skate journal: thornton 1 2 and northglenn with the nebraska crew and more (may 25, 2019)
On a nice, but breezy morning we went to the 136 & Holly park in Thornton. We all did our warm ups before a skateboard was set down. The crew was Eric, Joe, Matt, Dan, Kevin and me. Warming up was different for everyone except Kevin who was going in on hard tricks right away. There were a few different sessions going on. I joined Matt and Dan on the manual pad/wallride thing for a bit. I got a lucky wallride to manual first try. Matt did manuals to 180 both ways. Dan did a 50 to wallride fakie to switch 50. Then there was a few people doing lines to bump to bar. I tried to follow Joe and Matt with ollie up the euro, trick on the qp, bump to boardslide. Matt had done front board, front board fakie, maybe front board shove too. Eric and I skated the qp for awhile and took forever to get a front d. In fact Eric had done like 5 tricks he hasn’t done and he was on a busted knee. Kevin did back d and pivot fakie on the extension. I did a line of back scratch grind, kickflip on the bank. front d. Matt and Joe had joined. Kevin and I started trying lines with b/s flips over hips. His line was nollie flip, pivot fakie, halfcab, b/s flip. Mine was kickflip, back 50, b/s flip. It took both of us awhile, but we got them. Joe was in with us for a bit with front shove and nollie big. Those dudes all did 50s to ride down the stairs. Matt added a manual to it. The dudes were on the ledges for a bit. I had started to get pretty sore.
After some lunch we ended up at the other Thornton park where it was even breezier. Jack and Carleigh were there and we were all treated with Jack back nosegrinding the ledge perfectly then following it up a shove out. My soreness had taken over and I can’t think of anything I did worth noting. Ugh. Eric was pretty beat up too. Kevin was of course ripping with front nosegrind across the top box. Joe and Matt were lining the flat bar and ledges. It’s hard to remember tricks. After awhile most congregated at the bowl as Dan was going for a backside heelflip. Oh yeah, Garrett had joined us and was on the knee recovery tip. He still looks great on a board, but definitely had some rust he was trying to shake off. Damon had joined us too and was lining ledges and flat bars. Anyway, Dan was hyping everyone getting so close the heelflip over and over. Eric was filming. Jack stepped in and handled some business. Killing it. Carleigh was back disastering easily. Dan got his trick and we bounced to NorthGLENn.
NorthGLENn was busy, but not too busy. I really tried to turn on something, but my knees weren’t having it. I did have a couple front 50s on the tiny noping qp that were fun at least. Lots of ripping was had here. Jack’s hardflip over the hip. Damon fakie back 50 halfcab out. Kevin back lip and back tail. Damon almost died trying a fast front 50 on the ledge. There was a dude there with 40mm wheels that was ripping so hard. Matt had a nice nollie shove front 50. Man I am not remembering much about this session. I did a lot of dorky runs. Garrett had a nice Peter Blunt on the noping, then pulled it in 270.
Lastly we went to Saul’s. I had a couple little runs then enjoyed the show and had a few drinks. Saul almost had some back 5-0s, but his quick carve grind lines are still the best. Joe landed a couple of his signature tricks. Matt turned it up and was rattling off tricks, slamming, ripping. Jack had some crazy grinds in. Carleigh had runs with back d and front d. Damon of course charged as hard as ever and did a sick fakie hurricane. Dan got one heck of a line too with a front pivot and staple gun. Eric couldn’t really skate much because of his knee. Heck of a day. I was exhausted. Then we went and watched Jack’s video which is amazing.
(setup 8.75″ null event horizon deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), spitfire f4 classics 52mm green/yellow swirl wheels with 3 washers on the inside, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 8/10 in the knees)