On a very nice afternoon I met up with Dave at the rollerblade park. He was skating the hockey rink when I arrived and we warmed up trying to manual from one side to the other. We eventually did so. I had new wheels so that kinda helped although kinda threw me off too. My old wheels had gotten down well under 50mm so it was time for some new ones. Since I had cracked my board trying to ollie over a small cone I setup a new board too. This one was 8.125. An entire 1/8 of an inch larger. It didn’t feel much different, but the new wheels did. In the skatepark things were mellow. Dave did a rad layback boardslide down the hubba. I didn’t see the start of it so I asked a kid that was there “Did he ollie into it?” and he replied with “Yeah I can do it” then went up and ollied into the bank. Ha that was pretty funny. I was feeling tired and run down yet again and my legs were sore as ever. I’m so sick of that. As far as other tricks I don’t remember much. Dave did boardslide and boardslide fakie on the wavy rail. I struggled with ollies over the little flat bar. Pathetic. Dave left and I tried a few more things. Got a line of front 5-0 on the ledge, kickflip to fakie on the bank, halfcab noseslide on the ledge. As impressive as that sounds slow it down and imagine me doing it. I flailed at some flip tricks for awhile after that. I thought having a wider board would make the trucks feel looser, but everything felt tighter. Weird. Maybe it was having new wheels that felt bigger.

Went to Lafayette park with Ollie. I was feeling blah and for the most part I didn’t do anything to be proud of. The few things that kept me from going crazy were a line in the tiny bowl with a front feeble and almost a fakie pivot fakie. On the bank that Ollie does the halfcabs above I did fakie flip, b/s flip, kickflip fakie and a rare f/s flip. Speaking of halfcabs though I had been trying them on there for awhile and Ollie comes by after a front 180 flyout, fakie shove on flat and does halfcab first try. Ollie was ripping. All 4 of the tricks above were new tricks he hadn’t done before and at the end of the day i asked him to do them all again so I could Dad Cam him. This random dude that was pretty good started telling Ollie how to do kickflips and that he needed to push regular. Ha. It’s fun skating with Ollie, so that part of the session was fun. But man, lately I just feel old and unable to skate the way I want to. Both mentally and physically. Ugh. Oh yeah, I had a new board. A Radio Null deck. Love it.

After a really long drive down from the mountains I quickly setup a new board since I had broken my Atlas Nulled in Fairplay. As punishment for breaking two boards in a week I decided to setup the weed graphic. Just Say Null. It’s funny at least and it’s funny how few people get it’s jokingly an anti-weed board. Anyway, after being bummed on how those Thunders turned in the Fairplay bowl I decided what the heck, lets go back to Venture, but this time the highs. Seeing as how I’m a complete freak with almost brand new trucks of several brands sitting in my garage this was pretty easy to do. It was about 9:30pm when I got out and I was dead tired from this crazy adventure park in Buena Vista we had gone to early in the morning. I rolled around the Table Mesa shopping center not doing much. Then found they repaved the area in front of Savers so was super hyped to try and skate some flat. They even repainted the curbs too! Unfortunately though they kept shutting off lights and it was so dark. I managed a line of manual, front 5-0, kickflip. Eh. Then I went around and ended up at some parking blocks behind King Soopers and tried my best to boardslide the graphic off the board. Ha ha. I eventually did a few more flatground tricks. Halfcab flip, heelflip and varial flip. All had a better feel to them without the unwanted squirl of Thunders. Rad.

