Ollie and I went to Southern Hills on a cloudy, but pretty warm Saturday afternoon. We were just cruising around mostly and he was following me. I tried a kickflip at one point and he tried one too. He got surprisingly close. So I gave him a few pointers and he seemed to be able to follow my suggestions. Crazy, I can never get my body to do what people suggest so he must have lots of Liz in him. Neil, Blake and Alec showed up. Neil had been stressing over how long I was taking to go skating, but then didn’t skate at all and just complained about the 60 degree weather. He seemed to rub off on Blake and Alec. Bernie showed up and Carleigh soon after. I did a line I was pretty proud of. Noseslide to fakie on the picnic table, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide on a bench. Oh and earlier on I had done the backside basics line of boardslide, noseslide then crooks. I also got noseslide 270 out first try. Hyped on that. Bernie manny and nose mannyd the picnic table (above). I tried to ollie up onto it, but my ollies are total crap as of late. I got a front 50 shove out at one point and tried to follow it up with a halfcab flip, but my feet were really starting to hurt. Every bail hurts so bad. Trying to flip the board hurts. These Slash shoes give me blisters and make skateboarding way more painful then it already is. Ollie was doing lots of hippy jumps/run over the table. Bernie did a marathon run of kickflip into the bank, 3 flip on the super good flatground, front board a bench, front 50 the bottom of a picnic table, front lip a bench. So sick. Carleigh was doing fire crackers down the two stair then trying noseslide 270 shove out. We got in the Off The Couch mode for a bit and Carleigh got firecracker then noseslide shove. Bernie did almost all of his line, but couldn’t get the lipslide again and wasn’t really hyped on his line anyway. Then Bernie filmed Ollie and I try to get a doubles line (above). Ollie would do his run over hippy jump on the picnic table then I would try a heelflip then a noseslide 270 out on the ledge. I am not good at skateboarding. I got remotely close once, but Ollie decided he didn’t want to keep trying it and then we called it a day. I haven’t been skating too well lately. I partly blame the shoes as they hurt my feet a lot.

This is the dumb part of me. It was 70 degrees out and I got out of work early so I felt obligated to go skating. I chose a session on campus. Oh yeah, I had worn a hole through the ollie area and the sole on my Lakai’s the night before so I had new shoes.

Fallen Slashs. These shoes felt ok in the shop and I had a pair in the past I was happy with, but I’ve been wearing them for about a month and they are super uncomfortable. I was hoping breaking them in skating would help, but they didn’t seem to. I felt like I was wearing moon boots. I fell a lot, didn’t have any motivation, etc. I went to the flatground area and things changed for a bit as I got 6 flippers in a row. Kickflip, heelflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, varial flip, fakie bigflip. Whoa! I went to try and get 10 flip tricks and added a couple more before getting stuck on treflip or f/s halfcab flip and I could not land anything. The sole on these sucks so bad, I would just slide right off the board. If I could have focused the shoes I would have. I tried several halfcab double flips and got pretty close, just couldn’t get the flick. I looked at some other new spots, but ended up just walking back to the car and then hitting Meta where Sam stoked me out so much by being such a nice guy.

