Yeap folks. We have found the price in which I sellout. It’s called a shoe that PJ Ladd skates and it costs me less then $50 (sometimes running a company and getting hooked up at shops has it’s privileges!).   NB+ Stratford 479.  They aren’t even broken in, but I could not find the will to try those DC Mikey Taylors anymore.  Instead I went with a brand I see every day at the gym on every retired man that goes there.  It’s hip to be old?  Anyway, after bringing some new boards to Crisis, Rob, Ollie and I went over to the Safeway ledge.  Ollie wasn’t stoked, but was cool about it.  I on the other hand was super hyped.  The PJ shoes were hyping me up in ways I thought they would.  I’m the ultimate PJ nerd.  For the first time in awhile I landed the first kickflip I tried.  I went on to have a pretty good session in general, especially for a new pair of cupsoles that didn’t really have a chance to be broken in.   I was happy to get a couple kick back 50s, almost good front tails, lots of kickflips, halfcab flips, and the surprise for me was multiple switch front 180 to front 50s.  Rob was killing it.  He called kick back 50s on the drive, but ended up settling for front hurricanes instead.  What!  They were sick.  He had also tried a bunch of nollie lipslides to front 50 and didn’t quite get one.  Ollie mostly just cruised around, but did a few front nose taps and back boardslides.

It got dark so we went to go meet Carleigh at the park.  Only every teenager in the area was there which bummed out the old and the young so we said to meet at yellow curbs instead.  It was my idea so I take the blame, but upon getting there it felt wrong to skate there when it was nice out.   Rob and I managed some nose and regular manuals.  Ollie did some ollies up the curb and back 180s off.  Carleigh tied her shoes and after maybe a couple ollies we got the boot.  Doh.  It was close to Ollie’s bed time so we just bailed.

Had a short amount of time after going to SOL and before date night with Liz. Since I was in Longmont I hit up Fuller and we skated Longmont High for about 30 minutes. The normal area was covered in teenagers so we went to the main ledges. It was super hot outside and I had new shoes. Some DC Mikey Taylors. They are cupsoles and were not very broken in. Dave struggled a bit more then normal. Got some rad no complies though. My flatground game was back to the drawing board with the new shoes. The heel is really thick on them. At least they aren’t vulcs though. Can’t believe how bad those Lakai vulcs felt for just one night. Anyways, I didn’t get much. Tried a line of ollieing onto one ledge then front 50 another one. Never got them together and I never actually landed the front 50.

Had some new shoes. Lakai – Picos. They are vulcs. I wanted to try vulcs again and see if I truly am sold on cupsoles or not. Well, I made the idiotic mistake of getting 10.5s again. Right out of the gate I didn’t like them and felt like I was swimming in my shoe. We got to the spot and after a couple bad ollies and failed manuals I wanted to quit and get new shoes. But John was already ripping and Rob showed so I had to skate. Rob was totally ripping. Manny and nose manny the long way no problems. Almost with back 180 out of the nose manny. He also had some good flatground no comply moves and a back 360. So jealous of that trick! I took a long time to do the long manny, but came remotely close to doing one with a front shove out. I want that trick! I did a fun line of ollie onto the manny pad, quick back 180 off, fakie flip on flat, switch front 180 up the curb then ollie a gap into the parking lot. John came super close to halfcab manny back 180 out. Did treflips, but struggled at kickflips (so weird!). Had some good flatground as well. Some lady came by and told us the noise was amazing and John sat down. Kinda ending the session.

So we went to Valmont and skated a pretty dry ledge. We ended up doing some tricks though. I got noseslide, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, front tail stall, almost front tail shove, back board pop out, bad crooks, bad back 50, horrible nosestall 270 pivot out. I was hating swimming in the shoes and new I couldn’t even skate them another day so I was pretty lazy. John got front 50s right away, killed his patented switch front noses and much more I can’t remember. Rob did a few front noseslides. All with epic extra reverts on accident.

Oh yeah, this was the first time I’ve skated in glasses in awhile. It was fine. Gotta get some different shoes for skating though.

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.

