Today was over 30 day at Launch. I had the early shift from work and got out at 3:30. I had some boards to bring MRKT so I figured I’d be going up solo early and skating Fossil Creek on the way. Miraculously through ghat and texting a full car was established and we were meeting at SOL. Carleigh was super late (ha joking) so we started skating the curbs in front of the recently closed down 7-11 next to SOL while we waited. We ended up doing this for awhile. Carleigh front boarded the “hubba”. Fuzz and I got boardslides from the narrow top part. Dave boardslid and 50’d it. “It” being the “Hubba”. Hubba hubba. We had fun calling it a hubba even though it’s just a parking block off a curb. Kickflips up the curb felt great. Some slappy crooks did too. Rob was back! He was ripping all kinds of steezy pivots and stalls on the curb.

Then we drove to Fort Collins and stopped at Fossil Creek. I wasn’t sure how the rest of the crew would like this park, but man, everyone had a blast (except me at times ha). Right out of the gate I saw Carleigh noseslide a ledge down a curb. Rob got a second try kickflip. Dave front 50’d the ledge off the 3 stair. Then did it with a cool grab/plant out. Lots of manuals were done on the curb section. Fuzz manualled the curb then came around and ollied up the 3 stair to manual. Dave tried a nose manual and fell. Fuzz said “I’m in on trying that one with you” and did it first try. Not sure why Dave didn’t focus his board. Ha. Carleigh wallied up the 3 stair high ledge. Dave, Rob and Fuzz skated the ledge down below for awhile. It was during this time I got really frustrated. I struggled with everything. Tried a line of noseslide the ledge off the 3, ollie up the curb, ride off it, ollie up the 3 stair tall ledge, kickflip off the 3 stair. Came close, but no cigar. Front shoves were giving me problems. I started trying to start the line with either front shove or kickflip down the 3 and could not land either. I was fully committing and my food was sliding off the grip or something in the landing. It was weird. Then came a really good feeling kickflip down the 3 followed by a commit down the 6 stair (that I splatted on, but was still hyped I actually tried) and I felt better. I should realize that my setup is very different then it’s been in awhile so there is going to be frustrations. Plus the grip is two year old Jessup. Anyways, everyone was back up top now. Carleigh was doing wallie after wallie mixed it with a slam or two. Alfred the Fossil Creek local was there ripping. Fuzz got front 50 and front smith on the 3stair tall ledge. That front smith! Wow. I got a front 50 on it and have to admit the stability of the bigger board made it seem more doable. Dave had some rad runs like no comply or ollie up the 3 stair, shove on flat, layback boardslide the 9 stair hubba. So good! He also had a bunch of various street plantish tricks off the 3 stair ledge. So good. Since this journal is all about me me me, I will finish this section with a few more tricks that I did. (It’s only because I don’t remember what else everyone was doing). I got a front 50 shove off the ledge that goes off the curb. Kickflip up the curb, b/s flip off. Alfred did a treflip off the 3 stair ledge and I got his back with kickflip up the curb, treflip off the curb. So hyped on that! Then we left. Ate food. Missed MRKT being open and went to Launch.

Launch was surprisingly mellow. Chase was there, Wade, Squeeks and an assortment of Fort heads. All ripping. You can tell Squeeks isn’t 30 yet because his runs are really long. Ha. I was so insanely sore at this point I could barely walk up the quarterpipe. It took awhile to get moving. Then I went on the ramp and quickly realized I didn’t have the energy to skate the ramp. So I mostly just skated the bank to curb. Dave joined me for awhile. Carleigh was on the ramp the whole time. I didn’t see much until the end when she was trying back disasters over and over and taking the term “disaster” to heart. Ouch. Rob bowed out early. Fuzz was having a heart palpitation and it got scary at times. Argh. So not much skating for him. There was another dude skating the bank to curb area. He did tricks switch and regular, rode his board backwards half the time. I didn’t understand which way he skated. I struggled with a few lines, but got them. Front d on the qp, b/s flip on the bank. Front tail on the qp (took way, way too long and I almost took out Fuzz’s ankle on a bail) then kickflip to fakie. Back slash to fakie then fakie flip. I also got a halfcab flip on the bank. Dave would have six trick lines on the bank and qp. Some of my favorites were the blunt grab in, blunt to plant in (there must be a better name then this), back tail, back tail to fakie, fakie tail stall shove out. He didn’t quite get a f/s halfcab nosebash. My last trick was a kick back smith stall on the parking block. Hyped. Was going for axle stall, but I’ll take it! Super fun day minus Fuzz’s heart issues.

