On a breezy and somewhat cool day I picked Rob up after work and we headed up to Fort Collins. First stop was the MRKT to take care of some bidness. We met up with Mike and rolled into camps. I was bummed to see the nearby slappy curbs pretty wrecked, but we ended up at the spot above quickly and skated there awhile. I was rusty after 3 whole days off. Ha, that’s seriously a long time for me though. I had a new board and it felt really good (Spread The Null). Rob seemed to kick into warmed up mode the quickest. He had boardslide pop over, front board pop over to fakie. Mike had some long boardslides, slappy front noseslides. After awhile I had a couple fun lines starting with slappy the first curb, then front board transfer and front board to fakie transfer and followed up one of the runs with a 180 over a manhole and then a fakie flip. Mike had some no comply 180s over manholes. Both front and back. Backside is crazy. Rob and I were doing fun little chinese nollies over the yellow manhole things then trying kickflips over a manhole. Rob kickflipped a manhole. Well, mostly. Ha. I kickflipped a couple of them and followed one with an ‘both hands down over 40 make’ ollie over the curb and gap in the back of the photo.

Next we trained at the Megaramp for awhile. We all started by taking a few steps, throwing our boards down, doing a kickturn and ollie’ing off. I somehow managed to ollie up the ledge (first try!), do a kickturn and then a front 180 off. Very hyped on actually ollieing onto something kinda tall. That’s been hard lately.

Then we posted up here for awhile. On the far side is a two stair. Mike and I did ollies up the 2 then ollies down the 3. How’s that for tech? I added a front 180 down too. The windows make it a bit sketchy as I’m good at worrying about breaking windows. Luckily all was good though. We ended up skating the 2 stair part for awhile awhile. Tricks up, tricks down. It was fun. Rob killed the no complys and almost got a no comply flip up too. Back 180s up and down. I got a rare back 180 up and a no comply up. Down I got switch front 180, back 180, front 180, front shove and a kickflip that was considered a ‘Baker Maker’. Thanks hammer dudes! Now try to kickflip a 2 stair! Mike struggled with front 180s up for a bit, but had some awesome reverts that I thought ruled. He back 180’d up pretty easy and got a no comply up. Rob and I did a couple tricks on the marble bench there too.

We had told Rob about this “hip” and when we got there the look of disappointment was understandable. Ha. Rob didn’t even try to skate it. The cracks seem way worse then last time I was there. Either way it’s still skateable though and I tallied a few tricks. 180s, sw front 180, front shove, back shove, kickflip, no comply 270, but could not get a backside flip. Started feeling pretty tired. Mike did back 180 quick then did a cab. Tight!

At one point I tried to recreate my line from last time with Carleigh, Jake and Jack. Front 180 the 3 stair, turn around then pop shove, ollie onto this ledge and ollie off. I totally misjudged the height and went splat. Totally made me laugh. Hurt my elbow a bit, but man loving the cupsole suppose because my legs felt fine. We had a couple parking block wallies on the way back, but that was about it.

Until we saw this skating threw an alley across from MRKT. I did a few slappy crooks that felt amazing then a few more that felt even more amazing. I kept trying to do them as good as Fuller does. Mike had never done that trick and after a few tries scraped some out. So sick. Night over. Fun session.

Ha, I normally refuse to skate Red Curbs on dry evenings, but since it had rained earlier in the day Rob said it was legit. I was feeling pretty sore and uncoordinated throughout the session. Rob was killing some back 50s early, boardslides to fakie, slappy tailslides, and getting into some other tricks like fakie back nosegrind. I managed some boardslides to fakie going slow, but I really don’t think I’ve landed that trick before when you come out before the end. I slammed hard on a feeble grind attempt. Did a bunch of kick back fails. Dave showed up and was immediately crushing at full speed. Boardslides, boardslide to fakie, boardslide 270. Manuals and falls. The ollie onto the curb then back 180 the hard way out of the curb cut was hot. At the end Dave and I skated the narrow part of one of the medians (super slick) and tried some nosegrinds over it. I got a couple frontside ones with little bonks at the end and Dave came kinda close to backside. I tried the rock wallie a couple times, slammed and got too tired. My flat ground skills were not on point, but I managed my first heelflip since skating the crappy Fallen Ramblers. Did a tiny fakie nosegrind. Left when Dave was trying nose manny back 180s. Guess he never got it. Oh yeah, I had a new board. SPREAD THE NULL! Love it.

