I’ve been in such a horrible mood the last few days. Everything has been frustrating. I couldn’t take it anymore and decided I needed to skate to release some of that frustration. I put on an old knee brace I had from ACL surgery rehab 15 years ago, cranked up some tunes and hit Rampy for about 30 minutes. After a few kickturns to feel things out I felt like I could try some basics. I got a few more than I thought I would and the front smith was one of the funnest and last ones before I went back inside with a smile on my face that Liz said she had not seen in a long time. I don’t think I did anything to prolong the tendonitis recovery. The main thing is no jumping and I stayed away from ollies. Man it was fun. Rampy rules.

Went up to Ft Collins after work to sell some boards at MRKT then maybe do some skating. Bernie bailed and Dean slept through my calls so I went solo. It worked out though because Ft Collins has a one of the friendliest skate scenes around and this dude Jake I’ve skated with a couple times through Chad was at MRKT and wanted to skate campus too. We went across the way to CSU, one of my favorite places to skate. I had been feeling sore/weird all day and on my first push I knew I was gonna have a tough time. If I was solo I would have probably turned around right then and not skated. I keep hearing that with my arthritis I will hurt the day before a big weather change. Guess that explains it. I had no coordination, my feet felt like bricks and my knees weren’t good either. Ugh. We had fun though. We started with the ultra dork spot above. Jake killed it. Back D, back blunt, beanplant to fakie, side blunt to 50 (photo) and more. I really didn’t to anything. Some pivots, front tail stalls, one bad crail stall, got close to front tail on the wood to disaster on the curb to shove out but not really that close. We had fun though and we got dirt and mud all over our wheels, shoes and grip. Next we found an angled ledge coming out of a tunnel. I tossed some horrible attempts at front noses down it. Jake got a noseslide and a crooks to fakie which apparently he just learned earlier in the day. Some cruising around we ended up at the Clark building with all the two and three stairs. Man I was feeling my arthritis at this point. It took at least 15 tries to ollie down the three stair and it took Jake ollieing up it after the two to get my hyped enough to do it. We posed some more tricks and Jake probably landed a bunch more. It was fun times. We hit a few other things briefly, but mostly just walked along and stuff. I wish my arthritis would go away.

Picked up Carleigh around noon and we looked for a dry spot to skate. Sure we could have skated Red Curbs or Rampy, but the sun was nice and warm and we wanted to skate outside. We ended up at the Mikes Camera manny pad where we skated for almost a couple hours and didn’t land much of anything. When I first started ollieing up the curb seemed hard. It took me at least 10 tries to get a manual. A tries less to get a nose manual. Carleigh got about 100 manual scrapes, but no clean ones. She got a front 180 up. I think I did a nose manny front 180 out. Tried a few nose manny big spins out, but never got close. Did a line with sw front 180 up the curb, kickflip on flat then ollie a tiny gap. I’m trying to lift my feet up when I ollie. It’s not going so well. I tried a bunch of sw 180 mannies, but never got one. I did a slow front shove off the curb and a few flip tricks. Even though it was a mellow session and not much was landed we had fun trying tricks again and being out in the sun.

After a late night of grunge destruction (Mudhoney ruled it!) I was a bit tired, but wanting to skate before the snow settled in. We didn’t feel like driving 20-30 minutes to a skatepark so we went to campus. The parking block above was the first thing we skated. I was feeling insanely stiff and awkward. Ollie could boardslide the parking block, but my grown up body would bend the block enough that boardslides would stop in the grass making my wheels yellow “Well then stop riding through grass!” I managed a front 5-0 fall off over it. We cruised around some more. Neither of us overly hyped on much it seemed. We ended up at the super mellow bank to tiny curb. I tried to do a front 270 to switch crook stall, but never got it. I did have one awesome slam onto my hip though after I overshot the curb. Ouch. I started hucking a couple flip tricks and kickflips were feeling decent. I got a varial flip and a b/s flip. At the end managed a back pivot to fakie with a fakie bigflip after. Everything was landed horribly, but I felt like I got a little something back. My ankle and knee was feeling weird, but not painful. Ollie did a front 50 on the curb. Pretty rad. After that I ollied a little gap off a ledge which felt pretty awesome. We hit this weird long two stair area. I managed to ollie onto one from downhill manual it then drop to the next one and ride away. Seems dumb and it is, but it felt great. Ollie did a few early grab cannon balls off the curb. Next was the stone bank/manny pad thing. Ollie wasn’t feeling it. I got a front rock on it and we moved on then kinda just kept moving on back to the car as it started snowing. Mellow, but fun. Hyped to try a few flip tricks. Hyped on the smaller board.

