skate journal: go skate day in boulder! (june 21, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on June 22nd, 2014 by corpo

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.

filmer jack and switch ruler dan

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.

skate journal: flatground with jake then an impromptu campus session that ruled (Jun 17, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on June 18th, 2014 by corpo

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.

not a make eh

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.

ollie-droppy

also not a make

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.

skate journal: stackin’ clips with fullertron! (June 14, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, New Shoes, Skate Journal on June 15th, 2014 by corpo

Had one of those days were the kids were gonna be gone and Liz had other plans so I had all day to skate. My arthritis was sucking though and it was tough to find the motivation. I had new shoes to break in (this time I put the NB+ insole in them so they wouldn’t be as painful). I skated flat in front of the house for a bit, then went to Crisis to hang/sell boards. Then I headed to campus to wait for Dave. I skated the flagstone bank for awhile. I was feeling so uncoordinated and sore. I did a little line with a back 50 on the curb above it then ollied into the bank. Moved on to the library where I wanted to do a line. I wanted to ollie onto a ledge then ride through the skate stoppers, dork manual (ollie into board stall, lift up and end up in manual) then a flip trick. I didn’t think the dork manual would work though so instead I just ollied up onto the ledge and front 180’d off and followed it with a fakie flip. I did this a few times then it started raining right when Dave showed up. Doh.

dave-5-0-nosemanual

So we went to Red Curbs. We warmed up for awhile and I realized I was so sore I couldn’t skate much so I started filming Dave. He stacked a line and 4 clips in like 20 minutes! Back 180 fakie 50s, fakie shove manual, front 5-0 to nose manual, halfcab noseslide. It was insane. He’s so good. I tried a GleNBD for awhile. Ride on to front 50 to no comply finger flip out. I’ve tried that for quite awhile without landing it before. I guess the trick is to be super stiff and sore though because I landed one then we got the camera out and I landed another one. Hyped!

glen-skatestoppers

Then we went back to CU since it was dry out and Dave filmed me try my line 41 times. Gotta like matching my age to the number of tries it took to get it. For awhile I was having a blast. I ended up being able to do the dork manual so went with it. Since I was so sore and stiff though the flip tricks after were not working. I eventually landed the line with a varial flip tic tac after. Eh. Still hyped to have gotten that though.

dave-death

Then we went by this so Dave could try to boardslide it. Someone waxed the crap out of it though. He front 50’d it which was sick, but almost died on the boardslide. We called it a day then. I was so sore at this point I could barely walk to the car. Arthritis is lovely. Still hyped on finally working on our old man parts though. Hopefully we keep it up.

skate journal: broomfield fun (may 24, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, New Trucks, Skate Journal on May 26th, 2014 by corpo

Went to Crisis early to do big bidness before Fuzz opened. While I was at it I setup some Independent trucks. It’s funny how I avoided Indy forever and realized I had never put better bushings in them so maybe they are an option after all. And since the Royals were done due to too much wheelbite, Ace were done because the kingpin was loose and the hangers were bent (POS trucks) I was down to try Indy. With the white medium Venom bushings.

We went to the bank spot out on on 120th. I had a lot more energy then last time, but was struggling a bit due to the obvious reason of having an almost entirely new setup. Rob and Neil each had good lines after a short warm up. I don’t remember them exactly but Rob’s was something like kickflip out of the curb kicker, bean plant on the bank, kickflip on the bank, boneless. All done well. Neil also had a long one with Neil comply boneless, backside ollie, frontside ollie, basics done well. Neil and Rob also had b/s 180s out of the curb kicker, Rob had a kickflip on the bank. I struggled with kickflips out of the curb kicker, but eventually got one in a line with a kickflip on the bank after.

Then we went to a ledge we’ve never skated across the street. We should call it the struggle ledge because we all struggled. It wasn’t that tall, but it was just weird. Rob got a few crooks, Neil got into a few crooks, I slammed on a front board, got into front 50. Then a cop came to boot us and we thanked him for putting us out of our misery. He laughed.

