This spot has been in the back of my head for awhile. Ollie and I had drove down from the mountains and we had a family picnic then were lounging around (okay I was taking my old man nap) when Rob said he wanted to skate for a bit. I mentioned this spot and it was on. Ollie wanted in. Ollie and I got there first. After I went down it a couple times I wasn’t sure if Ollie should cause it’s kinda fast. But he thought it looked find and it didn’t even look like it concerned him at all the first time. Nice. Warming up took awhile for me. About the time Rob showed up I was finally feeling good and had a fun line of nose manual to the downhill, turn around ollie on and do a kickflip to fakie. Ollie was having fun. He had one or two legit manuals across the top. From the bottom he would ollie to rock, then lift up, take a push, shove his board halfway up the bank, let it come down, jump on it then back 180 off the curb. So awesome. He also had a really good slam trying a 360 body varial and Wilson’d hard. He laughed it off quickly. Rob seemed to warm up pretty quick. We skated from the bottom for awhile. He had ollie up, back 180 one foot, back 180 off. Ollie up, bs flip. Ollie up, boneless, no comply, etc. And the nice smith grind above through both stoppers and the totally dry concrete. Or maybe it was a stall. I had kickflip to fakie, b/s flip, no comply bigspin, no comply shove to fakie, boneless. A good feeling treflip on flat. From the top front 180 up the curb then halfcab flip into the downhill. Slammed pretty hard trying to roll into it switch. Then the wind kicked in hardcore. I nose mannied across the bottom and we were out. That spot is really fun.

Wasn’t planning on stopping by the Fairplay park on the way to my Mom’s, but Ollie requested it so I couldn’t say no. We arrived to Zeke cranked up on a boombox and only a few people at the park. One pool only dude, two mongo pushers (besides Ollie) and one dude that had a good ollie. The perimeter of that park has some fun stuff. It’s not perfect, but perfection is boring. Just ask PRod. Ha. The sun was blinding in spots and I definitely didn’t want to skate the bowl until the sun factor was eliminated. Ollie was doing 180’s off the kicker pretty quick, pushing mongo around the park, frontside kickturn over the rock qp, roll into the little brick qp, front board transfer the bank to curb, manual the top of the hip, fakie shoves on flat, firecracker the 3 stair and would not let us leave when we were supposed to go. My legs were feeling really arthritic so I mostly kept it mellow. Had fun on the brick coping qp which is the weirdest coping ever because you have to ollie into it. Did front tail, front smith and almost a kick back pivot. On the bank to curb when for kick back pivot and got kick back smith. I’ll take it! Ha. Tried a few front smith stalls to kickflip out. Kinda wish I would have tried that more. Took quite a few runs in the bowl. I can only drop in on the mellowest spot there. I’m such a pansy. Almost got a grind on the 7 section though. Last thing I did that felt good was a front lip on the bank to curb. Then it was back to driving.

Ollie and I sweated it out on Rampy after a thunderstorm hit. No new tricks from either of us. He had some really good front slashes for him. I had a first try front feeble and maybe the best crooked grind I’ve done on ramp. After awhile I went out for a short flatground session. My legs were feeling pretty arthritic and it’s harder to skate flat then rampy. But I did ok. Couldn’t get b/s flip, but got treflip. Failed at a varial flip then fakie varial flip line because varial flips are impossible to land when you actually want to land them.

After lots of basketball with Ollie I went for a late and quick session at this ledge. I was pretty sore from sore from all the basketball, but wanted to get out in the nice weather anyway. I ended up skating better then I thought I would. Had some fun crooked grinds and would try to line them out by manualling the long pad around the corner. Tried some switch bs noseslide shoves and got really close. Hyped I was getting on a ledge that tall switch even though I was kind of John Brandow’ing it. Started trying crooks front 180 out and got close. Then some dude who clearly saw me skating the ledge walked up, said hi, sat down on the ledge and lit up a cigarette. WTF. I just threw my board to the parking lot and left pissed off. Probably a good thing because it got me to actually leave quickly, but man, how weird.

