Was feeling physically better then the last couple days and had about an hour after work before family responsibilities. It was mid 70s and perfect outside. I thought of this spot while driving into Boulder and went for it. I had all these visions of ledge tricks in my head. I got there and the ledge looked pretty dry and I have a big candle in my car now so I went Hulslander on it and wow. First boardslide shoot out, second, third, etc. It was about now I realized I would probably shoot more photos of the spot then tricks I landed. Lets see. Four photos. Back board, front board, back nose, back nose fakie, front 50. Should have taken another photo! I SUCKED! Worse then anyone who’s ever rode a skateboard more then once should suck. I slammed repeatedly on front 50s going 1mph. Couldn’t do a back 50 to save my life. This spot really exposes how much angle I use for most tricks. I can’t deal with it. I could not land a heeflip to save my life either. I hate these Fallen shoes with a passion. I had one kinda fun line of kickflip (so tech!), back crooks, ollie to fakie on the bank. I would have wanted to skate the bank more, but as you can see water from all the stupid sprinklers was running everywhere. After yet another slam on a front 50 going 1mph I decided to call it quits early. I put on the new shoes I’ve been breaking in at work (Supra Stacks) and did the best kickflip I did all day. Bye bye stupid Fallen Ramblers with your slippery as hell and stupid-weird-wanna-be-vulc-no-board-feel sole.

After procrastinating and ultimately outsourcing (Thanks Chadman!) work on the new Null Teaser I grabbed Ollie from the basketball court to stop by Meta then meet Rob at Valmont. Rob seemed pretty tired. I sure was. Ollie didn’t though. Oh how fun it would be to have that much energy. I took a lot of tries to get a manaual. Rob got some good long manuals and nose manuals though. Ollie had the sickest cannonball chinese ollie over a metal grate. It was ridiculous. He almost got back 180s off a curb too, but Liz showed up quicker then expected and he had to go home. Summer is coming soon kid! I finally got remotely warmed up. Got a run of manual, ollie onto the sidewalk and kind of kickflip into the downhill of the curb cut. It was weak though. Needed to do it better, but never got it. Rob was popping some mean ollies out of the curb cut then doing 2 mile nose mannies. Then he started trying to ollie out of the curb cut to front tail on the curb. He got one or two, but missed a lot of them. I did a line of front 180 out of the curb cut then a switch 180 manual on the median. Whoa! Don’t know where that came from, but it hyped me up for sure. Also did a few other tricks out of the curb cut. Pop shove, back 180, sw front 180. The back pop shove felt pretty awesome. I tried a line of back 180 out of the curb cut, fakie flip on flat then fakie bigspin to manual. Got kinda close, but can’t seem to ever actually manual that trick. Coming the other way kickflip manuals did not happen. Prior to leaving I tried several kickflips on flat and they were so bad. Ugh. Then tried to ollie up then kickflip off a median for awhile. Ugh that was embarrassing and frustrating until one finally happened then it felt pretty cool. Cupsoles suck. Well, at least gum cupsoles. Slippery as hell. It always sucks having skate shoes you don’t like. It’s nice not having super sore quads though.

Another fun morning that started watching Ollie’s flag football game. I had some minor food poisoning the night before so was feeling pretty exhausted and drained. Showed up late for Skateshop appreciation day, but managed to still have fun. I basically just skated the tiny qp at the top of the park with Derek, Jack and Carleigh for awhile, then “judged” people jump down the rail/stairs (Yeah Jack!) and on the 13 foot qp.

Then we went to this awesome spot. There are five levels each with the same size ledge/drop between them.

Some had stuff down them, some didn’t.