We drove around for awhile and ended up at some abandoned government building. We found a smooth section and a curb that slid well for boardlides and hit it for awhile. Rob had a bigspin front noseslide, lap over lipslides, Neil had lipslides. I had a few “switch” boardslides and then almost got a line of kickflip over a hose, 3 flip on flat then kick back tail the curb. I broke my board on a heelflip on the way back though. DOH.

freaking gorgeous

So we went to Crisis so I could setup a new board. I went with 8.5 this time mainly because there was one of the new Neandernulls with a yellow bottom sheet. Freakin’ gorgeous! We went across the street to the Safeway ledges. Neil was sore and didn’t really skate. Rob and I skated pretty hard for awhile. He got a lot of his tricks. Cab front nose, nollie front 50 first try, front 5-0, lots of good back 50s, back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, back 50 back 180 (I think). I got a few back 50s and then one locked in kick back 50, but couldn’t get another kick back 50 (was gonna try shove out), a hilarious “front smith” where I didn’t grind and somehow fell out of it and rolled away, tried front tail shove, tried crooks on the fence ledge but kept doing noseslides. My flatground game was ok, got a treflip and started hucking Rick flips for some random reason. Even landed on one that could maybe count on defense in an over 50 game of SKATE. Rob and I ended with a really fun game of SKATE that went T-T before I won it on a fakie bigflip. Other tricks that went down were 43 shifty, no comply shove, no comply 360, no comply, front shove, b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip (Rob went double or nothing on it and unfortunately came up short). It was a perfect ender for a really fun day.

skate journal: CSU fun with Chadman (May 20, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, New Shoes, Skate Journal on May 21st, 2014 by corpo

redcurb

I work the later shift which means til 6pm this week. I didn’t feel like organizing a crew up to FoCo because I was lazy. On the way to the Fort I decided to stop and my Dad’s grave and it ended up being pretty tough. It’s been almost 3 years since he passed. Anyways the rest of the drive was pleasant and I enjoyed some tunes and rolled up to MRKT at closing time. We did business quick and hung for a bit before Chad and I rolled onto campus. It was apparent immediately that it was going to be a fun night. Especially because the first place we looked ended up having this freshly painted perfect slappy curb. Slanted and everything, The whole spot was amazing. There was perfect asphalt on the street, a new ledge (like the rainbow ledge in Boulder), a different slappy curb, the slappy curb in the photo and then this parking lot filters into another parking lot down a mellow hill with a few options. We both just kind of did our thing and would smile at each other going by saying “this is so fun” or “this spot rules” or something. I had one run with front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, crooks the ledge, slappy one curb, slappy the next curb, ollie onto a curb, ollie off, kickflip on flat, ollie a 3 stair, nollie off a little bump, front 180 off a curb, fakie flip on flat. Fun! Started trying with f/s halfcab flip instead and kinda got it and after the slappies I did a little gap in gap out median that Chad manualled. I didn’t see all of what Chad did, but they started with fakie flip then switch heel, halfcab up the curb, back 50 the ledge then into the abyss. We were here for awhile. It was a freaking blast.

banky

Then we ended up at this thing. Chad ollied up, b/s ollie on the bank, ollied off. He darn near kickflipped onto it too. It’s taller to get onto then it looks. I took several tries to get up, but managed. Oh yeah, I was breaking in new shoes:

adidas-busenitz-vulc-skate-shoes-uniform-blue-white

Yeap, I’m living up to the “Corporate” in my name. I’ve been wanting to try to Adidas for awhile. These are the Busenitz vulcs. They seem decent, not as grippy as Vans, but also not as painful. Anyways, we pushed on. Ended up at some little mini bank and played on it. Then a four stair I should have ollied first try like Chad did, but I didn’t. Chad wallied this weird metal bin off a ledge, I bailed it. We saw some cops lurking so we bailed. Then we came up on a “hill” where we saw a longboarder slam earlier. Bad enough he limped off. We both laughed because it was the tiniest hill. I ollied a little gap into it to start my “bomb”. Then we played a game of SKATE that I lost miserably. I missed a fakie flip, got two letters on front shove since I missed the double-or-nothing and it didn’t get better. I blame new shoes! But I started skating them before the Vans were completely dead because they need to be broken in in a week when the Fremont crew comes out!

skate journal: all day boulder spots in the sun (may 17, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, New Deck, Skate Journal on May 20th, 2014 by corpo

A gloomy start to a Saturday, but it ended up being super nice out. Neil, Blake, Rob, Ollie, Lazer and I started at CU. We messed around at the Physics building (I think?). Some little ollies up curbs, down, up ledges, etc. Everyone seemed to be struggling a bit. Lazer slammed on a nosebonk, but ended up ollie’ing a the gap over the ledge. Cops drove by and as Carleigh arrived told us that we couldn’t do any “acrobatic skateboarding”. After watching us skate for awhile clearly doing tricks. I guess they weren’t acrobatic enough. Anyways, we moved up near the student center. Rob no complied up a 3 stair, Lazer had a steezy ollie down it. I tried a line of riding through the skate stoppers then something off the bench, but it didn’t work so well. Then the cops came by again and gave us the official boot. Doh.

