I haven’t skated this park yet. It looks amazing. After a late night rager with the TF and Black Dots I thought I might be able to skate. It was supposed to be a TF day, but it seemed like it was falling apart. I didn’t help things by bringing Ollie. But when your son says he wants to go skating how can you say no? Especially when he needs to be practicing his contest runs. Anyways we met up with Jake, Travis, Brian, Fuzz and Neil. It became apparent quickly to me that I wouldn’t be able to ollie once again. Ugh. Seriously. It’s great, absolutely great being out with friends and all, but I want to skate and I’m starting to get really depressed about it. At one point I saw this dude do a perfect fakie flip into a little bank. It looked so good and fun and I about started balling that I can’t even attempt something that simple right now. Anyways, less emo, more skate. Jake was working on noseblunts on this fun pyramid bank and at the end of the session pulled it in textbook. Travis was ripping around the park blasting airs. Fuzz destroyed the little qp at the top and had some fun lines around the park. Ollie took a long time to warm up to the crowded park, but eventually started doing some stuff. We were skating this little bank for awhile and he did rock fakie then back rock. Brian came over and hadn’t seen the rock fakie and offered Ollie a huge Independent sticker for a rock fakie. Ollie did it first try. Brian felt betrayed. It’s not like it was a Thunder sticker so I’m not sure why he made a big deal over it. Brian skated the bank for a bit too and did a one footed back blunt. So sick. Ollie then got a front rock. I did nothing but carve around and do a couple manuals. I even had trouble with back 50s on the little qp. Ugh. I got a little front feeble on the pyramid hip. But other then that I was very depressed and would get more depressed when I watched people skate. Even though I couldn’t take advantage of the park I think it’s my new favorite park. I’m gonna take a few days off and overdose on anti inflammatorys and range of motion/jumping exercises. Hope it helps. I can’t describe how hard it is to try and skate with numb knees and ankles.

After the fun red curbs session the night before I thought I might be up for more. I ran a little late meeting Dean on a crisp friday morning I had off of work. Some of the park was shoveled. The quartapotty had ice in front of it, but was still skateable. Dean and Max were ripping. Dean skated some of the best I’ve seen him skate. Boardslides across the taller brown ledge, manuals across the blue one. Max skates so hard. His tricks included hardflip manual and 360 flip nose manual on the blue ledge. He almost got 360 flip nose manny nollie flip out. Wow. He did some tricks up down the little rail too. I was feeling bad. No pop whatsoever in my legs. I think the arthritis is worse early in the day and I also think I should wear long johns whenever it’s below freezing because the cold makes it worse. The only things I did I was hyped on were front 50 on the blue ledge going 2mph and a front rock on the quartapotty. Yes, I was that bad. At one point I tried to ollie onto the blue ledge and it literally took every ounce of strength I had. Ugh. It feels good to be out with friends rolling around, but at the same time it’s super depressing not being able to skate remotely like I want to. At one point I bailed a trick on the brick qp (Imagine that Brian, me bailing?) and I couldn’t run fast enough down the tranny to stay on my feet. That didn’t help my mood. Glad to see Dean and Max ripping though. And had fun hanging at Crisis after. But man, the way my ankles/knees feel preventing me from being able to really skate sucks.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve skated with Ollie. He hasn’t been skating much lately, well I guess no one really has with all this snow. I was wanting to be lazy, but randomly asked Ollie if he wanted to go to Red Curbs. He yelled “SIR YES SIR” which is what he does for all of his yes’ now. It’s so funny. I was pretty surprised to say the least. I got some long johns on and headed out with Ollie who was all bundled up too. I felt better then I have yet getting on the board initially. I still couldn’t really ollie and I didn’t even feel up to trying flip tricks. For the first 10 minutes Ollie followed me around doing little slappy noseslides and stuff. He ripped it. He’s been skating once in awhile with the neighbor, but I am always surprised by him. He did legit backside boardslides, frontside boardslides and 180s both ways. He ollied up the curb a few times, did 180s off both ways, did some super sick backside cali 5-0s, typical Ollie stuff. I love the way he skates though. Even though he’s seen skate videos his whole live and been out and seen Null filming sessions, he doesn’t care. He skates like a kid and it rules. I managed some fs and bs 50s on the curbs which felt so good. They were slow and awkward, but felt great. I got a line of noseslide the two stair (above photo by Ollie), boardslide the curb, back 50 the next curb then tried to do a kickflip, but couldn’t get it. I really want to learn front lips, but I can’t ollie that high right now so i tried a bunch of switch back boards instead. I slammed once really hard. It hurt more than it should have. My wrists suck so bad right now. I managed to get up and keep trying it though. I couldn’t ride out, but decided to try a back 270 out instead. I got one! It stoked me out so much. It was the first day I felt like I really skated. The last couple didn’t feel like skating. Yeah! Red Curbs rules!

