Met up pretty late with Carleigh on a hot night.  After some cruising around we ended up at the Wells Fargo qp and were warming up when some hippy dude came up to Carleigh and said, “You have big tits for a skater chick.”  Pretty funny.  We left that area pretty quickly.  Not because of the hippy dude, but because we felt like we were gonna shoot our boards into a window.  We ended up at a dumb little double sided curb that we waxed up with the first attempt at GraNULLa wax (way too oily).  Carleigh got quick up to boardslide.  I got manual to front board and quick up to slappy lip that didn’t slide, but I’m still counting it.  After some more dorking around we ended up at the popout ledge and skated it for a long time.  Carleigh got some good noseslides.  I did the best front board popout I’ve ever done then one of the funnest lines I’ve ever done.  Sw front 180 off the curb across the street, kickflip up the curb, crook, roll into the street then put down the easiest treflip I’ve ever done.  I giggled like crazy when I landed it.  It sent a jolt of happiness through my body I can’t describe in words.  Never have I done a 360 flip that felt that easy.  I almost wanted to quit skating right there, but instead struggled with some pop shoves up the curb.  This really tall dude Max met up with us for awhile and skated with a ton of energy and creativity.  Drop down nose manual across the street, axle stall kickflip back to axle stall (wtf?), lots of fun tricks.  After that we headed to Mountain Sun and had a few beers.  We even stole a couple from a table that didn’t drink theirs.  Awesome.

Super exhausted from the long day of skating / premiere before.  I skated in shorts for the first time in awhile just doing flatground.  I was skating a bit faster than normal which probably explains why I didn’t land much.  I struggled with heelflips, 360 flips and frontside halfcab flips while landing my first in awhile nollie varial flip.  I was barely moving for that one of course.

This might very well be the last skate session with Nate as he’s moving to Portland.  He’s been one of my favorite skate homies ever and a great friend.  Best of luck in Portland Nate, can’t wait to skate with you again.Ok, now that your eyes are all teary lets move on to the skating.  It seemed like things took forever to get organized, but eventually Jason, Carleigh, Nate, Neil and I headed to Broomfield to get warmed up.  Before we left I had skated the curb in my back yard for a bit and did a front smith stall kickflip out.  Nice.  Anyways Broomfield wasn’t very crowded and the weather was much cooler than normal.  We ended up all skating pretty hard for about an hour.  It seemed like everyone was landing new stuff.  I don’t really remember what everyone was doing.  I remember Nate trying nollie big back heel to fakie nose manual.  He didn’t get too close, but even just getting that close is ridiculous.  I found a new wallie angle at the bottom of the wallride bank that hyped me up.  I came close to kickflip manuals on the blue box.  I really don’t remember what we all landed, but we were all skating non-stop and having fun.The first place we ended up was this weird alley spot. Above is Nate doing a 5-0. Peep Carleigh’s site for more photos. This spot is way harder to skate than it looks. The air conditioning units get in the way and there are cracks everywhere and it’s downhill. But it’s so fun. John, Chris Jones and Daryl met us here. It took a long time for the older ones (Chris and Daryl not included) to land anything. I only got front 50 and 5-0 (but the 5-0 was intended to be a 50). I also did a couple rock stall funny turn arounds on other stuff. John got front 50 and sw back nose and a crazy quick up to front 50 against the window. Jason did a bunch of good front 50s and ended it with a sick front nose to fakie. Chris dorked around mostly and did some crazy stuff. Daryl pretended to be the pro oh his shoes (Pappalardo) and ollied up the crazy tall loading dock. Nate did everything. Front 5-0, front 50, front nosegrind, front 5-0 back 180, front nosegrind back 180, nose manny the wood ledge, he officially owned it. Carleigh didn’t skate it at first but started working on noseslides and shut the session down with an accidental 180 nosegrind to fakie. Sick!Next was the taller white ledge in the alley near Civic park.  Nate wanted to get a line with a kick back tail.  While he warmed up I ended up getting a decent run for me.  Good for me halfcab flip, noseslide, treflip.  The halfcab flip felt really good.  I slammed pretty hard trying to front 50 it.  Jason got a good front board pop out, back noseslides, front nose.  I filmed Nate for awhile try a line of nollie tre then kick back tail.  He put the best nollie tres down, but never got the kick back tail.  Doh.After a couple wallies out of the grate wallie dock and a quick kick out at the art center we went out for dinner then to the Transworld Hallelujah premiere.  It was pretty crowded and hard to see, but it was fun.  Tyler Bledsoe’s back tail for 20 feet to b/s flip out is ridiculous.  Taylor Bingaman skates coping  really well wether it’s down stairs or on tranny.  Pete Eldridge was in the crowd and looking sharp.  Denver is well represented in the montage which totally rules.  Ryan Decenzo does some crazy ass tricks.  Torey Pudwill does so many NBDs it’s ridiculous.  There was some controversy after the video finished in that Nate and I liked the NBD part the best, Fuzz and John liked the coping dancer the best.  But we agreed to disagree and everything was fine.  Seems like it’ll be a great video to watch over and over.After the premiere we went to a 24 hour diner filled with typical late night diner folks.  It was awesome.  I was exhausted.

