After a 303 mission Matt and I skated a couple blocks away from the ‘only spot in denver’. We hit the curved ledge mostly. Matt front tailed it real quick. By the end he added back tails, 50s both ways and front 5-0 too. Chadman met up with us pretty much right away. He was more cruising all over the place. I had new shoes and a new board.

Lakai Guy XLKs and the board I setup was 8.1 instead of 8.0. It shouldn’t make a difference, but coupled with the new shoes it became apparent on my first noseslide attempt where I ran into the bench that I would be skating like total shit all night. Ugh. I got a crappy front nose to fakie, tiny crooks jib and failed and front 50s. We moved on by bombing a hill that Nate and I used to do all the time. With my new wheels I did a foot drag once to slow down a little. Doh. It was still fun though. We got booted from the world trade tower right away. Booted from First Bank pretty quick. I was skating so bad I didn’t even ollie the little marble gap.

Next we ended up at this weird blue ledge / bank spot. Chad did some cool f/s pivots and stuff on it. Matt noseslid and crooked it. I was unable to jib it like Chad due to lack of any coordination on my board. Matt got a sick front board to fakie into the bank. Chad taught us fakie bonelesses although I don’t think I actually rode away from one. I finally landed a couple tricks with kickflip fakie, b/s and f/s flips on the little bank. We cruised around and after Matt ollied a long five stair while being beamed by security we ended up at Civic. I was pretty exhausted and unmotivated by then. I think we all were. Chad tried to manual the whole thing (photo above) but didn’t make it. That was pretty much it. Good weather, good crew, but man I couldn’t ride my skateboard and it was depressing. Especially because my knees didn’t even hurt much for the first time in awhile.

In the midst of my Mr Mom week I took off to Southern Hills for a quick hour on a gorgeous morning. It was 60 degrees. Or so I thought, right after getting there some wind started. For the most part there was only a few strong gusts that messed with me and it was mostly fine. My arthritis was bad. It took me a long time to even be able to ollie. I ended up sticking with it though and eventually did some things I was hype on. Front 50, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180 out, front 5-0 front shove out (over 50 make), lots of back crooks that felt good, halfcab noseslide and the worst back 50 that could be landed. I wish these ledges were a little lower, but man it feels good to land tricks on them.

Then we went to Denver and dropped India off at the Colorado Ballet which is one block from the Denver Art Museum aka one of the best spots in Denver. Before going there Ollie and I cruised around for awhile and checked stuff out. I showed him Civic park. We hit a couple things. Stayed at this spot for awhile. I was still feeing crazy arthritic and was scared to ollie off this thing initially. So bad. Ollie rode off it. I ollied and took forever to front 180 off it. It was embarrassing.

Then we hit the art museum. The wind had picked up some. It was a consistent wind rather then gusts. Ollie did lots of manuals like above. He set his board up on the ledge and would do that. He seemed rather hyped doing it and it was cool seeing him push mongo all fast around the spot. My legs let me skate somewhat. It’s weird to say, but the little drop before that we skated seemed to warm them up better then anything else. I had a couple ollies up onto ledges then gap to manual like Ollie was doing. I ollied over the narrow ledge that can be boardslid. I also did a really dumb line of ollie onto the wide ledge, drop down them immediately boardslide the narrow ledge. Lastly a really fun first try manual around most of that near the end where it gets taller. India had a good audition and we ate Wahoos after. Fun times with the kids!

What happened to that new Suciu deck you ask? Well now that’s quite embarrassing. Monday morning I was getting ready for work and could not find my work badge and could not find it anywhere. Somehow this pisses me off more then almost anything and I was looking under my dresser when my board (which leans against the side of the dresser) fell on my shoeless foot. Ouch. My reaction was a quick kick to the middle of the board. Snap. That did not help my temper fit. In all honesty though I cannot believe that board broke. I didn’t even have a shoe on and didn’t put much into it. So much for that hemp layer making it strong. Oh well, back to Null! I had also worn a hole threw my previous Stratfords so it was time for some new ones. These were 10.5 instead of 11 as the 11s seem slightly big. I set up an 8″ instead of 8.1 this time. Well, actually my debate this time was to setup a 7.875 because Generator shipped 7.875s instead of 7.75s and I used to love 7.875 (I just managed to say 7.875 three times in one sentence!). Luckily I held off for now and stuck with 8″.

