I met Carleigh at Meta. I had just picked up some new shoes to start breaking in and to show what a hypocrite I can be.  You’ll see.  We had originally thought of skating Red Curbs if it was raining, but it wasn’t.  But then when we left Meta it was kind of sprinkling.  While trying to figure it out it started raining harder so the decision was made.  Red Curbs.  We started off doing our own things just skating around and warming up.  I was having a tough time with the Creature tank of a board.  With the exception of a test Sans board years ago (yes, you know how that went) I have only skated Generator wood for six years now (Null was originally on Systems then  Syndrome wood) and it sure felt awkward.  It took like 10 tries to get a kickflip where the tail touched.  Carleigh was mostly trying flatground lines.  I saw lots of kickflips, nollie shoves, etc.  I failed at nose mannys miserably.  I failed at almost everything actually.  Carleigh did some mannies on the short manny pad.  I got a couple front 180 nose mannies on the short one which is about the extent of that trick for me.  Carleigh was working on heelflips and slamming hard.  I was jealous because I was my typical lame self just walking away from bails instead of committing.  I’ll blame the wide ass board I’m skating.  I took a long time to get a front lipslide.  I took forever to get a fakie bigflip.  For some reason I started trying halfcab nose manuals.  Some felt like I could do it.  Most felt like I was just learning how to skateboard (wait, it always feels like that).  I had a couple back lip attempts that were mostly just ollie over the corner to 90 degree wheel pivot.  At the very end I was trying front tailslides (got a couple little ones) and we were both trying flatground tricks over and over.  I saw Carleigh stomp a heelflip then in less than 20 tries land a first ever fakie varial flip.  Sick!  I tried nollie f/s flips and had one that was so close I can’t believe I didn’t get both feet on it.  It took lots of tries to flip that big board around for treflips.  Never got a nollie tre.  Heelflip took awhile too.  We had fun.  We skated hard.  Awesome.

After a long and draining day at work I went home and fell asleep for awhile. After some dinner then an hour of basketball with Ollie we skated Rampy for a little bit. I had my new board that I won in the eating contest in SF. Thanks Cruz! This board is 8.25 which felt good on Rampy. I haven’t had a pro board since I started Null eight years ago. Crazy! I had one of the better first runs I’ve had. I didn’t do a whole lot though as I was mostly just goofing around with Ollie trying to make sure he had fun and would want to skate again soon. I suppose I should have been making Ollie do all of this tricks at least 10 times, but we skated for about 30 minutes before doing some butt dropins and races. He did manage to get front rocks again, even though it took a few tries. He also did a flatground shove and fakie shove. Radical.

Had a super bad morning. Nothing like waking up early after staying out late and waking up to strong winds. Then having to waste time at T-Mobile and the wind was still going. Bernie still wanted to try though and after he arrived we drove off with no expectations. I had some new Supra ‘Amigo’ shoes which I had worn around a little to break in. We ended up at a weird loading dock spot that I would have never spotted. It was “low” to get on, normal height to get off. But the run up had a weird banked curb about 6 feet before the loading dock so you had to ride through it right before the ollie. It made it weird just to ollie up. Unless your Bernie who manual and nose mannied it pretty quick. The wind didn’t bother us to much because it was going the right direction. I was struggling and getting used to new shoes about the time Dean and then Carleigh arrived. We all skated for awhile. Dean and Carleigh might have been playing SKATE. I settled in to trying a line of front shove on flat, ollie up, then ollie off the loading dock past a crack. That took a long time, but I finally managed it. I also tried another one of f/s halfcab flip, front 180 up the ledge, turn around then ollie from the low side into the little banked curb. I was content with only getting the front wheels into it and after several tries I got it. A couple slams were painful, but felt good as I felt like I was trying to skate hard. Carleigh got a run of kickflip on flat, ollie up the ledge then ride off the tall part of the dock. The landing was pretty rough. Bernie came close to manny kickflip manny, nose manny shove manny, nose manny front 180 switch manual. My last line was b/s halfcab flip, ollie up, turn around front shove off the low end. I had cracked my board on a bad landing, but the board still had pop and I managed to get the line with a really good feeling front shove. Pretty hyped on that front shove. Hyped to have skated such a hard spot even though it felt pretty frustrating at the time. We called it a day after that. Also hyped on how good these shoes felt.