Had the day off work and oh man was it nice out. Met Rob, Jake, Brett and Dave at the Street League park. We were there to lower the scoring curve. Warming up there isn’t easy, everything is tall. Maybe unless you are a 20 something year old like Jake. He was scoring some points right away. 50’ing ledges right away, etc. He had a nice front 50 to front board and front 5-0 on the bump to ledge. I finally got a front 50 on it. Brett was ripping too and landed his first ever switch heel off the little bumb. Jake tried to mess with the scoring by standing in Dave’s way which caused a board to the head when Dave fell on a nosestall to fakie on the bank to ledge. I would have DQ’d Jake, but Dyrdek is more generous. I got a front D on the qp. Jake did back blunt on it. Dave had some rad boneless (I think) variations where he would just throw the board away. I could not land a kickflip to fakie from the higher kicker to the lower kicker. Oh yeah, I had a new board:

Super hyped on this graphic and the fact that Null is 10 now. In fact I think it’s crazy. But, back to the training. It’s hard to remember all that went down. Jake ollied the rock gap. I wussed out. I had a treflip on flat early on that got a lot of love. That’s only because it’s a dream trick of Rob’s right now and Jake hasn’t landed them lately. I let Jake take a couple tries on my board and he was amazed at how awesome it flipped around. He looked jealous. But I told him I’m more jealous of someone that can skate high trucks and not complain. Dave worked on nollie cabs and landed a couple fitting in the over 40 category. He will soon be in the over 45 category and will have a whole new lower bar that will still be sicker then Johny 19 Year Old kickflipping a 10. I got an ollie up the euro on the mellow side to front 180 up the tall 2. Felt good. Near the end we skated the long ledge for awhile. Brett got noseslide shove and some long front 50s. Jake did halfcab noseslide, back 50, front 50 and probably more. I got a few back crooks, front 50s, front 5-0s, a front 50 shove (over 40 make), and a sketchy back 50 for my highest back 50 in a few years. neat session. Sorry this journal entry is totaly incoherent, but I don’t remember it much and I’ve had a couple glasses of wine.

I met up with Dave after work on a nice friday afternoon. My legs didn’t feel as bad as normal. I rolled around a little before Dave got there. Once he did we started skating the mellow flat bank and mostly just stayed there the whole time. We rattled off quite a few tricks. Dave got fakie flip and a first try kickflip to fakie. Dude! He also came remotely close to a switch flip. I was getting used to a new board (8″ this time since I’m out of 8.1s) and my low Venture trucks again. I really like how quickly that setup kickflips. I got a sloppy b/s flip, a fun feeling f/s flip followed by a b/s flip flyout. b/s halfcab flip. Then started going for 360 flip to fakie which I’ve only landed a couple times in my life. I got one. It was an over 40 make with a hand down, but you know what, I’m 40. It counted! Ha ha. Dave did some more cool tricks like nollie bigspin, switch front shove. There was this little kid from Isreal riding around on a plastic board having the time of his life doing early grabs and stuff. It hyped us up. He had no concerns about doing cool tricks, he was having a blast and it ruled to see. I added fakie flip to my collection, couldn’t get fakie 3 flip and landed a few f/s halfcab flips at 90 degrees and stopped. Doh. We finally moved on to the other corner of the park where Dave crushed the little bank that’s the top of the oververt corner. Back tailslide to fakie. He also got nose manual the long ledge. I lined out halfcab flip then crooks, but struggled with front 50 so bad. Finally got a couple at the end, but I slammed pretty hard as Dave was leaving and decided I’d leave too. I was glad that my legs were feeling a little bit better. I give credit to the low trucks. Ha ha.

Another weekend, another snow storm. So sick of it. We got about 8″ and it was still dumping. It was quite cold too so a warmer garage was needed. I went with Steelyards which was quite nice and warm. I had setup a new board with some new Venture Highs. Yes, I will be the first to admit my truck issues are pathetic. But hear me out. I don’t think Thunders are all that great. I hate Indys. I liked how the Venture lows skated, just not how low they were. So rather then putting my old Thunders on I picked up some Venture highs hoping that my truck problems will be solved. I did some kickflips on flat and was kinda bumming on how slow it flipped with the highs. Oh well, I hit the Steelyards parking garage solo. Right out the gate I felt great. It didn’t take long before I was trying real tricks. I was just skating flat because in my head I was telling myself if I ended up not liking the highs I could return them if I didn’t grind anything. I had told myself I had to do a treflip and a nollie treflip before I could grind. It didn’t take long. I was skating way better then the last couple times. I was landing fakie bigflips again. Tried a line of fakie bigflip, front shove off the curb then treflip. Came close, but the treflip eluded me. Tried another run with f/s halfcab flip, nose manual, nollie treflip. Didn’t get the nollie tre with those, but managed a great one in my favorite run of the session. Little front lip on the corner of the unwaxed curb, nollie tre then a high speed kickflip off the curb (first try). I was super hyped on that. I tried a lot of tricks. Came remotely close to a gleNBD of front 180 heel. I had my headphones on and was skating really hard, eventually I got kinda tired and just settled into kick back 50/5-0/tail going one way and front 5-0 kickflip out the other way. I would also huck flippers. Came close to varial heel and got way too close on a b/s bigflip. Got a couple more treflips. Struggled with b/s flips and heelflips though. Front 5-0 kickflip was on my to do list by 40 (before the arthritis flare up that ended hopes of that list) and I got insanely close. Like holy smokes I can do this close. Landed both feet on it and fell off close. I ended up trying it so many times and it eventually wore me out too much and I gave up. I really thought I would get it. Doh. I did get a few kickflip back 50s. One bail that landed with the board balanced sideways on the wheels (photo above) that made me laugh. All in all a great session and I’m glad to have moved on from the low trucks and hopefully I will like the highs and stop being a whiny bitch about my setup.