Had a long day at work, my phone wasn’t working well, and I was tired when I got off work.  Before eating dinner Carleigh rolled up and after a stop to Meta we met up with Neil and Brian at Broomfield.  I started off sucking and kept a right on sucking until almost the end.  I did nothing remotely decent until “10 min and we’re out” when I finally got a front feeb on the little qpipe and backed it up with a 2 mph kick back tail on the blue ledge.  Carleigh skated pretty well.  She did lots of front 50s on the black ledge and boardslides down the little rail.  Brian has front baords on lock down the little rail, skated a lot of the pool and did a front feeble to fakie for his first trick while complaining it wasn’t a pivot.  Neil rips that place.  The front slash on the wallride to ollie over the little rail line is my favorite.  Max and Davis were there ripping too.  Max ollied up the euro ledge without the kicker.  Ridiculous.   Those kids rip.  I mostly skated like poo and was depressed about until the very end.  I guess it’s better late then never.

Liz’s birthday!  We had dinner, hung out in the mountains and I skated Rampy while she read to the kids.  Nothing new went down.  I struggled a bit at frontside disasters, but got a few Rampy tricks I haven’t done in awhile.  Fakie front 50 stall to rock ‘n roll, fakie front smith stall fakie, front 50, it was fun.  It’s nice doing a short Rampy night followed by long hours in the streets the next night.

Jason biked to my house on a nice night then I drove down to the manny pad.  We warmed up for a bit as the last few minutes of sunlight dissolved.  For maybe the first time ever we both landed our first manual attempts.  It took me a few tries to get nose manny and Jason came close to that trick too.  I got a heelflip up the curb first try and thought I could back it with a heelflip manny, but ended up not being able to even get the heelflip again.  Love it.  Other then that I got a kickfrip manual, fake bigspin up, and was trying nollie shove manual when we left.  On the way out I took a few tries to get the stupid tiny ollie ollie up the two curbs.  So bummed.We cruised up Walnut like the old days.  We used to warm up at the manny pad a lot then cruise up Walnut.  But now Walnut isn’t so great so we walked here and there.  Jason seemed to be more in the mood for sleeping and backed it up by not really skating anything for another hour or two.  It’s so weird skating with someone who doesn’t seem hyped at all.  Ugh.  I guess some people would probably blame me for enjoying crappy spots too much, but I’m not gonna apologize for enjoying skateboarding.  So anyways, I skated, Jason kind hung out and sat around, bitched, watched, texted, etc.   I had fun at the median spot across from the bus station.  I tried front 180 nose manuals, kickflip manual, kick back tails unsuccessfully.  I had fun in the brick area for a bit trying flip tricks and ollieing onto the narrow ledge around the flowers.  I got a couple front 50s around the knobs on the red ledge, back 50s and even a couple front crooks to fakie using the wall  It’s a lot harder to manual with all the flowers sticking out.  I did a couple mannies and noseslide the tall two stair ledge I skated once over the winter.  I was happy that the ledge didn’t seem nearly as tall.   We hit the alley kicker for a bit.  I got a couple mediocre ollies, back 180, crappy b/s flip, slammed going fakie on a rock.  Jason did a couple ollies.We ended up at the white ledge spot and Jason finally skated.  We both got some back 50s.  He does them way higher up further than me.  Jason got a good noseslide too.  I ended up getting a few crooks which surprised me.  Not sure if I’ve ever tried them there before, but it worked out pretty good.  I grinded a lot further then my typical little jib.  I ollied the yellow curb into the lower sidewalk.  It’s not much of a drop, but it is fun.  Then we both started trying lines.  Jason got ollie, back 50 easy.  Then he did it with a little quick up to front board transfer on the yellow curb.  Tight.  I had a couple crappy ollies followed by crooks and then would bail a 3 flip.  Eventually I tried front shoves and ended up putting down a good run for myself.  Front shove, crooks pop out then 360 flip on flat.  That really hyped me up.We headed out to stop by Carleigh’s new place.  I’m not sure which route Jason went, but I decided to hit a few things on the way.  Front 180 up onto the ledge behind Wells Fargo followed by sw fs 180 off, back 180 up some curbs, back 50 the red knobbed curb, manual a median, manual up the bust station median, etc.  Fun way to end it.

I was super beat from the downtown denver session the night before.  So beat that I fell asleep on the couch three times.  I didn’t think I’d skate at all, but I ended up going out to Rampy for a short session.  Two Daisy Chainsaw songs on the boom box later I was done.  I landed almost everything I tried and got a few tricks first try like fakie pivot fakie, back 50 fakie, front tough guy fakie which was enough for me to feel satisfied.

