Felt like crap yet again. Had the day off work and had gone for a hike with Liz and taken two naps. Still didn’t feel well though. Dave called after work and was in Boulder and wanted to skate. I stubbornly agreed and went to meet Dave at the Mikes Camera manny pad. Wow the asphalt sucks there now. I was feeling super out of it. Took me like 10 tries to get a manual. I did a nose manual first try though. Remotely close to a switch front 180 mannny. Dave showed up and after a manual agreed we should go check out the rainbow ledge. It was pretty dark, but we went for it anyway. Dave had a really long boardslide pop out. I had a short boardslide pop out. I also had some noseslides and a line with a front board pop out and an ollie down the 4 stair. Oh yeah, I was wearing my glasses which partly explains why I was out of it because I have pink eye. Ugh. I also had a new pair of Es Accents. This pair a half size larger that I’m trying to get broken in for Portland. Gonna get this pair dialed in and if they start to blow out too much wear the smaller pair before the trip. How boring is this to read about?

Then we went to look at the jersey barrier, but it was too dark to skate so we hit these parking blocks for awhile. We did all kinds of stall tricks. Dave did back 180 nosegrind, back 180 nosegrind to forward, back feebles, back feebles almost with back 180 or body varial out, front disaster, maybe front hurricane, probably a bunch more. I tried a bunch of front pivot kickflips out, but never got it. Managed a front 180 front truck pivot, hurricane stall to forward the long way, several feeble stalls which hyped me up since I have never really done feebles. We had a blast and I didn’t seem to make myself feel worse.

New shoe blues. Ok, so they are actually black and blue. Ha. Sorry, it’s early. I went out to Rampy on a rainy night feeling exhausted as I always seem to be lately. My first few runs were so bad I wanted to focus my board and burn down Rampy. So I started hucking. Frontside ollies and whatever the trick is called where you take your front foot off onto the coping, grab the nose with your front hand and then put it down to tail. I had a few frontside ollies that felt ok. A couple of them were probably above coping. One of which was really scary and riding away from that one was a blast. I only got one of those boneless/madonna/sweeper/whatever they are called but it was fun and cheered me up.

Still tired from a 16 hour drive the day before. I needed to get boards to 303 and had some errands to run so I just rolled out around 6pm. I had some new shoes. My first pair of Es shoes in a long time. They seem good. I cruised around doing a lot of crack nollies for a bit looking for this crack ridden alley.

This little metal ledge could be such a great warm up/ old guy spot. Actually, Max killed that spot in Nothing so what am I saying? I skated there for awhile and settled into trying a line. No comply 180, halfcab flip (whichever way seemed would work better) then front 50 back 180 out or front tail shove. The half cab flip was troublesome trying to time it in between cracks and then when I finally started getting the flow of it there were janitors or something standing near the ledge preventing me from going on. Doh.

Then I rolled to this spot and posted up for quite some time. I tried a line of fakie flip on flat (to the right of the 2 stair), switch front 180 up the first stair, to quick ollie up the second, 360 flip on flat then front nose to fakie the tall ass ledge. The 3 flip took for ever and the few I got were horrible. The ledge was too tall for me to get the front noseslides. I was bumming kinda hard, but a couple things came from it that I liked. Mostly that I had some fast fakie flips and was able to push switch comfortably after. Heading back to the start I had a great feeling nollie varial flip and I did a cali grind to manual to cali grind down the two stair which was fun. As bummed as I wanted to be I was happy I pushed myself a little and am not letting my arthritis flare up stop me from skating.

On a rainy night I gave India a ride to ballet with Jake then stopped by Meta, dropped off some goods, picked up Matt and we headed to Red Curbs. Matt had never been there before. I had a lot of new stuff. Those shoes are way brighter then they look too. They are ridiculous. Herman G6 Vulc. Also put some new 52mm Nulls on because my last set had worn down into the mid/upper 40s. They felt and looked huge! Ha. Oh and some old PJ trucks because I had worn my previous set of Ventures to the axle (unheard of for me). Anyways I set the tone for myself on my very first push around the spot by slamming onto my elbow on the edge of the curb on a slappy crooks. Matt quickly front 180’d the median and ollied some tall cones. Had some sick fakie nosegrinds, front 5-0 180, switch back 50, probably much more. Slammed prety hard without his wrist guard a few times. Doh. Jake gets better every time he skates. Front tails, front 180 over two sideways cones piled up, halfcab over that too, almost a kickflip manual, got into fakie back lips, his new trick the fakie bigger flip, fakie front tail, a treflip and more. I slammed and struggled all night. Managed to ollie the sideways cones, a couple 3 flips, slappy crooks, ride on front 50s and a few other basic flippers.