First and foremost, the old man nights at Launch are the best. It rules meeting up with people that have put in so many years on their boards. There is so much passion and good vibes in the air. I rolled up with a couple of my favorites Brian and Fuzz and we arrived at a relatively crowded session. We met Nate’s friend Matt. Carleigh was there with crew. Skelly, Mike, Andy and tons of others. The ramp was heated and crowded so I stayed away and started on the new qp and bank. Matt and Andy stayed there for the most part too as well as a few others. The qp was the main attraction initially. I got a front feeble and did my first ever boneless on transition. It felt rad. Gotta work on putting my foot up on the coping though. Andy had hurricane, front rocks (which are apparently new for him). Matt had nice ollies and more tricks then Nate said he would. Front d, back d, front t, back t. Then we put a little ledge on the bank. It was textbook perfect, but somehow hard to skate. Matt did a million tricks on it. I struggled with kickflips into it and only got kickflip axle stall. Also got hurricane and a bunch of front smiths while setting up to try a kickflip on the qp. I eventually got a bad one.

People were going nuts on the ramp. I saw Carleigh get rock to fakie on the over vert. Fuzz do an effortless sugarcane. Brian front rocked the over vert so steezy and had a run that appeared to last forever and contain every crazy trick he does. Andy, Skelly, Matt and I played a game of SKATE. I played horrible, but still lasted longer then young guy Matt. I think Skelly won it on a 360 back no comply. We skated the bank/qp some more. Matt did kickflip fakie, nollie flip fakie, 3 flip fakie. I did halfcab flip sketchy. We skated the parking block for awhile. I managed a little crook stall on the qp followed by a slappy crooks on the parking block. Fun. I was so tired that I wouldn’t bail the slappy crooks and sometimes some funny/weird willy grind/something variations came out of it. Made me laugh.

By now, the ramp session had died down so I finally went up there. Carleigh was ripping. Mike was trying some crazy carve lines. Skelly rules. My second run was probably the best run I’ve had on that ramp. It had a front d, back nosegrind scratcher, front rock and some fun carves in it. Later I would add back scratch grind revert, fakie back smiths, a really fun corner grind and a bunch of failed front smiths. Carleigh slammed to flat on a front d. Matt had some back 50s and a nice frontside ollie. Skelly did a rad fakie boardslide transfer into the ramp thing that was crazy. Mike got his crazy trick of flyout of the corner to rock fakie on the little qp on the deck. So sick. Epic night.

After a snowy, cold and lazy morning Neil tried to convince me that it wasn’t snowing in Broomfield. Seeing as how there was already a couple inches of new snow in Boulder I didn’t really believe him, but figured I’d try anyway. Neil was right! We went by the park and saw it was dry, but decided to use it as a backup if we couldn’t find something better. Low and behold we found this spot, a spot I used to skate with Jason a lot. The temperature was 19 or 20. Cold. I had long johns on under my jeans. I mostly started warming up on the bank to stairs. Front pivot, front tail, couldn’t stall backside for some reason so just kickflipped in instead (way easier). Neil was popping one foots, no comply to tail. We both took several tries to ollie the two stair into the bank. It’s scary for some reason. Maybe the rough ground and the big metal contraption sticking out. I don’t know, but we dedicated a try to Jason and that got us to both commit. We also raced to kickflip up the two stair. It tooks us forever, but I eventually got a rocket flip to somehow make it up the two stair.

