skate journal: Red Curbs with Ollie and John (March 14, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on March 15th, 2010 by corpo

60 and sunny the day before.  30 and snowing today.  Argh.  After India’s ballet recital then lunch with my parent’s Ollie and I went to Red Curbs.  This was after I was sitting on the couch watching the Sasquatch video (so good!) and Ollie said, “Well, do you want to watch skateboarding or actually go do it?”  Wow, I got called out by my son.   As we were getting out of the car John rolled up on his bike.  Rad.  Ollie cruized around while John and I mainly skated the curbs.  John was trying to get back 50s and front tails.  Kinda funny that a dude that can bigspin front nose a ledge every try doesn’t have those two.  I think he got them eventually.  I got a couple back 50s too and actually tried back 5-0’s unsuccessfully.  I also tried a bunch of front crooks, but go no where close.  Kick back tails were pretty on though.  Got the first try and a few more bad ones throughout the session.  I really hope to learn them where I actually slide some day.  Or maybe even a shove out.  I’m dreaming now.  We skated the manny pad for awhile too.  I didn’t really land anything while John was there.  Not sure what he got either, but he ended up taking off as he was getting mad calls from “Wifey”.  Ollie and I kept skating.  He was charging it.  Cruising around trying to manual through puddles, ollie puddles, slappy the curb, ollie off.  He piled up some rocks after a curb and ollied a few of them.  He was hyped.  He came close to a halfcab off the curb.  After John left I kinda lined it out more.  One line I got was nose manual, ollie the rock, 360 flip (horrible).  Another one I got was front shove, ollie a puddle, then kickflip manual.  So stoked on that.  I’ve never done that long of a kickflip manny before and yes I know that’s not even long.  Ollie did a trick that only a kid could do.  Front cali grind to front board to fakie.  It was so sick.  It started as an accident when his front wheels didn’t lock into a cali grind, but he started trying it intentionally.  It was so sick.  Took him about 20 tries and it was rad seeing him actually work on a trick.  Toward the end I was trying a line of ollie over a box then kick back tail.  I think I got it.  Then I made the box taller and definitely didn’t get that.   I tried about of crooks on the ledge.  I tried to do real crooks instead of my standard noseslide jib and got a couple real ones.  I left completely exhausted.Oh yeah, early in the morning I went to the Boulder park with Jake.  Not to skate, but to take some photos of him so he could show his family.  I took a couple warm up runs, but that was it.  In the mini bowl I only really did axle stalls.

skate journal: bank curb spot with Ollies and his friends, then CU with Jake (March 13, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on March 15th, 2010 by corpo

After such a good day of skateboarding the night before I figured I was doomed.  I was in charge of Ollie and his friend Sam and they wanted to go skating.  Perfect!  The weather was awesome too.  The first 60 degree day in forever.  My parents said we actually broke a record for the longest time ever between 60 degree days.  Some 100+ days.  Ridiculous.   I figured I’d take them to the bank/curb spot near Mikes Camera.  Ollie ended up inviting more of his friends so I ended up bringing 4 mongo pushing kids to the spot.  Ha.  I ended up not sucking like I expected and skated hard while making sure none of the kids were hurt or anything.  After messing around for awhile I settled in trying manuals into stall tricks on the sidewalk section of it.  This ended up being super hard, but really fun for me.  I came really close to manual to front tail, but then started going to b/s tricks as it was just easier that way.  I got manuals into axle stall, pivot and nose pick.  It’s too mellow to manual back easily so I would try a slow trick like a no comply boneless or whatever it is that Neil does so good.  Ollie was ripping.  Frontside and backside carves around the parking blocks like it was nothing, ollieing into the bank and trying body varials out of the bank.  At the end he almost got frontside grinds while carving over a block, but asphalt doesn’t grind to good.  That would have been so sick.   Cooper ollied the two stair pretty easily and eventually did some good carves too.  Quin and Sam were cruising around and having fun too.  After awhile I tried a run of ollie the angled manny pad then try to ollie up the awkward two stair.  I was struggling with that so moved on to trying front 180 nose manuals then the ollie up the two.  Never got that either, but eventually got the ollie up the two and was hyped I landed so many 180 nose manuals.  Fun session to start the day.  Had to get Quin and Cooper back home for baseball practice so we bolted.Later on I met up with Jake and we went to skate campus.  We started up near Meta and agreed on skating the wallride spot which is halfway across campus.  Jake took off b-lining it for the wallride spot.  I took my time cracking ollies over sidewalk sections, doing some kickflips, manuals, etc just trying to get warmed up.  At the wallride spot Jake landed like the first 5 wallrides he tried.  Sick!  The normal Glen was back.  Aka the one that doesn’t land anything.  Ugh.  The wallride took several tries and I couldn’t get any flippers to line it out.  I did manage a good manual along the sidewalk though and ollied over the really low manny pad.  Hyped on that because it was terrifying to me.We agreed on the banked manny pad next.  On the way I ollied the 4 stair and posed a couple flippers over some sidewalk cracks, but bailed.  Oh well.  The manny pad was pretty dirty as it must have had snow on it for the last few weeks or even months the way this winter has been.  I was pretty grouchy at this point of the session for some reason.  I guess just being tired and not landing tricks like the day before.  Oh well.  Jake laid down the best tre I’ve seen him do in the parking lot there.  I kind of ollied a trash bag of shredded paper, almost mannied down the manny pad, posed some hardflips and took several tries to land a sw front 180 into the manny pad.We started heading back toward the car since Jake didn’t have long and stopped at the student center.  I ollied down the 4 first try then watched Jake try to ollie up the 4.  So sick.  He came really close, but never rolled away.  Next we hit up the building with the new tiny banked curbs and other stuff.  Jake made fun of me for not knowing what building it was.  The Economics building!  Ok I got it.  It was never a skate spot before so how would I know?  ha.  I’ve wanted to do the drop down then ollie back up then big drop that I saw Jack do in his sleep a year ago.  It took me several tries and Jake telling me I owed him gummy bears if I didn’t do it to finally get it.  As ugly as I did it I was hyped to finally do it.  It was really scary for me to ollie onto a narrow ledge that has a 5 foot drop on one side and 3 foot on the other.  On the way out I ollied the  gap into the banked curb and then the ol bench to bikepath gap.  Decent session.  Sorry if I was grouchy Jake.

