Everytime I go to Fort Collins I’m in love with their skate scene and skaters. This time was no exception. After hitting MRKT up I rolled over to Northside with Jake. The park was almost vacant. Awesome. My arthritis hot pocket feeling was in effect so I avoided ollies for the most part and for the most part kept it mellow (aka my skating was shit). I did manage a line starting near the flat bar of wallie the corner of the mustache barrier, front tail stall on the brick bank, wallie over the other end of the mustache barrier. Jake was ripping some big ollies and 270 transfers on the far side. That park rules. We tried noseslides for awhile. Jake was trying back nose to fakie, fakie treflip, kickturn then front nosegrind. Never got the nose grind. I was trying front noseslides and sucking. Landed one horrible one. Tried a bunch of back noseslide 270 shoves out. Didn’t really get that close. I’ll blame the arthritis. Next was the miniramp for awhile which was pretty fun. I got a few Rampy tricks (front d, back slash revert, fakie back smith fakie) wanted more, but Kyle showed up and shut it down on his opening run. Jake had done a sick no comply 180 staple gun though. Struggled for a rock ‘n roll on the taller barrier then pretty much just dorked around after that. Mike had showed up. Kyle was ripping one footed blunt slides on flat. Mike proved you can do treflips on 8.75″ boards. Jake has tres on lock. I did dumb 2mph back tail stall shoves on the little bank thing near the wall. Even though my arthritis was in effect I had a blast.

Met up with Carleigh, John, Fuzz at Crisis and Jason showed up! We shot the breeze for awhile then headed over to Broomfield park. Jason hung out and watched. So rad. At one point he even gave John some advice on back 50s which worked. Anyway, for me the session wasn’t so great. The chilly temperatures had my arthritis kicking and I could tell as soon as I put my board down that I would struggle to skate decent. Oh well. The things that did make me happy were first try kick back 5-0 (although I came to a halt), front feebs on the quartapotty, trying to boardslide the tiny rail (haven’t done something like that in months) and almost getting front 5-0 shove on the black box. Awhile into the session the arthritis in my ankles became too much and the hot pocket sensation had me on the bench. Carleigh was kinda cruising around on her own. I saw and early flatground kickflip, but she was swearing about how she couldn’t do them so maybe I was seeing things. Saw some nice boardslides on the black ledge, front 50 shove attempts and an awesome varial flip wilson. John and Fuzz were killing it. Fuzz had front nosegrinds, back tails, front tails, front lips, bluntslides, fakie 50 halfcab out, staple guns on the bank (so gnarly) and so much more. John skated maybe the best I’ve seen him skate. Bigspin front noses to fakie, no comply 270 back tails with slides, front tails to fakie, treflips, halfcab flips, and a banger front 50 down the 6 stair hubba. He killed it.

Carleigh, Max, Dean and I headed out to Denver around noon to meet up with Derek at Denver Park. It was sunny and warm and it felt great (unless you are Dean who had the audacity to bitch about the warm weather wtf!). Derek showed up and as expected made our warming up look really dumb. Even Max, who was just sitting around sore from the day before who joined to pursue his social butterfly skills. Derek’s casual frontside wallride became motivation for the rest of us to do regular wallrides. Carleigh has done it before and after a good slam put them down on the regs. Dean and I battled it for awhile and were super close. I finally got one. Then we headed up to the downhill ledge spot for Derek to try a line he’s wanted to get forever.

When we first showed up the Denver Shop crew was there. Everyone was kinda warming up and stuff. Nathan Fantasia was killing it. The gap to manny gap the second 2 was crazy. Tyler had some nice flippers. Carleigh was doing downhill lines. Steven Gritz was killing. It was awesome. I did may manual first or second try and slammed pretty good on a powerslide on the roll away. Scraped up my elbow pretty good. Oh well. Then it was time to film Derek. He got his line! Hyped. After saying goodbye to Derek we went back to the 5 sets of two stairs as I wanted to try the early grab. I got it and it felt as dumb as I had hoped. Felt great to film a trick. Dean killed it too with four firecrackers then a front 180 in front of a cop car.

After that we kinda chased the Denver Shop dudes for awhile then met them on top of the Magnolia Hotel parking garage. They redid the parking lot and now there is a gap over rail. There is also sick concrete there and I basically skated flat for an hour straight while Steve and Nate went for tricks. It was fun and hot and awesome. I did most of my tricks except for the elusive treflip family. My no comply 180 followed by a f/s halfcab flip was my favorite. Most everyone else skated flatground too and it was fun.

