Went to Lafayette on a cold night. Was maybe going to meet Dave there, but he couldn’t get out that early. I arrived around 8:30 to a completely empty skatepark. Wow. I cruised around in ways I have never before there. I wanted to do a few of the flyouts like all the little kids do over the hump at the entrance of the park, but I can’t pump or pop so I came up short every time. Kind of a bummer considering every 12 year old kid that’s normally there wearing full pads can do it every time. I had fun though. It was the first time I was there with a bigger board and it felt a little weird at times. Good though.

The lights shut off at 9 so I headed to Longmont to meet up with Dave in a parking garage I have never skated before, but Dave has been saying how good it was for a couple years now. He wasn’t kidding, it’s a good one. Several perfect parking blocks and wood to make manny pads and wallrides with. We were both kind of doing our thing for awhile getting warmed up. Slappy crooks, wallies, manuals and more. I ollied a little median and tried a kickflip on flat and SNAP cracked the tail almost clean off. No! Luckily I had an old deck in my car as backup. Aka the board that will never die that I skated in Rochester a couple years ago. After that I laid off the flip tricks for the most part. We arranged some wallie/grind to wallride options seen in the photo and man it was fun. I got wallie to f/s wallride. Then Dave did a sick front 50 to wallride.

We filmed it for the Crisis spring break street trick contest. Cool. Then Dave started trying a line of manual the wood we setup across the parking block followed by a wallie off the parking block to b/s wallride on the wood (photo above). As he did that I tried no comply to front tails. I got one. Dave said we should film it.

So 55 tries later I got it. That 55 is not a joke. I counted because they are all on my phone. Dave is a trooper for hanging in there and filming it. Landing it was an absolutely great feeling though. Regardless of how dorky or dumb it looks it was an incredibly hard and rewarding trick. After that Dave filmed his line all steezy and almost got slappy crooks back 180 out. I got remotely close to slappy front crooks. I did quite a few flippers by the end. They didn’t feel great though. Dave had some sick nose manuals. We had lots more lines/combos on the wallrides/parking blocks just skating. One I got was slappy crooks, b/s wallride, wallie. Twas fun. I was trying nose manuals too when the lights shut off. It was around midnight. Wow, that’s a lot of skating. I have to admit that filming a trick is a neat feeling. I got home and was climbing into bed at 1:30 when my work phone went off. So I got no sleep. Ugh, horrible. But the great skate session kept me feeling alright.

On a cloudy morning I woke up really early and have the late shift for work (9:30 am). So I went to Boulder park armed with an arsenal of barely used shoes to see what I liked best. I went with some Lakai Picos first and ended up sticking with them. They weren’t perfection, but they were much better then the Fallen Vibes. I cruised around the park for awhile kind of surprised at how slow my wheels were. I guess they are getting pretty small now. I really didn’t do a whole lot. All of the tricks I had in my head on the way there didn’t seem obtainable (back 50 the deep end mainly). To my surprise I did flip tricks for awhile and perhaps did my first ever 3 flip before 9am. At one point I was cruising around the back of the park and nailed my head on a tree branch that sticks in. Ouch. Just a little goose egg and a tiny amound of blood. The funnest thing I did was drop of a ledge in the far NW corner of the park to a quick roll into the middle part of the bowl. Then I went to get some water and get stuck talking to one of the dudes lurking at the park drinking Steel Reserve.

New shoe blues with the Fallen Vibes. I was the first of us old dudes there. I slammed on an axle stall on the quartapotty to start the session. Not a good omen. It didn’t get much better then that for me. There were some other older dudes that were really good. As Rob would say later, I felt more intimidated about sucking in front of good old dudes then good young kids. Doh. Anyways, we skated. The crew was Dave, Rob, Eric and I. Dave kinda destroyed the hump on top of the bowl. Bluntslide 270 out, proper back tailsldes. I got a line of f/s halfcab flip on flat, roll into the little 3 foot section between the pool and bowl, ride around, boardslide down the tiny rail, front rock the brick qp, b/s 90 flip to halt flyout. Ha. I haven’t skated with Eric much, but he’s got moves for sure. Rob had a real cool old guy trick that I can’t remember now. Like a sweeper slide of some sort on the hump. Halfcab boardslides on the slanted brown ledge. Lots of good. At the end I tried a line of f/s kickflip on the hump followed by front 50 on the pier 7 ledge. I got close, but didn’t land it, got mad and made myself try the 6 stair which I failed at. I committed, but didn’t ride away. I blame the shoes as I was coming disconnected with the board. The main lights shut off and I still hadn’t gotten my March new flip trick. I tried a few fakie double flips in the little light, but couldn’t get one. So I started trying kickflip sex changes and got a couple. Rad! I don’t believe I have done that before. It’s possible, but I’m gonna count it as a new one.

I had such a bad time in those shoes that it is unlikely I will keep skating them. In fact I might not even skate cups anymore. Why can’t skate shoe brands make as good of cup soles as NB+? Argh.