A busy saturday lined up. After a fun friday night I slept in a little and managed to get in a little flatground before India’s ballet. It was pretty windy and I was trying to break in some new softer bushings which felt good from the gates. I didn’t get much, but I did come super close to nollie f/s flip. Later on after the recital, dinner with my parents and a nap I met Carleigh and Jack at the Mikes Camera manny pad. I felt pretty out of it, but it marks the first session where I started going for nose manual nollie treflips out. I didn’t get remotely close, but it somehow does feel possible. I wanted to try kickflip nose manuals too, but those crappy Vox shoes had no tread left on the front foot and I couldn’t even consistently kickflip. I came somewhat close to nollie front shove manny which I’ve never done before. Carreigh didn’t get any manuals, but I saw some good kickflips and other trick attempts. Jack had some moves. Nollie nose man. Nollie heel man. I’m not sure what all else. We had fun though.

After this session I retired these shoes. One week. That’s all I got out of them. I couldn’t stand wearing them any more. The sole felt like paper. I like Vox as a company a ton, but they gotta do better than this.

Carleigh picked me up after work and we stopped by Crisis before Fuzz did some paperwork.  We went to Subway and I got a meatball sub that was somehow only $2!!!  Wow.  We started off at the nearby Safeway ledge where we skated with Connor and Neil joined after awhile.  That ledge is super good, but the daylight was diminishing and there isn’t a light above the ledge.  Caleigh got noseslide shove quick.  Connor steezed out 5-0s, lipslides, tailslides.  I had a few front 50s and some sorry excuses for back crooks and 50s.

Connor left and Fuzz arrived.  We heard that John Brandow was at the Broomfield park so we went there to “grab him”.  Fuzz wanted to skate a street spot, but we ended up getting snuggled into the park and I think everyone was fine with it.  It was good to see John, but my initial vibe was kinda bummed we had resorted to the park.  But Fuzz started up a mixed ledge/flatground game of SKATE that John and Neil joined in on and it ended up being a blast.  Mostly basics went down.  The halfcab manual Fuzz did on the blue ledge was pretty awesome.  We mostly just made fun of each others tricks in good spirits.  What a fun crew.  I had a halfcab boardslide that generated lots of laughter.  John jibbed the end of a ledge in a frontside “5-0”.  Fuzz won it at the end with 360 flip and I could not land one at all.  Argh.  We all skated around for awhile doing our own thing.  The nice thing about skating street so much is when it comes to skating a park everything seemed lower than it used to.  I managed a crooks on the taller brown ledge as well as a front 50 transfer into it.  I couldn’t do a nose manual on the blue ledge.  I got a back 50 front 180 out on the blue ledge.  Posed a couple kick back tails.  After awhile John, Fuzz and I played a flatground game of SKATE.  I was the first one out so I’m not sure who claimed victory on that one.  When I left Fuzz had SKAT and John had SK so probably John.  I failed at tres and nollie tres, almost got a f/s halfcab heel, failed at fakie bigflips.  Oh well.  Carleigh was having a bummer, but skating flat and did a heelflip.  Then we all did tricks on the blue bank.  John, Fuzz and I started with quick up to front shove fakie.  John’s was easy as cake.  Fuzz’s was bolts.  Mine was butt out, arms out horrid.  We went on to do b/s flips, kickflip fakie.  Fuzz and John added fakie flips.  Fuzz did front 180 in as the setup, John switch ollie (scary!).  I took a few tries to get frontside flip.  Fuzz and John added a bunch of other fun tricks.  It was a blast with the exception of Carleigh being down.  But she didn’t throw a fit and we all know it happens.

Rain/snow.  Seriously.  I hate April sometimes.  Anyways, I went out to Rampy unmotivated and grouchy to be skating inside.  I didn’t skate Rampy well at all.  I struggled at everything.  Things got better when I started adding some flatground to the mix.  I almost landed a nollie flip and I started trying stationary kickflips and trying to land in a nose manual.  Actually did a couple.  On Rampy the only things that felt good were front disasters, fakie pivot fakie and a couple of my better frontside ollies.

