Once again, a lot has happened so this one so I’ll miss a lot of what happened. Carleigh, Fuzz, Dean and I went to No Love around 9 pm. It was a small crowd and we all skated. Well Dean took photos. Fuzz and Carleigh ripped out of the gates. Jeff was ripping too. Fuzz did about 100 tricks on the qp. Carleigh did huge wallrides. I had troubles on the wallride, but skated the qp ok. Got front lip, axle stall to fakie, fakie pivot fakie first try. Later on got a crooks on the ledge. Did a little nose manny on a little door to curb high manny pad. Finished off by played a game of SKATE with Mikey that he won. Had a lot of fun, but really felt old and stiff. Oh well. Got home late and was planning on starting a 4 day skate trip starting Friday but those plans would be changed.

I don’t like missing skate journal entries, but a lot has happened since this one. Dean came to my house then Carleigh and we met Fuzz at Broomfield park. I was rusty as all get out after a week of sickness followed by a few days of back spasms. After a few runs around the bowl Fuzz took advantage and challenged me to a game of ledge SKATE on the black ledge. We both missed lots of basic tricks, but he finished me off easily with a bluntslide. At one point I saw Fuzz noseblunt the bump to bar first try. Carleigh boardslid the little rail and came close to front 50 shove out. Dean looked like he was having fun. Derek met us there too and was ripping as usual. I don’t remember much of the session other than the above and the end when I tried to ollie the six stair. It took me awhile so Derek hyped me up by doing a switch front 3 and I had to get his back. Landing those stairs felt great. Carleigh ollied the double set easy. I was excited to skate again.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. It had stopped raining, but it was super windy. I didn’t feel sick, but my side pain acted up for the first time in months. Ugh. Dean and Derek had hit me up pretty early on wanting to make some things happen. I was in a horrible mood and in hindsight probably shouldn’t have gone skating. But I went. I met Derek at the Broomfield park as well as Brian, Neil and their skate camp kids. The park was insanely crowded. I tried to get a little warm up going on the quartapotty, but three runs in a board shot out and hit my ankle and then I ran into someone. So I left to the car. Luckily everyone else was over it too. We went to go film a line of Derek’s at a nearby spot, but there was cars in the landing. We went to another nearby spot and cars there too. We ended up at kind of a dorky spot. It’s a loading dock with banks on both sides and a two stair going into one of the banks. Going up the stair way the wind helped you. Going the other way sucked. Dean skated harder than I’ve seen him skate before. He was doing some cool old man no complies and boneless variations and ollied up the two stair (harder than it sounds). I was kind of kind of able to skate. The side pain was intense, but not as insane as it’s been before. But it still sucks. Like what’s the point in skating if you can’t really squat to ollie. Or not being able to take risks because if you fall you know your done. I hate it. I was so bummed out. Soooo bummed. I have been sick and now this. I managed a front 50 stall on the two stair back into the bank and a wallie up it. That was about it. Derek wasn’t exactly cheery either. The wind was getting him down. Understandable. He did do some cool manuals though and a sick front shove off the 2 into the bank. We ended it with back to back fakie bigflips into the bank. But as we were getting into our cars we spotted a crazy drainage ditch spot. Over a curb into a narrow drainage chute then up on to a grate. Derek wanted to try kickflip in, manual the grate. Sick. He got close, but ended up bumming super hard since it was taking awhile. It sucked to watch. Because clearly Derek is good enough to do it, but for whatever reason it wasn’t happening. He wont blame anything, but the traffic and wind did not help. Neil had shown up and did a sick no comply boneless into it. But Derek ended up getting over it. We left for Crisis/Burger King. It’s always good to see fuzz and there was like 10 kids posted up in there. Awesome. Next up we went to a nearby ledge spot. I didn’t even try to skate it because my side was sucking. Derek almost did a ridiculous line like 3rd try. So we tried to film it and then the filming curse that Derek currently has reared it’s ugly head again. It’s weird being in my position. I know Derek wanted to do it for himself, but it’s weird sitting there with a camera pointed at someone when they are that frustrated. It happens Derek. Don’t hate on yourself. I went home super bummed out on my side and my own skating. Ugh.

