On another very cold day I went to Sol right after work. I was wanting my typical after work nap and feeling very arthritic, but oh well. Bernie was there and after a few games of foosball with Allan, Bernie and I skated some flat. I was feeling so bad. Like I would never be able to do a kickflip. At first I kinda just did some slide around 180s. We started up with a game of SKATE though and it ended up getting better. I managed to win it on a nollie varial flip that Bernie probably shouldn’t have counted. Longmont Chad and another dude had joined us. They were ripping. After SKATE we messed around with some more flatground. I could not get varial heel, front heel or fakie tre. I tried a lot of fakie tres. Argh.

Then Dave showed and we skated the ramp. Man I sucked. Arthritis makes me feel so disoriented so skating that ramp when I feel so rotten is guaranteed suck. I landed nothing I was proud of and everytime I went to get back up on the deck my legs hurt. Bernie had fun. Lots of back 50s, front pivots, front tails and more. Dave skated good for him which says a lot. Long back 5-0s, boardslide fakies. His bag is full of tricks. Loved the b/s ollie truck bash, fakie pop rocks, so much more. It makes me want to get better at ramps. Chad skates the ramp like he skates flat. It’s so gnarly. He pops, hovers and commits. I’m jealous.

Went out to Rampy on a very cold night (-10 degrees) after helping the kids with their homework. It’s funny, not only did I daydream of skateboarding when I had homework years ago, but now I do the same when I’m helping my kids with it. So funny! I started out with some mediocre runs on Rampy to get the legs flowing. My arthritis was acting up a little, but I was determined to not let it bother me. I started wanting to do some Rampy tricks and then kind of started skating more flatground and then kind of just lost interest in the ramp altogether. I had gotten a fakie front pivot to fakie (about as unproper as it gets), a back smith and almost a fakie front feeble. Flatground went off. I started going through almost all of my tricks. Kickflip, pop shoves, fakie flip, varial flip, heelflip, fakie varial flip, halfcab flips, bs and fs flips, treflip and started digging into rarer tricks. Couldn’t get close on hardflip or switch flip. Started trying varial heel and much to my surprise and stoke I got one! I looked back through my skate journal and couldn’t even find when I landed one. So that means it’s been over 5 years since I’ve landed one. Hyped! Also added nollie varial flip, fakie bigflip (so hard in such little space), f/s haflcab heelflip and then several tries later got a switch varial flip! So hyped. It’s been a long time on that one too as I couldn’t find any makes in my journal. Whoa, two tricks in one night that I haven’t landed in over 5 years. Keep in mind though I’m basically skating in a 4′ x 8′ space so I’m going super slow. I don’t really care though, I was having a blast. Since I had done f/s halfcab heel and varial heel I felt like it might be my lucky night to get my first front 180 heel. It was so hard to setup for that trick in such little space, but I kept getting close, kept trying, almost gave up, started getting close again and then landed one. Whew! What a cool feeling trick! I should probably land one in the streets for it to officially count for my new years goal of 12 new flip tricks, but for now, I don’t care and I’m calling it. 2/12! Front heel! I might be the only 40 year old that would rather skate the flat of a ramp. Ha.

After a rough night of not getting much sleep due to our furnace not working correctly and having to get up to reset it every few hours, a long day at work, more furnace stuff, a nap (the best) and dinner I headed out on a chilly night (27 degrees) to my favorite parking garage off Valmont. It’s somewhat protected from outside and I thought it would be warmer, but the ice in the garage said otherwise. I thought I would be pretty worthless since I’ve skated so many days in a row again, but right out of the gate things felt pretty good. After my typical warming up of pushing, wallies, slappy tails and stuff I grabbed Ledgy and had some fun runs. Halfcab flip, ollie up the curb, kickflip off, crooks. Front 50 Ledgy, almost kick back tail. Had a really fun feeling line of 360 flip, front slappy a parking block, ollie up the rounded sidewalk by the entrance and no comply 180 off. Flip tricks were going alright. Back 50s on the ledge were not though. I guess with my small wheels there isn’t much clearance and it hangs up and pitches me forward on the screw. I gotta countersink that better or something. Did my first ever switch front nose on Ledgy. It was weak sauce. I couldn’t get front 50 front 180, Ledgy is just too quick for my slow feet. Got a front 5-0. Halfcab noseslide. Almost fakie nosegrind. Frontside flip. The best part was I was skating really hard. I turned Ledgy sideways and tried to ollie it. I think I’ve ollied it before, but it’s never been easy. But this time it only took about 5 tries and I was super hyped. Then I came remotely close to a fakie flip front tail on the little curb. Man that would rule my world. Any time I would think I should stop skating I would try a flip trick and get hyped up. I landed a lot of 360 flips. Eventually though, I got tired and cold and decided to call it a night.

