Had to get out early to hit Community then off to the mountains to visit my mom. Went to Arvada park before Community and ended up skating for almost three hours and had a blast. When I got there Brian was still doing skate lessons. I cruised around for awhile just kind of hitting everything, but nothing serious. Brian joined after awhile. We didn’t land tricks on the tiny pool coping qp at the top of the park then moved down near the jersey barriers. We had some fun runs starting with the little noping qp, the pump bumps, the elevated qp, then back. Brian killed it with a b/s ollie, front rock, front tail. I tried to copy him, but couldn’t get the front tail. I was hyped to front rock that qp though. Brian had to leave for a Square State event, but was willing for a quick photo op for Instagram (above).

I skated solo for awhile and was having fun. I carved around the smaller of the two bowls at the top. At one point I went to get out and stepped right over the spine and flipped into the vert bowl. Ha. The other dudes at the top didn’t even seem to notice. Today was supposed to be more of a tranny day so I went over to the miniramp area. I felt pretty good and ended up landing quite a few of my tricks. The really surprising part to me was how good the ventures felt. I thought it would be awkward skating tranny with them, but to be honest they felt way better than Thunders. A big crew of tools with one wheel things mounted on their shoes came over to the miniramp section which was my queue to bail out of there. I was playing with the Pier 7 thing when Jake showed up. Whoa! The one wheeled dorks left and we skated the mini for awhile. Jake has a big bag. I was able to do runs with front d and fakie back smith to fakie in them so I felt ok. Then we hit the street section. We tried lines of frontside ollies on the mellow bank over the rail then boardslide the long concrete ledge. Neither of us got them together, but Jake was able to do the ollie really easy. It took me awhile and the one I got I bonked it hard. I decided to change up the line. Trick on the pool coping qp at the top of the park, 50 the marble ledge up top, come down and somehow turn enough to make the boardslide. I came close, but ended up just giving up and do the boardslide on it’s own. So fun. Then Jake made fun of me not being able to manual the pier 7 ledge for awhile. I did get into kick 50 on it though and manage a kickflip up the euro. I did quite a bit of flatground near the starting point too. I was like 5/7 on treflips so I started trying bigflips for the heck of it. I didn’t get close. Oh well, had to bail out quick and get off to the mountains. Super fun session.

Had an invite to Broomfield park, but the previous nights session had me craving street skating. On top of that I got my copy of Sabotage 3 in the mail (since no shops around here are ordering it???) and watched Mark Suciu’s part. Wow. That kid makes skateboarding look so easy and amazing with long lines in the streets. He is becoming one of my all time favorites. First spot was my favorite warm up spot. The mini granite ledge above. It’s kind of a ledge, kind of a bank to ledge. It’s perfect. I ended up skating it for like an hour and put down most of my ledge bag having the time of my life. I had my earphones on with Dinosaur Jr’s latest (I Bet On Sky) going. It’s pretty much a perfect album to skate to. Seeing as how this is my journal I’m gonna go ahead and list all the tricks I got. Most were stalls, some grinded or slid. Back 50, front 50, back crooks, back crooks to fakie, front crooks to fakie, front 5-0 back 180 out, front tail, front tail shove, back 50 front 180 out, kickflip back 50, kick back pivot, kick back tail and my favorite trick of the night – attempting a kick back tail and landed in kick back smith and recovered by doing front 180 out. I was seriously giggling after that one. I’ve never done a trick out of a flip in before (granted it’s just front 180 I know, but I was seriously hyped and it came by accident and so easy). One other trick I got close to was halfcab crook. I got into one really good one and grinded awhile before falling out. So close!

Then I went over to the yellow curb area for a bit. Ollied up the 2 stair a bunch, boardslide a little curb then try 3 flip. Never got the 3 flip. I was hyped how easy it was to get up the 2 stair. It’s just an awkward 2, but the smaller setup seems to pay off sometimes. Going the other way I wanted to ollie up onto the narrow and tall ledge, but never pulled the trigger. I almost front 180’d this kinda long gap, but the wind started kicking pretty hard so I seeked refuge in the yellow curb area. I did a few front/back 50s and posed some b/s flips up the curb. I wasn’t feeling that spot so much so I headed back to the original spot, but to hit the white ledge in the other side of the garage.

