Escaped for a bit with Ollie to the school about 30 feet from my brother’s house. This is there and as fun as it looks. An uphill approach makes it hard to have speed, but it’s good. Ollie did fakie shove and shove over the hip. Then spent a lot of time filming me trying to do a back 270 kickflip which I would eventually land. But it’s an over 40 make with a lot of slow pivot action. Oh well, I’m hyped to have done that trick. I also did a boneless and we called it a session.

After a long drive down from Door County to my brothers house in Waunakee I hit the park solo. There was actually a few people there when I arrived. A few old dudes! I was hyped, there were three dudes who all looked at least 30, one might have even been pushing 50. I warmed up on the ramp which is one of the best ramps around. A tiny bit mellow, but man, so fun. I did quite a few tricks and had fun. Then went onto the flatground and missed a couple kickflips in a row. UGH.

Oh yeah, my shoe was dieing.

I should have stuck to the ramp, but I’m stubborn. All the old dudes left and a younger dude arrived. I kept struggling and my toe coming through my shoe was bumming me out. I had a good feeling kickflip to fakie on the bank and a halfcab noseslide on the ledge. Other then that nothing felt so great. The slight downhill of the park messed with my front 50s. Oh well, glad I got out there a little.

Woke up at 6 am. India is sick so she wasn’t getting up any time soon and I had time to go skate if I wanted to. So I went to check out this nearby little park. It was what one would expect, but the concrete is kinda rough. I felt like skating the ledge and flatground, but since it was 7am it wasn’t easy. The first few front 50 attempts were sketchy. There were a couple other boxes people had brought too. Tried b/s nosegrind across a really small one, but failed. Got a few ledge tricks. Noseslide, noseslide fakie, halfcab noseslide, crooks, back 50 (worst one ever done), front 50, front 50 front 180 out, front 50 shove, front 5-0, front 50 to front board, almost front 50 kickflip out. Tried to ollie a middle sized ledge that was there and failed. Got an ollie onto the ledge and noseslide the taller ledge off. Manualled the main ledge with a tiny tilt. Flatground went ok. Got a treflip or two. Halfcab flip, etc. Not liking my setup currently. Mostly I just hate how large my wheels feel which is pretty pathetic considering they are only 52s.

Went to campus after hanging with the families all day.  Was tired and felt weird being solo on a nearly vacant campus.  I started by the student center where I saw this amazing view. 

I walked up a hill and was surprised to find this.  I warmed up with a line of ollie down a three stair, kickflip on flat, noseslide the ledge.  Fun.  I was still feeling weird, no one was around.  I sucked at front 50s and the ledge didn’t grind as good as it looks.  For a few crooks.  Tried a line of front 50 then, treflip on flat the ollie up the three.  But never got the tre.  Thought I saw a cop coming so I skated off.

Found this next.  I seem to remember skating this about 10 years ago when my brother first moved back to Wisconsin.  There is a huge crack and weird gutter in front of it so I couldn’t just get on it. So I tried from the second stair going sideways.  Took awhile but I eventually got a front 50 coming out before the stair on the last stair.  Grinding granite is so fun. Then I went for back 50.  Even though I normally take a huge angle into back 50s this was weird.  Kinda got a back 50 and moved on to one of the spots I knew I would skate.

Pretty darn dark.

Looks bright with the flash on.

This bench has been there since the first time I skated in Madison.  It’s not lit well.  The drop on the other side is kinda weird.  Again, no one was around so it was weird.  I skated it for awhile and got some basic.  Boardslide, noseslide, noseslide fakie, crooks, front 50, front 50 180, front 50 shove, front 5-0, halfcab noseslide, tried back 50, but gave up on it. 

I walked by my car and was super tired and almost left.  But I was near this spot and wanted to skate it.  Messed around for a bit then settled on a line that took awhile.  Ollie up the curb, ollie up the two (going fast for me), treflip on flat then ollie the three.  Treflips weren’t working but when I finally got it it felt great.  Then I ollied the rock off the two stair, got booted and left.

Glad I got out.  Could have gone without running into spiderwebs everywhere I went, but if well.

Iowa City skatepark.  On our drive to Wisconsin we stopped for food in Iowa City.  We randomly drove by the skatepark and I had the family drop me off.  It was hot and humid, I had car legs, and as you can see this skatepark looks like crap.  The bottom of the main crappy bowl area was covered in a film of crap left over from water that apparently occupied the park for awhile.  I pumped around on some stuff getting the legs going then hit the ledges and flatground.  This park might suck but it had over 5 good ledges.  Where you at Team Pain?  I had some noseslides to get going then some crooks.  Out of nowhere did a great run for me.  Front 180 into a bank, halfcab flip on flat, crooks, 360 flip.  I was really hyped.  I posed some hardflips on a mellow backside bank and think I may have gotten closer to figuring out that trick.  Also got front 50 followed by crooks on the little ledge.  Close to front 5-0, as the family pulled up I got a front 50 shove.  Stoked I forced myself to skate the ledges even though they felt tall.  The kid waxing was with a friend.  Neither of them could ollie, but they waxed everything.

Picked up Derek on the way  to the meeting spot Sol.  We were there first so we skated the ramp for awhile.  My first few runs were terrifying.  That ramp hates me.  I would go on to have some mediocre runs with a couple basic tricks in them and got stuck on front ds.  Skated flat and did several treflips with my hands touching the ground.  That seems to be how I do them now.  Derek laughed and giggled his way through lots of tricks.  Front 5-0 to fakie, switch front 5-0, kickflip to fakie and much more.  Carleigh showed and skated a bit too.  She wanted to carve over middle section, but didn’t commit. Riley showed and we left for fort Collins.

Spring Canyon was empty when we got there and I was immediately blown away by how insanely good Derek and Riley were skating.  They were ollieing the kicker to kicker gap so easy in lines.  Dana and his friend Hayden showed as well as a few more dudes.  Seeing Dana skate in person finally was pretty awesome.  He killed it.  Him and Riley fed off each other and Dana got Riley hyped for a big boneless over the door.  Riley pretty much killed everything.  Flatground, ledges, the door.  It was crazy.  Halfcab noseslide nollie heelflip out, pop shove nosegrind, hc noseslide bigspin out.  Derek 180 nose manualed the potato chip which was insane.  Back smith the ledge and a lot more.  Carleigh boardslid the rail, noseslid the ledge, took some photos, loaned me her flash (ha).  I didn’t skate great, but it was fun.  Landed a lot more treflips, some without putting my hands down.  Tried front 5-0 kickflip out for awhile, got kind of close.  Did a line with manual then kickflip on the end of the wide qp.  My new wheels still feel huge and my shoes are too bright.  Oh well.  Fun time, good weather, good crew, good park.