After a long day of watching Ollie play football (he had two games (not back to back)) I went out in the early evening and skated flat for a bit. Warming up was a pain. I got through a lot of the basics including treflip and started hucking nollie tres and varial heels, but came up short and called it a night.

A gloomy start to a Saturday, but it ended up being super nice out. Neil, Blake, Rob, Ollie, Lazer and I started at CU. We messed around at the Physics building (I think?). Some little ollies up curbs, down, up ledges, etc. Everyone seemed to be struggling a bit. Lazer slammed on a nosebonk, but ended up ollie’ing a the gap over the ledge. Cops drove by and as Carleigh arrived told us that we couldn’t do any “acrobatic skateboarding”. After watching us skate for awhile clearly doing tricks. I guess they weren’t acrobatic enough. Anyways, we moved up near the student center. Rob no complied up a 3 stair, Lazer had a steezy ollie down it. I tried a line of riding through the skate stoppers then something off the bench, but it didn’t work so well. Then the cops came by again and gave us the official boot. Doh.

We went to Casey. It was a strugglefest. I ended up just skating flatground. I got through a quite a few of them and got stuck on treflips. Then I cracked my new board on treflips. Doh. It wasn’t bad at all though. I started getting really frustrated with my trucks as they weren’t turning tight enough and sat down for awhile as most everyone else was too. Ollie was playing basketball. Rob was crossing a dream trick off his list though. Wallride nollie out. He got a few. So sick! Looks for the documented proof in a Gnarly Carleigh photo somewhere, sometime.

Next up was the bank to curb/ledge. On the way there I stopped at home and grabbed my Venom bushing that I liked in my Ventures and put them in my Royals. Then they were super loose and I was hyped on them! Neil was having a tough day which is a bummer since it’s one of his last weekends before moving to Hawaii. He did manage to lipslide the two stair and front tail the curb though. Blake did his front 50 transfer again, almost dieing on some attempts. Lazer was boardsliding for miles. I managed quite a few tricks on the curb; front board to forward, switch boardslide, front tails with no slide, and geez, I guess that’s it. Probably not “quite a few” after all. I also got noseslide and boardslide on the taller part which hyped me up. Rob had a nice back feeble that grinded pretty far. Carleigh chilled and snapped photos. She wasn’t skating much because she hurt her elbow.

Then we went to Southern Hills after a stop at Que’s to say hi to Jack and then picking up Jake. I engaged in some of Colorado’s finest with Lazer and Rob and it made for an interesting session for me. My heart was pounding and I thought I would pass out, but man I felt extremely motivated to skate. Jake was killing it out of the gates. Rob went nuts too. It was a great session and a lot went down that’s hard to remember. Jake tre flipped into the handicap ramp, front tail and front tail to fakie on the ledge, quite a few fakie flips, halfcab boardslide, probably a lot more. Rob had some really long runs. Tricks like front shove out of the handicap ramp, kickflip into it, front noseslide on the bench, back noseslides, no complies. I’m blowing it on remember what all he did, but he was honestly skating some of the best I’ve seen him skate. Almost stomped a varial heel out of the handicap ramp. I tried a bunch of lines. First the ollie onto the narrow bench, kickflip off and back 180 off the 2 stair, but I kept not rotating enough on the back 180 and slamming so I gave up on that. Slammed hard trying to kickflip into the handicap ramp. Ha. Did some lines with heelflips or treflips to start then noseslide/boardslide/crooks on the bench. Or started with front board on the bench of the picnic table. Came really close to a line of halfcab flip into the handicap ramp then front 50 shove out on the bench. Lazer didn’t skate much and Carleigh kept it mellow with some ollies and cruised around a little. Blake had left. Ollie too. At the end Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It was a fun one, that I finally won. He normally beats me. I got Jake to do a f/s halfcab flip which he hasn’t done in forever. He got me on a treflip. I have decided to not try varial flips in SKATE anymore because when I don’t land them I get really mad. Anyways yeah, what a long day of skating. Felt great, weather was great, tight crew, good times.

After work and a tiny nap Neil came over on a beautiful night and we cruised over to Boulder Ditch to meet Dave and Rob. Boulder Ditch is really hard to skate, but a pretty good warm up for the legs. Neil boardslid the ledge pretty quick, lots of ollies, front tails on the pvc, front slashes on the little qp. Dave rolled in on the wood qp, front pivots on the tall qp, long boardslides on the pvc, front 5-0s on the pvc (photo). Rob didn’t skate this spot much, but still managed to boardslide the pvc all steezy. I had a couple hard slams. One just sliding on the concrete and it didn’t slide so I landed on my back. The other trying to crooks the box and I still have a headache from that. But I had fun doing a line with kickflip over the “hip” and boardsliding the pvc or nosesliding the box or not landing crooks.

