Woke up early after a fabulous night with The Mighty LZA.  Was back from the grocery store by 9:30 am.  Yeah, crazy early.  Then started to feel pretty blah and some basketball and a nap didn’t help.  Ollie and Sam wanted to go skating though so obviously I was gonna go skate.  They wanted to go to Stonehenge.  My legs were feeling so horrible.  I have no idea why.  Ollie did a few of the basics right away on the bank to curb.  Rock fakie, rock ‘n roll and was going for back axle stall.  He did some willy stalls and a couple with the back truck almost in axle.  So sick.  He almost beat me to it.  I was skating so bad it took literally 8 tries to do a front pivot.  Ugh.  We skated the manny pad for a bit where I suprisingly manualled it second try.  Ollie and Sam did some ollies off the tall part.  I hadn’t seen Sam ollie off that big of a drop before.  Back to the bank to curb as Jason showed up for a bit.  We rattled off a few more basics.  I posed some front smith kickflips out.  Jason did some front lips.  Then we kinda skated it different while the boys played around on some jersey barriers.  I tried to do a flip trick then ollie the corner of the fence into the bank.  Didn’t come easy.  I had some kickflips, pop shoves and halfcab flips.  Even a bad heelflip, ollie into fence into the bank, kickflip flyout.  Jason had some good ollies into the bank.  We both did back tail stalls on the fence and Jason ended it with a back lip.Next we went to another nearby bank spot.  Max kills this spot in multiple Meta videos.  I didn’t do much more than some grinds as shown above and some frontside ollies.  Ollie took the above photo then I took a few of him and Sam.  Ollie skated this spot really good though.  Ollie to fakie, backside ollie, side rock (just learned that one day ago), etc.  Sam had some mean kickturns.Ollie side rock.Sam kickturnThe smile man, the smile.  Ollie’s always smiling and it rules.  Drop in.I hope Ollie doesn’t get stuck with my ollies.  This photo isn’t really taken early, it’s just his ollies are kinda like mine.Ollie show off hat tip to fakie.  Sam indy 900.Next up we went to another nearby spot with a little banked curb and other random funness.  I kept with my theme of the day and struggled.  Only decent things were kickflip up a curb, quick up ollie a tiny gap and that’s about it.  Ollie almost beat me to boardslide transfer and my halfcab transfer took forever.  Ollie ripped this spot.  Back 180s out of curb cuts, slappy back 50s, boardslide transfer (and yes he actually slid it) and he’s still got that buttery mongo push.  Sam surprised me with slappy back 50 and transferred the curb without sliding.  We took a few photos at this spot too.Sam slappy back 50Ollie back 50Not sure why we laughed so hard at this photo, but we did.  Boardslideout.Ollie boardslide transfer.  Rock Creek!Dorko the Dad halfcab boardslide transfer.  20 more years of skating then Ollie and the only difference between our tricks is I went in fakie.  Ugh.  Photo by my son who will soon be better at skateboarding than me.

My 300 day reward – new shoes.  Es Square Twos.The Lafayette skatepark opened today and there was a big grand opening party.  I am not a fan of crowded skateparks, or even a fan of crowds really.  Luckily there are some who agree with me.  Jack called, Jason called and Mikey and Jeff wanted to meet up in Denver.  I brought Ollie along and we met up at the Commerce City skatepark around 1 or so.  It was cold.  Colder than it felt like it should be.  And the park has some weird new glaze of slickness on it.  Jason slammed right away and retired to the car for the rest of the day.  Jack and I started out with a game of SKATE on the banked curb surrounding a tree.  I doubt they ever intended anyone to skate it, but we do everytime we’re there.  It’s pretty dumb.  Jack of course won with a bunch of good tricks like blunt shove to nosepick, pivot fakie, etc.  I landed some tricks though that made me happy like front blunt (no pivot!), kickflip onto the curb, boardslide.  It was fun.  Ollie seemed to be having a good time and digging the park.  He did some drop down to manual down one stair to ride down another then ollie off the third.  Some little ollies over the pump bump too.  And always a smile.  Love it.  Mikey was ripping.  I saw switch heel the long three stair, back 5-0 the long three ledge and a smile.  Jeff, always ripping.  Nollie back 180 into the bank, powerslide on the icecrete, halfcab crooks.  Jack had did a nosebonk to manual front 180 off the drop.  Ollies from the top of the park into the little bank no problem.  