skate journal: all night marathon with the homies (june 23, 2016 day 175)
Got out of work early, chilled, then ran to Meta and Crisis and had an hour to kill before leaving for Denver. I went to Safeway ledge. I was hoping to start the night off strong, but I didn’t. Everything was hard. I messed around with some nollie cab back tails. Never got it, but it seems possible. Did 50s both ways, got a kickflip back 50, another not-dipped-enough front smith or two, front 50 yank out. Jake showed, but it was time to meet at Crisis so we rolled over there.
Jake and I played on a parking block in front of the shop while we waited. It ended up being pretty fun. We did some basic pivots at first, some blunt pivots, etc. Rob and Dave showed as Jake and I put down our parking block enders. Jake did front nosepick and I got his back with front pivot kickflip out. That one hyped me up. Then we all tried some lines going down the parking lot. Rob ollied over a manhole to manual the whole parking lot. Jake was doing ollie over the manhole, powerslide then kickflip into a steeper section. I was trying switch front 180 over the manhole, powerslide the steeper section, kickflip up a curb, ride off a 2 stair, ollie up a curb to front rock. Did it all except for ride away from the front rock. Managed to flat spot my new wheels really bad too. Doh. Dave was going switch ollie over the manhole and some manuals around the sidewalk. Fuzz finished setting up his board and we left for Denver.
We parked by the pedestrian bridge and walked over it arriving at our first spot. Most were skating the round banked bases to the bridge. I was kind of stuck in a zone of trying to ollie a 3 stair then noseslide off a one stair so I didn’t really see what everyone did. I saw Dave do a front pivot. Fuzz joined me with some manuals then noseslide attempts. I couldn’t do the manual. I started doing a different line. Wallride the jersey barrier, ollie up a curb then crooks the ledge off the curb. I got it second try. The crooks made me happy, even though I couldn’t do it again. Jake was trying front tails. Dave was doing fast wallride/wallies. We moved on to the cheese wedge spot. Fuzz did front 50 down one. Dave did boardlide to fakie. Rob had front boards and a pretty gnarly slam on a boardslide (or maybe it was a halfcab boardslide?). Jake manualed up one. I posed back 50s. More pushing. I think next was a ledge spot against a fence with a lot of strop rocks. Everyone else skated a red curb near it for a bit. I posed on the ledge, got a back 50. Jake did front tail, front 50, noseslide. Fuzz did front 50. Then we crossed the street and found a really fun new spot. I saw Rob get a boardslide on a really fun looking granite ledge and we got the boot.
We went along the bikepath for awhile. But not before Dave slammed super hard on some gravel on one of the most painful looking slams I’ve seen in awhile. Doh. Ended up at a weird spot that only I skated. I tried a line of wallie nollie, kickflip up a crack and then ollie a weird 3 stair. I tried it for awhile and realized everyone had left. Took a minute to find them. Got some snacks and a 7-11.
Ended up here for awhile. Dave killed it with the 4 stair ollie then 4 stair firecracker. Also he ollied over the little skate stopper into the bank. I did the little back 90 tail drop into the double bank. Everyone skated the bank to skate stopper for a bit. With hands on the rails for assist. I tried to get a good photo, but nothing good came up. Lots and lots of pushing later we ended up at the skyline park granite ledge. I was too tired and sore to skate it. That says a lot. Jake put down a lot of tricks. Back 50, front 50, front 5-0, I don’t remember anymore, it was a blur. Dave did another fast boardslide to fakie, tried front crooks for awhile.
Then we went down into the old parking garage. Again, I was too sore and tired to skate it. Look at me pouting above. Rob had some halfcab boardslides and noseslides. Fuzz had some front 50s. Dave did boardslide to fakie again, front 50 nollie 180 out, back 50 nollie 180 out and I think switch crooks. Jake did too many tricks to name. 50s, front 5-0, front tail, front lip, crooks, crooks shove, 180 nosegrind, fakie nosegrind, fakie 50 halfcab out. Wowzers. That was it, we skated well past midnight.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)