Then we went to campus. We started out at the main parking lot with the little manny pad, tall manny pad, ledges, and the frustrating two curb spot. This was an epic part of the night, we were all struggling so bad. You know when it takes Neil multiple tries to ollie a curb that things aren’t going well. Basically this spot is a wallie curb followed somewhat quickly (10 feetish) by another curb that drops onto a sidewalk. Neil ended up being the first to get it, Rob second and they both were lining it out with some manual/nose manuals around some cars. I cracked my board pretty bad on a pop shove. Doh. It was still skateable though and I ended up getting a line of fakie flip, sw 180, wallie the wallie curb, the worst ollie ever done over the 2nd curb and then a back 180 off the sidewalk where I landed not moving. Perfect. Ha. Dave had some nice fakie bispgins, helipops, and put down the wallie/ollie combo, but didn’t quite ride away. Oh well.

Then we went over the the newly waxed slappy ledge and it was even more waxed up. Awesome. Dave went to work immediately with a slappy front 5-0. Ridiculous. He also went on to do slappy back 50, a bunch more slappy front 5-0s and then a proper slappy crooks after dropping in on the narrow stair ledge nearby. Rob did front tail right away and got a few slappy back 5-0s that were all inside and steezy. I liked how he carved it more then I was posting up on it. I managed one slappy front 50, some weak slappy crooks, slappy back 50s, front 50s and one front 5-0 which felt fun because you can kind of drop into the bank on the land. I tried to get more 5-0s to start a line, but couldn’t do it. Ended up settling for front 50, kickflip, wallie onto a similar ledge, back 180 off it, manual scrape the little manny pad, flung myself up the taller part of the red ledge. That felt fun. Neil was lining out the spot as he normally does. Ollie onto the red ledge, ollie off over the corner of the manual pad, front tail the ledge, almost front tail to fakie.

Then we kinda of looked at some other stuff. Dave was thinking boardsliding this. Ha, not the handrail, the curb. But he ended up dropping into 50 instead. So rad. We played on the little rock to narrow flagstone path for a bit. I had a couple front tail to fakies, Dave wallied into blunt. I ollied a gap off a narrow ledge and then we skated back to the car. Super fun night. I haven’t felt that good in awhile. My legs didn’t even hurt all that bad except after we had stopped for a bit.

Well my obsession over new trucks resulted in some new Royals. Based off a lot of things. First, I had them a long time ago and liked them. Second, Meta had them. Third, just look at the dudes that skate them! Cory Kennedy, Wes Kremer, Mike Carrol, Hsu, etc. Baller team and their footage looks like their trucks perform how I’d like mine to. Stable on straights, tight when you want them. Fourth, still completely blown away by the level of nerdiness on this site and he says great things about Royal. Anyways, I was at Meta at closing time and Matt came by with his cruiser, but we went and got his real board to get gnar. We started by looking for some metal construction manual pads and upon finding them just bombed a little hill instead. Then we ended up walking up to Casey and the ledges were lit so we skated there. My new trucks were a bit weird, but I couldn’t really complain. I didn’t have much pop. Got a front nose 270 out (aka the Helmstetter), noseslides, boardslide, possibly a crooks and a front 50 that was a battle. Flip tricks went ok, the Royals are lower so flip faster. The 3flip I landed felt really weird. Matt had no problem front tailing the ledge. Then went on to do a sick line with a little manual bonk on a rock, front tail to fakie then switch tre on flat. Whoa! He also got noseslide 270 shove and back tail. Then we rolled the rough hill back down and called it a night. Fun.

Met Rob a little before 5pm on another chilly day. Sure it wasn’t all that cold (around 50), but there was a cold chill in breeze and it’s the middle of May already darn it! Warming up was very slow for me. I didn’t even really do any flip tricks, but I did one fakie flip where I was barely moving. So slow in fact that Rob laughed because he saw me land it, looked away, looked back and I was still in the same place. Yeap, that sounds like me. We mostly skated the ledge. Rob had some longer noseslides and boardslides, some crooks (the photo above isn’t a make, but oh well), front noseslides, halfcab boardslide, and manualled the whole hill a couple times. I had a few longer noseslides, crooks, couldn’t get back 50, got a front board pop out then started hucking a Fuller trick. Front board to fakie. Not even possible. I did however end up getting a front board back 270 out. Pretty sure it slid at least 6″ so it maybe counts as a new trick. It was fun. We didn’t skate too long, it was nice. I have to say I’m wanting to try some new trucks that turn tighter. Not sure what it’s going to be yet, but man, this website rules with all it’s info about trucks. I’ve been completely out-nerded. I’m ashamed.

