After a boring day at work, a good mail day (new Thrasher, Transworld and Omaha video Go Big Shred), nap and small dinner (nachos) I headed out to a pretty crowded Lafayette park on a pretty cold night.  Lazer pulled up the same time as me.  Neil would arrive soon.  Max, Davis and other dudes were there.  Carleigh, Chad showed soon and Fuzz followed after awhile.  The park was almost completely dry.  Just the big useless bowl at the end of the ditch run had snow in it.  Ft Collins Mike showed up eventually too.We started mostly in the little bowl.  My runs continue to be completely lame.  Then it was just cruise around and kinda hit whatever.  It’s fun doing that in that park, but I really didn’t see what anyone else was doing until the end.  I saw Carleigh carving around and I would remind her to not ollie.  She didn’t listen.  Chad back 50d across and down the hubba.  Neil front lipped the bump to marble.  Lazer got tranny skills.  I was having fun.  Did the front 50 to manual pretty easy.  Struggled at bump to ledge.  Mike got me to do a fun wallie into the ditch run.  In fact I don’t think I had even been in there before.  I also got some backside flips on the mellow rock flat bank and almost followed it up with a no comply bigspin.  I got the fun “Zero line” of boardslide down the rail then noseslide down the hubba.  Within a few minutes of being there I saw Fuzz do halfcab boardslide the rail, back 5-0 the hubba.  Wow.  Chad did a mach 500 kickflip up the 3 stair.  Lazer left.  After awhile Carleigh, I, Mike and Fuzz skated the medium sized bowl.  That ended quickly as a biker kept getting in everyones way.  Then we mostly hit the rock area.  Fuzz and Chad did some monster ollies.  Fuzz did switch blunt on the lower of the rock narrow qpipes.  I one upped him with a non-decked weak front rock.  Fuzz went for front noseblunt on it and shinned himself pretty bad.  Ouch.  Chad did some crazy manual and nose manuals over the round pad into the bank.  Carleigh noseslid the bump to ledge and may have got shove out on it too.The street lights shut off, but the others remained for quite some time.  We dorked on the tiny qp for a bit then moved on to the main rock.  Mike was making wallies over the hip look so fun.  Fuzz and I got them second try.  I really didn’t think I would ever commit to that so quickly and it ended up being a really fun trick we did a few times.  Stalls on the rock were fun too.  Mike got fakie rocks super easy.  Chad was doing nollie norths into the setup bank then rock fakie or front pivot on the rock.  Fuzz did fakie rock, axle stall, back pivot and worked hard for fakie noseblunt and would lose his board into the bowl of snow.  Crappy.  For some reason the lights stayed on longer than they were supposed to.  It was freezing out, but we kept skating.  I got a back rock, horrible front rock and worked up to a fakie rock which was really fun to land.  I eventually got a wallie boardslide off the other side too.  It was kind of a sloppy mess and I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it was fun.The cops came and booted us.  The lights shut off shortly anyways.  It was freezing outside.  I stretched and we all went on our separate ways.  Went home and enjoyed my last night of bachelorhood by eating oatmeal and watching a Samuel L Jackson move (Unthinkable).  No drinks required.

Skated Rampy with Josh, Max and Davis as they warmed up for an upcoming Null Rampy montage.  I didn’t do a whole lot.  Struggled at hurricanes this time, but not front tails.  The kids killed it.

