tricks are with the big setup.

Slept in kinda late and slowly packed for our family vacation. Then finally realized it was Go Skateboarding Day and I needed to get skating! Ollie loves GSD and decided on Valmont as our first spot. We started on the manny pad area. He had a couple clean wallie manuals (one of these days he’ll care enough to do a clean ollie). I almost got manual drop manual up to nose manual. I would have been so hyped. Then we went across the street to the bank above. Ollie did pop shove fakie, fakie shove and halfcab both ways. I started trying no copmly bigger spins and ended up figuring out how to add a heelflip to it and somehow the stars aligned for me to do a no comply lazer flip. Or no comply bigger heelflip. I don’t even know, either way I was pretty hyped. Ollie filmed it, but had his finger in the way. Maybe it adds something to it. Ha.

Then we went to good ol’ Stonehenge after picking up Jack. It’s been forever since any of us have been there. It was slightly harder to land tricks then I remember. Ollie did rock ‘n rolls and then skated the loading dock into the slight downhill sidewalk. He got halfcabs and fakie shoves into it. I just skated the bank to curb. Got most of the basics, struggled with front disaster for some reason. Got a kickflip axle stall, kind of a kickflip pivot and a really great feeling kick back tail that took awhile to get. Jack did all kinds of awesome tricks including the kickflip pretzel rock ‘n roll above. Also front smith to fakie, pivot fakie (totally messed up), blunt fakie, bigspin pivot bigspin out. Geez.

Then we dropped off Ollie and met Dan at Crestview. It ended up being pretty fun. Jack did boardslide push along to boardslide 270 shove out. It doesn’t even make sense. He also did boardslide to front 5-0 shove out. Then he ended up filming Dan and I try tricks. Dan did a sick switch front board transfer. Actually, he did a few of them. None were perfect for him, but they were all sick. I was trying boardslide drop down to back 50. I got pretty close. Almost did one with a feeble grind. We were all beat, but played a game of SKATE. I was the first out. None of the tricks I got letters one were out of my range. Oh well. Jack broke his board on a hardflip. Doh. I think Dan ended up winning? I’m not even sure. But Jack’s board was super cracked and he did a pressure flip and the baord broke in half. It was really funny.

Lastly we ended up at Boulder ditch after grabbing some drinks. It was an awesome ender to an awesome day. Jack rode Ollie’s board which was still in my trunk. Some basic stalls / rocks were done on the qp and some boardslides on the PVC coping. Not much more. Then we hung out and talked skateboarding. It was amazing. Jack and Dan rule. I had a great day.

After getting out of work early on a hot Friday I went to Crisis to sell boards and hang out with one of my favorite dudes. I ended up being there for quite a while. Then I went to the Broomfield park for what turned into a pretty depressing session. I skated the black ledge for awhile. Managed to back 50 it a few times which is tall for me. Especially considering how bad I was skating. Got a line of front 5-0, kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank then halfcab noseslide on the black ledge. Then I went up to the bowl area. Had fun pumping around it. Did some back 50s in the corner I hadn’t before. Tried to roll in and totally failed (thanks JP). Then took a really long time to do a axle stall on the pool coping section. As bad as I skated I still felt somewhat stoked when I left. Maybe I was happy because I realized I haven’t been skating parks lately? Cool.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

My first Vans in forever. I’m gonna say that although the sole blew apart I still really liked these shoes. The board feel and grip was amazing. They kinda hurt my feet when trying flip tricks, but whatevs, they are great shoes. Stylee as most Vans are of course.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

Actually experimented with a corporate shoe. Everything about this shoe is great, except the sole blows out immediately. Which is a big problem! The sole was bare of tread within a week of skating. If you are gonna whore yourself out in corporate shoes, they should at least be durable!

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

This is not a good shoe. I really don’t have one good thing to say about it. The fit is horrible. The sole is kinda thick which could be ok, but combined with a super thin upper it’s just weird fitting shoe. Neither the sole or upper last long. The style isn’t all that either, but at least it doesn’t have a swoosh on it.