Feeling even better which was surprising considering how much I skated the day before. Jake and I went to Broomfield around noon on a warm and sunny day. The park was empty except for the occasional baseball family walking right though the middle of the park to get to the batting cages or beginner scooter/bike kids (what kind of parent things a skatepark is a good place to learn how to bike?). But yeah, Jake started off killing it and killed it all session. He had a front 50 on the sad ledge, front blunt on the quartapotty and then back blunt the blue ledge. Geez. I was happy to try tricks involving ollies again and other then some soreness wasn’t limited too much by arthritis. I manualled the sad ledge. Then we skated the black ledge for quite awhile. I did most tricks I’ve done there before. All took several tries though. We would do tricks on the little flat bank to turn around on. Jake had some rad boneless plant things over the rail and fakie flips. The front tails on the ledge were sick too. I almost had treflip to fakie on the bank. My grip got wax on it somehow and in the sun and dust from the park it made for a really slippery setup. We hit the pool for a bit. Jake dropped in on the deep end and did some good lines with front slash in the deep and back rock in the shallow. I started from inside and managed one carve with tile. Yippee. We each did fronside flips on the little mound then front 50 the pier 7 ledge. Then a game of SKATE that I won, but slammed on front shove and 3 flip super hard. I also sore through the sole of my Vox shoes. We called it a day.

After some lunch and a break I met up with Bernie, Scotty, Garret and Teagan at Wilville. I wasn’t really planning on skating much, but just wanted to hang out and maybe even film if it came to it. Everyone was feeling pretty chill. Oh yeah, I had my new shoes on. Get ready for this. Nike Koston 2s. What started as a dare became reality as I scored them for free. Basically I’ve talked so much shit on Nike that I was dared to try a pair. I agreed if I could get them for free. Well, it became reality thanks to Jaimie their rep and here we are. They were super bright red when I got them, I immediately painted them black though so the swoosh is hardly even visible. They felt decent, but I didn’t really skate much. I did a few kickflips and it seems like I’ll need to wear some of that paint off before they flick right. Bernie manualed it first try. Teagan slammed super hard trying to nose manual it. He basically put the nose into the last kink and dove over the whole bottom section. It was gnarly. He kept skating though after a brief break. Wow. I started playing with early grabs since I was so sore/tired and ended up getting a really fun dork trick. Early grab up the curb and hold on all the way to the end. It was really fun until Bernie asked me to do it again for the camera and I pulled up to get over the curb and something popped in my middle finger. Argh, it hurt so bad. I left after that as I was going to the outdoor ballet with the family.

First time with new shoes in awhile. The Supras put up a good fight and showed me that cup soles are better for repeatedly hucking flip tricks which is my favorite thing to do. So I got another pair of cupsoles. This time Vox – Lockdown Cups. They are a bit bulky for my taste, but we’ll see ..

It was a gorgeous evening. It had gotten to 99, but since we’re in a desert it cooled around 7 when we met up. We watched Suciu’s part in Sabotage 3 which inspired all of us then drove up to campus. We started off in this parking lot. Everyone seemed hyped and on their game pretty quick. Rob had a sick no comply shove up the curb and a push down the 3. Ha it was awesome. He also no complied up the 3 and did a bunch of long manuals around banked curb. Jake and I failed at manualling the curb – 3 section. Jake did have a nice ollie up, front 180 down, f/s halfcab off though. I was breaking in the new shoes and having fun. If I didn’t get the manual I would do a 180 off the curb after the 3 then a fakie flip trick. I was surprised at how good the new shoes felt. I managed a switch front 180 up, front 180 down the 3, sw front 180 off the curb.

Then we ended up at the new area where the old brick plaza was. Rob had some good boardslides, front nose to fakie, some creative slams as well as some rad no comply variations. Jake kickflipped the little brick section. I had a couple great feeling treflips followed by crook attempts turned into noseslides.

Next up was the fun little manny pad area. Jake went for halfcab manny and some wallrides on this fun barrier that was on the end of the sidewalk. So you could ollie onto the sidewalk then wallride the barrier down the 3″ to the parking lot. Ha. Rob came close to 180 nose mannies both ways. Had a sick nose manual drop down to nosemanual then turn front 180. I was feeling really good and skated non-stop. Got kickflip manny and nose manny shove. Maybe sw front 180 manual too. Had a really fun line of ollie up the curb then wallride down into the parking lot then lipslide a parking block. Also frontside wallride up onto the sidewalk, then ollie onto the tall orange ledge and front 180 off.

Last spot of the day was the double mellow banks. Jake was looking pretty tired and even kicked his board a couple times. Unheard of for him! He did manage some good lines though. Kickflip into the first, nollie 180 the second (I think?). Fakie bigspin then pop shove. Quite a few more I can’t remember right now. Rob did no comply shove then back 180 and maybe called it after that. I had pretty much the best flip trick showing I’ve ever had there. Pop shove the first, kickflip the second. Halfcab flip the first, back 180 the second. Fakie bigflip the first, front pop shove the second. Anytime I landed the second trick going forward I would loop around and try to ollie up the 3. I bailed most times. B/s flip the first, halfcab flip the second. Treflip the first, kickflip the second. Fakie flip the first, sw front 180 the second. And the ender, F/s halfcab flip the first, kickflip the second and finally got a clean ollie up the 3. Hurray for cupsoles making flip tricks even more fun!

