On our way to Ft Collins to go to the Launch fundraiser we stopped at Fossil Creek around 5:30 with a goal of only skating there for about an hour to get to MRKT. It ended up being way too fun to even consider leaving. The crew was Jack, Carleigh, Bernie and me. There was a couple other dudes there that were fun too. We started out at the top area just doing our own things to get warmed up. Pretty early on Jack ollied up the 3 stair to manual and snapped a fat ollie down the nine. Ridiculous. I got a line I liked of crooks on a tall ledge that went up a curb, kickfip off the curb, ollie up another ledge then noseslide off the three stair ledge (done poorly). Bernie was doing lots of kickflip manuals and kick nose mannies. I had come with the goal of ollieing the 7 stair. Carleigh and I tried some doubles down the six stair, but I failed everytime. Ugh. I was skating pretty good, but just didn’t have the trigger on anything bigger than 3. I even popped over the ledge off the 3 stair which stoked me out quite a bit. I think I got Jack’s back on something like a first try back salad down the 7 stair. Bernie manualled the curb, dropped off the curb still in manual then ollied up the 3 stair ledge. So sick. Bernie and Jack skated the slanted manny pad for awhile while Carleigh and I skated the 3 stair manny pad at the top. I joined Bernie and Jack for a bit just long enough to embarrass myself and get out of there. Everyone ended up back at the top area. jack was killing the ledge off the curb. He would do a transfer trick up onto it then turn around and do a trick down it. He did so many tricks it’s impossible to remember them all. Front 180 fakie crooks transfer. Kick back tail (kind of). Boardslide 270 shove. Nollie back lip transfer. So many. I got a couple slow ollie over to tailslide and tried to do a shove out, but couldn’t get that. I skated the three stair for awhile. Took awhile to get front shove down it, but got a first try kickflip which hyped me up. I was finally able to get some front 50s on the bigger board on the somewhat tall ledge up top. Bernie, Jack and I skated the ledge combos from the top for a bit. You could ollie up one ledge, drop to another, ollie up to another one, up yet another then go down the 7 stair hubba. I couldn’t get the ollie transfers between them, but did little rock transfers. I only made it that far once and when I rode down the 7 stair hubba I slammed pretty hard. Jack had some cool combos like manual gap to back 50. Bernie almost got manny drop to manny up to manny up to manny. Wowsers. The last part of the session was Jack losing in SKATE off a drop, Carleigh doing noseslide shove, Bernie almost doing tall kick back tail and me taking a long time to get a run of kickflip up the curb and treflip off. Whew. Long session. Super fun session. Exhausting. I think I’m finally sold on the bigger setup. With the exception of not being able to ollie down the bigger stairs (I did land the six stair once though) I skated about as good as i can. Jack, Bernie and Carleigh killed it. The art show and pizza later on was a blast too.

Wasn’t really feeling one of those busy drive around nights, but I ended up needing to bring boards out to Community, then Crisis to meet up with a crew and skate the 287 ditch. Driving took a long time, but it ended up being nice cranking up new music by Poison Control Center and Jeff The Brotherhood. I got to Crisis, dropped off boards, started making some weed jokes and we rolled out. Rob and Joel were there, but Fuzz and I are too cool so we just rolled by and went to the far side of the ditch (ha, it was kinda funny). I was feeling pretty awkward on my board, Fuzz was killing it, Jack could hardly stand. Fuzz had some sick f/s ollies and long lines right out of the gate. I tried some ollies at 1/10 scale of Fuzz’s, got a couple b/s stalls on the curb and a front smith popout on the other side, also some silly dork quick flips to stalls that weren’t on the edge of anything. I had a good slam on an ollie attempt and Fuzz almost got a fakie pivot yank out. Then we went to the parking block area, but it was getting dark. I tried a few front tailslides, but failed. We chilled for a minute then called it a night.

Again, way too long between the session and writing about it. Ollie and I picked up Rob then went to Valmont where others would meet us. Rob and I were tired/sore from the night before. I seemed to be worse off though as I couldn’t even manual a curb. Ollie was cruising around doing 180s everywhere and even getting some ollies up curbs. After awhile we went across the street for something new. Fuzz, Carleigh, Dean, Jack and Xander met us there. I put together a fun line for me of nose manual, kickflip up the curb, front 180 down two, sw front 180 down one. Ollie back 180’d the two. Rob nose manualled around the corner and off the two stair. Sick! Everyone else started warming up. The young kids Jack and Xander not needing much warm up of course. It’s hard to remember what everyone was doing at this point so I’ll just keep it about me (which is what everyone wants to hear about right? ha). Ollie and I were skating the mellow flat bank at the bottom. He did a pop shove to fakie and I did a treflip to fakie with a six point landing (4 wheels and 2 hands). Then everyone went around to a different two stair area. Xander, Jack, Rob, Fuzz killed some rad tricks. I bailed ollie’ing up the two stair and shot my board into the window (luckily it didn’t break) and it bummed me out so much. If I wouldn’t have been around friends I would have left for the night for sure. We then made our way back to the main Valmont spot where we skated the ledge. I still couldn’t do f/s grinds to save my life. I had a few jibby crooks and slow back 50s. Jack and Fuzz killed it though. Fuzz had some high speed switch boardslides. Jack did everything. Front lipslide to 5-0 shove out. Front 5-0 back 180 out. He killed it. Carleigh was off the phone at this point and skating too and got some good noseslides. Dean surprised us with some front 50s. Ollie was doing front 180s off the ledge higher than he has before. Xander did a sick front 50 nollie 3 shove out. Toward the end I started hucking kickflip back 50s and eventually got one. Rad, haven’t done that trick in forever. Ended up being a fun session mainly because of the crew. I need a day off of skating ..