Another fun morning that started watching Ollie’s flag football game. I had some minor food poisoning the night before so was feeling pretty exhausted and drained. Showed up late for Skateshop appreciation day, but managed to still have fun. I basically just skated the tiny qp at the top of the park with Derek, Jack and Carleigh for awhile, then “judged” people jump down the rail/stairs (Yeah Jack!) and on the 13 foot qp.

Then we went to this awesome spot. There are five levels each with the same size ledge/drop between them.

Some had stuff down them, some didn’t.

We stayed here a really long time. The crew was pretty big. Fuzz, Jack, Carleigh, Blaine, Justin, James, Rho, Neil and Chase. Carleigh took quite a few awesome photos here. I’ll mostly just talk about the older crew because listing everything is already an impossible task. Justin filmed a rad line. James rips, slams hard and did a front tail 270 shove down the metal shelf ledge. Jack slammed hard several times right out of the gate so made the wise choice to show some restraint and just chill. I should mention that Jack and I were twins for the day as we both had JAM shirts on and Null 10 year decks. We’re cute like that. Neil skated way longer then his normal 20 minute max. 50s down the metal box, crooks shove on the ledge, halfcab up like it was nothing, lipslides. John went to work on a line pretty quickly and spent most of his time working on it. Front 180 up, fakie flip on flat then front shove front noseslide to fakie. So sick! Fuzz ripped it. Front 180 up, sw 180 a little hole, nollie front tail. Back 180 up, back 50 up the metal ledge, back 50 front 180 out up the metal ledge, fakie nosegrind 180, fakie 50 halfcab out on the ledge. Yeah, killed it. Carleigh skated a long time. I saw some kickflips and front 50s early on then she tried back hurricanes for a long time. I’m not sure how many total she got, but I saw at least one make. So sick. That is not a trick I’ve seen done on regular ledges too many times. Or ever. Rho is Crisis’ newest team prospect and the kid rips! Back 180 nosegrind down the metal shelf, front noseslide up, back crooks up and down, back smith up. Full on shralping. I felt like I was struggling initially, but after getting a kickflip up one of the levels I started to have the time of my life. First line I got was kickflip up, front 5-0 shove then front shove off. Another was kickflip up front 50 front 180 out, halfcab flip on flat then kickflip off. Front 180 up, halfcab flip on flat, front 50 back 180 out (so bad) then a slow and not popped fakie bigpin down. Tried some more lines, but didn’t really combine them til later. Did a few crooks, back 50s, front 50 to front board, some bad kickflip back 50s (almost locked into 5-0 on a few). Near the end I went up top then kickflipped down all 4 in a row. This was probably the highlight for me. No the kickflips weren’t gnarly at all, but to do 4 kickflips down something in a row first try felt amazing. At one point I ollied a little shopping cart on it’s side as I couldn’t get the courage to try ollieing over the couch. Last thing I did was a line of front 5-0 , boardslide down the metal shelf ledge and finally kickflip the next drop. I had cracked my tail previously on a kickflip down (and somehow everyone else but me knew that? ha) and that kickflipped finished off the tail. I gave my board to Jack to have him take out his frustrations with the spot and he put it out of it’s misery. What a fun spot. Not sure it could every be as fun again, but man for this session it was amazing. I guess I like the cupsoles and I wasn’t very sore after all that. After we had a nice dinner at the Dark Horse then did some beer drinking at the Outback to celebrate Jason’s girfriend Lindy turning 30. Happy Birthday!

The Thermals are a special band. A band that realizes their niche and keeps at it. John and I both love the new album and headed down the Bluebird on a nice Saturday night. Things were off to a good start when I found a parking spot directly across the street. We missed the first band. The Builders And The Butchers were the first band we saw. At first I thought they might be pretty good and it seemed like they had quite a few people there to see them. Instead after a few songs John and I were both over it. I don’t even know what you would call their style of music. Some type of loud folk music that had us looking at our phones to see how much longer they would play. I’ll give them credit for entertaining drummers though. Yes, plural.

The Thermals came out and went right into two great fuzzy lofi songs off the new album quickly making us forget about that previous band. They went on to play several songs from their latest album, a lot from Blood Body and a good mix of the rest. The songs were all played loud and fast. The band was as tight as I’ve ever seen. This is the first time I’ve seen the current drummer and well, he’s hilarious. At one point he stage dived into the crowd. I’m sure some hipsters frowned on him showing his excitement, but for me it’s part of the nerdy attraction of The Thermals. They are good people, play simple music well and have fun on stage. It’s awesome and so was their set.

