We drove from Buena Vista to Gunnison. First stop was the park. And there we stayed for quite a awhile. My legs were still not feeling so good. Ollie did the bunny hop right away. So rad. He loved that park. Rolled in on the 3 foot section, did front and back 180s all over the place. The front 180 from the deck into the bank was my favorite. Lots of little half cabs over the hips too. Some other dudes were at the park. Some of the nicest locals I’ve encountered. It was cool talking to them. Ollie and I skated the spin thing and rockride for awhile. I got quite a few spine transfers. Roll over, front 50 to back 50, front feeble to back smith, front feeble to back smith to fakie. Got a tiny f/s flip over the hip and a bad b/s flip where Ollie said “Over 40 it’s a make” that really cheered me up. We skated for a long time. Ollie out lasted me. Oh yeah I got a grind over the little 3 foot love seat thing. Off to camp ..

Ollie and I embarked on our first father/son skate and camping trip. We left Boulder pretty early and traffic really wasn’t too bad. We went to Silverthorne and Ollie started ripping right away. The little fly out above, 180s up and down the little banks, dude was having fun. My legs were not well. Something about the altitude and arthritis doesn’t mix well. I fell pushing at one point and got upset. That’s how my trip was starting. I think I was way too excited about it ahead of time. I failed at rolling in, but did a few things I was ok with. Front slashes in lines, back 50s in taller spots easy, b/s flip on the new bank, front rock and had fun pumping.

Then we went to Leadville to meet Rob and Fuzz. We were there way before them. Neither of us were skating great. In fact after awhile we decided to stop skating until Rob and Fuzz arrived. They finally did and things felt better pretty quick. Rob had skated there before and had some really long lines. Long manuals, fast back 50s, poppy ollies on b/s hips, standard rob steez. Fuzz killed it with lots of lofty f/s ollies, a gnarly kickflip to fakie, more lofty ollies, high speed front 50s. Ollie got into gear and had a bunch of front 180s into a little kicker, mongo pushes, rolled into the little qp, manual up the a frame, and a rock fakie in the bowl. Leadville is at 10,000 feet. Rob says it’s a good excuse to use for feeling exhausted the whole time. Good, because I needed it. I had a funish line of front d on the little qp, kickflip up the curb, back 180 off. A b/s flip on the round hip, not much else. The bowl was my favorite part and Ollie and I only briefly skated it at the end of the session. I had a fun little roll in and some little grinds. Then we went to my mom’s to watch fireworks in Buena Vista.

Watched the premiere of Static 4 and 5 at Meta. Had a couple ciders. Then went skating with John and Matt to the Wells Fargo qps. There were a few other people skating them. It was fun. It was really brief. John did pivot fakie. Matt ollied out over the brick wall. I did a front board transfer to fakie. Oh and board sitting in the photo is late after missing Matt credit card himself trying the ollie again. Ha.

Met up with Dave here. He started on the manny pad. I started doing 180s off one of the ledges and some slow slappy stuff. Then we both skated the manny pad and it was fun. Dave came so close to a ton of tricks. I forget all what he actually landed. But halfcab manual, almost hc manual back 180, nose manual, almost hc nose manual, a lot more. Plus he was trying switch front bigspins and wearing new Adio shoes. How’s it possible to have new Adios? Ask Dave. I got nose manual, but couldn’t get nose manual shove. Got a first try switch front 180 to manual, then tried it over and over and only got a couple more. Got one kickflip manual with a toe scrape, but not a clean one. Also had a fun line with nose manual, ollie up the ledge and back 180 off. Landed a double flip to complete stop.

Then we somehow ended up messing around on this. It was funny. It’s totally hidden, you can’t get much speed, but it was still fun. We both got front noses to fakie, front nose 270 out (aka the Helmstetter), front 50s going oh so fast. I got a crooks somewhat and posed some kickflip nosestalls. Kinda got into one, but didn’t get up on it.

Then we skated above it at this little spot. Dave wants to wax it and lipslide up it past the one stair. That would be so sick. I ollied and front 180’d into the bank and they were so fun that I tried kickflip too. It took awhile and a funny slame, but I got a good one. That was the end of the night. Street skating rules.

Worked 12 hours (the last 4 at home) then went straight to Broomfield park to meet up with Matt, John and Fuzz. Darin was there too. Fuzz was late so it was just the four of us for awhile. It was fun. Matt was actually appearing to struggle a little at the beginning. Whoa. We mostly just skated the angled brown ledge, blue ledge, quartapotty and flatground. I felt a little weird with the smaller trucks getting into grinds. I didn’t get frustrated about it though. I took a long time to get one treflip, got a lot of front tails on the qp, crooks on the brown ledge, don’t remember a whole lot more. John had some long lines going that had his patented switch front noses in them. He even did a front 5-0 which he is terrified of. Matt did fakie front 50 on the brown ledge, halfcab back 50s on the blue ledge, landed a kickflip in a game of SKATE, slammed on a treflip and ripped. Darin did his routines. The front blunts on the qp are sick. Almost did back 180 fakie 50. Fuzz showed up. Briefly. One roll around the park before some scooter kids got in his way and he bailed. Ha.

