The snow almost held off long enough to skate outside, but it didn’t. I picked up Jack, Max, Davis and Jacob at Meta and we went to Red Curbs. The snow had blown in and things were pretty wet so it wasn’t as open and awesome as normal. The nice thing about skating with young’ins is they don’t really care. Everyone skated kinda slow and tried to stay on the dry patches. Davis rattled off a bunch of ledge tricks on the taller curb. Jacob did manuals and dorked around as I guess he was really tired. Max tried a bunch of crazy tricks. Jack was hyped to skate again as it’s been awhile and he had the excited skater steez. The line with the fakie hurricane was awesome. I skated decent. Especially considering the last night. Tricks I was hyped on were kick back 50, fakie nosegrind on the ledge, crooks pretty consistently on the ledge, slappy lipslide that took a long time, front lip pulled to fakie on accident (for once I didn’t go over the corner to get into the lip). Fun session. Later on we went to the No Love clubhouse. I didn’t skate though, just watched Bernie’s video premiere then people rip the place.

After dinner and before going to Pete’s to see Black Dot’s (John’s band) I hit the garage for a bit before Brian showed up. I was landing my Rampy tricks pretty quickly and when I would bail I would try a different flip trick. Rarely landing any of the flippers, but having fun. Brian showed up about the time I had settled into trying front 5-0s to fakie. I’ve never done it before. Brian was dressed in a cute sweater and didn’t want to get it dirty so he was playing it conservative. It’s weird seeing Brian bail tricks instead of falling on his hip. He skated and had fun and encouraged me to finally get the front 5-0 to fakie before leaving. Rad!I wish I would have taken photos at Pete’s. The show was super fun and we raged hard.

Jeff has been trying to get me to the No Love warehouse for quite some time. I guess it took another night of -10F to make it happen. After work I took a quick nap and piled in the TF bus with Neil, Brian, Carleigh, John and Fuzz (oh and it’s possible a kid named Kyle joined us). Can you believe it, TF out on a week night? Awesome. We arrived all frozen from the lack of working heat in the bus to a somewhat crowded session. Warming up for me never really happened. At times I felt ok, but for the most part I felt awkward and disconnected from my board the entire night. Fuzz on the other hand killed it out of the gates. Stalefish from the flat bank to the wall qp, sugarcanes on the smaller qp, front tail on the electric box above the flat bank and front tail front 180 out which was ridiculous. Neil had his moves down quick. Carleigh skated about as good as I’ve ever seen her. She got a sick line of wallride, back 50 on the qp then back noseslide shove on the ledge. People were hyped and the ladies drinking on the sidelines were so hyped they were throwing peoples boards. Brian had some monster frontside alley oop wallrides, sick qp skills and an insane one footed frontside wallride. John ripped it. The no comply 270 back tail is a crowd pleaser everytime. Jeff was there destroying. He can do everything. Mikey went for two tricks over 4 hours and eventually got them. They were gnarly at least. Nollie b/s bigpsin and frontside flip from the flat bank into the wallride qp. There were some other dudes there ripping too. Like I said I felt awkward, but I still had a blast. I’m pretty happy that my fear of crowds doesn’t prevent me from at least trying to skate anymore. I got a b/s flip on the flat bank that took way longer than it should have, but in all honesty the narrowness of the flat bank made it pretty hard. I also got some kickturns on the wall, a little backside grind to fakie on the qp and almost a front feeble grind on the qp.Once again, Carleigh took a bunch of photos so go here and check them out.I was also very excited to finally meet Andrew from No Love. We had a good time chatting about running companies and how we respect what each other is doing and how awesome skateboarding is. What a fun night and I can’t believe the TF was out past midnight.

