Had a horrible day at work. Went home with the intention of meeting at Crisis by 7, but I fell asleep. It was much needed and Jake, Fuzz and Dean showed up at my house around 8 anyway. We went to campus. It was super nice out. Dean was free. We dorked around a little bit before ending up at this kind of long median manual pad that’s downhill. It took us a long time to get one and of course Fuzz was first. I eventually got one and both Jake and Dean had gotten really close. I was noticing that my stance felt really off and I seemed to be completely on my back (right) foot doing everything. We went to the steep bank spot at the bottom of campus. Jake owned this spot. First t rock ‘n roll then first t axle stall. I had done a fun wallride then went for axle stall and a couple tries in something happened in my knee and I had to sit in pain for most of the evening. Ugh. Those dudes had a fun session. Dean got a caveman nosepick. Fuzz did a lot too like pivot, blunt pivot, back pivot to back tail, back smith, etc. It was really the Jake show though. Back hurricane, front feeble, front pivot, nosepick, stalepick, roll in, so much more I can’t remember right now. So sick! We went up under the engineering building. I basically just tried manuals without really ollie’ing and powerslides. Thank god for being able to do powerslides, because they were a blast and kept me from being completely depressed about my knee. Everyone did some cool lines. Dean skated hard. He did a fakie dogpiss into the first “bank” then fakie ollie into the second. No comply 180 into the first, fakie ollie the second. Jake did kickflip then nollie front 180 and more I can’t remember right now. Oh I did a little fakie ollie into the first then a sw front 180 into the second which was probably stupid and hurt my knee more then it was worth. Fuzz did some rad fakie around the world then front 50 the ledge. Slappy noseslide, front 50, then an uphill front 5-0. On the way back to the car I fell trying to push switch. Ugh. Then we went and had a beer and ranted about how lame the skate industry is. Bitter old dudes. But seriously though, get out Nike, you don’t belong here.

Went out to Valmont to meet Dean and try to get a photo of him for Nullozine Jr print edition. He was already setting up the flash and went right to business. I was feeling pretty energetic, but sitting and playing Atiba for an hour kind of drained it. After Dean left I then had a couple long phone calls and then was supposed to go hang out with Carleigh and Jack before she leaves for “an adventure”. I decided I needed to skate a little and ended up skating really hard solo until Jack and Carleigh showed up. I waxed the crap out of the ledge while I was on the phone so it was really good. I really wanted to get a front tailslide. I didn’t get a good one until after they showed up. And it wasn’t good, but it did slide and make the noise. I tried a lot of flip tricks that I didn’t land. Switch frontside flips felt close even though they weren’t. I didn’t do much else geez. I talked with Carleigh once they got there for the most part. Jack ripped it. Oh I have a video clip I should maybe not upload because the quality is horrible.

With my ankle wrapped up for added support and a knee that was still hurting I went out skating with Ollie. That’s all he wants to do these days and I think it is impossible to say no when your kid asks you to go skate (not that I need much convincing but my knee and ankle are not feeling too good). We started at a little bank spot with parking blocks at the bottom that has been a longstanding favorite of his. Right out the gate he was ripping. He ollied into the bank above the sidewalk and back 180’d off the curb (going somewhat fast) within a couple tries. I figured I should try it and it took me more tries and my back 180 wasn’t even as good. He officially is better at back 180s then me now. He also back 180’d into the bank then did a halfcab off the curb. He tried a lot of flyout 180s both ways, but didn’t get too many. He seemed to ollie up the curb almost every try though which is normally tougher for him. Other tricks he did that hyped me up were backside ollie on the bank, back 180 up a curb, front board on parking block and wallie up onto the bank off a parking block and turn around and ride out of it somehow. I was being conservative (old) on my hurting (old) body, but managed a few things that hyped me up. A little line of backside flip on the bank carving into the sidewalk then kickflip off. Also a line of pop shove on flat, backside ollie onto the bank then crappy backside flip off the curb.

Then we went to Valmont and skated the manny pads for awhile. I did a nose manual back shove out first try and started thinking about the nose manual nollie treflip out that’s on my list. I wanted to do nollie front 3 shove out first and got remotely close but it seems like I should just try with the flip while I’m at it. I had tried it in a line of front shove, manny, nose manny huck and flail out. Never got close to the nollie 3 flip out, but it still feels possible. Ollie was cruising around ollieing up curbs better than he ever has and 180’ing off both ways at speed. The ollie onto the manny pad then front 180 off quick was my favorite.

