My back was still spasming pretty bad, but my legs felt good. I wanted to skate. Jake called me and said he was at the Boulder park. What the heck, I figured I could at least carve the bowl. I met Jake, Neil and Jason there. Jake and I carved around the bowl for awhile. Well, I carved and Jake ripped it. He’s got some moves on the coping even. We migrated into the main area where I finally did a grind on the east wall and some long grinds on the little steep q-pipe. Neil was busting some big ollies. Jake was killing everything. He did a body jar on the extension! Near the end we skated the ledge a little bit where Neil put down his front shove back 50, Jake did front 50 to front board and Jason did front 5-0. I boardslid down the backside one. We then played a game of SKATE in the parking lot that I somehow won. It included easily the worst 360 flip of my life. It never left the ground. So funny. Heelflip was the last trick. I actually would like to skate Boulder park again sometime. Rad.

Slept in way to late again on a Sunday.  Cleaned for awhile, had a long talk with Liz, etc then went skating.  My back/side had started hurting.  Probably from carrying in India from the car the previous night after the Rockies game.  Ugh.  Jason picked me up and we then picked up Nate and met with Neil and Fuzz at Fuzz’s house.  I had to setup new wheels after the previous flat spot session and since there are 200 boards at my house I figured you can’t setup new wheels without a new deck too right?Since I’ve been feeling really old and older lately I figured I should draw an old man on my griptape.  Unfortunately it seems less funny and more accurate then I had hoped for.Oh well, at Fuzz’s I realized my back was hurting more than ever.  I drank a couple beers as we watched the incredible Slave video.  Then we went to a tiny bank to curb spot that Fuzz and Jason killed.  Nate had some long mannies, Neil some hard nose mannies.  I was too sore to ollie so just kinda slappied into various slides.  The fakie tailslide slappies being my favorite.  Fuzz and Jason were able to do real slappies and even front 5-0s and tails.  So sick.After a liquor store run we went to this bank spot where I sat out and watched since there was no way my back could handle that action.  Photos stolen from Carleighs site even though I took some of the photos.Jason backside ollie with Tall Can Me BGPs.Fuzz kickflip up to the next level.Gnarly Carleigh frontside ollie. Carleigh’s camera is fun to shoot photos with.Nate got trick of the session with a nose manual on the upper deck.The crew.  Camera shy Fuzz, Not-Camera-Shy Carleigh, Hightower, Would have skated this spot if the video camera was around Neil, Nicknate.Next up we went to another bank spot, but way mellower.  I pouned another tall can and was kinda able to bend enough to do no complies. I would roll off the two stair into the bank and do a no comply bigspin on the opposite bank. I was trashed and having a blast. Out of the blue I tried a no comply bigger spin and put it down first try bolts. One of the funnest tricks I’ve ever done. I rode away laughing and Jason and Carleigh were cracking up too. So cool.I tried another one, but never got it. Carleigh took a sympathy photos which looks way more like a 360 flip to fakie which I surely didn’t even try. A couple other tricks I had fun with were wallies up the two stair and some slappy noseslide tricks. Fun times. Jason, Neil and Nate took turns trying to ollie the small, but totally awkward gap. Nate got it. Peep the photos at gnarlycarleigh.com.

Woke up late on a Saturday and had to get rolling quick to Denver to get India to the Tech Fair.  After a few hours at the Science Museum and a first place prize to India (seriously) I took Ollie and his buddy Sam skating instead of walking around the museum.  We went to a nearby loading dock banked area where I sucked it up.  Ollie was ripping though.  It’s basically a manual pad, but with banked edges and some hips.  I did some bad ollies in various ways which were way harder and worse than they should be.  Some manuals.  Ended it with a f/s halfcab flip on the mellow bank.  Ollie did a bunch of his little ollies and halfcabs into trannies.  He also did a nosegrab to flat that blew me away.  His buddy Sam was had fun too and even ate shit a couple times rolling into the bank.Then we drove around looking for some other spots.  We found a couple loading dock spots.  One I did a front board shove transfer on.  One I powerslid down and ruined my wheels.  Like completely destroyed them.  I wish the new Null wheels would be here already.  Oh well, I had an ok time.  My groin was hurting a bit all day though and I just plain felt awkward on a skateboard.