I had no time to rest after work.  Get home, eat, load up car, pick up others, arrive late at 303, do business and boom  skate.  We started out by going to a ledge Jason wanted to hit.  Kinda tall and not as slick as last time, but we had fun.  Jason and I got back noseslides.  Nate did 50’s and 5-0s.  I got a lucky first try crooks jib and was unable to quite get a front 50.  I also dorked around on some little ollie over a parking block after a downhill handicap ramp which was super dumb.  A few powerslides later the cops came as Nate was getting into kick back tails so we left.We ended up at this weird curved ledge ollie into a tiny bank.  Nate ollied into it first.  Me second.  Carleigh third then Jason first try.  I got another one that was more directly into the bank which felt pretty cool.Next was a long curved ledge that Jason waxed up real good.  Nate killed it with long front 50s then long front 5-0s.  Carleigh almost got some noseslides.  This ledge wasn’t short and it was poorly lit.  Jason got some super long back noseslides.  I got some noseslides, short front 50 and shorter front 5-0.  Came somewhat close to a noseslide to crooks.  I may have even technically landed one as it felt like the truck got up on there, but if you aren’t sure then it don’t count.  Security kicked us out.Next up was hill bombing.  So fun!  I chose to do some powerslides this time instead of just pointing the whole way which was way more fun.  We hiked up to do it again, but a cop parked nearby so Nate, Carleigh and I waited til he left.  Jason wandered off somewhere so we had to wait.  The second hill bomb was even funner.A bit of skating down the street later we ended up at the long and tiny 2 stair.  Carleigh and Nate ollied it first try.  I took about 10 tries.  It was still fun though.After getting kicked out of the 2 stair boardslide ledge before any of us could land it we ended up at a wide two stair that we did tricks up/off or manuals.  Nate got manual and nose manual then ollied a huge gap over a ashtray.  So sick.  Carleigh got back shove down the two.  Jason got manual and the best slam on a back 180 attempt up.  I worked for a switch front 180 up then kickflip off.  I’ve never done a sw 180 up two before.  Yippee.We hit a nearby ledge for a few quick boardslides and sick manuals through the skate stoppers by Nate and Jason before getting the boot and everyone agreed we were too tired to skate anymore.  Three hours of downtown skating will do that.  Such a fun night.

Picked up Jake and met John at Nate’s place around sunset.  Instead of going inside to watch the new Blueprint video we started skating the basketball court.  After some warming up, a dog barking at us and chasing our boards, me accidentally shooting my board at Jake’s ankle (it barely missed) and Nate and I complaining about our hangovers a game of SKATE ensued.  Although my head was hurting, my legs felt better than normal.  Interesting.  The game went on for awhile.  Nate was being nice.  I ended up winning.  My favorite tricks were treflip, a solid f/s halfcab flip and a really good feeling heelflip.  Shortly after the game Nate did like 5 tricks that would have easily taken all of us out.  He landed triple flip, nollie double flip, sw double flip, so much.Next we cruised nearby to this little kicker to downhill then on to a new banked ledge.  It was pretty dark, but we skated it for awhile anyways.  Jake learned front blunts.  John did back blunt, blunt to pivot, his patented back smith.  Nate killed it.  Boardslide to fakie, boardslide regs, front boardslide fakie, blunt fakie.  I had fun there.  Back 50, back 5-0, front slash, boardslide regs, and came close to boardslide fakie and noseslide.  We hit a kicker spot for a tiny bit.  I got a kickflip.  Jake got sw front 180 and Nate cruised around ollie’ing some stuff.  John hung up on a crack and slammed hard, lost his shit and focused his board.  John is the nicest dude until he hits a rock or crack and goes down.On the way back to the car I ollied a little curb to parking lot gap and then 180’d it after boardsliding a parking block.  Nate ollied a taller part of it all steezey.  In front of Taco Bell I got kickflip up the curb, kickflip off.  Fun.  We hit the little bank halfpipe in the middle of 28th st for a bit.  John borrowed Nate’s board and did blunt pivot fakie.  I did a pivot fakie with my patents late revert style.  Fun night.  Then Nate and I watched the blueprint video which is pretty incredible.

Had a busy Saturday going and it was super hot, near 100.  Liz and I were having some friends over for dinner so I had to get my skating in after running some errands and before dinner.  Jason was down so I met him at the ballpark ledges.  We both dorked around for awhile to warm up by going super slow and stalling noseslides as long as we could which was harder than we figured it would be.  Eventually we got to “real” skating which isn’t much faster for me, but it now included bailed grind attempts as well.  Jason got his run a few times.  Back nose the first ledge, front board the second, chinese crack fakie ollie body varial, front noseslide.  Best run!  I mostly tried back noseslides to crooks.  Got pretty close once which is cool because I’ve never landed that trick.  I want to learn that one.  Other then a few landed 360 flips I mostly bailed everything and couldn’t ollie high enough to grind the ledge good.  Doh.