Being the famous celebrity that I am I was called upon to help judge the YMCA Spring Fling at the Boulder contest. When I got there no one wanted the boards I had as prizes and no one needed my help judging. So John and I attempted to play SKATE, but it was quickly interrupted by his true stardom status as him and Sam recieved an award from the YMCA for all the effort Meta has provided over the years. Meta rules. John and Sam are way more famous than me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t remember the score before John had to “leave”. SKA – S. That’s right Johny Stardom. Anyways, joking aside for a few sentences. I actually had fun. For awhile I cruised the bowl and was pleasantly surprised to get a backside scratcher grind in the round bowl. Later on I played a game of SKATE with Max’s brother where I missed every go to trick I can do (all 3 of them). Then there was an organized game of SKATE that I thought involved Josh Steele and others. But no, it was me vs 15 young kids. It was hilarious. Ric called out ‘age before beauty’, but I still went first. I landed kickflip, heelflip, front shove, fakie flip before bailing. I thought it would get all tech after that, but the next trick was front 180. That’s when I realized I had been a jerk. There was a couple kids in there that had some moves though. I ended up losing out with tricks like cab, nollie flip, sw flip, some other dumb switch trick and another dumb switch trick (I’m kidding, it’s just jealousy). Anyways, around then my feet really started to hurt. I’ve worn the Adidas a few days, but not for more then a few hours before. It got to the point where I didn’t want to walk it hurt so bad. Those shoes are too long and too narrow for me. One of the worst fits I’ve ever tried. Hopefully they’ll work for JP. Before calling it a day with the Eating Factory I skated the curb for awhile and did a couple front 5-0s with back 180s out. I might have done that trick before at Red Curbs, but never grinding that far. Oh yeah, the Advanced contest was crazy. It was a Max demo. See a bunch of photos here on Carleigh’s blog. TF went to a nearby bar to get food/drinks. It was fun. Sam and I watched some basketball. I knocked a glass off the table and broke it and I wasn’t even drinking. Then I got a call from an annoyed wife and went home to clean the bathrooms. Not so fun.

Got off work on a really nice day and went to meet Bernie at the gnarly industrial bank in Longmont. I had a few minutes to kill before he arrived and messed around with some wallrides on the bank in a spot I didn’t have to ollie onto, but there was a big crack coming back. I did a few each way. Bernie arrived and we played a couple pathetic games of SKATE. Well, pathetic from my point of view. I absolutely hate the Adidas. Too long and way too narrow. Anyways Bernie was skating pretty well so I started filming. Unfortunately he didn’t get his trick, but he tried pretty hard and the wind definitely took it’s toll on Bernie. After that we skated the nearby weird stair spot that Bernie and Max have tricks on in Bernie’s video. I was sucking initially with my filmer legs, but started trying a run of ollie up all three curbs (the last one has no setup time) then kickflip down the three. I didn’t get there before we got booted. Doh. I can’t believe how easy it was for Bernie to do the quick ups. Then we went to a nearby school and just kinda messed around a bit before Bernie ollied on top of a tall picnic table. I started trying too and got remotely close. I got up into rock pretty easily anyway. Hyped we did that. Bernie is so fun to skate with.

Ended up having a busier evening then I figured running errands and shooting some hoops with Ollie. Carleigh came by at around 8:30 and we went to campus. There wasn’t much parking as it was graduation, but found a good spot. We ended up first at the double set with the curb I want to boardslide. It’s not lit very well so there was no way I was really gonna go for it. But it was kinda fun just dorking around. Next we ended up at the round stair spot that goes from 1 stair up to 6. After ollieing the 4 we each settled into our own things. I was trying a line of ollieng the 4 then doing a quick manual where the big crack starts right after the stairs. That took a long time. Actually, after a couple slams and lots of bails I started trying it different. I ended up doing crooks on the ledge, ollie the 3, then the manual. I think I finally landed it after Carleigh nollied the two stair for her first nollie down “something”. My next line was a noseslide to fakie then a front pop shove down the two going 2mph. 2 for 2. Lastly I did a back 50 on the ledge then kickflipped the two. Kinda hyped on that one. Then we went to the nearby flatground area and Carleigh broke her 1-0 kickflip record for the day. She struggled, but got one. I took awhile to finally get a treflip in the clown shoes, but managed to rattle off several other tricks and felt decent. On the way to the car we had a fun downhill ride through the new parking lot with the 3 stair manny pad. Fun.

