After a busy morning of running Christmas errands and then lots of football at Fairview with Ollie I met Dave at this spot for a quick session. I should skate this spot more, it rules. We went through quite a few basics to start. Slappy nose, tail slides. Board slides. The weather was nice and warm. Dave did a sick boardslide to fakie. I mostly did switch noseslides (no pop) which were fun. Then battled a halfcab boardslide which ended up being really fun. Lined it out with a front 180 up the curb first (didn’t get a nollie tre after). Dave did a really good front lipslide. And Front 5-0, switch boardslide. I got a switch boardslide too, and kind of a switch front noseslide 270. Flatground went decent for me. I really like how Venture lows carve. This was a really fun session.
Comments Off on skate journal: awesome short session at these banks with dave (dec 24, 2014)
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Headed out to campus for the first time since the students came back in the fall. That may be my longest bread from campus ever. I guess I’m getting old and get annoyed by college students. I felt a little odd, like arthritis kind of or something, but not in pain. I went to the ledge above first, but quickly realized I needed some other warm up. So I went one building away and did skated this slappy/regular ledge. It turned out to be a good warmup. I bashed into it a few times, got a slappy back 50, close to slappy crooks. Got front 50 and front 50 180 out. Didn’t quite get front 5-0. Did a line of “nollie” back 180, halfcab flip, back 50, backside flip, fakie varial flip. Sounds awesome right? But wow if you could just see how bad all of those tricks were. Either way it hyped me up. Then I went to the ledge above for awhile. Did a line of pop shove off a curb, manual a little manny pad, horrible back 50. Tried a bunch of nollie bigfilps and got close. Did a line of f/s 180 off the taller part of the ledge, switch front 180 on flat then front 50 the lower part of the ledge. Took awhile to get one on a taller part of the ledge. Some other dude showed up for awhile and skated the ledge straight on. He did a pop shove nose stall. Pretty cool. I did a crooks then moved on as I didn’t have much time and really wanted to skate the next spot.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever lined out this spot before. I think I have, but I couldn’t find a journal entry for it. Anyways the goal was to ollie up curb onto the sidewalk in the far left of the first photo, front 180 the little rock gap into the parking lot, halfcab flip on flat, then come around and ollie the 5 stair. I committed to the 5 stair almost every try which kind of hyped me up, but I would splat to the ground pretty fierce. I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve ollied some stairs. I thought it would be pretty easy though so I started thinking f/s halfcab flip instead. Got a few of those and still splatted down the stairs. Doh. It started approaching time for me to get home so I really had to land it and last try did it. Whew. I know it’s not a big set of stairs at all, but it felt like a cool line and I was skating really hard. On the way back I hit the fast hill above the 3 stair parking lot. Rather then just bomb it I did some power slides which felt so cool. Bombing is fun, but for me powerslides are so much more fun. I got to my car feeling sore and a bit shaky from skating so hard. Awesome.
Comments Off on skate journal: campus awesomeness (dec 6, 2014)
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So I’m supposed to be on this program where I land one new flip trick a month. I’m one month behind and since it’s the last day of November if I don’t land a new one I’ll have to land 3 new tricks in December. Yikes. It was really cold, like 23 degrees and I went to Southern Hills pretty early in the day. I started with a few basics that felt good (except for the treflip as that trick hates me now) then settled into a routine of 4 new tricks. Well mostly new. I would try nollie f/s flip, switch flip (I’ve landed this once in my life), fakie hardflip (I’ve landed this once in my life) and nollie heels. I landed on all of them except nollie heels. Seriously both feet on, but not enough foot on. The nollie f/s flip was so close. Man I would be hyped to land that one. Several switch flips were close. The fakie hardflip just didn’t get enough rotation. Argh. Nollie heels are super hard. I’ve never gotten close and I didn’t this day either, but I did seem to get it to flip more consistently. There were a couple that could have been makes if I would have hovered over my board rolling on the ground longer. Ha. Looks like I have to land 3 new flippers in December.
Then I went home, went on a cold walk with Liz and had more time in the afternoon to do something so what better to do then go skating? I went to Louisville park and to my surprise no one was there. Ha, it had dropped to 18 degrees. As you can see I’m very bundled up. I had a blast though. An absolute blast. I started by forcing myself to do a bunch of frontside ollies on various hips, rolled into the 4 foot section, carved around, had fun. I had a great feeling front 50 shove on the ledge, kickflip to fakie on the flat bank, back 50 around a corner, front d in the snake run, almost did nollie f/s flip, did a first try nollie treflip, a few heelflips. I tried to selfie film like Neil does to send him a clip of how we still do it here in the cold. That was first try and I never got closer. I started to get pretty tired and kickflips up the little ledge weren’t working so I went home.