Got off work at a decent time and had less than an hour before India’s talent show.  It was raining of course (WTF is this weather?) so I met up with Nate and we shredded Red Curbs a bit before the parking emptied out.  Nate warmed up way quicker than me.  No surprise there.  We kinda started out on the 2 stair ledge initially.  Nate rattled off a couple basics then went to nollie back lip and kick back fail.  I started with a decent crooks then went to sw front board attempts for some reason.  Never landed one and questioned why I was even bothering with it.  Fakie nosegrinds were good to me again.  Got one first try on the ledge and another one on a red curb.   Not really sure what else went down.  We didn’t have much time.  I know flip tricks were still not being nice to me and Nate battled the kick back fail for quite some time.

It’s the middle of May here folks and it’s still beanie weather.  Now I like beanies as much the next skater, but I’m seriously over this cold weather.  Enough.  Uncle.  Argh.  Anyways I met Jason over at Red Curbs for a couple hours of fun filled curb skating.  Jason was hungover again and I was still feeling really rusty.  Before Jason got there I did a couple warm up lines that hyped me up and depressed me at the same time.  I did tricks like slappy front tail to fakie, slappy backwards noseslide (switch without an ollie) and front board popouts on the ledge.  All going 2 mph and all with bad style.  I blame that on my groin being stiff.  It seems to be getting better still though.  Not as much pain and I don’t feel like I’m doing permanent damage anymore.I kept it mellow the whole night taking more breaks than normal.  Some highlights of the session were a small kick back tailslide where it actually slid a little, front 50 back 180 out, back 50s almost every try, fakie nosegrind, slappyies, bad flip tricks and not being hurt.  Jason did some good tailslides, lipslides, slappies and ended it with a solid back tailslide.  Rad.  Shortly before leaving I started hucking some tail drop 3 shoves and got one.  That’s new for me, but it’s just kind of a dork trick until I do it on El Toro.

The weirdly cold weather seemed to cause some odd behaviors as the pre session activies were legos and tech decks. And no, it wasn’t Ollie playing them. Lazer was into the Legos and John was feeling the Tech Decks. So funny. Lazer has some sweet Tech Deck moves on top of his Lego skills too. Ha.  This was all happening while Ollie and his friend Cooper were actually skating on Rampy.Anyways we eventually went out to skate.  John, Lazer, Carleigh and I.  Overall the session was pretty mellow.  I pretty much sucked the entire time.  I didn’t land anything new and I rarely landed more than a couple tricks.  I got most of my Rampy tricks eventually.  Lazer showed up Carleigh with a first try kickflip rock fakie and his assorted bag of awesomeness.  John had the longest runs and the most kickturns below coping.  He was ripping for sure though.  Carleigh took a minute to get the front disaster, but eventually almost put her dream run together.  Not the best Rampy session for me, but we had fun.

Feeling pretty good, but not knowing what would really happen with my groin pull so I didn’t feel like calling anyone in case I had to bail right away. It ended up working out fine. I haven’t done an evening skate session in a long time and it felt weird. I drove by Steel Yards, but there was too many cars. Then I went to Valmont. I warmed up oh so slowly and skated slow and cautious, but started to push myself a bit again and it felt good. I started out doing manuals and tricks up/down the curbs. I felt so rusty. I eventually went over to the ledge. I mostly did halfcab noseslides over and over until I landed most of them. I also tried a few slow front crooks which I never landed. I did a few flippers too. Heelflip, 360 flip, halfcab flips, fakie flips. I tried a run for awhile of halfcab noseslide then b/s flip and got that. Then I tried adding a blunt to pivot to shove out on the curb but never got that one. At the end I did a couple ollies off the low part of the ledge and called it a night.

