I’m not sure what’s up or why, but I’ve been super motivated to skate lately. I’ve been watching more skate videos again, obsessing about it at work all day and planning my days better to feel less stiff and be ready to hit it. I love it when I’m in these type of zones. Skating is the best. Rather then hit Rampy to warm up I chose the “Watch Mark Suciu’s part in Sabotage 3 and do some jump rope” route. I had been thinking about this garage all day and even though it was only in the upper 20s I went there. As you can see the parking garage isn’t completely sheltered from the outside. It was above freezing though as there was some snow piles from cars that were melting kind of. Anyways, I wore my winter jacked and started off with more energy and speed then even I was expecting. After some parking block ollies and manuals my first line attempt was back 180 over a parking block, halfcab flip on flat then manual. Got it in a couple tries. Whoa. Was feeling so good the next line was switch front 180 a parking block, heelflip on flat, kick back tail the curb (top photo). Never quite got all three together, but did get all the tricks. Going back I would come close, but not land treflips or start posing a frontside halfcab flip front boards on the parking block in the middle photo. That is the main reason I was thinking about that garage. It’s a trick Jason told me to do years ago, but I’ve never tried it. It seemed doable. Another line I was trying was nose manny (middle photo), treflip, front tail shove. Never got the treflip. Ugh. It’s funny that part of my desire to switch to low trucks was to supposedly get better at treflips. Not the case so far, but everything else is going good. I posed the fs halfcab flip front boards a few more times then started committing to it (bottom photo). A few tries later I landed one. I giggled in stoke. It was incredibly slow and bad, but I don’t care. I wanted to try some more, but it added to the treflip crack in the middle of the board I already have going so I let it be. I went for some tricks over a parking block for awhile (top block in middle photo). Managed a few front shoves and one turned into a marathon line. Front shove, treflip, slappy front tail to fakie, halfcab flip, kickflip a parking block, bail something. I also got a fakie ollie over the parking block (although it was mostly at an angle), halfcab over, no comply over and technically a b/s flip, but it was more of a 90 flip, stop, turn the rest of the 180. By then I was getting kinda beat and just went over to the curb in the top photo and posed some weird tricks. Tried fakie bigspin front tail, but didn’t get very close. Front shove back 50. Kinda close to that one. Kickflip front tail. No where near that one. Back 180 nosegrind to forward. Not really. Fakie 50 b/s halfcab out. I’m not Connor. I posed some flip tricks too, but not much went down. It was getting really cold at this point and trying flippers in a bulky jacket isn’t all that fun. Either way though, incredible session. I should skate this hard every time I go out.

Had to get out early to hit Community then off to the mountains to visit my mom. Went to Arvada park before Community and ended up skating for almost three hours and had a blast. When I got there Brian was still doing skate lessons. I cruised around for awhile just kind of hitting everything, but nothing serious. Brian joined after awhile. We didn’t land tricks on the tiny pool coping qp at the top of the park then moved down near the jersey barriers. We had some fun runs starting with the little noping qp, the pump bumps, the elevated qp, then back. Brian killed it with a b/s ollie, front rock, front tail. I tried to copy him, but couldn’t get the front tail. I was hyped to front rock that qp though. Brian had to leave for a Square State event, but was willing for a quick photo op for Instagram (above).

I skated solo for awhile and was having fun. I carved around the smaller of the two bowls at the top. At one point I went to get out and stepped right over the spine and flipped into the vert bowl. Ha. The other dudes at the top didn’t even seem to notice. Today was supposed to be more of a tranny day so I went over to the miniramp area. I felt pretty good and ended up landing quite a few of my tricks. The really surprising part to me was how good the ventures felt. I thought it would be awkward skating tranny with them, but to be honest they felt way better than Thunders. A big crew of tools with one wheel things mounted on their shoes came over to the miniramp section which was my queue to bail out of there. I was playing with the Pier 7 thing when Jake showed up. Whoa! The one wheeled dorks left and we skated the mini for awhile. Jake has a big bag. I was able to do runs with front d and fakie back smith to fakie in them so I felt ok. Then we hit the street section. We tried lines of frontside ollies on the mellow bank over the rail then boardslide the long concrete ledge. Neither of us got them together, but Jake was able to do the ollie really easy. It took me awhile and the one I got I bonked it hard. I decided to change up the line. Trick on the pool coping qp at the top of the park, 50 the marble ledge up top, come down and somehow turn enough to make the boardslide. I came close, but ended up just giving up and do the boardslide on it’s own. So fun. Then Jake made fun of me not being able to manual the pier 7 ledge for awhile. I did get into kick 50 on it though and manage a kickflip up the euro. I did quite a bit of flatground near the starting point too. I was like 5/7 on treflips so I started trying bigflips for the heck of it. I didn’t get close. Oh well, had to bail out quick and get off to the mountains. Super fun session.