After my last couple horrible performances I decided to go out solo to campus and have fun darn it. I had taken a nice nap and was ready to go.  I was on call for work so had two phones in my pocket and wasn’t up for another Real premiere (the Denver one).  I started out in the area behind the student center that has the really good concrete that I played the game of SKATE with Fuzz and Connor. I can’t believe I had never noticed how smooth it is there before. It’s the best place on campus for flatground which is extra awesome because I like that area a ton already anyway. I had made up my mind that I would like the new shoes and it seemed to work. Warm up tricks were dropping first try until I realized I had landed a bunch first try. Then it was normal Glen, but that’s cool because I moved on to hammers. I wanted to try a long line. Front 50 a metal stair, ollie onto one of the ledges down the 5 stair, ollie off it, 360 flip on flat, ollie up the two, ollie down the two, ollie down the three, ollie up the three. It didn’t start good because the stupid metal curb was somehow ridiculously sticky and the easiest trick in the line took the longest. I did somehow get the whole line though. The 3 flip included a hand in the make and the ollie up the 3 at the end was a front 90 because I was so exhausted. I was hyped though. Then I moved over to the handicap ramp area with the ledges/rails. Last time I was there I freaked out because I couldn’t ollie onto the ledge. This time I could and then decided I should try to manual it. Pretty scary for me and I got really close a couple times. Not only do you have to manual the ledge, but it drops down a level, then drops again and you have to thread the needle through the rails. That would be fun to get sometime. I was happy to finally be skating hard after a few days of lackluster effort.

I started heading toward the hill ledges, but saw a somewhat tall ledge off the bikepath that I wanted to ollie onto. It was quick and after a pretty good slam I managed to do it. Pretty hyped on that. Next was the hill ledges for awhile. I did quite a few backside noseslides where I was trying to dropin a little further up the hill each time to go faster. I had a few bad front 50s on the top ledge. A few ok 50s on the curved ledge at the bottom. I started trying front tails on the top ledge. I got a couple that didn’t slide. Eh. I backed one up with a front 5-0 on the curved ledge. Neat.

On to the nearby parking lot where I had tried a line before and never got. No comply 180, fakie ollie up a curb, fakie flip, sw front 180 off the curb. I slammed on the fakie flip over and over because it was downhill and there was a crack that I kept landing in. A couple times I started the line off by ollieing off the nearby ledge with the death drop on one side. So scary. Anyways I finally landed the stupid fakie flip and went back to the student center for some more flippers. I got a few treflips, heelflips, f/s halfcab flips and did a f/s halfcab heel that would have only counted on defense in an over 50 game of SKATE, but it’s been awhile for that trick anyway so whatevs. I hucked a few Rick flips for good measure too. At the end I tried to do a little line of kickflip over a crack then nollie tre. I was going pretty fast for me and never got the nollie tre. Doh. I had fun though. I was so tired I didn’t even ollie the 4 stair on the way out. Had a blast.

A deep crew to Ft Collins on a windy and kinda cold sunday. We met at SOL. In my car were the kids; Jack, Max and Ollie. Bernie, Carleigh, Derek and Aaron were in another car and Neil was solo so he could bail out early. We hit up MRKT to sell some Null and because it’s a mandatory stop when you’re up there anyway. Next stop was the other mandatory stop – Northside. Ollie was with us so I stuck with him. He was pretty chill, but we had fun dorking around in the corner behind the handball court. He had some decent ollies to fakie on the bank and some body varials. I really didn’t do much of anything other then no comply pole jam. Max was shredding all over the place. Jack did pole jam late shove and pole jam body varial. Neil was sitting down. Carleigh did front 180 nosegrind to fakie on the ledge. Bernie and Derek were doing crazy manuals on the mj ledge. Fort Collins heads were murdering the park as they normally do.

The first spot was a 12 stair rail that Max ollied. He came close to kickflip too. It was nuts. I filmed his line like crap though. Such a bad feeling. Next we went to the kicker spot on campus so Jack could do the birth control, but it was too windy for that. I didn’t really skate there and Bernie started almost doing manual b/s flip so I filmed. I saw Ollie do a few fakie shoves on flat which I’ve never seen before. So stoked to see him skate everytime. Derek and Max ended up getting a couple awesome manual tricks. FYI I still hate these new shoes.