The new green paint is nice. The metal sign is kinda weird because I hit it with my hands a bunch. I got a back 50 somewhat quick. Not the whole thing like Jason used to. And the wind was still kicking so I didn’t line it out with the curb cut. Crooks took a bit, but I got a few of them. Two of which felt great. One of which was followed by a 3 flip. Went home stoked. Really digging my new setup.

On a gorgeous January day in the mid 60s I met Jack and Carleigh at the rainbow ledge. Jack and I got there first and warmed up with some slappy,cali dorking. Carleigh showed and her anxiety of skating in front of random people was put to the test with all the traffic driving by. She would end up almost getting noseslide 270 shove out though. Jack lipslide as far as he could several time sand would do different tricks out. He also cali grinded the whole thing and did probably 20 more tricks. I am scared of 50’ing that ledge because of the narrowness, but eventually got a few slow ones, back noseslides, boardslide pop outs, but could not crook to save my life.

We went and picked up birthday boy Jack and went to campus. We went to the Engineering area with the two mellow banks in a row to do trick into. I started off strong with kickflips, halfcab flip, 180s in. I thought I was gonna rattle off all my tricks, but I stalled out quick and went through a long streak of not landing anything. I eventually got a couple heelflips into the first one, bailed kickflips into the second one. Did b/s flip (with a good skid to stop) into the first then halfcab flip into the second. My trucks were feeling weird. Jack was content either landing sick tricks or eating shit hard. It was one or the other, no in between. He took soooo many hard slams. He also cracked his tail on a switch heel. Doh. Even on a badly cracked board though he almost did switch heel then switch bigspin. Carleigh’s anxiety was pushed even further at this spot since we were basically outside of her office. IF it wasn’t one of Jake’s favorite spots I probably would have pushed to move on. She did a line with nollie back 180 then f/s halfcab. Also nollie shove then front shove slam hard a couple times. Jake got some sick f/s flips, halfcab flips, nollie 180s. Ted joined us and did some amazing treflips and poppy kickflips.

We headed up to the double downhill manny pads and Jack shut it down with manual, drop to manual, up to manual, around the corner then gap to manual bonk. WTF. I did manage to manual it in the short time we were there. Then we hit the new double curb section by the stadium. Carleigh and I did wallie the first, ollie the second. Ted ollied both and tried to no comply the second too. Jack did wallie then no comply flip before finishing off his board. Jake went for ollie, ollie to manual for a long time. He got so close. Everyone was routing for him, but eventually he gave up after some good slams. Ted and I skated the little manny pad there. He got front 180 nose manny and halfcab manual back 180 out. I managed a kickflip manual and nose manny. Wanted to do nose manny shove, but it was too quick. Oh yeah, it was at this spot that I noticed why my trucks were being so weird. Every single hardware bolt was loose. My trucks were dancing around every crack they hit. Doh. We checked out the newly waxed 3 stair ledge for a bit. Jake mannied it. I ollied onto the second stair. That was about it. Then it was off to dinner and a beer. Happy times. I fell on my shoulder a ton and it didn’t hurt. Yeah! I didn’t skate too good, but this was the kind of session that fueled my fire and makes me want to skate more and harder. Street skating is the best. The grime on your hands, the dust on your shirt, watching for cops. All of that.