We stayed here a really long time. The crew was pretty big. Fuzz, Jack, Carleigh, Blaine, Justin, James, Rho, Neil and Chase. Carleigh took quite a few awesome photos here. I’ll mostly just talk about the older crew because listing everything is already an impossible task. Justin filmed a rad line. James rips, slams hard and did a front tail 270 shove down the metal shelf ledge. Jack slammed hard several times right out of the gate so made the wise choice to show some restraint and just chill. I should mention that Jack and I were twins for the day as we both had JAM shirts on and Null 10 year decks. We’re cute like that. Neil skated way longer then his normal 20 minute max. 50s down the metal box, crooks shove on the ledge, halfcab up like it was nothing, lipslides. John went to work on a line pretty quickly and spent most of his time working on it. Front 180 up, fakie flip on flat then front shove front noseslide to fakie. So sick! Fuzz ripped it. Front 180 up, sw 180 a little hole, nollie front tail. Back 180 up, back 50 up the metal ledge, back 50 front 180 out up the metal ledge, fakie nosegrind 180, fakie 50 halfcab out on the ledge. Yeah, killed it. Carleigh skated a long time. I saw some kickflips and front 50s early on then she tried back hurricanes for a long time. I’m not sure how many total she got, but I saw at least one make. So sick. That is not a trick I’ve seen done on regular ledges too many times. Or ever. Rho is Crisis’ newest team prospect and the kid rips! Back 180 nosegrind down the metal shelf, front noseslide up, back crooks up and down, back smith up. Full on shralping. I felt like I was struggling initially, but after getting a kickflip up one of the levels I started to have the time of my life. First line I got was kickflip up, front 5-0 shove then front shove off. Another was kickflip up front 50 front 180 out, halfcab flip on flat then kickflip off. Front 180 up, halfcab flip on flat, front 50 back 180 out (so bad) then a slow and not popped fakie bigpin down. Tried some more lines, but didn’t really combine them til later. Did a few crooks, back 50s, front 50 to front board, some bad kickflip back 50s (almost locked into 5-0 on a few). Near the end I went up top then kickflipped down all 4 in a row. This was probably the highlight for me. No the kickflips weren’t gnarly at all, but to do 4 kickflips down something in a row first try felt amazing. At one point I ollied a little shopping cart on it’s side as I couldn’t get the courage to try ollieing over the couch. Last thing I did was a line of front 5-0 , boardslide down the metal shelf ledge and finally kickflip the next drop. I had cracked my tail previously on a kickflip down (and somehow everyone else but me knew that? ha) and that kickflipped finished off the tail. I gave my board to Jack to have him take out his frustrations with the spot and he put it out of it’s misery. What a fun spot. Not sure it could every be as fun again, but man for this session it was amazing. I guess I like the cupsoles and I wasn’t very sore after all that. After we had a nice dinner at the Dark Horse then did some beer drinking at the Outback to celebrate Jason’s girfriend Lindy turning 30. Happy Birthday!

The Thermals are a special band. A band that realizes their niche and keeps at it. John and I both love the new album and headed down the Bluebird on a nice Saturday night. Things were off to a good start when I found a parking spot directly across the street. We missed the first band. The Builders And The Butchers were the first band we saw. At first I thought they might be pretty good and it seemed like they had quite a few people there to see them. Instead after a few songs John and I were both over it. I don’t even know what you would call their style of music. Some type of loud folk music that had us looking at our phones to see how much longer they would play. I’ll give them credit for entertaining drummers though. Yes, plural.

The Thermals came out and went right into two great fuzzy lofi songs off the new album quickly making us forget about that previous band. They went on to play several songs from their latest album, a lot from Blood Body and a good mix of the rest. The songs were all played loud and fast. The band was as tight as I’ve ever seen. This is the first time I’ve seen the current drummer and well, he’s hilarious. At one point he stage dived into the crowd. I’m sure some hipsters frowned on him showing his excitement, but for me it’s part of the nerdy attraction of The Thermals. They are good people, play simple music well and have fun on stage. It’s awesome and so was their set.