Then we went around to the loading dock area and Ollie said he was gonna try to ollie off the top part for the first time. He did it easy. Then he did it again for the camera. This skate dad needs to document his every step! Ha. It is really cool to watch almost every step of someone progressing at skateboarding though. I tried to 50 the ledge after that, but my knee was really acting up and we decided it was time to go anyways. Fun night.

Jumping the gun on the ankle for sure, but I wont be able to skate til sunday at the earliest so I went to Lafayette to meet up with Dean and Derek with the intention of only skating trannie. Only because I didn’t want to hurt my ankle more (didn’t work). When I got there at 8:30 the lights were just turning on (seriously Lafayette how can the lights still be a problem at the skatepark?). Dean and Derek walked up to show me the new Skate Mag with Derek in it. So rad. Dean also had a very special gift for me as a thank you for getting him involved in shooting photos with Null. What the heck? I should be thanking you dude! Anyways, wow, thanks Dean! And you know what they say ladies, a way to a man’s heart is through Dinosaur Jr. Ha.

Although it looked like rain, it only sprinkled a tiny bit. I started in the medium bowl and took too long to get a solid back 50 and once I did I basically ran into a corner and lost my speed everytime. Dean and I hit the little bowl for awhile avoiding scooter kids. Ugh. Dean got some long back 50s around the corner. I bailed a lot of them, managed one long front 50, one front d and that’s about it. Derek was tearing up everything as usual. Kickflip fakie on the extension ok. We hit the snake run for a bit where I tried ollies on the hip and would miss the tail and just hurt my ankle for no reason. At one point Derek and I skated the big bowl with this dude Brandon that was murdering it. I felt like a total idiot and didn’t do much more then drop in and bail a kickturn well below vert. We did some other cruising around. It was fun. The only new thing I did was roll in next to the bowl by the bank which is easy, but just weird. Oh, I also dropped in on the big qp at the end of the snake run. I wasn’t planning on it, but Derek yelled across the park for me to do it so I tried. It was way taller then I thought, I rolled away, but it was sketchy and scary. Derek was hyped. Ha. Fun night once the kids left. I shouldn’t have skated though, my ankle is hurting.

After a late night of partying, waking up at home and trying to help Liz with cleaning, playing football with Ollie and then meeting everyone at the Boulder park I accidently wore the shoes I was breaking in. Oh well, guess it’s time to say goodbye to the Edgars and hello to the Keswick. Seriously though, eS is done. So LAME. Anyways, we met at the second worst park in Colorado – Boulder (Worst is Denver park). Brian was in full jock mode and wanted to rattle out tranny tricks. Max looked like he was hungover, but still managed to kill the park. Fuzz and Brian did some doubles. I fell trying to do a little front truck bash on the coping and wanted to crawl away and hide. I can’t believe how bad I suck at tranny. I’m sure it has nothing to do with partying til 4am, but still, I need to skate tranny more. I resorted to trying kick back tail shoves on the red curb out front. Carleigh cheered me on then called me out for skating too slow. Man I suck everywhere. We finally left and went to Brighton’s new park. Derek did a gnarly blunt to fakie. Brian grinded both death boxes in one run. Max ollied the park. I did a little line again that I love. Kickflip up a ledge then front board pop into a hubba. Hyped on that. Carleigh did a sick front 180 nosegrind on the bump to bar. I almost got a double flip up the euro. Man I hate scooter kids. Parks suck.

Then we went to the KOTC “BBQ” meeting place. The park looked like the worst park ever, but was actually fun. Jack saw the six inch flatbar and was hyped beyond belief. He did about a million trick including nollie heel noselbunt both ways, bigspin hurricane, kickflip hurricane, fakie bigpin bluntslide 270 out, kickflip pretzel 5-0, etc. The list goes on. Keep in mind he was going 2mph, but having a blast and killing it. I tried to kickflip off the launch ramp and landed weird. Initially it didn’t feel too bad, but it turned out to be a roll of some sort and it’s black and blue now and I’m out for a bit. Doh. Brian, Max, Fuzz killed the mini ramp. Then the Ft Collins dudes showed up and even more killing was done. I wish I could have skated more. My ankle is messed up though. I couldn’t walk on it comfortably on Monday. Oh well, KOTC ruled! Thank you Rich!