First time with new shoes in awhile. The Supras put up a good fight and showed me that cup soles are better for repeatedly hucking flip tricks which is my favorite thing to do. So I got another pair of cupsoles. This time Vox – Lockdown Cups. They are a bit bulky for my taste, but we’ll see ..

It was a gorgeous evening. It had gotten to 99, but since we’re in a desert it cooled around 7 when we met up. We watched Suciu’s part in Sabotage 3 which inspired all of us then drove up to campus. We started off in this parking lot. Everyone seemed hyped and on their game pretty quick. Rob had a sick no comply shove up the curb and a push down the 3. Ha it was awesome. He also no complied up the 3 and did a bunch of long manuals around banked curb. Jake and I failed at manualling the curb – 3 section. Jake did have a nice ollie up, front 180 down, f/s halfcab off though. I was breaking in the new shoes and having fun. If I didn’t get the manual I would do a 180 off the curb after the 3 then a fakie flip trick. I was surprised at how good the new shoes felt. I managed a switch front 180 up, front 180 down the 3, sw front 180 off the curb.

Then we ended up at the new area where the old brick plaza was. Rob had some good boardslides, front nose to fakie, some creative slams as well as some rad no comply variations. Jake kickflipped the little brick section. I had a couple great feeling treflips followed by crook attempts turned into noseslides.

Next up was the fun little manny pad area. Jake went for halfcab manny and some wallrides on this fun barrier that was on the end of the sidewalk. So you could ollie onto the sidewalk then wallride the barrier down the 3″ to the parking lot. Ha. Rob came close to 180 nose mannies both ways. Had a sick nose manual drop down to nosemanual then turn front 180. I was feeling really good and skated non-stop. Got kickflip manny and nose manny shove. Maybe sw front 180 manual too. Had a really fun line of ollie up the curb then wallride down into the parking lot then lipslide a parking block. Also frontside wallride up onto the sidewalk, then ollie onto the tall orange ledge and front 180 off.

Last spot of the day was the double mellow banks. Jake was looking pretty tired and even kicked his board a couple times. Unheard of for him! He did manage some good lines though. Kickflip into the first, nollie 180 the second (I think?). Fakie bigspin then pop shove. Quite a few more I can’t remember right now. Rob did no comply shove then back 180 and maybe called it after that. I had pretty much the best flip trick showing I’ve ever had there. Pop shove the first, kickflip the second. Halfcab flip the first, back 180 the second. Fakie bigflip the first, front pop shove the second. Anytime I landed the second trick going forward I would loop around and try to ollie up the 3. I bailed most times. B/s flip the first, halfcab flip the second. Treflip the first, kickflip the second. Fakie flip the first, sw front 180 the second. And the ender, F/s halfcab flip the first, kickflip the second and finally got a clean ollie up the 3. Hurray for cupsoles making flip tricks even more fun!

On a hot and lazy afternoon Ollie and I set out to go skate. I was so lazy I even wore shorts. We ended up at this spot and I figure since it’s a ledge spot Ollie would be over it pretty quick and we’d move on. We were just kinda goofing around for awhile then Ollie pretty much did the first line in the video. I figured it would be cool to film it with my phone so we did. I love how he has no idea about what is cool in skateboarding. He’s wearing basketball shorts, he’s pushing mongo and he swings his arms around on purpose. But watching him is the best. He is only doing it for fun and he smiled the entire time. I had a couple runs starting with the tre stair too that were fun. Ollie, ollie up the curb, manual around a pillar, front nose to fakie on a ledge. Ollie the three, front 180 up the curb, sw front 180 up the smallest ledge, front shove off a taller ledge, 3 flip on flat. Ollie the three, kickfilp up the curb (hard because it’s so quick). I’ve wanted to do that ollie up the ledge then ride off ever since Jack manualled it in the snow forever ago. It took me awhile. I kept thinking my big butt would hit the rail as I ollied on. Hyped on getting that though. Ollie was doing lots of front and back 180s off various ledges. The best though was after awhile he was ollieing off the 3 stair then ollieing up the curb after. He was so hyped to be ollie’ing up a curb with speed. The look he gave me after the first couple was mind blowing to me. That is the most hyped I’ve ever seen him on a skateboard. I had a few other things I did that I was pretty hyped on. First try kick back 50 on the low ledge, a couple frontside flips. The crooks then treflip was extra great feeling because I just said if I land the crooks then I would try a flip trick and it worked first try. Ollie was doing a bunch of the quick ollies on different flagstone sections. It was so sick. I was finally able to do it as we rolled to the car. What a fun session. Sharing an amazing skate session with your kid is an amazing feeling. I put this up there with lots of other incredibly fun sessions I’ve had and am so grateful for all of them.