Been fighting a sinus infection all week. I didn’t even go into work one day. Although i got some antibiotics on Wednesday and I was starting to feel human by Friday. After “working” from home (that is a huge stretch of the term working), a crazy hail storm, a nap and then dinner Carleigh picked me up and we were off to skate. Oh wait, I had skated flat for a little bit first. It was bad. I was so stiff from laying around all week it was ridiculous. I posed around doing some little ollies and stuff for awhile then for whatever reason started posing nollie heelflips. I got to the point where some felt really good, but I never got ever close. Carleigh showed up and announced we had a special guest for the night. I couldn’t come up with who it was until we turned towards Lazers house. Street Lazer! Sick!

We went to campus which was wetter then we thought it would be. There was still hail melting and wet leaves everywhere on the concrete from the destruction. We started out at the angled ledge which had water only on the ledge part of it. So we did some rock tricks on the little tranny to ledge. Lazer and I did front rock, rock fakie and fakie rock. Carleigh was having troubles but getting into rocks so was just doing 3flip crooks instead. We moved on and ended up at the little ledge section. For some reason I don’t like that spot very much. Carleigh was busting some front 50 shoves out (minus the shoves) and ripping to no end. Lazer took a minute to get back 50, but had a good one. He also got a proper back tail. I didn’t get anything other than a 1/4″ crooked grind and posed some front blunts. Next we were at the downhill manny pad spot and none of us could manual it. Carleigh got close to nollie treflip nose manual nollie heel out, but slipped out on a wet leaf. Lame! Lazer got Razor tail by doing manuals with the tail on the ground. I came remotely close to nose manual. Then we played rock walk down the 5 stair. Carleigh used the beginners rail to hold on to. We sure were dorking around a lot. That was pretty much it until the end when we skated some flat for awhile. I was soooo rusty, but it felt good to get a few flippers. I got a lot of my tricks, but most were slow and bad. Oh well, it felt good to be skating again.

ps – I may have embellished Carleigh’s tricks a little. This was her request after seeing how many hits this blog gets. But yeah, she should be pro.

Hung around and slept most of the day after a late night feeling like crap. And no, it wasn’t a hangover. But yes, the Black Dots show was a blast. I will have photos up sometime. Anyways, the weather dried up, but it was still cold. I went to the Lafayette park to meet Brian, Carleigh and John. I got there first and Max’s little brother was there with crew again. They skate so much it rules. I was definitely not feeling good. I had no desire to ollie and everything made me feel achy. Carleigh eventually showed up, then Brian with Jam and then John. When Jam shoes up you can’t make excuses. So I tried the rail and failed. Brian almost did it while beaming me which would have been epic. Brian, John and I eventually did get boardslides down it. John also front 50d the hubba super easy. Carleigh did some pop shoves into the bank mixed in with some gnarly slams into the bank. Ouch. Then she pop shoved the 3 stair bolts then followed that up with a really bad slam which she hurt her foot. Oucher. John slammed on a front shove into the bank then followed it with a make. I did a slow and crappy fakie bigflip into the bank. I didn’t have the mindset for the rail/ledge section so just started carving around the snakerun. It was fun. John and Brian joined. I got a kickflip wallride second or third try which hyped me up. Brian did lots of crazy lines. John had some poppy ollies and good lines. I tried to do some ollies at the end, but they were pathetic. Brian was getting more air then me without even hitting his tail. Had a good time, but not sure it was worth getting as sick as I did afterwards…