Then we started filming each other with our phones. Neil got another line that was super rad with a pop shove in, boneless, no comply to tail and kickflip to fakie. Whew. He was also messing around with long nose manuals, but kept running into ice/cracks/rocks/etc.

I had fun with the one above. Also got another line with a front 180 off the corner of the two stair and a fakie varial flip as well as 360 flip to fakie.

Then we went to the park and it seemed like it got way colder. My bushing started to freeze up something fierce. We mostly just cruised and then Neil got in the car. I did a few basic tricks on the black ledge and called it a day. Stoked we filmed a little even if it was with phones.

Went out to Rampy on a very cold night (-10 degrees) after helping the kids with their homework. It’s funny, not only did I daydream of skateboarding when I had homework years ago, but now I do the same when I’m helping my kids with it. So funny! I started out with some mediocre runs on Rampy to get the legs flowing. My arthritis was acting up a little, but I was determined to not let it bother me. I started wanting to do some Rampy tricks and then kind of started skating more flatground and then kind of just lost interest in the ramp altogether. I had gotten a fakie front pivot to fakie (about as unproper as it gets), a back smith and almost a fakie front feeble. Flatground went off. I started going through almost all of my tricks. Kickflip, pop shoves, fakie flip, varial flip, heelflip, fakie varial flip, halfcab flips, bs and fs flips, treflip and started digging into rarer tricks. Couldn’t get close on hardflip or switch flip. Started trying varial heel and much to my surprise and stoke I got one! I looked back through my skate journal and couldn’t even find when I landed one. So that means it’s been over 5 years since I’ve landed one. Hyped! Also added nollie varial flip, fakie bigflip (so hard in such little space), f/s haflcab heelflip and then several tries later got a switch varial flip! So hyped. It’s been a long time on that one too as I couldn’t find any makes in my journal. Whoa, two tricks in one night that I haven’t landed in over 5 years. Keep in mind though I’m basically skating in a 4′ x 8′ space so I’m going super slow. I don’t really care though, I was having a blast. Since I had done f/s halfcab heel and varial heel I felt like it might be my lucky night to get my first front 180 heel. It was so hard to setup for that trick in such little space, but I kept getting close, kept trying, almost gave up, started getting close again and then landed one. Whew! What a cool feeling trick! I should probably land one in the streets for it to officially count for my new years goal of 12 new flip tricks, but for now, I don’t care and I’m calling it. 2/12! Front heel! I might be the only 40 year old that would rather skate the flat of a ramp. Ha.

After a rough night of not getting much sleep due to our furnace not working correctly and having to get up to reset it every few hours, a long day at work, more furnace stuff, a nap (the best) and dinner I headed out on a chilly night (27 degrees) to my favorite parking garage off Valmont. It’s somewhat protected from outside and I thought it would be warmer, but the ice in the garage said otherwise. I thought I would be pretty worthless since I’ve skated so many days in a row again, but right out of the gate things felt pretty good. After my typical warming up of pushing, wallies, slappy tails and stuff I grabbed Ledgy and had some fun runs. Halfcab flip, ollie up the curb, kickflip off, crooks. Front 50 Ledgy, almost kick back tail. Had a really fun feeling line of 360 flip, front slappy a parking block, ollie up the rounded sidewalk by the entrance and no comply 180 off. Flip tricks were going alright. Back 50s on the ledge were not though. I guess with my small wheels there isn’t much clearance and it hangs up and pitches me forward on the screw. I gotta countersink that better or something. Did my first ever switch front nose on Ledgy. It was weak sauce. I couldn’t get front 50 front 180, Ledgy is just too quick for my slow feet. Got a front 5-0. Halfcab noseslide. Almost fakie nosegrind. Frontside flip. The best part was I was skating really hard. I turned Ledgy sideways and tried to ollie it. I think I’ve ollied it before, but it’s never been easy. But this time it only took about 5 tries and I was super hyped. Then I came remotely close to a fakie flip front tail on the little curb. Man that would rule my world. Any time I would think I should stop skating I would try a flip trick and get hyped up. I landed a lot of 360 flips. Eventually though, I got tired and cold and decided to call it a night.