Comments Off on skate journal: solo flatground then louisville later in the cold (nov 30, 2014)
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Had a few minutes before leaving for Murder City Devils to skate. Cleaned up the garage a little and skated for about 20 minutes. I had more fun and landed more tricks then I expected. Front tail, feeble, smith, disaster. Back 5-0 fakie (my poor impression of the trick), fakie pivot fakie, fakie Joe Hamilton, fakie 5-0s, front d to fakie. I did quite a few tricks that felt in more control then normal. I did several flatground kickflips to help break in the shoe. These shoes are a half size too big. They are a test to see if I like them enough to add all the 11.5s at Sol, Meta, 303 to my stash of 11s.
Comments Off on skate journal: brief rampy solo session to break in new shoes (oct 10, 2014)
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I met up with Rob and Dave at the only spot in Denver after making a run to Emage. Dave had to setup a new board. Rob and I cruised around the area a bit then mostly hit the hill. I didn’t do much of anything other then powerslides. These STFs slide so good. Rob and Dave tried the wallride thing for awhile. Then we pushed for awhile to get to the bank spot above to meet an old friend of Rob/Dave’s named Brian. He’s rad. We skated this spot for awhile. I didn’t do much of anything. Rob had the crailtap above, b/s flip, and some more. Dave had some rad roll ins and front pivot. We moved on. Hit some weird building structure with some yellow curbs and this weird angle iron you could ride on. Rob killed it with a first try back 360 off a curb cut and a lot of back 50s. Brian and Rob did manuals to grind. Dave had some manuals. I took a lot of tries to do a cali grind to one foot long nose manual turned to disaster. More moving around. We went by a spot with a tall ledge and wallride. Rob had many radical wallrides. I got one noseslide. I tried a line with ollie onto a bench then treflip then noseslide. Never got the treflip. Then we went to some bank spot, but on the way I noticed a really fun 4 stair section that everyone else passed up. Ollie a 4, cross the road, ollie up a curb, ride off a 2 stair, ollie down a 4. Man it was fun. I would have loved to skate it longer, but I had to catch up. We skated this steep driveway for a bit. I kickflipped and fakie bigflipped into it. Thanks for spotting Dave. Rob and Dave had some rad no complies sideways into it off a weird curb. I’m probably missing spots. We were really street skating. Just pushing from spot to spot having a blast. I think we ended up at the Denver art museum. I was bummed on how I couldn’t ollie up the black ledges easily. Those dudes were on the far side. I got booted so met up with them and there was a gap to sidewalk that seemed fun. I front 180’d it then met up with everyone at a cool little wallride. We all did regular wallrides. I think Brian and I got frontside ones. Dave almost died trying a wallie. Rob did a sick alley oop wallride. We chilled for a minute then started heading back towards our cars. Dave and I did the wallie out of the grated thing by the library. We skated a little manny pad for awhile across from the world trade center. Dave has a casual manual. Then we went across the street and actually lasted quite awhile. Dave had some really good wallrides. We all had some fun firecrackers. I did one followed by the worst wallies ever done. I had fun ollieing up the 3 stair part then bean plant over the little curb thing and kickflip up one stair and front 180 it. Dave firecrackered the 4 stair. I think that was pretty much it. That was some real street skating. When it was all done my trucks looked like they had covered a lot of the city.
Carleigh, Rob and I rolled up to Fort Collins in the afternoon. We went to MRKT first and Skelly and Mike were there. Perfect. We rolled with them and another old dude Chip and his friend Eli to the slappy post office spot. The weather was perfect. Mike broke a baseplate on one of his first slappy attempts, but luckily he had an extra in his truck. Rob was killing it out of the gates. Slappies both ways, slappy crooks, manuals, manual 180s, everything. For whatever reason I don’t like that curb so much. So I just kind of skated around more then the curb. There was a new gap across the street. Young guy Eli and I checked it out. It was off a beveled ledge, about a 5 or 6 stair drop, but only a few feet in distance over a little bush. Eli did it first try and back 180’d it too. I took too many tried to commit, but finally committed to the ollie. Didn’t land ride away and security came by so I didn’t get another try. Doh. I was hyped to actually try it though as it was a big gap for me. I filmed everyone skate for awhile. Rob got a couple of his moves, Carleigh got a really good slappy or two, Mike had a rad line, Skelly did a backside no comply over a curb.
