Saturday was the big Poker Run day. It was epic. 150 skating through the streets of SF from spot to spot to get poker hands. Gordon ruled it. Such an epic day. Check Carleigh’s blog for way more photos as well as Cruz, Lowcard and while your at it try googling it. It was a lot of pushing around the city. The last stretch to Thee Parkside was a long one filled with some funny memories. Brian trying to go about 5 miles without taking his foot off, tic tacs only. He was sweating like crazy and the rough concrete wasn’t helping. This other dude went right through a red light without looking or slowing down. He almost got hit. Gnarly.After a couple glasses of water and some resting Nate, Joey and I played some SKATE. We thought it was gonna be super bad after all that pushing, but it ended up being insane. Nate got a first try nollie tre. Joey got his back and then surprisingly somehow I landed mine too. Back to back to back nollie tres? Awesome! Joey went on to win that game, it was a good one. We played another no repeat game. Joey probably won that one too. Lots of tricks went down. Last Joey and I played a no comply game of SKATE and I think that one got cut off early as we moved on to the Ice House gap where I could make $30 (soon to be $40) if I ollied it. Unfortunately there was a truck two spaces away from the landing. I wanted to, but the way I shoot my board out prevented me from mentally getting into it. Carleigh ollied it though. So sick. Joey went buck on it. Ollie, tuck knee and back 360 bolts. Joey rips!After the hammers Fuzz, Nate, Joey and I had a totally epic little dork session. We skated the side of the kicker near the building where you can do cali grinds and stuff. Fuzz did a full cab to rock. Nate had some crazy grind to nose manual variations. I got a soft rock horrible kickflip out. Joey did cali grind to manual kickflip out. We also started messing around with the laybackish mute grab off the side of the loading dock. I almost broke a tail off and kind of did the trick. Nate though, he made things epic because he could not do it to safe his life. He just kept doing early grab mutes and slightly dragging his fingers before rolling off. It was hilarious.Then we hit the black ledge spot for awhile. Joey killed it with the above manual manual manual gap out, 5-0 through the opening in the ledge, back 180 nosegrinds, etc. I started trying this line with an front 50 on a ledge ollie up to front tail on a slightly taller ledge, noseslide through a corner then crook jib on a black ledge. Never quite got all three, but I was hyped to do the 50 to tail a couple times. Fuzz was trying the same line and he did it super good. Nate took forever to get the 50 to tail. It was funny because he kills ledges, but for some reason couldn’t get it. He eventually did though and then closed out the day with a nose manny on the long black manny pad where Busenitz did sw bs flip nose manny (retarded). Another fun day in SF. Go to Carleigh’s blog for more.

Believe it or not I was the last one to wake up and it threw me off big time.  I got ready as quick as I could and we all rolled to Eagle Donuts.  On the way back we hit up the first spot we found which was probably the hardest spot we could start with.Click on the photos to go to the complete coverage on Carleigh’s blog. Anyways we all struggled at this spot, but were hyped. Fuzz slammed hard a lot and we all felt bad. I think he was just so excited he couldn’t warm up. Nate, Fuzz and Joey got 50s on it. Joey is goofy (footed) and crooked it too. So sick. Neil and I tried to get on it, but it was pretty weird and we did nothing more then get into the grind and jump off immediately. Rob pulled out his patented slappy on the curb. Jason was ripping it too. I got into a few kick back tails on the curb, but never landed one. Neil had some rad nose manuals. Carleigh warmed up her sore back with some 180s up the curb. Nate ended the session with a back 50 from the 3 stair side. Sick!Next up we hit this granite ledge that Nate, Jason and I skated in the last few minutes of the last SF trip. It’s still amazing. We where there for a long time. Joey had some crazy moves. Back 180 nose grind to forward. Noseslide the flat bar to back 5-0 on the ledge (seriously). Nollie shove front 5-0. Probably a million more tricks. Nate did some amazing back 5-0s. Fuzz and I worked on crooks pop outs and got a couple. I got a tiny front crooks to fakie. Carleigh worked on varial heels on flat and front 50 shove out. Neil put down some 50s. Rob did the ol’ front nose 270 out. At the end I wanted to do a line of kick back 50 then crooks, but never got the kick 50. On to the next spot ..This spot is awesome. We hit it for awhile. Joey did a bunch of tricks. Pole jam fakie, body varial, alley oop wallride, one foot off, everything basically. Nate did f/s ollies. Carleigh had some good wallrides to fakie. Rob too. I did some low switch wallrides. Then we headed back to Gordon’s to get going to Lowcard.Joey killed this thing too. Blunt up to rock fakie on the extension, rock kickflip out on the extension, a million tricks. The crew was huge at this point. Gordon ripped it and has huge b/s airs. Rob from Lowcard skated for awhile too which was rad. Fuzz skated pretty good and almost got front noseblunt on the extension, but took some gnarly slams. Brian is one of the funnest people to watch skate a ramp. Lazer kills tranny. I sucked more then I should have. Only two tricks I was hyped on were front feeble on the pool coping (50 tries deep) and the little fakie smith fakie. After awhile I felt too tired to skate the ramp and just started doing flatground kickflips. After 25 in a row I stopped. Then we skated back which took a long long time and we stopped and skated a couple things like a long 4 stair. Such a great first day of skating. That night was fun too. Go to Carleigh’s blog and see it all.