Went to FOCO after work to sell some boards. Met up with Matt and we went to Fossil Creek. It became apparent on my first failed curb high boardslide that I would have a tough night. Matt on the other hand was cruising around doing all kinds of good basics first try. Actually he ended up skating some of the best I’ve seen him skate. Manual the middle box on the manual pad drop down to manual. Back tail’d it too. Ollied the Carrol gap easy, kickflipped it. Halfcab back 50 on the low, halfcab noseslide to fakie on the regular ledge, nollie back noseslide. Lots of good stuff. Including a pretty bad slam on a kick back tail attempt. I had new shoes which I can maybe blame about 5% for my skating. It was all my legs sucking. More New Balance Numeric Quincys. This time in a size that wont kill my feet. When it was finally dark I was kind of skating remotely ok. Had some fun crooks, back 50s on the curb, a 3 flip on flat and slow line of ollie onto the ledge, front 50 the ledge up top and then a crawling kickflip off the ledge. I tried to back 50 the regular ledge and got back 5-0 and back feeble instead. Sounds good unless you actually saw them. Even though I totally sucked it was still fun. Matt ripped hard and laughed at most of funnier bails, it was nice out, the park was pretty empty, etc.

After being on vacation for a week the whole family was grouchy. So I kinda just left with my skateboard and went to Southern Hills. It’s coming up on the end of the month and I haven’t done a new flip trick yet. Flatground went ok. I wasn’t too confident as skating Ventures again felt a little weird. But I really liked the 8″ trucks and how quick the flip was. I got through quite a few of the basics though and added a nollie varial flip. I was struggling with treflips when I noticed I had worn through the sole of my shoe and was skating on the insole. Doh, can’t have that. So I went home to get new shoes and then grab my camera before driving to Longmont to meet Dave.

Got me some Herman G6 Vulcs. They seem good.

It was hot when I got to Rocky Mtn Elem. The ledge didn’t grind because the wax was melted. I goofed around for awhile thinking of a line I wanted to do. Dropin on the narrow brick bank by the entrance of the school, front board popout the ledge, front 180 off the curb, fakie bigflip. When Dave was warming up I asked if he thought it was worth filming and did the line perfect. Great. Of course once we started filming I struggled with the front board, but I did end up getting it and it did feel amazing. I skated lightly after that then filmed Dave get a rad little line too. Then we both felt like we were getting heat stroke. Guess it was over 90 degrees and we were right in the sunlight. Really stoked on getting that line.

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.

Today was the first day of vacation I’ve used all year at work. We were going to head up to the foothills and stay in a cabin after lunch so I felt like skating early in the morning. Ollie was down to join. We went to Broomfield thinking there wouldn’t be a big skate camp there. Wrong. So then we drove to Westy and basically had the park to ourselves until the last couple minutes. I had new shoes. Those Adidas did not lost long at all which is pretty lame considering you look like a jock in them. Speaking of lame, my new shoes. Emerica Provost’s. They are not good shoes. But it’s what I ended up with this time around. I didn’t skate very good, but did a few things that made it seem alright. Like 50’ing that hubba (it’s so low to get on), front 50 the taller cement ledge at the park and ollie the flat gap. I was gonna boardslide the tiny rail if I landed a threeflip first try, but still wussed out when I did. Doh. Ollie was skating well for him. The boardslide was probably the highest one he’s done. He pushed regs a little, manualled some funny things, had come nice halfcabs and seems natural flowing around the park. Fun kickoff to our family vacation.

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!

Feeling pretty good on a nice warm monday. Played some pretty heavy basketball with Ollie then met up with Matt downtown. After he setup a shiny new Null board we cruised from his place. We started at the red ledge spot in the alley and we actually lasted awhile. Long enough for me to front 50 and back 50 the ledge, pose a noseslide on the flat bar and do a dorky little dropin (and the make). Which meant it was long enough for Matt to do front 50, front 5-0, back 50 and the tall noseslide above. We got the boot then went to St Julien.

Oh yeah, I had new shoes:

They skated rather well. The NB+s are still good, but they just never stretched out like a normal skate shoe and are too small for me, hurting my feet legs. But man if they get them at Meta again I will be all over them. Anyways, yeah, we went to St Julien and did tricks over the little bump for awhile. Matt rattled off back 180, manual bonk, nose bonk and kickflip before I had landed a front 180. Then we went for treflip which ended up taking him quite awhile and forced me to do more tricks. I eventually got a no pop kickflip, no comply and no comply nose grab over it before posing backside flips. The treflip Matt ended up getting was super good though.

There’s a lipslide buried in there.

Then we went to check out Canyon Center, but it was under construction and almost all of the metal banks are gone. Doh! Lastly we ended up at this ledge. We were both pretty tired/sore, but had fun. Matt did nollie front flip and then front lip. So good. I had a few weak boardslides, but one in a fun line of kickflip up the curb, boardslide, back 180 off the curb. Then we pretty much walked all the way back. I really liked the Vans, but was more sore then normal for a relatively short session.