Went to campus after hanging with the families all day.  Was tired and felt weird being solo on a nearly vacant campus.  I started by the student center where I saw this amazing view. 

I walked up a hill and was surprised to find this.  I warmed up with a line of ollie down a three stair, kickflip on flat, noseslide the ledge.  Fun.  I was still feeling weird, no one was around.  I sucked at front 50s and the ledge didn’t grind as good as it looks.  For a few crooks.  Tried a line of front 50 then, treflip on flat the ollie up the three.  But never got the tre.  Thought I saw a cop coming so I skated off.

Found this next.  I seem to remember skating this about 10 years ago when my brother first moved back to Wisconsin.  There is a huge crack and weird gutter in front of it so I couldn’t just get on it. So I tried from the second stair going sideways.  Took awhile but I eventually got a front 50 coming out before the stair on the last stair.  Grinding granite is so fun. Then I went for back 50.  Even though I normally take a huge angle into back 50s this was weird.  Kinda got a back 50 and moved on to one of the spots I knew I would skate.

Pretty darn dark.

Looks bright with the flash on.

This bench has been there since the first time I skated in Madison.  It’s not lit well.  The drop on the other side is kinda weird.  Again, no one was around so it was weird.  I skated it for awhile and got some basic.  Boardslide, noseslide, noseslide fakie, crooks, front 50, front 50 180, front 50 shove, front 5-0, halfcab noseslide, tried back 50, but gave up on it. 

I walked by my car and was super tired and almost left.  But I was near this spot and wanted to skate it.  Messed around for a bit then settled on a line that took awhile.  Ollie up the curb, ollie up the two (going fast for me), treflip on flat then ollie the three.  Treflips weren’t working but when I finally got it it felt great.  Then I ollied the rock off the two stair, got booted and left.

Glad I got out.  Could have gone without running into spiderwebs everywhere I went, but if well.

Iowa City skatepark.  On our drive to Wisconsin we stopped for food in Iowa City.  We randomly drove by the skatepark and I had the family drop me off.  It was hot and humid, I had car legs, and as you can see this skatepark looks like crap.  The bottom of the main crappy bowl area was covered in a film of crap left over from water that apparently occupied the park for awhile.  I pumped around on some stuff getting the legs going then hit the ledges and flatground.  This park might suck but it had over 5 good ledges.  Where you at Team Pain?  I had some noseslides to get going then some crooks.  Out of nowhere did a great run for me.  Front 180 into a bank, halfcab flip on flat, crooks, 360 flip.  I was really hyped.  I posed some hardflips on a mellow backside bank and think I may have gotten closer to figuring out that trick.  Also got front 50 followed by crooks on the little ledge.  Close to front 5-0, as the family pulled up I got a front 50 shove.  Stoked I forced myself to skate the ledges even though they felt tall.  The kid waxing was with a friend.  Neither of them could ollie, but they waxed everything.

Picked up Derek on the way  to the meeting spot Sol.  We were there first so we skated the ramp for awhile.  My first few runs were terrifying.  That ramp hates me.  I would go on to have some mediocre runs with a couple basic tricks in them and got stuck on front ds.  Skated flat and did several treflips with my hands touching the ground.  That seems to be how I do them now.  Derek laughed and giggled his way through lots of tricks.  Front 5-0 to fakie, switch front 5-0, kickflip to fakie and much more.  Carleigh showed and skated a bit too.  She wanted to carve over middle section, but didn’t commit. Riley showed and we left for fort Collins.

Spring Canyon was empty when we got there and I was immediately blown away by how insanely good Derek and Riley were skating.  They were ollieing the kicker to kicker gap so easy in lines.  Dana and his friend Hayden showed as well as a few more dudes.  Seeing Dana skate in person finally was pretty awesome.  He killed it.  Him and Riley fed off each other and Dana got Riley hyped for a big boneless over the door.  Riley pretty much killed everything.  Flatground, ledges, the door.  It was crazy.  Halfcab noseslide nollie heelflip out, pop shove nosegrind, hc noseslide bigspin out.  Derek 180 nose manualed the potato chip which was insane.  Back smith the ledge and a lot more.  Carleigh boardslid the rail, noseslid the ledge, took some photos, loaned me her flash (ha).  I didn’t skate great, but it was fun.  Landed a lot more treflips, some without putting my hands down.  Tried front 5-0 kickflip out for awhile, got kind of close.  Did a line with manual then kickflip on the end of the wide qp.  My new wheels still feel huge and my shoes are too bright.  Oh well.  Fun time, good weather, good crew, good park.

Rainy night. Went to Crisis earlier to sell stuff and had a plumber come later. Struggled quite a bit, but also got quite a few tricks. I blame the new wheels for feeling so big, maybe I should just not skate my old wheels for so long and have them wear down so much. Anyways, got most of the basics. No real stand outs other then a back smith that grinded, front tail, a dorky fakie back smith to feeble, a nollie flip to primo on flatground. Rampy ist awesome.