Most of us woke up at Crisis. Sleeping on a concrete floor is great after a long day of skating. It seemed to take forever to get organaized, but we ended up at the Louisville skatepark to start things off. Max, Brian and Neil were killing it. I forget how much Neil rips sometimes. He does the basics so good. Brian makes tricks in the deep end look so easy. After this KOTC I’ve made a promise with myself to skate more tranny. It’s kind of funny because after getting that bigger board i haven’t hardly skated tranny at all. Anyways, I really didn’t skate worth a crap here. The only remotely decent things for me were kickflip to fakie and a b/s flip on the flat bank. I did a bigflip too, but it was really bad. Max ollied Neil’s motorcycle and we finally left. We went way out to the 3 tier ditch where Brian got surfy. After that was the steep banks aka the Neil banks. 5 tricks to fakie. We were struggling to get the last 2 and Jack was wanting to film a boardslide on a dumpster. He finally lost his patience and came over to do two tricks quick like, but luckily I got my trick. back pivot revert. It’s called that because I’m not cool and I don’t do pivot fakies, instead I turn in then revert on the bank. They are lame. jack got my back with a kickflip to fakie. Then we filmed his boardslide, Chad showed up and we made him dropin. We went to Honey’s Hole then ended up at Broomfield Park. I SUCKED at Broomfied park. The only thing I remember doing that as worth a crap was a bad nollie treflip going 2 mph. I thought I did two tricks I was happy about, but that’s all I remember. Everyone else killed it though. Neil killed it. I don’t care how upset he got. If I could ollie up onto the ledge as fast as him I’d be hyped. Brian did a barefooted skier to fakie with two board on the brick quarter pipe. Yeah. Jack and Max killed the double set area. Jack’s polejam manual late shove down the six is amazing. Max can ollie the rail like it’s a joke. Carleigh almost did the best line with polejam then kickflip down the six. Fuzz manned up to the double set and put a few tricks down. I filmed. Day 2 done. We headed back to Lazers for some late night partying and farewell wishing.

We started the day off kind of early at Longmont park. Tricks on the flyout ledge counted. I have only done noseslide and boardslide on it before. Max, Derek and Bernie rattled off tons of tricks. Dean shot some photos. Jack pouted. Carleigh almost got front 50. I did the noseslide and started trying crooks. A few in I got crooks on it. A good one too. I was really hyped on that. Max even gave me a high five! Ha. After that we went to SOL, played foosball, skated the ramp a little, got Little Jack a kids board and then went to the Longmont ditch.

Longmont ditch was fun. The challenge there was 5 tricks, but we ended up just having fun skating it for awhile. Long enough for me to kind of do a back smith. There are tons more photos in the Null facebook page and Carleigh’s blog. Check them. We ended up at a school with a 7 stair and a long ledge. Jack handled the manual quick and “racked up some points” on the rail. Max did the funniest fall ever. Carleigh got gnarly and pop shoved the 7 perfect. I tried to ollie it, but never committed. I’ve never ollied a 7 before. I should have done it, but the cracks are my excuse. Not my completely lame attitude towards committing down “big” stuff. Brian did an awesome caveman grind. We went to a little manny pad where Bernie rattled off like 5 manny tricks in a row. kickflip nose man, halfcab flip man, fakie bigflip man, fakie man, who knows what else. I managed my 2nd or 3rd switch front 180 manual over the little gap. It took too long. That was the end of the skating as it started raining. Thanks for the photos dean.

