Fathers day, but since I’ve spent two weeks straight with the family it was skate day.  Well, it turned out that it was father – son skate day since Ollie came along.  Around 11am Jason, Ollie and I went to the Mikes Camera manny pad and warmed up.  Nate met up with us.  I didn’t land much for manny tricks.  Got a lot of fakie bigspins up the curb, but never landed in manny like I wanted to.  Nate did a front 180 nose manual 180 out on accident.  Jason mannied it first try which is rare for him.  Ollie did a back 180 off.Later on Neil, Carleigh and Lazer met at my house and after bringing boards to Community we hit the new Arvada park which ended up being amazing.  Maybe my favorite park in CO now?  It’s a small park, but it has lots of well built goodness with low obstacles that are good for skating.  The short parking block spine rules.  Anyways a ton of stuff went down.  Jason ripped for a bit, but hurt his back once again and slept it off.  Lazer killed it.  Big ollies, grinds in weird places.  Ended his session with a kickflip over the euro and a back feeble on the really hard to skate bank to ledge.  Neils of Fire skated longer than normal.  Steezey back shoves up the euro, back 50 transfers over the hip, big ollies, and lots of good skating.  Carleigh made some new spine transfer tricks she’s never done look easy, pop shove up the euro, slammed rolling in on the 2 foot qpipe, skate hard the whole time.  Ollie ripped it too.  Board stall transfers over the spine while waving to us while he was stalled in the middle, rolled into the little qpipe, back 5-0s on the slappy qpipe, front 50 on the little qpipe, nosegrabs off the ledge and a mean mongo push.  I had a blast.  I total blast.  I did a fakie rock fakie over the spine, fakie rock to rock ‘n roll over it as well as a few front feeble to back smith transfers over the spine, front 50’d around the corner, did my first front 5-0 on tranny in forever on a 1 foot qpipe, rolled into more spots than normal, etc.  I kickflipped up the euro then kickflipped up onto the ledge without the kicker.  Also front 180 the euro and posed some f/s halfcab flips off the ledge.   I somehow even manualled the ledge which is way tall for manual for me and crooks it first try.  I ended it with a line I was hyped on.  Back 50 the ledge, front feeble the little qpipe then 3 flip on flat.  So much fun.  That park rules.

Definitely feeling the effects of sitting in a car all day the day before.  Picked up the new Null wheels in the morning and they look good.  Helped clean for awhile then met up with Jeff, Bernie and Mikey at the Boulder park which wasn’t very crowded.  We started with a few games of SKATE.  I was the first one out in the first two, but the third game went well.  I got tricks like 3 flip, frontside halfcab flip, fakie var flip and more.  Jeff got to SKAT, but beat me.  Fun.  We cruised around the park for awhile and I was not skating well at all.  I tried a few backside kickflips on the flat bank and didn’t even get close.  Ugh.  Jeff was destroying.We went to the Sussex ledge after that.  I tried to front 50 it, but didn’t get very close.  Mikey nollie nosegrinded it.  So sick.  Instead of just sitting around I skated other stuff at the spot like the little bump and the curb.  I had a run going of ollie the bump, slappy tailslide the curb to fakie then f/s halfcab flip.  Never got them all.  Never quite got a f/s flip over the bump either, but I got a second try no comply bigspin.  Skated pretty hard for how sore and tired I was.

Another hot and humid day in Wisconsin with some wind.  Ollie and I arrived at the park after a long morning of badminton and swimming in a cold lake.  To our surprise there was finally a couple other people skating. Probably in middle school.  They were ok at skating, but had the typical small town attitude towards new people.  Oh well.  I had thought about how I still wanted to do a b/s flip over the hip and a front bigspin over the hip.  I started out dorking around doing a few funny blunt stall reverts over the hip to get used to it.  I almost slammed super hard a couple times though.  I did the front blunt back 270 out that Fuzz can do on real stuff.  That was fun.  I ended up getting really close to the front big , but couldn’t land it.   I didn’t do much but a bunch of Rampy tricks on the tiny qpipe.  At one point I did a rock fakie on the top qpipe and almost died riding down the flat bank fakie.  Whew.  Ollie didn’t do much new other than a back 180 over the hip which he said he has done a few times.  He also did a back 180 out of the mellow bank.  Last day in Wisconsin!

