skate journal: Niwot High with TF (July 29, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 31st, 2011 by corpo

Kind of a late start and lots of driving around to pick everyone up, but Rob, Carleigh, Jake and I met up with Fuzz at Niwot High around the time the sun was setting. We all did our own thing cruising around warming up for awhile. I did some back noseslides, kickflips, short crooks, back back 50s, a bad treflip and some other randomness. Fuzz killed some back 50s regardless of how many times he shook his head after. He was trying some to back boardslide and I think he got a couple. Jake keeps getting better. Back 50s, front lips, back noseslides, front 50s, front 50 to front board. Carleigh was recovering from happy hour party mode and ripped her hand open again. Ugh, that blows. Rob was ripping, but having troubles with one of his staples, front tailslides. I forget what trick he did, but Fuzz and I were super hyped. Oh yeah the funniest thing that happened was when we were all lined up by the door at the bottom and Carleigh goes to push off and got about one push before hitting a rock and going down. So funny. It got kinda dark so we skated one of the taller ledges that was lit well. Rob did a bunch of front board pop outs he wasn’t happy with, but were still sick. Fuzz tried ollie up front 360 off, got close, but almost tweeked his knee so sat down. Jake and I went for ollie up kickflip off. It took us a bit. I landed on a bunch of them, but only rode away from two initially and they were both super bad. Jake got a good one. I added a couple poorly landed front shoves. It would seem that every trick I land now is landed with both hands down. Ugh. At the end I redeemed myself in my head though. I got ollie up, kickflip on top of the ledge (so scary!), then kickflip off (this one was landed clean). Super hyped on that. Then I ended up playing a game of SKATE with Rob and Jake. I rode Fuzz’s board since he’s on the 8.25 program now too and I might want to join that club. Oh, did you hear Fuzz is riding Thunder’s now? Yeah. Totally broh. And he’s digging them. So yeah, I had a good excuse with the big board. It was a pretty long game with some good tricks and we had fun. In the end Jake took it with a fakie front bigspin. “Totally lame trick!” Ha. Fun night even though i couldn’t seem to ollie up to frontside grind at all.

skate journal: valmont with carleigh (July 28, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 31st, 2011 by corpo

Was super tired after my first day back at work then some tough conversations with my mom. Ugh. I feel so bad for her. I did manage to go skating for a bit though and Carleigh joined. We played a warm up game of SKATE where I started off really bad then came back and made sure a girl didn’t beat me. Ha, just kidding of course. Carleigh, you gotta get those fakie bigspins or your gonna get a letter every game! I landed a few crooks on the ledge and some back 50s. Backed up a couple with treflips. Tried front tails for a long time and got a super lame one. Carleigh mostly skated flat for awhile. We tried lines of ollie a crack gap then trick on the ledge. She got noseslide. I didn’t get front 50. Doh. I put some 2x4s on the cracks to make the crack gap feel bigger. It felt a lot bigger. We both ended up getting it though. I was so tired on the drive home I almost fell asleep. Doh.

skate journal: solo campus exhaustion (July 27, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 29th, 2011 by corpo

After two nights of camping with thunderstorms and a daughter that is terrified of lightning, a 22 mile kayak ride down the Niobrara River a six hour drive home and Carhenge I went for a quick skate before picking up some things at the grocery store. I was literally so tired I could not speak a complete sentence to Liz before I left. It had rained a bunch and everyone else was at yellow curbs. But I only had a few minutes (and I was tired!) so I left thinking I would probably go to red curbs, but it ended up being dry a few blocks away (typical colorado) so I went to the hardest place to skate around, campus. And I skated some really dumb stuff that was way harder than it should be. First place was that perfect parking lot with the 1 up 3 down manny pad. I did a super dumb line of manual, ollie up onto the somewhat narrow sidewalk, olllie a tiny gap then kickflip off the curb. All the cracks and my exhuastion made it so much harder than it should have been, but I did it. Then I cruised down the hill and did some fun powerslides on the way to the curved two stair area that I’m pretty sure I’m the only one that has ever skated it. I took a long time to get ollie up one, ollie up the next, front 180 both. The quick up was hard. I tried just ollieing up both in one ollie, but I’m not gifted in the ollie department. Especially when I’m tired. Last thing was 10 flip tricks before I could go to the car. Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, heelflip, 360 flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip (took forever), b/s flip, fakie varial flip and fakie bigflip. Time for sleep!