Had an invite to Broomfield park, but the previous nights session had me craving street skating. On top of that I got my copy of Sabotage 3 in the mail (since no shops around here are ordering it???) and watched Mark Suciu’s part. Wow. That kid makes skateboarding look so easy and amazing with long lines in the streets. He is becoming one of my all time favorites. First spot was my favorite warm up spot. The mini granite ledge above. It’s kind of a ledge, kind of a bank to ledge. It’s perfect. I ended up skating it for like an hour and put down most of my ledge bag having the time of my life. I had my earphones on with Dinosaur Jr’s latest (I Bet On Sky) going. It’s pretty much a perfect album to skate to. Seeing as how this is my journal I’m gonna go ahead and list all the tricks I got. Most were stalls, some grinded or slid. Back 50, front 50, back crooks, back crooks to fakie, front crooks to fakie, front 5-0 back 180 out, front tail, front tail shove, back 50 front 180 out, kickflip back 50, kick back pivot, kick back tail and my favorite trick of the night – attempting a kick back tail and landed in kick back smith and recovered by doing front 180 out. I was seriously giggling after that one. I’ve never done a trick out of a flip in before (granted it’s just front 180 I know, but I was seriously hyped and it came by accident and so easy). One other trick I got close to was halfcab crook. I got into one really good one and grinded awhile before falling out. So close!

Then I went over to the yellow curb area for a bit. Ollied up the 2 stair a bunch, boardslide a little curb then try 3 flip. Never got the 3 flip. I was hyped how easy it was to get up the 2 stair. It’s just an awkward 2, but the smaller setup seems to pay off sometimes. Going the other way I wanted to ollie up onto the narrow and tall ledge, but never pulled the trigger. I almost front 180’d this kinda long gap, but the wind started kicking pretty hard so I seeked refuge in the yellow curb area. I did a few front/back 50s and posed some b/s flips up the curb. I wasn’t feeling that spot so much so I headed back to the original spot, but to hit the white ledge in the other side of the garage.

The new green paint is nice. The metal sign is kinda weird because I hit it with my hands a bunch. I got a back 50 somewhat quick. Not the whole thing like Jason used to. And the wind was still kicking so I didn’t line it out with the curb cut. Crooks took a bit, but I got a few of them. Two of which felt great. One of which was followed by a 3 flip. Went home stoked. Really digging my new setup.

I was feeling a little better and tried to rally some troops to Broomfield park. No one was interested so I was gonna roll out and skate something nearby, but Ollie asked me where I was going and said he might want to skate too. Whoa. So we agreed on Rampy and made the long walk to the garage. Ollie seemed more motivated then he has been lately. He went to work and did most of his tricks pretty quick. His fakie ollies are so sick.

He’s also got a mean body varial (above). We had fun. He also did rock ‘n roll and a little backside slash through the biggest hole in the coping. I skated surprisingly well for me and did most of my tricks first try and added a few fakie crook stalls that I rarely do. Also got a front tail.

After bailing we would do kickflips in flat. Well, I would and Ollie would try them. He got close on a few of them. I was super hyped because he said he was wanting to skate more again and wanted to learn kickflips. Sick! Skating with your kid is incredibly fun. Especially with a goofy smiling kid like Ollie.

Not quite as cold. 34 degrees and sunny. Not bad! In the afternoon I drove around looking for a dry spot and found this spot. I skated for awhile before Jack and Carleigh showed up. I haven’t street skated in a long time and it showed. I was lowering the bar on horrible skating. There is a little 3 stair nearby with a weird approach, but still just a 3 stair and it took me at least 10 tries to ollie it. Ugh. I almost rolled my ankle on a fakie flip so I once again had to tighten up the Hufs as they are the loosest fitting shoes ever. Eventually I did start to skate ok. Had a run with a front 180 a little pile of snow, halfcab noseslide a ledge, kickflip, back 180 off a curb. Super basic, but it got my juices flowing. Jack and Carleigh showed up. Jack was on a beat up cruiser board and riding through snow a lot having a blast. Peep the sketchy manual in the snow above. So crazy. Carleigh hadn’t really skated in a long long time, but got some noseslides quick. Everyone seemed to be having fun and skating decent. Carleigh added a few front tails. I had a line of kickflip over the snow pile, crooks, heelflip. Jack was killing treflips all over the place and also did a dolphin flip (photo above). I got a line of slappy front tail, ollie up a ledge then front 180 off the last one. Jack was killing it with ollies up tall ones, treflips off, ollieing past the stairs, etc etc. Towards the end Carleigh did front 180 up the small one and almost halfcab the hard way off the next one. Jack did another ollie up then treflip off and I wanted in on it and eventually landed it. I know at the time it didn’t seem like a very clean make and I almost didn’t count it, but in my head now it seemed pretty good. Ha. Good thing no filming was going down. Super fun session. Hopefully it warms up so we can do it again.