The official start of KOTC 2011 was coming at midnight. I got to Carleigh’s around 9:00pm and Jack, Bernie, Derek, Brett and Max were soon to follow. We went to Canyon Center and started the warm up process. Everyone was cruising around doing whatever. It’s been a long time since the session so I wont remember much. I remember a wallride to fakie then a fakie flip from me and that’s about it. Next up was St Julien where Fuzz and John would meet us too. Max, Jack and Derek were killing it. It was dark and I kept wanting to go somewhere else, but we just kept staying there. I skated pretty poorly. I remember a line of front 180 the curb, halfcab flip on flat, ollie a milk crate and I was kind of excited about it. Bernie and I bombed into the St Julien parking garage. Jack ollied the rail for fun. At some point Fuzz and I manualled along the ledge. Jack did a ridiculous manual along the ledge through the narrow section with the bench and did kickflip out. At one point I unintentionally fell onto a milk crate that was propped on the ledge. How embarrassing. At midnignt KOTC challenges got started and I filmed Max and Jack ollie everyone down the 9 stair. Then we went to the Wells Fargo banks. Fuzz got a sick noseblunt transfer. I did a front pivot to fakie. Then we yelled PHISH SUCKS on pearl st, looked at the Widow Maker then bombed 9th. Ok, well Derek and Max bombed it. Carleigh and I were behind. I have never done that hill before and was doing some fun powerslides. Carleigh ran out at one point and I’m gonna say it threw me off so I started pointing before I was ready and then I jumped off. But the truth is I’m very conservative on hills. I was impressed with how much Carleigh bombed. Fuzz came by a few minutes later flying. Next up was Southern Hills. 20 tricks down the 2 stair 10 points each. I actually helped our team and got a few. No comply, boneless, boneless varial thing and maybe another trick. Carleigh snapped a board on pop shove (it’s definitely KOTC!). Max boardslid the rail. 5 tricks went down on the ledges too before I could even get a noseslide. Fun times. Day one over around 2 am. Sleepy time ..

Jack and Jake met up at my house shortly after 6 and we rolled to Crisis, hung out for a minute then off to the park. Jake and I started at the quartapotty and rattled off a few basics of ours. I manualled and nose manualled the blue pad way quicker than normal. It would be the start of a really weird night though. Basically I would either skate really good for me or absolutely horrible. No in between. Matt Carr showed up with a crew and they mostly skated the pool with Brian and Fuzz. They did some sick stuff even if I was shooting my board in on accident trying 2 mph kickflips on flat. Sorry Fuzz. I did a couple “pivots to fakie” on the quartapotty, but they weren’t proper at all. Derek and Jack were skating so good. They were hitting the rail. I saw Jack to a perfect front nosegrind down the double set rail, Derek follow it with front blunt and so much more. Jack got the wallie to firecracker he’s tried before. Derek did a fast kickflip to bankride that was gnarly. I tried to get a slow one, but was unable to and it started my decline. Dean and I ollied the six stair. I thought it would be enough to hyped me up to get the doubleset, but I bailed the first attempt and ended up hurting my back ankle pretty bad. I’m not sure what everyone else is doing, but I got bummed and tried nollie frontside bigflips for a long time by myself. It cheered me up even though I didn’t land one. I got really close though. Fuzz, Dean, Neil, Jack, and I skated the banked manny pads for awhile. Jack did something like ollie up kickflip to fakie nose manual down. Fuzz got a manual to rock to fakie manual down. Sick! I tried too, but can’t do fakie manuals. Last part of the night was the pier 7 ledge. Fuzz and I did lines of kickflip at the crack (basically into the mellow bank) the front 50 the ledge. He added manual and I added front 50 front 180 out. Jack did a perfect cab bigger spin then almost 5-0 front 360 shove out. Wowsers. I got lucky and did 360 flip followed by front 50 shove out with a sketchy landing. I moved over to try back 50 which took me awhile to work up the courage to try. And about the time I started committing to it and almost had it the lights shut off. I snapped and focused my board. I f’ing hate skateparks and their stupid regulated skate times. The softball field lights were still on of course. Ugh. To my credit the board was wearing down and was probably pretty cracked from some bad 360 flips earlier in the session.

Click here to view 2011 KOTC challenge book! Anyone is invited to do this contest, just email John Doe Zine at johndoezine@hotmail.com and let them know. Look at some of these challenges!

HAVE AN INNER TUBE RACE IN THE SOUTH PLATTE RIVER (50 POINTS)

MIKEY CHAFFEE CHALLENGE: WEAR A GHETTO GOWN FOR THE ENTIRE DAY (20 POINTS)

OLLIE THE LONGMONT LEAP OF FAITH (5000 POINTS)

The list goes on and on and on!