skate journal: Omaha suburb bank spots (July 24, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 29th, 2011 by corpo

After a long day of heat playing mini golf and other family filled fun I met Matt, Joe, Dan and the rest of Fremont at Dan’s place. We went to a bank spot to start it.

This place was pretty cool. The bank gets taller further down. On top of a fun session that was going Drew met up with us! So stoked to see that dude again. He’s still the same genuinely nice ripper he has always been. We had a fun session. I almost got a wallride, but am not Neil. Drew got a floaty jibby one on the front wheels. Joe and I got back to back tricks on the bank (joe front shove, me kickflip) and some other neatness went down. No one quite got an axle stall on a narrow edge of the cinder block.

We went to a double bank spot after that. It was pretty sick too, but kind of awkward to skate. I don’t remember much going down, but that spot has lots of potential for sure. Next up we went yet another bank spot. This one Drew knew about. This spot is sick! There was a truck on one of the banks which took away from it, but we still had a blast. I may have flatspotted some supers for the first time ever doing a back 50 to fakie, but I slid down the rough concrete sideways the whole way down. It’s not enough to notice in the streets though. Drew ripped it. Front 50, alley oop front 50 and maybe front 5-0 on the yellow bar. Whoa. Man I can’t remember much more here. I know pretty much everyone did back smiths. Joe and I had fun ollieing into the mellow bank to start our “runs”. Matt almost got noseslide on the yellow bar. Dan and Cory manualled between the banks. At the very end Joe made us ollie the middle part of the bank. He did it easy. I didn’t because I’m a pansy on gaps. We were rushed out of there by rain drops and some gnarly spinning clouds that didn’t amount to anything. Good skating though.

Oh yeah, I had new shoes in effect:

Another pair of es edgar’s. This time in gray.

skate journal: Motive Skateshop opening party and Fremont skating (July 23, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 29th, 2011 by corpo

Man, I’m not even going to pretend I will be able to remember everything that happened almost a week ago. But the family was in Omaha to visit Liz’s parents and it worked out that Matt, Joe, Dan (aka three of the best dudes on the planet) were having a grand opening party for their new skate shop Motive. I brought along Ollie who is still pretty into skating again and he knew he could score a shirt or something.

Lucky kid scored a shirt and hat. After mingling for awhile and eating some free Zesto’s (yum!) we went to Fremont’s most famous spot, Linden. The 30 foot long angle iron ledge that is about 8″ tall. You might remember this from my Busenitz line in Off The Couch. Since it was a Grand Opening party everyone in Fremont joined. Dan was there doing about one million manual tricks including original tricks like manual to front 180 into disaster on the end of the manual pad. Ridiculous! A bunch of other dudes in DGK shirts and basketball shirts were there too skating the little gap off the ledge. Some neat flippers went down. Ollie was shy with the big crowd so just cruised around on the outskirts doing 180s (all 4 non-switch or nollie variations), shove its and ollies. He rules. I basically just tried front 5-0 kickflips out the whole time and didn’t get very close at all. Doh, if any ledge was perfect for that trick, Linden is it.

