Had to work the late shift which gets me out of work at 6. My hands/knees/body have been feeling some unwanted arthritis pain. Enough that I was scared to lift weights at the gym because my hands might lose their grip. Ugh. I met John at a Chipotle in Longmont and we headed up to MRKT. We had planned on meeting Andy and Mike to skate wherever. Nate, Jacoby and Jake joined us. This is the only city where people just kinda gather at shop closing and go out and skate together. Whoever is around, no cameras, just go skate. It’s amazing. We dprked at a weird little bank spot initially then moved on to some curbs. Well, Andy, John and I skated these, but everyone else moved onto some taller curbs. This was a fun warm up. The curbs where low enough frontside and backside slappies went down. John even did back 50. Unheard of. I was struggling to feel my board, but having fun. Andy was ripping. One of the best styles around for his age. We moved on and joined the rest of the crew at some more curbs. This spot has been around forever and just recently painted again. It’s one of the few spots I actually remember skating back in 93/94 in college. Nate did a sick crooky on it. Jacoby had a sick halfcab noseslide. Andy had a good boardslide transfer. Mike did some 20 foot long boardslides. John and I were trying lines with boardslide, flip trick then ollie the gap over the curb and grass onto the sidewalk. He did it pretty quick. I wouldn’t to do boardslide transfer, but the transfer part wasn’t working. Everyone else moved on to the 2 up 2 down, but I wanted to keep trying for that line. I got a slow/tiny switch boardslide transfer, kickflip then ollie the gap to 90 degree stop. Oh well. The 2 up 2 down has been around for a long time too and I remember some great sessions with JP in the late 90s. It was at this spot that my arthritis really seemed to take hold. I struggled ollieing up the two, never got manual, took a long time to get kickflip up and when I finally did I was too close to the handrail and jammed my thumb on it so bad. The pain was insane, but luckily mostly temporary. Oh and I was apparently uncoordinated enough that I cracked my tail ollieing up the two. That takes special skills. John had a quick manual, learned firecrackers and tried for front 180 up, halfcab flip on flat, back 180 off. Mike manualled it, manualled to firecracker and manualled all the way to the street. So sick. Andy had manual easy, kickflips up easy. Nate, Jake and Jacoby left for food. We moved on, got some water in the student center and ended up at the Clark building. We started out on the hip side. John almost died trying to ollie down the 3 above the other 3. Mike ollied the 5. I did a few tricks over the hip including a b/s flip which might be the only trick all night I was actually hyped on. We skated a nearby rock for awhile. Mike and I dropped in on it. Andy almost did wallride to fakie on it. Then we hit the 2 stair with a 3 above it area. Andy had a sick manual at speed. I did a bad ollie up the 2, front 50 the bottom of the 3. Front 180 up 2 and kinda close to f/s halfcab flip off (homage to JP circa 93). Mike did switch firecracker down the 3 then 2. So sick. Hyped me up enough to try regular firecracker down both. That was pretty much the end of the night. We walked back to the car. Good times, great old guys. Ha ha.

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