Everyone was kinda doing there own thing in the mornign so Ollie and I took off to the park for awhile.  It was hot.  No one was at the park.  Does anyone skate in this town?  My board was less soggy than I thought it would be, but pretty flat from the rain session the day before.  I seemed to be really into slamming this day.  Not sure why.  I tried a front shove over the hip and slammed hard.  Tried to ollie the rock and slammed hard.  Ugh.  Part of the family was on a 4 mile walk around the city and was close enough to witness that slam.  Awesome.  As far as new stuff this session I managed to filannly front 50 the black ledge down the long two.  I did this after I challenged Ollie to get a blunt to fakie thing over the hip which he did first try.  Hypes us both up.  Ollie also did a bunch of ollies off the curb to manual to the next curb.  I didn’t do anything else new, but came close to b/s flip and front bigspin over the hip.

Day 3 of the family reunion and it was dry out.  Things were mellow enough for Ollie and I to take off to the skatepark.  On the 7 mile drive to the city the clouds got darker and started to mist.  Ugh.  We got to the city and it was wet.  We got to the skatepark and it started raining.  Suck.  Ollie is 8 years old and doesn’t really care about things like a noodle board or wet griptape so we decided to skate.  I didn’t skate too hard obviously.  I did a few ollies well below coping on the concrete hip, ollied up the step up, cruised around and ended things with a kickflip out of the mellow bank first try and we left.  Ollie didn’t really do anything special for him.

Today was to be day 1 of Liz’s family reunion in Black River Falls, WI.  Since they have what looks like a fun park we arrived early so that Ollie and I could skate it for awhile.  We had left from Stoughton where my brother lived and the rain was threatening the whole way, but waited until about 10 minutes from BRF to actually start sprinkling.  Ugh.  We arrived at a mostly dry park and jumped out of the car to skate.  A few warm up runs and I went down all 3 levels and missed the step up.  Ollie was right behind me and did the same thing, but didn’t know to avoid going down the step up.  I thought he was gonna die because he was going really fast after dropping down two levels already.  Somehow he pulled it off without even bailing.  I could not believe it.  I was seriously terrified that he was gonna get really hurt and he didn’t have his helmet on.  Whew.  That basically set the tone for a weird feeling that was in my stomach.  After almost getting hit by two foul balls at the Madison Mallards game the previous night I noticed that the skatepark is in the line of fire for foul balls from the nearby softball field and that scared me too.  Ugh.Anyways, the skating itself ended up being pretty fun.  I tried a run for awhile of dropping in on the top qpip then doing an axle stall then a boardslide on a bump to ledge.  Never got the boardslide clean.  I tried a bunch of frontside ollies.  There was a line where you could ollie on the qpipe, ollie into the bank, ollie over the hip, then ollie over another qpipe it, then turn around and hit the hip backside.  Pretty fun and I think a few of the ollies even left the ground.  I tried a few flippers over the street hip too which would be great but everytime you bail your board goes into mud.  There were also little rocks everywhere that would pitch you into the ground.  The rail I wanted to boardslide from looking at the skatepark photo had absolutely no runway.  I got on it, but didn’t make it to the end.  Other tricks I got were manual up the first stair and almost ollie up the second curb.  Back 180 over the hip.  Front tail on the little qpipe section.  Rock wallie.  Drop in on the weird section qpipe to wall section.  Not a great performance by any means, but it was fun and what a weird park.  Ollie was having fun cruising around too.  He did lots of slappy 50s on both the escalator qpipes (frontside was new for him), drop down manual on the very long 2, little hip ollies, rock fakies, ollie off the black ledge, manual across the deck of the street hip, and of course, managed to not die when rolling into a step up at full speed.  Pretty fun session, but man, that park is weird.

After a long morning/afternoon of swimming and football I chose to skate flat for 30 minutes instead of nap.  Ended up being awesome.  I totally expected to just do a few kickflips and c all it a session, but after a few basics went down quick I told myself to do 10 tricks then call it.  10 tricks went quick so I went for 20.  I ended up doing 30 some snail paced tricks on the rough street.  Awesome.  All 3 tre variations I can do, frontside halfcab flip, no comply flip, no comply shove, fakie bigflip, heelflip, pretty much most of my tricks.  Awesome.