After what was easily the craziest experience getting to the airport ever we found our flight was delayed by 3 hours.  Ha.  We killed some time by eating then we skated a corner of the airport for awhile.  It was hilarious.  Everyone slammed hard.  The carpet made tricks hard and b/s 180s seemed to be the hardest.  We lasted about 45minutes before someone told us to stop.After the flight and some free chocolate chip cookies we were in SF!  We rolled to Gordon’s house and met up with the largest crew to date.  20 people I think?  It was sick.  Rob surprised everyone by being there.  After some mingling Joey, Nate, Eric and I did a little skating.  We started our at across the street where there was a nice little red two stair and some chains to ollie.  Nate did a bunch of tricks.  I did a couple, but was feeling the flight for sure.  Joey did some techness, but I forget what.  A cop showed up nearby so we went over to the 3 up 3 down and played some games of SKATE.  I won the first one which was really bad, then Eric won the second.  We did some tricks on the lowest stair and ollied up/off a few times.  Good little start to the trip.

Skating a couple days before a skate trip is the worst.  I wanted to skate, but the fear of getting hurt is kinda hard to ignore.  So I went to campus around 9pm and it was way colder than it should have been.  I wasn’t too motivated and it showed.  I cruised around to a few spots and didn’t really try anything.  Eventually I ended up near the tunnel going to the hill.  I wanted to do a run where I ollie onto the ledge on the 3 stair, kickflip, powerslide, noseslide the ledge that Jam front noseslid in an old Meta video.  But I couldn’t get the speed for the first ollie so I just resorted to ollie’ing the 3 stair.  But even then I didn’t do the noseslide as it was too sticky and I was going to fast.  I also tried starting the line with the drop from tall ledge to short ledge which is still terrifying to me even though I’ve done it a bunch.  That was a dumb line too.  It was cool trying to tailslide the rail at the start of the ledge though.  I eventually moved down to the next building and started trying a line of no comply 180, fakie ollie up a curb, fakie flip, sw front 180 off.  But the fakie flip was troublesome as it was a downhill sidewalk and the cracks kept getting me.  Then a cop drove nearby so I left and ended up at the ledges on the hill.  I started off sucking, but ended up having fun.  Got some front 50s and some b/s noseslides before the light shut off and I slowly headed back to the car not really skating much of anything on the way back.

Kinda tired from the night before Bernie and Carleigh arrived and we left for Denver and picked up Derek on the way. After that we met Mikey and Jeff at the dreaded ice rink of a park called Denver park. It was a bit chilly outside, but not too cold for skating. I started pushing around and pumping. It was actually kinda fun even. I didn’t do anything good, but I had fun warming up and my legs didn’t feel like steel when I was done.Next up we went to a crazy ledge against a wall that Jeff wanted to do a manual trick on.  I ollied on and rode off which was scary enough for me.  Jeff and Bernie put dowm some mean tricks although it turns out Bernie’s is an ABD.  Oh well.  We moved on and were at the curb in/out grated metal manny pad spot.  The nullers did some neat stuff before we got booted.We looked at some other spots and skated around for awhile before ending up at a mellow bank to ledge where I finally skated a bit better.  I did a noseslide then got into some crooks and landed a couple short ones.  I also came from the other way and ollied the little cinder block barrier pretty easily to start off  a run.  This took me awhile to ollie last time I was there and as little as it is, it still hyped me up.  Anyways, I got that with a front nose 270 out once.  I also got it with a front board pop out (horrible) followed by a slow ollie a sidewalk gap to axle stall on a curb.  Neat.  That was the end of the day.  I wish we would have skated more, but whatevs.  Thanks for the photos Carleigh.