I have become such a recluse. Rather then invite others over to skate I just wanted to go out solo and try a lot of flatground tricks too. I had a couple good warm up runs and great first few kickflips. The 8″ board actually felt quite a bit smaller and I was happy about that. I tried a few crooks and boardslides on the ramp before laying into the flatground for awhile. I got to heelflip and did another accidental 3/4 flip to primo. Only this time I didn’t bail off, but landed it perfect. Ha, that made me laugh quite a bit. I was 4/5 on treflips. Struggled with b/s flips, f/s flips. Felt close to nollie flips, nowhere near switch heels, nowhere near inward heels, front heels. I definitely would have rather been skating outside somewhere with room. Last thing I did was try an alley oop fakie back 50 to fakie which I would eventually get and call it a night. That might be a new one.

Been wanting to do this for awhile. After Nothing came out I figured I should treat myself with a new complete. So after a little delay here it is. Suciu board, PJ trucks (Highs), Vincent Alvarez wheels (50mm stoked!!), Venom soft bushings, Bones Swiss bearings. After an intense game of indoor basketball with Ollie I went out to Rampy for a bit. I definitely had some awkward turns due to trucks that aren’t broken in, but I had fun. I avoided revert tricks so I wouldn’t flatspot my new wheels. I struggled with front tail. I was supposed to avoid flatground too, but that board flipped good. It’s supposed to be an 8.1 which are the same size I skate with Null, but it’s clearly samller then the Null 8.1. Anyways I liked it and landed every kickflip I tried, got a 3 flip and came super close to nollie flip. I ended with a couple longer Rampy runs for me and ended with a f/s ollie that was near coping.

Went to this skatepark on a pretty nice day for the midwest:

Above is the Precision team skating this park as an overview of the park and below are the Motive dudes skating it.

I rode with Drew from Omaha to Lincoln which was rad. That dude rules. So nice. We met up with Joe, Matt, Dan, Cory and Cody from Fremont. Joe, Matt, Dan and I started in the corner on a 3 foot qp that was super fun. The park was really crowded. Quite a few basics were landed. Then we moved on to the long concrete ledge area. I struggled for awhile and didn’t land much other then crooks. Joe, Matt and Dan though landed all kinds of tricks. Dan had manual to front board, front nose grind to front board and so many other cool tricks. Joe was kinda run down, but still killing it with all his front 50 variations. Matt is too good. I think I saw a nollie shove crooks? So good. Cory had kick back tails and more. Drew would fly by in the middle of a 50 trick line. Then we skated the bank to ledge mostly for awhile. I took a long time to get kick back 50. Joe did boardslide 270 in and almost boardslide shove to fakie. Dan had ollie oop fakie front smith. Matt did nollie flip front noseslide fakie. Serious. Cory did bs flip fakie 50 halfcab out. Geez. Drew was busy front blunting the bump to bar in the middle of the park. The park had started thinning out a little so we kinda split up and did whatever for awhile. I bailed no comply pole jams while Dan almost got no comply pole jam late flips. Back in the long concrete ledge area I managed manuals up and down the slanted bank. Kickflip on the bump into the bank. Such a fun park. Matt, Joe, Dan and I skated the angled manny pad from the bottom for awhile. I did a manual up to rock kickflip to fakie. Dan was hyped on it! Matt manualled around it easy. Dan tried manual up to fakie manual down. Then I did a few transfers over the little spine that felt fun. Near the end Matt made me try to carve the weird tight corner. Pretty easy. Matt and Dan were trying to front 60 the lower part of it above the manhole which just isn’t possible. I managed the grind around the corner and then we left. Super fun session. I wish that park were near here, it’s amazing. There was a lot more I would have liked to have done, but that was a pretty good first time at a new park. The Fremont crew rules. Those dudes are the funnest most positive people. And Drew rules too. I could talk for quite awhile about how rad it was meeting Phil from Precision, Mike Smith, seeing the skateshop, etc. One of those epic days for skateboarding.

On a really cold night Ollie and I headed out to Rampy. What’s this, Ollie skating 3 times in a weekish? Awesome. We skated the tranny for awhile. He had some moves, I did a few basics, then he was done and I felt like doing flip tricks. The goal was 10 flip tricks and they came kinda (except heelflips). Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, fakie varial flip, heelflip, 360 flip, b/s flip, f/s flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, first try double flip. Tried switch flips for a long time and got super close. Tried inward heels for awhile and actually made it flip good. Flatground is fun.