Before dinner I put the space heater out on Rampy to battle the freezing cold (-10 F).  I think the space heater was fighting a losing battle, but it probably helped it from being below freezing in there.  After dinner Ollie and I went out there for a bit.  I sucked it up again really bad.  I even slammed super hard on a front 50 that hung up and had the board hit me in the head after.  Awesome.  To add insult to injury Ollie beat me to rock ‘n rolls both ways and got another frontside scratch grind.  He also felt more like skating the flat bottom (or lack there of) and did pop shoves and fakie pop shoves.  Sometimes he would end up on the tranny a bit so then he started intentionally trying pop shoves to fakie.  He got one.  He wasn’t up the tranny very much, but then again he is related to me and you will see a photo of a Glen ollie in about two paragraphs.Ollie and I went in and still no one else had shown.  I put the space heater on again and almost fell asleep reading the new Transworld magazine.  Eventually Lazer showed up and we hung out reading magazines while Ollie played Nirvana songs on Itunes.  Fun.  Eventually Chad and Carleigh arrived and it was time to get our shred on.  Lazer killed it out of the gates once again.  This was Chad’s first time skating Rampy and it showed.  He had a lot of trouble getting used to it, but would eventually lay down some sick stuff.  Carleigh had another night of skating good.  She did her main bag of tricks quickly, laid down another kickflip rock fakie and came close to fakie shove disasters.  Wow.  I was skating decent finally.  It only took two hours of warming up I guess.  I did most of my tricks like front feeble, hurricane, fakie hurricane, fakie pivot fakie, front lip and more boring tricks.  Near the end Carleigh took some photos.Chad was doing huge ollies to fakie by the end of the night.I’ve been working on my ollies and clearly it shows. Just look at the height on this one! I mean clearly, Carleigh blew it taking the photo. Had she taken it at the peak I’m sure it would have looked more like:Yeah, watch out Fuzz.Anyways.  The end of the session was Chad trying frontside flips until he got a good one and me failing kickflip pivots until Chad landed his trick and we could call it a night.Go to Carleigh’s blog for many more photos of striped sweaters.

Worked at home all day to avoid driving in the snow. Was gonna have Nullers over for more filming on the Rampy montage, but Liz ended up being busy so I needed to play dad. Right after I got off work I put the space heater out in the garage and Carleigh showed up for a short session. Carleigh almost did all her tricks on her first run. I on the other hand, was sucking. Bad. I guess I can blame it on my neck, but it wasn’t really hurting too bad. It was still depressing. I basically took the whole session to land a front tail. Which, although I had tried it 100 times it was first try on camera (I jokingly asked Carleigh to film it so she stood there pretending to hold a camera so it was first T once it started counting. Oh and to make it even funnier she was using both hands like she was holding a bowling ball or something. Geez). Anyways, Carleigh ripped it. She even did her patented kickflip rock fakie.

I attempted to skate, but the neck was still wrecked and I mostly just filmed.  The only things I did were cali grind at this manny pad spot, back and front rocks at the jersey barrier spot.  Click the photo to go to Carleigh’s blog and see lots of neat photos.

