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.

Skated flat in front of the house for awhile trying to break in some new shoes Liz got me for my birthday. They are a little small, but seem like great shoes. I started off slow and doing lots of the basics. The goal was to land a new flip trick since I hadn’t gotten a new trick for April yet. It started to rain so I had to chill for awhile. Went back out about 15 minutes later since it’s CO and it was dry. Pretty much settled into only trying tricks I’ve never done. Nollie f/s flip one way and fakie double flip the other. Didn’t get either. Not even close on the nollie f/s flip. Very close on the fakie dubs though. Argh. I randomly thought about a trick I’ve wanted to do before. I don’t think I’ve done it, but if I did it was only once or something. Fakie varial flip revert. Got it like 3rd try. Was hyped. Did it a few more times and called it a success. I had done a few varial flip reverts first to get the feeling down and had never really done those either.

On a cloudy morning I woke up really early and have the late shift for work (9:30 am). So I went to Boulder park armed with an arsenal of barely used shoes to see what I liked best. I went with some Lakai Picos first and ended up sticking with them. They weren’t perfection, but they were much better then the Fallen Vibes. I cruised around the park for awhile kind of surprised at how slow my wheels were. I guess they are getting pretty small now. I really didn’t do a whole lot. All of the tricks I had in my head on the way there didn’t seem obtainable (back 50 the deep end mainly). To my surprise I did flip tricks for awhile and perhaps did my first ever 3 flip before 9am. At one point I was cruising around the back of the park and nailed my head on a tree branch that sticks in. Ouch. Just a little goose egg and a tiny amound of blood. The funnest thing I did was drop of a ledge in the far NW corner of the park to a quick roll into the middle part of the bowl. Then I went to get some water and get stuck talking to one of the dudes lurking at the park drinking Steel Reserve.

New shoe blues with the Fallen Vibes. I was the first of us old dudes there. I slammed on an axle stall on the quartapotty to start the session. Not a good omen. It didn’t get much better then that for me. There were some other older dudes that were really good. As Rob would say later, I felt more intimidated about sucking in front of good old dudes then good young kids. Doh. Anyways, we skated. The crew was Dave, Rob, Eric and I. Dave kinda destroyed the hump on top of the bowl. Bluntslide 270 out, proper back tailsldes. I got a line of f/s halfcab flip on flat, roll into the little 3 foot section between the pool and bowl, ride around, boardslide down the tiny rail, front rock the brick qp, b/s 90 flip to halt flyout. Ha. I haven’t skated with Eric much, but he’s got moves for sure. Rob had a real cool old guy trick that I can’t remember now. Like a sweeper slide of some sort on the hump. Halfcab boardslides on the slanted brown ledge. Lots of good. At the end I tried a line of f/s kickflip on the hump followed by front 50 on the pier 7 ledge. I got close, but didn’t land it, got mad and made myself try the 6 stair which I failed at. I committed, but didn’t ride away. I blame the shoes as I was coming disconnected with the board. The main lights shut off and I still hadn’t gotten my March new flip trick. I tried a few fakie double flips in the little light, but couldn’t get one. So I started trying kickflip sex changes and got a couple. Rad! I don’t believe I have done that before. It’s possible, but I’m gonna count it as a new one.

I had such a bad time in those shoes that it is unlikely I will keep skating them. In fact I might not even skate cups anymore. Why can’t skate shoe brands make as good of cup soles as NB+? Argh.

Well my NB+ Stratfords died an early death. The inside of the heel blew out and rather then repair them I decided to move on. The shoes were close to being done anyway. So I once again tried some non-NB+ shoes. Etnies Highlights. Aka the Bledsoe’s. Aka the shoe with the all foam sole and weed graphic insole. They are insanely comfy, but I started to have my doubts about the grip pretty much right away. Ugh. Anyways I tried some warming up and it didn’t go well. Jason and Lindy were on their way so I was chilling. Then randomly Sean Flaherty and Meta Sam showed up to film some stuff. Sick! Sean rules. He got to business quickly and did his trick in a really good line. Dang. Stoked that Jason got to see that. And stoked that I got to see it. I had cruised around and done a few things. Got a line of front 180 into the handicap ramp, halfcab flip on flat then a crooks jib on a bench. Sean and I had a treflip race which I won. Ha! Sam was hucking some kickflips and popping ollies higher then he thinks. He also ollied a hat. I don’t care what you say Sam, that was rad! I went home and put my next skate shoes on (Fallen – Vibe) and did a couple kickflips on them. Rubber soles are so much better. So far I’m 0-2 on ending the NB+ reign of awesome, but perhaps the Fallens will change that.