Met up with Dave on a super nice and warm Friday afternoon at the “Rollerblade” park in Longmont. I had new shoes. Supra Stacks. They are cupsole. They took a bit to get used to, but once I had one good kickflip they never felt bad again. I’m writing this several days later so it’s hard to remember how it all went down, but at one point I did my first sweeper ever on the big bank (far right background of the front board photo) and Dave got my back with a kickflip to fakie. What the heck? So funny that Dave did a kickflip and I did a sweeper. Total role reversal, but we were both hyped. Dave did a bunch of shove variations on the bank too. Nollie shoves, fakie shoves and the sickest cab bigspin ever. I tried to line out some flip tricks and stuff. Didn’t land much. Had a few decent goes at the ledge with a long crooks pop out and front 50, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180, front 5-0. Posed some kickflip noseslides. Had a great feeling fakie flip on the bank, but couldn’t get a halfcab flip. Dave front boarded the flat bar all steezy like and blasted the sick method above several times so my cell phone photo timing would get the photo. All in all a pretty fun session.

Then I went to the manual pad by Mikes Camera for awhile before the Lame Brainz/Blind premiere. I was really sore, but managed manny (whoa so tech!!!), nose manny, switch front 180 manny (hyped on this one coming easy two days in one week), nose manny shove. Came close to kickflip manual (that trick teases me). Tried sw front 180 manny back 180 out. Got kinda close. Left and had a blast at the premiere. The Blind video is way crazy.

After a long day of watching Ollie play flag football then playing basketball with Ollie I was able to tempt him with skateboarding at Red Curbs since it was raining. But by the time we left it was sunny and dry so we ended up at Valmont area. I had some new shoes. Well, some really old shoes that I’ve worn to work for a year or so. Some Fallen James Hardy Ramblers. I can’t even find a photo of them online anymore. My Lakai’s weren’t dead and I might skate them again, but I had forgotten I needed to shoe goo them again and it was too late to fix them up before skating. Right out of the gates I could tell these shoes sucked. They are fake vulcs and gum sole and they were slippery. Kickflips were weird. We started at this bank area:

Ollie had fun doing body varials and did the best frontside ollie(s) ever. Basically went for a frontside ollie, but didn’t really ollie, stopped, then popped an actual ollie and laughed. Ollie rules. I managed kickflip to fakie, backside flip, fakie flip. Then a line with front 180 over a little curb gap, switch front 180 off a curb, ollie a tiny median, frontside flip on the bank. Then a varial flip fakie and a front shove fakie. Ollie did a few body varials and fakie shove attempts where he rode up normal then body varialed, came to a halt and tried to fakie shove. So awesome.

Next we went over here. Do a trick into this bank, a flatground trick then something on this bank:

Ollie was doing awesome cannonball runs down it, then going for 360 body varial on the bank. He never quite got that. I was going for no comply 180 into the top bank, halfcab flip on flat then nollie tre on the other bank. The halfcab flip proved hard as I kept slipping off the darn grip. Argh. Got kind of close to the whole line.

Last up was this area. In the distance you can see Ollie. He did ollies down the 2 then 180s off the curb. The best front 180s I’ve seen him do. He also did the ollie off the loading dock at the top of this page. I ollied up that before. Crazy. Definitely couldn’t do it now. I had a little line of front 180 the 2, sw 180 the curb. Ollie cheered as he always does when anyone lands anything. The kid is awesome. I started trying a line of nose manual the slanted manny pad, ollie up onto the sidewalk then kickflip the 2. Well that ended up sucking. The nose mannies were easy. The kickflip ended up being easy. But that whole ollie’ing up a sidewalk backside was not. One time I hung up and dove into the bushes and pillar. Ouch. I ended up doing a weird 90 degree ollie to tic tac and got the line. Perhaps I can blame some of it on the new(old) shoes, but man not being able to ollie up a curb hurts. But skating with Ollie was awesome and seeing his goofy kid tricks after pushing mongo puts a smile on my face.

