Totally awesome dude, totally awesome part. Buy the darn DVD already.

Slept in kinda late after the Fort Collins session. I was less sore then I thought I would be. I can probably attribute that to stretching and doing a foam roller when I got home. It was the first Saturday where Neil was gone. I was sad. I played some nerf guns with Ollie, went to Meta to sell boards and did some cleaning around the house. I got out skating around 2pm on a cloudy and cool June day. I love cloudy days. I started slow, then eventually got into the whole ‘try a line forever until you get it’ mode. The first line was to ollie onto the bench in the top photo band back 180 off, then halfcab noseslide the ledge. I eventually got this. The ollie onto the first bench was hard for me, I was getting on at the crack. Next line, and I still can’t believe I did this one, was Front 50 the ledge in the bottom photo, front 180 up the 2 stair, halfcab flip into the handicap ramp then front board pop out the bench in the third video. That one took me awhile. Then I kinda messed around with flatground and ledge tricks for awhile. Did a bunch of crooks, a bad front nose, a backside axle stall (no grind, I’m terrified of back 50s on these benches for some reason), almost nollie var flip, sw var flip. Then I went to battle with the bench to picnic table combo in the second photo. It’s so hard for me. I was getting so sore and tired. I got onto the table a few times, but would barely make it and kind of roll the back trucks over the edge of the table. I wanted a clean one, but alas, I ended up going with one where I don’t even really know what happened. It wasn’t clean at all, but I got onto the table and I made it off. Good enough for me. Kind of a bummer I couldn’t land a treflip, but I was hyped that I skated as hard as I did. This spot is awesome.

Headed up to the wonderful city of Fort Collins on a friday night. The plan was to drop off boards, skate for awhile, then check out Taylor Dehart’s photo exhibit. After MRKT we parked a couple blocks away and found some random curb cut to dork around on. Jack did a cool slappy thing. I tried to copy and ATE SHIT. I guess I ran into part of the opposite curb cut and just slammed right into the uphill one. It hurt really bad.

Then we went to the mini slappy curb spot. The paint had chipped away quite a bit making it not quite as fun as when Chad and I discovered it a few weeks prior. Everyone was kinda doing their own thing. I had a run with a bad crooks and some slappies that ended up past the three stair area and down below. So fun, but I was still hurting pretty bad and wasn’t able to put my all into skating. Andy joined us! So stoked. Him and Rob were getting into some rad tricks on the ledge. Rob did back 50 then back smith and was looking like he was in the groove when disaster struck on a front 180 nosegrind and he slid out to his back and wrist. It was a brutal slam. Carleigh was doing slappies and skating flatground. Jack was doing long lines of flatground that were pretty amazing and Andy and I enjoyed the heck out of watching it. Back bigspin off the curb, halfcab flip, treflip, kickflip, cruising. We kinda skated the boardslide curb on the other side of the tracks. Jack did some cool 180 crooks, kickflips, bluntslides. Then we went back across the tracks and skated flat for quite some time. Jack, Rob and I played a game of SKATE that Jack won. We did a lot of 180 variations, I did my best 43 shifty ever, Jack and I got 3 flips, all 3 of us got b/s flips, Jack eventually won in the end with fakie tre. Rob and Andy chilled. Carleigh was doing kickflips followed by varial flips and put down a heelflip or two. Jack did a swtich tre, a fakie bigger flip, fakie cab bigspin and probably a million other tricks. I finally somewhat wore off the pain from the earlier slam. I fell a lot and some of them hurt way more then they should, but it was fun. I got a line of fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip. Also managed fakie bigflip, f/s h/c flip, some more and finished with a treflip. Could have gone without the harsh slam in the first minute of skating, but other then that it was fun.

This made my day

On the way back from our family vacation in Allenspark we went through Nederland and stopped at the skatepark. Ollie and I cruised around for awhile before the stoney baloneys came and bummed out Ollie. He was cruising around pretty good then did the 50-manny-50 and I felt like dad cam’ing it. So there it is above, for your viewing pleasure. Ha, the thing I’m actually the most stoked on is the backside carve after. I’ve never really seen him pump a corner like that. I was feeling pretty out of it and tired for some reason. I guess a few hikes and the higher altitude was messing with me. Plus, that park kinda blows. I managed some lines with front slashes since I’m trying to listen to Grosso and learn frontside grinds. I had a few front 50s on the ledge there and was trying to put together a line, but king stoner sitting on the ledge was bumming me out. I did a few back 50s on the mellow 7′ part of the deep bowl of poorly poured concrete. So anyways, yeah, not the finest session.