Met Dave at Sol prior to getting picked up in the Square State Skate bus. Rather then just wait we skated this little dork spot behind 7-11. Basically put a couple plastic soda crates and did slappy tailslides. They were fun though. Then we skated the Sol ramp for while. Flatground initially. I had most of my flippers except for heelflips which appear to be totally gone. Dave started “skating the vert” (Sol ramp inside joke due to kids that only skate flat calling the ramp a vert ramp) and did some sick fakie ollies and nollies. I tried a few too and did some weak ones. Everyone showed and we were off in the bus with an awesome crew. Dave, Rob, Ric, Brian, Wade, John and myself. After a stop at MRKT and a burrito we showed up at Launch. It was pretty crowded for me. I tried to skate, but couldn’t do a damn thing. Everyone else was ripping. I saw Rob and John skating flat and joined them where we skated for quite awhile. I got most of my flippers, John too. We also skated the wallride for awhile. I haven’t seen Rob miss a kickflip since he’s been back.

Finally went back up onto the ramp and things went much better for me. Got some runs with a few tricks in them. Front disasters, scratch grind reverts, a first try front 50 (the trick I was most hyped on) a little grind around the corner and tried front feebs. Ric was ripping the way he always does. Super inside slashers and crazy lines. Brian can do one million tricks and he did them all. Loved the front 5-0s into the corner, the front pivots fakie, the halfcab rock reverts and all of it. And he finally rock creeked a blunt to fakie and kind of hung up! rob was flying around the corners with his narrow feet stance. Solid front slashes and got a few long back 50s. Wade carves around that thing so awesome. John has amazing backside ollies and a ton of revert tricks. Loved the blunt to back smith attempts where he was just stuck on the coping in a weird position. Some great runs though. Fullertron was in full effect. He did some “aerials” as shown in the mute above (photos by Brian) and straight up killed the ramp. So many tricks it’s impossible to list. Andy was there and skates the ramp like he owns it. He does. Ha. Kickflip pivot? Yeap. Some other dudes where there ripping and the whole vibe was awesome. As Brian pointed out I don’t think we even made the top 5 in the oldest category. They need to change it to over 40 night!

Last, but not least a curb session ended the night. Lots of no comply variations and tricks over. Andy had front shove (above) first try. I got a backside flip which might be my first one over anything. John had no comply 180. Brian had a sick impossible on flat. I don’t even know, it was just awesome. People were doing tricks over it and it would get the same amount of cheers as just running into the curb. Such a fun vibe, session and experience.

Met up with Jake and Dave at Dave’s ramp after work on a nice afternoon that was threatening rain. Jake and Dave had already skated for awhile so that’s my excuse for how quickly they were ripping. It was crazy though. Jake did pivot fakie on the parking block side first try, back blunt maybe first try too. Dave did a lot of back tails and other tricks that aren’t supposed to be easy. Jake wanted to do his tallest front blunt to date and he did. Twice. Nuts. I skated ok. Did a few of my basics and almost got hurricane on the parking block side before the ramp became to slippery with rain.

We chilled for awhile then Jake and I left for Boulder, but decided to stop at the “rollerblade park” on the way. We ended up having a total blast. I struggled initially as I’m still adjusting to cupsoles, but man the quad pain is almost gone. Crazy. Guess I’ll be stuck on cupsoles for awhile. We mostly lined stuff out starting at a flat bar, a ledge trick, a bank trick, back, etc. Jake had some good ones quick. Front lip, front 50. Front board, front 50. I struggled with halfcab boardslide, but eventually got some bad ones and followed with front 50 then back crooks coming the other way. If I messed up I would try other tricks. Did one of the best fakie flips I’ve ever done on a bank. Posted up on crooks rather then just the little jib. Jake got a sick line of tailblock the crappy qp between the flatbars, hippy jump a flat bar, front tailslide. I went for ollie over a flat bar then 360 flip on flat then front 5-0. Never got a treflip. Jake did ollie onto the tall ledge then chinese nollie off. I managed to get up there with some accidental wallie action. Ended with a front 5-0 on the ledge. That park is fun.

Feeling the effects of not much sleep and some depression from Crouton dieing over night I headed to campus. It was super nice out in the mid 70s. I just kind of went around ended up here.

I did a couple manuals and kickflips then went up for a wallride on the jersey barrier. Ended up doing a fun line with wallride, nose manny, then ollie the box that was randomly laying in the parking lot. You like the blurry ride by picture of the box that implies some type of speed was involved? Don’t worry, I didn’t skate fast. Anyways, I did that line a few times (almost added a kickflilp manny at the end) then lined it out even further starting at the top photo. Ollie onto it, front 180 off, halfcab flip on flat, wallride (thinking of the super sick one that PJ does), nose manny, ollie the box and bail a kickflip manual. I moved on.

