We finally got some relief and the rain had slowed down enough for Boulder to be drivable. But of course it was still raining a little so Red Curbs was called and luckily almost totally dry. I think they must have pumped it out and cleaned it, but everyone else thinks it just drained naturally. Either way it was skateable. Ollie and I got there first. We were both pretty tired and it showed. On top of that I felt insanely rusty.

Ollie was really tired and seemed less interested then he has in awhile. Some other kids showed up for awhile and during that period he sat down. Right at the end the kids left and he skated hard for a bit. Some good manuals, front 180s, fakie shoves and a pop shove. Oh and some clean ollies up curbs.

I went through a period were it took me about 15 tries to land a fakie flip. That pretty much sums up how rusty I was. I did manage to get a couple fun lines. Ollie a box, crooks the ledge, front 5-0 the edge of the median, kickflip a little puddle. Fakie flip, sw front 180 a puddle, nose manual. Took me about 30 tries at the end of the session to land a 360 flip. It felt great when I finally did, but UGH. Nothing else really stands out for me.

Neil skated as Neil does. Super clean, fast and fun to watch. He did most of his tricks. No comply over the box, lipslide, etc. He had a rad line of halfcab onto the sidewalk by the doorway then kickflip out of the curb cut.

Rob seemed like he was skating extra good to me. Had a couple really long lines. I of course don’t remember them right now, but some of the tricks I remember are poppy ollies out of the curb cut, slappy lipslides, boardslide fakie, so much more.

At the end the 3 of us played a game of SAKTE. I got to start and rattled off about 8 tricks eliminating Neil and getting Rob to SKAT. Then I didn’t land another trick and ended up losing. Ha. Rob had some rad tricks like back 360, cab and back 180 one foot so I don’t mind losing to tricks like that. I probably got close to the back 180 one foot then I ever have before.

Ollie and I went to this parking garage on a very rainy night that would mark the start of the rainiest period in Boulder history. We drove by Red Curbs which was more like Red Lakes. This stretch was also some of the least I have skated lately. I felt rusty. But my legs weren’t sore which was kinda nice. I had an ok session. Highlights were a great feeling heelflip, lots of front 5-0s on the curb, kickflip to fakie on the bank (not the steep side because that would involve only being about 3 feet tall), b/s flip on the little hip, slappy crooks. Lowlights were not landing any back 50s, taking too long to do the kickflip to fakie, not landing a treflip. Ollie was ripping though. Lots of fast manuals across the hip thing, ollie onto the bank with a f/s halfcab off (so good!), ollie onto the bank turn around then f/s 180 off, lots of 180s, ollied onto the little median and kinda manualled it. Driving home was sketchy. The next couple days worth of floods good really sketchy.

My first almost 3 day break in a really long time. I felt good on a skateboard and I was hella excited to be skating. Jake picked me up and we headed to Valmont around 7pm. We started at the manny pads. I got into the groove pretty early on. I hadn’t been able to do a manual on the short section, but I managed to manual the long section. Weird. Had some fun nollies out of the curb cut and was getting into a groove with nose manuals and then just kind of fizzled out for a bit. Jake was bumming on his new shoes as well so we moved over to the ledge. I actually had some wax this time so that helped. We moth did some tricks. I got a back 50 first try which surprised us both. We both had troubles front 50’ing that ledge. The second section seems so tall to me know when it’s not. Ugh. We both ollied off the dock. I landed kind of weird and hot pocketd my back foot all weird. Still hurts, but I was able to skate through it. Jake worked on bluntslide pop outs while I tried b/s hurricanes. We both got them! Never of us really grinded/slid, but when your 40 and doing new tricks who cares. Oh wait, Jake is only twenty-something, not even 30. Better slide it Jake! Ha. I came super close to my first proper kickflip noseslide (meaning I was posted up on it instead of just falling off) and had some front tails that slid at least an inch. Per Neil’s instructions on how to ollie higher I remembered to look in the recycling for a box for a few mandatory ollies. Found the Coke box above which was small, but fun. Jake and I did lines with back wallrides on this metal sheet he setup, ollie the box, front tail. He slid though. I also tried coming the other way with crooks (was doing them on the second level, popping out and they felt good), ollie the box and then frontside wallride. Got close. My flat ground game wasn’t all that but I had a slow fakie heelflip that felt rad. Eventually we just set the box on it’s side and tried some tricks over it. I kickflipped it first two tries then took a few tries to b/s flip and front shove over it. Rad. Jake slammed on a nollie halfcab and sat down. I put the box back up and took a few tries to kickflip it. Pretty hyped on that! Ok, really hyped. Finished the night with an over 40 make on a flatground treflip.