Another Saturday where the forecast was 67 and sunny that turned into 51 and rain. Ugh. Ollie and his buddy Sam wanted to hit a nearby park with a kids section (Zuni), but we settled for Red Curbs. I was feeling a bit run down, tired and achy. Ugh. Ollie ripped it. He isn’t really ollie’ing up curbs yet, but I saw him do back 180 and front 180 off a curb. I’ve never seen him do front 180 off anything before. It was sick. He said he also did pop shove off a curb, but I missed that apparently. Doh. He did some other cool stuff and smiled a lot and it stokes me out soooo much to skate with him. Sam can roll off curbs pretty good now and was doing little slappy front boards where he came to a halt and pulled it off. Pretty cool. I didn’t do anything special. I didn’t even feel like flipping my board. The boys were wanting to go to another garage and I was wanting to try a run of halfcab flip, nose manual, ollie the little median into the rain. But then a car load of kids arrived. It was rad though, it was Max and Jack’s little brothers and crew. Those kids are awesome. Ollie and Sam felt intimidated and went to the car, but I skated with them for a bit and maybe tried a little harder than I had been, but nothing special. Then we went to another parking garage which also has some red curbs, bit isn’t as fun. I had fun doing the basics there though. There are two parking blocks real close to each other and doing ollie then wallie took awhile. I also did some front and back 50s and tried a few front 5-0 kickflips out which weren’t close at all. The boys mostly ran around playing at this spot, but ollie did fall pretty hard trying to boardslide a parking block. He laughed of course. Then I went to 303, traded boards for a big nosed 8″ Null, got some cute pants and saw the Antihero team stop by. It’s kind of embarrassing trying on shoes of a pro that’s standing in the same shop (Gerwer), but he was funny about it.

I debated calling in sick for work as I was feeling a cold come on. Instead I went to work, had a really busy day then went home and took a long nap. I love naps. Love them. After some dinner I played basketball with Ollie for awhile and John hit me up to go skating. We texted for several minutes about where to skate before I just gave up and called him. We met at Valmont basically as the sun was setting. The ledge area was wet, but the manny pads were good. After some pretty typical old man warming up (ie, barely landed ollies up low curbs) we got in a groove. John got a halfcab manual followed by nose manny. I came super close to front 180 nose manny and almost did a kickflip nose manual but I touched at the start. I was having fun lining out the basics too. Then we started just dorking around skating a curb like it was a ledge since John wanted to learn back tails. I kept telling him they are impossible and that kickflip back tails are way easier. So he tried back tails while I tried kick back tails. Since kick back tails are easier than back tails I landed some. I also tried a few front pivot kickflips out and did a pretty good impression of Lloyd’s ballet kick, but that was about it. Then we played a long mellow game of SKATE that ended when rock star john hurt his rock star wrist and didn’t want to put tomorrow nights show in jeapordy. Oh, I know it’s the middle of May, but seriously, it was pretty warm for February.

Kind of a late start to go to Lafayette, but I wasn’t really feeling any street spots in particular and Carleigh liked the sounds of Lafayette. We got there around 8:15. The drive there sucked. That is one of the worst drives ever. Everyone drive well under the speed limit and it’s just annoying residential streets. Anyways, the weather was threatening rain and there was lightning nearby. I like skating in that kind of weather. We started off kind of all over. The park wasn’t super busy by any means. Oh yeah, I had been in class all day so my legs felt sore from sitting in one place all much and not doing my normal stretches and stuff. But after some cruising around things felt pretty good. Carleigh did a f/s halfcab into the mellow bank and I got her back with a boardslide down the rail then noseslide down the hubba. That is a really fun combo. Carleigh also got pop shove into the bank. I wanted to noseslide the pier 7 tripleca, but the stupid street side lights shut off at like 8:40. WTF? Come on City of Lafayette, that is pathetic. Carleigh kept skating the bank. She did like 6 tricks into it total. Nollie shoves, nollie back 180, kickflip. We skated the snakerun for awhile. Carleigh got a frontside wallride on the bank to bank. She could dropin on it too. I was terrified of dropping in on that for some reason, but eventually I did it. Then I started trying to do kickflip wallride on it. Less than 10 tries later I did it. That really really hyped me up. I did cruising around the snakerun with some little ollies. Fun. Right at the end I tried ollieing onto one of those round planter things up by the vert bowl and had almost got it when the rest of the lights shut off. Doh. Gotta say I’m bummed on the city of Lafayette for blowing it so bad shutting off the lights so early.