An absolutely gorgeous day in the 60s. Neil and Blake were on their way to Boulder and I started warming up with some flatground in front of the house. After 8 days in a row already and a lot of drops at Fossil the day before I finally felt a bit stiff/sore. I seemed to warm up ok though. Flatground tricks felt alright. I got a few of the basics before they showed. We went to the bank to ledge/curb spot by Neil’s old apartment first. Ollie joined us. That spot is hard. I managed slappy nose slides most ways on the curb, boardslide the curb, noseslide the ledge, almost die trying a hurricane on the curb. Ollie wasn’t liking that spot much and spent most of his time throwing rocks around. Blake had a nice 50 transfer from the top, almost boardslide from high to low, front lip. Neil front lipped the stair and got front tail on the curb.

Then we went to Casey as we had seen the ledges were skateable again in the Channel8 video. When we rolled up Neil and I both noted how tall they were. Ha. It looked grim at first, but we all did our thing. Ollie did some ollies and 180’s off the ledges landing some in grass rides, shot rubber bands at me, played tetherball and continued his streak of being awesome. Blake tried to ollie from one ledge down to the next one, but never committed. He had a steezy kickflip into a grass ride and some 180 nosegrinds (like above, except not just a pose for the camera). Neil was trying for a long line starting with a nosebonk over a rock, flatground kickflip, front board one ledge then front 50 the next. The kickflip got the best of him. The easiest part! Ha. I had some good runs for me. Crooks the ledge in the photo (tiny jib crooks), noseslide the second ledge, heelflip on flat, ollie the corner of a rock. Going the other way I got 360 flip, front board the end of the ledge, front 50 the ledge in the photo. I was really hyped on that one. Another run I got a crooks jib, noseslide to fakie, halfcab flip on flat, worst ollie ever over the corner of a rock. I tried front 50 shoves for awhile, but slammed and put my fingers in the grate on the top and ripped open my pinky. Doh. It wasn’t bad, but I did need to get it cleaned out.

After some more spot searching we ended up here and it was really windy. I felt like leaving, but Ollie started flying around the park and Blake and I got hyped (Neil sat in the car). Some tricks were done, but we ended with a flyout session that was a freakin’ blast. The first early grab I committed to resulted in the funnest feeling I’ve had in awhile. I stuck in the grass immediately and did a half flip slide thing down the hill that had me laughing so hard. It was such a pure fun feeling. I get a few early grabs/ollies without slams that were also fun. Ollie was killing the cannonball grabs, also straight ollied it and almost front 180’d into the grass too. He also did a few kickflips while holding on to those bike racks. Real ones soon? Blake tried kickflip into the grass forever and had a ton of hilarious falls. Epic end of a great day.

Went to Lafayette park with Ollie after he finished his homework. It had been a warm day, but it felt cool out and the temperature was dropping quick. We showed up at the park and to our surprise Mike from Fort Collins and Sessions were there and only a couple other people. One of which was Mike’s friend Ryan and he was fun to skate with too. My trucks felt tight on my new complete, but I didn’t feel like loosening them. Partly because I was lazy, partly because I wanted to see if tighter trucks help with flippers. I started really slow, not really doing anything, just cruising. Ollie rolled down the flagstone steps into the parking lot below (near the tiny bowl) so Mike, Sessions and I tried it too. Ollie could do it every try, but it took us old guys quite a few tries. Except Sessions, he put it down pretty quick. I was surprised at how small the 8.1 Habitat felt compared to an 8.1 Null. It still skated good. Ollie rolled into the channel and did a pretty fast carve grind in the tiny bowl. So rad. Mike was ripping the park. All terrain killing and some hard slams. He had a couple crazy lines. Ollie the 3 stair, frontside carve the china bank onto the bench, then carve to fakie off. So sick. Cali grinds up/down next to the tube rail. This is probably one of the few times that Ollie annoyed me at the park. He kept standing close and shooting his board into me (on accident) and was wanting to go home soon. Oh well. I had one ok line of kickflip into the mellow bank and then noseslide the ledge. Man tighter trucks are crazy when you land tricks you don’t lose as much speed. Anyways we ended the night up at the tiny tranny to curb. Mike was killing long boardslides to fakie. Ryan was slamming trying front 50s. Ollie tried a couple front boards. I took a long time to do a pivot on the round tranny to mini ledge and then got a few slappy crooks on the tranny to curb that felt really fun.

