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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Went to Lafayette on a cold night. Was maybe going to meet Dave there, but he couldn’t get out that early. I arrived around 8:30 to a completely empty skatepark. Wow. I cruised around in ways I have never before there. I wanted to do a few of the flyouts like all the little kids do over the hump at the entrance of the park, but I can’t pump or pop so I came up short every time. Kind of a bummer considering every 12 year old kid that’s normally there wearing full pads can do it every time. I had fun though. It was the first time I was there with a bigger board and it felt a little weird at times. Good though.

The lights shut off at 9 so I headed to Longmont to meet up with Dave in a parking garage I have never skated before, but Dave has been saying how good it was for a couple years now. He wasn’t kidding, it’s a good one. Several perfect parking blocks and wood to make manny pads and wallrides with. We were both kind of doing our thing for awhile getting warmed up. Slappy crooks, wallies, manuals and more. I ollied a little median and tried a kickflip on flat and SNAP cracked the tail almost clean off. No! Luckily I had an old deck in my car as backup. Aka the board that will never die that I skated in Rochester a couple years ago. After that I laid off the flip tricks for the most part. We arranged some wallie/grind to wallride options seen in the photo and man it was fun. I got wallie to f/s wallride. Then Dave did a sick front 50 to wallride.

We filmed it for the Crisis spring break street trick contest. Cool. Then Dave started trying a line of manual the wood we setup across the parking block followed by a wallie off the parking block to b/s wallride on the wood (photo above). As he did that I tried no comply to front tails. I got one. Dave said we should film it.

So 55 tries later I got it. That 55 is not a joke. I counted because they are all on my phone. Dave is a trooper for hanging in there and filming it. Landing it was an absolutely great feeling though. Regardless of how dorky or dumb it looks it was an incredibly hard and rewarding trick. After that Dave filmed his line all steezy and almost got slappy crooks back 180 out. I got remotely close to slappy front crooks. I did quite a few flippers by the end. They didn’t feel great though. Dave had some sick nose manuals. We had lots more lines/combos on the wallrides/parking blocks just skating. One I got was slappy crooks, b/s wallride, wallie. Twas fun. I was trying nose manuals too when the lights shut off. It was around midnight. Wow, that’s a lot of skating. I have to admit that filming a trick is a neat feeling. I got home and was climbing into bed at 1:30 when my work phone went off. So I got no sleep. Ugh, horrible. But the great skate session kept me feeling alright.

Jake and I played a game of SKATE in front of my house on a crisp spring morning. I got letters on kickflip and fakie flip. That pretty much sums up how I started. I blame getting used to the new setup a little, but missing those is ridiculous. Then we went and picked up Dave and started at this spot. It was a hard warm up unless you are Jake. He was ollie’ing up the the dock like it was nothing and lined out lots of tricks off. Front 180, front 180 off the nose, nollie, f/s halfcab, ollie over the bench and one heck of a stomped no comply 180. Dave and I eventually ollied up it. We did little grab plants off while putting our hands on the top of the bench. I got a back 180 version as well. I had some slams on some no pop back 180s and landed a no pop front shove off. I could’t commit to the ollie over the bench.

Then we went around to the front where Simon and his friends Tyler and Aaron met us. All nice dudes. They all ripped the bank. I avoided it. After an incredibly embarrassing fall up the curb (not on purpose) I went and hid on the manny pad. I tried a bunch of manual kickflips out (have never really tried for some reason) and got remotely close, but just felt dumb. Jake and Dave got axle stalls on the bank. It’s so gnarly. Dave also did some fakie ollies. Simon’s ollie to fakie is crazy. Aaron did a boy varial that was crazy.

Then we went here and did a little landscaping to make this board slideable. It was epic. Simon was the first to get it. He got it third try! So sick. He got a few more too, but they weren’t all easy. He came remotely close to back 50 too. Coming off the end denied Aaron for a long time before he got a few of them. Coming off the end looked weird. Most of my attempts were not close at all. I would only slide a couple feet then bail out. Jason and Lindy had met up with us to watch and I felt so dumb bailing in front of Jason.

I would eventually get it though! (Dave’s video camera died mid make. Doh!). I can’t believe that when I finally got to the end I actually landed it. Whew. Felt amazing. One of the hardest boardslides I’ve ever done. Not scary, just difficult.

Jake got it a few tries after me too. We were hyped!!!

Poor Dave was the only goofy footer at the session. He did manage to front 50 it with a couple scoots and a couple where he popped out early all sick. He tried some lipslides at the end too that he could have probably eventually got.

But we ended up at Dave’s house where Jake and I skated awhile. Jake slayed as usual. Back blunt, front blunt, a bunch more, but couldn’t put down the no handed nosepick he wanted to do. I did alright for me. Got a front d on the parking block side which I thought was new, but then I remembered I did it a few years ago when Brian said “If you disaster it this try I’ll learn nollie tres”. Ha. I was hella sore after all that skating. Neil, you need to learn how to post photos/screen grabs without reducing the quality!

Since switching back to my orthotics I haven’t found the right insoles to skate with yet so am going to make a note of which ones I tried because I seem to forget and try them again. I had tried Etnies ones. They aren’t so good. Bad board feel.