Only 21 degrees out, but the sun felt warm so I talked Ollie into doing a little pre super bowl skating.  We drove around most of Boulder before finding this spot.  As you can see it’s nothing special. The asphalt was rough and the cracks big, but it was dry and the sun felt nice so we went for it.  Ollie lasted about ten minutes before he got bored and started throwing snowballs. He ollied up the curb a couple times, rolled through piles of snow and did some curb cut manuals first.  I ollied a couple little piles of snow, had a great feeling heelflip, bs flip almost nollie varial flip.  Then settled in on a line of pop shove up the sidewalk then varial flip on flat and a front shove off the curb cut.  It wasn’t pretty and it took awhile, but whatevs it’ll probably  be the last time I skate outside for awhile as the forecast looks brutal.

Went to the Steelyards after a busy morning of running errands and then trying to find some motivation to skate on a cold and snowy Saturday. I went to the Steelyards without Ledgy as I didn’t feel like carrying it. Upon entering that garage I lost even more motivation. Half the lights were out and it seemed so creepy, cold and not good for skating. But I went for it. Just found one section of dry crete that was lit and rattled off flippers. I ended up going through most of my bag. I had problems with fakie varial flip and treflip, but did land them. Couldn’t get a fakie heelfip. Posed switch flips. Got another 3 shove. Got nollie tre and nollie varial flip. Left depressed. Winter and that parking garage suck.

On what would have been my dad’s 67th birthday I headed out to Rampy on a cold and snowy night for a bit. I had been thinking of boneless disasters throughout the day and wanted to give it a try. After some warming up and some failed attempts at no comply to tail I realized I will probably never to a boneless disaster. I settled with a few frontside ollies, one of which might have been at coping level. I was trying to avoid flatground, but ended up doing a few kickflips and then some 360 shoves which is a rare one for me. Tried a few 540 shoves for the heck of it then to my surprise Ollie comes out with his board to skate.

Ollie was in his Broncos Champ Bailey shirt so I called him Ramp Bailey. So funny. He skated Rampy faster then I remember him in the past and he had some back and front slashes, his patented fakie ollies and body varials and some first try rock ‘n rolls both ways.

I have been so obsessed with skateboarding lately. I’m not sure what’s going on, but all day at work I thought I might be able to get home before the rain/snow starts. Nope. So I ended up at Red Curbs as I knew it would be dry and wouldn’t be after the snow. My warm up period was shorter then normal. Someone waxed the heck out of the main red curb and as you can see by the photo the main non-red curb had a car parked right near it. Doh. So I did a lot of slappies up the curb cut and little slappy nose/tail slides. I had a run of front 50, front tail, b/s flip. Only the front 50 was done decent. Got a front lip or two, front 50 back 180 out. Messed around with switch front noseslides and swith front boards where I came out to forward. Got some back 50s, got a kick back tail, almost some hurricanes. Started grabbing the styrofoam boxes out of the trash and piling them up. The box alone was hard at first, then the next layer took a long time and I have no idea how I got over the box with two cover things on it. It’s not tall by most peoples standards, but it is for me. I ended with some flippers. Tried a few new ones, but didn’t get close, got treflip and f/s flip and drove home in the new snow stoked on skating and the fact I actually landed a few things. The wind really effects my arthritis and it wasn’t windy at all. I guess the day before when it was super windy I should just feel lucky I was able to skate at all.