Jack had shown me a photo on his phone of this spot and when us older dudes were thinking of spots to meet at I remembered it. Dave had gotten to the school before us and said there was nothing at the school. Ha. But this spot was there and I thought it looked pretty awesome. Luckily we had to wait for Neil to show so Rob (yes, Rob is back!!!), Dave, Ollie and I were forced to wait there and skate. Unfortunately we didn’t have any wax, but I thought it was still fun without it. Ollie found a basketball so he just hung out and shot hoops so he was hyped. Rob was reaquainting himself with skateboarding. I saw a first try kickflip. Dave was doing lots of 180s and nollie/fakie shoves. I was hyped on how my legs felt. This might partially be because I got some basketball shoes for when I play with Ollie. We played for awhile on Saturday and it felt like leg rehab. I guess playing basketball in tiny vulcanized shoes is not a good idea. For that matter maybe tiny vulc shoes hurt even when skateboarding. Or at least when they are worn down to just the insole. With all of that said, I had some new shoes.

After my previous pair of these I had said I’d never skate them again, but Meta Sam said that Lakai has a new manufacturer and he hasn’t seen any problems with them. This is great news because the Carlo is one of my favorite shoes ever. Considering the previous pair wore flat in one session and this pair showed almost no signs of wear in one day I’m guessing Sam was right. Anyways, enough about shoes. I skated pretty hard out of the gates. I love random spots that aren’t perfect. I got ollie up the curb, front board transfer up. Ollie down the “bigger” drop, front 180 off. Front 180 down then switch back 180 off (so stoked! although there was no pop involved). Eventually kickflip up the curb then front board fakie transfer up. Hyped on that one too. The smaller setup was ruling it and solidified in my head why I like low trucks. They are so much better for street skating and trying to have somewhat quick feet. Even without wax Dave and I tried to cali grind off the two stair. He managed to get one and then did a drop down boardslide off it too. Neil looked at it and was over it immediately. He skated a bit, but mostly just played basketball with Ollie. Jack, lets skate there again! These dudes suck! Ha. With wax the spot would be amazing. You can even wax up a long ledge for boardslides.

Next we went to a long, red metal flatbar/curb that we later coined as Retal Curb. Ollie continued his non skating ways and just hung out. The rest of us had some fun boardslides to get started. Neil and I added crooks and halfcab boardslides. Rob did a lot. lap over lipslide, smith. boardslide pop out. Dave straight slayed this thing. Boardslide, boardslide fakie, long front 50s, almost front 50 back 180 out, feeble grind transfers. So good. Lazer showed and did a couple tricks before sitting down. I got a couple tiny front 50s on it and tried a bunch of kickflip back boardslides, but my board was too new to commit to it.

We got some burritos, picked up Jason and headed to Southern Hills for a mostly mellow session. Ollie skated a little finally. Did some pop shoves and a coffin down the handicap ramp before finding a tennis ball to shoot hoops with. What a jock. Ha. Rob, Neil and I played a game of SKATE to get started. I was the first out. I wasn’t too into the game. I started skating the ledges though and had fun. Boardslides, noseslides, crooks, a couple slow front 50s. Rob ruined his board on a wallride nollie out attempt on the brick wall and tried some 3 flips (both tricks on his ‘by 40’ list). I skated kind of hard for awhile. I have been so bad at ollieing onto stuff lately that I forced myself to ollie onto a bench for awhile. I couldn’t do it with any speed, but I did manage to get one with a kickflip off at the very end of the session. I had also landed a 3 flip with one hand down and man it rules being 40 and not even thinking I need to clean that up. Fun times. Great having Rob around again. Great to see Jason.

Ollie, Carleigh and I met up with John for an early session at Broomfield park. Yes, I said Ollie! So stoked he wanted to skate a little. We warmed up with some wallrides on top of the big bank. Then I skated the quartapotty with John and Carleigh. We tried to deck rock ‘n rolls and front rocks. John got pivot to fakie. I had some new shoes that had me feeling really weird. They are a little too small for me, but I gotta learn my lesson and skate them. They are some DC Wes Kremer shoes. Yeah yeah, DC’s I know. Not my first choice, but I wanted to get some shoes from one of my favorite shops out there, Motive, and this is what they had for me. Anyways, they were kind of slippery and feeling weird. While we skated the quartapotty Ollie was doing body varials on the steep bank. John laughed because he knew we would never do that. We played a game of SKATE. I recently remembered starting games of HORSE in basketball by shooting free throws until someone misses. First one to miss goes last, last one to miss goes first. So we started with kickflips. John missed after one and I out lasted Carleigh and we played a really long game of SKATE where tricks were rarely landed. One high point for me would be getting John a letter on a treflip. Ha! That never happens. I ended up winning it with f/s halfcab flip. I was struggling though. Struggled with front 50s on the ledge after that. It made me miss low trucks. Ugh. One of these days I’ll be happy with my setup again.