I’d been fighting a bad cold all week. Ugh. Started Saturday off by standing for two hours in the cold rain watching Ollie’s flag football game. It was fun though. Ollie got his first interception and his first touchdown. After some food and napping and the weather clearing up I went to meet up with Dean, Carleigh, Jack, Blaine and Conor at Red Curbs. Luckily I was late as apparently a cop had decided to make an example of them and wrote a $250 trespassing ticket. Ugh, that is one of Boulder’s best spots and so needed in bad weather. We went to the school way out on Arapahoe instead. I thought Carleigh had left to get ready for her sushi party, but it turns out she had still wanted to skate. Doh, sorry Carleigh. The crew at this point was Blaine, Jack, Dean and I. It was fun. Dean first. He did a gap out to axle stall like I had fun doing a couple weeks ago, ollied up the 3 stairs in a row (so hard for us tall folks, well at least for me), some manuals and ollied off the bigger drop. Blaine seemed to be more in chill mode and was kinda just messing around, but having fun. Jack was you know, ripping. He even did some nose manuals. Hippy jump a rail. Manual up all three stairs. It’s hard to remember all what he did at this point. It was rad to see as I haven’t seen him in a bit. I shaked off some rust and had a great session for me. Got a manual off the small drop then kickflip off the curb, manual the bigger drop, kickflip up, front 180 off the drop, ollied up the bigger ledge (super hyped on that) and had a blast. After awhile we went to the back of the school where Dean almost got a sick nosepick and I ollied (if scraping your tail counts) off the big two. It’s been awhile since I’ve ollied off anything that tall and it felt good. Jack, Dean and I went on to play a game of SKATE that I somehow won. Only because Jack was kind enough to not do switch and nollie tricks. It was my first game of SKATE since before the arthritis started and it was even funner then I remember. Nice kickflip Dean and thanks for playing old guy rules Jack. After that we went over to Carleigh’s and watched skate videos. It was fun.

BAD ASS CHICK OF THE MONTH (in the kitchen).

Got off work early, chilled a bit, ate a fried egg sandwich, make about 500 phone calls, watched the new TWS video and then Fuzz arrived around 7pm. We went to Meta so Fuzz could fan out and I could go buy the new OFF! at Albums On The Hill. John was saying he was gonna go skate an indoor mini and we were down. We went to skate campus until John got off work. We went about 100 feet and stayed put the rest of the night. Fuzz and I started out so bad. One of my favorite things about skating with Fuzz is how much we laugh at ourselves and each other. We looked so old and uncoordinated when we started. We were slamming trying slappy 50s on the little banked curb. Eventually things started falling into place though. Fuzz grinded a long slappy. Carleigh showed up after a bit. Out of the blue I thought about this and decided to try a slappy crooks. Got it first try! I went on to do probably 50 of them as it easily could be one of the funnest tricks in skateboarding. Carleigh did a couple slappy front 50s then slammed and learned slappy noseslides. So rad. Fuzz was killing it. Switch bluntslide popped out. Slappy noseslides, tailslides. He struggled with the slappy crooks. Kind of surprised me, but he did get a sick one. John showed up and after some warming up we started trying some lines. We did slappies, then ollied up onto the bench and ollied the little sidewalk gap. I had been doing some downhill nose mannies between sections of rock. Pretty fun. Started posing slappy front feeble grinds and they actually felt doable. Several tries later I started landing them. So hyped! Two new tricks in one night! Then I tried to combine everything with the nose manny, front feeble, ollie up the bench (the hardest part for me because I am horrible at ollies onto stuff at weird angles), kickflip the gap (never quite committed) then slappy crooks. That would have ruled. I got really close. John was doing lots of halfcabs, 43 shifties, nollie back 180s and was trying to 3 flip the gap. Never committed, but maybe if a camera was pointed his way. This night ended up being one of my favorite sessions ever. I don’t normally land new tricks and then do them several times. The slappy crooks and front feebs felt so good. And what an awesome crew.

My “gift” to Liz on Mother’s Day was a day of half-assed cleaning. While some laundry was drying I went out front and skated. I had Heavy Blanket going in my ears and it got me hyped quick. Had a quick line of f/s 180, fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip (landed at 90 then tic tac’d straight. argh. It was first try though so I left it alone). I tried to skate a bit faster than normal and found a way to ollie this little 5 foot crack to crack gap to start my runs out one way. Ollie the “gap”, kickflip on flat, nollie tre. I ate shit on a kickflip so bad. I was hyped though because I was actually going fast enough that landing wrong resulted in a slam rather then the typical Glennie walk out. Never got close to the nollie tre. Another line I tried was fakie bigflip, front shove, treflip. Never put these all together. Tried a bunch of nollie f/s flips and didn’t get as close as the last time I tried. Had another run going of no comply front shove, heelflip, nollie tre. Not close on the nollie tre. Skated about an hour. Had a blast. Halfway through Ollie came out of the house and went and shot hoops by himself at the school. It hyped me up so much because he normally only does stuff with me so it was so cool to see him over there by himself and not making me feel like a bad parent skateboarding instead of playing basketball (How funny is that?).

