Feeling better and after a long nap and dinner I picked up Jake around sunset and we ended up at Steelyards.  He had suggested Red Curbs, but the purist jerk in me doesn’t allow me to skate an indoor spot on a warm, dry night.  We’ll have more then enough time for Red Curbs this winter.  Anyways, wow, this was the first time in awhile I’ve had fresh legs.  Having only skated about 20 minutes in the last three days my legs felt amazing.  I manualed the long way first try and felt energized and good.  This is probably why my goal next year is going to be to NOT skate 300 days.  Ha.  Seriously though, refreshed legs are awesome.  Jake was skating pretty hard as usual.  He got a few manuals the long way.  Ollie up, kickflip off.  front 180 up, f/s half cab off.  front 180 up almost fakie back big off.  They put in some new bike racks which make it a bit harder to skate.  It messed with my nose manuals, but I eventually got one.  I tried manual front 180 out and didn’t get close.  Tried manual back shove out and came remotely close.  Next up was a game of SKATE where Jake was at SKAT in two tricks.  Kickflip and treflip.  He doubled or nothing’d both and missed.  Doh!  He made it close, but I ended up prevailing with a f/s halfcab flip.  Then I went back to trying kickflip up, treflip off.  Came close, but we got the boot.  Probably a good thing anyways as I was starting to feel sick again.

Feeling slightly better I went to the Table Mesa are for a bit after Liz’s parents left for the night. I cruised around doing basically nothing for awhile before trying to manual the really long pad in front of the bank. I didn’t get remotely close for a while. Eventually I got about halfway, but I was still bummed on that. I can’t manual.

A cool and dreary fall day for once.  Neil came over and we watched the Orchard video to get hyped on street spots.  We headed out, picked up Carleigh and drove around looking for Jason.  After finding him we headed to Longmont, picked up Brian and went to the nearest USA loving gas station.  Next up was Rocky Mountain Elementary which is pretty much my favorite “spot” in Colorado.  Unfortunately I was feeling pretty stiff and old again.  We started out ollieing down the two stairs to warm up.  The worst part was having to get up the curb as a set up.  Ha.Everyone kinda warmed up at their own pace.  Me probably the slowest, although Brian was more into just chilling.  Bernie showed up and added a flat bar into the mix.  Carleigh was trying boardslides on the flat bar, noseslide shoves on the ledge.  Jason was doing front boards on the flat bar, front noseslides on the ledge.  Neil was doing front boards on the rail, front tails or lip attempts on the ledge.  Bernie was doing front lips on the flatbar, back or kick back tails on the ledge.  I messed around into the dirt bank for a bit, got a kcifklip in.  Then I was trying to kickflip over one of the brick sections.  Bernie took a photo of it that I would put up right now had he emailed it to me like he said he would.  Around the time Neil and Brian were ready to head out Bernie loaned his fisheye and filming skills to my new camera and Jason, Neil, Carleigh and I tried some lines.  I got really frustrated with the kickflip, but ended up getting it again and followed it with a quick crooks.  Carleigh got about 20 boardslides followed by noseslide shoves and then bailed pop shoves.  Neil one footed over the bricks then slammed on a crooks and was out for the rest of the day.  After I got my hammers I filmed Jason get a couple lines with front 180 over the bricks, halfcab noseslide the ledge, feeble the rail.  Carleigh got ollie over the bricks, kickflip over a grate then front 50 the ledge.  Bernie got kickflip to fakie over the bricks, halfcab a grate then front tail to switch manny off the curb.  Before leaving Bernie and I tried a few tricks into the dirt path.  Bernie did fakie manual and I did nose manual.  Decent day and we got mad footie son!