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.

After running boards to 303 and Emage, Matt, Dave and I hit downtown Denver. We started here. Well, Matt did with an ollie. Dave wanted to hippie jump it, but didn’t want to try it without being warmed up first. Then we went to the granite wedge/ledge spot nearby. Oh actually we hit a bunch of metal 1″ tall manny pads for a bit. Long enough for me to realize I would not be skating well and slam trying to ollie a 2 foot flat gap ugh. At the granite spot Dave did some front 50s on the weird plastic low ledge and boardslide to fakie up a granite ledge. Matt went buck. Manuals/nose manuals up/down, 5-0’s up down, ollies over a hydrant, treflips. Ripper. I skated horribly and had a very non-confident feeling I couldn’t kick. We got the boot.

Then we ended up here for awhile. Longer then we would have thought. And we did way less slappies then I would have thought. Dave and I both struggled to slappy the middle stair. Maybe we didn’t even land it. Matt front 50’d the middle one easy then front 50’d the top one. We eventually got the boot.

Then we ended up at this neat little spot. We all did wallrides up onto the bench (not the top one we aren’t that good). Matt ollied in from the low ledge and went for the ollie off the top ledge once, but bailed then we got the boot.

We hit some curbs for a bit. Hit the Chase curbs for a bit. Dave and I were frustrated with our skating. I gave up trying to 50 the curbs and tried to manual the long way like Matt was. I kind of did it, but with a couple minor tilts. Dave said it counts for over 40. Sweet. Dave did some manuals to quick ollies. Matt skated fast. Did long manuals and kept having runs cut short by my dumbass standing in the way. Booted.

Tabor center for a brief minute. I struggled with boneless wallride. Matt checked the gram. Dave slashed the bank and almost frontside rode the bank over rail. Some random dude came up to skate and just walked by and didn’t say hi at all. He was a kook. I can say this because I am 100% sure he will never read this. Booted.

Last spot was my favorite black 2 stair spot. Normally it’s a really quick boot, but we got a minute and the timing ended up being pretty good. Matt manualled a corner, kickflipped up the two and once again did not treflip down anything. I did some slow front shoves and kickflips down the far two, ollied up two, back 180’d off two, halfcab flip once going 1mph. Had a funny slam where I ran into the two stair when trying to ollie up it. Tried to line out a switch front 180 down 2 then kickflip up, but couldn’t kf up. Then broke my board on a front shove off the two. Doh. Next try Dave got a switch ollie down that he had been working on for awhile and then we got the boot.

Last spot. I just sat and filmed Dave do a sick boardslide to fakie and Matt do a front tail to fakie. On the way back to the car I pushed switch for several blocks. My car was in sight when I started to think to myself “that’s the longest you’ve pushed switch” then immediately fell down and shot my board into traffic. Perfect.

Haven’t been able to skate a whole lot and finally feeling quite a bit better. There were clouds in the morning and the forecasted high of 95 didn’t seem like it would happen. So I got out of the door around 10:30, ran a few errands then posted up at the research center. I struggled big time initially just to even ollie. But I stuck with it and ended up having a blast. I started with some simple lines and get a little bit techer with each one. First one was kickflip on flat, ollie up the curb, boardslide pop out. Then halfcab flip on flat, ollie up the curb, noseslide to fakie, turn around and then manual the long pad around the corner. Fakie big flip, ollie up the curb, pop shove, crooks. Oh and the clouds had burned off and it was really hot. Somehow it didn’t bother me too much though. Started going for treflip on flat, up the curb and then back 50. Got a few tres, but the back 50 was going to be a battle. I ended up doing quite a few treflips and added kickflips up the curb to the line. I eventually got the back 50 and I still have no idea how I did it. It was funny. Hyped I made myself do so many treflips. Some took a few tries, some several tries and at one point I did 3 in a row. Then I went home and got some food.

After lunch and then some baseball tossing with Ollie I headed out to campus. I was planning on going to the new ledge that Matt, Dave and I skated a couple nights before, but ended up warming up at the spot above and ended up just staying there. I really like the aesthetic of that spot and it brings out the inner Suciu in me. After some dorking around on the low step (which I should wax up because it could be really good) I basically settled into two lines. Coming from the opposite side of the photo; ollie up the 2, back 180 off then fakie tre. Never got the fakie tre, but after bailing one I randomly decided to try a nollie flip and landed it! So sketchy and horribly landed. But alas, it was a nollie flip! Only my 4th one ever and it’s been several years since the last one I landed. Going the other way was the line I really wanted. Manual, 360 flip on flat, ollie the 4 stair, somehow make the corner of the sidewalk and do the hill bomb. The manual is much harder then it looks because there isn’t much setup room and the brick part is really rough. I only got a couple without scrapes and then of course treflips were a battle again. It started raining and I knew I only had one last try. Somehow did the manual good, did a horrible treflip with both hands down and came to a stop (but had to count it because it was getting wet quick) then ollied the stairs (felt so good, kind of a longer then normal 4), made the corner and had a few fun powerslides down the hill.