First full day in WI had a slow start to be followed by lots of heat and sweat at the Middleton, WI skatepark.  My brother tried to pass on skating since he only does it about once a year when I’m around, but Ollie made him skate with us.  So awesome.  My brother still has some moves.  Little ollies on flat, front 180s and some boardslides on flat bars.  He didn’t last too long, but Ollie and I skated for a couple hours and sweat like crazy.  When we first rolled up no one was there.  Within minutes the park was mobbed by kids getting out of their last day of school.  I skated ok.  Took a long time to warm up.  A really long time.As I said the park got mobbed with kids quickly so after a few warmup runs rolling in and some axle stalls I skated the flat bar for awhile.  I almost never skate them.  There was two of them there.  One about 4″ high and the other about 8″ high.  I tried stuff I don’t normally do like front 5-0, 50, back hurricane (didn’t land) and back blunt.  I even tried front smith which I’ve NEVER tried before on a flat bar.  I was so hyped to roll away from hone.  My brother even shot the photo above.  I guess you might not think it’s me since my head is missing, but come on, the foot placement is clearly bad enough to be me.Ollie joined in on the flatbar session and tried a bunch of front boards.  He landed quite a few of them.  Most of the ones he landed he came to a halt on, but this is also the first time he’s tried that trick on a flat bar.  And yes, I can’t do a front board on a rail to save my life.  My brother took this photo too.  Do I look like a proud papa or what?  Or just some sweaty old skate dad?After awhile people started sitting as the heat was pretty intense.  So Ollie and I skated the middle of the park again.  I failed at a bunch of no comply 360s over the hip.  Ollie was trying a run where he would roll into the front of the park, do a kickturn on the steep qpipe a nosegrab to fakie on the flat bank and then a fakie ollie on the qpipe.  He did these a few times.  Then he switched it up and pumped to fakie on the qpipe and did halfcabs on the flat bank.  Eventually he did rock fakies on the steep qpipe.  Wow.  I tried to get his back with a back 50, but it was so hard.  Several tries later and a board in the puddle I finally landed it.  I also ollied a ledge that was sticking out on flat a few times and gapped from a crack to noseslide and boardslide on a good ‘butter bench’ that was probably actually the best thing at the park.   Before leaving I did a bad kickflip and a bad frontside flip over the hip and we retreated to the nearby brewery with the family.  Yum.  It’s been a long time since I’ve sweat that much.A few hours later and a few beers later Ollie and I went to the Stoughton skatepark shortly before dusk.  I had had a few beers and was pretty tired.  I slammed pretty hard right away on a backside ollie over the hip.  Might be because I actually ollied for once.  Speaking of Ollie, he skated well.  Rock fakie before me on the qpipe, backside nosegrabs on the mellow flatbank and over the hip, and his usual smile.  I sucked, but didn’t expect much.  The only newish thing I did was a fakie bigspin over the hip and a bad run of front 180 over the hip, fakie ollie on the steeper flat bank then crooks the ledge.  I did that twice and both times every trick was bad.  Awesome.

5 hour drive from Omaha on our way to Wisconsin to visit my brother and I mapped out a fun looking skatepark only a bit out of the way.  When we arrived it wasn’t very crowded and it was cloudy, humid and hot.  Ollie chose to wear his helmet so I guess the park must have looked a bit intimidating to him.  Warming up was not easy after 5 hours of driving.  I cruised around for a long time not really doing much of anything.  Ollie on the other hand is a kid and doesn’t know anything about warming up.  He was doing longer back 50s up the slappy escalator than me and coming into the qpipe fine.  He also did some where he would come to a stop then grind backwards.  So awesome.  I think I would skate the street stuff a lot here if I lived nearby.  I found some lines I wanted to do, but everytime I’d start really trying them that area of the park would get overrun by scooters, bikers or mall grabbers.  I was able to get a few where I did tricks on a big flat bank, kickflip into a mellow bank then front 50 a ledge.  The flat bank tricks I got were backside flip, fakie shoves, fakie flip, frontside flip, no comply bigspin and eventually a super ugly and rare for me fakie treflip.  I didn’t always get the last part of the run and sometimes I wanted to back 180 out, but I always failed.  I also failed at manual, nose manual and kickback 50.  I got one kinda fast crooks.  The last part of the day Ollie was just doing flyout grabs off a 2′ qpipe into grass.  It pretty much ruled to watch.  He did a bunch of really good nosegrabs where he even rode out of it in the grass.  He tried some melons and indy’s but didn’t get them.  Pretty fun session.  That park is not all that, but the street course has some fun lines for sure.