After a huge Mothers Day dinner and a quick nap Ollie and I rolled over to Creekside for the last few remaining minutes of light.  My groin didn’t complain at all for once.  I had swam earlier in the day and I think that helped a lot along with starting slow and keeping it mellow.  We did the same ol’ stuff for the most part.  Ollie was ripping.  He manualled across and down the narrow sidewalk first try, popped some decent ollies, pushed regular for a tiny bit, and landed a pop shove it to fakie on the brick section.  So rad.  I kept it mellow but was able to do more than I have lately.  I ollied a chalk gap, fakie ollied some cracks, did a few back shoves up the curb, did a lot of 180s up/off, a few flip tricks and had fun.  Maybe I’ll be skating more, maybe my groin will freak out again.  I have no idea.

Thinking my groin would let me skate I got all my stuff done in the morning and waited for people to show up.  2 hours and 20 phone calls later we left a very nice and sunny Boulder.  Brian, Nate, Fuzz, Jam and I met up with Jason and Carleigh in Longmont and we drove to Ft Collins since I needed to sell some Null good at MRKT.  Fuzz piled in with Jason too and got to experience the 90 degree heat of Jason’s car going well under the speed limit.  Ha it’s gonna be awhile before people are willing to pile into Jason’s car again.  Anyways, our ride up was smooth and after a short stop at Ernie Novembers in Cheyenne we arrived to a windy, cloudy and cold skatepark.The session was a weird one.  Fuzz focused his band new board immediately due to frustration with the wind/cold/park.  My groin was hurting and preventing me from doing more than pose out.  Nate was ripping.  Carleigh was slamming trying front 50s down a little hubba.  Jason was skating the little mini q-pipe.  Brian was cruising around warming up and landing tricks that make everyone smile.  There was a bunch of Ft Collins and Cheyenne heads there too.Nate did a really sick back board up the lower rail.  Carleigh got her front 50.  Brian did a bunch of tricks on the banked ledge.  Matt was killing the banked ledge too.  Jason did some front boards.  I had some fun finally carving around the mellower bowl with Nate.  We both found some good lines, but couldn’t link them with any above the coping tricks.  Oh well.  At the end Brian did a skier front rock on the bank that was so ridiculous and Matt almost got blunt kickflip out.

We left and went to a bank spot that turned into a weird wallride on an inverted picnic table spot.  Brian got a good front wallride.  Fuzz used my board and in between squirming out with my loose trucks managed a good fakie wallride and almost a wallride body varial.  Matt did some really easy looking wallride basics before giving up on a wallride shove out.  This other dude Eric tried wallride nollies out and eventually tail dropped from the table.  Sick.Me dropping in. Photo by Carleigh.Next we went to the Pier 1 spot.  After a quick Mikes Margeritta my groin loosened up and I was able to skate without much pain.  I dropped in a couple placed and tried to manual the top part.  Jason and Nate got some really good frontside ollies.  Eric ate shit so hard trying to frontside carve over the bike tunnel.  It was a brutal slam up there with some of the gnarlier slams I’ve ever seen. Ouch.  Eventually I also got a couple weak b/s kickflips on the bank and did some powerslides for no real reason other than they are fun.  We left and eventually ate dinner in Ft Collins and had a blast drinking some beers together.  Many laughs were had and we didn’t get back home until 2am.  Awesome.

Was at the Mob Factory in Evergreen with John slinging some product and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to skate their miniramp.  I took it real ease and conservative.  That ramp has some kinds and is really different than Rampy so I had some issues.  I managed a few back 50 reverts and fakie smiths to fakie before almost popping my groin again.  I somehow manuevered out of it and it’s ok.  It wanted to pop and be painful again though.  Ugh.John was ripping though.  Back smiths, backside ollies, fakie front shoves, front tails, blunt to pivot, frontside slasher 270, much more and closed it off with a couple backside blunts on the pool coping part.  Radical.