I guess winter and skateparks go together pretty well because we ended up at northGLENn once again. This time it was Carleigh, Jake and I and we met Brian and Lazer for a bit. For how warm it was supposed to be it felt surprisingly cool outside and warming up took a bit. Carleigh, Brian, Lazer and I skated the little bank to get warmed up. I had new shoes and they felt a little stiff even though I’ve worn them around for awhile. I love the Manchesters though. Brian said his knee was hurting and that it was all swollen. I felt and oh my it was huge. Ice that knee Brian. Take a break from skating! Carleigh thought back rock would be hard, but did it first try. She also got a front rock kind of. Jake was ollieing the mellow rail every try and working on front noseblunts on the bank. No luck this time. I felt kinda good for a bit. It was the first time in months my left knee didn’t hurt at all. Hopefully that continues. This allowed me to finally try some other tricks and I noseslid the medium hubba in a couple tries. It felt awesome. I also crooked the flat ledge (although I popped out early which I didn’t want to do) and got a couple front 50s on it. The first front 50 attempt was so bad. I have no idea what happened, but luckily I walked out of it without injury. Carleigh was trying flatground kickflips and I tried a couple too. I didn’t even get close and ended up hurting my back foot abit. Ugh. Not in an injury way, but in an arthritis way. That pretty much ended the ollie part of the day for me. I had a few more slow front 50s, but yeah, my pop was gone. I started skating the bowl. The combo of new shoes and a relatively new smaller board/trucks setup was weirding me out. It took a lot of tries before I landed an axle stall. I had some fun carves in the tile in the deepend. I love how carving tile is considered a trick other than carving. It’s like grinding without having to do anything. I love it! I did have one carve up there that felt extra awesome. Jake and Carleigh joined in. Carleigh drops in the deepend and can do all her tricks first t. No fair. Jake rips tranny. Lots of grinds both ways. I got a few grinds in the shallow, but ran out of a bailed axle stall really weird and kinda hurt my foot even more. Actually both feet were hurting in ways I hadn’t experienced before. It kinda sucked. Because of my arthritis I can’t sprint fast enough to get out of bails in that bowl gracefully. I slammed pretty hard once so I sat for a bit. My feet were pretty jacked after that. The park was pretty empty at this point and we were all kinda working on our own stuff. Carleigh wanted to do front tail over the hip to switch crooks. Apparently she got it, but here is how she described it, “GLEN! I DID THAT THING! THAT TRICK I WANTED TO DO I DID IT. YOU KNOW THAT TAILSLIDE THING!” Ha ha so awesome. So Carleigh, it’s called front tail to switch crooks. Jake kept getting close to noseblunts. I was trying front lips over the little hip in the middle of the park, but never got to close to landing on it. All in all a fun day. Wish my feet hadn’t started hurting. And I gotta admit I was kinda missing the bigger setup.

Ever since this arthritis thing started I’ve had troubles sleeping. Last night was no exception. I was up at 6am for no reason whatsoever. I got a few things done, went grocery shopping early enough that 99% of the people at the store were wearing northface goretex vests and shopping in the organic section (Ok fine I was shopping there too. But no vest!). I was really grouchy from not getting enough sleep and the arthritis pain wasn’t helping much. It seemed a little worse. I’m overdue on a shot of Humira, but I’m holding out for awhile as the long term side effects scare me so much. Anyways around noon Bernie, Dean and Carleigh showed up. We went to Willville. We started on the remodeled bank in the middle. There was construction going on at the top so you couldn’t do tricks into it like normal. We warmed up by dropping in then doing some dorking around. I did a little front board pose pulled up onto the ledge to fakie then a little halfcab pivot off that felt really fun. I haven’t been able to skate much so little things like that make my day. Dean manualled it sideways which looked fun. Carleigh risked some foot pain for ollies onto the ledge. Bernie ripped it with manual up to fakie manual down through the kink. Dean and I got no complys on it. Bernie did front 180 up, f/s halfcab flip on the bank. I got a kickflip to fakie which took awhile and kinda started bumming me out that kickflips are that hard for me right now. Then we went to the front area. Carleigh did all of her flatground tricks. Dean filmed Bernie attempt a tech ender ender and I straight sucked it up. I did have a fun run where I ollied kinda high for me into the bank then ollied a little snowpile at full speed on the roll away. Then I tried a treflip (yes, stoked that I tried it, but ..) and somehow got away without breaking my ankle. I landed so bad. It took me down and reminded me that I have no idea how long it’ll be before I can skate 100%. Then I went for what I thought should be really easy. Front 180 up then fakie bigspin into the bank. 200 tries later I landed the worst 180 and fakie bigspin imaginable. I should just be stoked to be outside skating in nice weather, but I was bummed. Really bummed.