Then we went to this bank to curb. It’s harder to skate then it looks, but it’s a blast. Skelly rattled off like 20 tricks. Most of them first try. Rob put down a lot of moves too. We skated there quite a while. I did a front tail shove which I don’t think I have done on a bank to curb. Carleigh learned axle stall then did back feeble first or second try. Skelly had front feeble, front d to fakie, bean plant fakie so many more. Rob had back shove nose stall and some crazy feeble smith dance. I added a kick back axle and then rolled into the far side which was really scary avoiding all the death traps. Mike got a really sick halfcab nosestall. Fun times.
Instead of taking my typical mid morning gym break I went to the nearby skatepark again. I was really upset with how poorly I skated last night and wanted to redeem myself. I did. I skated faster, harder, did some new stuff and had fun. Pretty early on I had a great feeling treflip on flat. The best one I’ve done in awhile. I had some front 50s on the little ledge, crooks on it, crooks on the taller part of it, halfcab noseslide. I was determined to ollie onto the middle ledge near the flatbars. I got close, close, then somehow a miracle happened and I was riding on top of it so I front 180’d off and smiled. I also got crooks up one of the escalator ledges which felt great, front 50 too. Last two things I was trying were front shove off the main ledge (without ollie’ing up sorry) and ollie over the small side of an escalator ledge. Got the ollie pretty easy and instead of trying the front shove again I left. Hyped.
Comments Off on skate journal: snuck out to the nearby park again (Oct 29, 2014)
Woke up late and had to hustle to slappy slalom. People were already going off. The hill seemed steeper then I remembered. I dorked around on the bottom for awhile just doing slappy crooks on one curb. I did a lot of standing when I would go to the top because there were so many people. I would eventually get a few runs that made my day. They were super tech. Boardslide a curb, slappy tail the wood box, boardslide the long pvc slider and then early grab off the launch ramp. Man that was fun. Did the same starting with slappy crook. May have also added a manual to it. Documenting what all other people were doing would be crazy. Dave had good slappy crooks and feebles. Matt did a bunch of tricks on the red curb on top of the box. Fuzz was cruising fast. After awhile Matt and I played a game of SKATE. Well, two games. The first one was pretty awesome and the second one took forever. Matt won both and I missed treflips every try except before the first game. Then we skated the slalom some more. Carleigh boardslide the long pvc. Rob was doing sick slappies on the first curb. Watching the huck fest over the car was really fun. This event ruled. I didn’t skate a ton, but the little I did felt great. Even just doing powerslides down the hill.
Then we went to the nearby DIY slab again for even more fun. John called out the trick up trick on trick off challenge on the little manual pad and we all bought in. It was so much harder then I thought it would be. It was like working out at the gym. Jump, jump, jump! Everyone would get a few. Adam got the kickflip up, on, down challenge. Matt rolled his ankle trying it. I couldn’t quite get it. Fuzz put down quite a few. Front 180 up, f/s halfcab on, front shove off. Ridiculous. Halfcab up, back 180 on, fakie flip off. First try. I got front 180 up, halfcab flip on, back 180 off. Rob had a couple with back 360 of cabs in them. So crazy. John took the cake with the best line with switch ollie up, on, down. None of which the tail hit at all or the wheels really left the ground. It was amazing. Fuzz and I skated the weird spine for a bit. He had a nice bluntslide transfer. I got a little boardslide transfer. Mike stopped by and boardslid it. I got a little front feeble transfer thing.
Then we dorked around on the manny pad some more. Fuzz did a bunch of around the world to manuals. John had the amazingness above. Carleigh worked on manuals. I early grabbed up it. Rob did no comply front shove manual. Crazy. What an awesome day.
Comments Off on skate journal: Slappy slalom/DIY fun (Oct 26, 2014)
Chief in town! So hyped. We headed out later in the evening on a warm evening. We lit up Stonehenge with my car lights. Chief has been recovering from knee surgery so he wanted a mellow spot. When we first got there he said he would be stoked to front 50 it. A whooping 5 minutes later he did front and back 50s easy. I rattled through quite a few of my staples. Got kick back 50, and kick back pivot. Tried for the flip trifecta with kick back tail too, but never got it. Chief threw some backside no complies then started trying it to back tail. He ended up getting quite a few. So sick. He would also get front 50 front 270 out all steezy.