After the lights shut off at Lafayette I wanted to skate more, but I had to get Ollie home. Mike and Ryan were going to Street League. I thought of a school by Jack’s that had some newly deknobbed ledges and asked Jack if they were lit. He said not well, but enough. I pulled up and it looked so amazingly lit. I laughed, shut off the car and went to open my door and then all the lights shut off. Shit! Ha. Now I saw what he was talking about as it was barely lit. So I moved on and drove by the Ideal Market area and saw all these little curbs and got hyped to slappy a bunch in a row. And it was even funner then I thought it would be. 50s both ways, crooks, crooks to fakie. The one in the bottom photo was super fun because I could try front feebles and get up on it and not run into the next curb. I ended up getting a couple slappy front feebles that felt amazing. Then I tried a marathon line starting from the top photo. Pop shove on the tiny bump then quick back 180 off the curb, fakie flip, switch front 180 up the curb, kickflip off, slappy crooks. Man that felt amazing. My heart was beating like crazy. I guess I don’t normally do that many tricks in a row and I just sat down for a bit and reveled in my happiness.

Then I went behind the building to skate this ledge which I haven’t skated in 5 years! It didn’t go so well. I loosened up on it with some really slow (and when I say ‘really slow’ you know it’s like barely moving) noseslides. Got noseslide, noseslide to fakie, front nose fakie and front nose. Tried front, but could not commit. Got a few crooks. Then I went out front and skated flatground for awhile. Had to do 10 flippers before I could be done. At least it went better this time. Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, gave up on b/s flips they weren’t working, heelflip, fakie heelflip, fakie varial flip, tried switch varial flip for a long time but failed, f/s halfcab flip, tried nollie tres and failed, and ended with treflip. This will go down as one of those ‘favorites’ for me. I am also super happy with my shoe/insole situation and not getting anywhere near as sore as I did in vulcs/sole tech fake vulcs. I actually went to skate more, but the things I looked at were too dark so I just went home stoked.

Went to this skatepark on a pretty nice day for the midwest:

Above is the Precision team skating this park as an overview of the park and below are the Motive dudes skating it.

I rode with Drew from Omaha to Lincoln which was rad. That dude rules. So nice. We met up with Joe, Matt, Dan, Cory and Cody from Fremont. Joe, Matt, Dan and I started in the corner on a 3 foot qp that was super fun. The park was really crowded. Quite a few basics were landed. Then we moved on to the long concrete ledge area. I struggled for awhile and didn’t land much other then crooks. Joe, Matt and Dan though landed all kinds of tricks. Dan had manual to front board, front nose grind to front board and so many other cool tricks. Joe was kinda run down, but still killing it with all his front 50 variations. Matt is too good. I think I saw a nollie shove crooks? So good. Cory had kick back tails and more. Drew would fly by in the middle of a 50 trick line. Then we skated the bank to ledge mostly for awhile. I took a long time to get kick back 50. Joe did boardslide 270 in and almost boardslide shove to fakie. Dan had ollie oop fakie front smith. Matt did nollie flip front noseslide fakie. Serious. Cory did bs flip fakie 50 halfcab out. Geez. Drew was busy front blunting the bump to bar in the middle of the park. The park had started thinning out a little so we kinda split up and did whatever for awhile. I bailed no comply pole jams while Dan almost got no comply pole jam late flips. Back in the long concrete ledge area I managed manuals up and down the slanted bank. Kickflip on the bump into the bank. Such a fun park. Matt, Joe, Dan and I skated the angled manny pad from the bottom for awhile. I did a manual up to rock kickflip to fakie. Dan was hyped on it! Matt manualled around it easy. Dan tried manual up to fakie manual down. Then I did a few transfers over the little spine that felt fun. Near the end Matt made me try to carve the weird tight corner. Pretty easy. Matt and Dan were trying to front 60 the lower part of it above the manhole which just isn’t possible. I managed the grind around the corner and then we left. Super fun session. I wish that park were near here, it’s amazing. There was a lot more I would have liked to have done, but that was a pretty good first time at a new park. The Fremont crew rules. Those dudes are the funnest most positive people. And Drew rules too. I could talk for quite awhile about how rad it was meeting Phil from Precision, Mike Smith, seeing the skateshop, etc. One of those epic days for skateboarding.

