After work I met Liz and India at Wahoo’s to celebrate India’s first day of high school. So crazy. I was really tired, but right after I went to Rock Creek to meet up with Rob, Fuzz, Carleigh and Chelsea (I think). My first run made me feel good then it was kinda downhill from there with the exception of some little ollies and front disasters. Carleigh got into a bunch of front 50s and had apparently landed one earlier in the session. Her friend Chelsea seemed rad and was skating good. Rob got into some steez machine back smiths and had a rather lofty backside ollie that he said was nothing. Ha. Fuzz was killing it and also had the worst slam I’ve seen him take in forever. Blunt fakie, halfcab blunt fakie, huge ollie to front disaster, frontside ollies, a lot more. I forget what the slam was on, but it was right after yelling an F-bomb which he tried to take back from disturbing the peace in quaint little Superior. Ha. It got dark. I skated flat while others talked.

On the way back to Boulder it was still wet so I went to Red Curbs. I quickly discovered that my insole experiment of trying the actual Es insoles was not a good idea, but I kept skating anyways. Mostly just did slappy front 50s (well, ride on front 50s), back 50s, front 5-0s and slappy crooks. But had a few other tricks thrown in like back 50 front 180 pivot out, ollie over the two cones stacked sideways on each other, manuals, etc. It was fun.

On a rainy night I gave India a ride to ballet with Jake then stopped by Meta, dropped off some goods, picked up Matt and we headed to Red Curbs. Matt had never been there before. I had a lot of new stuff. Those shoes are way brighter then they look too. They are ridiculous. Herman G6 Vulc. Also put some new 52mm Nulls on because my last set had worn down into the mid/upper 40s. They felt and looked huge! Ha. Oh and some old PJ trucks because I had worn my previous set of Ventures to the axle (unheard of for me). Anyways I set the tone for myself on my very first push around the spot by slamming onto my elbow on the edge of the curb on a slappy crooks. Matt quickly front 180’d the median and ollied some tall cones. Had some sick fakie nosegrinds, front 5-0 180, switch back 50, probably much more. Slammed prety hard without his wrist guard a few times. Doh. Jake gets better every time he skates. Front tails, front 180 over two sideways cones piled up, halfcab over that too, almost a kickflip manual, got into fakie back lips, his new trick the fakie bigger flip, fakie front tail, a treflip and more. I slammed and struggled all night. Managed to ollie the sideways cones, a couple 3 flips, slappy crooks, ride on front 50s and a few other basic flippers.

I set up a lovely 8″ board. Jake showed up in the early evening and we went out to skate flatground. The joy of skating an 8″ board again was so incredible. I landed so many tricks first try and everything felt good. There was a kickflip that could have made my night all by itself, but it was joined with multiple treflips and many more flippers. Jake was skating well too. We started a game of SKATE as we waited for Matt. We both landed tricks that can often get us letters. I got Jake and S on a treflip and he got me an S on a fakie treflip (first one I’ve seen Jake do. Nice!) then Matt showed up and we left for Denver.

We went to this spot first. It was covered in debris from the tree so we didn’t skate around too much, mostly just hit this ledge. Matt tried to be a rebel and skate the whole spot at one point and slammed so hard pushing. It was brutal. He still skated good. Manualled the bottom block, back tail, manualled a bit of the top block after a quick up. I landed quite a few back 50s, chinese nollie to front tail, front 5-0s, crooks. Jake had back 50s, fakie front 50 halfcab out. Jake and Matt ollied onto the low block, then the upper block, and did tricks off. Jake did front 180 and tried nollie. I took about 30 minutes longer to get onto the top deck. Got front 180 and landed on back 180, but bailed.

Then we went to the Denver Art Museum. I saw Jake do some manuals across some ledges, ollie a narrow part of a ledge and front board a narrow part. I was having troubles seeing the poorly lit ledges. Jason always used to say I had horrible night vision. I probably don’t see any worse then others, I just am not very good at skateboarding and night vision sounds like a legit excuse. Anyways, geez. I skated kind of slow and slammed on a front board, couldn’t manual a whole ledge. But I did have a fun line of 360 flip, ollie up a ledge, over a little gap to manual the next part. Matt skated the best I’ve seen him skate. It was crazy. He was flying all over the place ollieing ledges, manualling them, nose manualling some. He was skating so hard he even broke his board. It was a Null board so you know he was skating hard because those things never break. Then we went to Black Dots/Cheap Girls which was a blast. I got home at 3:30am. Monday at work sucked extra bad.

Put my old 8″ Ventures on a 8.25″ board. The board looked so small. I skated in front of the house for a bit before Ollie was ready to leave for a short Louisville session. I was able to ollie while hitting the tail again (ha), kickflips felt easier, halfcab flip felt great. I did end up liking how Indy’s turned, but for now I’m just gonna skate the Ventures and not think of getting 8″ Indys unless I actually end up disliking the Ventures (unlikely). We went to Lville. We skated the skate run thing first. It was fun. The Ventures carve differently then Indys, but the grind felt better and I actually landed tricks I got into instead of just stopping. Ollie pumped better then he has in awhile and followed some lines I showed him to keep his speed more. I got a front d, but bailed out of roll ins. Thanks JP. Ever since making that roll in bet I’ve been completely unable to commit to a roll in. Goofed around on the street section for awhile. Didn’t do anything special and definitely noticed that crooks are harder to get into with a smaller truck. But it was cool. Ollie had some nice front 180’s off the ledge. We were both so tired from vacation and driving that we called really quick.