(Sorry for how lame facebook videos are to embed)

Met up with Jack, Carleigh, Rob and Crisis. Then rolled to Broomfield park with Blaine and met Derek and Nate. Warming up took a bit for me. It wasn’t as easy as it’s been the last few days. Jack and Carleigh seemed on a mission to skate the brick qp. Jack and a nice texas boneless (I think that’s what it’s called) and some lofty ollies both ways. The backside ollie with the cali grind out was hot! Carleigh had a quick front d. Rob and I were kind of all over. He had a nice halfcab boardslide shove out. Derek was trying front tail bigspins out down the double set rail. He got kinda close. I didn’t get much there I haven’t done before. I had a good feeling 3 flip on flat though and added backside crook (kind of) to my bag of only like 4 tricks I’ve done on the brick qp. Then we headed out to a street spot which ended up being this newly creted barrier.

Kudos to the dudes that creted this. Hopefully they keep at it as it needs some work, but it’s a good start. It’s infinitely harder to skate then it looks. Jack didn’t look for excuses though and did a back boardslide, back feeble and maybe even a back 50. I got a frontside ride from one crete section to the next. Pretty sure I set the record for doing it as low as possible.

After this we just started skating flatground. There was a slight downhill. Rob manualled the whole thing and almost nose mannied it too. My style has gone to crap and I linked up four tricks that would be cool if I didn’t know how badly I did them. Halfcab flip, heelflip, treflip, backside flip. Looks good on paper at least. Ha. I tried another line with fakie bigflip, front shove then nollie tre, but never got the nollie tre. We settled in to different tricks for awhile. Frontside flips,hardflips, etc. Not much was landed. Then I posed a halfcab double flip that came close. Ugly ass trick I’m sure, but I’ve kind of wanted to do it for awhile to just say I’ve done it. Jack did one first try. Ha. Carleigh tried backside flips while Rob and I tried double flips for quite some time. We both got close for awhile. Jack was trying cab double flips and getting just as close. Shortly into it Jack had offerred to buy me dinner if I landed one. Well I did. It was kind of a fakie 90 double flip, stop, put the hands down and laugh before riding out. But I’m 40 and have constantly lowered the bar on steezy landings all my life so it counted. Ha. Pretty fun day for sure. After we hung out at Crisis and watched skate videos and bet on Street League. Jocks.

Another post work Friday session here. The park aint great, but it’s location and lack of crowds is. There was even a couple other people skating for awhile. And they were pretty good. But no one wants to read about how good young skaters are on this blog, it’s just about old people. Unfortunately we skated pretty good for old people today I think. We mostly warmed up on the bank. Dave and Rob both had sick no comply bonelesses. Or whatever you call a boneless that’s grabbed backside. Dave had a pretty bad slam on a switch shove or something. I was in a flip trick mood and went with it. Got a few treflips and a couple in lines. I still can’t ollie up the middle ledge. Man it’s tall. At one point all three of us got tricks in a row that we had worked on. Mine was front 50 kickflip out (little kid trick!!). I think Dave’s was nollie into the bank. I don’t remember Rob’s trick at the moment. Whatever it was I’m sure it was steezy though. I had a blast and landed lots of tricks, but I felt like my style was extra bad. Seemed like after every trick I would have a weird hand motion or tic tac or something. Dave also had a good front board to fakie on the flat bar, front 50s on the ledge, slash on the bank to sideways ledge, and a first try fakie flip on the bank. Rob had some no comply 360s on the bank, front board on a tall ledge and lots more. I couldn’t get a b/s flip on the bank. So funny. I landed lots of flippers though and since thats my favorite stuff I had a blast. Good start to the weekend.

