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?

Neil, Jason, Chad and I met up with Brian and Dave Fuller on a day that started out gorgeous, but the temperature dropped quick and it looked like the snow could strike at any moment. Nate was to meet up with us in a bit. We met at the jersey barrier spot. After awhile Derek rolled by out of coincidence and him and his brother joined us. The mellow barrier was in really good shape. Someone smoothed it out. So awesome. Tricks were dropping right and left. I started out better than normal with every trick I’ve done on it before first try. That’s not saying much though as I’ve normally just filmed there before. Brian was rattling off tricks. Front feeble fakie, maybe blunt fakie, more tricks that I don’t remember, but he’ll be bummed I forgot. A cinder block had been set out to ollie over the tall way. Chad and Neil (and maybe Jason?) were the only ones ollie’ing over it until I hit it and it broke making it not as tall. Yes! Later on someone else it it too and it broke even more. Brian used the occasion to man up and ollie it now. Ha. It was cool. Chad had some ridiculous float over it and backed it with some good tricks on the barrier. Front feeble, front crooks to fakie, ollie to front rock. He also kickflipped, nollied, half cabbed, f/s flipped, anything he wanted over the cinder block. Dave still has the best style out there. F/s halfcab rock fakie, boardslides to fakie, a lot more and my favorite trick of the session. A layback handplant thing out of the tranny to the other side. Neil, Brian and I tried to ride out of the mellow barrier. It took me a few tries to even get close and Brian laughed at us for not putting it down right away. He put it down 2nd or 3rd try. I got it after about 5. Jason was killing it with coast to coast back 50s and long back feebles, front boardslide 270 in. Derek listens to his headphones even when skating with friends. He landed a lot, but pretty much everytime someone tried to talk to him it was for nothing. Nate showed up and did a lot of tricks quick. He might have even got front pivot fakie. After landing the wallie (ride) out the first time, I got a fakie grind to fakie. Hyped me up. But I would soon be taken down as I just wanted to wallie the barrier again and then go skate the ledge. 10 tries of bails and I almost focused my board. Most people skated the ledge or curb cut kicker around now. Derek got front 5-0 to switch crooks on the ledge. Dave got a slappy front 5-0. Jason slammed really hard. Neil had some ollies over the table top part of it. Nate did too and tried some crazy hurricanes on the ledge not getting too close. Oh yeah, Derek’s brother. He had some slappy back lips to fakie on the barrier and almost kickflipped the table top kicker. I took forever to get a lame ollie off the curb cut, ollie up the curb, slow front 50 on the ledge. Man my ledge skating has gone to crap. I managed a boardslide pop out too.Next up some people skated a bank to curb. It looked pretty fun, but I went up to my car to get water then Dave came up the hill too and we skated the brick thing for a bit. Long enough for me to ollie up the low side, ride around then ride into the taller bank. We were heading back down when everyone was walking up. Some people bombed the parking garage. Brian and I unsuccessfully attempted to front 50 the curved ledge. Derek dad some pretty front 5-0s on it. We got booted and it was getting colder by the second. Some dorking on the 4 stair in front of Subway as Nate and Chad ate at it.Back to the brick spot minus Jason, Brian, Dave. Derek and Rick had some cool manuals. I wanted to ollie over the low bricks into the bank which I eventually did, but it took forever. I had to tell myself I would have to keep skating the razor tailed board I don’t want anymore for two weeks if I didn’t land it. The dropping temperatures and sore legs weren’t helping. I eventually got it as Nate and Chad showed up. Yippee. Nate did a bunch of bonks. Manual bonk back 180, nose bonk back 180, nose bonk front 180, etc. So sick. Chad did a sick nose manual to almost back lip. Neil, Derek and Rick had left too at this point so it was just Chad, Nate and I. We hit the fun granite hill bomb and it was better than I remember. Nate and I did a couple power slides at the top. Not sure if Chad did. I was hyped because I was actually going faster than my normal slide comfort zone. All three of us went through the intersection fine and all of us ollied the mini kicker at full speed. So fun. My eyes watered up from the speed and cold. Awesome. Even though I had some really frustrating moments I still love that we skated downtown Denver. Such a blast. Go away cold weather.282/300. 8 more days!!!

Filling in for Fuzz at Crisis on the nicest day in weeks. Almost 60 and no wind. Carleigh was at the shop too and Chad NotDad was skating the church behind the shop so I went and rolled with him for a bit. I had initially not wanted to skate at all since my legs have been so shot. But we had fun. I did some slappy mannies, powerslides and managed a manual to back lip then drop into the little bank. Super fun. Hyped to skate for a few minutes in the warm weather. Working at the shop was a blast though. Fuzz has done a good job with the lurkers there. They were all under control and nice kids.

Another day that was supposed to be pretty nice out ruined by strong, cold winds. Ugh. Derek, Bernie and I went to Willville and met Jeff, Monico and his brother Matt. Bernie did kickflip manual pretty quick, otherwise not much else went down until Bernie did fakie bigflip manual perfect. I came somewhat close to manualling it.We left, got food, chilled at Meta for a bit. The wind was sucking. We met back up at St Julien. Nothing serious went down. My legs were shot and I couldn’t nosebonk the little ledge. We cruised around for awhile and ended up at the alley with the red flat bar and angle ironed ledge. We all skated there and were finally having a good time, but security gave us the boot. Next up was Casey Middle School again. I took a long time to manual the smallest rock there and drop in on the little kinked ledge. In the front Jeff and Derek noseslid the kinked ledge and Bernie front 50’d it. We bombed down Walnut (since I had my filming bag I foot dragged a few times) and called it a day.

A decent Thanksgiving Day minus the wind. Ollie and I rolled up to Southern Hills and the wind seemed to kick into high gear. I had some new wheels (null 53mm regular urethane (hey, I have to skate the crappy stuff since people want to buy the superthane)) to break in. I dorked around for awhile before trying to do 15 flip tricks in the smooth section. That ended up not being so hard. Ollie was trying back 180s and shove it’s everywhere. I wasn’t really watching too close then watched him push up the handicap ramp and throw down a perfect pop shove out of the bank. It was so sick! So sick! I’ve never seen him land a clean one before and this one would make Carleigh jealous (ha, just joking Carleigh). I was definitely hyped to see that. I tried some ollies up, off, benches, but mostly wasn’t feeling it because of the wind. Ollie rules.