After that we ate some food at Wahoos then went to a loading dock gap over rail for Carleigh. She’s 0-2, but that’ll change soon. Then we hit Broomfield park for about 20 minutes of pure awesomeness. Dean was ripping and landing on treflips! Get those dude! The last time I was at the park my arthritis was still too bad to skate. This time I felt amazing and I skated the best I have in a long time. Got back 50s on the blue curb, back 5-0, back 5-0 shove, kick back 5-0 almost, front d on the quartapotty, front feebs, ollied and manualled the downhill blue ledge, nose manualed the blue ledge, basically felt like I could skate again! This knee brace rules (even though it broke kind of)! I want to skate more!

Another insanely nice March day. After playing football with Ollie for a couple hours I skated for about 20 minutes in front of the house. My new knee brace rules! I wanted to add one new flip trick I haven’t done since the pre-itis days and it turned out to be f/s halfcab flip. Love that one. I tried a bunch of nollie tres too and got really close once. Struggled at 3 flips again. Kickflips felt great. Jason showed up and we headed over to Dean’s to work on the magazine.

My new knee brace arrived in the mail and I didn’t hesitate to put it to the test. After selling boards to Crisis and 303 Carleigh, Fuzz, I and eventually John hit downtown Denver for some shredding. A few people we knew were at 303 and asked if we wanted to roll with them. We mentioned downtown streets and the reaction was “Ewww”. They mentioned Denver park and we were like “Ewww”. Ha ha.

The three of us started above the downhill 16th st mall ledge spot at a huge set of stairs. 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2. It’s a great warmup because all we did initially was ollie and firecracker each set. It’s a blast. Fuzz and I did doubles without ollies or firecracker. Pretty funny. A couple older 30 somethings riding down two stairs. It was a little foreign to me initially since I haven’t hit any stairs in awhile. I wanted to early grab all 5 holding on the whole time, but could only do two. We firecrackered out and went down to the ledge spot. Carleigh worked on front tails and got a good one. I tried to manual from the curb cut to the two stair, powerslide, then boardslide popout. Never got close. Fuzz and I messed around with some downhill lines that were a blast. The first one was manual a sidewalk section, ollie onto a sketchy ledge and off, ollie off the curb cut then head on downhill for some powerslides. It was at this point I started believing in my knee brace and really skating. I was so happy after that line I probably had tears in my eyes. We messed around there awhile longer. I failed at ollieing one of the white posts. Had a fun front 180 into the street and a downhill switch 180. We decided to move on bombing the hill and heading right. I blew it though and bailed a curb ollie and got to watch Carleigh and Fuzz cruise down while I ran after my board. Dork! I caught up and surprised myself with an ollie up a curb then somewhat quick front 180 up a two. These are the things I’ve missed so much. I ollied the little curb above the 4 stair thing at the World Trade Towers to 30 stair landing (I was worried that impact would hurt (it didn’t! (whew!))). We went to try some wallrides, but got the boot and ended up at the marble ledge between the Sheratons. Fuzz got a boardslide to manual pretty quick, but had to avoid a taxi on the ride out and hit a crack stopping him. He tried and tried, but didn’t get it again. Not even letting a dog attack and slober all over his board would help. I got a front board transfer to fakie. It didn’t slide, but it felt really good. After no less than 10 calls for directions John showed up. He killed some noseslides and switch slappy front noseslides. We pushed for awhile. I slammed trying to front 180 a manhole. It hurt. We skated a mini curb cut thing. John called out back 180’s as the first trick. They did good ones. Mine was horrendous. I’d rather go backside flip. Ha. Which I eventually did with some nice toe drag. Fuzz and John got some good front shoves. Carleigh got back 180. John, Fuzz and I tried and failed at treflips. My back ankle was hurting in an arthritis type of pain. No knee pain though still!

Man this is a long journal entry because I haven’t street skated like this in so long! We hit this ledge area by the Convention Center that is new and amazing. The ground is perfect. I had fun ollieing some manholes quick. Fuzz did front 180 the first sw front 180 the second. So quick wow. John had some good noseslides and then we started trying lines. I did a no comply 270 to back tail stall then kickflipped a manhole (without popping the tail somehow) and then ate shit on a noseslide. It felt amazing. Sure I would have rather landed the noseslide, but slamming is a part of the game and I haven’t done it enough lately. I got up hyped beyond belief that I was skating for real. John did our trick (no comply 270 to back tail) on a bench (so tall for that trick!). So crazy. Fuzz went off for a minute doing noseslides to fakie then coming around and trying some weird no comply sal flip variation to front tail. He was having troubles missing the grab on his board (that wanted to go far away on a Voyage) so he used my board and nailed it first t.