We went to Casey. It was a strugglefest. I ended up just skating flatground. I got through a quite a few of them and got stuck on treflips. Then I cracked my new board on treflips. Doh. It wasn’t bad at all though. I started getting really frustrated with my trucks as they weren’t turning tight enough and sat down for awhile as most everyone else was too. Ollie was playing basketball. Rob was crossing a dream trick off his list though. Wallride nollie out. He got a few. So sick! Looks for the documented proof in a Gnarly Carleigh photo somewhere, sometime.

Next up was the bank to curb/ledge. On the way there I stopped at home and grabbed my Venom bushing that I liked in my Ventures and put them in my Royals. Then they were super loose and I was hyped on them! Neil was having a tough day which is a bummer since it’s one of his last weekends before moving to Hawaii. He did manage to lipslide the two stair and front tail the curb though. Blake did his front 50 transfer again, almost dieing on some attempts. Lazer was boardsliding for miles. I managed quite a few tricks on the curb; front board to forward, switch boardslide, front tails with no slide, and geez, I guess that’s it. Probably not “quite a few” after all. I also got noseslide and boardslide on the taller part which hyped me up. Rob had a nice back feeble that grinded pretty far. Carleigh chilled and snapped photos. She wasn’t skating much because she hurt her elbow.

Then we went to Southern Hills after a stop at Que’s to say hi to Jack and then picking up Jake. I engaged in some of Colorado’s finest with Lazer and Rob and it made for an interesting session for me. My heart was pounding and I thought I would pass out, but man I felt extremely motivated to skate. Jake was killing it out of the gates. Rob went nuts too. It was a great session and a lot went down that’s hard to remember. Jake tre flipped into the handicap ramp, front tail and front tail to fakie on the ledge, quite a few fakie flips, halfcab boardslide, probably a lot more. Rob had some really long runs. Tricks like front shove out of the handicap ramp, kickflip into it, front noseslide on the bench, back noseslides, no complies. I’m blowing it on remember what all he did, but he was honestly skating some of the best I’ve seen him skate. Almost stomped a varial heel out of the handicap ramp. I tried a bunch of lines. First the ollie onto the narrow bench, kickflip off and back 180 off the 2 stair, but I kept not rotating enough on the back 180 and slamming so I gave up on that. Slammed hard trying to kickflip into the handicap ramp. Ha. Did some lines with heelflips or treflips to start then noseslide/boardslide/crooks on the bench. Or started with front board on the bench of the picnic table. Came really close to a line of halfcab flip into the handicap ramp then front 50 shove out on the bench. Lazer didn’t skate much and Carleigh kept it mellow with some ollies and cruised around a little. Blake had left. Ollie too. At the end Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It was a fun one, that I finally won. He normally beats me. I got Jake to do a f/s halfcab flip which he hasn’t done in forever. He got me on a treflip. I have decided to not try varial flips in SKATE anymore because when I don’t land them I get really mad. Anyways yeah, what a long day of skating. Felt great, weather was great, tight crew, good times.

skate journal: Boulder ditch / campus old man fun (May 15, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on May 16th, 2014 by corpo

After work and a tiny nap Neil came over on a beautiful night and we cruised over to Boulder Ditch to meet Dave and Rob. Boulder Ditch is really hard to skate, but a pretty good warm up for the legs. Neil boardslid the ledge pretty quick, lots of ollies, front tails on the pvc, front slashes on the little qp. Dave rolled in on the wood qp, front pivots on the tall qp, long boardslides on the pvc, front 5-0s on the pvc (photo). Rob didn’t skate this spot much, but still managed to boardslide the pvc all steezy. I had a couple hard slams. One just sliding on the concrete and it didn’t slide so I landed on my back. The other trying to crooks the box and I still have a headache from that. But I had fun doing a line with kickflip over the “hip” and boardsliding the pvc or nosesliding the box or not landing crooks.

Then we went to campus. We started out at the main parking lot with the little manny pad, tall manny pad, ledges, and the frustrating two curb spot. This was an epic part of the night, we were all struggling so bad. You know when it takes Neil multiple tries to ollie a curb that things aren’t going well. Basically this spot is a wallie curb followed somewhat quickly (10 feetish) by another curb that drops onto a sidewalk. Neil ended up being the first to get it, Rob second and they both were lining it out with some manual/nose manuals around some cars. I cracked my board pretty bad on a pop shove. Doh. It was still skateable though and I ended up getting a line of fakie flip, sw 180, wallie the wallie curb, the worst ollie ever done over the 2nd curb and then a back 180 off the sidewalk where I landed not moving. Perfect. Ha. Dave had some nice fakie bispgins, helipops, and put down the wallie/ollie combo, but didn’t quite ride away. Oh well.