Next we went to the Fremont park. A miniramp session started it. Everyone seemed to skate it pretty good. One dude did back tail kickflip out, switch blunt nollie flip out and some other tech tricks. I slammed pretty good trying a fakie pivot and my foot came off and I tried to put it back and pull it off. Nope. Ollie was cruising around the park doing back 180s out of the flat bank. Dan and I went on to play the longest game of SKATE ever in which I believe he won with a nollie bigspin late heelflip. Seriously. Ollie did a body varial out of the side of a flat bank that was so insanely sick that Dan and I were in disbelief for awhile. He was just messing around and did it first try. Lucky kid.

Skate journal: hill bomb at the in laws (liz’s birthday)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 25th, 2011 by corpo

Had about 5 skate minutes to skate so ran to the top of Liz’s parents hill and pointed it.  I’ve done this hill before but wow I almost went down.  Two things have changed since the last time I did it.  First, the concrete was redone on half of it.  Second the super nullethanes are way faster than the old null wheels.  Man it was scary.  I ended up foot dragging once.  So when I got to the buttom i ran back up wanting to do it without a foot drag.  This time no  foot drag.  I almost went down way worse and the speed wobbles tried to get me.  So fun.  Whew.

Skate journal: boulder spots with bernie, dean, carleigh and fuzz (july 20, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 25th, 2011 by corpo

Another phone entry trying to remember what happened in co when I’m in a different state (nullbraska) on a family vacation.  Bernie and I started at southern hills and played a warmup game of SKATE that went on a while and I evenly won.  It rained so we moved on.  Bernie skated a gnar ledge then we went to checkout another ledge but just skated over a cone.  Bernie bs flipped it first try.  It was a small cone.  I took a long time to back 180 it.  So lame.  Carleigh showed up and proceeded to slam nonstop.  I eventually rocket flipped over the cone.  Then we went to the new bikepath ledge where I crashed and couldn’t do anything.  Fuzz showed up as did julien.  Fuzz, julien and bernie ripped it.

Skate journal : campus with John ( July 19, 2011 )

Posted in Skate Journal on July 20th, 2011 by corpo

I met John at Meta on a cloudy night .  Somehow the rain had avoided boulder .  Oh yeah this is my first update from my phone where i  talk and let my phone convert to text. Fun times .  We started at the smooth parking lot with the little curved bank.  I felt like actually had energy which was nice.  We did a few basics before setting into a gnar line with a stall trick on a ledge that ollie down a four stair.  John got his real quick .  But I took a long time .  When I finally got it I slammed on a tree branch after.  Oh well it was still fun.  We skated that gray bench for a little while but didn’t land anything . Next we ended up at the banked manual pad which ended up being fun .  John almost got pop shove nose pick.  I did a few tricks I’ve done before.  We went by the double set board slide and I failed again.  Then we went to the new area of campus and I rode off the loading dock surprised at how tall it was and can’t believe that people do tricks off taller drops.  We did a couple of 50s on the Low metal bar before we saw some cops and moved on . Not much went down after that but we both did the long downhill manual pad much to our surprise .  I think we both got it third try .  Hyped .  I broke my board on the way to the car on a board stall on a curb .  This may have been intentional because my tail was cracked .  Oh well we had a great session.  Maybe it’s not the best idea to talk into my phone for these updates but it is pretty easy to do.

skate journal: Denver with TF, Crisis and oh, Jack (July 17, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 19th, 2011 by corpo