Funny back 50 to 90 onto a curb to ollie out.  Toward the end people were trying lines ollieing over the two benches.  Jeff almost got a switch b/s flip up one, mikey almost sw heeled one.  I ollied in the small spots.  I guess the quest to learn how to ollie is officially on.  It’s really embarrassing.The sun came out and we rolled to a loading dock kicker that Mikey wanted to bust before they put a rail on it (will probably happen this week).  Ollie and I dorked around for a bit, I did a gap to boardslide down a parking block.  Jeff chilled and proved that he has no kid filter around Ollie.  Jason read.  Mikey ollied the kicker to get warmed up then felt out a few tricks.  Jack starting trying bigger spins and was getting super close.  Unfortunately disaster struck and he rolled his ankle bad.  Doh.  Mikey went for treflips for awhile, but the wind, cold and Jeff wanting to leave didn’t help.We left for Crisis to sell some Null and see Fuzz, but on the way we hit up the nearby handicap double bank spot.  Just me and Ollie skated.  It was real cold.  I guess the new shoes had been doing pretty good as I hadn’t really noticed before this spot that I had new shoes on.  I dorked around for awhile.  Felt out the trick I want to film there sometime (side rock kickflip out to manual down) but wasn’t feeling that.  Then settled for a run of kickflip, no comply 180, fakie ollie on one bank, f/s ollie on another bank.  That came remotely easy.  Well, if you count what I did as ollies.  Since that came pretty quick and I wasn’t really feeling like anything else I went for the same line some more, but tried fakie flip on the bank instead.  I eventually got it.  I’m sure I did it all pretty horribly, but it was fun.  Ollie wasn’t complaining about the cold at all.  He rules to skate with.  Smiles the entire time, never complains, never takes it series, and always learns something.  He saw me do a side rock on the bank and I think he did one within two tries.  So rad.  I wish Jack and Jason could have skated there too, oh well.  We went to Crisis and hung out for awhile, ate some pizza, watched the new Toy Machine video and everyone made sure to drop several F Bombs.  It sure is weird being a father sometimes.

What a weird day.  I worked from home as we needed to take the Hyundai in to get the power steering fixed.  So at any point I could have technically ran out of the house and done a few kickflips to start the 300 session.  But I waited.  Right before dark I was finally off work.  I watched the OG PJ Ladd video then skated in the street for a bit waiting for Ollie to join me and Jason to show up.  Liz was stoked for me and cheered for a few minutes as day 300 was under way and official.  It felt pretty cool honestly.  I had some new 52mm superthanes as the old wheels were flat spotted and they felt good.  I did quite a few kickflips, 180s and felt like fun was going to be had.  Ollie finally came out and we went behind the school where I ran into rocks and fell down for 5 minutes straight.  It bummed me out.  It felt so anticlimatic and it reminded me that although I’ve skated 300 days this year, I really haven’t gotten any better at skateboarding.  In fact it seemed like half the time I was too sore and tired to skate up to my norm.  Oh well, I don’t have to skate every single day any more!  Ollie did some cool slashes in the mini ditch, some ollies, etc.  His board is shot though because him and his friends think it’s cool to throw boards around.  Stupid skate video influence!  Jason showed up after awhile and Ollie would not let us leave until it was totally dark.Jason drove and we headed over to Carleigh’s to meet Carleigh (duh), Chad and Neil.  For whatever reason on the way there I was feeling really down.  That changed quickly when we got to Carleigh’s though:So rad.  Thanks so much Carleigh and Chad.  They had even put my Off The Couch part on, but queued it to Eye Of The Tiger.  Pretty funny.  Then Jason put it on A-B loop and everytime it started he would say “Hey look, it’s Glen’s part!”  Cracked me up.  You guys all rule.  Read more at Carleigh’s blog.And then we were off.  Carleigh was on her bike initially as her foot was still hurting and she didn’t want to start things off by pushing for 8 blocks.  Poser.  Ha.  We started performing stunts around the bus station on the little manny pad.  After I heard Neil yell real loud I figured we’d get booted quick so I headed over to a different manny pad with the two stair ledge nearby.  Everyone else stayed there for a bit so I don’t know what went down.  It’s insanely crazy how much faster the superthane is.  