Then we went over the the newly waxed slappy ledge and it was even more waxed up. Awesome. Dave went to work immediately with a slappy front 5-0. Ridiculous. He also went on to do slappy back 50, a bunch more slappy front 5-0s and then a proper slappy crooks after dropping in on the narrow stair ledge nearby. Rob did front tail right away and got a few slappy back 5-0s that were all inside and steezy. I liked how he carved it more then I was posting up on it. I managed one slappy front 50, some weak slappy crooks, slappy back 50s, front 50s and one front 5-0 which felt fun because you can kind of drop into the bank on the land. I tried to get more 5-0s to start a line, but couldn’t do it. Ended up settling for front 50, kickflip, wallie onto a similar ledge, back 180 off it, manual scrape the little manny pad, flung myself up the taller part of the red ledge. That felt fun. Neil was lining out the spot as he normally does. Ollie onto the red ledge, ollie off over the corner of the manual pad, front tail the ledge, almost front tail to fakie.

Then we kinda of looked at some other stuff. Dave was thinking boardsliding this. Ha, not the handrail, the curb. But he ended up dropping into 50 instead. So rad. We played on the little rock to narrow flagstone path for a bit. I had a couple front tail to fakies, Dave wallied into blunt. I ollied a gap off a narrow ledge and then we skated back to the car. Super fun night. I haven’t felt that good in awhile. My legs didn’t even hurt all that bad except after we had stopped for a bit.

skate journal: crowded broomfield fun (April 22, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on April 23rd, 2014 by corpo

After a busy day at work and then busy day with kids Matt picked me up and we met up with everyone at Broomfield park. And I literally mean everyone. Eric, Blake, Neil, Rob, Fuzz, Carleigh, Jack, Darin and more. The park was crowded with youngin’s too. I was about to go into ‘stand around and watch at a busy skatepark’ mode, but ended up skating. Matt was doing good stuff on the ledges already. I went up up and ran into the steep bank a few times to get warmed up. Fuzz too. It’s really hard to know what all everyone else was doing because there was so much going on. Rob did a rock ‘n roll on the steep bank which I’ve never even see him try before. Fuzz did some steezy decked rocks and front rocks. I had dropped in on a taller part of the pool coping in the flow bowl hoping that I would get over the fear of dropping into the pool. I then said if I land a front rock on the steep bank I’d drop in. Landed the front rock. Doh. But ended up dropping in fine into the shallow end. That was enough tranny skating for me! Ha. Then a black ledge session went down. I didn’t really skate it. But I saw a lot go down. Matt back tail, fakie 5-0. Fuzz lipslide, front nosegrind and bluntslide to scorpion. Rob and Neil crooks. Neil front nosegrind. Darin lots. I took a long time to nose manual the blue box, but did it. Blake was trying noseslide transfers onto the brown ledge. I got a super rare front nosegrind. Stoked! Then played with Darin for awhile on Kickflip, heelflip, treflip all together. Felt good on the kickflips and heelflips, but treflips were elusive. I landed a few with hands down, but that’s an over 50 make and I’m not 50 quite yet. Matt did that quick. And fakie too I think. I ollied the six stair in a couple tries. Felt great. Really fun. I should ollie more stairs and should have tried the double set. Jack was all over the park killing it the way he does. He is not a stock skater and it rules. He hyped me up for the six stair. Matt and I posed a couple kickflips down it, but never got close to committing. Carleigh got a couple back d’s on the brick qp as time was winding down. Fun night. My flatground game was off, but dropping into the pool, ollie’ing the six and getting a front nosegrind made the night fun for me.

skate journal: Louisville spots (April 17, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on April 20th, 2014 by corpo

Met up with Rob, Neil, Fuzz, Jack, Carleigh after work at the Louisville park on another nice spring day.  I got their first and cruised around the park avoiding ollies.  Rob showed, Carleigh, Jack.  Then Neil, Fuzz, Lazer.  No one was skating great.  Some other dudes showed that Fuzz indicated were lame and well, he was right.  As an example I skated by one of them as he bailed a switch front 50 on a ledge and he looked at me dead serious and said “THAT WAS SWITCH!”.  Yikes.  I saw Carleigh trying noseslides down the hubba and thought it would be fun to try double noseslides with her.  But that backfired and she went into one of her pouty moods.  Jack and I tried doubles for a bit with him nosesliding the rail, but he didn’t feel like the slams were worth it.  Understood.  Rob had some nice b/s ollies on the hip and almost a feeble grind on the bank to ledge.