Tried front boarding the rail for quite awhile. To get speed for the rail you have to start on the ledge and turn right after the bike rack. With the students gone this spot is skateable again. The first time I ollied onto the ledge was funny. I put my front wheels right in the crack or something and I jumped down into the bush. I never got too close to the front baord. But I did commit a time or two. I eventually just got tired and walked around looking for new stuff, but just saw a pretty sunset instead.

Then I headed back to the car pushing switch most of the way. I was kind of amazed at how natural it felt at times. Obviously I still had a few of those straight-legged-beginner-longboarder-looking pushes, but some felt great. I didn’t skate very good or have much drive, but it felt nice to get out in the warm weather. RIP Crouton!

Our family is saddened by the passing of our wonderful cat Crouton. He was three weeks away from his 19th birthday. This cat saw Liz and I turn into a family and was always a bundle of joy. He was such an amazing cat that converted me from a dog lover to a cat lover. He was great with the kids when they were young and chose to sleep next to Ollie for the last few years. He will be missed dearly by our family and anyone at our house with a lap. Ha.

After a long day of watching Ollie play flag football then playing basketball with Ollie I was able to tempt him with skateboarding at Red Curbs since it was raining. But by the time we left it was sunny and dry so we ended up at Valmont area. I had some new shoes. Well, some really old shoes that I’ve worn to work for a year or so. Some Fallen James Hardy Ramblers. I can’t even find a photo of them online anymore. My Lakai’s weren’t dead and I might skate them again, but I had forgotten I needed to shoe goo them again and it was too late to fix them up before skating. Right out of the gates I could tell these shoes sucked. They are fake vulcs and gum sole and they were slippery. Kickflips were weird. We started at this bank area:

Ollie had fun doing body varials and did the best frontside ollie(s) ever. Basically went for a frontside ollie, but didn’t really ollie, stopped, then popped an actual ollie and laughed. Ollie rules. I managed kickflip to fakie, backside flip, fakie flip. Then a line with front 180 over a little curb gap, switch front 180 off a curb, ollie a tiny median, frontside flip on the bank. Then a varial flip fakie and a front shove fakie. Ollie did a few body varials and fakie shove attempts where he rode up normal then body varialed, came to a halt and tried to fakie shove. So awesome.

Next we went over here. Do a trick into this bank, a flatground trick then something on this bank:

Ollie was doing awesome cannonball runs down it, then going for 360 body varial on the bank. He never quite got that. I was going for no comply 180 into the top bank, halfcab flip on flat then nollie tre on the other bank. The halfcab flip proved hard as I kept slipping off the darn grip. Argh. Got kind of close to the whole line.

Last up was this area. In the distance you can see Ollie. He did ollies down the 2 then 180s off the curb. The best front 180s I’ve seen him do. He also did the ollie off the loading dock at the top of this page. I ollied up that before. Crazy. Definitely couldn’t do it now. I had a little line of front 180 the 2, sw 180 the curb. Ollie cheered as he always does when anyone lands anything. The kid is awesome. I started trying a line of nose manual the slanted manny pad, ollie up onto the sidewalk then kickflip the 2. Well that ended up sucking. The nose mannies were easy. The kickflip ended up being easy. But that whole ollie’ing up a sidewalk backside was not. One time I hung up and dove into the bushes and pillar. Ouch. I ended up doing a weird 90 degree ollie to tic tac and got the line. Perhaps I can blame some of it on the new(old) shoes, but man not being able to ollie up a curb hurts. But skating with Ollie was awesome and seeing his goofy kid tricks after pushing mongo puts a smile on my face.

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.

Skated across the street on the curbs at the school for a bit. Did some 50s. That was about it. Felt like dook on a skateboard.

Finally, a spring feeling night in the 50s with some light rain. Went to red curbs to meet Rob. I arrived first and did a few laps around to warm up and could tell it would be a tough night for skating. Rob showed though and things got better. We mostly skated the non-red curb that’s waxed up all good now (above). Rob had some good nollie lips and was going for nollie lip to front 50. Came close. I had a few front lips and wanted to learn boardslides to fakie. I got a couple, but they weren’t popped out right. Hucked some kick back lips and got somewhat close. Definitely want to keep trying that one. Rob was also trying nollie 50s and nollie 5-0s and killing some long back 50s. I wanted to do a line of fakie flip, switch ollie onto the little sidewalk by the door to the building, switch 180 off the curb, lipslide, but I couldn’t get the switch ollie up the curb. I haven’t even tried a switch ollie in so long. No idea why I was trying it, but I was. I didn’t land much for flip tricks either. I ended after a pretty good slam on a slappy front tail. Red curbs ist rad.