Carleigh and I both kinda wanted to go to the Erie park, but I didn’t want to push my shoulder that hard and wanted to just skate small stuff. So we went to Broomfield. It was in the low 60s during the day, but at 8pm it was in the mid 30s and felt cold. The super loud biker crew was there being as annoying as ever. We warmed up with some runs around the flow bowls. Carleigh hauls ass in that thing. I was still getting used to trucks that aren’t known for turning, but it actually seemed fine. Off to the street course where only a few people were skating. One of which was a Mark Suciu clone doing manual the black box to manual to the blue box up to manual to kickflip out. Insane. There was also an ultra hipster trying to front 50 everything, but would end up just riding less than an inch away from the edge of the ledge. It was bizarre to me. The session was mellow and really fun for me. I was loving how much pop my new setup had and how easy it is to maneuver. I saw Carleigh trying a bunch of flippers, some front tails and do some cool wallrides. She said she was “sucking”, but I didn’t think so. The things I did that I was hyped on were front 50 back 180 out (blue ledge), manual the blue ledge then ollie onto the downhill blue ledge then front feeble the quarterpotty, kick back 50 (blue ledge), 3 flip on flat. It was fun skating again and I managed to not hurt my shoulder at all. Whew!

Another day of “not skating until my shoulder is healed” that I skated. Ha. I went out to Rampy while the kids did their homework and did mostly just basics trying to ensure I didn’t fall and use my right arm to brace myself. For the most part it went fine. I almost died on the first grind though as I had kind forgotten that Rampy grinds now. I did a few basics and the Ventures seemed fine on tranny. I also did a few kickflips then 3 flip attempts on flat until I landed one. Can’t wait to skate for real again. Went swiwwing with the kids later and it really seemed to loosen my shoulder up and after lots of popping the shoulder felt better really good.

Of course now that I have to take some time off for my shoulder injury it’s super nice out. I haven’t set up a new board in a long time and needed something to do. If you know anything about me, you know that I obsess over really dumb stuff. Well lately I’ve been watching a lot of Westgate footage and read something where he said low trucks have better pop. When I had cleaned my garage last weekend I found an old pair of Venture Lows (8″) and I felt like giving them a try. They are probably at least 8 years old. Pretty funny. I put the Venom bushing in there for the heck of it. I also had some really old 50mm Null wheels that wouldn’t sell so I threw those on there too. I am now almost a 40 year old with Venture Lows and 50mm wheels. Aka I’m a dork. I went on a hike with Liz and got back kinda early in the afternoon and just couldn’t avoid skating anymore. I figured the safest thing to do was some slow flippers in front of the house so that’s what I did. I’m not sure if the lower trucks really help or not, but the new board felt awesome. I did some of the best feeling kickflips I’ve done in awhile. They board sure flipped around quick. I suppose the lighter wheels help too. I did a few more flippers too. Everything felt good with the exception of treflip which seemed a little harder since the trucks don’t turn the same. I got one kind of though and put my arm down and felt a tingle in the shoulder that reminded me I should probably stop while I’m ahead. I’m hyped my shoulder didn’t hurt at all while skating, but still gonna rest it so I don’t hurt it again next time I fall. Hyped on my new setup!

Our warmest day in a long time at 55! My shoulder seemed good enough to skate so I met Bernie at the new Street League park so we could start working out our contest tricks. It was way colder then either of us had anticipated. What happened to that 50 degree weather? I guess at 8pm it’s gone in January. It felt really cold. The park was way more crowded then I imagined it would be. Doh. The No Love dudes were there though which is always awesome. Andrew was ripping! Him and I easily had the most beat up boards at the park. So funny. Anyways, the warm up period sucked for me. All the pressure of the scoring system is rough. I felt like I couldn’t bail a trick so I would just not try tricks and instead just push around or get in some ones way. Bernie added to his point total in the line format pretty quick. Front smith 180 out on the bank to bench (above), front 50 off the ledge going down the 3, boardslide the flat bar, grind the bank to bank, etc. Andrew had some mean feebles and lipslides out across the whole flat bar, but those didn’t score as well as the feeble treflip out that TPuds had. The only tricks I got before being kicked out of the quarterfinals with the lowest point total in Street League history was a back 50 on the bank to bank, noseslide the bump to bench and ollie the rockish gap off the tiny kicker (with both feet coming way off the board). I tried a front 50 on one of the many ledges on the edge of the park, came up short and put all my weight on my right arm and threw out my shoulder again. Ugh. Rather then being smart and stop skating I just continued to fully embarrass myself. Doing dork tricks on the big kickers in the center of the park was fun. There are a million things I’d like to do at that park, but I’m gonna take some time off of skating to let my shoulder heal up. I’m pretty sure I tore the rotator cuff. Ugh. I kept thinking I should leave, but the park became less and less crowded until the point where it was just Bernie and I. Amazing. We did some Cali grinds off this one weird stair. Then I did it in a really fun line. Kickflip from one bank to another, cali grind, front rock the qp. Then Bernie and I both did back 50s in the middle qp/bank thing where you grind off the qp into the bank. NBDs for us. The judges went nuts. I did a couple cali grinds up and across some of the kicker things (photo above). I don’t think I even really landed it, but oh well, it’s a dork trick anyway. All in all I think I would have a blast skating that park a lot. Hopefully my shoulder heals up soon.