Went to Southern Hills after a really hot day that included a strenuous hike with Liz, watching MI3 with Ollie, laundry, dishes and napping. The purpose was to skate flat as I only had a day left to get a new flipper. I started by going through my bag. Got pretty far on the list which included a nollie varial flip, fakie treflip, treflip and fakie bigflip. Landed on a few varial heels. Since the fakie bigflip came so easy I thought fakie bigger flips might. Nope. At the end I was trying nollie f/s flips one way and treflip rewinds the other way. Got somewhat close to nollie f/s flip, but ended up getting a 360 flip rewind! Was so hyped. That’s been a dream trick forever. I didn’t do it well, but I was so tired from two hours of flip tricks that I just stopped at that point and called it a night.

After being on vacation for a week the whole family was grouchy. So I kinda just left with my skateboard and went to Southern Hills. It’s coming up on the end of the month and I haven’t done a new flip trick yet. Flatground went ok. I wasn’t too confident as skating Ventures again felt a little weird. But I really liked the 8″ trucks and how quick the flip was. I got through quite a few of the basics though and added a nollie varial flip. I was struggling with treflips when I noticed I had worn through the sole of my shoe and was skating on the insole. Doh, can’t have that. So I went home to get new shoes and then grab my camera before driving to Longmont to meet Dave.

Got me some Herman G6 Vulcs. They seem good.

It was hot when I got to Rocky Mtn Elem. The ledge didn’t grind because the wax was melted. I goofed around for awhile thinking of a line I wanted to do. Dropin on the narrow brick bank by the entrance of the school, front board popout the ledge, front 180 off the curb, fakie bigflip. When Dave was warming up I asked if he thought it was worth filming and did the line perfect. Great. Of course once we started filming I struggled with the front board, but I did end up getting it and it did feel amazing. I skated lightly after that then filmed Dave get a rad little line too. Then we both felt like we were getting heat stroke. Guess it was over 90 degrees and we were right in the sunlight. Really stoked on getting that line.

Put my old 8″ Ventures on a 8.25″ board. The board looked so small. I skated in front of the house for a bit before Ollie was ready to leave for a short Louisville session. I was able to ollie while hitting the tail again (ha), kickflips felt easier, halfcab flip felt great. I did end up liking how Indy’s turned, but for now I’m just gonna skate the Ventures and not think of getting 8″ Indys unless I actually end up disliking the Ventures (unlikely). We went to Lville. We skated the skate run thing first. It was fun. The Ventures carve differently then Indys, but the grind felt better and I actually landed tricks I got into instead of just stopping. Ollie pumped better then he has in awhile and followed some lines I showed him to keep his speed more. I got a front d, but bailed out of roll ins. Thanks JP. Ever since making that roll in bet I’ve been completely unable to commit to a roll in. Goofed around on the street section for awhile. Didn’t do anything special and definitely noticed that crooks are harder to get into with a smaller truck. But it was cool. Ollie had some nice front 180’s off the ledge. We were both so tired from vacation and driving that we called really quick.

After swimming a mile around the lake at the reunion and a round of golf (never playing again) I met up with the Fremonsters at the York park. It ended up being such a rad session. Those dudes all rule.

Dan claims to not have skated well. Maybe he didn’t, but he still smiled the whole time and manualed the box to front board off followed by a manual to back board off. As well as the rad grass stall above and a fakie inward heel on the bank followed by a fakie heelfip first t.

Eric fell a lot at the start. I made a lot of jokes how that isn’t the Eric I remember. He killed it in the end showing that he skates that park every day and pushes himself. He killed the mini ramp (staplegun, feeble fakie) and all kinds of unique lines around the park. He even ollied at the end of the session. Yes, an ollie!

A friend of Eric’s named Justin was there. He ripped. Front nosegrind across the stair, ollie up the tallest ledge, front tail to fakie the mellow bank to ledge, back smith the weird kinked flatbar, back blunt on it too, pole jams like they was nothing, a lot more.

I skated decent. Got a front smith on the mellow bank to ledge and a first try front tail. I didn’t skate the mini or flatground too well. I had a lot of problems just ollieing up the curb because I kept missing my tail. I had fun with the early grab cali grind even though I took a couple good slams on it. Also had a fun line of kickflip over the hip then front 50 back 180 out on the little ledge. Got frontside flip on on the top mellow bank then b/s flip on the bank to the mini and some other flippers on the bank next to the stairs like fakie varial flip. At the end of the session I gave my deck to Eric as his was totally trashed and I don’t want such a big board anymore.

Matt is so freakin’ good at skateboarding. Back nosegrind the top stair, almost back 5-0 front 180 out, front nosegrind the mellow bank to ledge, quick up back 50 off the ledge contraption, boardslide shove the kinked flatbar, back feeble it, tricks that started with nollies (ha), so much more I can’t remember right now.

Joe took more tries than me to land a front smith on the mellow bank to ledge! Ha ha Joe! He killed it though. Front 50 to front board, front 50 shove, front smith on the mellow bank to ledge. Did his patented “Joe Hamilton” on the mini. Did a line of front tail on the top bank, turned to boardslide off the ledge into the lower bank then front smith on the lower ledge.

All in all a really fun session with a really fun crew.

At a cabin in Nebraska on a family reunion for Liz’s family.  In my stupidity I decided to use a few free minutes to skate in the driveway at the cabin.  It went OK initially which was surprising considering how much I had swam and stuff earlier.  I did several of my easier basics, but struggled on the harder ones.  Landed on a nollie varial flip, posed double backside flips, ended with a crappy treflip.  Getting sick of how hard flip tricks are with the big setup.