After a long day at work I stopped by Meta for a bit to sell some wheels. I had about 30 minutes before dinner so I rolled into campus. I was in a class at work so didn’t have a chance to do my normal stretching. I was so stiff and sore. Ugh. Anyways the first place I ended up was the banked manny pad spot. After a couple super basics I started trying quick up to f/s flip. So hard. I did one, but it was horrible. Did I mention it was insanely windy? Well, it was. I had altered between tre and nollie flips between attempts. Neither of which I landed. Both were close though. After that I went to the double set boardslide that was on my list. I got on it from the top, but didn’t have the will to stick with it. The furthest I got was the middle before I jumped off into the grass. Ugh. Then I did a crappy little rock wallie and called it a day.

Had a really fun Mothers day with my parents and my family. After a little afternoon snack I went to go skate. I put the Adidas on before going skating and the little toes yelled “NO!” So I went with the shoes I was breaking in that I had gotten from Fuzz. The Kenny Reed Lows with some fancy “waxed suede”. I’ve had the non-fancy version of the shoes before and they were awesome. These didn’t dissappoint. A few minutes info campus and I was trying a line. Halfcab flip on flat, ollie a metal grate, ollie onto the tall ledge at the engineering building. That didn’t take too long. I did some noseslides on that ledge too. It’s really tall. I cruised around for a bit and ended up near the gym at the tiny manny pad and kicker spot. Surprisingly it took me a long time to get a kickflip out of that stupid kicker. Ugh. Then I manualled the long manny pad near the theater before going up to the theater itself. I scoped out that 5 stair ledge and was determined to 50 it. But right after a couple ‘JT to Laters’ a couple squirrels pinned me in a corner and seemed determined to deter me from skating there. Not wanting to start a fight with rodents I left. I think I might put that on my ‘by 40’ trick list though. Maybe 50 shove or 50 180 out. Before long I ended up at the newly repaved parking below the 14. I had done a little nose manny and was looking at the ledge. I want to ollie over one of those. I don’t have an ollie like that on my list either. I want to add that too. Ollie one of the ledges near the spot that Bernie did the fakie manual fakie flip out in the previous null teaser. Anyways, there was a bmx’er cruising around so I wasn’t really feeling it and then a cop drove by so I definitely wasn’t feeling it. I played dumb and cruised on down the sidewalk. I ended up near the two downhill-narrow-skatestopped manny pads and 5 stair. I tried to huck the long 5. It’s not tall at all, but long. I almost committed to it before feeling over it. Before leaving I ollied off the ledge above it though. I didn’t have to clear anything, but it was a lot taller. I went faster than normal and landed it really good. It felt great. It’s one of the taller things I’ve ollied off of and I’ve done it several time over the years. Although, never that fast. I cruised off down the bikepath and actually tried a bunch of flip tricks. I was happy to have shoes that I couldn’t complain about. I did fakie big, heelflip, tried nollie tre, etc then saw a gap I’ve never seen before. Off a narrow ledge about 4 feet to a sidewalk. Nothing big, but it was fun. I started heading home I thought then saw this manny pad that was 1 up with a long 2 down. I remember trying to manual it years ago and failing. I setup a line to it. Dropin on this little 4 stair thing, kickflip then try the manny. The kickflips got the best of me though. It was on a downhill slope which always freaks me out and as much as I loved the new shoes I didn’t feel all that confident trying kickflips at speed. I did the kickflips quite a few times, but when I did I never matched it with the manny. Doh. Then it was time to go back to Mother’s Day chilling with the Mighty LZA. I was happy to have finally skated hard and couldn’t use my shoes as excuses.