Everyone here knows I’m constantly obsessing about something in my setup that I can blame for not landing tricks. Lately the obsession hasn’t been an excuse, but more of an observation. Watching my 360 flip to fakie in Fullers video I couldn’t help but notice that my foot looks like it wants more board to dig into. Then it was seeing this wallie that Neil grammed and my trucks look so small compared to my feet. But rather then run to the store and waste money as I have in the past I grabbed an old setup (with Ace trucks instead of Thunders) and went in front of the house to see if I could flip it. The point is to skate this board for a week and if I like it still I can get Venture wides and maybe setup a new board that hasn’t been sitting around for over a year. Oh, and per my last post I had no desire to even put those Lakais on again. Instead I went with a pair of the Stratfords I had initially wanted to keep as chill/tennis/comfy shoes. Those shoes are so good. Grip better, feel the board better, are actually comfy, etc. Argh. Anyways, I had woke up with a really stiff and painful neck and didn’t have much intention of actually skating. But I am too stubborn not to. Kickflips felt great. I did a few more flippers and even landed on a 3 flip before deciding I was content with the setup and set off for Denver to hit 303 and maybe skate a little with Chad. After 303 I met Chad at his house and we skated over to the trio of sick spots within throwing distance from his place. We started with the 3 up 3 down. But I didn’t have that much energy. We dorked around on the parking blocks behind the building for awhile. I got a slappy crooks and Chad did slappy front slash. Next we went to the 2 up 4 down area and just kinda messed around. Chad manualed around it. I almost no complied up the 2. Then I tried to front board this little ledge, hung up and slammed hard, somehow not hurting my neck. I felt pretty sick after that so we called it a day. Chad rules.

After a 303 mission Matt and I skated a couple blocks away from the ‘only spot in denver’. We hit the curved ledge mostly. Matt front tailed it real quick. By the end he added back tails, 50s both ways and front 5-0 too. Chadman met up with us pretty much right away. He was more cruising all over the place. I had new shoes and a new board.

Lakai Guy XLKs and the board I setup was 8.1 instead of 8.0. It shouldn’t make a difference, but coupled with the new shoes it became apparent on my first noseslide attempt where I ran into the bench that I would be skating like total shit all night. Ugh. I got a crappy front nose to fakie, tiny crooks jib and failed and front 50s. We moved on by bombing a hill that Nate and I used to do all the time. With my new wheels I did a foot drag once to slow down a little. Doh. It was still fun though. We got booted from the world trade tower right away. Booted from First Bank pretty quick. I was skating so bad I didn’t even ollie the little marble gap.

Next we ended up at this weird blue ledge / bank spot. Chad did some cool f/s pivots and stuff on it. Matt noseslid and crooked it. I was unable to jib it like Chad due to lack of any coordination on my board. Matt got a sick front board to fakie into the bank. Chad taught us fakie bonelesses although I don’t think I actually rode away from one. I finally landed a couple tricks with kickflip fakie, b/s and f/s flips on the little bank. We cruised around and after Matt ollied a long five stair while being beamed by security we ended up at Civic. I was pretty exhausted and unmotivated by then. I think we all were. Chad tried to manual the whole thing (photo above) but didn’t make it. That was pretty much it. Good weather, good crew, but man I couldn’t ride my skateboard and it was depressing. Especially because my knees didn’t even hurt much for the first time in awhile.

After a very late night at the Old man jam at Launch and then a full day of work I stopped by the “rollerblade” skatepark that’s right by IBM. I was motivated to try flip tricks by Pat’s BATB 7 entry. It was cold and windy and I had new shoes. Another pair of the NB+ Stratfords. It’s nice not changing shoes every pair anymore. There were two young kids there. One was super obnoxious and annoying, the other other was chill and nice. One had a skateboard and one had a scooter. It should be pretty easy to figure out which was which. Anyways it became pretty clear that I was too tired/sore to skate worth a shit right away. But my stubbornness is strong and I kept at it, skated slow, did 10 flip tricks, ollied the flat bar, front 50’d the ledge and called it.

What happened to that new Suciu deck you ask? Well now that’s quite embarrassing. Monday morning I was getting ready for work and could not find my work badge and could not find it anywhere. Somehow this pisses me off more then almost anything and I was looking under my dresser when my board (which leans against the side of the dresser) fell on my shoeless foot. Ouch. My reaction was a quick kick to the middle of the board. Snap. That did not help my temper fit. In all honesty though I cannot believe that board broke. I didn’t even have a shoe on and didn’t put much into it. So much for that hemp layer making it strong. Oh well, back to Null! I had also worn a hole threw my previous Stratfords so it was time for some new ones. These were 10.5 instead of 11 as the 11s seem slightly big. I set up an 8″ instead of 8.1 this time. Well, actually my debate this time was to setup a 7.875 because Generator shipped 7.875s instead of 7.75s and I used to love 7.875 (I just managed to say 7.875 three times in one sentence!). Luckily I held off for now and stuck with 8″.

I have become such a recluse. Rather then invite others over to skate I just wanted to go out solo and try a lot of flatground tricks too. I had a couple good warm up runs and great first few kickflips. The 8″ board actually felt quite a bit smaller and I was happy about that. I tried a few crooks and boardslides on the ramp before laying into the flatground for awhile. I got to heelflip and did another accidental 3/4 flip to primo. Only this time I didn’t bail off, but landed it perfect. Ha, that made me laugh quite a bit. I was 4/5 on treflips. Struggled with b/s flips, f/s flips. Felt close to nollie flips, nowhere near switch heels, nowhere near inward heels, front heels. I definitely would have rather been skating outside somewhere with room. Last thing I did was try an alley oop fakie back 50 to fakie which I would eventually get and call it a night. That might be a new one.