After a long drive down from Buena Vista in the morning, a nap in the afternoon heat and a few phone calls I met Jack at Meta, picked up Rob, then met Brian at Crisis. We went to the jersey barrier spot where we would stay for most of the day. Brian got to falling right away. Jack was ripping right away. Rob brought his east coast steez to the spot. We all got in a groove and did some stuff. Brian skated the “adult barrier” for the most part and did tricks like front feeble fakie and hurricane while the rest of us “played” on the easier barrier. Jack did back big d. I started trying fakie pivot fakie which is a trick I’ve wanted to do there forever. Rob was trying tailblocks and we were both taking some time so we raced to it. Loser had to buy the other a margarita. Although the term “race” is a bit of a stretch. Especially for me. You should have seen my switch mongo pushing. It was in effect and horrible. Later on that evening Jack got on my case about it pretty hard. So no more switch mongo for me. Instead of bad style pushing it will be horrible beginner looking pushing from here on out. According to Jack this is more acceptable. So blame him when you see it. Back to the skating. I did a fakie back smith to fakie. Not a pivot. Brian wanted to count that and I said it didn’t count. He told me I just wasn’t used to winning. But he said it in such a great way that made me feel like I never land anything. So funny. I did get the pivot version next try to end any controversy I had in my head though. Shortly after Rob got his tailblock perfect and I even filmed it for him with his little digital camera. Brian was going for blunt fakie on the adult barrier and was slamming so hard over and over. I don’t know how he does it.

Around now Fuzz, Carleigh and the Crisis kids arrived. Lots went on for awhile. Jack was doing lots of late shoves/late 3 shove/late bigspins/board breaking/ankle rolling out of the barrier. I was trying a line of kickflip off the curb cut (way harder than it should be), ollie up the curb (starting to get worn out after two tricks) then front 50 on the ledge which I never got. I went back to skating the barrier for awhile. Jack was filming Carleigh do feeble fakie. I guess she had already landed it, but was slamming pretty hard when I was there. I somehow managed another fakie pivot fakie and Jack filmed it with his fancy camera and pronounced the start of a new G Nut part. Great. Fuzz joined and started putting down trick after trick. Fakie noseblunt (or switch blunt? looks more fakie then switch), switch pivot fakie and almost front noseblunt. Brian finally manned up to skate the kiddie barrier (ha) and was putting down front blunts, but not riding away for various reasons like wheelbite or his board was not under his feet. He got so close.

I went and played a game of SKATE with Conor which ended up being a blast mainly because he was nice and didn’t do all nollie and switch tricks. He won it of course, but I got a couple letters on him and the last trick he got me with was fakie bigger flip. I wasn’t close on the first one, but the second one was super close. So I tried a lot more and eventually landed a bad one. Hyped though, new trick! Jack almost wallrode over some gas lines before we got the boot and moved along. We went a few blocks to a marble ledge and most of the younger crowd rolled right by it, but Fuzz, Brian, Rob and I skated it for awhile. Tech tricks like boardslide and manual went down. Rob went nuts though and combined the two. So sick. We moved on again and ended at a two stair area with some benches and I sat down exhausted while others skated. Fuzz, Conor and Jack did some rad bonk/grind/slide to manny combos. Then it was time for dinner and my free marg at Illegal Petes. Yum!

When we arrived back near the car Rob, Fuzz, Jack, Brian and I sessioned the banked ledge for awhile. Rock fakie, front rock, stuff like that. Jack shut it down with manual to rock fakie, back d fakie, pivot to fakie, etc. I was happy to get a front slash on it. Fun night. I wish I had more energy then I did, but it was a blast for sure and the crew was awesome. I’m gonna hit “Publish” now without any proofreading ..

Skate journal: fairplay park with Ollie (july 14, 2011)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 16th, 2011 by corpo

On the way up to my moms for the weekend and we stopped in fairplay to skate for awhile.  There was a few snow brohs there, but they were nice.   We cruised around for awhile warming up.  The outside of that park is fun, but probably just because its really bad.  I ended up having a little stretch of ok skating.  Kickflip off the wedge.   Ollie up one block and front 180 to the next.  Almost got a line of axle stall on the top qp, kickflip on flat, ollie the hip, front tail the brick qp then kick back t the bank to curb.  Couldn’t get the kick back tail though even though I got into it most tries.  I posed some other stuff too.  Ollie was cruising and all smiles.  He did front and back 180s BOTH WAYS over the hip.  So crazy.  The back 180 the hard way was even popped.  Back rock on the back to curb, front one off the kicker.  Kid rips.  This is another update from my phone.