Kind of worn out feeling and had just sat around and had a movie/popcorn date with India (Despicable Me).  Decided I should go skate and get them new clown shoes broken in.  I refer to them as clown shoes because of the colors and the fact that they feel about two sizes too long.  Anyways, I was pretty motivated once I got to Valmont surprisingly.  I mostly skated the manny pads and after a few flatground kickflips settled into a couple line attempts.  Going one way I was trying to do a speedy manual, nose manual on the next one, front 180 up the curb, f/s halfcab flip off.  I was trying to go fast enough on the first manual that I wouldn’t have to push again.  It took a bit, but I did get it.  By the time I got to the f/s halfcab flip I was going pretty slow, but whatevs, I was hyped.  Kickflips are the best way for me to break in shoes.  So going the other way I was doing kickflip up the curb, kickflip off the curb then trying kickflip manual.  I got this one too with a scrape.  But the kick manny took forever.  I must have done 100 kickflips total.  Since I had gotten the f/s halfcab flip line I started trying another ridiculous line for me.  Nose manny, manual front 180 out the next one, front shove up the curb, b/s flip off.  The front shove was the initial roadblock, then for some reason I started becoming unable to do nose manuals.  It was really annoying.  I tried a few other flippers and long nose mannies when I would mess up.  I couldn’t get a treflip in these shoes to save my life.  I slammed a lot and it felt good.  I tried ollie’ing off the loading dock a couple times and slammed both times.  Total wheel bite slams.  Ugh.  St Julien will never happen.

Right after work I picked up Sean and Max, then met Chad, Josh, Carleigh and Dean at this new bikepath ledge spot.  Everyone got the warm up on.  Some better (Max) than others (Me).  Sean was killing some fun looking lines doing the basics perfect.  Chad was working on his Josh Steele ollies next to Josh Steele.  I had new shoes.  Adidas Campus Vulcs.   Sorry, it’s basically the only option I had at the time and I like to get my shoes broken in ahead of skating.  Anyways, they have a great sole it seems like, but overall I think I the shoe feels really large like I’m wearing a size 12 or something.  It took me forever to get a basic line done horrible.  Kickflip, noseslide, back 50.  The spot is ridiculous.  It wasn’t long before I turned into filmer Glen.  Max got a bangin’ line and trick.  Josh got a couple lines and almost a bangin’ trick.  Dean got some amazing photos.  Then we drove to this spot where I’ve been hoping someone would quick up ollie over the pole for years.  Josh finally manned up.  It wasn’t easy for even him, but he did it.  I was soooo blown away.  I wish I would have filmed it better though.  Max was going bonkers around this time and skating all over the place with tons of energy.  It was epic.  We filmed a line using my $2 LED flashlight that came out amazing.  So hyped.

After the Null kids killed it I tried to go skate.  This was after 10pm.  I got out of the car and realized I was so hungry the stomach acid was going crazy.  I tried to skate.  It didn’t work though.  Partly the new shoes, mostly the hunger.  After playing spot tag with some bikers I went behind UMC and did a few flippers.  The only ok one was some bad frontside flips.  But in my head they felt as cool as the ones Josh had done in a line earlier.  That’s all that matters.  Ha.

Forever ago on a filming mission for Soup D’Jour we had one of the most epic filming and skating days in Fort Morgan, CO. We’ve been back a couple times since with various crews. The initial crew was Bernie, Eric Napolitano, Tyler’s brother Josh and me. This time around it was Jack, Derek, Bernie, Dean and I. We got a really early start and were pulling into drive by coffee around 11am. It was hilarious because we were in rural Colorado and when Dean and his English accent ordered an “English Breakfast” the lady just stared at him. Then we went to the skatepark. Everyone started at the miniramp. Jack killed it, the rest of us struggled. Derek was sore from the day before. Me and Dean aren’t the best skaters. I’m not sure what Bernie’s excuse was. Ha. Apparently we missed an amazing slam as Jack tried to manual from high to low and drop into front disaster and missed. He had some really steezey front 5-0’s to fakie the Strubing way, no comply tailslides and more slams. I can’t skate anything but Rampy it seems. I worked up to front ds, smiths and that’s about it. Mellow ramps are so hard to skate.

Then we hit the crack ridden main area of the park. We played a game of SKATE that Bernie or Jack won. Then I kinda tried a few lines. I did boardslide the flatbar, f/s ollie on the flatbank, rock ‘n roll on the tight qp, kickflip over a crack then early grab melon/method/whatever happened off the launch ramp. So fun. I got another run with front 50 on the ledge, b/s flip on the flatbank then another launcher. Jack was kind of on fire everywhere. He back 50’d the ridiculous 5 stair rail and back salad’ it. Back 270 front lip on the flat bar. Derek did nose manny nollie back 180 out on the ledge that took me forever to manual. Next we hit the tennis court wallride where Jack went so high we filmed a line to it.

Then we went to the nearby school where Jack went nuts and hippy jumped the bar in no time. Then we skated the manny pad for awhile. Bernie got close to halfcab manual b/s flip out while I struggled to get manual and nose manual. Then I went to work filming for awhile. Lets just say Jack got a bangin’ line and Bernie almost got a rad manual trick. We drove around for awhile, found a rail, harassed an old lady, filmed Jack dropin on something, posed on a flatbars, and ended up at a gap to rail that Jack manned up to. Last spot of the day was a downhill manny pad where everyone but Derek had fun. Ha. Derek was so tired and worked so hard to do a front 180 nose manual. Bernie slammed harder than possible on a curb, but got back up and kick nose mannied it. Jack got nollie heel manual. Dean filmed while I felt about as old as I could possibly feel. I had managed to manual it pretty quickly, but could not kickflip up the curb to save my life ugh.