I thought we were done, but we realized we were right next to a fun parking garage that Fuzz and I have bombed into before. I got a little gap to manual quick for me, but couldn’t manage the speed to get around the corner. John bailed at the first sign of security, Fuzz went for his line still of ollie a kicker, manual then hill bomb. He made it all but the manual. Night ever. Glenny stoked to skate for hours and not have knee pain. Lets do it again friends!

I really needed a day like this. After a nap, basketball with Ollie and some leftovers the kids wanted to watch one of our family favorites, The Incredibles. Even though that movie completely rules (especially the part when Dash starts running on water) we have seen it so many times. I opted to go skating. I decided to wear my big knee brace until the tendonitis brace arrives. I had a brand new board that was still hot off the presses! This is the new 8.125 shape. Seems good. I got deep on the griptape art. Looks simple, but really it’s a pile of rocks to remind me to be patient and get my skating back one step at a time.

I went for a solo session for several reasons. First, I just want to dork around to relearn stuff and I’m too embarrassed to try some stuff with anyone around. Second, who knows how long my knee will hold up. It could be five minutes and I’m done like it was in Denver the other night. I started with slappy tailslides, worked up to front 50s, manuals and then pretty much started trying everything. I didn’t land much and if this was a year ago I’d probably be complaining about how little I did. But for where I’m at right now I was hyped. I skated hard, broke out in a sweat and even slammed hard a couple times. Man it felt great. I tried a line of front 5-0 on the little curb, front tail the taller one then b/s flip on flat. Never got a legit tailslide, they all stuck and I’d get off right away. Got close to halfcab noseslide the taller one then kick back tail the second. Took awhile to get a manual, tried to line it out with kick back 50, but never got kick back 50. I did commit every time and they were close though. Tried a few nollie tres. Got some back 50s. Ollie over a yellow flat bar. Almost got a nose manny. Mostly basics and I have a long ways to go to be happy with my skating, but man it felt so great to skate hard, sweat and fall down.

Tired from the late night before, work and then eating a large meal with Liz. Had a few minutes while she went to pick up India so I decided to roll over to the yellow curb again. This time I was determined to try and actually skate a little more. Didn’t really work. I waxed a section of curb, but it still stuck quite a bit. The asphalt there is horrible so trying to actually move and do tricks is frustrating. With that said I did a couple crappy lines. Back 50, ollie up a curb, back 180 off. Ollie off a curb, kickflip on flat, front 50. My knee wanted to start hurting. I did a few flip tricks in the street and called it a day. I am not hyped on my body and how long it’s been since I’ve been healthy. Tomorrow marks seven months since the knee pain started.

This day had all the makings in the world to be a weird one and well, it was. The day started early enough as birthday boy Dean, Jack and eventually Carleigh showed up at my house. We headed into Denver, said whaddup to Jeff, picked up Chad and ended up at a fun loading dock spot. I did some warming up as others did. It was a reminder to what a bad state of street skating i’m in. Worrying if every ollie will hurt is not good. The only things I did badly were a crooks on a step and a horrible front shove into a bank. After that Jack and Chad slayed while I pointed the camera. We also met up with Rachel which was cool. After some driving and mingling we drove to downtown where Jack slayed a rail and we were to meet up with Tyler. Tyler and Steve showed. Rad. Then most of the of the Denver skate scene showed up too. Ha. I filmed Chad for awhile almost get a sick line, but we got the boot. We ended up at the hill spot around the corner where lots of lurking ensued while the girls skated the ledge and some random shredding started. It’s impossible to remember what others did because I was kinda being weirded out and hiding. Some dudes started going for the longest powerslides and a good ol’ powerslide session ensued. I was up top taking 100 tries to get a little manual though. Ugh. I did get it and the mellow hill bomb after felt pretty fun. We eventually left, stopped by Tabor were Rachel and Jack got buck, CARLEIGH LEARNED TO FIRECRACKER A THREE STAIR OH MY GOSH and we called it a day. This entry is way more boring than the day was. We went on to have a fun BBQ at Fuzz’s in honor of Dean’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dean! Thanks Fuzz and Leslie for being such good hosts and awesome people. Sorry for making all the hornets nests.