The forecast was for upper 70s so I took the day off work. I started it off by listening to Green Mind while cleaning for awhile then watched Shape Duece while setting up a new board. A new board already? Yes, Derek broke his filming so I gave him mine at the end of the night. Since everyone skates big boards now my 8″ pile is just sitting there so I decided to trim down a little and skate one of those. The plan was to meet Neil, Brett and Dave at the new new Thornton park (above). Everyone had said it’s a “Glen park” meaning it’s full of dumb, mellow stuff. Ha. I got there first and indeed it is a neat park. I’m not gonna call it my favorite or anything though. Brett showed second and brought his boombox hooked up to a Pandora station playing a few good rap songs mixed in with mostly really bad rap songs. Neil showed shortly after that and it was just the three of us for quite a while with one other dude. It was fun. Neil had lots of ollies everywhere, wallies, krooks shove first try on the ledge, boardslides and a nosegrind or two. Brett had some cool nose stall body varials on the little bank to curb (in the back ground behind the hubba/bank), but then broke his board on a kickflip fakie. He got so mad. I struggle to skate in the morning and although this morning went better than normal I still struggled with some basics like a back 50 on a little rainbow ledge and ollies into the bank. But I did do some stuff I was hyped on like a few kickflip pivots on the bank to curb, front 50 the bank to curb, fakie bigflip over a mellow hip. Dave showed up and did a lot of cool stuff. His friend Simon showed too and ripped the place. It started getting really crowded though with bmxers, scooter kids, skaters, parents letting their toddlers walk around in the skatepark, etc. We left after Dave got a couple feeble grinds on the bank to curb and I got a line with a front 50 on the bank to curb, a nose manual on the tiny manual pad and a backside kickflip on the bank above the bench then frontside 180 off the bench. Fun.

We went to a nearby light pole with a bit of transition up to it next. Neil had gone to work. We skated this awkward thing for a good hour or so. I should have taken a photo, but not having a data plan anymore and not being able to Instagram makes me forget about shooting photos. It took a bit before we got some pivots and axle stalls on it. Simon killed it with wallie, wallie melon and wallie indy to the street. He also did a front pivot and a pivot fakie. So ridiculous. Brett got a couple nose stalls and rock ‘n rolls. I did a axle stall and eventually a few frontside wallies which I was really hyped on. Dave did some smooth pivots, wallies and a awesome street plant to fakie.

Then we went to Northglenn park and met up with Bernie. Brett had left. My Vox shoes had totally died at the last spot so I was rolling in some new shoes. Emerica Liverpools. They seemed good although a bit bulky. I mostly just skated flatground with Bernie as I was really sore. Nollie tres came pretty quick. I also had a run with boardslide the ledge, treflip on flat then a bigflip on a flat bank (although I landed at 90 degrees and stalled for a second). After a bit I joined Dave and Simon skating this little qp at the top. Simon was doing switch frontside 5-0s. Dave was working on back tails. I scraped a little backside slash to fakie and threw in some flip tricks after. What a fun day. After that I went home and grabbed the family and we went to the Nuggets game which ended up being a crazy game where the Nuggets somehow won. Awesome.

Had a rough day at work and all kinds of stuff going on. It was cold, but I wanted skate more then Rampy. I went outside and 30 degrees didn’t seem so bad so I hit Red Curbs after dropping off a box of boards to FedEx. There was a lot of puddles so mostly just the two main curbs and the 2 stair ledge were skateable. I warmed up with lots of slappy tails and stuff. I had all tracks from Dinosaur Jr on shuffle which was hyping me up. I got some lines early on like noseslide the ledge, boardslide the curb then quick little kick back tail the next curb. Slappy front trail coming the other way then front tailslide the next curb. Crooks the ledge, boardslide the curb, kick back 50 the little curb. Halfcab noseslide the ledge, kickflip a puddle, almost another kick back tail. Front 50 slappy the curb, front lip the taller curb (took awhile), bailed a b/s flip over a puddle. I tried a lot of flippers which always makes me feel like I’m actually skating. Got a rare f/s flip. Also hucked some ledge tricks like front board pop out on the ledge, fakie nosegrind a curb. A few 360 flips with 6 point landings (4 wheels, 2 hands). A fun little dork trick of manual to a little grind on the far side of the manny pad to rock ‘n roll tap out (whatever that’s called). I ended up having way more fun then I thought I would. Can’t wait for the warmer weather coming!

