skate journal: Broomfield trannie day with Steve V! (July 13, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 16th, 2012 by corpo

Met up with Steve V (college buddy I haven’t seen in a couple years) at Crisis. Did some Null business, shot the shit with Fuzz, Dean, Conor and Blaine for awhile then headed over to the park. Almost no one was there. We skated the bowl to start. Deano was in the mix. Connor lost interest in about 2 seconds. We carved around, did some 50s, that was about it. I was surprised to get back 50 on the pool coping first try. We hit the street section for awhile and it was apparent quickly that I wasn’t on my A game. We kinda played on the quartapotty, blue ledge and that was about it. Steve is mostly a trannie skater so he was hyped ollieing onto the blue ledge. Dean was trying halfcab manuals and getting every halfcab up. That was sick. I had a couple no comply 270 to back tails, a few kickflips, then we went back to the pool. We couldnt drop in, but we carved around which was fun. I got a little tile in the shallow which hyped me up, but man that pool is hard to skate. Back to the bowl. If it wasn’t for my contacts being so dry and almost falling out mid runs I would have had a blast. Had a few tiny ollies, faster carves, rock ‘n roll, back 50s, front slash. Steve had a good time too, that’s him above. Then we went and hung out for awhile at Fuzz’s. Fun times.

skate journal: solo campus awesomeness (July 11, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 12th, 2012 by corpo

So this blog was supposed to be more then it is. It was supposed to be video clips all the time, Colorado skate news galore, Dinosaur Jr news and my skate journal. Well thanks to Four, Null, family, work, etc lately it’s only been my skate journal. Sure it’s a little weird writing about my own skating all the time, but I’m doing this for me. I don’t want to forget these awesome days I am so lucky to have and I want to be able to read about days like this 20 years from now. Anyways, with that said, I had a horrible day at work and decided I would rather go skate with my headphones cranked up then drive to a ramp I’ve never been to before and watch Lifeblood/wizards rip. I was right. The kids were gone and Liz realized I needed some space as I watched the new Almost video (pretty good) then Quik (totally amazing) yet again then got on my bike and rolled to campus. I should almost call this entry “Dumb shit that only I would skate”, but there might be like two other people out there that would be down. Probably people that read this. Ha.

Lately I’ve been in this slappy noseslides for warm up mode and this little ledge peaked my interest. First try was a switch noselide which worked. Then front nose fakie. That worked too. Slappy front tail took a few tries, but got it. Noseslide to fakie up. This ledge slid a little, but not really. Front tail down. Front 5-0. Switch boardslide down (whoa!) and finally a front tail shove that slid. Good warm up for me! I should mention that there is no runway really for this, only what you can see there. One push.

Then I got some water in the engineering building and cruised downhill cracking little ollies and powerslides til I ended up here. Did wallride, rock ‘n roll slide, feeble and several treflips on flat. I started trying crooks since I can slappy them on curbs now and a few tries later got one. It even grinded. Might be cool to film that for Off The Couch 2 With A Vengeance sometime.

Now for the quick feet training part of the evening. Got quick ups and ollie down the 2 front 180 off the 1 which was way harder than I thought would be.

I walked up to this area next which is one of my favorite areas. I started wanting to do 360 flip into the first “bank” (it’s downhill, but it’s definitely not steep), kickflip into the next then manual one of the benches below. I got the treflip second try, bailed the kickflip then thought I would be able to get this quick. Nope, the next treflip took forever. Forever. And when I got it I bailed the kickflip again. Luckily I got another tre, got the kickflip, but didn’t have the juice to ollie up the bench well and had to settle for a crappy ollie to ride to fall off the ledge. Neat. Everytime I went back to the top I would try a random flip trick. At one point I felt like switch b/s flips were doable. Silly me. Next I tried kick back tails on the little ledge at the top of this photo. I got one, but it took forever and I was going ultra slow even for me. Oh well, kick back tail!

I took about 20 tries to ollie up this bench, then ollie onto the ledge, but it was fun when I got it.

This is the trick that surprised me the most, I ollied over this. Didn’t even take many tries.