I pulled Ledgy out from the backyard, brushed off the snow and headed to my favorite parking garage. Upon arriving it was wetter then normal and there was a car parked in front of the best slappy curb. Doh. I warmed up with some kickflips that felt great, some boardslides on Ledgy, slappy trails on the curb and manuals. Started to get in the groove a bit with front 50s/ almost back 50s when Fuzz showed up. We skated the ledge mostly for awhile. Fuzz had some back and forth lines like front 50 / back 50, front 5-0 / back 5-0. He also had front 50 front 180 out and noseslides. I didn’t land much of anything. I’m not sure what was going on. I landed a few noseslide/crook/jibs, halfcab noseslide, front 50s, front nose (no slide) to fakie, switch back nose (no slide). Got into a few kick back tails on the curb. Went for a line of front 50 on the ledge then treflip and SNAP broke the tail. Argh. Luckily I had a spare old board in my trunk and Fuzz and I teamed up pitstop style to change out my board. We skated the ledge a bit longer before the real fun on a parking block ensued. We did mostly transfers. New ones for both of us. Fuzz did nosestall popped over back 180, fakie tail stall to f/s halfcab transfer and his “first” no comply over a parking block (not sure I believe that 38 year old!) and a few more before coming dangerously close to rolling his ankle. I struggled with wallie back 180 for awhile and eventually technically landed one. Got a first ever slappy crook stall back 180 transfer, no complies, kickflip, wallie front 180. We had fun and it was cool skating/chatting with Fuzz as it’s been awhile.

What happened to that new Suciu deck you ask? Well now that’s quite embarrassing. Monday morning I was getting ready for work and could not find my work badge and could not find it anywhere. Somehow this pisses me off more then almost anything and I was looking under my dresser when my board (which leans against the side of the dresser) fell on my shoeless foot. Ouch. My reaction was a quick kick to the middle of the board. Snap. That did not help my temper fit. In all honesty though I cannot believe that board broke. I didn’t even have a shoe on and didn’t put much into it. So much for that hemp layer making it strong. Oh well, back to Null! I had also worn a hole threw my previous Stratfords so it was time for some new ones. These were 10.5 instead of 11 as the 11s seem slightly big. I set up an 8″ instead of 8.1 this time. Well, actually my debate this time was to setup a 7.875 because Generator shipped 7.875s instead of 7.75s and I used to love 7.875 (I just managed to say 7.875 three times in one sentence!). Luckily I held off for now and stuck with 8″.

I have become such a recluse. Rather then invite others over to skate I just wanted to go out solo and try a lot of flatground tricks too. I had a couple good warm up runs and great first few kickflips. The 8″ board actually felt quite a bit smaller and I was happy about that. I tried a few crooks and boardslides on the ramp before laying into the flatground for awhile. I got to heelflip and did another accidental 3/4 flip to primo. Only this time I didn’t bail off, but landed it perfect. Ha, that made me laugh quite a bit. I was 4/5 on treflips. Struggled with b/s flips, f/s flips. Felt close to nollie flips, nowhere near switch heels, nowhere near inward heels, front heels. I definitely would have rather been skating outside somewhere with room. Last thing I did was try an alley oop fakie back 50 to fakie which I would eventually get and call it a night. That might be a new one.

Another warm day, but much windier. I was feeling burnt from skating so hard lately, but Dave and Neil were wanting to skate so I tried. Ollie was in too. We first started at the spot above. Ollie did that line immediately. I could hardly push my board I was so sore/tired. He killed it with a few more 180’s, manuals, fakie shoves too. Dave and Neil killed the ledge. Neil had some crazy good lines. Nose manual a sidewalk, ollie up the curb, front tail the ledge, ollie a tall metal thing, ollie up the curb, almost crooks shove. He also did front 50s. Dave had super long backside slappies. Some with a nollie front 180 out. I didn’t see it, but he said he did a kickflip at one point. Yes! Also saw lots of 180s off curbs, slappy noseslide, front 50s, front 5-0, front hurricane. I was sucking. Couldn’t front 50, crooks or back 50. Struggled ollie’ing up curbs, etc. I posed a bunch of switch b/s flips that kind of hyped me up though, that’s a dream trick. It might be realistic.

Then we checked out this bank spot Dave had seen nearby. I got that dorky boardslide above and the a mutant boneless to tail. It was fun dorking though. That thing is way hard to skate and has a huge crack at the bottom of the main bank so you have to go in from the sides all weird. Ollie had fun there too with some carves and goofy stuff. Neil couldn’t ride up the side so did ollie onto the bank, ollie on the bank, ollie off the bank. Ha. Dave tried some bluntslides and wallie to grassrides and some other stuff then we called it a day. I should probably take a day off from skating and let my body rest up a little.