Went in front of the Alaska house for a brief minimum. Did a few kickflips as it started to sprinkle.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)
After skating until midnight the “day before” I drove to another spot. This spot is so sick. It was around 12:30 and starting to get pretty dark. It was pretty creepy being there by myself. I was exhausted. I just did a couple noseslides, crooks and front 50 the low part (from the above the ledge). I kind of wish I would have gone there first when I had more energy and it wasn’t so dark.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)
Extra tired, but with few opportunities like this I went into Anchorage with a few skate spots mapped out on my phone. I went here first. The campus was totally vacant, tiny and eerie. I attempted the warm up process with a few kickflips. I did a couple slappy noseslides off the ledge then started to try and do it the right way by ollieing up first. Going the backside way it was easy to get up the curb. The other way had a huge crack before it making it pretty hard. I got a few noseslides and a great feeling front 50 before I got the boot by a nice Anchorage police officer. Doh, wish I would have warmed up quicker.
Then I went here. It’s pretty much as perfect as it looks, although I did have a lot of difficulty landing anything. I did a few flippers when I would go back, but there were stop rocks everywhere. I couldn’t get much frontside. Backside I had a few. Back smith, feeble, crook, hurricane and ended with an alley oop front feeble (I think).
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)
In front of our Alaskan house I did a quick minimum cruise. Some manuals, nollies , nollie shoves. Felt good.
After 15 hours of traveling I took a brief push around the airport at 2am. Did this little drop in.
Went out to skate flatground in front of the house for an hour or so before leaving for Alaska. I was still sore and stiff and started slow. I would get going though and have fun. Got most of my tricks. Halfcab flips and heelflips (above) felt extra good. Finally landed a treflip without putting a hand down and shortly after got a really clean nollie tre. Also had a second try halfcab heel. I ended trying switch frontside flips for awhile. Warmer weather rules.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)
Went to research ledge on a beautiful evening. The goal was to skate the ledge like I normally do and try nollie flips on the way up the hill as a last ditch effort to not get a letter in OLDFART. I was sore and stiffer then I should be. Everything was hard. It’s crazy how painful it can be to skate when you get older sometimes. Warming up sucks so insanely bad. I would basically hurl myself at the ledge in hopes of getting into noseslide. Eventually I could aim the board. Kickflips somehow felt good. It took me a long time to land crooks. I did a lot of cali grinds on the way to the ledge. Nollie flips were as frustrating as ever on the way up. Never got very close. Had one fun line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip, then a crooks. Landed another crooks and it hurt really bad when I landed. Tried a couple more nollie flips and then left earlier then expected to go home and cry about how old and horrible I feel.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)
After work, a nap and running boards to Crisis I stopped at Safeway for a short one. I went through a few of the slappy noseslides and was having more fun then I thought I would be. Started going 50s. Did a bunch of front 50s. One clean back 50, a few tic tac’y ones. A couple front tail jibs. Halfcab noseslide. Grinding concrete rules.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)
So insanely sore and tired I went out front of the house and did a few powerslides and manuals.
The Fremonsters and I hit Memorial Park in CO Springs to start a nice day. Chris was there! After a brief run or two through the park dodging kids we quickly decided to get out of there and skate the vert ramp! Ha. It was a blast though. We all pumped it. Chris did a mini demo and showed us some inverts that were gnarly! I was super hyped on early grab airs that I just learned a few days prior. Great warm up.
Then we went to the bank school with steps to grind. Most of us skated the mellow steps for awhile. Some of us, like me, stayed on the beginner section the entire time. My list of tricks I landed is so expansive. Front 50, sketchy back 5-0. Yeap, that is it. Got close to crooks at least, but it started to rain. Everyone struggled with the smaller section though. Even Nolan couldn’t back tail it first try. Fuzz had some nice front 50 back 180s. Matt did a bunch of tricks including front tail, front 5-0. Nolan had crooks and front nosegrind. Rob, Fuzz, Dan, Joe, Nolan had a bank session going. I didn’t see them land a whole lot. Ha. Rob did a crazy no comply bigspin grab. Fuzz did Sal flips. I think Nolan did 360 flip to fakie. Dan got close to fakie inward heels. It started to rain and Joe did a front 5-0 on the bigger set of steps. Sick!
After some lunch we ended up at Harrison, one of the best spots ever. Everyone had fun carving around to get things started. That spot is so awesome. People settled into tricks. Nolan took awhile to do back tail which was kind of surprising, but he had so many amazing tricks. Rob had some rad lines. Joe did a fakie 50 amongst many more tricks. Matt filmed. Eric did transfer to tail and a long back 5-0. Fuzz had a rad Sal flip transfer. I took a long time to get a kickflip, did a GleNBD of early grab back 5-0 and came close to noseslide 270 shove out. Dan kind of had fakie crook.
Then it was the last spot of the trip. The OG park. I was so excited to skate the little ledge. Joe challenged me to a game of SKATE which he eventually won. It was a good warm up. Most people were done skating. Fuzz was rolling fast around the park with an old homie that was there. Joe and I kept skating the ledge avoiding the dumbest group of beginner bikers I’ve ever seen. They were biking around trying to clap their hands. Anyways, I can’t remember all that Joe did, but it had tricks like fakie 50 back halfcab out (thats what he beat me with), front lip to 5-0, front 5-0 to front board. I was skating pretty slow and without confidence, but I managed to get some back 50s, back 5-0, front 5-0 shove, front nosegrind, got into front crooks, close to kick back 50. The session ended with me doing a b/s flip over the mellow hip and Joe doing a Creepy spin over the hip. My favorite day of the trip.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)