Day 4 of bachelor life. After work, a nap and dinner Fuzz, Conner, Max, Jake and eventually non-skating Carleigh showed up with beer. It was the first time Fuzz, Max or Conner had skated Rampy. Max was really excited to skate Rampy.Left to right – Fuzz, Conner, dork, Jake.  Since Carleigh did a good job of avoiding skate photos of Jake I”ll start with him.  He ripped it as usual.  Nosepick, stalepick, front disaster revert, back 5-0 to fakie, fully decked front rocks on the narrow side, and much more.Max had to leave first, but introduced Rampy to a couple  new tricks first.  Switch front blunt and switch blunt heel out.  Well, he never quite rode away clean enough for our high standards.  He did switch blunt followed up on the next wall with blunt fakie.  He ripped it way more then I thought he would.Fuzz raised the bar on the highest ollie Rampy has seen.  He also introduced Rampy to front noseblunts, front noseblunt 180 out, front 270 nosepick, and ripped it.  He skates fast and it was funny to see how quickly he would get to the next wall as sometimes he would be out of control and still pull off a gnarly trick.  Or just grab the coping and hold on to recover.Conner got mad steez.  He started slow and just kept skating better and better.  Lots of steezy disasters, smiths, 5-0’s, etc.  Near the end of the session he was working on front smith to front rock.  We joked about him visualizing it with his tech deck so he pulled it out and finger boarded the trick.  I said I’d never make fun of tech decks again if he landed it next try.  He did.  Pretty funny.Since it’s my ramp I ripped it the hardest as usual.  Tricks like dropping in, axle stalls and rock fakies almost every try.  Ha.  I struggled at times, but had a good time and did lots of the tricks that make me happy.  Fakie pivot fakie, hurricane, front d, a rare blunt to 50 (above photo), fakie hurricane, brian’s front tough guy to front rock, and a 900 or two.Thanks for the photos Carleigh.  Hope your foot gets better soon so you can top the tail stall / rock fakie record.  More photos on Carleigh’s blog.

Day 2 of bachelor life.  Woke up remotely early, ate breakfast while watching the Blueprint video, ran some errands then met Neil at Lafayette which was supposedly skateable.  The mini and medium bowls were dry.  The manny pad was dry, but with a narrow runway/roll out and the steeper rock was dry.   We started in the mini bowl.  My first runs were so pathetic.  It didn’t help that the sun was blinding when going southwest.  Eventually I didn’t look like I just stepped on a skateboard for the first time ever.  Neil had some good runs.  Front slash on both extensions, back 50s on the lower extension and some good ollies over the pump boob in the middle.  Chris Jones met up in awhile and skated it pretty good too.  Boneless tail on the rock first try was sick.After awhile we moved on to the bank to rock.  Neil was struggling with a back rock ‘n roll on it which he’s done before.  At one point he said “I wont ever get laid again if I don’t land it this try.”  He landed it.  We laughed.  I tried some front rocks, but ended up landing a horrible layback front rock.  Chris was doing rock fakie and saying they were so fun.  He eventually did a back feeble on it.  I worked up to a back rock and like Neil said, it was fun.Next up we went over to the marble manny pad/ledge with the goal of each of us doing 10 tricks.  Normally this would be pretty easy, but the narrow runway and landing due to snow made it tough.  At one point a kid lost his board into the deep bowl and was stuck in it for 20 minutes before escaping the icy walls of death.  Most of the tricks were pretty basic.  A couple I was really hyped on.  Front 50 to manual to the bank and manual drop to manual to the bank.  Those two really hyped me up.  The 10 tricks I got were back board, front 50, manual, crooks, back 50, front 5-0, front 50 manny to bank, manny drop to manny to the bank, front 50 front 180 out and struggled to get a number 10 until I just wimped out and did a 2″ front board.Chad, Daryl and crew showed up too.  I skated the little bowl with them for a minute.  Chad’s warm up run was pretty funny.  He did an ollie to fakie on the extension to “get a feel” for the tranny. Must be nice.  Chris and I played the worst game of SKATE ever.  Well, maybe not from his point of view, but I’m pretty sure I raised the bar on the worst heelflip that’s ever been done in the history of skateboarding.  I got smoked.  Before leaving I skated the medium sized bowl finally, got a few back 50s and called it a day.