Then I walked back to my bike and rolled home. Isn’t it funny how the reflection of the flash looks like I have ballin’ ass glowing rims? I gotta say it was a good day. Ha, seriously though this day was a favorite of mine and reminds me of when I was skating around St Louis all by myself skating whatever I felt like. Skateboarding rules.

skate journal: Lifebloodwizarding the parking lot (July 9, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 10th, 2012 by corpo

Such an awesome night. I had to sell some boards to SOL after work so I went there, met up with Dean and waited for Trick Factory to show up in the Square State bus. They took so long that I was actually able to beat Allan in a game of foosball (granted I lost about 10 games). Then we hit the road to Fort Collins for the BBQ/demo. When we arrived it wasn’t that crowded, but that didn’t stop Jack and I from not skating the park. It quickly turned to chaos and any chance I had of skating the park was crushed. I watched for awhile. The Lifebloods and Blood Wizards were killing it. Especially this dude. The Fort Collins locals were shredding too. Watching skating is awesome and all, but it was super nice out and there was a perfectly good parking lot to be skated. I think I played four or five games of SKATE total. All with Jack, some with others included. I could go into tedious details, but I wont. I felt great. Arthritis was nowhere to be found, I had energy, etc. Super happy about that. Jack could have easily won all the games had he done tricks like switch heel, switch flip, etc. But he’s nice like that and would limit the tricks I couldn’t do to a couple a game. I think I landed almost every flipper I’ve ever done. Including a nollie tre and nollie varial flip in the same game. Fuzz had the three basic fakie heelflip tricks and the halfcab back heel took out everyone. It was a blast skating like this. I landed on several fakie tres and b/s flips, but never got either of those tricks. Only got one treflip too. But yeah, so much fun. At the end I started doing slappy crooks on a curb and one of the bigwigs at Lifeblood gave me a shirt. I’d like to think it was because he was hyped on the slappy crooks, but who knows, he probably just felt sorry for me. I did a few kickflips at this point that felt like the best kickflips I’ve done. Happy times. I tried to teach Conor how to do slappy crooks and rumor has it he landed one, but it sure took him a long time. Ha. A bunch of Bloods piled in the bus on the way home. Bonus.

skate journal: filmer glen (July 8, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 9th, 2012 by corpo

Met up with Carleigh around 11 with the weather report claiming a 100% of rain by 2pm. It was humid, but not hot and still I began sweating right away. It felt good as did my legs. We were just kinda cruising around waiting for Dean and Crisis kids to meet up with us. I think I finally felt somewhat warmed up when they showed up. I had a little line of something like pop shove into the handicap ramp, kickflip on flat, crooks the bench. Conor starting doing long ass boardslides:

I did a little line of fakie ollie a crack then fakie bigflip into the handicap ramp. Yippee. After a bit I played Justin in a game of SKATE. We both took forever to land our tricks. I came out on top and was happy on landing a 3 flip pretty quick. Other then that I felt kind of awkward on a skateboard.

After that Dean and I headed to Denver and picked up Derek and Aaron. We were looking for a place to park and drove by “The only spot in Denver” and saw someone doing treflips down the street hauling ass. We were like who is that? Then another dude does a 100 mph kickflip up the curb and back tails the ledge. At that point Dean was like “Those dudes must be pro” and it clicked that the Krooked team was in Denver. Ha, it was Mike Anderson doing the treflips and Brad Comer. We could have lurked, but we moved on. Went to a gap Derek was thinking about. We messed around with some flatground and Aaron tried to ollie a fire hydrant, hung up and slammed about as hard as one can slam. It was like five full pushes to whiplash into the ground. He walked it off though and skated the rest of the day. We ended up at one of the funnest spots in Denver. I had some ollie up the curb, boardslides on the ledge then it was all filming for the rest of the day. Derek struggled on a feeble for awhile. Dean got a line. Aaron ripped it. I filmed. Ended up meeting Sunny Daze and I filmed Chad for awhile. Then it rained, we chatted with Tyler Bush for awhile about Four then the night was done.

skate journal: valmont before the rains (July 7, 2012 aka Neil’s Birthday)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 8th, 2012 by corpo