It kept throwing me off.  I got kinda used to it by the end of the night, but wow.  I had a couple manuals, nose manuals and squeeked out a little boardslide on the ledge above the two.  Neil was trying wallies.  Jason was manualling and having an off day.  Chad was killing it with huge flat gap ollies, fast as hell manuals and kickflipping at high speeds.  So sick. Carleigh shot a few photos, but wasn’t really able to skate since she felt weird about her foot.  Bummer, I really wish she could have skated full tilt with us.Jason without the BroomMe nose mannyNeil 180 nose manny.Shortly we ended up at the brick area and started a game of SKATE between Neil, Chad and I.  It was cut short by the police so we moved on towards St Julien since Jason was already there with his broom.  Yes, did I mention he carried a broom all the way with us?  So funny, it hasn’t snowed yes so there really wasn’t much need.  But I guess we were prepared at least.  On the way we hit the ledge banks things.  Chad ruled it with quick up ollie to fakie.  Neil and I were just hyped to drop in.Chadman quick up ollie to fakie with some dumbass BGPsPretty dumb.We saw the police lurking so we headed once again toward St Julien only to get distracted by some wood benches we’ve never really skated before.  At this point Carleigh tried to skate, but instead decided to jump over the bench into the bush.  Her foot was not good.  Ugh.  Neil ollied on to one which was way sick.  Chad manualled it.  I did nothing but boardslide it.On to St Julien.  Jason kinda disappeared as soon as we got there.  I wasn’t sure why, maybe the lurking police?  Anyways Neil skated for a bit, did a sick crooks shove, some manual on the narrow sidewalk against the rock and some wallrides.  Then he was done for the night.  I was struggling with crooks because it was too dark.  Plus I’m used to doing them down big rails, not tiny ledges.  I pieced together a line of suck with a manual on the narrow sidewalk, sketchy 3 flip then a silly boardslide on the ledge to avoid it from being a Zero line.  Chad went on a nose bonking spree on the black posts.  He tried a bunch while Carleigh tried to shoot photos, but the timing never worked out.  Still so sick though.  Next we hit the ledge Jason and I have been looking at for awhile.  Jason and I both took way too long to get back 50s.  We did front 50s too.  I did one with a kickflip beforehand.  I tired to do the kickflip fast enough to still have speed for a front 50.  That’s my goal next year.  Learn how to skate faster.  That and learn how to ollie, but I’ve been trying that for awhile and I’m pretty sure I never will have pop.Chad ollied this a bunch of times and even nose bonked it a few times.  The nollie heel at speed for setup was dope sauce.Next years goal, learn how to ollie now that I’m almost 40.Ultra tech back 50The highlight of the evening was next though.  I saw Chad ollie a little flat gap then bomb into the St Julien parking garage.  I tried it too.  The first time though a car was coming up as I started to pick up speed so I bailed out.  Next time I went for it.  It was way faster then I remembered from a year ago and I almost pulled the bail trigger but I stuck it out and made it around the gates.  So f’ing fun.  As I was coming up Chad was bombing it switch.  Ridiculous.Next up the taller slide ledge along 9th/Pearl.  I was kinda sucking and everyone else but Chad was done, but Chad hiked up 9th to bomb the hill.  I got a crappy run of switch front 180 up the curb, front board the ledge (executed horribly) then a kickflip off the curb.  Also got kickflip up the curb and took a long time to get a silly boardslide popout.  On the way to Petes we went by the white ledge building and found a new little ledge out front.  I tried a couple kickflip back tails.  Got one to suski on accident, then did one to back T.  Chad did a mach 10 hardflip on flat for fun.  Jason was still having an off night, but got a good back noseslide on the white ledge.  I got a crooks.  Chad manualled the downhill ledge.  Chad and I dropped in on the A structure and powerslid into the wall.  Well, I slid into the wall, Chad gracefully slid before it.  I guess the 80 pounds I have on him came through for me.  An ollie up the two, front 180 off later and we were at Petes to celebrate.  Best burritos in town and we had a few drinks to celebrate.  Then it was off to Carleigh’s to watch Sasquatch once again.  Thank you guys for ruling it.Cory Kennedy did what?Wow that’s crazyPlease go to Carleigh’s blog for more photos, words and hit and runs.  Thanks again!