After a long morning of cold football watching (Ollie’s team got destroyed, but Ollie had a touchdown pass which was pretty rad) I needed to run some boards to SOL in Longmont. Ollie was down to join because he likes the park we could skate after. It was chilly and no one was there initially. We had fun. Ollie did ollies into the banks and 180s out of them. Near the end he managed a pop shove flyout which took him a long time. I had fun, did lots of basics since others weren’t around. 2″ ollies over the hip. Got an ollie up the tall ledge, turned around and flopped a tiny kickflip over the hip. Did a tiny flyout boardslide on the end of the smaller rail. Front 50’d the flat then downhill c hubba going about 2mph with my hands on the ledge. Had fun. At one point another dude showed up and basically just skated the park as fast as he could and would slide out and fall. He had some good stuff and I know skating fast is the new up rail so he’s on it.

Whoa, Ollie wanted to go skate! I mean it was still my suggestion to go skate, but he was down! We went to the Valmont area. We started at a super mellow bank. Ollie did first T fakie pop shove and after watching me do a no comply bigspin almost landed a no comply. He didn’t get is front foot back on, but for never having tried that trick it was pretty crazy. I tried a little line of nose manny on a weird curb high manny pad that I had to go in an 90 and turn out real quick. Took me awhile. When I didn’t land it I would try nollie f/s flips on the way back and got somewhat close. Then Ollie started doing the coffin run you see above. He would do that to the mellow bank, stand up and try pop shove to fakie. He got it near the end. I started trying a line of front 180 off a loading dock, fakie flip on the downhill and then fakie tre on the bank. I managed to get it although the fakie tre had both hands down. I was most hyped on the fakie flip as it was downhill which was scary for me. Next run I went for was ollie up the loading dock, front 180 on flat, fakie tre. Didn’t get fakie tre. Last line was manual on the sidewalk up top, a fast kickflip (or not so fast depending on your standards) and then a treflip fakie. Didn’t get the treflip. We got back to the car and ollie threw tennis balls into the trunk while I tried treflips over and over until I landed a bad one.

New board with Jack quote regarding Trick Factory and how we suck now.

And new shoes! Vox Duece in “steezy light gray” (Josh Steele). While I waited for Dean and Carleigh to show I skated flatground for awhile. I was feeling super clumsy initially with my new stuff. That and it takes me a long time to warm up anyway. I had fun though, posed some nollie/sw flip variations that I’ll never land. Landed a 3 flip poorly. Dean ended up going on a photo shoot for a bit so Carleigh and I checked out a ledge spot that ended up not being accessible. So we went downtown.

We started at St Julien. Pictured above in high quality smart phone greatness. For those that don’t know, the far side of the ledge isn’t as tall as this side, it’s only a few inches tall. We started with the typical ollies down. I found a box and we put it on the ledge on it’s side. Carleigh ollied it first t. I took 3 tries. Then we put it upright as Dean showed up. Carleigh committed the most times, but bonked the box a little every time. I managed to ollie it once. I would love to see a photo of it because I’m sure it was rocketed as can be. If only I could level out ollies I wouldn’t have to ollie so high. Ha, I was sincerely hyped though. Dean kinda went off for awhile. Front 180s up and down. Ollie up to stall transfer on the far side. No complies. It was rad. Carleigh and I got some front tailslides on the ledge. By “slides” I mean we each only got one ledgit (get it? ha) slide each. And by “ledgit” I mean just a few inches. Dean had some good 50s and tailstalls. We had some up the ledge, turn around, down the ledge lines. Dean front 180’d up over the tall part like it was nothing. I could barely ollie up it, but I did manage to turn around and back 180 it (with lots of pivot and tic tacs).

We left and went to a nearby covered yellow curb spot at a bank. Carleigh mostly chilled as she had just finished a big school project and was tired. Dean and I started with front 50s around the corner curb. Super fun. Then tried some tricks off the curb. I got a line I was hyped on of ollie onto the curb through the narrow opening, front shove off the curb, kickflip a crack to grate gap, front 50 around the corner curb. Super hyped. At this point I started to realize just how great I felt skating. Probably the best I’ve felt since the crazy reactive arthritis started back in October. So hyped. I got a few back 50s around the curb corner which was hard with the crack where it is. Dean was coming super close to kickflips off the curb and no complied a median. I tried another line of kickflip off the curb, manual a median then kick back tail. Didn’t get the last trick. Almost a first try line of front 180 off the curb over a flower pot, f/s halfcab flip (more like a quartercab flip) then kick back t. Messed up the kbt again. Dean left so I just settled into slow kick back tail attempts and ended up getting one eventually. It even slid a little bit. Super hyped my body is letting me skate. And a nice topper on the evening was watching the Nuggets beat the Lakers. Didn’t expect that.