Then we went to this bank spot which none of us except Dean have been to before. It’s steeper and scarier than it looks. Actually, I was feeling more sketched than normal as the walk down through the rocks kinda scared me. I guess that’s a sign that the arthritis is still alive and kicking. Ugh. Dean nailed a good f/s ollie early on then took all of these awesome photos.

Bernie did some ridiculously smooth front tails. Some people can make the “basics” look amazing. Carleigh stepped it up too. She got a couple of front tails too sliding them for a minute. It was tight. We’re saving the photo for nullozine.

Me, I survived. There was a couple bails I really could have died on. My reaction time is so slow these days and I could barely run/push fast enough to get to the top of this bank. Ugh. I gave up on grind tricks and did a few stall tricks. Back feeble, back pivot, blunt to axle, front slash. Thanks for the photos Dean. You’re the man.

I went home and hit the Pabst. Not sure why I’m so bummed about my skating. I should be more patient considering I could barely walk a month ago. But I can’t help it. Not being able to kickflip on command really bums me out. Sorry the last couple entries have been so negative.

Had an hour to spare and my legs were sore so I went out to skate Rampy. The first half of the session was so bad I couldn’t land anything. There was lots going against me. New setup, arthritis was pretty achy, still sore from the long day of skating two days prior. But it was bad. Eventually I did a couple things I felt better about. A line of back 50, back feeble, axle stall front smith. Oh man that’s it? I suck. I did a few front disasters to and tried to turn them into sugarcanes or whatever. But yeah, I suck at skateboarding.

Taking two days off of skating seems to do the trick for my arthritis. I felt pretty good in the morning and was getting really excited to go skate. I’ve been thinking about downsizing from 8.25 to 8″ again since I’ve lost so much strength/coordination and the 8.25 feels big and clunky. Not so much the board, but the bigger trucks. So I found an old 8″ board that was in decent shape, some old 8″ trucks and rolled around on Rampy with it for a bit. Felt good. Went outside and tried a few ollies and stuff and yeap, that felt better too. Even got a fakie flip which I haven’t landed since the “injury”. So my mind was made up, time to go back to 8″. Now my OCD was kicking in and I didn’t want to skate the old 8″ deck I setup mainly because it has a different shape than the new Null 8″ shapes. I didn’t want to get used to it then have to change to the new shape. I also didn’t want to skate the old trucks as they were almost down to the axle and the kingpin was in the way for grinds. So it was a quick trip to Meta to get some new trucks and setup a new board. I got some Thunder hollow lights just so Brian can make fun of me for thinking that lighter trucks are indeed lighter than regular trucks.

Brian and Neil were headed to Northglenn, but I had Ollie and he didn’t want to go to a crowded park. Good kid. We went to Southern Hills instead where there was some puddles/snow, but for the most part you could skate everything. The arthritis gel I put on started burning like crazy once my feet got sweaty. It’s so funny to think that a burning sensation is desired over the normal pain, but it seems to work. I started trying a long line consisting of ollieing onto the ledge by the bike racks at the top, ollieing off over a little puddle, chinese nollie, no comply 180 into the bank, halfcab flip on flat, front noseslide for Jason. The halfcab flip was the toughest part of that one, but I got one and managed to land a bad front nose on that run. I was super duper hyped on that line. Big smile, laughing and so happy that I was actually skating. After that I waxed up the lower step and did another line of front tailslide (I actually slid several!) then crooks on a bench, kickflip on flat then boardslide another ledge. That one hyped me up too. Ollie was cruising around doing back 180s everywhere. He slammed pretty hard off the two stair once and after that just kinda started playing around throwing snowballs. I started trying another line of front slappy on the yellow curb at the top of the parking lot, front 180 onto the sidewalk then f/s halfcab into the bank, but it just kinda fell apart after I started struggling with the slappy. Carleigh showed up and was doing her skate rehab of switch and nollie tricks. I did a few more tailslides on the curb and some noseslides on the bench. Sure is fun to dork at a street spot instead of a crowded skate park.

Carleigh and I left to meet up with Derek and skate downtown Denver. We picked Derek up at D park without even getting out of the car then headed downtown and parked on top of the hill on 12th. That hill bomb is soooo fun and a great way to start off the session. I was already pretty beat from more ollies then I’ve done in months, but it worked out surprisingly. We started off at the art building that is insanely fun. Derek killed some manuals out da gates. I was trying a little line of a boardslide on one bench then a manual on the low to high ledge. Almost got it, but we got the boot. Next we went to the fountain area at civic park. We were all just kinda messing around. I was struggling to ollie up the two stair ledge. All of this ollieing is tough. Ha. I was trying a line of ollie up the two, push, roll off the two then ollie into the fountain. I bailed the ollie several times as it was just so foreign to be trying any type of a gap. But then Carleigh did her first kickflip since breaking her foot and I had to get her back and I got the line. Stoked!