I hung out with Jason all day. Hanging with him is amazing and put my minor problems into perspective. After going to the Commission best trick contest then hanging at Crisis with Fuzz for awhile we ended up at my house. We were doing some knee brace research and I came across this. Kinda hyped me up because I hate skating in that huge knee brace I currently have. I have no idea if it’s a good idea, but a knee brace meant for tendonitis seems like a good idea about now and all the reviews are incredible. I ordered one. Jason took off and Liz and the kids had just left for the library to rent some movies for the night. I wanted to skate super bad. It was 72 and sunny so Rampy would be a sin. Flatground hurts too much (I thought) and the yellow curb above just called me in. I started with some slappy noseslides and no comply 270s to tail. They felt fine. Did some stalls, they felt fine. And it just kept going. Before you read the next tricks keep in mind everything was slow, stalled, lunch breaked, sloppy and the funnest things I have ever done on a skateboard. It started with a no comply 270 to tail shove out. Then fakie tail shove out (just running into the curb fakie and shove out), then I started hucking fakie tail 3 shove and got one! Out of the blue I hucked a kick back tail and almost did it first try. No pain in the knee. A few later and the family was arriving home and I said “This is for you guys!” and stomped a clean one. I was on top of the world. India even cheered for me (that’s my daughter for the people out there that think I randomly pretended that an entire country cheered for me) and my grin was ear to ear. I ended up getting a couple tricks I’ve never done before. Kick back 50 shove out (I was laughing hysterically at how easy it felt) and I followed it with a slappy nosestall popped up into crooks. Front tail 3 shove out. Like I said all of these tricks were done horribly but I really don’t care. It felt amazing to be able to do what I did and I went inside feeling incredibly happy. Curbs rule (yes I will be waxing some section soon and sweeping the sand away)!

ps – I had some new shoes. Fallen – Slash’s. Their supposed to change colors while you skate them. Aint that cute (not why I got them but I gotta admit I think it’s neat)

This was supposed to be my glorious debut back to street skating. Only one word can truly describe how I feel right now. FUCK! After some dorking around at Crisis (John and I both rattled off some funny curb tricks like nose stall body varial reverts or something) we headed to downtown Denver. We started off at this parking garage hill bomb spot that I’ve seen in various web edits before, but have never skated. Fuzz bombed it quick like. John, Carleigh and I took our time. I slid out on a powerslide. Got a kickflip in, tiny powerslide, one foot drag and wanted to do it again without the foot drag. Carleigh ollied in and did a couple foot drags, but was hauling ass. John front shoved in with a couple foot drags too. I wanted fakie bigflip in. Got a good one, but slid out on the powerslide again (it was slick!). Then went to try another and there it was, that sharp pain in my knee. FUCK FUCK FUCK. I was a little dramatic about it, but believe me if my friends wouldn’t have been there I would have not been so quiet and nice to my skateboard.

I thought my night would be over. I hung out while they skated a parking garage for awhile. I tried a few slappy tailslide tricks, but nothing. John killed some lines. Almost did front shove front nose to fakie then halfcab manual. Fuzz struggled with nose manuals? What the heck. Carleigh was working on front tails and back 50s it looked like. We got the boot. Ended up at a spot only old men (or Jack) could have fun at. Curb up, curb up, two down, one down. John ruled it with front 180 up then switch kickturn up (seriously). We got the boot. Tabor center. John and Fuzz front 50’d it. We dorked around on the bank at the top. Fuzz had a sick front tail revert over the hip thing and was working on noseblunt transfer thing and we got the boot. Ended up at the marble ledge/two stair spot. Carleigh did a bunch of flatground. Fuzz almost flew through the window. Fuzz and John stared at a two stair debating kickflips for too long so I set my board down and kickflipped it first try. Somehow that didn’t hurt so I did a slow front shove down it too. Carleigh got kickflip too. Fuzz did lots of 180s in various ways up/down.

We ended up here. John did a cool front tail from the lower level to a curb behind the photo. Fuzz boardslid a pole and then ollied to the street. Carleigh ollied the gap first t.

This wasted idiot kept trying to get close to me. Not in a cool way. He sucks.

That was pretty much the end of skating after some dorking around the corner and Fuzz ollied a gap. After that Fuzz scared us all. Please take care of yourself dude. As far as me skating I don’t know what to think. The sharp pain might be caused by the arthritis, I don’t know. It might also just be done for good and ollies will be a thing of the past for me. I know I’m insanely depressed about it right now.