I had stayed at Nick’s house Friday night with Jason and Kathy.  So Friday morning after doing Nick’s dishes (ha) Nick, Jason and I went to 3rd and Army to meet up with everyone.  Of course we got there first right?  We met up with a couple of Nick’s buddies and Randy was ripping.  My foot was still sucking and warming up was impossible.  Austyn Gillette was there ripping, being nice and ripping.  He was filming a line, but never quite got it before it got crowded.  Too bad because I’m sure we had some BGPs up in there.  We skated the quarterpipe tranny for awhile and Jason was landing the best ollies I’ve ever seen him do.  After a burrito at the taco stand we met up with the rest of TF and stayed at 3rd & Army for a long time.  Jake, Fuzz and I played the longest game of SKATE ever.  I won it only because I was able to land 5 tricks somehow.  I think we stayed at 3rd & Army the whole day, but my memory is messing with me and I think I’m forgetting a spot.  That night was the shop party and a good time was had.  Oh yeah, there was this dude Julian at 3rd and Army who might be the best ledge skater I’ve ever seen in person.  He did switch front crooks like it was rolling off a curb.  He would grind them super far and pop out so high he was above the ledge.  He would switch kickflip over the flat bar sooooo good.  Dude was super fun to watch and made me want to skate ledges better.  Oh wait, my foot, and I’m old, and I suck at skateboarding.

Alright, so remember last time I skated I hurt my foot.  I rested it hoping it would be ok in time for SF.  After a night of sleeping on freezing cold concrete floor due to my air mattress being eaten by Gordon’s dog (It was really funny) we all skated to the new SF park.  I had set up some new ACE trucks at Gordon’s shop which is also where we were staying.  Stepping on my board to see how the trucks turned hurt.  UGH!  Trying to do some warm up ollies over manholes hurt even more.  UGH!  It was rad though, we all cruised down some streets and Fuzz and Neil were ripping.  Lots of fun/clean ollies off everything in site.  Oh, so the crew at this point was Fuzz, Neil, Brian, Gabe, Gordon, Jake, Lazer and me.  As we waited in line for breakfast Jake and I did some flippers.  Kickflips started to feel kind of ok.  Oh, I should mention that I got some bulkier shoes just for the trip so my foot would feel protected.  They are some Vox – Jt Aultz.  I think these shoes helped make it possible for me to attempt to skate.  Anyways, kickflips started to not hurt, but at the same time I couldn’t feel a catch or land really.  UGH.  After a short wait we got some super good food (good call Gordon and Sandy!) then headed to the park.  Showing up at the park the SF legend Danger was there as well as new Antihero ripper Peabody.  You know your in SF when those are the locals.  Anyways, I felt pretty intimidated by the ripping and my hurt foot.  I started to enjoy the bowl that Jake was ripping, but Nick showed up without his board and we went to get his board.Everyone else had left the park by the time we got back into the area so we (Nick, Gabe and I) went to 3rd & Army while we figured out where to meet them.  That place rules.  The 10 minutes we skated there was awesome.  Then we went to the Flower Shop which is this crazy kind of indoor gnarly tranny spot.  I couldn’t really skate as Danger and Drehoble were there watching.  It just spooked me since I was sucking too bad.  That didn’t stop Gordon, Neil, Lazer and Fuzz from ripping though.  Brian’s knee was really hurting him at this point, but it didn’t stop him from ripping too and slamming like a sack of potatoes.  In all the time we were there I did one crappy carve around a pocket about 5 feet under everyone else.  I suck.In front of the flower shop is some famous ledges.  Right before leaving Fuzz, Nick and I skated them.  I was struggling, but managed a front 50 on a ledge that Ethan Fowler ended some amazing line on in Art Bars.  It’s pretty fun skating famous spots.  Too bad my foot sucks so bad.  The first day was fun for me even tough I skated like a turd.  

My foot still hurts from Monday, but the weather is looking good and I got some new shoes to make my foot feel more supported (Vox – JT Aultz). Hopefully they haven’t knobbed Clipper yet, because I can’t believe no one has kickflip front crooked it yet. I’m on it. First try no warm ups.

Song of the day and part of the day. Heard this song on my pandora station then had to watch the part. So sick! Maldonado, east coast ripper.

Pranks like this give me faith in humankind.

Little Jack and his little brother skating for fun.

Some new indoor park in Sacramento, CA. Looks amazing. Team Pain may be my favorite skatepark company these days. They did the new CO Springs park too.

Someone I work with brought in a huge bag of these because they didn’t like this flavor. I don’t know what’s wrong with them, but these are now my favorite Tootsie Pops of all time. Just thought you should know.

Super warm night.  T-shirt weather.  So awesome!  Jake picked me up around 8pm and we headed downtown.  My first few warm up ollies felt horrible.  Jake just pushed fast down a street and I was trying manauls and kickfips and stuff.  I catch up to him and he’s staring at me like a longboarder stares at you when they pass you.  Ha.  We went up into a parking garage and ollied this weird kicker.  Jake got it quickly, but it took me several tries and I got really frustrated.  Ugh.  We rolled down the garage and that was fun.  I kickflipped at one point going a decent speed and ollied onto a manual pad going too fast and thought I was going to die.  Somehow I survived.  We kinda cruised around a few spots before settling on a lot of parking blocks.  Jake manned up and ollied over two blocks with a gap in the middle.  Pretty sick.  I attempted it, but can’t ollie.  I had a fun boardslide transfer and kickflipped a parking block a couple times.  I used to be able to kickflip parking blocks like they were nothing.  Now it takes more effort/courage.  Ugh. Nate met up with us and added to the stoke.  He ollied the gap too.  Damn 20 year olds.  Ha.  Before leaving the parking blocks I tried a few b/s feebles and hurricanes on a parking block.  I’ve never actually tried feebles before.  It wasn’t remotely close, but it felt cool to try it.  Next up was a game of SKATE on Pearl.  Things were going pretty good until I did a 360 flip first try out of turn and then hurt my foot trying to do another one.  Ugh.  I hit the bone in my foot I think I fractured a bit last year.  Hope it heals up before SF!

I can thank Corey Duffel for introducing me to this one.