It was a late start for us, everyone but Skelly (who’s coming from foco) left Crisis a little before 9pm. We parked by the pedestrian bridge near the Denver ice rink (skatepark) and walked over it to get things started. Fuzz was winded from the stairs. Ha. We played around that area for awhile. There was some stairs, kind of manny pads, little banked ledge, etc. I don’t remember much from that part of it other than Carleigh did a feeble on the banked ledge. We got the boot and went a half block to the next spot with the angled granite ledges (up/down). We were there for a bit and security told us we could skate for a bit longer. I haven’t really street skated with Fuller much, but he killed it. Boardslides to fakie going up the ledge, switch ollie over a sandbag. Carleigh and I did some boardslides. She almost got noseslides too. The ledges are kinda weird because the edges are good, but they have some jaggedness to them. Fuzz was able to 50 through them all tough though. I could not. I could also not crook them. I was feeling a little odd on my board though. Like my legs were too tired or something. Oh well, we moved on to some jersey barriers to meet up with Skelly. We did a bunch of wallrides on them. We tried to do them as smooth as PJ does in his Cruisin’ NYC clip. We couldn’t, but we got a few wallrides regardless. Dave and I added some frontside ones to it too. His sick, mine not so sick. Skelly joined us and we moved on. Ended up at a ledge going into a downhill entrance to a parking lot where we each lasted about one attempt. Luckily I went for a little front board pop out and managed to land it, do a fun powerslide and ollie over a little speed bump going way faster then I normally do an ollie. Perhaps my favorite moment of the night. Some investigating at the RTD station and pissing in the alley later we found a tall loading dock to ollie onto and off. Fuzz got up it first try. I got it a few tries later and managed one with a decent (for me) ollie off the taller side. Fuzz did an ollie up to board stall shove out to the top. Sean went the back 180 route. Next we went around the corner into a parking garage and found some amazing painted curbs. Maybe the best curb I’ve ever grinded. There must be 20 layers of paint on it. You could slappy up the curb cut parts or ollie in. We all did a 50 that we ollied into then the curb cut went down and we rode back into grinds when the curb cut when back up. So fun. Skelly was all over the place doing little manuals, tailslides, etc. Dave almost did a switch slappy. He’s the oldest one of all of us and skates switch the most. Awesome. Fuzz almost did a front 180 off a curb cut to nose slide. Hard to describe, but he couldn’t quite get it. I had a bunch of slappys and was skating this one you could go over the top and go straight across. Got a back 5-0 across it! Then started going for back nosegrind and got surprisingly close, but we got the boot. Doh, I haven’t tried back nosegrinds in a long time! Pretty sure we ended up at Tabor center after that where we posted up for a really long time. Skelly, Fuzz and Dave skated the little bank you have to ollie into. I was trying ollie down the 3 to ollie up the 3 which I would eventually get with my signature of the night – hand down. Dave did a super sick frontside wallride/hold onto the rail around the six stair. It was so steezy. Carleigh went buck and ollied the gap which amazed me because it was really dark. I tried downhill flatground for awhile and struggled big time. Managed halfcab flip then treflip signature of the night. Then a mostly old school session ensued on the bottom of the stairs. Stall tricks for days. Impossible to remember all of them. It was really fun though. I felt like I was in junior high again. Fullerton showed us some super sick boneless wall bonk variations. I kind of learned a switch 360 version that he did with so much style that the rest of us were left with our jaws on the ground. Then we headed back to the car, but got interrupted trying cali grinds down the bike groove part of the stairs. It was so fun. The first few were really scary, but we all grinded down it. The marks left on the trucks are so awesome. Dave did a super gnarly dropin on a higher set up stairs to grind down the main set. Fullerton for MVP! Super fun night as they almost always are in Denver. Oh yeah, so we skated way past midnight. I was beat!

Felt like getting out early and not having to deal with a bunch of phone calls. So instead just hit up Carleigh and we left for Denver with no spots in mind. On the way Skelly called and said him and Mike wanted to just cruise downtown spots too. Bolts! We were about an hour ahead of them and I randomly remembered a school I’ve had fun at before off of Speer. It’s got a bunch of ledges, cracks and bigger cracks. Neither of us skated very well. Carleigh started with front tails, but they ended up being mean so she struggled with it for awhile. She did have some good front 50s on the lower ledge and almost got a shove out. I struggled to relearn back 50s as apparently I need to train with that trick every day or something if I’m not to lose it. I eventually got some though. I even lined one out with a fakie nosegrind on the lower ledge which I was stoked on. Other then some fun chinese nollies to tailslide I struggled on everything and neither of us seemed to into it.

Then we met up with Sean and Mike at “The only spot in Denver”. Just Carleigh and I were there for awhile waiting though. We had joked about how we shouldn’t go there because Carleigh would get stuck trying tailslides. Doh! We mostly did lines down the hill though. My arthritis was bugging me a little. Making my knees sore and my balance feel off. I tried my dream line of a manual from the curb to the first two stair, powerslide then boardslide pop out. Never got the manual, but did get boardslide a couple times. Carleigh tried a cool line of some ollies on the two stair, cali grind, then front nose. Mike is recovering from a rolled ankle and was taking it easy, mostly just rolling down the hill. Skelly killed it olliing the two stairs and even filmed a line with two hippy jumps, two ollies and some powerslides. Sick!

We stopped by this spot for about two wallrides each before we got the boot then ended up at the bank with all the marble a block away. We were riding into the banks next to the double set and stuff and surprised we weren’t getting kicked out. We kept skating. I got an ollie to fakie on the top one. Carleigh ollied the 4 then the next 4. Skelly and I ollied a little gap into a bank and tried 180s off a taller drop. We eventually got the boot. Some lurking, refreshing and walking later we ended up above the RTD station with the good ledge and the circle benches. It was fun. Carleigh was trying noseslide front shoves out and almost accidentally did noseslide to front 180 nosegrind to shove out. That would have been sick! Skelly and I did some basic noseslides. I got a rare noseslide to frontside 270 out. I could not ollie onto one of those circle benches to save my life though. Skelly closed with a sick front 180 up the ledge to halfcab off and then the same with a fakie ollie off. Ripping! Fun day.