Met Dave at Sol prior to getting picked up in the Square State Skate bus. Rather then just wait we skated this little dork spot behind 7-11. Basically put a couple plastic soda crates and did slappy tailslides. They were fun though. Then we skated the Sol ramp for while. Flatground initially. I had most of my flippers except for heelflips which appear to be totally gone. Dave started “skating the vert” (Sol ramp inside joke due to kids that only skate flat calling the ramp a vert ramp) and did some sick fakie ollies and nollies. I tried a few too and did some weak ones. Everyone showed and we were off in the bus with an awesome crew. Dave, Rob, Ric, Brian, Wade, John and myself. After a stop at MRKT and a burrito we showed up at Launch. It was pretty crowded for me. I tried to skate, but couldn’t do a damn thing. Everyone else was ripping. I saw Rob and John skating flat and joined them where we skated for quite awhile. I got most of my flippers, John too. We also skated the wallride for awhile. I haven’t seen Rob miss a kickflip since he’s been back.

Finally went back up onto the ramp and things went much better for me. Got some runs with a few tricks in them. Front disasters, scratch grind reverts, a first try front 50 (the trick I was most hyped on) a little grind around the corner and tried front feebs. Ric was ripping the way he always does. Super inside slashers and crazy lines. Brian can do one million tricks and he did them all. Loved the front 5-0s into the corner, the front pivots fakie, the halfcab rock reverts and all of it. And he finally rock creeked a blunt to fakie and kind of hung up! rob was flying around the corners with his narrow feet stance. Solid front slashes and got a few long back 50s. Wade carves around that thing so awesome. John has amazing backside ollies and a ton of revert tricks. Loved the blunt to back smith attempts where he was just stuck on the coping in a weird position. Some great runs though. Fullertron was in full effect. He did some “aerials” as shown in the mute above (photos by Brian) and straight up killed the ramp. So many tricks it’s impossible to list. Andy was there and skates the ramp like he owns it. He does. Ha. Kickflip pivot? Yeap. Some other dudes where there ripping and the whole vibe was awesome. As Brian pointed out I don’t think we even made the top 5 in the oldest category. They need to change it to over 40 night!

Last, but not least a curb session ended the night. Lots of no comply variations and tricks over. Andy had front shove (above) first try. I got a backside flip which might be my first one over anything. John had no comply 180. Brian had a sick impossible on flat. I don’t even know, it was just awesome. People were doing tricks over it and it would get the same amount of cheers as just running into the curb. Such a fun vibe, session and experience.

We chilled for awhile then Jake and I left for Boulder, but decided to stop at the “rollerblade park” on the way. We ended up having a total blast. I struggled initially as I’m still adjusting to cupsoles, but man the quad pain is almost gone. Crazy. Guess I’ll be stuck on cupsoles for awhile. We mostly lined stuff out starting at a flat bar, a ledge trick, a bank trick, back, etc. Jake had some good ones quick. Front lip, front 50. Front board, front 50. I struggled with halfcab boardslide, but eventually got some bad ones and followed with front 50 then back crooks coming the other way. If I messed up I would try other tricks. Did one of the best fakie flips I’ve ever done on a bank. Posted up on crooks rather then just the little jib. Jake got a sick line of tailblock the crappy qp between the flatbars, hippy jump a flat bar, front tailslide. I went for ollie over a flat bar then 360 flip on flat then front 5-0. Never got a treflip. Jake did ollie onto the tall ledge then chinese nollie off. I managed to get up there with some accidental wallie action. Ended with a front 5-0 on the ledge. That park is fun.

Feeling the effects of not much sleep and some depression from Crouton dieing over night I headed to campus. It was super nice out in the mid 70s. I just kind of went around ended up here.

