Hot day.  Still hot at night and a crowded park.  John, Nate, Jack, Carleigh, Jason, Neil, Fuzz, Brian and I collected at the park around 7:30.  After some dorking around Fuzz asked what the trick was so we went for ollie up onto the c0nvex ledge and kickflip off.  Half an hour after Fuzz I got it too after boardsliding the rail and we went for nosegrinds.  I got a bonked version shortly after Fuzz’s first try “I haven’t done that in awhile” one.  A few more boardslides of fun later (boardsliding that tiny rail is seriously fun) the next trick for Fuzz and I was kickflip manny on the black ledge.  We got up onto it, but neither of us got a real manual.  Ok, I wasn’t even close at all.  We messed around on the rust ledge for a bit then headed to the six stair where Nate, Fuzz and John all front 50’d the ledge.  Nate back 50d the double set one too.  So sick.  I tried to ollie the six stair after John did it, landed on it, but slammed and Neil had to tell me that he already ollied it and the double set and I shouldn’t have slammed.  I was over it after that.  After that Nate and I dorked out on the little blue ledge for awhile.  He almost got back 180 fakie 5-0 180 out.  I got into front blunt and kick back tail, but neither were close.  At the end of the session Nate and I played a game of SKATE that got cut off at SKAT – SKAT.  So that was my session and since this blog is all about me that’s all that happened.  Ha, oh wait here comes the good stuff.  Everyone else was ripping.  I must say I felt extra burnt out even though I like that park and I just didn’t seem to have much of a desire to really try.  Oh well, good stuff..Brian – first try front board, almost feeble down the rail, lots of tricks on the brick qpipe, slams ..Carleigh – boardslides down the little bar, pop shove down the six and two of the best bails I’ve ever seen.  Slide out before the six stair and boardslide to powerslide the little rail.Jason – Dropped in right at me and yelled at me for being in the park and trusting that a friend of mine probably wouldn’t run into me.  Wrong.  Ripped it though.  Full speed manual the black box.Neil – front tail and back blunt the bump to bar, buzz kill.Jack – ollie transfer at the top of the wallride/hip thing, front lip late shove, back blunt the double set hubba, nollie tre the 6, a lot moreNate – nollie front shove mannies every try, back 5-0 front shove out, back lip, boardslide up the tiny railFuzz – front blunt the little qpipe, everything i wanted to do first try, no ether though.John – Killed it.  bs ollies on the wallride, ollie over the tiny rail into the bank, no comply 270 back tail, so much more he was seriously killing it.Everyone ripped it, if there wasn’t 500 people there I could probably remember more of what my friends did ..

With a cameo from Fuzz!!!

Had a fun night with the kids after not seeing them for a week in Seattle.  We played kickball and my legs felt good after that.  I wasn’t gonna go skate, but used the excuse that I needed to deposit some checks and brought my board.  I tried to not take forever to warm up, but the first few ollies up a curb were wallies so it was scary.  I started over by Southside Cafe and ended up getting a couple decent runs for me.  Kickflip up a curb, nollie a crack (so sick ha), wallie a parking block/speed bump then ollie a pole thing by the cafe tables.  It was kinda scary because the landing was between two tables.  Coming the other way I did 180 over the pole, sw front 180 wallie, heeflip bail.  Coming back again I did a first try pop shove up the curb that surprised me, heelflip that also surprised me, wallie, pole ollie with an accidental bonk.  Sweet.  I ollied the pole one more time then left to the kicker area where I slammed a lot trying ollies.  I tried lots of ollies until I was finally happy that they were actually leaving the ground.  I tried a run with ollie, no comply, turn around b/s 180 into the kicker then fakie heel, but never got the fakie heel.  I tried that run a bunch which was nice to just stick with trying ollies.  Maybe I’ll learn to ollie before I’m 40.  At the very end I did a 360 flip in a narrow brick median by my car and left.  Stoked I got to skate for a little bit and how hard I skated.

Woke up in Seattle, ate a good breakfast, checked out of the hotel then walked/trained/flew/bus’d back home and my legs seemed happy to be back in the nice dry air of Colorado.  I didn’t want to wear the Etnies anymore because they were pretty blown out and my legs needed more support.  Seeing as how I have a stack of shoes at the moment I chose to rock some new eS La Brea shoes and their fake vulc goodness.  I picked up Jason and we met John at Valmont.  The mosquito population quickly discovered our whereabout, but it didn’t seem to really bother John and I too much.  After a minute Jason retreated to the car instead of skating.  He had already done front 50s, front tail, front nose, back nose, halfcab nose and back 50 anyway.  John did his patented sw slappy noseslides, fakie back tails, fakie front 50s and some other moves.  I struggled at front 50s, crooks, slow back 50s using my 90 degree approach, halfcab noseslides, etc.  After awhile John and I skated the low part of the kicker.  He hates doing tricks off drops, but managed front shove and kickflip pretty quick.  I did those as well, a lame halfcab and tried fakie bigspins unsuccessfully.  John put down a good halfcab and fakie ollie so I tried fakie ollie too and did the worst one ever before we left.  Sweet.  Coming home is nice.