Saturday! And it’s nice out! Bernie, Sam and Sam’s son Evan showed up. Derek and his friend Nate met us. Carleigh met up with us. First spot was the long bench featured in Max’s retard clip. It’s been a few days since the session so it’s hard to remember it all. Carleigh was hungover and didn’t skate there. Derek almost did a back nosegrind across the entire thing. Bernie messed around then filmed Derek. Evan is a funny kid. Sam was kind of on dad patrol. Nate skated everything pretty good. The front 5-0 180 on the composite bench was sick. Bernie had done an effortless kickflip manual on a little manny pad nearby. So steezey. I was struggling to say the least. Couldn’t manual to save my life. Came close to boardsliding the whole ledge, but didn’t quite get it. Skated the two stair for a bit and did kickflip and front shove off. Yippee.

We moved on to the 3 flat 2. I posed a couple ollies, but didn’t get close. Nate ollied and front 180’d it. Derek landed on a few 360 shove its, but never rode away. Doh.

Next we went to the manny pad in the Louisville tech center where I struggled once again. I tried to do a line of manual then ollie a bench. Never got the ollie and credit carded myself with razor tail. Wonderful. Later on we had put a trashcan lid out instead of the bench. I got a line of manual, ollie the lid then out of nowhere pulled an ok frontside flip which apparently hyped up Bernie. Ha. I also ollied up the tall side and kickflipped off the curb. Nate kickflip and b/s flipped over the bench. Derek was struggling and sore and bailed after a few bad switch nose manny slams. Carleigh started skating and was hurting, but had a few manual attempts that could have gone the distance. Sam did his patented nose manny. Bernie took awhile to get going, but had some good stuff at the end. Kickflip manual the tall way. Kickflip up, kickflip off, kickflip over the trash can lid.

We left after this. Fuzz and Connor had wanted to skate so they were gonna head into Boulder after closing hours and skate. Fuzz had just setup new wheels and a board so I had to too. But I one upped him with the addition of some new shoes:

Some Vox Duece. They feel pretty cheap, but Vox is one of the few skater owned shoe companies left so I’m hyped to support them. Anyways, Fuzz and Carleigh grabbed some food while Connor and I skated the hill ledges. Well, Connor skated them, I flailed around like a 12 year old just learning to skate. Connor had some some sick moves like front lip to tail on the first ledge then front 5-0 on the curved one at the bottom. We moved into the slappy area as Fuzz and Carleigh joined us. We didn’t stay there too long and Carreigh left.

We went to the student center area. I was so tired. Fuzz manualled the 5 stair ledge first try and ollied onto another ledge pretty easily. And manualled around the two stair area. Connor firecrackered the two stair not knowing there was a three stair right after it. Pretty funny. Then we played a game of SKATE which might be the only time I felt decent about skating. I was not hyped on the new shoes. But the game was fun. Seeing as how Fuzz and I are seasoned vets of skating for over 20 years obviously we took out Connor pretty quick. He didn’t even land heelflip and the textbook varial heel was just luck. It was a super fun game though. I landed way more than I thought I would. Heeflip, fakie heelflip, treflip, fakie bigflip, f/s halfcab flip, most of my tricks. Fuzz got me in the end with a cab. How boring is that? A vert trick on flat. The board doesn’t even flip.

Next up we skated the ledge coming out of the parking garage for a bit. Fuzz and Conner back 50’d it all good. Connor may have even back 5-0d it. I just noseslid it. I think after that we pretty much just peeped the 14 knowing it would show up in the Real video (Chima switch front board). Fun night. I was beat and with the exception of the game of SKATE I skated like total crap. Not hyped on the new shoes.

Super nice friday evening. The kids were already over at friends houses for sleepovers. Well one thing led to another and lets just say Liz delayed my arrival at the skatepark. And when I did arrive I lacked much of any drive to do anything other then stand around and catch up with Brian since it’s been awhile since we’ve hung out. My first few minutes were spent slipping out on everything as it was so slippery and I haven’t skated parks much at all lately (a good thing!). Then Brian and I took a couple runs in the pro bowl. Terrifying. Brian got tiles and coping. I didn’t, but still had fun. Then we played on the rocks for a bit, kind of watched a fight, witnessed a really weird board giveaway scene and then I left. Skateparks are silly.