Shortly after dinner on what will hopefully be the last cold night (~40 degrees) I headed to campus to skate for a bit. The students are gone! Normally when the students are gone and I’m skating campus after dinner when it’s still light out it’s warm. But no, there was still snow in some grassy areas and I had three layers on and a beanie. Anyways, I had thought of the area above because of a session awhile ago when there was some jersey barriers. The barriers were gone though. I popped a few ollies on the way to the spot that didn’t get off the ground. Great. I felt good, but just couldn’t ollie apparently. I blame the cold. But I got to this area and ended up having fun trying a couple lines. The first one was just ollie onto the platform (far right behind the upright parking gate), ollie off, nose manny the little manny pad, lap over lipslide a parking block then a manual the long way. Tried to do some flatground after that, but my legs were shot. Next line was a front 50 on the somewhat waxed part of the ledge, heelflip on flat (I rarely landed them), manny the manny pad, ollie up onto the platform (coming from the left is so much taller), then back 180 off. I only got to the back 180 once and landed on it, but didn’t rotate enough. A cop walked by and gave me a mean look at this point. I tried a few more times, but ended up getting tired and the temperature had dropped and it was snowing a little so I left. In between heelflip bails I would try slappy crooks on the waxed part of the ledge and got into a couple, but not enough to ride away. I had fun, it was cold, but I skated and actually listened to my body saying it was done rather then stubbornly continuing.

Matt (not a geezer), Neil, John and I met up with Dave and Brett in Longmont and went to good ol’ Rocky Mountain Elem to start. John started with flatground. Halfcab flips, nollie flips and treflips. Dave was working the bank to window sill with nose stalls to fakie then a bunch of pivot tricks on the side curb. I managed to backside ollie over a median without touching my tail multiple times. Got a front 50 shove on the ledge, back 50, got a 3 flip on flat, but didn’t really get much else. Matt did kickflip and treflip over a median, came close to a bad slam trying to ollie the bank gap, front 5-0, front smith, front smith 180 on the ledge, treflips, probably much more. Neil was killing it. Had a line with front tail on the ledge, Neil comply boneless over a median, almost crooks. Nose manual the round flagpole ledge, a bunch more. Brett had moves too. Shove fakie, no comply shove, a gnarly slam on the bank, noseslides on the ledge and a bunch more. My session ended right as it rained as I was trying some flatground trick and the board shot right into the pin in my knee. That’s like a mega funny bone attack and I couldn’t move my leg for awhile. It was fine after a few minutes, but the pain is intense.

Then we went to Longmont High. Dave had left for his daughters birthday party. I was so sore and like an idiot kept trying to skate. I should sit down sometimes, but I just never do. I didn’t have much to be proud of. Some kickflips over the little crack gap, slow front 50s on the ledge, fell into the thorn bush, couldn’t ollie a 1 foot cone easily, still had fun though. Brett was going for hurricane on the little ledge, got front board on it, noseslides, some long noseslides on the low ledge, a long front 50 followed by a bad slam. John showed up Neil by doing Neil’s line first try. Halfcab, boardslide, ollie the cone, noseslide the long ledge. Ha. Also had some nice halfcab flips. Neil was ripping here again. Front tail and front tail to fakie the long ledge, nosebonk a ledge. Matt back 50’d the long ledge from the tall part (geez), super fast front tail and front tail to fakie the long ledge, nosebonks, ollies over the ledges like they was nothing and tried to kickflip one.

A bunch more went down. I can’t remember it all. It was a fun day and a fun crew.

Went to Lafayette park right after work on a pretty nice friday. It was pretty windy at times though. I got there slightly sooner and took a couple warm up runs in the fish pond then Matt made me drop into the pro bowl (shallow end). Scary. He kept his speed all good and almost carved tile. Then we skated the flow bowl which turned into a bail fest. I think I finally scratched a little grind on the pool coping, but I’m not even sure. He back 50’d it good, but couldn’t get front tail. I bailed front d’s over and over. Then we kinda did whatever for awhile. Matt back 50’d the bump to big ledge. I spend a lot of time working on halfcab flips. Ugh. Got a noseslide down the hubba. I got a few tricks on the tight qp at the entrance of the park. I was hyped on all the kickflips on the bank to set up for it. Eventually got a tiny boneless on it. I was struggling with flatground, definitely feeling the big board lately and its starting to wear on me a bit. Matt tre flipped up the long euro, had some big ollies in the snake run and got a nollie flip to fakie on a bank.