Carleigh and I stopped at Crisis for a minute to tell Fuzz we’d be at a nearby bank spot. Both of us thought we’d be tired and not really capable of much, but both of us seemed to skate pretty good initially. I did a bunch of different stalls on the bank to lower stair. Most of them first try even. Carleigh kickflipped the grate on the sidewalk and ollied into the bank. I dorked around for the most part (imagine that). Then it started to rain. We tried a few more things. I slammed trying to wallie up the two a bunch. I ollied my gatorade bottle a few times and manualled this weird little cement corner. Did a f/s flip on the bank with a couple tic tac’s. Then the rain really set in and Fuzz showed. Dinner time.

After a fun morning watching Ollie’s flag football game (He got MVP proud papa alert!) and celebrating with him I met up with Carleigh mid afternoon. She has been finishing up a crazy project for school so didn’t have much free time either. I had thought of a spot I saw on her blog awhile ago, but hadn’t skated. It’s a school out on east Araphoe. It’s got a bunch of curbs, some hard to skate ledges and some gaps all packed into a small little area. I loved it. Carleigh was getting kind of pissed initially, but things worked out. I can’t believe how hard it is for me to ollie up 3 curbs in a row. I was hyped to manual the main ledge though. It has kind of a tall drop so coming out of manny was something for me. After some messing around Carleigh insisted on filming me try a dumb trick. Gap to axle stall to manny. I never got it. But I did get gap to axle stall then b/s flip off the next curb. I even tic tac’d like crazy out of it to make it dumber. After that I filmed Carleigh get a banger line. Ollie up the curb, boardslide the ledge to big drop, kickflip off a curb. Hyped we filmed after all.

Got out of work early on a super warm and sunny Friday afternoon. Carleigh had suggested St Julien and I suggested Boulder ditch. After some indecisiveness we ended up at the liquor store with a six pack of wine coolers (Mikes Hard Cranberry!!! ha ha) and went for Boulder ditch. There was a new qp on top of the ditch aimed right at the flat bar which is kinda pointless. It’s also missing some layers in spots so it’s kinda scary to drop in on, but super fun to do so. We took it easy for a bit. Carleigh got a bunch of boardslides on the bank to ledge. So good. Jack and Dean showed up. Jack proceeded to slam from as high as he could straight to his elbow. It looked HORRIBLE. He then went on to kill it all over the place. Crooks 3 shove out on the bank to ledge was ridicurous. Back T, back willy (ha), back hurricane, maybe back smith too. Dean got a boardslide on the bank to ledge. He worked at it for awhile, but the one he put down was super clean and easy looking. I got a little run of axle stall on the taller qp, tiny ollie over the hip, then horrid noseslide on the bank to ledge. I also got front rock on the taller qp with a quick kickflip to fakie on the hip. I’ve done that once before. So fun. I struggled with front D for awhile and eventually got it. Stoked! Then I checked my phone and realized I was way late for dinner with the family. Doh. Liz and I had a few drinks that night as they all watched a movie and I watched the Nuggets beat the Lakers. Fun day! Carleigh might have some photos eventually ..

In a good mood and not super tired for once. Dropped off some stuff for Max and Jack at Meta then rolled into campus. Omi was at the hill ledges (imagine that). I said I, he said hi, then he did a long noseslide on the bottom ledge and I moved on. I did some carves/warmup pumps (yeah I kind of have to do that these days) on the little curb cut down the hill about two buildings. After that I got into a zone of trying a line down the sidewalk. Fakie ollie up, halfcab flip, b/s flip off. I struggled with every trick involved. I tried going faster than normal for the fakie ollie and you know how speed and me get along. I got the line twice, but the first time every trick was so bad I even I couldn’t count it. The second time the b/s flip was the only trick that I felt wasn’t up to par. But I hit a rock right before I ollied and somehow still landed it so I left it at that laughing. I was dorking across the way on an angled loading dock trying to do side rock ‘n roll kickflip out when Max, Sean and Dean showed up. Max offered me $20 in five tries. Got it on the fifth try! Getting paid yo! In reality though Max bought a board and he owed me $20. Ha. After that I ollied the crappy crack ridden 3 stair above it and did the side rock flip out again (way less perfect this time). I wanted to do flippers and forced myself to land a treflip in this weird section of sidewalk. It took a long time and I put a hand down on the landing. Oh well. Last stop was the hill ledges for a it. Did front 5-0 on the top one, back noseslide on the downhill one and tried to 50 the bottom one, but couldn’t gather the motivation/courage/pop to get on a normal sized ledge. Ha. I had a blast though. The weather was great, even a little humid and it felt good to be out skating, sweating and listening to some good tunes.