skate journal: CSU with Carleigh, Jake, Sean and Mike (March 12, 2010)

Posted in Skate Journal on March 15th, 2010 by corpo

Brought boards up to MRKT after work and invited a crew to skate campus after since it was so nice out.  Carleigh and Jake signed up for the session.  After selling boards we rolled into campus and were quickly exposed to this.  Pretty creepy.  After that we headed out to the Clark building area.  The first spot we sessioned was the hip there.  It was dark and crack ridden, but we skated it for awhile anyway.  I was feeling pretty good for once and had energy.  With the exception of front shoves, tricks came surprisingly easy.  Kickflip, b/s flip a first ever halfcab flip over a hip, sw front 180.  The b/s flip felt great.  It was slow and small, but I landed without my normal tic tacs and it came quickly.  The front shove took the longest.  I even took a few tries to huck big flips without getting remotely close.  Carleigh got pop shove the hard way first try, front 180 to crack slam, and started her unsuccessful night of kickflips.  Jake came close to front 270s and got a kickflip or two.I posed a couple ollies down the 5 stair into the bank and told Carleigh if she did it first try I would do it too.  She went for it, but slammed pretty hard.  Luckily the light shut off and none of us had to huck down it anymore.  Then we went to the 3 stair area where Sean and Mike met up with us.  We tried various lines up and down the stairs.  I got an ollie up 3, front 180 off.  I made a couple week attempts at ollie up 3 then quickly ollie up the next 3.  Nope.  I also failed at ollie’ing off the ledge over a trash can.  Oh well.  We all ollied down the 3 to quick ollie down the next 3 which was scary because of how close they are to each other.  Carlie and Jake then added front 180s to that.  Sean had some sick fakie ollies down the 3 and Mike back 180’d up.  After a quick ollie to wallride fakie on this weird metal art we ended up at a short white ledge.  Sean and I got no complies over it.  Carleigh came close to kickflipping over it.  Mike back 180’d it.  I also did a fun little cali grind slasher thing on it.Next up we went to the manny pad that Chadman does the ender for the Flow section in Null and Void.  I couldn’t seem to land a manual to save my life so I went for nose manny and did it first try.  Rad.  I eventually got a regular manual then tried a bunch of manny drop to manny.  Came super close to that, but had some minor tail scrapes.  I tried to be cool and hit it the other way too, but my feet aren’t quick and I could only do ollie up ollie up.  Carleigh got a manual and Sean came close to front 180 nose manual.Nearby is the ol’ bridge kicker so we hit that up.  It’s lit super good at night.  I was feeling really good with lots of energy still and went for kickflip right out of the gate.  I was going faster than my normal comfort zone, but still went for it first try and landed it.  Felt amazing.  Three tries later I rolled away from 360 flip.  First try pop shove.  A few tries for a bad backside flip and I’m already content with the spot.  What a rare feeling for me.  I almost never land tricks quickly.  I tried some fakie tricks, but suck at pushing switch/fakie mongo so couldn’t get the speed.  Front shoves took awhile again, but I eventually got a bad one.  Mike put down a few nice front shoves and a mean fakie f/s bigspin.  Sean was rattling off tricks too.  One foot, no comply, half cab and more that I can’t remember.  Jake got kickflip and tried quite a bit more.  I don’t remember what all he got, but fakie flips wrecked him and he called it quits.  Carleigh was in a battle with kickflips.  She took a quick break for an easy pop shove, but was eating shit on almost every kickflip attempt.  Ouch.  Sean shut down the session with a b/s 360 no comply.  Rad.  Super fun session.  Some of the best I’ve felt on a skateboard.