Met Dave at Northglenn park around 9am. There were just a few people there. But one really annoying mom training her kids to be the next Ryan Sheckler. It was ridiculous. There were several kids she was yelling at and encouraging them to try harder, go faster, learn this, learn that. Her voice carried so far. I wanted to focus my board. She sucked. Luckily she eventually left. Dave was ripping as usual. Did his boardslide transfer, feeble stall on the jersey barrier, nice lines around the park. I was kinda sucking. Had a fun line with fakie flip on a bank then a boardstall transfer up onto the marble hubba. Then Dave and I began training for street league. I mean trying tricks we wanted to do at Ambulance ditch. Dave did back 3s over the big hip and I did no comply 270s over the little hip.

So off we went. Dave was first and got his back 3 pretty quickly. I went next and after failing at b/s flips on the far bank for a bit the line came relatively quick. Dave was up next again and tried to frontside pivot the ledge which has a rail a few inches above it. SLAM. Seriously brutal slam with his tail catching on the rail.

Luckily he had a Null 5 Panel on and it saved his face. Check the bent bill! So crazy. He ended up getting up and getting it a few tries later though. We were just kinda messing around and I started hucking f/s halfcab flips. Dave started filming even though I wasn’t really serious about it yet and then I started getting closer and then it turned into a very long ordeal (kind of like this sentence). Some 70+ tries later I landed one! Ha. It did feel great though. Like really great. Really really great. Pretty neat to have to dream tricks for a spot and actually land them and get them on film.

Had a lazy Sunday going. Met Rob at this spot in the afternoon. It was hot out. Jack had had told me about this spot awhile ago. It didn’t disappoint. Manuals didn’t come easy initially because it’s so low. We both tried to manual the wide part around the corner and thread the needle into the median. We both got close, but didn’t quite get it. Then we did some lines. Old man challenge manual the wide part then kickflip a curb after it. Also did stuff over the narrow part of the median then 180 manual tricks on the next median. Rob did no comply then back 180 nose manual 180 out. Nuts! I did ollie then front 180 nose manual. I also tried switch 180 manual the first median then front 180 nose manual the second. Got pretty close, but never had enough speed.

Then ‘The Studio’ closed up and a car left from the landing so we skated this part of it. Rob got no comply up the 2 stair. I did a front 180 up the curb (back behind the bike racks), switch front 180 down the 2 stair then ollie the 3 stair. Fun. Then took awhile to get kickflip up the curb, ride off the two stair and ollie over the low ledge into the sidewalk. Super fun! Then we skated these weird wide parking blocks which turned out to not be as good as they look and you kind of just rode along the edge instead of grind them.

Then we went to this fabulous new spot. We took awhile to get going, but we all skated good it seemed. Dave had some fast front 50s, some really long ride on back 50s and crooks. It was cool because the the brick made it feel like a gap, but you didn’t have to clear it. Rob killed it with a big back of tricks. Front tail, nollie front tail, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide fakie, crooks, and more that I can’t remember. I had a few really fun feeling crooks, slow front 50s, front 50 shove, front 5-0 and front 50 front 180 out in a line with a backside flip off this little curb.

I actually had a few lines with flip tricks. Felt great. We skated hard. Then we checked out a new nearby ditch spot that looked better then it was for skating.

On the way back to Rob’s van Dave and I ollied the 3 then 4. Quite fun and a great ender to the day.

Woke up really early after a crappy night of sleep. The family was still sleeping after I had ate and watched a skate video (Blind – Damn) so I left to go skate. Went to Safeway ledges as I needed to get to Crisis later on anyway. I was there shortly after 9am and surprisingly didn’t take too long to get warmed up. Actually I skated some of the best I have in a long time. Coming from the far side I started pretty much every line with a crooks on the fence ledge. Early on I had a crooks, front 5-0 front 180 out, fakie bigflip then pop shove. Put me in such a good mood. I had some of the best back 50s I’ve done in awhile and followed one up with a front 5-0 on the fence ledge. Flatground was doing decent too. Had a couple great feeling treflips. Also one of the best kick back 50s I’ve done in awhile. I set a box out and would ollie it before crooks on the fence ledge. Couldn’t get front 5-0 shove out, but managed a line with ollie, crooks, front crooks jib to fakie, halfcab flip, ollie the grate going down the hill. Couldn’t get kick back 5-0. Couldn’t get rick flip or nollie tre. But came close on nollie f/s flip and hardflip. Pretty much ended trying halfcab flip noseslides for awhile. Got pretty close actually. All of this by 11am. Stoked.

After chilling at Crisis for awhile I went to meet Rob at a manny pad in Boulder. Ended up at this one and wow I was sore. I struggled through it and got to a point where I was trying switch front 180 manual back 180 out. Didn’t get too close before the rain ht.