Looking like another warm Saturday. A million phone calls were made and three cars of TFers migrated to Longmont to meet at Fullers ramp. The crew was Carleigh, Neil, Lazer, Jake, Jason, Bernie, Brian, Dave, Alec, Brandon and Jason. Jake got the session going with a marathon run with tons of good tricks. Remembering what everyone did two days ago is going to be impossible but I’ll try to remember at least a few from each. Neil, took a really long time to do a boardslide on the parking block side, has super good front disasters, did his best not to snake people too much. Brian, his white shirt was brown by the first run, love the fakie feeble 270 trick that I don’t really understand, did a beanplant to fakie I think (?) and a million more tricks. Jake was trying noseblunts on the parking block side, that pretty much says it all right there. He’s getting really good and landed almost every trick I’ve seen him do. Carleigh had some of the best back 50s I’ve seen her do. All fast. I don’t think she likes that ramp very much though. Alec and Brandon are the skate camp kids that Neil pays to be his friend (ha). They seemed sketched at first, but eventually were lining out the basics. Everyone knows Dave has the best style ever. Add a big bag of tricks and you have solid gold. Super good backside boneless and a ton more. Lazer was hyped and ripping. No stand out tricks I can remember, but that’s probably because he did too many. I skated it pretty good for me after a slow warm up period. Got some boardslides on the block side, front ds, can’t do smith grinds. Bernie took like 2 runs total. One where he slammed immediately and one where he was flailing around then did a perfect front tailslide on the parking block side.

Then we went to this bank and manny pad spot. We got the boot pretty quick. Not before Brian did a f/s wallride though! Neil and maybe Lazer got regular wallrides? I posed kickflip wallrides. Bernie did a cool manual.

Then we hit this bank spot. Everyone was playing on it initially. Brian almost got his back 540 on comply. That trick rules. Lazer did a proper kickflip with a backside rotation. Bernie did hardflip to fakie, f/s 360 kickflip and a few more flippers. Dave killed it! Cab bigspin! Boneless to tail, switch nose stall, steez. Carleigh was kind enough to film for awhile. During that time period I happened to get a bigflip and a noseslide on the low bar. Thanks Carleigh! I also got a fakie flip, but my switch mongo pushing was bad enough for Jason to laugh. Maybe I wont be giving up on that switch pushing after all Jack. Neil got pissed, got pissed, then landed a halfcab heel which as Brian pointed out is a trick we’ve never seen him do so why get upset? It was sick regardless though. Branden went buck trying to front 50 the low bar and landed a couple after holding on to the top bar and coming to a halt. Carleigh had a few ollies and was getting remotely close to 180 nosegrinds on the low bar. Then we took a group photo and called it a day. Super fun.

Had a little time after work before dinner time so hit campus for a quick solo session. I kind of walked around initially feeling pretty tired. I ended up near the banked flagstone thing and tried a manual then ollie a curb to dirt ride. I was feeling really awkward though and figured if I actually tried to ollie the curb into the dirt that I would just stop and slam. So I moved on to this kind of weird ledge off a 4 stair that you cali grind off of, but it was too dark and I didn’t commit to it. Went over to the new curved ledge area. Did b/s noseslide, b/s boardslide, b/s crooks, f/s noseslide fakie, f/s noseslide forward, front board (barely) and ollied onto the ledge. Lined out a couple things with kickflips or back 180s over a manhole. Might have even got a halfcab noseslide which is really tall for me. I went over to the good flatground area by the art building, but there was a couple of dudes working on flatground ollies and they seemed really bummed on me so I went around the corner. Tried a few kickflip noseslides, a few front tails, a few flatground tricks, blah, blah got tired started going to the car. But then I noticed the three stair in the bottom left of the picture above, a manhole, then a little flat gap which were saying “Hey Glen do a bunch of slow little ollies and maybe a kickflip!” So I did. I started on the far left, ollied onto the top of the 3 stair, rolled off, kickflipped a manhole kind of (it was super dark) then ollied a little flat gap over a curb too. That was of course the hardest part for me. Ollieing with any speed is my enemy it seems. Oh well, landing it hyped me up and I went home feeling I earned a nice seasonal ale.

