skate journal: lafayette park with a rad crew and every scooter kid in colorado (feb 5, 2017)

Happy Birthday @brianfrancisball ! Hope you can walk today! 😂👴🏼

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on

Not feeling all that great I headed to Lafayette for Brian’s birthday session. The park was the most crowded I have ever seen it ( I wasn’t there on opening day). There was an old man bowl session, a bunch of friends for Brian and then like 30 scooter kids. I blame Trump for the dumbing down of America and for kids riding scooters instead of skateboards. It’s annoying. I said whaddup to people then hit the toilet bowl with Collin and Brian. Oh yeah, I had put wider trucks on since I can no longer lie to myself that low trucks are a good idea for someone as tall as me. So starting off in the little bowl was kind of weird. But it was a good excuse for bailing back 50s. Brian and Collin were ripping. And some kid with pizza grip, hipster pants and checkered Vans was ripping too. Ha, skateboarding is awesome right now. Well, until someone turns on Offspring and we leave the area. It’s all a blur for awhile. I kind of just posed kickflips on the bank or manhole bank. After my bad luck trying kickflips to fakie yesterday with low trucks I was happy to get a second try kickflip to fakie that felt solid. Then we skated the rock for awhile. I did the lowest rockride possible and it was even lower than I had hoped. Ha. Brian had blunt and front feeble to fakie. Nolan ripped the flow bowl as did Donnie. Jack did a cool rock ride kickflip out. Then Brian started a fun little dropin while holding on session. I managed to only hold one once about half way down the 3 foot transition. Brian went for crail grab to crailslide. So sick. The slam looked so bad. After that the park pretty much cleared out as people were going to get tattoos or watch the game. I ended up staying and finally actually tried tricks. I was struggling. It was Mike, Donnie and I. We played a game of SKATE. I don’t know how, but both Mike and I beat Donnie. I think he was just being nice, but he was slamming on tricks so maybe it just wasn’t working for him. I would go on to win it with a frontside no comply 360. Then Donnie tried to ollie up the tall part of the pier 7 ledge. So gnar. He would get one. Mike had switch cali grind down the 3 stair which was nuts. I kind of noseslid the little hubba. Then I joined Donnie except I did it the easy way. Ha, it was tough for me though. I need to ollie more because I seem to be losing it. Fun day. Skating with friends is rad.

(setup 8.25 null logo board, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 50mm spitfire F4 99a classic wheels, bronson bearings, Lakai Manchesters black/white 11)