Was feeling pretty hyped on the Null video so far after watching a lot of the footage with Fuzz the other night so decided on a mission to Pueblo where it was dry. Two car loads of people were willing to get up early and make it happen so we did. I had Chad, Connor and Max. Carleigh had Jack, Blaine and Derek. My car got to Pueblo first (of course) and we started out at the courthouse bank spot. My legs were feeling really bad. The quads man. I don’t get it. I could barely move. I did manage some slappies on a low curb and to get two letters on Chad in a game of Break-In-Chads-shoes SKATE. Max was all over tearing it up. I would film him get a good line about the time the second car showed up. I got to have a little more fun doing more slappys and back 50s on a curb, some front tail stalls on the mellow bank, etc. Max tried to ollie a gnarly gap. Carleigh got a million little prickers on her after falling into the grass. We moved on to the Ka*Mitt in Pueblo. Rad shop. We picked up a couple people and headed to the spot above. That spot has everything. While people warmed up I dorked around. Was hyped on getting an awkward kickflip on the bank and doing some kickturns like Carleigh is above. Derek nose picked it all steezy. Jack got a sick line. Our guide Andrew murdered the place. Some boards went in the water. Some boards were broken. IE, my board was broken nollie flipping a pretty big gap over water onto a weird bumpy landing. That should be enough of a clue to tell you I wasn’t skating it. Andrew managed to get the nollie flip on Max’s board. Crazy. Those are some skills to adapt to other peoples setups. We setup our new boards and skated near the shop for a bit. Got kicked out of the RTD station. Went to campus where my legs were feeling ultra weird. I managed a back 5-0 to fakie on the litle mellow fun bank at least. Max and Connor had some sick tricks on that. After that Derek almost got a bangin’ line, but the spot just kind of ended weird. I filmed some more on some weird ledge/block arrangements, but it was nothing crazy. Then it was back on the road heading home and feeling exhausted.

Had a new board since I cracked mine really bad the day before. My first Null Future! I was hyped. I met Jack and Carleigh at one of my favorite spots in Boulder. We ended up skating there for a long time. Carleigh posted up some front tails and hucked some kickflip noseslides coming kinda close sometimes. I got a handful of tricks. Front 5-0 back 180 (90) out, weird kick back tail, kick back 50 almost front tail shove. Jack did a new trick, back 270 front tail to b/s flip out. Whoa! He also did a bunch of crazy stuff like nollie heel front noseslides. He also ollied above the ledge into wallride then four wheel drived out through the ledge as we were getting kicked out. So sick!

Then we ate, saw the new Meta and rolled over to the Wells Fargo mini qp where we would once again stay for a long time. My arthritis was pretty bad again and kickflips up the curb there were hard. Carleigh did a back tail and learned backside blunts. Sick! Jack did back noseblunt to fakie, a bunch of old guy tricks, pivot fakie, bigspin pivot, wallie 50, wallie crooks, whatever he wanted to do on his board. I had a line of slappy crooks, back blunt, slappy front tail. Tried a couple lines starting with kickflips up the curb, but never got front blunt or front tail shove out. I blame the big metal thing sticking up. Gonna go gluten free for awhile and see if it helps my arthritis.

Of course now that I have to take some time off for my shoulder injury it’s super nice out. I haven’t set up a new board in a long time and needed something to do. If you know anything about me, you know that I obsess over really dumb stuff. Well lately I’ve been watching a lot of Westgate footage and read something where he said low trucks have better pop. When I had cleaned my garage last weekend I found an old pair of Venture Lows (8″) and I felt like giving them a try. They are probably at least 8 years old. Pretty funny. I put the Venom bushing in there for the heck of it. I also had some really old 50mm Null wheels that wouldn’t sell so I threw those on there too. I am now almost a 40 year old with Venture Lows and 50mm wheels. Aka I’m a dork. I went on a hike with Liz and got back kinda early in the afternoon and just couldn’t avoid skating anymore. I figured the safest thing to do was some slow flippers in front of the house so that’s what I did. I’m not sure if the lower trucks really help or not, but the new board felt awesome. I did some of the best feeling kickflips I’ve done in awhile. They board sure flipped around quick. I suppose the lighter wheels help too. I did a few more flippers too. Everything felt good with the exception of treflip which seemed a little harder since the trucks don’t turn the same. I got one kind of though and put my arm down and felt a tingle in the shoulder that reminded me I should probably stop while I’m ahead. I’m hyped my shoulder didn’t hurt at all while skating, but still gonna rest it so I don’t hurt it again next time I fall. Hyped on my new setup!