After getting out of work early on a hot Friday I went to Crisis to sell boards and hang out with one of my favorite dudes. I ended up being there for quite a while. Then I went to the Broomfield park for what turned into a pretty depressing session. I skated the black ledge for awhile. Managed to back 50 it a few times which is tall for me. Especially considering how bad I was skating. Got a line of front 5-0, kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank then halfcab noseslide on the black ledge. Then I went up to the bowl area. Had fun pumping around it. Did some back 50s in the corner I hadn’t before. Tried to roll in and totally failed (thanks JP). Then took a really long time to do a axle stall on the pool coping section. As bad as I skated I still felt somewhat stoked when I left. Maybe I was happy because I realized I haven’t been skating parks lately? Cool.

Got out of that customer conference in Longmont around lunch time and had a bit of time to kill before going back to work. I went to meet Dave at the covered pavilian and skate flat, but there was a bunch of people there. So naturally we skated this huge hubba across the street instead. It was kinda funny. Two 40+ year old dudes trying to slide a totally dry curb in front of a church. We ended up waxing them and almost got it, but got the boot instead. You had to drop off the first stair then slide down the rest. Then I went back to work.

After work I stopped at the research center ledge which was nice and shady. I ended up starting in back area with all the electrical boxes trying some dumb quick feet stuff. Ollie off a little drop, manual a curb then immediately roll off a two stair. Then I tried to ollie onto a narrow curb high slab and ollie down to another one. But ultimately I just went to disaster instead because I was too scared to land in such a narrow space. Then I did a couple crooks and moved up to the hill to do flatground. And wow I really sucked. I could not do a halfcab flip or fakie big flip easily. Those use to be staples of mine. Argh. I did not feel confident at all and I was super sore. Yeah arthritis. My stubborn ass stuck with it though. Eventually got a few treflips and had some lines with 3 or 4 flippers down the hill. Also got a swtich varial flip going really slow up the hill. Ended with a back 50, called it a day then went home and watched BATB7 with Ollie which was insanely fun to watch.

A gloomy start to a Saturday, but it ended up being super nice out. Neil, Blake, Rob, Ollie, Lazer and I started at CU. We messed around at the Physics building (I think?). Some little ollies up curbs, down, up ledges, etc. Everyone seemed to be struggling a bit. Lazer slammed on a nosebonk, but ended up ollie’ing a the gap over the ledge. Cops drove by and as Carleigh arrived told us that we couldn’t do any “acrobatic skateboarding”. After watching us skate for awhile clearly doing tricks. I guess they weren’t acrobatic enough. Anyways, we moved up near the student center. Rob no complied up a 3 stair, Lazer had a steezy ollie down it. I tried a line of riding through the skate stoppers then something off the bench, but it didn’t work so well. Then the cops came by again and gave us the official boot. Doh.

We went to Casey. It was a strugglefest. I ended up just skating flatground. I got through a quite a few of them and got stuck on treflips. Then I cracked my new board on treflips. Doh. It wasn’t bad at all though. I started getting really frustrated with my trucks as they weren’t turning tight enough and sat down for awhile as most everyone else was too. Ollie was playing basketball. Rob was crossing a dream trick off his list though. Wallride nollie out. He got a few. So sick! Looks for the documented proof in a Gnarly Carleigh photo somewhere, sometime.

Next up was the bank to curb/ledge. On the way there I stopped at home and grabbed my Venom bushing that I liked in my Ventures and put them in my Royals. Then they were super loose and I was hyped on them! Neil was having a tough day which is a bummer since it’s one of his last weekends before moving to Hawaii. He did manage to lipslide the two stair and front tail the curb though. Blake did his front 50 transfer again, almost dieing on some attempts. Lazer was boardsliding for miles. I managed quite a few tricks on the curb; front board to forward, switch boardslide, front tails with no slide, and geez, I guess that’s it. Probably not “quite a few” after all. I also got noseslide and boardslide on the taller part which hyped me up. Rob had a nice back feeble that grinded pretty far. Carleigh chilled and snapped photos. She wasn’t skating much because she hurt her elbow.