Met Bernie at Mike’s Camera to go in and look at camera stuff.  Bernie bought a new bag and lens while I did nothing other than ask Bernie if I can try out his old camera bag.  Awesome.  Then we cruised over to the manny pad for the last few minutes of light.  Skating a manny pad with Bernie is a treat.  He ripped it.  Kickflip manny drop to manny for awhile on accident so kickflip out.  Fakie manual.  He was trying back 180 fakie manual, but didn’t get it.  I was having one of those days where I felt pretty stiff and old.  I didn’t land much, but came close to kickflip manual, nollie shove manny and nose manual back shove out.  I say “close” but that only means I got into manual. It was a nice mellow little friday session.

Skated Rampy for a few minutes and sucked. Ollie filmed a fakie pivot fakie for an HD test. Looks like I gotta turn up the sharpness and stuff. But hey, it was the first clip.

Just a quick session before going to see one of the best shows I’ve ever seen – Titus Andronicus. I went out right after eating a ton of food so I felt extra fat and uncoordinated. It didn’t last long though and I started actually feeling pretty good. I didn’t do anything special and did a few flippers going pretty slow. The only noteworthy thing to me was manually from the neighbors curb cut all the way to ours. Pretty long for me. Yippee.

Carleigh and I rolled up around 8 on a really nice night. The park wasn’t too crowded, but everyone that was there was skating. Or I guess biking. I really don’t understand why people would bike at a skate plaza with low ledges anyways, but whatever. I wanted to warm up in the bowl with a grind on the little qp on the top, then a grind around the corner after. This took a long time and pissed me off. Then I continued sucking in the street course. Carleigh seemed to be skating decent. 50s, boardslides on the black ledge all easy. Almost front shoves out of the bank. I started trying the step up for the first time and it’s really awkward. It took about 7 tries for me to finally land it. It was funny because somebody gave me a sympathy “yeah” and Carleigh said I looked so bummed so she laughed. Ha. After that things got better for me though. I got a run with boardslide down the ledge, back 50 the black ledge (haven’t landed that before there) followed by front 50 front shove out on the black ledge. I made myself ollie over the tiny rail into the bank again. It took a bunch of tries and I still can’t land in the bank with enough angle to not run into the grass. I came close to getting front smith on the black ledge too. Carleigh was working on kickflips into the bank and came close to a bunch of them. I started skating the lower area after making myself ollie the six stair. It took a couple bails this time before I put it down. Carleigh ollied the double set like it was nothing then went on to pop shove. I got a line on the lower part that hyped me up. Manual down the angled blue ledge (never done that before), front feeble the qp, back 5-0 the blue ledge then nollie treflip shuffle (counts!). Carleigh put down the pop shove all sick. I started trying kickflips over the tiny rail, but the high school kids took over and started lighting the rail up with deodorant and being generally annoying. I might have actually committed to that, but who knows. At the very end I finally ollied over the tall part of the rust ledge and into the bank. I’ve wanted to do that for awhile. All in all it ended up being really fun, I just wish I could warm up faster sometimes.

Oh and yes, he’s an 8 year old kid.  Show boat nosegrab.  Makes me laugh so hard.Ollie wants to learn about the camera too.  I guess he doesn’t know about the “make old people look younger” filter yet.

