skate journal: brief spurt of awesomeness in the Springs (April 22, 2011)
Carleigh and I rolled to CO Springs to meet up with Bernie, Sam, Mikey and Derek. After hitting Proper we went and met up with the dudes at a somewhat famous rail. Derek was the only one to get on it even with a boardslide. Pretty gnarly spot. The rest of us just kinda skated around. I did a dumb run of front smith stall on a wood ledge, followed by a nosestall on a ledge, then ollie a 4 stair then back 180 right away over a crack in the sidewalk. After some driving around we decided to just skate around downtown Springs. Not a whole lot went down for awhile. We ended up at the City Hall or something which had a nice ledge down a 5 stair. Mikey was able to nose manual it, Derek back 50’d it. I tried to noseslide it. But it felt like it was time to move on. We ended up at a downtown park with this bank:
Bernie and I skated while others investigated the nearby spots. I beat Bernie to a back smith, front rock, but he did ollie up to front 50 like it was nothing to prove he is better. Ha. We had fun though. The front slash above was super fun. Sometimes doing a basic trick first try feels the best. I didn’t go much beyond this. Mikey kinda killed it. Blunt to pivot, nosepick. Derek did front blunt easy, back disaster, almost pivot fakie. Then we took a long skate back to the car. On the way the funnest thing I did was a wallride on a jersey barrier.
Next we went to a school we had peeped earlier. It was basically a long three stair where each step was about 3 feet long and about 40 feet long and curved. It looked insanely fun and we (at least I) had a blast. Bernie and Derek kinda messed around and did some sick manual tricks from one stair up to the next and back down etc. Bernie did manual kickflip up to the next level and almost fakie manual up to fakie nose manual which would have been of the chains. There were gaps off the second and third levels. Carleigh did a front 180 off the second one into the parking lot. Mike almost nollie nose mannied the lower level and slammed a lot trying flippers off the second level. I kinda somehow found the drive and skated about as well as I could. After I got kickflip up the first then manual the second in only a couple tries I had a lot to work with. Coming the other way I wallied up to the second level, kickflipped on flat then back 180’d the gap to the parking lot. Coming the other way I got kickflip up the first level, ollie up on, ollie up one, front 180 off the 3rd level. And the line I worked up to which made me so happy was wallie up the two, kickflip up onto the third then ollie to axle stall the curb into the parking lot. It was one of the best feeling lines I’ve ever done. Not only was every trick good for me, but I did them good and I seemed to have a fluid motion throughout. The wallie up felt super good. Popped above the ledge and floaty feeling. Seriously felt awesome. One of my favorite lines I’ve ever done. Next we went to the dream spot bank school where I failed at back 50s and Bernie failed at kickflip front 50s. Derek had fun playing Bball skate. Mikey had a nice front blunt. After filming we played a loose game of flat bank SKATE that deteriorated into a game of HORSE with a flat basketball that Bernie won. Then was dinner. Fun day. Had a blast at that 3 stair spot. Still hate that board though. On the way home Mikey joined a very tired Carleigh and a slightly intoxicated me for a Pissed Jeans music fest on the way home. I obviously loved it. That band is the best.