This is just silly. I saw Dinosaur Jr for free then attempted to go skating after at one of my favorite spots with some of my favorite people. I showed up first and was feeling kinda weird and in disbelief of what was happening. My ears were ringing and I was totally sober. Weird. I rolled around a little feeling kinda clumsy before Fuzz showed up. We both rolled around getting slightly less clumsy when Dave, Neil and Rob showed up. Shit got heavy quick. Ha. Neil pulled out a trash can to ollie over and was of course hopping over it immediately. We skated for several hours and a lot went down. Neil was hyped on everyone’s skating and was vocally stoked on the crew and how we’re still doing it. It was rad. I will never be able to remember all that went down so I’ll just go with some of the many highlights. Neil had some long lipslides on the waxed curb, one foot mannies, one foot over the trash can, front 180, halfcab, no comply over the trash can. Nose mannies, etc. He also had the highlight of the evening. When going for back 180 over the trash can he hit a rock and dove into it. It was a rubber trash can so no damage was done and he just lied there in fetal position snuggled into the trash can laughing. We all laughed hysterically. So epic. He also had some nice front shoves up curbs and kickflips off. Fuzz was the second over the trash can and front 180 and back 180’d it easy. Lots of crazy curb tricks. Back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, fakie nosegrind 180 out, so much more I cannot remember right now. Rob had a bunch of nose mannies to lipslide, his patented slappy/ollie back 50, wallrides, b/s no comply wallrides, slappy lipslides, kickflipped off curbs like it was nothing. He also managed to get over the trash can. I had just landed a fakie big flip off a curb, saw Rob ollie the trash can and went for the ollie too, but didn’t have it. I was really sore and trying to skate without ibuprofen for the first time in awhile. I still skated decent though. Had a line of kickflip up curb, b/s flip off, halfcab flip on flat then super close to manual front shove out. Ever since I’ve been standing on a balance board at work manuals seem easier. Maybe I’ll actually land something out of a manual for once. Not this time though. I tried to get on some front slappies for awhile and failed. Oh, I was on a new board. An Atlas Nulled 8.1. Neat. Fullertron killed slappy crooks, boardslide 270s, front 5-0 to switch crooks, lipslide (above sorry for the lack of effort on the photo). He was super determined to ollie the trash can and at the end of the night kind of did it. It was more of a ride over it, but whatever, totally an over-45 make. Fun times, rad crew, Dinosaur Jr!

The weather was rainy and in the low 60s. What an unusual day for late July. I was feeling really run down and sick with a cold. Doh. I had gone to Meta earlier and picked up some new Thunders that hopefully wouldn’t have axle slip like my old ones. While I was at it I got new bearings and fruity colored hardware. So there you go, a new complete!!! I went with Null 52mms. Maybe I’ll be a normal skateboarder again.

On top of that I had new shoes! Lakai Guys. I’ve been waiting and waiting for the Nikes to die so I could wear these. They seemed good out of the box and they don’t have a stupid swoosh on them!

We went around to the side of the school we don’t normally skate. There are tons of pebbles everywhere, but we ended up having a blast and skated it in totally new ways. My shoes felt amazing. My complete felt like a new complete. I did keep my old bushings going so it wasn’t completely night and day. The bigger wheels really cruise over cracks easier, but they also gave me wheel bite as I’ve gotten used to tiny little wheels. Ollie was killing it. He did a fakie back shove out of the curb cut back onto the sidealk, front 180 off the stairs (above) and halfcab off the curb, back 180 and f/s halfcab out of the curb cut into the parking lot. The f/s halfcab was new for him and he did it really good. For how sick I was and mellow I was feeling I skated pretty good. From right to left in the panorama I worked up to a run of kickflip up the curb, front 180 off the 2 stair then fakie bigspin off the curb. From left to right I did ollie up the curb, front 180 onto the loading dock then halfcab flip on flat. Fun, brief session. Stoked to have a somewhat normal setup that makes cruising around a little easier.

Ollie and I got to Arvada park around 8pm on another nice, warm night. The park was super crowded so we hid in the bank to curb corner. It was fun though. I had a new board. It’s the Hair Club For Null deck. Stoked on that older one I traded out at 303 for a newer one recently. Hurricanes happened first try on the noping section. Cool. Ollie did a front slash and front rock quick too. We went to the blue bank area for a bit, long enough for me to get my first two 3 flips on the new board. Guess a new board helps for that trick. Back to the bank to curb/noping area where I kept almost running into the same people standing in my way over and over. I managed to not get too angry and land a new trick I’ve never done in a few tries. F/s allie oop fakie front 50. Stoked! We played on the pier 7 thing a minute. It was crowded. I tried to boardslide the long curb, but the wax killed me. Trent was there skating it uphill so only waxed a bit of it so it went from death scary fast to regular and it kept throwing me off. Back to bank to curb land for awhile. More weaving through people, trying to avoid getting angry, bikers, scooters, lurkers. I was doing runs starting with either hurricane or allie-oop fakie front 50 and almost hitting people every time. It was kind of fun. I ended up getting a bunch and got a front d on the upper quarterpipe in the snakerun above the small bowl. Stoked me out. Ollie was doing fun little lines of rock to fakie then halfcab off the kicker or grinding the edge. Then we mostly skated the “beginner section”. I boardslid the granite round bar, front 50’d the rainbow ledge. Ollie almost b/s 180’d the A frame kicker. At the end of the night I front 50’d the mini hubba. Man that thing is scary to me. First couple attempts were sooo slow. Felt good to do it though. Skating with Ollie is always a blast.