Had a really blah and downer of a day. Got some stuff done early, but the day seemed to drag on without much happening. After a fun game of football with Ollie cheered me up I went to Valmont as the thunder clouds loomed above. The warm up period consisted of various slappy noseslides. Frontside, b/s, switch, etc. It was fun. Then I waxed the ledge beyond belief. I guess the wax was still warm as it had been in my trunk, but it went on so thick that Hulslander would be proud. I have been thinking about front tails a lot lately so I tried some. It was scary with how fast the ledge was and the first couple I got into slid so fast that I just kind of fell off to fakie which I was fine with. They were at least sliding which is rare for me and I followed one up with a f/s halfcab flip. I went for back 50, but did a back 5-0. Love when that happens. Also got back 50. Came close to kick back 50, halfcab noseslide and crooks to fakie. I did a ton of slappy crook stalls on the curb. Man that trick rules. I should wax that curb up too. Did a few flippers, nothing too special. Had trouble with front 50s. Never got a treflip. Got one front tail to forward that slid awhile. Then the rain came and it was total chaos. I went home and setup our new TV so the kids could watch Harry Potter. It’s my fourth TV. None of which I pay for and everyone of them has been slightly better then that last. This one was so heavy though. Can’t wait until people start getting rid of flat screen tvs.

skate journal: flatground and curbs with Ollie (July 6, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 7th, 2012 by corpo

The rain subsided for awhile and the street dried up in front of the house. I went out for awhile and started the long and tedious task of warming up. It wasn’t as bad as normal. I didn’t really land much before Ollie came out with his board wanting to skate a little. He did a fakie shove on the sidewalk and came close to some pop shoves. I had loosened my trucks a little and it seemed to help. For whatever reason I thought of trying a f/s nollie bigflip and landed on it first try, but fell off. Whoa. I got close on a few more and posed some switch f/s flips that were not close at all. Then we rolled over to the school. We went down the little handicap ramp and ollied over puddles. Ollie slid out pretty bad once it was funny. I started trying kick back tails going one way and front tail kickflip out the other. Both were remotely close. I got in to a lot of back tails, but had too much of an angle every time and would stick. The front tail kickflip out attempts were not slides and I’ve never even done a kickflip out of a tail stall before so to get remotely close had me excited. The rain came back though and ended that. Ollie had also been pushing fast and doing early grab cannonballs over cracks. He also had front and back 180s off the curb. So hyped he joined me.

Mark Suciu for SOTY

Posted in Amazing skate clips, Kids Are Crazy Good These Days on July 6th, 2012 by corpo

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My current frontrunner for SOTY for sure. Even though I know it’s not remotely possible since he’s an am and probably doesn’t skate for a company that’s paying off Phelps all year.

skate journal: 1st Bank with Carreigh (July 5, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 6th, 2012 by corpo

I’ve been wanting to skate here awhile. Carleigh already did, but it looks so fun. Carleigh had gone to a yoga class for the first time in awhile before skating so she was kinda beat, but we skated for awhile. We started by the bus stop and each noseslid the flatbar a time or two. Then we ended up at some nice asphalt. I skated while Carleigh ate pizza. There was a nice red curb and I started posing slappy crooks on it and got several. I am so happy to have learned that trick, it’s one of the funnest tricks ever. I was trying to manual a sidewalk going fast, but kept failing. Had a little line of fakie bigflip, front shove, kickflip a manhole. Carleigh struggled with kickflips the day after landing almost all of them. Skateboarding rules like that. She ended up getting a few and we moved to the main area. The fountain was spraying water in a lot of the area so it wasn’t always skateable. I took awhile to ollie the 3 stair past the crack in setup to ollie the gap and when I finally did I ollied the gap first try. Then the wind changed and the fountain sprayed making the gap unskateable the rest of the session. So we ollied the little ledge to drop. Carleigh landed on it, but slammed a few times before finally getting it. I went the pose a bunch of ollies route until Carleigh landed it and gave me the motivation to commit. Hyped on doing that. I went for a line of kickflip up one, b/s wallride, ollie the 3 stair past the crack. Fun. I should ollie gaps more because I really do like the feeling of rolling away. Carleigh was pretty much done at that point. I skated awhile longer. Did some f/s wallrides, some slow and not really landed b/s flips off the 1. Then posed f/s halfcab flips off the 1 for a bit before landing one somewhat on accident. I thought I was bailing it, but ended up landing it. Kind of funny. I ended on a really high note of doing a 360 flip off as well. Even though it was slow it felt amazing and I landed it full 360. That trick rules. I had a fun time. Sometimes its weird having new wheels on perfect concrete. It’s like it’s too smooth or something. I know I’m weird, but I think I need little flatspots to feel the concrete better or something.