We went to this area for a bit. Not much went down. Carleigh wallied out of it on the low side. Derek tried to front 180 nose manual with a pop out. Didn’t get close but wow. I was just happy to ollie the little flat gap on top of the ledge around the corner. We randomly found a marble ledge nearby and skated it for awhile. Derek did some sick gap over to 50s and I did some slow front board to fakie transfer attempts. Derek also manualled it somehow. We pushed on. I did a lot of switch pushing. We headed toward Petes for dinner. I don’t think we skated anything else really. Just pushed and had fun. After Petes we took the bus back to the top of the hill and I snapped a couple phone photos near the capital.

But the skating wasn’t done, then we went to the ollie north glen park and met up with the fort collins and sunny daze crews for a super fun session. Derek killed it. Ripping, laughing and hyping and so many tricks it’s impossible to list. The back smiths in the bowl, ollie the whole pyramid, handrail lines were crazy. Carleigh was looking comfy on her board and did pole jam rock fakie, front tails on the hip, dropin on vert, and some noseslides. Mike was ripping so hard. He’s only 35 though so I guess he still can. Tanner and Jess were ripping too. They can shred the street and the bowls. Daryl skates so fast and has the best style. Chad pops his tricks so high. The f/s flip on the bank was crazy. I kinda just rolled around for the most part. Slammed the hardest I’ve slammed in a long time trying to boardslide the ledge. It still hurts more than normal to fall and it takes awhile for the arthritis pains to calm down after a bad one. At the end I was hyped to get a grind on the rainbow qp then a little pivot revert on the tiny bank. Had so much fun. Best day of skating in so long. So much fun. Sorry this entry is so long and boring. Seeing as how it’s so long there is no way I’m proofreading it. Ha.

Met up with Dan, Matt and Joe at Dan’s place and had some yummy christmas cookies before heading out to the Omaha park on a pretty nice day. When we got there the park was pretty empty. It filled up quickly though. Joe and I warmed up on the little qp. We didn’t get too jiggy, but Joe had a nice f/s ollie and his patented fakie smith to rock fakie. Dan and Matt were already doing crazy lines on the ledges. Dan busted a front board 3 shove out that was ridiculous. Man can nollie into tricks way too easy. Joe did a bunch of combos. I had no pop in my legs, but they didn’t hurt. In fact my ankles were burning from some new arthritis cream I was trying out. I guess burning is better then normal arthritis pain because I lasted all day. I managed a few very basics going really slow. Then it got crowded and I lost motivation. Joe and I skated the bank to curb a bit. I got a back pivot, Joe got a front tail. A lot more tricks went down from the Fremont crew and they upheld their reputation of being super positive and it seemed to rub off a little on the typically quiet emo crowd.

After some burritos we headed to a park in Iowa (right outside of Omaha) that was make of a bunch of plastic pieces. Seems lame to go to a metal/plastic park after a concrete one, but it was actually really fun. My legs were lacking any pop so it was mostly tranny for me, but the others ripped it. I struggled at a basic front rock on a little qp for awhile, but was hyped to get it. Zack and Cory had joined us. Zack has some moves and Cory straight up rips. They all killed it. I don’t remember everything that went down. Cory back 5-0d the entire ledge on the top, did all the basics on the hubba, set the world record for the shortest run up for a front bigspin over a hip and ripped everything. Joe did a front smith on a bank to ledge, front 50 to drop, boardslide the kinked flatbar. Dan did a 50 up a ledge to manual down a box. Matt had long front 5-0s on the ledge at the top. So much more that I am forgetting right now. I had a couple tricks I was hyped on. Manny the top of the box to cali grind down and a crooks on the bank to ledge.

That is the first time I skated a whole day in months. Felt great. Seems like the arthritis cream helps. That and skating with a super fun crew. Nullbraska!

I was feeling pretty achy on a cold morning as I headed to fremont to meet up with one of the best crews ever.  Hugs were had as the skate mafia video played.  Then we went to the infamous ledge at linden elementary.  Unfortunately the school is starting construction so it might be my last time skating there.  Which kinda sucks because my arthritis prevented me from doing much.   Dan, Matt and Joe ripped it out the gates though.  They have so many crazy combos.  Matt did tricks like nollie crooks shove, nosegrinds both ways, nollie heel fifty.  Joe had nollie fifty shove, front lip to fifty to front board, lip fifty shove, back 50 around the 90 corner.  Dan had crazy manual combos.  Manny to blunt slide, manny to back feeble, manny back tail, nose grinds, so much more.  I didn’t do much more than front fifties, but I had fun because those dudes are so positive and fun to be around.  Its nice knowing that if I ever move to omaha I’ll be rolling with a tight crew.