After unpacking, a nap, dinner, chilling I went out to Street League park and met up with Fuller, Dave and Matt. I didn’t skate well. Well I guess I actually kinda started ok with some front 50s and crooks on the ledge, but then after that ollie’ing was super hard. The only other thing I did I was remotely hyped on was kickflip to fakie on the wedge kicker thing. John cruises that park pretty well. Did front shove fake on the wedge, front 50s on multiple ledges, ollied into the euro and was extra chatty. Ha. Dave put down some textbook front smiths on the one qp, got a ollie up to fakie back 50 on the wedge and I can’t think of much more, but he was skating well. Matt back 50’d the entire main ledge 2nd try then tried to say it was hard. He front 50’d the one on the other side later, had a lot of solid tricks throughout the park and back 50’d the big hubba. Gnar! We ended with a game of SKATE that didn’t go so well for me, but was fun and John ended up taking it with an impossible.

Today was the first day of vacation I’ve used all year at work. We were going to head up to the foothills and stay in a cabin after lunch so I felt like skating early in the morning. Ollie was down to join. We went to Broomfield thinking there wouldn’t be a big skate camp there. Wrong. So then we drove to Westy and basically had the park to ourselves until the last couple minutes. I had new shoes. Those Adidas did not lost long at all which is pretty lame considering you look like a jock in them. Speaking of lame, my new shoes. Emerica Provost’s. They are not good shoes. But it’s what I ended up with this time around. I didn’t skate very good, but did a few things that made it seem alright. Like 50’ing that hubba (it’s so low to get on), front 50 the taller cement ledge at the park and ollie the flat gap. I was gonna boardslide the tiny rail if I landed a threeflip first try, but still wussed out when I did. Doh. Ollie was skating well for him. The boardslide was probably the highest one he’s done. He pushed regs a little, manualled some funny things, had come nice halfcabs and seems natural flowing around the park. Fun kickoff to our family vacation.

Up early in the morning again. Roxborough is a TF favorite and we thought the Fremonsters would enjoy. Rob and Neil met up and we took off with Ollie too. The drive was a pretty one and the park was almost empty when we showed up. It’s been way too long since the session to remember what to write about. Eric mostly skated the bowl he’s dropping into. Dan came through with the surprise again and fakie tail stalled the stallion. Sick! Joe and Dan were boardsliding the rails easy. Matt was popping up onto the ledge too. Rob, Neil and I were just kinda cruising doing lines. We tried some ollies on a hump at one point. Ollie was carving around good and having fun, but his allergies went nuts and he had to go chill in the car. Doh. It was a fun session, that park is a fun warmup.

Then we drove back to Boulder, dropped off Ollie and picked up Lazer and went to the research center ledge. Matt went off. Long front tail, nollie front 5-0, and filmed a banger line. Joe did a textbook fakie front 50 bigspin out amongst like 100 other tricks. Lots of chilling went down. I was the opposite and got super mad at skatebaording, but once I was done acting like a baby it started to be fun. Just in time to go.

Then we went to Longmont for one of our favorite spots in the area. We ended up staying for quite some time and closed out the trip there. Several others joined us and people would be skating the bank while others were skating the ledge while others were skating flatground. I was so sore that I decided an Ibuprofen was in order. It helped a lot. I was almost going to sit, but ended up skating alright for me. Beat Joe and John in a game of SKATE, got front 5-0 shove on the ledge and had fun. Dan manualled all of the ledges. Joe did front lip to front 50 to front board. Take that Lakai! Matt almost did nollie heel noseslide, almost b/s double flip over a median, so much more. Lazer died on a crooks. John did a bunch of no comply boneless variations on the bank. Eric skated the bank too and filmed for awhile. Near the end we had a game of CHODE which is only dork tricks. Basically the funnest thing ever. Then the night was upon us and we bolted for a fun get together at Fuzz’s. The only bummer is it celebrated Neil’s going away. Which means he moved. Which means he wont be the first person to text me ever Saturday. Gonna miss him! Epic times with the Fremont crew, they are some of the greatest people to skate with. Can’t wait to skate with them again soon (I hope).

Woke up early and got here around 9am. We drove through a rain storm and the park was wet when we got there. Dan, Matt and I messed around with no complys on a dry patch of sidewalk for awhile to try and get warmed up. I had some dangerous bails and my body let me know it was not rested or happy I was skating again after six hours the night before. I didn’t do anything worth writing about. Joe was a board sliding machine. Dan and Neil were doing boardslide transfers on the flat bar. Matt was ripping everything. Eckert was carving the snake run. I had to leave after about an hour to head back to Boulder and see India graduate middle school. So crazy.

While I was gone Neil brought the fremonsters to the arvada foundation spot and it sounded like they loved it. I met up with them at Crisis and we went across the street to Safeway ledges. Not the best session of the trip. Dan slammed right away. Joe did like 100 tricks though. Matt tried an uphill line. Neil sat. Blake and Alec ollied stuff.

Then we deciding to drive while it was raining to Denver since we had an in to the new Bad Egg pool through Tim. It was a risk. First, it was raining and second I didn’t know if any of the Fremonsters would like it. It was a good sign when we started getting close and saw sunlight and somehow pulled into a dry pool. It ended up being an incredible session. I’ve never heard so many people say “this is the best session ever”, “this is the best skate day”, etc, etc. Everyone carved tile in the deep end. I don’t remember all that much as I’m writing this way too many days later. But I found photos of everyone on facebook and that helps make it easy. Eckert killed it. I think he got most of his patented tricks. Rock fakie, halfcab rock, front slash, fakie pivot, more.