Then we went to Red Curbs. That place rules. It didn’t take long for Chief to line out some long ones. He was having so much fun. He’s been skating for so long and he did his first front 50 front 180 out in a long time. He was doing shove its, long front 50s, back 180s off the curbs. All with patented Chief steeze. He was oozing stoke. Just having so much fun. It ruled. I don’t remember getting a whole lot myself. Then we skated the metal ledge part in the photo. We did a bunch of ride on grinds that were super fun. Chief was doing front 50, front 50 front 180 out, no comply front 5-0 and no comply front tail. I did back 50, back 50 up onto the top, back 50 up then back 180 off. Also some front 50s down it. I was trying those then treflips and didn’t any clean ones. Last trick was back 50 back 180 out. Skating with Chief ruled. Can’t wait to do it again.
Comments Off on skate journal: stonehenge and red curbs with chief! (oct 23, 2014)
It was so nice out. I normally go to the gym around 10am at work for about 45 minutes, but it was just too nice out. I went to the nearby “rollerblade park” and skated for about 45 minutes. It was hot out. I had a new board after my idiocy last night. 8.1 this time. Felt good. I kept it pretty mellow. Mostly just skated slow trying flip tricks and the occasional ledge trick. At one point I had a halfcab flip, 360 flip (over 40 make) and then a nollie 360 flip (over 80 make). Ha. Was hyped. Was really missing vulc shoes though. They are just so much better for skating. Gotta do this instead of the gym more often, it was quite fun.
After work, a nap, laundry, I went to Crisis to meet up with our old guy crew for Denver Tuesdays. I was first so Fuzz and I sat and watched a video while disagreeing over everything except how rad Ty Bealls part is in the A-Street video. Ha. Dave and Rob showed and we drove to Cherry Creek to a parking garage called “Cherry Curbs”. Money. And it exceeded all expectations. We mostly skated this crazy manny pad with all kinds of weird angles that you can go into/out of grinds. I was the last on the manual to front 50 train. Actually, I’m not sure if I even did it without tilting. Rob did it with no comply and one foot as well. Fuzz got tech with heelflips up, switch back 180s, noseslides pop ups. Dave did front 5-0 to nose manual and manual body varial. Rob had such a steezy nose manual front 180 out. I was trying a quick foot combo of manual then nose manual to grind. Unfortunately we got the boot. At least we got awhile on it.
After some spot lurking we ended up here for a fun brief session under Fuzz’s headlights. Well, Fuzz’s truck’s headlights. Fuzz and Dave did some soft rocks/pivots. I did the standard kickflip to fakie and fakie flip. Then we all did early grabs off it and Fuzz and I did bonelesses.
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Then we ended up at this gem of a spot. It had this little slappy ledge, then a short long ledge after, then down the street a little another ledge with a gnar option. Dave did some ultra smooth switch slappies. Rob had slappy then nollie lipslide. I had slappy, bad crooks, then almost boardslide on the further ledge. Fuzz almost got to the gnar option with a front 50, but we got kicked out. Doh.
We ended up at the newish college spot downtown with the long marble manny pads. Everyone got manuals except me (nothing new there). It seemed like really fun place to skate. As I was just getting warmed up again it started raining.
So we went to the RTD garage. Fuzz and I didn’t think we would skate at all, but I guess Rob and Dave were shredding hard enough to get us off our tired butts. Rob was seriously ripping. Manuals at high speed, nose mannies, lots of energy hopping up/off the ledges. Back 50 around the corner to shove out. Whoa! Fuzz was on the high speed tip too with a long manual that opened a little emergency phone case. Pretty funny. He also had good fakie 50s with and without halfcabs out. I just did crooks. But I did a lot of them. Some long ones on the main ledge and a few through the corner which felt really neat. As usual Dave was the last man standing. He did all kinds of moves. Front 5-0 through the corner, boardslide to fakie then switch front noseslide. Front board to fakie. Crooks and ended it with a really good switch crooks.
Got home around 2:30 am stoked and feeling very alive. Thanks for the good time dudes.
Comments Off on skate journal: solo longmont park then denver with old dudes (oct 21, 2014)