Had such a weird morning. Stuff kept coming up. I tried to skate a couple times and just about the time I’d start getting warmed up I would have to stop. It was about 20 degrees, overcast and cold. Finally met up with Nate and we dropped his girlfriend off at the Denver Art Museum and rolled around to this fun spot. Nate did frontside and backside wallrides on it before I got a frontside one. Chadman showed up and did a frontside one pretty quick. I posed some kickflip backside wallrides and got kinda close initially and then Nate started trying it and did one. Pretty sick. We moved on.

They had torn out our favorite mellow brick bank and replaced it with a perfect marble bench. We kind of just walked around it for a minute to see how quick security would come out, but they didn’t. So we skated. Chad and Nate did so many tricks so quick. Chad did front 50 back 180, front smith, front nosegrind, front smith front 180, back 5-0. Nate had front nosegrind, front 50, back 50, almost back nosegrind, probably more. I got front 5-0, front 50 front 180 out, front 50 front shove out and back crooks. The bench was so new/perfect that it didn’t even feel like you were grinding. So amazing. Then we got the boot. Went up to the capital and had some fun there too with some manuals into the little bank. Chad man ollied the sidewalk into the bank hauling ass in the landing down the hill. On our last go I got manual off the 3 stair, manual into the bank and bombed the hill timing it perfect to get through the light. so insanely fun.

Then we skated the Civic fountain area. Chad and Nate spent a lot of time doing 50s on the little metal bars all over the inside of the fountain. I tried to line out flippers with the ledge. The sun had set so it was getting really f’ing cold. Nate kept skating though. I got a couple basic flippers. A couple basic ledge tricks. The switch front nose felt neat. Nate did those proper. Chadman was trying to manual from the 3 stair then ollie into the fountain. He spent so much energy trying. So funny.

Then we went to Launch for the Null premiere. There were quite a few little kids there, but the ramps weren’t crowded. We skated the little one before the showing and it was fun. We all did a couple tricks and had a some funny falls. After the video we skated the big ramp. But it was mostly just cruising and not really doing tricks. Chad did have one run with a kickflip to fakie and a front feeble in it though. Epic day. So fun.

Got home and went to editing a bunch of stuff. Well, converting files and gathering bonus material. Carleigh and Skelly said they were going to Broomfield park, it wasn’t as windy out as they were saying, Ollie said he wanted to skate, so it was on. And it ended up being a blast. My deck was getting more and more cracked on each trick. Carleigh was trying front tails on the brick qp and skating with Andrea. Skelly was tuned in to his own world and ripping. Ollie was pushing mongo behind me where ever I went. He had some nice body varials on the steep bank, rocks all ways on the quarta potty, and ollied onto a couple of the smaller ledges. I was kind of all over the place. Oh yeah, I had some new shoes. Kind of by accident as I forgot to change before skating.

Etnies RCT. But in actuality my Romero shoes were pretty much done anyway. I didn’t really do much other then ollie the six stair first try behind Skelly that I remember, but somehow it was a blast. Carleigh almost got back disasters on the quarta potty. Skelly did a nice f/s flip on the ollie up bank. I got a boneless on it that felt good. Nice way to enjoy the last warm/dry evening in awhile.