I had a blast too. Got some back 50s in the shallow end pretty quickly then struggled with them later on. Got a couple non-decked front rocks, a front slash, some fun carves and was just stoked the crew was happy with the spot.

Tim rules! He didn’t even skate hard, but he slayed it. He was more on baby duty watching his new little guy. So rad. He was on the tile more then he was in the flats. It was amazing.

Matt got a line or two that I’m drawing a blank on right now. He ripped it.

Neil had a tough time with the grinds initially, got scared to drop in for awhile, then figured everything out and had some really good long runs. So gonna miss Neil.

Dan was the surprise here. I thought after looking at the pool he didn’t even want to skate. Doh. But little by little he kept improving and before long he was doing ollie to front smith and ollie to front d in the same line. He ollied into the deep end and was carving like he claims to have never before.

Carleigh slashed the deep end in her first run, had a lot of grinds and did a proper back 50 in the deep. So sick.

Ashley also ripped it. She is just a few months after having a baby and has a torn ACL, but was still charging it. At one point Dan said one of this funniest quotes of the night. He asked Carleigh if she had the same Null wheels as him, then he asked Ashley if she just had a baby, yeap. So then he said “Apparently I need to inspect my wheels and have a baby then maybe I can grind this.” So funny. Ashley worked on layback grinds for awhile and got a super good one in the end.

Joe made a lot of jokes about how there is not transition in Nebraska and the first time he carved tile in the deep end he stopped and said “I touched tile, I don’t even care anymore, I’m too stoked.” It was awesome. He got quite a few tricks and almost finished with a Joe Hamilton at closing time.

Man we had fun. So happy the Fremonsters loved the pool and can’t wait to go back there.

Wowsers here we go. Three days of skating with Matt, Joe, Eric and Dan from Fremont/York Nebraska. These guys are as skate rat as it comes and the expectations were that they would skate well into the night. It started around 4pm at the Lafayette park which was the meeting place. I arrived first, Fremonsters next, Fuzz, Carleigh, Neil and more would follow. I don’t even know where to begin on trying to document all the skating. Everyone kinda did their thing for awhile. Matt and Joe were hitting the rails and hubbas pretty quick which amazed me after a 7 hour drive. I hubba session went down. Joe was doing front 50 so easy. Fuzz got it too. I could not commit. Doh. I was quite a bit bummed. Fuzz and Joe went on to do double front slips (Joe down, Fuzz bump to ledge). So sick! Carleigh, Fuzz and Neil carved over the China bank bench. Fuzz went frontside too. So gnarly. I struggled with fakie flips on the bank to get me motivated to carve over it, but I never got it. Dan got a sick front board 270 shove out, and I boardslide the bump to ledge. Matt was doing all kinds of tricks. Then we all seemed to hit the toilet bowl for awhile. Or at least most of us. Fuzz had super good ollies to front d on the rock (photo above). Eric, Fuzz and I rolled in over the parking blocks which was really fun. I got a front smith in the corner and front d on the parking blocks like Fuzz. Dan had the sickest fakie rock to 360 back to rock. Then a large game of SKATE/flatground session started with Carleigh’s girl friends and everyone. Joe landed his first ever heelflip. We played a game of SKATE and Dan did casper flip and I somehow landed it. I was super hyped on that. Also got a 3 flip and the win. The lights went off kinda soon.

So then we went to Street League park. Keep in mind I had already skated almost 5 hours. Yikes. Street League park was empty. Insane. Josh Steele me up with this there. Him and Richard could skate the park to it’s potential. Richard had nice back 5-0 and nosegrinds (photo above) without using the kickers. Joe had mad ledge tricks and boardslide the up/down of the little wide rail. Matt had long feebles on the flat bar, nollie crooks, nollie noseslide, a ton of stuff. I’m not remembering exactly what Dan did, but I’m thinking there was a front 5-0 to front board and maybe a front nosegrind to front board too. Neil was slaying it. Front nosegrind the ledge, boardslide down the little rail, lipslides on the ledges, ollie one foots, ripping. Eric and I messed around on the big kickers. We didn’t didn’t get many points, but we had fun. I got a sloppy kickflip to fakie front the high kicker to the low kicker. Eric was doing manuals up to side rocks and maybe even manual down. Josh came out slaying with lots of basics down the medium sized rail and some really gnarly slams. I got really frustrated on a kickflip from the upper bank to the lower bank. Finally got a couple. Got the bump to front 50 on the benches. Pretty fun. I should probably skate there more as the ledges are so good. I saw Matt front 50 like 30 feet to front tail. So sick. Josh did some amazing flatground to end the night. What a fun first day of their visit. I didn’t skate very well, but it was fun and just being around those guys is a hoot.