This rules. Josh rules. Welcome to 40 Josh!

Stuck working on a Friday night. Ugh. Managed to see most of Ollie’s football games. Then went for a brief skate to the research center. I started near the Max rail and it ruled. I had new shoes (Etnies RCT) and a new 8.25 deck with my old Venture wides. Yeah, so in Portland there were several times where I felt like my board was too small. So I figured it’s time to try the bigger setup again. This time only 8.25 and Ventures instead of Indy. It felt decent. I started with a line of noseslide coming up the handicap ramp, boardslide a curb, then front 180 up the two stair. It’s a dorky spot, but really fun because you have to curve around all crazy. Then I had a super fun line. Firecracker the two stair, ride down the mess of long stairs, kickflip on flat, no comply 180, start doing down the hill, switch front 180, back 180 (felt really good with the bigger setup), turn around, ollie up the curb, crooks the ledge, then manual the long pad. But I ended up falling on the landing of the manual. I laughed then looked up and saw this awesome view.

I skated the ledge for awhile. Locked into some crooks, didn’t land many of them. Did one back 50. Went to try some flippers, but my achilles is still hurting so bad that I stopped.

Last day of the trip. We had until around 3pm to skate. I did some flippers in the street for awhile while waiting for others to get ready. I was feeling alright. Then Dave and I played a game of SKATE. He won. I forget what with, but one trick was a switch front shove. Off to breakfast.

Then we hiked a hill (Tabor?) to start the day with a hill bomb. Fuzz called out everyone had to do a kickflip first. Handled.

Pretty fun way to start the day. Although Dave and I went the wrong way at one point and had to hike back up awhile to go the right way. It was cool though because we got to see the spot that young Rochester, MN ripper Alec Majerus destroyed.

Then we went to the Ed Benedict skate plaza. The park is incredible! Most of us were to sore and exhausted to take full advantage though. Carleigh ripped it though. Ollied the launcher, noseslid over a gap and flowed all around the park. I tried to skate, but had to give up. Had a crooks or two, slammed kickflipping the hip Nate is ollieing, landed the kickflip, ollied a 3 stair and felt too exhausted to skate so I stopped. Fuzz front tailed the weird bank at the entrance, ollied the launcher. Chris ripped it too. Ollied the launcher, some stairs, good back 50s some other stuff I can’t remember any more. Dave had a rad back tail on the bank, front 50 on the bank to ledge. Nate skated good. Fast back 50s, pop, crazy tricks. Matt cruised that park so easy. Fast ollies, tricks on the benches, back nosegrind the bench over the gap, and a crooks up the top of a rail. That was it. Such a fun trip.

Sunday sunday sunday! The plan was street skating and street skating is what went down. We were at this first spot for several hours. It had a lot to offer. A perfect curb that also served as a manny pad, a good ledge, the ledge Nate lipslid over, and much more. In the beginning I saw Matt noseslide the “Nate Ledge”, a bunch of manuals on the curb by most people. I kind of was solo for a bit trying lines with trick up curb, flatground trick then ledge trick. Fuzz joined me. First one was switch front 180 up, kickflip on flat, noseslide. Handled. Second was bs 180 up curb, halfcab flip on flat, crooks. Handled. Well, I’m not sure Fuzz did that one. But he made up for it by doing a few extra 180s. Fuzz had a sick line involving a bunch of really fast 180s, a kickflip and a fast halfcab noseslide. I tried another line of kickflip up curb, b/s flip on flat, hc noseslide. Didn’t quite get it. The bs flips were slow any way. Then most people were skating over by the Nate Ledge as he battled the lipslide for a long time. Jack bluntslid it and bluntslide to fakie. Neil almost lipslid it too. Neil had some good lines to the ledge starting with pop shoves up the curb and no complies over a sign. Fuzz had a really funny slam. Rob was doing this rad line of manual then no comply bs wallride. I messed around with some front 50s on the ledge. Eventually our new homie Snakey Jakie showed and made a little kicker/pole jam thing which was quite fun. Snakey killed it with an ollie out to board break. Fuzz and I did pole jams then 180s off the curb, his bs mine fs. Carleigh rode off to manual. Dave missed an early grab. Jack late shoved it. Nate went out to the street. Matt probably ollied the whole thing.

Dave and Jack filmed some stuff before we ended up here which Nate referred to as “The best manny pad ever!” We wasn’t too far off though as it was pretty fun. He did the trick above so easy so many times. I got a manual to back 180 in (with a couple minor tilts). Then Nate and I tried lines for a bit. He was trying no comply 180 up the curb (the hard way) then halfcab nose manual back 180 into the bank. Got pretty close. I was trying switch 180 up the curb, kickflip off, nose manual front 180 in. Got real close, maybe even did it with a little tilt. I should mention that my achilles was killing me. Every push hurt soooo bad. Ugh.

Went a half block to this which is so much gnarlier then it looks. Matt ollie’ing it was so sick. Dave tried front 360 manuals. I tried something dumb. Nate 50’d the ledge into the bank. Then Jack tried gapping from the kicker down to the edge and about died. He messed up his arm. It was a horrendous slam. Hope his arm is ok.

Then we hit this ledge for awhile. Well, some of us. Everyone was beat, myself included. But I am too stubborn to stop skating. Nate did a few tricks and ended with a really nice front smith grind. I could hardly ollie that high. Dave and I tried lines. Slappy tricks on a curb, then across the street for a ledge trick then down the hill for more. It was kind of weird because people were posted up near the curb and I kept almost hitting them. Anyways I would eventually battle through a line that ended up being my skate highlight of the trip. Halfcab boardslide the parking block, front 50 the ledge, no comply 180 in the street, then switch 180 over the little bank in the photo of Fuzz above. It’s not the best line for me, but considering my worn down condition it felt like the best I could do and it felt super awesome. I yelled in joy when I got the switch 180. Dave had a really sick line. Switch slappy crooks to forward the parking block, crooks the ledge then ended up doing a wallie bash thing off one of the white things on top of the bank. That was the end of the skating. Everyone was beyond beat so we went to see pretty much the coolest thing ever. The Swifts!