I am still not feeling 100%, but Brian invited me to the warehouse for a session with TF.   I was super nervous because I’m already too self conscious as it is and now I can’t even really skate.  I was super hyped to roll with friends though.  It was super crowded when we got there.  Doh.  I hung out with my injury partner in crime Carleigh and the every shy Jack in a corner that had a tiny bank for a pyramid that was under construction.  The ramp was super crowded.   Carleigh did some kickturns and little tailblocks.  She just got her cast off so she isn’t allowed to ollie yet.  Jack did all kinds of goofy tricks.  Kickflip pretzels, etc.  Neil came by and got me to do a flatground shove it.  It had no pop and I wasn’t even really moving, but it felt good.  I did some other little front rocks and stuff on the side of the pyramid.  I felt so awkward on a skateboard.  But we kept dorking around and I felt a little better as opposed to the red curbs session where I kept feeling worse.  So that’s cool.  Eventually I skated the main area a bit by dropping in on the bank to ledge, doing a kickturn and then a little boardslide on the ledge.  That was fun.  I had a couple bails though that felt so weird.  My ankles haven’t moved that way in a long time so it would hurt for a few minutes then feel looser and better.  This whole arthritis thing is so weird.  At the end Brian and I tried some flatground kickflips and got some back to back!  I got two in a row.  They were still mobbed and horrible, but man that felt good.  I also tried some front rocks on the bank to ledge.  It felt fun to try a somewhat real trick, but we had to go before I got it.  I felt like at the end I could kind of feel my skate feet.  I just wish my legs would have some pop in them.  I’m really rambling on here.  Skating hanging with TF felt great.  Bye for now.

I went to Red Curbs on a very cold day. I had an offer to go skate the 303 warehouse later on, but I wasn’t sure I could actually skate and I was on call for work. Turns out it was probably the right call as skating didn’t really work and I got called in for work. Skating was harder then I thought it would be. I did a boardslide on a curb quick and fell. It didn’t hurt, but it kind of set the tone. I couldn’t do much of anything. Ollieing up a curb was really, really hard. It’s a mixture of my muscles not being used and arthritis. My legs did everything slower than normal. It sucked. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel right. It’s not like a normal injury where your nursing one part of your body. Both feet, ankles and knees felt weird. Really weird. I quickly realized that flip tricks weren’t going to happen. I wanted to do a kickflip though. I tried a run one way of front 180, sw front 180, slappy tailslide the curb then a kickflip attempt. Never got it. Going the other way I tried a slappy switch front nose, halfcab, then a kickflip. Nope. I did manage a horribly mobbed kickflip, but it was on it’s own. It made me happy to land a kickflip again and get out skating, but it was kind of more just depressing and I realized I have some more waiting to do before I can skate the way I want to. I take another injection of the arthritis drug tomorrow and I hope that it does it’s job.

I’m on the come back! Been feeling way better this week. Not good enough to skate, but better. Been doing some exercises and trying get back in shape a little. Stretching again, all that. The arthritis is still there though. It’s really hard to describe what it feels like now. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore, but it makes everything feel slow and restricted. With that being said it was almost 60 degree outside and I couldn’t resist seeing how I felt skating. I didn’t think I’d be able to do tricks at all, but just wanted to push. Surprisingly pushing felt pretty good. I went pretty slow and felt it out, but man it felt good. I did a few manuals between tree shadows and they felt ok. Tried to ollie a bit, but that didn’t work. My leg reflexes are way too slow for that. I did a few slide around 180s where you just pivot off the front truck. Fun. Then I went inside before I did anything stupid. I’m not sure what would happen if I fell. My wrists still hurt pretty bad. I have no idea when I’ll be skating for real. I’m hoping by next weekend. It sure felt good to get out and push a little though.

I met Bernie and Sam at the little manny pad by Mike’s Camera. I was a bit late so all I did was a manny then we headed out to a new school kind of near Jack’s house. I was skating like poo, but managed a line of ollie up on, up one, up one, kickflip on flat then ollie a kind of long 3 stair. Bernie did some cool manny up to manny up to manny stuff. For being almost as old as me Sam was able to quick up the stairs way to easy. Then we went to Stonehenge where Carleigh and Jack met us. Jack is supposed to be healing a heel bruise, but he still managed to dolphin flip his little cruiser board. I did a few of the fun basics on the bank to curb before filming Bernie rip it. Carleigh took the worst slam that Stonehenge has seen as she tried a rock ‘n roll and dipped her board under the fence causing a gnarly slam when the board didn’t know. It’s possible that Sam and Bernie’s fence re-adjustments had something to do with it. After this I started to feel really crappy again. We went to a couple more spots, but I mostly just sat or filmed. Turns out a crazy infection in my foot was taking hold. Ugh. Another Sunday ending in lots of pain and being unable to sleep. Gotta stop that.