Another really hot and sunny day approaching triple digits. Got home from work and watched Men In Black with the kids and had popcorn for dinner. So awesome. Then it was sunset and I felt like skating and Ollie wanted in. He wanted to go back to Lafayette park. I was pretty sore and tired and that park is fun to just cruise so it seemed perfect. We got in about an hour before the lights shut off. I spent the first half of it literally bailing everything and being amazed how little juice my legs had. By the end I felt decent though. I was doing some frontside ollies on the manhole hump that felt great. Rolled-in in a new spot above the mid sized bowl. Had a few flip tricks. Ollied the 3 stair. Noseslid the little hubba. Front lip and front 50 around some of the corner in the little bowl. My new 10 Year deck felt good. Mostly just had fun and enjoyed being able to skate with Ollie again. He got really close to kickflips. Did a fakie pop shove on a bank. Frontside ollie on the bank, took a run into the snake run and looked comfortable rolling at the speed. Got heckled by a dork for not wearing a helmet. Got a super clean manual in the longer flat section in the upper part of the snake run. This took him a bunch of tries and he kept saying he really wanted to land it clean. Awesome. Skating with him is so fun.

On a breezy and somewhat cool day I picked Rob up after work and we headed up to Fort Collins. First stop was the MRKT to take care of some bidness. We met up with Mike and rolled into camps. I was bummed to see the nearby slappy curbs pretty wrecked, but we ended up at the spot above quickly and skated there awhile. I was rusty after 3 whole days off. Ha, that’s seriously a long time for me though. I had a new board and it felt really good (Spread The Null). Rob seemed to kick into warmed up mode the quickest. He had boardslide pop over, front board pop over to fakie. Mike had some long boardslides, slappy front noseslides. After awhile I had a couple fun lines starting with slappy the first curb, then front board transfer and front board to fakie transfer and followed up one of the runs with a 180 over a manhole and then a fakie flip. Mike had some no comply 180s over manholes. Both front and back. Backside is crazy. Rob and I were doing fun little chinese nollies over the yellow manhole things then trying kickflips over a manhole. Rob kickflipped a manhole. Well, mostly. Ha. I kickflipped a couple of them and followed one with an ‘both hands down over 40 make’ ollie over the curb and gap in the back of the photo.

Next we trained at the Megaramp for awhile. We all started by taking a few steps, throwing our boards down, doing a kickturn and ollie’ing off. I somehow managed to ollie up the ledge (first try!), do a kickturn and then a front 180 off. Very hyped on actually ollieing onto something kinda tall. That’s been hard lately.

Then we posted up here for awhile. On the far side is a two stair. Mike and I did ollies up the 2 then ollies down the 3. How’s that for tech? I added a front 180 down too. The windows make it a bit sketchy as I’m good at worrying about breaking windows. Luckily all was good though. We ended up skating the 2 stair part for awhile awhile. Tricks up, tricks down. It was fun. Rob killed the no complys and almost got a no comply flip up too. Back 180s up and down. I got a rare back 180 up and a no comply up. Down I got switch front 180, back 180, front 180, front shove and a kickflip that was considered a ‘Baker Maker’. Thanks hammer dudes! Now try to kickflip a 2 stair! Mike struggled with front 180s up for a bit, but had some awesome reverts that I thought ruled. He back 180’d up pretty easy and got a no comply up. Rob and I did a couple tricks on the marble bench there too.