After a long day at the zoo, but a perfect early evening I met good ol’ Dan at the Omaha park. We started getting our groove on. Dan had a rad fakie rock 360 on the deck back to rock. Shortly after Drew Newlin showed up with a large crew of Omaha rippers and the session go really heated. Fun to watch, kind of embarrassing to try and get in the mix with. I bailed some crooks, but almost got kick back 50. Dan and I headed out because we were gonna meet Joe and Matt in a nearby suburb for some pizza then a little session at a metal park.

The park itself was a joke, but it has 3 things that most “awesome” parks around CO don’t have. A good ledge, good flatground and a good flatbar. Joe snapped this photo of me doing a front 50 front shove. It’s kind of funny because now that seems to be called the Joe Hamilton trick. Well before he got so darn good people used to call it the Glen Gillingham trick. Thanks Joe. Some day you will be 40 and it will be hard too! Ha. Joe wasn’t skating because of his rolled ankle, but it was feeling better and he could walk ok at least. Matt is really good at skateboarding. It’s crazy. On the box. Back 50, back 5-0, back nosegrind, back nosegrinnd shove, back tail, nollie back 5-0, front 5-0, nollie front nosegrind, nollie front nosegrind front 180 (I get partial credit on this one!!!), front tail, front tail fakie, and probably a ton more I’m forgetting. It was just as good on the flatbar. Front smith, front feeble, front lip, nollie front lip, front board shove, back crooks, back feeble, back lip, nollie back lip pretty much every trick there is. These dudes are so fun to skate with. They were all cheering and having a blast. No bad vibes at all. I started slow and even though I took 10 tries to get a front 50 it got cheers. I went on to get crooks, front 5-0 and kick back 50 (kind of). Came close to front 50 back 180 out, front 5-0 shove. Geez, I feel so lame compared to Matt. My flatground game was on pretty good though. treflips, b/s flips, nollie tre, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, etc. At one point Dan dared me to do a crooks. I got it then followed it with a really bad heelflip. Matt followed suit and did the same thing as me with another not great heelflip. Dan was last. Got the crooks and mr heelflip himself bailed the heelflip! Ha ha ha the crowd went wild. Dan killed it though. Front nosegrind super easy, lots of fakie 5-0 attempts, 50 to manual to 50 and a bunch of other unique tricks. I was maybe most impressed with the first try over willy on the flat bar. That thing is tall! The session was over pretty quick as it got dark. But wow it was fun. These dudes never disappoint.

On a humid afternoon in Omaha Ollie and I went out to investigate what the surroundings to Liz’s parents new place had. This was the first find. Too small for me. Ollie kind of did a wallride and my phone took the photo way too late.

Then we went to a nearby school that has a basketball court and I had seen the above staircase and thought it would be rad to ollie over the curb into the bank.

But the cracks killed it. Between the wall, the cracks and the weird approach I didn’t have it.

So I tried to hype myself up by doing a flip trick in middle section here before heading down the sidewalk on the right to hype myself up. As you can see the ground is less than ideal. Either way though I seemed to be landing tricks quicker then normal. Maybe it’s because I stretched more then normal, maybe it’s because there was a new PJ part. It didn’t work though I kept coming up short. I struggled with 360 flip though. Landed a ton of them and fell off. I blame the little rocks everywhere getting in my shoes. I finally landed a 3 flip and ollied in. Probably didn’t even really go over the curb, but I don’t care. It was really weird and hard for me. Ollie was cruising around and skating in between shooting hoops.

When he skated he carried his basketball. He did do a legit ollie up to manny on this tiny pad even though the only photos I have of him he’s scraping his tail.

This photo cracks me up. I manualled it too and down onto the sidewalk into the beautiful parking lot. Skated flat a bit longer too. Did a nollie three shove that was supposed to be a nollie 3 flip. Ha. Then the next try landed the nollie 3 flip. Did a line where I kickflipped into the little curb cut on the far left of the panorama, push through the rough parking lot, front 180 up the curb, then a fakie bigflip on flat. Also pop shoved into the curb cut then kickflipped up the curb which was way hard in the roughness. I got another 3 flip at one point that felt great. Then I gave in to Ollie’s demands and shot hoops for awhile. Horrible spot, but I managed to have fun at least.