Rampy upgrade is done! Well, kind of. I finished cleaning up the garage and applied another layer of Salba sauce then helped Ollie with his math homework so he could come skate Rampy. I was super nervous that the coping would stick out too far or break (after seeing the chunks out at the Launch ramp I was extra scared). Sometimes I’m an ok dad and I let him have the first drop in. He seemed pretty hyped. And he had some good runs doing his basics which are rock fakies, tail stall, fakie ollies, body varials and coffins (yes he gets back up somehow). He also got one little scratch grind. My first run was pretty fun. I mostly just did a few backside grinds. It’s sticker then the steel coping obviously and it’s a big change. The coping didn’t stick out too far although I wish it would have been in a little more. Oh well. I did have a couple grinds through two tiles that felt awesome. Everything felt more fun actually. Front Ds were way harder though. Unfortunately after awhile the coping started chipping in ways that I didn’t want to keep skating. I think I’ll get some of that industrial curb paint and cover the coping in it to help protect it a little. I’m hyped though, Rampy might be even a little harder to skate now, but grinding concrete is way funner then steel. Just gotta get that coping a little protected.

Picked up Fuzz then met Skelly, Fuller and Chadman at the Northglenn park. It was in the mid 30s, but it felt even colder. Must have been some humidity in the air. There was 3 other people at the park, some other Team Pain park builders and an Arvada ATF machine. Warming up was straight up embarrassing with those dudes there. It was cool having to park to just 8 people, but everyone else was ripping so hard it was hard to find the will to warm up. But it happened. Fuzz did his first ollie in months over the cheese wedge gap right away. Skelly says he was just cruising, but I saw him ripping all over the place. Chadman did a huge back 180 over the hip as well as a bolts biggie heel. I’ll skip ahead to the goods. Everyone but Dave, Chad and I started skating the pool. They were all ripping when I would look over and Skelly had DRI/Slayer cranking out of his boom box. Dave and I tried the cheese wedge gap for awhile, but couldn’t commit. Chadman tried to hype us with a hardflip, but he couldn’t get it. We all skated the bowl after awhile. The Team Painers left. Dave, Skelly and Jack were still killing the bowl so we joined them. Chadman slid out and slammed into the vert wall. Ouch. Fuzz did a fakie tail stall to sal flip back to tail. So sick! Chadman left. Dave and I were the only ones cruising the street area and I was finally feeling warmed up and having a blast. I got a line with a bigflip on the flat bank and then came back around and noseslid the big hubba. I’ve never tried that one before so I was really hyped. Also got a kickflip to fakie and a fakie flip on the flat bank. Fuller was doing some rad lines where he would manual the pyramid up top, ollie up the step up, do some grind on the little qps and then tried back lip to fakie on the weird qp. I also forced myself to do some ollies both ways over the hip. They were bad, but at least I finally tried some. Then the lights shut off. First time at a park in awhile, should probably do that more often. Fun crew too.

After a fun afternoon of working on Rampy (photos soon) we hit Southern Hills as it started getting dark and a nasty wind kicked in. The crew was Jake, Carleigh and I. The temperature was below freezing, and way colder when the gusts would hit. There were patches of ice on some of the benches. Brrrr. But we skated and everyone seemed to be excited about it. Carleigh mostly worked on back 180s on flat or into the little bank. She also did some noseslides and got into 180 nose grinds. I was kind of all over the place. When we built Rampy the first time we also took a break at Southern Hills. Although Jason was along for that one. Argh. I really like that spot. I mostly just cruised around for awhile and did some basics and enjoyed the pop a new board brings. I got a couple lines I was pretty happy with. First one was ollie over the corner of a bench, noseslide to fakie, fakie varial flip, heelflip, bail a crook. Other one was front 50 front shove out, halfcab flip, front noseslide (landed so bad!). God a good feeling crooks too. Came close to front 5-0 shove out on the bench too, but it got too dark and windy for us to stand it. Jake keeps getting better. His kickflips were looking good and he had some nice noseslides and halfcab noseslides. He kept almost slamming on front 50s so started doing front tails instead. That’s sicker anyway and he had a nice one or two to fakie as well. Fun session even though it was so cold.

Was pretty uninspired, but feeling fat and figured I should hit the ramp for a bit. It wasn’t fun. I think I was looking too forward to the pool coping that would be put on it over the weekend. At one point I told myself I needed to do 10 frontside tricks. I got to 8 and was trying frontside feebles, got close on the first one then kept getting further and further away so decided to stop skating.