I did a couple manuals and kickflips then went up for a wallride on the jersey barrier. Ended up doing a fun line with wallride, nose manny, then ollie the box that was randomly laying in the parking lot. You like the blurry ride by picture of the box that implies some type of speed was involved? Don’t worry, I didn’t skate fast. Anyways, I did that line a few times (almost added a kickflilp manny at the end) then lined it out even further starting at the top photo. Ollie onto it, front 180 off, halfcab flip on flat, wallride (thinking of the super sick one that PJ does), nose manny, ollie the box and bail a kickflip manual. I moved on.

Tried front boarding the rail for quite awhile. To get speed for the rail you have to start on the ledge and turn right after the bike rack. With the students gone this spot is skateable again. The first time I ollied onto the ledge was funny. I put my front wheels right in the crack or something and I jumped down into the bush. I never got too close to the front baord. But I did commit a time or two. I eventually just got tired and walked around looking for new stuff, but just saw a pretty sunset instead.

Then I headed back to the car pushing switch most of the way. I was kind of amazed at how natural it felt at times. Obviously I still had a few of those straight-legged-beginner-longboarder-looking pushes, but some felt great. I didn’t skate very good or have much drive, but it felt nice to get out in the warm weather. RIP Crouton!

Our family is saddened by the passing of our wonderful cat Crouton. He was three weeks away from his 19th birthday. This cat saw Liz and I turn into a family and was always a bundle of joy. He was such an amazing cat that converted me from a dog lover to a cat lover. He was great with the kids when they were young and chose to sleep next to Ollie for the last few years. He will be missed dearly by our family and anyone at our house with a lap. Ha.

After a long day of watching Ollie play flag football then playing basketball with Ollie I was able to tempt him with skateboarding at Red Curbs since it was raining. But by the time we left it was sunny and dry so we ended up at Valmont area. I had some new shoes. Well, some really old shoes that I’ve worn to work for a year or so. Some Fallen James Hardy Ramblers. I can’t even find a photo of them online anymore. My Lakai’s weren’t dead and I might skate them again, but I had forgotten I needed to shoe goo them again and it was too late to fix them up before skating. Right out of the gates I could tell these shoes sucked. They are fake vulcs and gum sole and they were slippery. Kickflips were weird. We started at this bank area:

Ollie had fun doing body varials and did the best frontside ollie(s) ever. Basically went for a frontside ollie, but didn’t really ollie, stopped, then popped an actual ollie and laughed. Ollie rules. I managed kickflip to fakie, backside flip, fakie flip. Then a line with front 180 over a little curb gap, switch front 180 off a curb, ollie a tiny median, frontside flip on the bank. Then a varial flip fakie and a front shove fakie. Ollie did a few body varials and fakie shove attempts where he rode up normal then body varialed, came to a halt and tried to fakie shove. So awesome.

Next we went over here. Do a trick into this bank, a flatground trick then something on this bank:

Ollie was doing awesome cannonball runs down it, then going for 360 body varial on the bank. He never quite got that. I was going for no comply 180 into the top bank, halfcab flip on flat then nollie tre on the other bank. The halfcab flip proved hard as I kept slipping off the darn grip. Argh. Got kind of close to the whole line.

Last up was this area. In the distance you can see Ollie. He did ollies down the 2 then 180s off the curb. The best front 180s I’ve seen him do. He also did the ollie off the loading dock at the top of this page. I ollied up that before. Crazy. Definitely couldn’t do it now. I had a little line of front 180 the 2, sw 180 the curb. Ollie cheered as he always does when anyone lands anything. The kid is awesome. I started trying a line of nose manual the slanted manny pad, ollie up onto the sidewalk then kickflip the 2. Well that ended up sucking. The nose mannies were easy. The kickflip ended up being easy. But that whole ollie’ing up a sidewalk backside was not. One time I hung up and dove into the bushes and pillar. Ouch. I ended up doing a weird 90 degree ollie to tic tac and got the line. Perhaps I can blame some of it on the new(old) shoes, but man not being able to ollie up a curb hurts. But skating with Ollie was awesome and seeing his goofy kid tricks after pushing mongo puts a smile on my face.