So met Rob at Red Curbs. There was a couple other dudes there escaping the rain. It was totally dry when I got there, but the heavy rain quickly ran into the garage limiting how you can skate. I wasn’t able to nose manual the main pad last time I was there, but did it first try this time. Rob was doing a bunch of fakie b/s nosegrinds, back 180 50s, patented Rob tricks. We kind of settled into trying some lines between the curbs. Rob got a killer line of lap over lipslide, kickflip the puddle, back 180 fakie 50. I came close to back 50, kickflip the puddle, kick back tail. Man I was sore at this point. Stoked I skated so much though.

Haven’t been able to skate a whole lot and finally feeling quite a bit better. There were clouds in the morning and the forecasted high of 95 didn’t seem like it would happen. So I got out of the door around 10:30, ran a few errands then posted up at the research center. I struggled big time initially just to even ollie. But I stuck with it and ended up having a blast. I started with some simple lines and get a little bit techer with each one. First one was kickflip on flat, ollie up the curb, boardslide pop out. Then halfcab flip on flat, ollie up the curb, noseslide to fakie, turn around and then manual the long pad around the corner. Fakie big flip, ollie up the curb, pop shove, crooks. Oh and the clouds had burned off and it was really hot. Somehow it didn’t bother me too much though. Started going for treflip on flat, up the curb and then back 50. Got a few tres, but the back 50 was going to be a battle. I ended up doing quite a few treflips and added kickflips up the curb to the line. I eventually got the back 50 and I still have no idea how I did it. It was funny. Hyped I made myself do so many treflips. Some took a few tries, some several tries and at one point I did 3 in a row. Then I went home and got some food.

After lunch and then some baseball tossing with Ollie I headed out to campus. I was planning on going to the new ledge that Matt, Dave and I skated a couple nights before, but ended up warming up at the spot above and ended up just staying there. I really like the aesthetic of that spot and it brings out the inner Suciu in me. After some dorking around on the low step (which I should wax up because it could be really good) I basically settled into two lines. Coming from the opposite side of the photo; ollie up the 2, back 180 off then fakie tre. Never got the fakie tre, but after bailing one I randomly decided to try a nollie flip and landed it! So sketchy and horribly landed. But alas, it was a nollie flip! Only my 4th one ever and it’s been several years since the last one I landed. Going the other way was the line I really wanted. Manual, 360 flip on flat, ollie the 4 stair, somehow make the corner of the sidewalk and do the hill bomb. The manual is much harder then it looks because there isn’t much setup room and the brick part is really rough. I only got a couple without scrapes and then of course treflips were a battle again. It started raining and I knew I only had one last try. Somehow did the manual good, did a horrible treflip with both hands down and came to a stop (but had to count it because it was getting wet quick) then ollied the stairs (felt so good, kind of a longer then normal 4), made the corner and had a few fun powerslides down the hill.

I took cover at the top of this garage for a bit and ended up skating the hill into it several times. It’s way faster then it looks. The concrete is super smooth. I had bombed into it before and it’s scary, but I felt like doing powerslides so I did a bunch. On one of them I hit a crack and somehow ran out of it. But other then that it was just a great way to end a day. I did a few grinds on the yellow curbs at the top to start the hill bombs. So fun. The rain let up and everything dried out right away so I went over to the new ledge and of course, the only car there was parked right next to the waxed part. Doh. I did a couple front 50s, but it was scary because I thought I’d shoot my board into the car in the landing. I ollied up a taller part of the ledge and then ran out of gas and called it one awesome day of skateboarding.

I set up a lovely 8″ board. Jake showed up in the early evening and we went out to skate flatground. The joy of skating an 8″ board again was so incredible. I landed so many tricks first try and everything felt good. There was a kickflip that could have made my night all by itself, but it was joined with multiple treflips and many more flippers. Jake was skating well too. We started a game of SKATE as we waited for Matt. We both landed tricks that can often get us letters. I got Jake and S on a treflip and he got me an S on a fakie treflip (first one I’ve seen Jake do. Nice!) then Matt showed up and we left for Denver.

We went to this spot first. It was covered in debris from the tree so we didn’t skate around too much, mostly just hit this ledge. Matt tried to be a rebel and skate the whole spot at one point and slammed so hard pushing. It was brutal. He still skated good. Manualled the bottom block, back tail, manualled a bit of the top block after a quick up. I landed quite a few back 50s, chinese nollie to front tail, front 5-0s, crooks. Jake had back 50s, fakie front 50 halfcab out. Jake and Matt ollied onto the low block, then the upper block, and did tricks off. Jake did front 180 and tried nollie. I took about 30 minutes longer to get onto the top deck. Got front 180 and landed on back 180, but bailed.

Then we went to the Denver Art Museum. I saw Jake do some manuals across some ledges, ollie a narrow part of a ledge and front board a narrow part. I was having troubles seeing the poorly lit ledges. Jason always used to say I had horrible night vision. I probably don’t see any worse then others, I just am not very good at skateboarding and night vision sounds like a legit excuse. Anyways, geez. I skated kind of slow and slammed on a front board, couldn’t manual a whole ledge. But I did have a fun line of 360 flip, ollie up a ledge, over a little gap to manual the next part. Matt skated the best I’ve seen him skate. It was crazy. He was flying all over the place ollieing ledges, manualling them, nose manualling some. He was skating so hard he even broke his board. It was a Null board so you know he was skating hard because those things never break. Then we went to Black Dots/Cheap Girls which was a blast. I got home at 3:30am. Monday at work sucked extra bad.