You would think that on day 299 I would be more hyped.  The fact is I felt super burnt out, sore, and not motivated to skate.  I was however, very happy to finally get to skate with John after weeks of conflicting schedules.  We met at Meta then rolled down into campus.  First stop was the angled curb parking lot.  Not as fun the 4th time.  We both tried the narrow ledge drop to ollie back up and failed.  The death factor was a little high for me that early on in the session.  Some more rolling around, a John kickflip slam and we ended up at the two stair in front of the crowded UMC.  There was a lot of stressed out students finishing up finals.  I don’t miss that part of college at all.  We tried to manual the two stair for awhile and both came close (John was way closer) before a group of students came out and smoked cigarettes on the stairs.  Smoking sucks.  We were supposed to ollie the four stair on the way out like it was nothing, but I failed.  Three times.  I was really feeling the motivation issues.  Ugh.  I finally got it and we hit the well lit area nearby for a game of SKATE.  The last time we played SKATE it lasted for about three hours.  This time, not so bad.  John got me with front shove (ugh), fakie flip (ugh ugh), treflip (ugh), nollie flip (ok with that one) and switch flip (considering I’ve only landed it once i don’t mind losing on that one).  Next up was the banked manny pad.  Or in our case, a bank.  John looked at it and all it’s cracks in disapproval, but after I layed down a couple Gillinghammers first try he accepted the spot for what it was.  I did front rock, front tail and a front tail backside revert.  Maybe even a manual to rock ‘n roll manual out with a few tilts.  John did front tail, almost a rad sal flip and then we both ollied and took off to the round stairs.  John ollied it huge first try and I layed into a long powerslide which turned my cheap wheels into rectangles.  Ugh.  John did some good back 180s off the 3, I did some bad ones off the two and that was it.  Day 299 done.  So hyped on not having to skate every day anymore.  Gonna take a day off before the big 300 so I’m more motivated and enjoy it more.

Jake and I spread some Null at Crisis before meeting Fuzz at the Broomfield park.  It was surprisingly more crowded than it’s been.  It wasn’t super warm or anything.  Jake slammed hard right away trying a rock fakie on the little vert qpipe in the back of the park and had to walk off a hipper.  I had settled for trying a line of boardslide the tiny rail, back 50 the black ledge, then front nosegrind the blue ledge.  Fuzz tried to and beat me to the punch by about an hour.  He’s gonna argue that he bonked on the nosegrind, but he made up for it by adding a front d on the brick qp after the 50.  Actually wait, I never did get the line.  I came close, but I had to avoid the nosegrind a lot due to the crowds.  It kinda bummed me out.  I really don’t like skating crowded spots at all, but I was hyped to back 50 the black ledge so many times as I think I had only done it once before.  Jake and Fuzz looked like they were having a good time.  I saw Jake ollie a min jersey barrier that someone brought.  Fuzz bluntslide the tall rusty ledge.  I really don’t remember what else I did until the very end when Jake and I played a game of SKATE that got cut short by the lights shutting off.  He was up SKA to SK.  Two more days til 300.

Had a super fun day with the family taking some funny photos for our Christmas cards.  Around 7 I headed to downtown Boulder with one line that’s been in my head forever.  Just a dumb line that should be easy of ollie’ing a little rock, front 180 up onto a ledge, switch front 180 off in and alley off Broadway.  I parked a couple blocks away and dorked around for a bit in some other alleys ollieing up some curbs.  Then I went to the main attraction and was reminded at how weird the rock ollie was.  It didn’t take long though and I got the line in a couple tries.  It was fun though.  I’m not sure why I had thought about it so much.  I tried it a few times and tried another line coming back with a somewhat high speed manual, a couple good pushes, ollie up a curb then ollie onto the ledge.  I wanted to kickflip off, but right when I was feeling the line a car parked right in the way.  Lazy jerk parking in an alley.  I move on to the fun brick area that Josh Steele kills in Lumber Jockeys.  I played around for a bit before settling with a line I was kinda hyped on.  Manual around the corner at the top of the hill, kickflip up the curb, a few downhill pushes followed by a powerslide, the worst one foot attempt that skateboarding has ever seen then ollied on the little narrow curved ledge.  Pretty fun.  I slammed pretty hard on one of the manual attempts where I came out and landed in a crack.  Other then that it was a pretty awesome night and now I’m three days away from 300 days of skating.