Then I went to Crisis to deliver some boards for awhile. Then I went to Safeway ledges and it was pretty windy. I was super stiff at first. Eventually got skating harder and did a line of crooks the fence ledge, front 5-0 the reg ledge then a horrible treflip. Got a few back 50s, back 5-0, kick back feeble (supposed to be 50), front tails. Flatground was pretty bad. Came close to a nollie tre, was 1/10 on heelflips. Doh.

Matt and I met up with John, Rob and Neil at Safeway ledges on a perfect weather evening. Cloudy in the 70s. It was perfect outside. Matt and I got their first. He got to the grind basics before me with front and back 50s right away, 5-0s, tails, and went on to land lots of flip tricks and got into back tail on the tall fence ledge. I got going kind of quickly for me though. Crooks on the lower fence ledge, kind of a front smith, a very short kick back 5-0 (stoked and I was actually trying 5-0), my flatground was not great but I was hucking nollie bigspins feeling like they were possible. Rob skates this spot so well. He did a perfect 180 nosegrind and his patented back 50s amongst a bunch more tricks. Neil was hurting and kept it mellow til later. John had a sick bigspin front nose, a sick impossible, nollie flips and more.

Then we went to the park which was pretty crowded. Dave, Blake, Eric, Darin and many more were there. Obviously with how crowded it was and with so many people there is no way I can document everything that went down. I’ll try to remember some of the highlights. John was lining out the blue ledge with back blunts on the quartapotty and his patented “switch” front noseslides and almost switch back nose 270 out. Dave manualled the deck of the brick qp. Neil was killing it with nose manuals, manuals, lipslides everywhere. Matt took awhile to back tail the tall brown ledge, fakie 5-0 blue ledge, treflips on lock, ollied the trash can with ease, back 50 the double set hubba. I was was having fun and skating somewhat hard, but can’t think of much worthy of writing about. I got a fakie nosegrind on the blue ledge, front d revert on quartapotty, hurricane on qp, a slow back 50 on the black ledge, but nothing new really.

Then we played a game of SKATE. Dave, me, Rob, John and Matt. I need to take a break from these I think because I got so mad because I’m sucking at flatground lately. I bailed a no comply 180 then Rob went right after me and did one which I got a letter on. Then it was my turn again and I bailed a pop shove. Then Rob did pop shove revert which I also got a letter on. I held off focusing my board at that point. I got out a couple tricks later and felt so mad I wanted to leave, but remained at the park for the last few minutes of lights. Overall a really fun night with the exception of how mad I got for bailing tricks I can normally land in SKATE.

Feeling pretty good on a nice warm monday. Played some pretty heavy basketball with Ollie then met up with Matt downtown. After he setup a shiny new Null board we cruised from his place. We started at the red ledge spot in the alley and we actually lasted awhile. Long enough for me to front 50 and back 50 the ledge, pose a noseslide on the flat bar and do a dorky little dropin (and the make). Which meant it was long enough for Matt to do front 50, front 5-0, back 50 and the tall noseslide above. We got the boot then went to St Julien.

Oh yeah, I had new shoes:

They skated rather well. The NB+s are still good, but they just never stretched out like a normal skate shoe and are too small for me, hurting my feet legs. But man if they get them at Meta again I will be all over them. Anyways, yeah, we went to St Julien and did tricks over the little bump for awhile. Matt rattled off back 180, manual bonk, nose bonk and kickflip before I had landed a front 180. Then we went for treflip which ended up taking him quite awhile and forced me to do more tricks. I eventually got a no pop kickflip, no comply and no comply nose grab over it before posing backside flips. The treflip Matt ended up getting was super good though.

There’s a lipslide buried in there.

Then we went to check out Canyon Center, but it was under construction and almost all of the metal banks are gone. Doh! Lastly we ended up at this ledge. We were both pretty tired/sore, but had fun. Matt did nollie front flip and then front lip. So good. I had a few weak boardslides, but one in a fun line of kickflip up the curb, boardslide, back 180 off the curb. Then we pretty much walked all the way back. I really liked the Vans, but was more sore then normal for a relatively short session.