Had a totally awesome morning.  Watched PJ Ladd own it in SKATE, spent some quality time with India and even snuck in a nap.  In the late afternoon Carleigh showed up, we picked up Neil in Broomfield then hit downtown Denver.  Traffic was horrible and we ended up kinda on the far side of downtown on the outskirts of where we’ve skated before.  We tried to hit a manny pad initially, but an upset tenant wasn’t feeling it.  We dorked around at this narrow manny pad and two stair.  Well, Neil actually skated it, I posed at it (too narrow for me) and Carleigh tried some flippers on the sidewalk.  I was feeling rusty as I haven’t skated for real in awhile.  Next up we ended up at chain to ollie.  My first few chain ollies were horrible.  They felt so out of control and bad.  We all ollied it and then started working on more.  Carleigh and I tried kickflips, Neil pop shoves.  It took a bit, but the men got their moves.  Neil backed his up with a 100 foot long manny.  Sick.  Carleigh came real close to the kickflip.  I did it a couple times, but the first one was super slow and sketchy.  Second one felt great, but I didn’t have anything on that manny pad.  My new trucks felt weird.  Neil put down some sick no complies over it too while I got some weak 180s both ways.  We left to the weird round brick plaza area.  At first Neil and I ollied in the f/s one which I haven’t done before.  It’s a little ledge drop into a little bank.  Then we turned around and ollied onto the ledge.  I got one with ollie up then ollie into the b/s bank.  That felt awesome.  Carleigh ollied in both b/s and f/s.  Neil was trying to ollie out of the bank over the tall ledge.  I started trying to ollie over the f/s ledge into the bank.  Neil saw it and got it first try and eventually backed it up with a four wheel bonk over the tall ledge which was so sick.  I also got the ollie over the ledge into the bank.  Hyped on that.A quick kick out of the Wells Fargo C ledge we ended up at a parking garage with crappy gritty concrete that somehow ended up being a blast.  I got a couple lines that I was very hyped on.  Ollie a curb cut, kickflip up a curb, nose slide a brick planter off a stair.  Which was hard because it was sooooo sticky.  Also got a kickflip over a curb, 360 flip on flat, manual then front 180 down the 2 stair that came up real quick.  So fun!  Carleigh put down a bunch of kickflips and tried to manual the long pad.  Neil did some good nose manuals and got a good run of pop shove over a curb, 360 no comply (backside), nose manual, one foot off the two stair.  We checked out this kinda bank to ledge and rail spot, but Carleigh and Neil left to get some drink while I tried to ollie a little retainer wall.  When I finally got it I almost backed it up with a front nose to fakie on the bank to ledge.  On the way to meet Neil and Carleigh at Wahoos I hit this little manny pad then ollie over a curb to drop onto a super mellow bank.  That took more tries then it should.Those guys ate and we all stocked up on water for the last few minutes of daylight.  We hit this weird mellow hip that was soooo hard to skate.  It was almost too small to skate it as a hip, but it was good for it.  Neil sat it out.  Carleigh did some good f/s ollies then spent a long time on kickflips.  She eventually landed a good one with a rad surfy ride out.  I had given up on ollieing big out of the hip and was trying flippers over it.  I came close to b/s flips, but never got a good one.  I hucked f/s flips for awhile and never came close.  Then I tried a f/s halfcab flip over the hip and was surprised to get it in three tries.  After that I started trying 3 flips and after Carleigh put down a pop shove I got her back with the tre bomb.  Ha.  It felt great though.  That was basically the end of the day.  Such a great session.I shot the photo above after we were done and got back to the car.  Gotta at least try and shoot a photo everyday or I’m never gonna learn this stuff.

My side spasms were subsiding a little, but still painful.  Neil, Brian, Cooper, Ollie and I met up with Bernie and Sam at the mellow bank to way too tall ledge because Bernie wanted to do a manny trick in a line (fakie manual fakie flip out).  I skated for awhile before chilling out and getting out the new camera.  I didn’t skate hard, but took it easy to not make the side worse.  I got nose stall to fakie and crook stall.  It was cool that Ollie and Cooper came along.  They were having fun.Sam, Bernie and Ollie.  My favorite photo of the day.  Ollie and Cooper had a lot of fun watching Bernie try his line.  F/s flip on flat, fakie manual fakie flip out.Brian had the funniest quote regarding Neil’s outfit.  “So what are you going to wear to church tomorrow now that you wore your church outfit today?”  So funny.Neil church clothes nose manny.Brian dark side wallride.As I said before.  I gotta lot of learning to do on this photography thing.  Cooper no tail ollie taken way to early.  But to my credit I’m not sure his tail got any higher then that.Before you complain about this photo being too early too let the truth be told.  He missed the grab.  Ha.More funny faced antics from my kid.  When is he gonna grow up and take everything seriously like me?I promise I’ll get better at taking photos.  That was day one and I seriously don’t understand Fstop, ISO, etc.  It’s totally new to me.