Got picked up at Liz’s house at 5pm by Mr Matt Rief and had a long air conditioned ride to Fremont.  First stop was some food by Runza then a warm up and the world famous ledge at Linden.  From Off The Couch to the Berrics this ledge has been blowing up.  Matt and Dan quickly reminded the ledge that they were the ones who made this spot famous.  Dan had manual to bluntslide, front 5-0 front board, manual front shove out, so much more.  Matt had nollie front 5-0 shove, long long front 5-0, back crooks, back 5-0 everything is easy for him.  I was sucking, but having fun.  Got into a few halfcab crooks that could have been the real one finally, but they weren’t.  After awhile Matt and Dan brought out the ‘Secret Spot’ aka Matt’s ledge and put it down the ledge.  They both did a few non stock tricks like they were stock tricks.  I had a couple runs with kickflip up the concrete ledge then boardslide or noseslide down the secret spot.  I was gonna try and get Matt’s back with a front 50 when he landed a back lip, but the deal wore off before he landed it.  Fremont treflip expert Chris showed up and did a few not basic at all tricks before we moved on to the next spot.We drove to a spot “downtown” that was called “Ghetto Spot”.  It’s funny to hear Fremont dudes talk like there is a downtown or ghetto in Fremont, NE.  But anyways, the spot was a torn down building foundation and it ended up being a super killer session.  There was a ledge you could ride along then ollie up a curb height and manual to either a bank ramp or a 4 stair.  We chose to try manuals or just flippers into the bank.  Chris did a bunch of tricks easy.  Treflip, hardflip, nollie inward heel, anything.  Dan did manual front shove quick like, manual casper flip quick like and managed to leave half of his shin on the ledge while trying to ollie south up it.  Almost made me puke looking at the pile of his hair and skin piled on the edge.  Ouch.  Matt did a bunch of nollie heels that went awol and he would almost come to a halt going down the bank. So awesome.  He also front 180’d onto the ledge which surprised me.  Also a quick up to nollie flip out of the bank.  I skated good for me at this spot and was super motivated.  Kickflip, pop shove, halfcab flip all came pretty quick into the bank.  I also nose manualled around into the bank and did a couple runs.  Front 180 up the curb, first try awkward fakie bigflip into the bank.  Kickflip up the curb then ride onto a different ledge and front 180 a little gap.  Also kickflip up and no comply shove into the bank.  It took several tries, but I also got a treflip into the bank which was probably the highlight for me.  It was slow, but I landed it good and it’s probably the hardest bank I’ve ever done that trick into.  I ended with little ollie over the corner to manual down the bank which seemed very basic to me but Dan and Matt seemed to like it.Dan dropped us off as his shin was done.  We were gonna skate a painted curb, but a janitor dumping trash led us to wander around and we found these weird banks that had lots of lines in the concrete and were about ledge height to get onto.  At first nobody had anything on them, but we kept skating them and things happened.  Chris did a kickflip up onto one.  Matt did ollie up then kickflip to fakie.  Yeah Daewon!  100 tries later and I did a lunch breaked ollie up to no comply shove to fakie.  Fun.  The next spot had some wallie curbs, a curb cut pyramid and a little gap.  Chris ollied the curb cut to curb cut jump pretty quick.  I kinda dorked around as I was pretty beat.  The only thing worth writing about would be the end with a front shove up the curb then a weak ollie down the gap.  The gap was basically a long two stair that you could cheat which I definitely did.  Matt slammed a bunch on back 180’s over the gap.  I think he got it in the end.  Chris closed down the day with an epic kickflip over the curb cut jump.  Such a good way to end an epic session.  Fremont, you dudes rule.