Had a pretty constructive morning doing some cleaning and updating the Null site.  Neil and Brian showed up around 11 then we went to Meta to meet Max.  Him and Davis piled in and we went to the Google area for a gap to manual Max had dreamt about.  The flat gap is about 5 feet and then it’s about 20 feet to a drop off a curb.  Sam and Bernie met up with us.  None of the old people with the exception of Neil ollied it.  It was just too early.  We messed around nearby too.  The little weird ditch thing entertained for awhile.  Davis had a cool ollie in, back 180 out.  I dropped in and kinda wallie front 180’d out.  Back to the main attraction Sam slammed really hard trying to ollie it.  I filmed with my new tripod while Max went for front 180 to fakie nose manual.  He got it.  Hotness.  Bernie backed him up in a few tries with a kickflip manual.  I filmed Neil get a line then we headed out with no spot in mind.So I drove to the ballparks as I wanted to boardslide around the bikerack on the ledge I waxed up the other day.  It was awesome.  We waxed it some more and Brian, Jason, Neil, Lazer and I broke in the boardslides.  We would get a little further each try.  Jason was taking some huge slams though.  Some of the worst falls I’ve seen him take.  I guess he earned it though and was the first to get the boardslide.  I was second with the same style pop out at the kink.  Brian and Lazer were next with boardslides across and down.  So sick.  They tried it holding hands while most skated the main ledge in the back.  Apparently they slammed super hard.  Bernie was kinda chilling doing nothing.  Sam was doing some noseslides.  Davis was keeping it kinda mellow.  Max was trying some funny front board bigspin to manual things.  Neil was just chilling.  Jason and I ended up skating that ledge really good for us.  For me, maybe the best I’ve ever skated that ledge.  I did a bunch of back crooks.  Front 50s were coming really easy.  I was trying a few runs.  Back halfcab flip, crooks, attempted to go around the corner and get the boardslide.  Couldn’t get the angle with speed on that one though.  I also did front 50, chinese nollie, first try treflip.  My favorite line was a fast (for me) pop shove, back noseslide then treflip.  Other tricks I got on the ledge were front 5-0, the best back 50 I’ve ever done there, front 50 back 180 out and front 50 to front board.  I had never done the last two tricks there before.  It was seriously a blast.  At one point I even landed on front 50 bigspin out.  Flatground tricks were on point too.  Heelflip first t, lots of treflips, a couple slow double flips, the best f/s halfcab flip I’ve ever done.  Jason was killing it to with his textbook front noseslides, trying to crooks the shorter ledge and front boards.  Fun day.  I guess it’s proof that it’s good to take a day off skating once in awhile.

Got off work early and The Mighty LZA had said she’d prefer if I skate right after work instead of after dinner.  Happy to oblige I was going to meet John at the 28th & Iris ledges, but he had to bail so I went to the ballparks knowing there is a decent chance Jason would meet up there.  He ended up having to work though.  There is a bunch of construction going on at the mall behind the ballparks so they had the sidewalk behind the ledges closed.  Ugh.  I really like doing flatground lines to the ledges.  I went with the Broomfield “10 ledge tricks to get warmed up” theme.  Only problem is this ledge is twice as tall, chunky and the runway has lots of cracks.  I basically sucked.  Bad.  Crooks came easy again surprisingly though.  Well, crooks for a few inches that is.  Not the real deal where you lock in and grind.  I ended up getting ten tricks.  They were all basics.  Front noseslide to fakie (little if no slide), back noseslide, back noseslide to fakie, back crooks, back boardslide, front 50, front 50 front 180 out, back 50, halfcab back noseslide and lastly the one that took the longest, front 50 front shove out.  I was having problems with some weird truck shifting that felt like what Indy trucks do everytime you squat down.  I did force myself to try front 50s faster.  Sometimes I would, most the time I’d bail out and sometimes I’d just ride past the ledge laughing at how much I suck.  When it got dark I waxed up the ledge out front real good thinking it’s possible to boardslide around the bike rack.  Oh yeah, and I ollied the low part of the bike rack which took way too long.  Stupid cracks.  Five more days til 300.  I hope I make it because I’d really like to start resting my body a bit more and having more drive when I skate.