Day one of Liz and the kids being gone for a week and me being a bachelor.  Naturally I saw them off then hit the booze immediately.  Or maybe after they left I watched John Cardiels epcily latered then skated the entire day.  Yeah, yeah that’s it.  Rampy was a blast.  I ended up just trying a run of back 50, back 5-0 to fakie (don’t worry I still do them really bad), tail stall, frontside ollie, rock fakie, fakie hurricane.  I got all, but the fakie hurricane quite a few times.  After awhile I was even kinda stoked on some of the frontside ollies.  In between runs I would try a 1mph manual pop shove out.  Got a few of them.  Then I would try a nollie flip.  Got none, but a few were close.  Sometimes I would also do kickflips until I bailed one.  I eventually did the whole line, felt stoked and went inside to grab some lunch as Carleigh and Chad were supposed to be over soon.So I ate, then I watched Bernies video and then I watched the Kenny Hoyle video.  And then I waited a bit.  I went outside and waited.  There was a tiny patch of dry concrete in the driveway so I did about 100 stationary kickflips.  Literally.  I kept thinking C & C would arrive, but they never did.  I noticed that the sidewalk was remotely dry and started pushing down it and ollieing sections of sidewalk.  It was scary because it was narrow and if I shot the board out or landed bad I or my board would go in the snow.  After about 20 of these a big 4 wheel drive truck drove threw the slush and covered the sidewalk.  I flipped him off.  He laughed.  Back to stationary kickflips.  Eventually Carleigh and Chad showed.  Yeah.Yellow curbs near Crisis was next.  Neil met us there.  Some of the Crisis kids were there for about 5 minutes then they moved on.  Things started and stayed pretty lame for me.  Chad had some good moves.  Neil has the basics so good.  Carleigh shouldn’t have been skating, her foot is jacked.  She learned powerslides though and worked on pushing switch.  Everyone was doing there own thing.  Eventually Chad pulled out a trashcan on it’s side to ollie over.  Chad and Neil ollied over it like it was nothing.  Chad also front 180d it, back 180, kickflip, switch ollie and even switch heel.  Ridiculous.  Neil no complied over it.  I took my sweet time just to ollie over it.  It took a lot of effort.  I had done a kickflip manual on one of the long manual pads and it really hyped me up.  I’ve never done that trick longer then 8 feet.  I tried to do it again, but never quite got it again.  I really wanted to ollie the trashcan in a line.  Kick manual, back 50 the a fun yellow curb curve then ollie the trash can.  But seeing as how I knew I would never get that kick manny again I kept losing motivation for the ollie.  Eventually I just did it solo.  Carleigh was snapping photos.   At the end Chad and I played SKATE.  I got Chad to SKA each time, but that was it.  He’s got all the nollie, switch and regular heelflip variations and they took me out.  Super fun day.  Hyped to ollie the trash can even though it was easy for Chad and Neil.Neil complyChad switch heelMe ollie captured a bit late. Although I’m sure I’d look just as awkward (if not more) if the photo was captured at the “peak” of the ollie.A lot more photos at Gnarly Carleigh dot com. Thanks Carleigh!

One of the mellowist New Years I’ve had and that’s saying quite a bit.  Around 7 or so Ollie and I went out to Rampy.  I don’t remember anything too special that I did.  I was happy about doing front tail and front d first try.  Fakie pivot fakies are always fun.  Ollie was kinda ripping.  He did most of his tricks.  Some of the fakie ollies were well above coping.  He was doing way more frontside kickturns than normal and I suggested he try doing an ollie.  Most were just little Glen ollies, but one of them was legit.  Not above coping, but damn, he’s 8.  It made me try a few frontside ollies too and one of them felt kinda good.So the year is done.  I skated 312 days.  Not as far over the 300 mark as I would have thought, but above 300.  I have to admit I am proud to have made 300.  It was not easy and although part of me wants to try for it again, I think skating around 250 and learning to ollie higher then a curb sounds better.  Happy Null Years everyone!  And good luck to Rob and Neil who say they are going for 300 in 2011.

Our first real winter storm.  A few inches had fallen already and the kids were staying at friends so Liz and I went out and imbibed a little at dinner then watched a crazy movie called Moon.

Made another run to Crisis as Fuzz is killing it!  He couldn’t skate after and Skelly had called saying they were going to Lafayette so I went out there.  As I pulled in Scotty P and Dar were there which hyped me up.  Rolling around the park over to the mini bowl and to my surprise Shane Ritter was there!!!  Holy Crap!  We ended up basically skating, laughing and getting our old guy mojo on.  It was a blast.  I sucked it up in the mini bowl and there was one dude there totally murdering it so we moved on to where most old guys go – the hubba/rails dude.  We started with the bump up to ledge.  Shane went back and front 50.  I went front 50 and 5-0, noseslide and tried crooks, but never put it in right.  I got close to my “Zero” line of boardslide down the rail, then noseslide down the hubba, but everytime I would slide the noseslide all the way and then fall on the impact of dropping all two feet or whatever.  Pretty pathetic.  Shane was going for back 5-0 on the bump to ledge and back 180 up the euro.  I started posing some noseslides on the tall bump to ledge and surprisingly around the time the warning buzzer turned on i went for it and after a couple tries I landed one.  Really hyped on that.  I never thought I’d even touch that thing.  Sean, Mike, Shane and Grant killed the marble pole jam thing.  Sean had boardslide to fakie, Grant like 20 tricks, Shane almost front board.  As the street lights had shut off I did some laps trying and failing at nose mannies on the little manny pad followed by a run through the rock section.  I did front rock on the little rock qpipe, front tail on the manhole, other tricks that I felt like I was finally starting to loosen up and dig this park.  Hyped.  Right before the lights shut off Dar and I tried to do front lips on the little marble ledge and we both got close, but the lights shut off right in the middle of Dar trying one.  So sketchy.  Fun session.  Whew, so I guess it was indeed the crowds that bummed me out before, because the park itself is clearly awesome.