We got up early after a decent night of sleep and were the first ones to the Gunnison park. It ruled. We both felt better right away and were doing tricks we had to work up to last time as warm ups. I had a line of kickflip over the b/s hip a kickturn and then a b/s flip that felt great. That alone made my day. Skated the big bowl for a tiny bit. Failed at back smiths in the little bowl. Watched Ollie back 50 in the older bowl (photo above). Front 50’d the old ledge and crook’d it. Did a ton of ollies over the hips, some of which might have left the ground. Front smith the 3 foot section. Ollie did a first try fakie shove into the mellow bank in the old section as well as f/s halfcab. We skated for quite awhile. Doesn’t seem like it from this entry, but we skated for almost 5 hours and it was hot. We ended with Ollie front 180’ing the flattened cone and then trying back 180 and giving up mad. First time I’ve seen him actually frustrated. Then we did the 4 hour drive back to Boulder and it was done. What an amazingly fun trip.

Met up with Dave here. He started on the manny pad. I started doing 180s off one of the ledges and some slow slappy stuff. Then we both skated the manny pad and it was fun. Dave came so close to a ton of tricks. I forget all what he actually landed. But halfcab manual, almost hc manual back 180, nose manual, almost hc nose manual, a lot more. Plus he was trying switch front bigspins and wearing new Adio shoes. How’s it possible to have new Adios? Ask Dave. I got nose manual, but couldn’t get nose manual shove. Got a first try switch front 180 to manual, then tried it over and over and only got a couple more. Got one kickflip manual with a toe scrape, but not a clean one. Also had a fun line with nose manual, ollie up the ledge and back 180 off. Landed a double flip to complete stop.

Then we somehow ended up messing around on this. It was funny. It’s totally hidden, you can’t get much speed, but it was still fun. We both got front noses to fakie, front nose 270 out (aka the Helmstetter), front 50s going oh so fast. I got a crooks somewhat and posed some kickflip nosestalls. Kinda got into one, but didn’t get up on it.

Then we skated above it at this little spot. Dave wants to wax it and lipslide up it past the one stair. That would be so sick. I ollied and front 180’d into the bank and they were so fun that I tried kickflip too. It took awhile and a funny slame, but I got a good one. That was the end of the night. Street skating rules.

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.

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.

Ollie’s allergies were driving him nuts so getting him out skating wasn’t looking good. He kept resisting. So I went out and skated flatground in front of the house. After a few minutes of warming up Jake joined. I was skating decent by then, actually really good for me. That might be because my new warm up routing of foam roller, yoga and jump rope is working. Jake got a treflip second or third try and we were both just doing our thing. I was landing halfcab flips consistently which felt great since I’ve struggled with that one lately. Kinda got a tre or two, fakie varial flip, heelflip, fakie bigflip, landed on nollie tre, hucked a few more. Jake got halfcab flip quick too.

I went in to get water for us and Ollie announced to me that he wanted to go skating too. So off to campus we went. First thing we hit was a drop in front of the student center. It’s about six inches above handrail height. Jake got it pretty quickly. I took a few, but was happy to land it too.

We moved on to the old 4 stair gap. Jake ollie’d it quick. I took a few tries and managed to not even touch the tail when I got it. Jake and I both got front 180’s down it too. Jake tried halfcabs for a bit (photo) and I tried front shoves. they weren’t close. Especially after I hit an old screw sticking up from the bus stop and slammed super hard.

Then we ended up here. There is a little skate stopper in there that you have to pop over making it way tougher then it looks. I’ve wanted to ollie the grass gap since seeing Cameron’s footage of his 3 shove over it. Ollie and I lined out the gap by starting at the ledge up the hill a bit, dropping into the lower ledge, then ollieing off. So fun. Took a bunch of tries, but I got the line with the ollie over the little grass gap. I’m sure the ollie was really low, but I was really hyped on doing a line with so many drops. Ollie just dropped into the grass instead of ollie’ing the grass gap. It was funny because after I bailed once Ollie said to me “you don’t have to clear it, you can just ride though it.” Awesome. Jake didn’t do the first ledge part, but tried the grass gap. He landed on it, but never quite got it. And he owes me a cider!

Then we headed towards the pink ledges area. Jake bolted to it. Ollie and I skated stuff on the way there. I tried to ollie onto some tallish ledges on the way. Did some 180’s and ollies along the path over cracks. Ollie ollied off the tall engineering ledge. At the pink ledge/pad area I had a blast. Got a line pretty quickly of ollie onto a ledge, kickflip off, slappy back 50 the ledge, bail a b/s fip. I met Jake and Ollie doing tricks off the main pink pad. Jake did a bunch of kickflips. Ollie did front 180’s and b/s halfcabs off it. I got a first try front shove then tried a bunch of b/s flips. Got close, but never rode away. Super fun night.