I took cover at the top of this garage for a bit and ended up skating the hill into it several times. It’s way faster then it looks. The concrete is super smooth. I had bombed into it before and it’s scary, but I felt like doing powerslides so I did a bunch. On one of them I hit a crack and somehow ran out of it. But other then that it was just a great way to end a day. I did a few grinds on the yellow curbs at the top to start the hill bombs. So fun. The rain let up and everything dried out right away so I went over to the new ledge and of course, the only car there was parked right next to the waxed part. Doh. I did a couple front 50s, but it was scary because I thought I’d shoot my board into the car in the landing. I ollied up a taller part of the ledge and then ran out of gas and called it one awesome day of skateboarding.

Met Dave and Matt at this spot. Riley, Scotty and Bernie were there because they were on campus earlier and saw Fuller skate by. They were just hanging out before leaving though. It was kind of just a warm up spot. I did a few slappy axle stalls and got close to slappy crooks. Dave almost did his patented slappy front 5-0s. Matt ollied the whole ledge. Then we went to check out some new stuff. Found a couple light poles to arrange laying down. Matt got a sick line. Ollie over a ledge, back 50 one light pole, treflip, blunt transfer the next one. Dave was getting into feebles. I tried one of those ‘lapover smiths’ Rob showed me at Spring Canyon a long time ago. Then we mostly hit this new ledge / manny pad spot right next to it that was amazing. Dave was skating so good. I haven’t seen him skate a ledge like that. Crooks and front 50s all easy in lines with manuals. We all struggled with nose manuals until Matt got it. He had some good lines. Ollies over ledges, front, back tails, back 5-0, nollie manual, those steezy treflips. I was feeling run down still and didn’t have my skate legs, but still had fun. Got a treflip then a front 50, but missed the nose manual. Did a f/s halfcab flip, some tic tacs, then ollied the corner of a little ledge and then a 2″ crooks on the ledge. Fun. Then we went to the fence ride spot that’s all the rage. Matt and I were so tired. I technically landed a couple fence rides, but they were so low. Dave had some rad fakie rides. Matt ollied the ledge both ways, but didn’t treflip the 12 stair in a line. Then we mostly just kinda skated it like a bank to low bar. Lots of front 5-0s. I did a mutant front crooks to fakie thing. On our way back Matt showed the skate stoppers by the rec center that they can’t stop the fun.

Still feeling run down, after a long nap, after eating and kickball with the family I went out to find a couple spots Jack had texted me. I found one of them (the small manny pads), but it wasn’t lit. I ended up on campus and randomly ended up here. What a cool spot. I took a bit to get a couple really low wallrides. Then I tried to line it out with an ollie over the ledge too. It took awhile. I’m no Will Garson, but it was fun regardless. That pretty much drained me and after looking at some more new stuff on campus I headed home to prepare for Liz’s 40th bday.

After a long day of working on our storage shed in the heat, naps, slacking, cleaning and eating Ollie and I went to Arvada around 8pm. The park was not crowded by Arvada standards, but still had lots of people. We started off in the back corner as we always do. Ollie had an incredible first run. Little b/s ollie on the mini qp hip, some pumping, came back and front slashed the noping qp, front 180 off the kicker, fakie shove, f/s halfcab, nollie shove (he had never done nollie shove before). Wowsers. He did more front slashes, sometimes transferring over the hip. Dude was ripping. He also tried a switch shove it out of the blue and landed on it and reverted. He was hyped. I felt really out of it and a bit doped up on cough medicine. I had a fun run with a feeble grind on the noping qp, coming back to front tail on it then a little kickflip to fakie on the bank. Went over to the blue bank area. Ollie mongo pushed up the blue chip and dropped to manual on the flat one. Also front 180 then halfcab off. He also did a cab kickturn on the little bank across from it. I had a fun little run of front 50 on the little bank, wallride on the jersey barrier, ollie up the gap to the blue pod, front 180 off then a slow fakie flip. Then I spent a long time trying 360 flips to fakie yet again. This time I ended up successful as the rain sprinkled. Then it stopped and the temperature seemed to go up several degrees. Ollie was messing around just doing stuff that isn’t much yet, but just shows how natural he is. Almost did a frontside 360 off a kicker, rode off the blue chip pretty high, etc. Ollie wanted to go at this point, but I felt like trying to front 50 the super low, longish hubba which I have never 50’d before. I had to get a long line going to get myself to do it. Crooks on the tiny qp near the snake run, ollie up onto the tall blue ledge, roll off, tic tac, front 50 down. Got it after a few tries. Then we left. Pretty fun night. It’s kind of funny that I said it was harder to ollie up stuff on the smaller setup, but then had no problems with it here. Good. There were some good skaters there that were fun to watch and skating the park differently then I’ve seen before. Combining lots of street style with tranny stuff. It was cool.