Ollie and I went across the street to the school. On the way there I did a couple good feeling kickflips which surprised me because I had considered not skating due to my legs feeling like crap. We went to the normal area in the back. Stupid little pebbles from the playground were now everywhere. Ollie ripped it though. Good ollies up the curb, front 180s off. Ollie over a bit of a cone off a curb. I was in serious slack mode initially until a little switch back 180 (and I mean LITTLE) hyped me up a little. I also ollie a cone on it’s side out of a curb cut first try. Pretty much nothing, but it was awkward enough for me to be hyped. When we left we looked at the 5 stair for a bit, I posed an ollie then did an acid drop from the 4th stair. Then we watched the Broncos. Jocks.

Went to the ATM on the way to pick up Carleigh and kept putting in my regular credit card instead of my ATM card and could not figure out why it would not work. Ha. We got to Arvada shortly before 9pm. We started in the smaller bowl in the back corner. I was feeling weird about my setup and could not stand up on the pool coping which was my goal. We both seemed to cruise around it pretty good though. Carleigh had some rad slashes on the pool coping part. Then we went up to the Pier 7 granite ledge thing. Well I did, Carleigh was up in the bowl area for awhile. Monico’s little brother Matt was there trying to front feeble the rail. Crazy. It cracked me up because he has the same laugh as Monico. I got boardslide, front 50, manual and crooks on the ledge before taking a long time to boardslide the long concrete ledge which pretty much ended the night. My flatground game was crap. Doh.

Jake rolled over and we headed out to Safeway ledge on a hot afternoon. We were to meet a lot of people there, but we were the first. Warming up wasn’t horrible. Jake did some fakie front tails. I did another kickflip nose”slide” where the “slide” part refers to me sliding off the ledge right away. Ha, there was some closer ones to posting up though. Dave finally arrived. Around then I put down a couple kick back 50s that felt great. One of which was followed by an ollie over a box. Dave locked into some crooks which is hard on (ha) that ledge because it angles in. I landed a bunch of b/s flips to setup switch noseslides. It’s fun finally getting that trick a little. Gotta go faster.

Then we went to a new little skatepark in Westminster. They have added some cement around the edges to give it a little space. When we got there the heat was cranking. Driving by a bank later on when it cooled a little it said 94 so it must have been even hotter. Geez. What a weird park though. It’s pretty much perfect. The taller rail is pretty much impossible to hit unless your TPuds though. I didn’t land much so I’ll just get my couple of things over with. I managed a first try manual on the Pier 7 ledge which hyped me up. Front 50 shove out. A line where I noseslid most of the wide rail then ollied up the tall part of the Pier 7 ledge. At the end I had a line of halfcab flip into the super mellow bank, ollie onto the pier 7 ledge and kickflip off. That took way longer then it should have. Dave killed it. Boardslide to fakie on the A frame. Long lines with smith grinds on the qps, manuals on the narrow decks, lofty fakie and b/s ollies on the flat bank. A bunch more that I can’t remember because it took me too long to write this. Jake also killed it. Had a line with front 5-0 off the pier 7 ledge, b/s “air” over the hip and a front blunt on a qp. Wowsers. I guess that line was too good because I don’t remember what else he did. There was another dude there that brought a flat bar and set it next to the Pier 7 ledge. I jocked out and told Jake if we didn’t land it first try we had to do 20 pushups. I landed it. Jake got close, but didn’t land it and didn’t do the push ups. Ha. Dave got it too. Fun day.

Went to Lafayette park with Ollie. I was feeling blah and for the most part I didn’t do anything to be proud of. The few things that kept me from going crazy were a line in the tiny bowl with a front feeble and almost a fakie pivot fakie. On the bank that Ollie does the halfcabs above I did fakie flip, b/s flip, kickflip fakie and a rare f/s flip. Speaking of halfcabs though I had been trying them on there for awhile and Ollie comes by after a front 180 flyout, fakie shove on flat and does halfcab first try. Ollie was ripping. All 4 of the tricks above were new tricks he hadn’t done before and at the end of the day i asked him to do them all again so I could Dad Cam him. This random dude that was pretty good started telling Ollie how to do kickflips and that he needed to push regular. Ha. It’s fun skating with Ollie, so that part of the session was fun. But man, lately I just feel old and unable to skate the way I want to. Both mentally and physically. Ugh. Oh yeah, I had a new board. A Radio Null deck. Love it.