After a pretty chill day at work I was productive at home for awhile.  The kids were having fun with friends so I went skating.  It was pretty chilly out, but the forecast calls for snow and frigid temps so it might be the last street skating day for awhile.  I chose campus with no real spots in mind other then to maybe manual off the three stair like I did once before after 50 tries.  After a little parking garage hill bomb I ended up at the three stair and kinda cruised around ollieing on the banked curb, doing kickflips and ollieing up/off curbs.  I started trying the manual, but wasn’t feeling it quite yet.  I wanted to line out to it and found a weird rock to ollie over (which can be seen in the background by the fire hydrant with the board sitting on it of this beautiful Monico 50 50.  The ollie wasn’t easy, especially for me.  The approach was downhill and you had to turn at the last minute to get the right angle.  Excuses excuses, but I did mange to eventually ollie it a few times and it was probably a little taller then a normal ledge so I felt good about it.  I was getting close to the manual drop and almost put it down.  I tried making myself go a little faster each time and a few of the ollies felt good.  But then I went landed pretty far back on probably the biggest ollie and cracked the tail real bad.  I tried to follow it up with the manual, but it barely got up the curb and was bouncing as I was in manual.  DOH.  I tried a few with the board backwards, but wasn’t feeling it.  I went to leave, but bombed the parking garage hill a couple times again trying to get some powerslides, but the concrete was too grippy.  I then went into  nollie/switch flip poses for about 15 minutes.  I did commit to both, but never landed either.  The switch flips were surprisingly close a few times.  I went home and setup a new “In A Jar” deck.

Woke up in Buena Vista still sore from snowboarding the day before with Ollie on his first day riding lifts.  We left Buena Vista pretty early and were back in boulder before noon.  Jake came over and played some SKATE at my house a bit later while we waited for Liz to return from a walk.  It was a decent game.  I ended up winning as we both struggled with treflips and I landed a weird one as Liz got back so Jake went for double or nothing, bailed it and the game ended.We went to the Lafayette park along with every other skater in Colorado.  It seriously sucked.  Let me correct that last sentence.  I seriously sucked.  Notice I took the ‘t’ off so ‘It’ changed to ‘I’?  Neat eh?  Anyways, yeah, I HATE skating crowded places.  Actually I hate crowds in general.  But this was too much.  I didn’t even know where my friends were and when I did they were skating steep obstacles and clearly didn’t want me around to bum out the session.  Every time I started to get excited about skating either a group of kids would get in the way or I’d have to avoid whatever I wanted to skate or have a collision.  Every time I avoided something or everytime I got snaked it would take me down another level.  I debated leaving by myself and finding some place other to skate (After leaving I noticed a waxed curb about a block away.  Next time!).  But I was really hyped on my friends that were there and after I threw a bit of a temper fit saying how much I hate the place Brian calmed me down and reminded me that it’s not the park I hate, it’s the crowds.  After that I finally did have a bit of fun.  Jake had been killing it all day.  Brian committed to blunt fakie on the narrow tall stonerpipe (can we nickname it that?).  The only things I did I was remotely proud of were wallies up the dumb little qpipe and committing to boardslides down the rail, but not landing them.  There was a pro spotting at the park even – Angel Ramirez.  He ripped more then I thought he would.  He is the first person I’ve seen skate the bump to marble flatbar.  He did back noseblunt and front feeble back 180 out on it.  Neat.  He also front boarded it frmt flat into the bank.Sorry to my friends for being such a whiny bitch.  I really hate skating around crowds.  I know it shouldn’t bother me so much, but it does.