Had Thursday off work.  The original plan was to go to the Denver Art Musuem with Liz after the kids went to school, but India stayed home sick and that was delayed for Friday.  So instead Jake, Derek, John and I headed to Fort Collins for some nice weather skating.  We stopped at Spring Creek first.  After some warming up we all started trying 4 trick lines.  Whatever we wanted.  I think Jake got his first.  I totally forget what it was, but I know it involved a manual and possibly a feeble to fakie on the tight wavy qpipe.  John was next with a tailslide on the ledge, feeble grind on the pool coping near the coffin and maybe a treflip.  Derek was kinda doing his own thing and ripping.  Back 3s out of the potato chip were so sick.  I took a long time to get my first line.  Front board to nose manual, ollie below noping, nose manual and then a failed nollie treflip.  The nose manny took too long.  Jake had already done another line that had something to a front feeble on the tight qp in the wave.  I think John got another one too.  Something with a rock ‘n roll in the tight qp.  My second line came quicker.  Front 50 down the ledge, backside tough guy on the pool coping, front rock on the tight qp then I was gonna stop, but everyone started yelling “4th trick!!” so I went for a flatground heelflip and got it.  Cool.  Chris had met up with us and was doing super sick wallie manuals up the potato chip.  I tried just wallieing up it and after a few slams got a couple.  My last line was a long and tiring one.  Backside wallride the back of the tight qp, f/s below noping ollie (which still felt pretty good), b/s scratch grind on the pool coping, ollie onto the wave (this is a trick at this point because I was already tired), axle stall the tight qp, then kickflip out of the wave.  The kickflip was soooooo hard because I was so tired at that point.  I eventually got one and went straight to sitting down.  Whew.We hit MRKT for awhile which is always fun before moving on to North Side which surprisingly wasn’t super crowded.  At this point it was probably 60 degrees out.  So amazing.  Lots of the Fort Collins heads were there and we skated with Andy and Mike too.  John, Mike and I started out carving around the little pool section in the back.  So good for warming up the legs.  John ripped it with some feeble grinds.  Mike’s got all kinds of layback tricks.  I did my tiny little slasher and a rock ‘n roll on the rock coping.  So fun.  We skated the “mini ramp” section for a tiny bit.  Chris and Derek were skating the ledge near the front.  I started posing kickflip wallrides on the bank to steeper bank near the back.  I’ve wanted to do that trick there since that park was built.  For some reason I’ve never really tried it.  John was nearby and I hyped it up as a dream trick that I didn’t want to spend much time on, just land it.  5 tries later I landed one where I kinda just skidded off the bank.  Super hyped, but wanting a cleaner one I kept at it and a few tries later I got one that put me on top of the world.  It felt perfect.  Kickflip up, landed bolts and without lifting the front wheels up slide the front around and rolled down the bank with no tic tacs.  I have been so depressed about my skating lately, but that felt like one of the funnest tricks I’ve ever done and had me so hyped.  John and I went over to skate the ledge with the kids.  Chris was trying 500mpg front smith shoves out.  Derek was trying front 5-0 kickflips out.  John and I did front 50 180 out first try, I got front 50 shove out, and Jake joined with us in a front 5-0 race.  I think Jake and I got them around the same time.  It was cool because it looked like Derek was just trying front 5-0 with us.  Ha.  I wanted front 5-0 shove out too, but it took too long and I gave up.  Jake got a front tail first T.  Chris slammed a lot.  After a bit of cruising around John, Andy and I played a game of SKATE in the parking lot.  John pulled the nollie flip and Andy got a textbook b/s flip to give me SK, but other then that I somehow landed all the other tricks John layed down including 360 flip, fakie front shove, halfcab flip, etc.  I was happy got get fakie bigflip and heelflip too.  After that I just watched Derek go for front lip to front board up/down the mj ledge and tried nollie treflips until I eventually got one.  I tried to skate a bit more after that, but my legs were done.  John added a blunt to pivot fakie on the bank to his stellar day.Such a fun day.  We went to La Luz and ate after.   Fort Collins rules.  Best skatescene in CO.  Unfortunately the next day I would wake up with intense upper back/neck pains that prevented me from being able to do anything.  Ugh.  I guess that’s the reward for good skate days when you get old.

Another chilly night, slightly warmer then the last. Jake called me and suggested Broomfield which we haven’t been to in awhile. Sounded good to me so we rolled there. Fuzz was sick we heard so it was just Jake and I. When we arrived at the park there was only 3 other dudes there. All in flannels and beanies of course. It’s the mandatory uniform you know. Jake and I were hip of course except we didn’t realize Nikes were mandatory. All them kids had the Janoski shoe. Ugh, don’t you kids realize that Nike sucks! Later on two more dudes would show up. One decided to go against the norm with a hoodie, but of course made up for it with Nikes. So lame.Anyways, time for the shredding.  Jake and I started with a game of SKATE on the quartapotty.  Jake pink slipped me, but we both landed quite a bit of tricks.  After that we played flatground SKATE.  I took this one.  I think Jake was spelling  SKATER though because  I got him with b/s flip, varial flip, 360 flip, heelflip, fakie bigflip and f/s halfcab flip.  After that we did cruised around for awhile doing our own thing.  I saw Jake ollie the six stair a few times.  I was feeling a bit to cold for that.  I settled in to trying a line which took a long time.  f/s flip on the hump above the corner in the bowl, back 50 on the black ledge, then front 50 shove on the black ledge.  I struggled with the f/s flip for awhile.  I started sinking into that depression mode again, but stuck with it and eventually started landing them most tries.  The back 50s were almost every try, some would go into back 5-0 and I’d stick with it.  The front 50 shove took longer than it should.  But when I did get the line it felt great.  Solid f/s flip, locked into a perfect back 5-0, then front 50 shove.  Stoked.  Jake was working on a run of f/s flip on the bump too, manual the black ledge, fakie front 50 on the black ledge.  Not sure if he got the whole thing, but he did get the fakie 50 and came out fakie which he’s never done before.  Rad.  At the end I went through the typical take 100 tries just to ollie the little rail into the bank.  I don’t know why that’s so damn scary to me.  Anyways I got it, but still ended up riding into the grass.  At the very end it started snowing, but I wanted to do halfcab crooks on the little blue ledge.  I got super frustrated as the snow started making the concrete and my grip too slick.  Ugh.  Kind of a bummer to end it like that, but it was a fun session overall.