So I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it appears that I injured my right rotator cuff a bit. I would like to claim this happened skating, but it didn’t. It either happened while fixing up Rampy or even more embarrassing it was probably while playing Just Dance on the Wii with India. Either way it got worse throughout the day at work and I was going to bail on going to Sol, but I didn’t. Most people bailed on skating, but Bernie said he was down. I got there first and was taking a little cruise around run and slammed right onto my right shoulder. Great. It hurt bad now. I probably should have stopped skating, but I didn’t. I was having fun and within a few runs and did every trick I’ve done there recently in one run. Awesome. I started working on frontside beanplant to tail when Bernie showed up. He made some excuses about being scared of the ramp and then ripped it. Frontside 5-0s, front tails, front d, back 5-0, fakie pivots, and almost a first try kickflip pivot. Bernie rules. Nothing but fun. At the end I got one of the beanplant things. I’ve done a couple of these on Rampy, but this is the first time it felt real. I did it super slow though and Allan of course gave me a bunch of crap for how I did it. We did a couple flippers though and Allan said “Yeah will you got treflips so I’ll shut up.” Ha. It took a few tries, but I did get one and of course Allan had to make fun of how little pop it had. Geez, my shoulder wasn’t working dude. Ha. It was funny. Bernie landed a bunch of first try flippers. Then we left into the 4 degree cold (Fahrenheit).

Worked on Rampy for a bit, but got to a point where I could do no more without a better drill. So I cleaned and mopped a couple times in hopes of the dust being gone for good (It’s gonna take lots of more cleanings, but it’s way better!). Then Lazer called and asked if I wanted to go check out the grand opening of the Erie Street League park. The park looked really fun, but the 14 degree temperature was too cold for me to even try skating even though I had my thermals and a jacket on. Kudos to Trent for skating so hard, but wow, I couldn’t do it. Lazer slammed really hard on some ice on his first lap in the park. Ouch. We left in 5 minutes, went to Brian’s, hung out a bit, went to Crisis then had dinner. That wasn’t as cold. On the way home I stopped and got an impact drill so I could finish Rampy. Around 9 o’ clock I finished! So hyped! Skated it for about 10 minutes then went to sleep. Skating was fun. It felt great to grind on Rampy again even if it’s only for a couple feet. I made the coping a little smaller then it was originally so maybe I’ll land some new tricks for once.

On another super cold Saturday (12 degrees F) I went out to maybe skate Rampy, but the thought of inhaling all that dust again was too much. Instead I decided to tear out the pool coping and put the ol’ steel coping back on and have a ramp that doesn’t get me sick every time I skate it. That coping was so bad that one hit would break the whole thing up. It was surprisingly easy to tear it off. Not so easy to rebuild the decks/steel coping placement though. Before the losing football games started I got to a point where I put the coping on and gave it a trial run to make sure the spacing was good. It was so fun! I could grind again! And disgusting cement dust didn’t go flying! Cool.