skate journal: downtown denver with fuzz, carleigh, derek and nate (july 3, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 5th, 2012 by corpo

Carleigh and I picked up Fuzz at Crisis then we met Nate and Derek at 303 in Denver to do a little business. We drove down to 14th & Arapahoe area. We parked and accidentally found this alley with some fun stuff in it (the little ticket building had been removed so it was a weird tall manny pad). Nate wallied up on it good. Derek nose mannie and 180 nose mannied it. Fuzz ollie up and almost manualled. I didn’t even front rock it. Then we went up to the new ledges that are everwhere on 14th, but not on google maps yet. Nate skated the curved one in the corner so we didn’t see him much. Derek did some steezy kickflips, halfcab flips and would ride on the narrow curb then pop up to the ledge. I think he got front tail and front 5-0, maybe a nose manual too. Fuzz, Carleigh and I were trying kickflip then noseslide (bs for carleigh, f/s for Fuzz and I). Fuzz and I were not doing so good with the kickflips. Fuzz actually slammed pretty hard quite a few times. My arthritis was kind of kicking in my ankles. Carleigh was throwing down kickflips so good, she backed one of them up with and epic noseslide to full body layout holding onto the ledge or something trying not to fall. It was hilarious. I eventually gave up on that line as I didn’t want to keep bailing kickflips. I would try no comply 180 or front 180 then f/s halfcab flip, front nose to fakie. I was sucking at no complies though. Derek was doing that trick too good I think he drained the area of all no complies. Ha. Anyways, I got a line of front 180, f/s halfcab flip, front nose to fakie (with a nice hand on the ledge landing) then b/s halfcab flip. Cool. Fuzz gave himself a five count, but couldn’t put it down. The Denver fireworks started going off so we made a dash to watch them, but they were done before we could get to a good view. So we skated fast away from the crowds which was really fun. We ended up here. Carleigh chilled. Fuzz had heart issues again and had to walk it out. I got a little line of front 180 up 2, sw 180 on flat, boardslide a bench through the stopper, then ollie the four stair. It felt neat. Especially the little powerslide at the end to avoid a pole. Nate and Derek were ripping. Firecracker the four to front boards on a curved ledge. I eventually filmed Derek get a sick little line of firecracker, nose manny then nollie bigspin. It’s fun downtown street skating footage. Got me hyped on the Null video again. Fun night.

skate journal: Fun solo session at the mall (July 1, 2012)

Posted in Skate Journal on July 2nd, 2012 by corpo

Had a great day. Woke up early, went to a movie with Liz (Moonrise Kingdom super good) while the kids when to a different movie (Brave). Then got paid $30 to test drive a Lincoln luxury mobile because of some promotion they were having at the mall by the theater. Cool that paid for lunch! Then napped in the 100 degree heat awhile, did some ballet with India (sometimes you gotta make sacrifices being a dad and it seems super good for the legs so why not?), a short bike ride with India (to look at skate spots ha), some basketball with Ollie then I biked over to the mall because I had seen a ledge earlier in the day that looked fun. I biked around the mall a bit looking for what I’d want to skate first. I’ve never skated the mall before and was kinda weirded out what people would think and how quickly security would probably show up. I started at some little downhill sidewalk that would get me moving fast enough that by the end a powerslide was a tiny bit scary. The first section of sidewalk was level then it dropped into the hill. I manualled the first section, then went for a line of nose manual 180, sw 180 then powerslides. The speed for the sw 180 was scary, I never got it.

Then I found this ledge. It took me a bit to get a boardslide pop out, but when I did I followed it up with a little run to the opposing downhill sidewalk and did a slow kickflip off a little kicker then had a fun powerslide or two.

Then I went to the ledge I had saw earlier. It was darker then I hoped, but still skateable. The run up for b/s was kind of non-existent unless you ollie up the curb, but I was trying to stay hidden so everything backside was one little push. I ended up getting quite a few tricks total. Most were horrible. The roundedness of the ledge made it harder to lock into grinds then I would have thought. Front 50, front 5-0, back noseslide fakie, back crooks, kick back 50 (super duper bad), back 50, front 180 fakie f/s 50 f/s halfcab out, front tailslide and almost a front tail shove out but I saw security pull up so I just pushed off all fast and decided it was time to head home anyway. Oh yeah I had the new Henry Clay People album up pretty loud on my headphones. That album rules.