A pretty chilly January night. Probably in the mid 20s when we started, lower 20s or less when we finished. Ugh. I didn’t bother with the multiple layers and went right for a jacket. Warming up was not fun and surprisingly the park wasn’t totally empty. Collin and Sean were there ripping. Derek was already ripping too. Carleigh went to work on noseslides pretty quick on the bump to ledge and landed most of the ones I saw. I didn’t see a first try noseslide shove however. She tried them in a line with a manual on the little manny pad up top too. Derek was skating the vert bowl so we joined him. He did kickflip to fakie, but well under coping. I finally dropped in the shallow section and survived a carve. It ended up being pretty fun and I’d like to skate it more. Carleigh skated it for a bit too.  And by a bit I mean one run and one kickturn.  Ha.  Derek also did full cab, halfcab and ollie to fakie (while yelling) below vert.  Still sick though.  I kinda went into a frustration period for awhile.  There are so many things I wish I could do at that park first try just flowing around.  I never land anything though.  Other than a faster than normal noseslide down the hubba the only things I was hyped on was things I hadn’t done there before.  Horrible ollie over the perfect rounded hip in the collision course, kinda close to manualling the way to tall pier 7 replica, and at the end finally nose manualling the little manny pad.  I really am bad at skateboarding and this place really brings it out.  Derek on the other hand is really good at skateboarding and it shows at this park.  Endless lines.  Fakie flip on the gnarly stone bank, treflip fakie on the extension in the little bowl, nosegrind down the hubba, kinda close to front board b/s flip out on the flatbar, etc.  He is hilarious too. All in all I skated like crap, but left the park in a decent mood and I wasn’t too sore.

I was pretty tired after such a late night the evening before skating Fuzz’s red curb to the wee hours of the night.  Ollie and I stopped by Borders to pick up a Looney Tunes DVD he wanted to buy with his allowance then drove off with no place to skate in mind.  We ended up near Foothills and Valmont in the industrial park.  We saw a fun looking speed bump and that was enough to get us out of the car.  It had been warmer out earlier, but now it was getting colder and windy.  Not cool.  We did have fun though.  We cruised around a few buildings never skating anything too long and having fun the whole time.  Ollie had some front boardslide transfers on parking blocks.  He slid them for a bit then would stop and dance on the board for awhile before transferring over.  So sick.  He tried a few back boards and slid out laughing.  I had some ollies and kickflips over the speed bump, some poses at kickflip front board on a parking block, front lips that stuck, a really bad hurricane.  We skated this long 3 stair where Ollie rode down by manualling the top stair.  So crazy.  It was spaced just perfect so that the front wheels would barely land before going off the next stair.  I wanted to ollie to the last stair, but it was too scary for the time being and I resorted to an ollie to pivot the turned in.  We skated this hill for a little bit into slippery new asphalt that was really fun to powerslide.  Ollie hung out in this medium between curbs and was rotating on his back wheels to nose stall back and forth from one side to the other.  It was so rad.  At the end of the session Ollie did a back 180 down a 2 stair (captured by the awesome camera in my work cell phone) and I ollied from the little kicker by the rocks in the photo over the two stair.  It was harder than it looks.  Fun, mellow session.  Went home after that and watched football and napped.  Go Packers!