Had such a fun morning.  Woke up early, played basketball and football with ollie for a couple hours so my legs were warmed up and feeling good.  The TF van pulled up and Ollie and I piled in.  I was so hyped that Ollie wanted to skate with us.   He skated the whole time basically and even talked a little instead of just being super shy.  Anyways, yeah, on the bus!  My first time in the bus for a saturday skate mission as I’ve been unable to attend for one reason or another.Lazer was there and ready to eat.Ollie scored a Tootsie Pop.  So hyped!I had me some new shoes.  Not so hyped on red, but everything else about them seems good.  Lakai Manchesters.First spot was Boulder Ditch.  Ollie likes that spot.  He did a rock to fakie on a rock followed by a halfcab to fakie.  Pretty ridiculous.  He also did back rock and front rock.  He thought a front rock was a “switch rock”.  Wrong, but stoked that he’s trying to get trick names down.  Brian had troubles, got upset, tossed his board, a log, a 2×4 and more debris into the ditch all while smiling.  Even when he’s freaking out he’s still funny.  Lazer did rock to fakie on the tire.  Neil did boardslide on the rail and nollie back neil on the qp.  I had some mediocre axle stalls then started trying a line of front rock on the qp then kickflip to fakie over the little hip.  Somehow a miracle happened and only a few tries in I landed it.  I was really really hyped on it.  Next spot.We went to the yellow angle iron ledge, but got booted before Neil or I could do a back 50.  In other words at least 10 minutes.Next we went to the bank with the holes in it.  We dorked around for a bit then lines down the bikepath “hill” started happening.  The first one was a sw 180 over a crack, a few ollies, then a b/s grind.  It was actually fun.  Well, until stuff got harder. I tried to get a kickflip at speed, but didn’t get one.   Brian got a no comply 180 and a bunch of slams.  Lazer looked uneasy on his skateboard.  Neil had some speedy one foots.  We ollied some cinder blocks at the end too.  Pretty fun.  Oh and at one point I got a little front 5-0 across the top that was first try, felt easy and was really fun.Next spot was the little curbcut spot.  Most of TF sat in the bus.  The Square State kids rolled around.  Ollie did too.  I wanted to ollie off the tall ledge over a bush years ago, but was too afraid.  I felt like trying it again and did it first try.  It was really easy, but kinda hyped me up as maybe sometimes I actually feel like I’ve gotten better at skating.  I also got a fun line.  Ollie up a curb, ollie up another curb, ollie off a curb (boring I know), kickflip up a curb, wallie back 5-0.  I don’t remember what else went down.Last spot was Casey Middle School after we picked up Jack.  TF played basketball.  Ollie, Jack and I skated in the back while they shot hoops.  After some messing around Jack had gone over to some tall retainer wall ledges and was trying some crazy manual drops, but slamming hard and breaking his trucks.  Ollie was cruising around, but then mostly watched the basketball game.  I worked on a couple lines involving the rocks.  First was an ollie onto the bench then an ollie onto a rock . Yippe, that one came quick.  Second one was harder.  Front 180 off a ledge, halfcab flip, ollie the rock, boardslide the ledge while dodging some guy slinging a ball at the brick wall with some lacrosse looking racket.  That one hyped me up.  Then we went and filmed Jack do a gnarly dropin and TF went to eat BBQ.  Jack, Ollie and I skated the top for awhile.We mostly skated this gap.  Ollie ollie’d it before chilling for the most part while Jack and I skated.  Jack tried a few tricks into the grass downhill and either rode it out or slid down the hill on his stomach.  It was funny. I got a line of ollie the flat gap, ollie up the tall part of the ledge and then boardslide jib the ledge off the ledge.  Jack and I skated the little gap that Ollie ollied after that.  I took a long time to get front shove, but got kickflip right away.  I did a couple boneless tricks over it too and a really bad back 180.  Jack did some crazy ones.  Front 180 late shove.  No comply front big heel.  No comply lazer flip.  Double flip.  I don’t know what else, but we had a blast.  Then we went on to watch some pretty awesome skateboarding.  Super fun day.