We had told Rob about this “hip” and when we got there the look of disappointment was understandable. Ha. Rob didn’t even try to skate it. The cracks seem way worse then last time I was there. Either way it’s still skateable though and I tallied a few tricks. 180s, sw front 180, front shove, back shove, kickflip, no comply 270, but could not get a backside flip. Started feeling pretty tired. Mike did back 180 quick then did a cab. Tight!

At one point I tried to recreate my line from last time with Carleigh, Jake and Jack. Front 180 the 3 stair, turn around then pop shove, ollie onto this ledge and ollie off. I totally misjudged the height and went splat. Totally made me laugh. Hurt my elbow a bit, but man loving the cupsole suppose because my legs felt fine. We had a couple parking block wallies on the way back, but that was about it.

Until we saw this skating threw an alley across from MRKT. I did a few slappy crooks that felt amazing then a few more that felt even more amazing. I kept trying to do them as good as Fuller does. Mike had never done that trick and after a few tries scraped some out. So sick. Night over. Fun session.

Ha, I normally refuse to skate Red Curbs on dry evenings, but since it had rained earlier in the day Rob said it was legit. I was feeling pretty sore and uncoordinated throughout the session. Rob was killing some back 50s early, boardslides to fakie, slappy tailslides, and getting into some other tricks like fakie back nosegrind. I managed some boardslides to fakie going slow, but I really don’t think I’ve landed that trick before when you come out before the end. I slammed hard on a feeble grind attempt. Did a bunch of kick back fails. Dave showed up and was immediately crushing at full speed. Boardslides, boardslide to fakie, boardslide 270. Manuals and falls. The ollie onto the curb then back 180 the hard way out of the curb cut was hot. At the end Dave and I skated the narrow part of one of the medians (super slick) and tried some nosegrinds over it. I got a couple frontside ones with little bonks at the end and Dave came kinda close to backside. I tried the rock wallie a couple times, slammed and got too tired. My flat ground skills were not on point, but I managed my first heelflip since skating the crappy Fallen Ramblers. Did a tiny fakie nosegrind. Left when Dave was trying nose manny back 180s. Guess he never got it. Oh yeah, I had a new board. SPREAD THE NULL! Love it.

Had the day off work and oh man was it nice out. Met Rob, Jake, Brett and Dave at the Street League park. We were there to lower the scoring curve. Warming up there isn’t easy, everything is tall. Maybe unless you are a 20 something year old like Jake. He was scoring some points right away. 50’ing ledges right away, etc. He had a nice front 50 to front board and front 5-0 on the bump to ledge. I finally got a front 50 on it. Brett was ripping too and landed his first ever switch heel off the little bumb. Jake tried to mess with the scoring by standing in Dave’s way which caused a board to the head when Dave fell on a nosestall to fakie on the bank to ledge. I would have DQ’d Jake, but Dyrdek is more generous. I got a front D on the qp. Jake did back blunt on it. Dave had some rad boneless (I think) variations where he would just throw the board away. I could not land a kickflip to fakie from the higher kicker to the lower kicker. Oh yeah, I had a new board:

Super hyped on this graphic and the fact that Null is 10 now. In fact I think it’s crazy. But, back to the training. It’s hard to remember all that went down. Jake ollied the rock gap. I wussed out. I had a treflip on flat early on that got a lot of love. That’s only because it’s a dream trick of Rob’s right now and Jake hasn’t landed them lately. I let Jake take a couple tries on my board and he was amazed at how awesome it flipped around. He looked jealous. But I told him I’m more jealous of someone that can skate high trucks and not complain. Dave worked on nollie cabs and landed a couple fitting in the over 40 category. He will soon be in the over 45 category and will have a whole new lower bar that will still be sicker then Johny 19 Year Old kickflipping a 10. I got an ollie up the euro on the mellow side to front 180 up the tall 2. Felt good. Near the end we skated the long ledge for awhile. Brett got noseslide shove and some long front 50s. Jake did halfcab noseslide, back 50, front 50 and probably more. I got a few back crooks, front 50s, front 5-0s, a front 50 shove (over 40 make), and a sketchy back 50 for my highest back 50 in a few years. neat session. Sorry this journal entry is totaly incoherent, but I don’t remember it much and I’ve had a couple glasses of wine.