Then we went to Southern Hills after a stop at Que’s to say hi to Jack and then picking up Jake. I engaged in some of Colorado’s finest with Lazer and Rob and it made for an interesting session for me. My heart was pounding and I thought I would pass out, but man I felt extremely motivated to skate. Jake was killing it out of the gates. Rob went nuts too. It was a great session and a lot went down that’s hard to remember. Jake tre flipped into the handicap ramp, front tail and front tail to fakie on the ledge, quite a few fakie flips, halfcab boardslide, probably a lot more. Rob had some really long runs. Tricks like front shove out of the handicap ramp, kickflip into it, front noseslide on the bench, back noseslides, no complies. I’m blowing it on remember what all he did, but he was honestly skating some of the best I’ve seen him skate. Almost stomped a varial heel out of the handicap ramp. I tried a bunch of lines. First the ollie onto the narrow bench, kickflip off and back 180 off the 2 stair, but I kept not rotating enough on the back 180 and slamming so I gave up on that. Slammed hard trying to kickflip into the handicap ramp. Ha. Did some lines with heelflips or treflips to start then noseslide/boardslide/crooks on the bench. Or started with front board on the bench of the picnic table. Came really close to a line of halfcab flip into the handicap ramp then front 50 shove out on the bench. Lazer didn’t skate much and Carleigh kept it mellow with some ollies and cruised around a little. Blake had left. Ollie too. At the end Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It was a fun one, that I finally won. He normally beats me. I got Jake to do a f/s halfcab flip which he hasn’t done in forever. He got me on a treflip. I have decided to not try varial flips in SKATE anymore because when I don’t land them I get really mad. Anyways yeah, what a long day of skating. Felt great, weather was great, tight crew, good times.

Setup a new 8.38 and put some shorts on for a brief flatground session. I was still feeling arthritic and only did a couple kickflips. It was more shove its, 180s, bigspins, halfcabs.

Had a busy morning of homeowner fun attempting to seal a leaky roof near the stack pipe. It was ok. Then headed to Crisis with Ollie and met up with Rob, Blake and Neil. We went to Safeway ledge first so Ollie sat in the car. He don’t like ledges yet. Ha. I was on an 8.5 board and setup new Null wheels. I was out of 8.3″ boards and didn’t want to go down to 8.25. And since most of the wheels I have skated lately have been 50mm (and worn down) the 52mm Nulls felt big. So my setup felt pretty large and I felt it. I didn’t do much new, but came closer to locking in good smith grinds.

Neil was slaying it. He was happy to be skating again and it showed. Lipslides, boardslide a crazy display rack, front tailslides, fast and poppy. Blake mostly skated the display case and got boardslides too. He got pretty close to crooks as well which would have been gnarly. Rob is the man. He almost did back 180 to fakie smith grind 180 out. Or something, I don’t even know but it was cool. He also had some good front noseslides on the fence ledge and a million other tricks on the regular ledge.

Then we went to this bank spot. People seemed bummed on it at first because there was dirt everywhere, but we stuck with it and it ended up being my favorite part of the day. We mostly skated it to the left of the stairs and dirt. Neil had some nice one foots to fakie and a kickflip fakie. Rob got some rad backside one foots, back kickflip, back big, some type of boneless variation. Blake had a back kickflip, back heeflip and a front 360. Tight. Oh yeah we were skating it in lines. Trick on flat then trick on the bank after awhile too. I had a kickflip to fakie, line of no comply 180 then fakie flip on the bank, heelflip on flat then alley oop back kickflip (I guess like a back 270 kickflip). Had a bunch of great feeling halfcab flip too. Couldn’t get a treflip though. Blake ollied the 4 stair, I bailed. Things started going downhill for me then. Ollie was killing the grassride game. Front 180 into the grassride, fakie ollie into it, and even a fakie shove into it with a sketchy ride out. People were hyped.

Then we went to this spot. I’ve filmed here a lot and barely skated it. I was super sore and it didn’t get much better then that. I couldn’t manual it to save my life. I ended up giving up and settling for a couple ollies onto it then ride onto the middle stair and back 180 off and also front 180 off into the parking lot. Very frustrating session for me. I should listen to my body and not skate. Ollie was hyped on the spot. He didn’t ollie up, but he did lots of back/front 180s and halfcabs onto the lower stair. He also rode onto the lower stair into manual. Rob got manual drop down to the lower stair, and I want to say he manualled the lower stair too. Neil got nose manual and more. Blake killed the game with manual to 5-0, lipslide the 2 stair then pull up and was the last one skating. He better be right, he’s only 17! Ha.

After a lazy snowy saturday I went out to Rampy to break a bunch of new stuff in. I had liked my “test” big board enough that I wanted to keep with it. Which meant I wanted to get off those Ace trucks as quickly as possible. Thanks to Emage for having Venture Wides in stock. Another 8.4 board (I can’t do 8.25 with the big trucks because I hate seeing the wheels past the board), new Venture wides, same 51mm STFs I had with my last setup. I also put in the original thick insoles that come with the Stratfords to try and help soreness. I skated in them, but decided after they are too thick.

Ok eh, enough talking about my setup and on to the show. I mean the bad skating. I was really tired. Probably still from the marathon old man/lady night. Anyways the board felt good on Rampy. I like how Ventures turn so much more the Ace. I didn’t do anything new on trannie, but I had some alright runs. Did a few tiny f/s ollies. Flatground went pretty good. Took a bit for kickflips, but most of the awkwardness I felt was due to the thick insoles, not the setup. I did manage f/s and b/s flips first try which really surprised me. Got a couple 3 flips and hucked a few tricks. Then went in and watched MIB 2 with the kids and ate tons of popcorn. Man I love popcorn.