Riley was in town.  So hyped.  I met up with him, Bernie and Scotty after work.  I was really tired.  We took a few runs and clearly Riley was ripping it like old days.  I was just kinda getting the feel for it, but it was decided we would play SKATE instead.  In four games I basically landed a kickflip and a couple fakie flips.  It was horrible.  But it was good to see Riley’s nollie heel again.

Long day at work followed by dinner with my parents and family in Longmont.  Got  home around 8:30 and picked up Carleigh for a short session.  She had to be back around 9:30 so I just went to the closest spot – Boulder high.  I ended up having fun.  We skated the back mostly and I mainly just wanted to ollie onto one of the benches, drop off then quickly ollie onto the next.  I got close, but had a few close calls where I would almost slam into the second one.  I basically kept making a line further and further out until I ran out of space.  By the end I was trying ollie a short 3 stair (super hard approach), front board (jib) a light pole pillar, kickflip a crack gap then hit the benches.  One time I nailed my shoulder so hard on the wall.  Ouch.  Carleigh mostly just tried varial heels and got pretty close.  So sick.  We went towards the car and hit the 4 stair then flat gap.  I ollied both first t, then went back and did a better ollie down the 4 and a front 180 on the gap.  Carleigh did both first t too.  Short session, but fun.

Used the old excuse of having to go to a shop in the Springs as an excuse to go there and film all day (and hopefully skate some).  We went to the bank to stairs spot to start, but it was windy and super cold.  After an almost back 50 across the steeper bank Derek was close to back noseblunts so I went to filmer mode.  He got it and Jack got front sugarcane.  Radical.  We did some driving and came upon the spot above and below.  I had a couple ollie attempts, but I was still shaking cold from sitting in the wind and filming.  Max got a super sick feel good line.Dean Barnes had come with us and takes amazing photos.  We had hit a couple other spots where Max slammed and Jack did a dropin then went to the ditch where Jack did the crazy dropin and Max spun a ridiculous switch 360.  Last up was the incredibly fun spot Harrison High.  Luckily it was too dark to film, or maybe not, because everyone ripped, except me.  Well, Jack slammed a lot, Max did nose manny drop to nose manny, Derek took it “easy” on his ankle.  I had fun.  Got a couple tiny b/s ollies over the hip, b/s flip on the bank.  Got hyped on a little frontside ollie on the bank, noseslide the ledge then kickflip the 2 stair first t.  I don’t remember much more from that session other then Jack slamming so hard I thought he broke his wrist and Derek falling on sand while skating to the car.  That was funny.  5 hotdogs for $1!!!!

Family day.  We had some fun having a little picnic and hanging by a creek.  We got home and I had a little over an hour to get some skating in so I bolted over to campus.  I wasn’t super hyped up, but I ended up having a blast.  I started out at the steep bank spot and did a few rock ‘n rolls and axle stalls before moving on.  I ended up at the 5 stair with the sideways gap I broke a board on awhile ago.  I didn’t feel like going straight for the gap and started investigating the top a little better.  I found what looked like a fun manual.  It starts off about curb high and drops off ledge high.  Unfortunately there is a light pole where you get on making it super narrow and there are tables bolted in on the other side.  It took me basically forever to get the manual.  I had a few close ones and a few close calls where I would hang up on the edge of the light pole and almost dive into the tables.  Ugh.  Sometimes if I just rode off it I would try the gap.  I put a couple down but slammed.  I started trying back 180s off the ledge instead, but it was just dumb.  I wanted to manny it!  After like 50 tries I finally manualled it clean then went for the gap and landed it clean.  I was so hyped.  I sat for awhile and debated going home right away, but I knew I should skate more.  I cruised around a bit, did some spot searching, ollied a narrow tall 4 stair first try, posed some front blunts on a waxed curb then pretty much ended it with an ollie up a long two stair and an ollie up the side of the two then front 180 the long two gap.  Fun session.  It started raining as I left.  Hopefully it doesn’t turn to snow.