Last full day in Seattle.  Spent the first part of the day thinking it was going to rain then eating and doing some kayaking.  Fun.  Later on Josh and I went to the “Lower Woodland” skatepark on a nice evening.  The park looked pretty awesome and I was kinda cruising around the outside looking at stuff, rolled off a ledge and ate shit hanging up on part of a inner tube from a bike.  Awesome.  Second time skating in a row where I fell on my knee/elbow immediately.  I didn’t get too bummed this time though as this skatepark seemed way funner than Seask8.  Josh was killing it out of the gates.  Boardslide transfers over the spine, front lips, rolling in, back lips on the bank to curb, everything.  The park was pretty crowded and weird to get used to.  Lots of kids doing flyouts.  I had a few wallies up the ledge.  Had a run going where I would rollin off the ledge turn on the jersey barrier, carve around, back 50 the qpipe then attempt to tail transfer the spine, but I only tried that a couple times before some kids started playing SKATE in the bowl and hogging it.  I got a couple axle stall transfers on the weird bank to bank kicker thing and boardslid the tiniest rail in the park.  Then got in a rut of trying to ollie the euro and front 50 the bank to curb.  Both took a depressingly long time.  I never got the front 50 but got a 5-0 to tail slop thing.  Josh was kind enough to cheer for me in between his ripping.  He was doing lots of no complys on the kicker thing and front 50s on the tall ledge.  The front and back lips on the bank to curb as well as the ollie transfer over the far hip thing were my favorites that Josh was doing and he had them on lock.  He also managed to slam insanely hard trying to gap to manual up the euro.  Near the end of the session I was too tired to really ollie and was just trying to no comply up the euro.  I did get a little line of b/s flip on the lower bank of the kicker thing then a boardslide down the little rail.  That park is really fun.  Josh killed it.  I sucked, but that park has so much fun stuff I wish I could skate it all the time.  I hate how jittery and heavy my legs feel when I’m away from home and have to walk everywhere.

Saw this on Jack’s blog and laughed forever.

If there was one day you could predict I’d be too tired/hungover to skate this year, the day after Josh’s wedding would be a pretty good bet.  Ha.  But Josh doesn’t drink anymore so I have no real excuse other than I really didn’t want to skate that park by myself again and I was really sore.

I wouldn’t have much of any time to skate today with Josh’s wedding so I went to the park at 9:00am.  Way to early to skate.  It was hot out and I was grouchy.  On my second warm up run I hit a rock and ate shit hard.  It pissed me off soooo bad I almost focused my board.  Instead I putzed around for another 30 minutes mostly just dorking around and landed some stuff I hadn’t done there before.  I skated the 2 foot qpipe at the base of the bank to ledge and had fun on that.  I got lots of Rampy tricks like fakie pivot fakie, front d, fakie hurricane and a front tailslide.  I also got a front 5-0 to back 5-0 to fakie over the spine thing and managed to finally ollie up onto that wave thing out of the bank.  Morning skating is the worst.

After a chill night of chillin’ (chill) on the rooftop of our hotel in Seattle JP showed up around 10 am for a little “bachelor/skate” jam.  Unfortunately he had a rolled ankle and Chief had banged up his knee so it wasn’t as epic as it could have been.   We hit up a manny pad from Cory Kennedy’s part in Sasquatch a bit before hitting the park.  That thing looked easy to skate from the hotel, but it wasn’t due to a weird metal stopper on the edge.  Josh mannied it, but that was all that went down.Off to the park it was real sunny and hot.  There was some girls skate clinic to add some non-stoke to the session.  For a rolled ankle Josh was skating good.  Back smiths on the tight qpipe at the top, front rock on the big qp and lots of good ollies over the hips.  He also got front 50 and front tail on the bank to ledge.  I was sucking.  It took me awhile to have fun.  I got a noseslide on the bank to ledge, halfcab 50 transfer the weird spine thing, kickturns slightly on the window, blah.  I started doing more flatground on the top to start runs and that helped out.  I eventually got a run of fakie bigflip, kickturn, ollie, ollie, blunt transfer, halfcab 50 transfer then a b/s flip on the curved flatbank.  I failed at getting a front 50 on the bank to ledge for awhile, but landed a lot of 360 flips to setup.  At the end Josh worked on back tail the bank to ledge and I tried f/s flip on the bank.  We put them down eventually and that be the session.

Brought the kids up to Silverthorne to meet my parents halfway to their place.  Liz and I were heading for Seattle that evening and my parents were watching the kids.  After dropping them off I skated the park for awhile.  I was feeling kind of jittery from coffee, driving and the added stress of catching a flight later that afternoon.  I ended up skating the park for a couple hours and having fun.  Highlights were grinding a taller part of the tranny, front rock and front tail on a little  section, rolling into the bowl area (which was terrifying for some reason), front tailslides on the new tiny hip quarterpipe thing, back scratcher grind on the pool coping, axle stall and rock ‘n roll on the blue noping section, wallride a rock to transfer on to a ledge and a run consisting of front tail on the tiny qpipe, crooks the ledge, ollie up the euro. Fun times.