Headed up to Fort Collins with Ollie, Neil, Blake and Dave. After leaving MRKT we went to the pizza place by the ol’ bank to ledge formerly known as the Pizza Pipeline spot. Ollie and I ate while the others started skating. Dave got a back tail. Neil back 180’d over the ledge and later did a really lofty melon over it. Blake and I tried from front smiths and failed. I also failed at kick back 50 after getting oh so close 2nd try. I blame Dave for getting the camera out. Ok, I really blame Chad, Jon and a couple other dudes as I started feeling really bad for shy guy Ollie being around such a big crew. Chadman put down a sick line quick though then a pretty monster backside flip. Next we went to the nearby alley wallride / bank to ledge spot. Ollie and I kind of hung in the corner for awhile. I landed basically not a thing. Ollie did some little nose stalls both ways. Chad joined us and showed me hoe much I suck at ollieing. We got the boot then ended up at the Kind Soopers bank to curb. I also didn’t land anything here. Ollie did some rocks. Dave did a bunch of rad tricks including a back pivot shove revert or something. So good. Blake was coming close to sugarcanes. Chad did front tail kickflip out and front blunt. Neil had nose manny shove. Last spot was the post office curb spot which ended up being really fun. Ollie had some mannies, front boards and ride on 50s. Blake had sick slappies. Dave did a really long ride on 50. I did a line of slappy front lip, back 180 off a curb cut and a fakie flip on flat. Tried a line of manual, wallie over a curb, manual front shove out, but didn’t get very close. Mike did a bunch of back 180s getting a little further each time. It was a pretty fun day. This journal entry doesn’t really do it justice.

We were told to leave work early and work from home as there was some power outages planned. I had worked hard to get things wrapped up before I left and the payoff was “working” from the street out front. I was still feeling a bit of the new shoes/PJ motivation and ended up skating flat for a couple hours. It wasn’t the best or worst flatground session. I got a few treflips which is pretty much always enough for me to be happy. There were a few other tricks I was happy with like halfcab flips and 180 flips both ways. But I ended up spending a lot of time hucking. Got kind of close to fakie bigger flip. That extra 180 is so weird. I can’t even remember what all else I hucked. It was a lot of random tricks. I didn’t land much, but I still had fun.

Yeap folks. We have found the price in which I sellout. It’s called a shoe that PJ Ladd skates and it costs me less then $50 (sometimes running a company and getting hooked up at shops has it’s privileges!).   NB+ Stratford 479.  They aren’t even broken in, but I could not find the will to try those DC Mikey Taylors anymore.  Instead I went with a brand I see every day at the gym on every retired man that goes there.  It’s hip to be old?  Anyway, after bringing some new boards to Crisis, Rob, Ollie and I went over to the Safeway ledge.  Ollie wasn’t stoked, but was cool about it.  I on the other hand was super hyped.  The PJ shoes were hyping me up in ways I thought they would.  I’m the ultimate PJ nerd.  For the first time in awhile I landed the first kickflip I tried.  I went on to have a pretty good session in general, especially for a new pair of cupsoles that didn’t really have a chance to be broken in.   I was happy to get a couple kick back 50s, almost good front tails, lots of kickflips, halfcab flips, and the surprise for me was multiple switch front 180 to front 50s.  Rob was killing it.  He called kick back 50s on the drive, but ended up settling for front hurricanes instead.  What!  They were sick.  He had also tried a bunch of nollie lipslides to front 50 and didn’t quite get one.  Ollie mostly just cruised around, but did a few front nose taps and back boardslides.

It got dark so we went to go meet Carleigh at the park.  Only every teenager in the area was there which bummed out the old and the young so we said to meet at yellow curbs instead.  It was my idea so I take the blame, but upon getting there it felt wrong to skate there when it was nice out.   Rob and I managed some nose and regular manuals.  Ollie did some ollies up the curb and back 180s off.  Carleigh tied her shoes and after maybe a couple ollies we got the boot.  Doh.  It was close to Ollie’s bed time so we just bailed.