I was still feeling the effects of the flu. My body didn’t feel right at all. Some early morning football with Ollie followed by stretching didn’t seem to get things going which normally puts me in good shape for the day. Ugh. Carleigh and I rolled to Denver to meet Chad at his place then drive 20 miles down Colfax to a cool manny pad spot he know about. It was a ledge on top of a ledge mostly fitting for manuals. The place had a good contingent of homeless people lurking which made it a bit odd. We skated for awhile before getting a negative vibe and leaving. While we were there Chad killed the place. Nollie front heel fakie nose manual. That would be enough said, but there was so much more it was awesome. Heelflip manual. He was trying kickflip manual front 180 out then switch back 3 down the second ledge. Bernie got manual drop to manual. Oh yeah, Sam and Bernie had met up. Sam, Carleigh and I basically just ollied up/down the ledges. I tried to manual the top one, Sam tried to nose manny it. I was feeling pretty achy and mentally unable to skate.

On our way to a new spot we saw this spot and it occupied the rest of the day. This spot is epic. Bernie did some good stuff that I should have filmed. Quick up to nose manny shove to manny. Quick up to manny kickflip back to manny. Chad slayed all. Easily the best I’ve ever seen him skate. Tricks included hardflip back tail, nosebonk bigspin, back nosegrind back 180 out, nose manny the tall ledge, it was insane. Sam was pretty chill. Carleigh was working on a 20 trick line ending with kickflip and noseslide. I had told myself I wanted to do 3 tricks before filming (Even though I never ended up filming because Bernie filmed Chad). The first was to manny the ledge on top of the curb above. That was easy. The second was to lipslide it. Third was to ollie the flower pot on the far left of the photo (the ledge drops one curb level before the flower pot so it’s about the same height as the bench). I never landed the lipslide. I landed on it, I got close, I bailed, but I never rode away from it. Ugh. At the end of the session Sam and I tried to ollie up the tall part of the ledge that Chad was nose manny’ing so easy. Sam tried once, barely got the nose up and fell onto the ledge. It was funny. My initial tries were worse, but eventually I got myself up on the ledge with minor scrapage of the back wheels on the way up. The first two times I pansied out on ollie’ing over the flower pot once I got up there. Ugh. It took awhile to get up a third time and I eeked out the worst ollie ever over the flower pot. It wasn’t tall or far or anything, but after spending so much effort getting onto the ledge and recovering from the flu it was hard for me. I was pretty hyped though, that is easily the highest thing I have ever ollied onto. This was the end of the session. Pretty fun. Chad slayed it.

Oh yeah, thanks Carleigh for the photo! I know it’s not a make, but it’s the only photo from the session and I might as well document the trick I tried for two hours straight.

Somewhat recovered from the flu I went out front telling myself I’d do 10 kickflips and head back inside. The first attempt was like I never knew how to do them. But after that I rattled of 10 kickflips in 11 tries. Then it took about 11 tries to get a front shove before I went it.

Another long day. Hung out with the kids for awhile and started to feel kind of weird. Took a nap and woke up feeling pretty good. I figured I was just tired from a kind of late and fun night of Cornhole at Fuzz’s. Ollie was down to come skate with Neil and I so after a couple Louisville spots didn’t work out we ended up at the school near Cherryvale and Baseline. The last time I went to this school I rolled my ankle on a nollie down the little three stair in the back. Ugh, that was years ago though. In the front now there are some ok ledges, good flatground and a curb. I was set! There is a four stair with no runway too and Ollie spent most of his time jumping from the top onto his board at the bottom then doing front 180s off the curb cut. I got boardslides right away and lots of ollies/180s up/off the curb. Having a curb around to do stuff up/down is so fun. Neil was having a really off day. It took him at least 15 tries to get a boardslide. Wow. He did manage a really good wallie though. I was having fun lining stuff out. I got back 180 up the curb, halfcab noseslide, kickflip off the curb. Also got a b/s flip up the curb, a really bad frontside noseslide, and some crooks that felt like noseslides. Neil and Ollie were bored, I could have probably skated there forever, but we went around to the back. The same stuff was there, but there is a new parking block plastic structure that is fun for boardslides. Neil couldn’t get the pop out part which surprised me, he was really bumming on his skating. It sucks when you get in the funk. I ollied up the 3 stair on the first pass and did a little line of boardslide then front 180 the three stair. Ollie firecrackered and ollie’d the 3 stair. I had the jockish goal to get five tricks down it, but didn’t think I was actually pass that. I got front 180, early grab, front shove took a bit, switch front 180 (harder then I thought it would be), kickflip then started hucking b/s flip. I’ve never done b/s flip off three before, two was the previous record on my 37th birthday. Wow I suck! Anyways, I committed pretty quick and after about 20 tries I rolled away from one all straight legged and stoked. The stoke wouldn’t last long though as I was broadsided with the flu bigtime after that. Ugh.