neilsoffire’s video on Instagram

Red curbs on a cold and snowy Saturday afternoon. It was barely 30. Neil and Blake picked me up. Neil put in about 20 minutes before getting on a marathon call with his lady. Blake did a sick quick Ollie on this weird loading dock that somehow didn’t have snow on it. He also put a sign in front of the rock to wallie it and got a cool line to it. I didn’t skate great. I had new shoes and a new board. Went 8.1 this time for whatever reason. I got a smith grind at one point on the taller curb that hyped me up. I’ve done what I thought were smiths before, but this one felt legit. Other then that I had a couple front lips, struggled with kickflips, had a bunch of ride on grinds like above then started bucking some new ones. Did ride on front 50 no comply shove out. Stoked! New one. Then started hucking no comply finger flip out. Got really close, but didn’t get it. Gonna put that one on my list. Dave ripped it. Boardslide 270 out, front 180 nose manual, almost front 5-0 to nose manual, wallie the rock with help from the sign, a lot more. Decent session even though it was so cold.

Brought boards to 303 and Emage then went to meet up with Chad and Connor. Had a few minutes to kill so I just parked on a random block that looked fun to skate. Good asphalt, curb cuts and even a ledge. I had new shoes and a new board. I had some Emerica Laced (Romero). I had tried to break these shoes in months ago, they gave me blisters, gave up on them, gave them to my brother, then while visiting my brother in Wisconsin I took them back. So they are broken in. I even skated them for a bit while in Wisconsin. Anyways, I felt ok initially then slammed super hard bailing an ollie out of a curb cut. Ouch. I also couldn’t seem to land a kickflip. Ugh. Chad showed up and cruised around with me. He’s got pop. We both just cruised the block hitting stuff. Chad front boarded a tall flower planter and started feeling out a potential line. I started feeling somewhat ok on my board, but then we got the boot. Then I filmed the rest of the night. It was one of those frustrating nights where we got the boot from every spot before people got tricks. Ugh.

On a super nice day I snuck out at lunch to hit the little park by IBM with Fullertron. We started out skating like 40+ year olds. Ugh. Oh I was on a new 8″ Little Dude board since I had cracked my tank of an 8.25 last night. I can’t say the 8″ felt amazing and it was actually kind of weird for ollies, but for flippers it was way funner. We mostly skated the bank shown above with some other stuff mixed in. I had to be back at work within an hour so we didn’t have much time. Fuller did switch shoves both ways on the bank, cab, fakie shoves, etc. Almost boardslide shove on the flatbar. I got fakie varial flip on the bank and kickflip to fakie as well as b/s flip. I really struggled ollieing the little flat bar. In fact I landed so bad I probably should have snapped the tail off. My legs were feeling very heavy. I don’t get it. Neither of us skated great, but it was nice to get out in the nice warm sunny weather. Dave ended the session with a fakie flip (above).

After destroying my grip trying kick boardslides yesterday I decided it was time for a new board anyway. And I was sooo sick of those grey wheels that I put some new superthanes on. Lastly, since those Lakai’s were killing my feet I went with some new shoes too. Emerica Provosts. My first vulcs I’m excited about in awhile. They have Strobel construction at least though. After trying to get Ollie to go skating all day he finally agreed to it when Liz and India got home and I could have just gone skating solo or with friends anyway. Ha. We went to campus. Right out of the car Ollie sets his board down, does a fakie shove and then a f/s halfcab. Whoa! We rolled around the new dorms on the south side which were torture because there are so many new amazing ledges, but they all have that crappy flagstone finish with cracks between them. We did find a way to skate them a little though. We kept pushing, ollie’ing up curbs, off curbs, etc. Did the hill down from the basketball center which was fun. My new wheels are really really fast! Ollie foot drags with his front foot. Ha, darn mongo pushers. We ended up at the weird ledge thing that Carleigh and I kickflipped the monstrous flat gap a long time ago. This time I took a bit to get used to new wheels and did a gap to manual. It was pretty fun, I normally chicken out of manuals with drops that tall. Ollie was having fun ollie’ing down the 2 stair by it and riding through the grass. We moved on some more. I manualled one of the long downhill pads first try. Sweet. We dorked around that area for awhile. Then dorked around on that one stair ledge that you can’t get any speed for. I did a front tail off it which was still not the easiest thing for me. Oh, so my new deck was an 8.25 and I wasn’t really noticing a problem with it. Cool. The new shoes fit a little loose, but I was liking them too. We hit the art building area and I did some flatground while Ollie hid in the bushes so that people wouldn’t see him. I got a few heelflips which surprised me. I was 3-0. I forgot how awesome vulcs are for heelflips. Halfcab flips felt a little harder with the bigger board. After that we basically headed home.