We left for a nearby ditch.  It was fun!  Fuzz killed a back blunt, Carleigh got a back 50 grind, Neil b/s ollies and no comply to tail on a rock, Rob was getting used to it, Jack did back d and front pivot on the taller part, I landed a couple basics and had a fun b/s flip on the bank.  Then we got the boot.  Ugh.

Ended up at the basketball court park and it was a blast.  Rob had a really sick line of ollie up one curb, back 180 off then halfcab back 50 on the next curb.  Neil worked on halfcab manuals and did lots of standard Neil tricks (which rule). Carleigh was there, doing back 50s and avoiding everyone. Fuzz got ups. He was ollieing onto the top ledge super easy and almost tried to manual it. Also had a cool front 180 up the curb and switch back 180 off. I had to work really hard to get up that ledge, but I managed a few time. Tried front shove off and technically landed it with lots of wheel bite and toe drag so I cam to a halt. Still really hyped on that. Jack slayed. Boardslide a half handrail at a nearby house. Ollie up the right side of the ledge, gap to manual over the stairs, up the ledge then nollie flip and hardflip off. Geez. Jack and I finished with a super fun game of SKATE. He held back on the obvious tricks I can’t do, but we got most of our other tricks. I lost on a cab which is ok because I cannot do that trick. I had landed a 360 flip and a nollie 360 flip so that pretty much made me super happy.

skate journal: birthday bash in fort collins (April 11, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on April 13th, 2014 by corpo

One day prior to my 41st BDay I met up with Eric and we went to Longmont to meet Dave, Rob and Neil. It was an insanely nice day out. We packed into Neil’s little Civic and made the drive to the newest Fort Collins park called Waterway. There were three dudes there already and as you can probably see from the photo this park is tiny. Only one person can skate at once. The first half hour or so was pure frustration for me. It was non stop waiting or almost running into your friends. We eventually figured things out and got in a groove. The kids left and Mike joined us. Everyone had moves. Rob had some manuals around the deck, front slashes on the pool coping, back smith the top little qp. Dave killed it. Stalls on the extension, long pool coping grinds, boardslide to fakie on the birdbath qp. Eric was trying back disaster on the corner bank and getting into back noseblunt. Neil had some long lines actually skating the ledge and lots of ollies on, into, under everything. My bailed axle stall count got high quick. About the only thing I did I liked was a front slash on the little corner qp. Mike cruised around like he skated there the night before. He did. Ha.

When we went to leave Dave and I being the little 40 something kids we are had to do the dirt ride. I kickflipped in. Tried a few other things, but didn’t get them. Dave ollied in and then switch ollied in. So cool.

Next up was Fossil Creek. There was a period at Fossil where I felt some of the best I have in months. It’s amazing how good warm weather is for my body (UGH why do I live in Colorado????). I didn’t really do anything new or crazy, but I landed quite a few basics for me and crooked grinds were locking in so good. That bottom ledge rules. Eric got a heelflip off the manny pad. Dave nose manualled the box on top of the manny pad and did a bunch of boardslides to fakie on the ledge. Neil was all over the place doing the basics well. Back 50s, front lips, front tails, nose manuals. Dude can skate. Mike no complied a flat gap, ollie to rock the Carrol gap. Chadman joined us and ruled it. Front board to manual, front smith grinds, kickflip nose manual, poppy, steezy, ruler. Jack and Carleigh showed. I was stoked because I haven’t skated with either of them in so long. Carleigh did the little wallie into the downhill pad right away. Rob and Dave eventually got it. Jack was trying wallie boardslides down the six stair hubba, boardslide 270 shoves on the 3 stair out rail, other neato tricks.

Then we went to Spring Canyon. It was so nice out. I was pretty sore, but went for it anyway and shortly into the session I felt great again. So awesome. Warm weather rules. Again, I didn’t really do anything new or all that great, but some of the basics came quickly and that park is just fun. I was 4/6 on treflips. My favorite trick (even though I did it horribly) was an ollie onto the bench and drop to 50 on the curb. At the end of the session I wussed out on dropping into the pool or carving over the coffin door. Rob had an amazing frontside nosegrind on the curb. Carleigh carved over the stairs and did wallies and pole jams. Mike grinded over the stairs and no comply jammed over the pole jam. Dave had some killer back tails on the spine thing, rock ‘n rolls next to the coffin, boardslide to fakie down the rail. Neil popped ollies onto everything, nose manuals, all them neil tricks. Eric slammed so hard wallie’ing the wood thing, but got up and landed it. Jack manned up to the coffin carve then grinded over it. Manual to boardslide, front hurricane the little rail, front 5-0 3 shove out, texas plant, transfers, everything. I’m sure I missed a ton of tricks. Oh well, it was a long day, we had a blast.