Oh, and I didn’t bitch about my shoes enough.  As you can see above the stupid red dye in the soles of the Supras messed up the rubber and it all just rubs off right away.  It’s so bad in the ollie area that there is no grip after a few ollies.  I have been on a serious shoe slump lately.  Luckily, Jack gave me permission to retire the Supras as we sat at Taco John’s before leaving Ft Morgan.  Those shoes sucked.

Ollie got some new wheels for his birthday and he asked me to set them up in the morning. Right after that we went over to the school for a bit and broke in the new long two stair. Ollie was doing drop down manuals all steezey. I got a few too and was trying to follow it up with a quick ollie over the black plastic that was up for landscaping efforts. It took awhile and it was a horrible ollie. We went around the rest of the school. Nothing special went down. Ollie manualled across the US painting all easy. We ollied off the tall 3 stair into grass a few times and rolled around. Pretty fun. I also got a kickflip up a curb and tried to noseslide the lower level of a handrail.

After that was Ollie’s birthday party which was a lot of swimming and giving kids “surfboard” rides as I swam along the bottom of the pool with one standing on my back. Pretty fun, but tiring. Later on I could have gone skating, but was hungry, tired and sick of it being cold outside. Luckily I have an indoor ramp that people like to skate so Carleigh, Derek, Nate and Dean rolled over and we shredded for a couple hours. It was fun. Everyone was in good spirits. Carleigh maybe higher than the rest. Ha. She had her best first line ever that went all the way to a kickflip rock attempt. Nate got used to Rampy pretty quick and did lots of good tricks like front feeble, back tail, back d, back d to sugarcane and more. Derek of course killed it. He was keeping it kinda mellow, but managed a bigspin back tail in there. Ridiculous. Dean is taller than me and doesn’t skate ramp a whole lot. So he had some troubles earlier but worked it out and got the basics. I actually had a pretty good session. I got most of tricks. Actually pretty much all of them except hurricane. Even a front 50 yank out and a back rock decked on the short side of the deck. Thanks for coming over guys, it really cheered me up.

Not sure if this day would count if I were going for 300 again, but it was cold and snowing and we were hanging out at Crisis and the banana board came out.  Fuzz did some steezey basics like shove and no comply shove.  I flailed around like an old buffoon for an hour before landing two kickflips in a row.  I couldn’t even hardly stand comfortably on it.  Ugh.  CJ ended up getting a nollie flip.  We watched the old Meta video Recess.  It was rad.  Jam and Fuzz have parts in it.  It sure is nice having a dvd of the video.  Where you at with Lumber Jockeys Sam?????????

Got home from work and had less time to skate than I had thought.  Liz and were going to dinner, then the Always Sunny premiere, then J Mascis!  So I skated flat for about 30 min.  I was horrible.  I’m not sure why all of a sudden everything feels so awkward.  I was trying a run of no comply 180, fakie flip then f/s halfcab flip.  I think I got to the f/s halfcab flip twice.  Ugh.  I would land half of the no complys completely straight legged and borderline shooting out.  Fakie flips were 1/20.  So bummed.  Going the other way I managed a halfcab flip, heelflip, treflip run.  All tricks being horrible.  I had some fakie bigflips going 2mph.  I attempted quite a few nollie tres and didn’t get them.  I did get a few treflips.  All landed with Jason’s patented 20 stair landing steez.  Another line was heelflip then b/s flip landed in a way that would only count on defense in a game of over 50 SKATE.  I started hucking tricks I can’t do just to feel better about not landing tricks anyway.  Rick flips were surprisingly close.  I landed on one, but had stopped.  Still happy I skated though

Had one crazy evening. Got home to a completely messy house and a daughter that was screaming out of control about not being able to finish her homework in time for the talent show. Then I sat through two hours of elementary school “performances”. Two Justin Bieber songs, one Green Day song, blah blah. A couple kids could sing pretty good, but for the most part it was pretty rough. India was of course awesome for me to see and the ender was her whole 5th grade class doing the dance for Thriller. That was pretty amazing actually.

Oh wait, this is a skate journal huh? So yeah, after all that and then doing dishes and eating I went out to roll up the street to the strip mall by my house, but it was raining now. Ugh! Instead of baling on the whole thing I decided to hit Red Curbs. I pulled in and noticed a bunch of people skating. Whoa. Turns out that Satellite and Public Eye dudes had decided to skate there too. It was like a crowded skatepark. Ha, ok, so not crowded. Since I spent all of Monday sleeping off back pain my body was really out of it. I felt way more uncoordinated than normal and it showed. I struggled at everything from ollies to kickflips and in between (as if there is something in between ollies and kickflips). After awhile everyone else left. I don’t remember having actually landed anything by that point anyways. I started trying a line of halfcab flip, nose manual, kickflip back tail. I got all three, but not in a line. The kick back t was a good one for me and it slid about a foot. The weirdest thing happened though I heard someone yell really loud mid slide and it scared the death out of me. I never did figure out where it came from. Pretty weird. I tried a few nose manual nollie tres and did not get close. I tried a few front 5-0 kickflips out and did not get close. Maybe that list is a little unrealistic, but I guess I have two years to get them. Ok, enough babble about a curb session.