Tired and feeling sick I had to run some errands which brought me to Mikes Camera.  After bumming them out by staying at least 3 minutes past their closing time of 7pm I went across the street to a parking block that kinda sucked.  It had a sign in the way, wasn’t lit too well, wasn’t slick and otherwise perfect.  I started trying front boardslid to front 270 transfer out.  It sounds cool sure, but really I was sliding for about an inch, leaning on the nose and pivoting about 90 out before tic tacking my way to 270.  I got one pretty quick, but it was horrible.  I then proceeded to slam a lot.  This is because I was wearing my black khakis.  For whatever reason I have nick named them my painful pants and never remember to not skate in them.  I ended up getting a better one then called it a night.

Candles had been burned for a memorial for Dylan Janvrin a couple days ago and there was wax all over the park. It was my first time skating there since hearing about the tragedy and there was a bit of an eery feeling in the air even though I didn’t know him. It was really cold out and slippery.  Maybe even more slippery than Denver park in spots.  I didn’t feel like being cold and layering so I just wore a winter jacket.  That ended up working out pretty nice.Anyways, Jake and I met up with Nate, Fuzz and several of the Crisis locs. Fuzz and Jake started out at the tight vert qp in the back of the park. I didn’t want in on that to start so went into the main street area and Nate rolled up right away. We started with the ol’ “10 tricks on the blue ledge” to get warmed up. Second try I went for a front board and slammed so hard due to the wax everywhere. Ouch. Nate was ripping. His warm up tricks are my enders. Nosegrinds first try. Nosegrind shoves, back 5-0 front shove, front 5-0 back 180 out, back lip, etc. Ok you got me, those aren’t even my enders, they are fantasies. Ha. I got quite a pretty quick like front 50 back 180 out, halfcab board, hc noseslide, hc crooks, slappy front tail, front 50 to front lip and a few more that I had to look to Nate to see if they counted.  I also got a fakie pivot to fakie on the quarta potty.Jake and Fuzz joined us as well as the Crisis kids.  Some neat tricks went down.  Fuzz got all Brian on me and said “If I land this will you blog about it?” then went on perform the funniest slam of the night.  Fakie front 50 front cab out attempt to chest dive scorpion slide.  Sick Fuzz!  He did go on to rip though.  Front blunts on the quarta potty, powerslides across the blue box, back 5-0 to back tail and I’m sure a lot more.  Jake was going for the elusive back blunt on the quarta potty.  I kinda cruised around the park since the blue ledge was so crowded.  I don’t think I’ve complained about the non-superthane wheels I have enough.  They suck!  Well, they do have good pop and feel like a classic spitfire or something, but they are slow, flat spotted and it’s a bummer how much I can tell the difference between 52mm and 53mm.  I could lay into one slide I’m sure and finish those wheels off already.Back to skating.  I tried a line of kickflip, front 50 the pier 7 like ledge, manual the black ledge.  None of it came easy and I never linked all three.  Jake and I ollied the six.  I kept getting wheelbite due to that extra 1 mm of wheel (Yes I’m joking) and posed the double set a few time.  Fuzz tried to hype me up saying he’d throw down a free Crisis hoodie if I landed it.  Wow!  I still bailed though.  Ugh.  Oh yeah, I had a new board finally.  It had mad snap so I had absolutely no excuse other than it was really cold out, my wheels are flat spotted pretty bad and I am still Glen.  Nate and Jake posed it a couple times too, but none of us put it down.  Nate and Fuzz split out as did most everyone.Jake and I finished with a quarta potty session where the back blunt continued to elude him, but he got several pivots to fakie.  I did a front disaster to fakie and Jake told me to try sugarcane.  I never got a legit sugarcane, but I did do front disaster then turn it over to back smith.  So stoked!  Then I did it fakie.  Fakie rock to back smith and eventually pulled it to fakie as well.  Fun night of skating.  We followed it by going to a little art show in Boulder then the Downer for a couple beers.  Totally a fun night even if I feel like crap now.  Not from the beers, but from so much time in the cold.  Is it spring yet?