Ollies Birthday!  He’s 8.  Wow!  For his birthday he wanted pizza at Abo’s and to play a few video games.  On top of that he wanted to skate there.  Awesome.  We started off to the bikepath and I felt a weird pain in my groin.  Oh no.  It ended up not coming up again and we had fun.  Ollie stopped and hit a couple little things on the way.  We hit a bump near Abo’s and I got a kickflip and Ollie did, well, an ollie.  Ollie ollie.  After dinner we went the same way, but it’s mostly downhill.  Ollie almost did a wallride to fakie on the banked wall at 1st Bank.  It’s crazy because it’s steep and you have to wallie in.  The ride home was fun.  Ollie was having a blast and doing 10 – 15′ manuals like nothing at speed.  So sick!  I fakie ollied a bunch of cracks.  Not a long session, but I needed a bread from a long night anyway.  Happy birthday Ollie!

After a long day at work, dinner and a nap I picked up Jake and Nate and we cruised to Longmont to meet John.  He was at the checkerboard manny pad so we me him there.  John was doing nose manny 180s into the bank when we arrived.  Nate quickly manny and nose mannied it as well as manual front 180 out to straight leg landing.  Ha.  Jake went to work on some lines.  Front 180 up, frontside halfcab off.  Front 180 up, sw front 180 off.  Ollie up, nollie off. John tried nose manny slappy tail back to nose manny and got kinda close.  I never got a clean manny or nose manny.  The only thing I did I was hyped on was getting close to a front bluntslide on the parking block.  We left after some dude at a nearby apartment went on a rampage swearing at us asking us if we could read the no skateboarding signs.  Oh well.We went to the park which was more crowded than I thought it would be considering it was pretty chilly.  The four of us started off with a game of SKATE.  I haven’t skated flatground in awhile, but luckily it didn’t show as bad as I would have thought.  The elders (John and I) made quick work of the young ones (Ha).  The tricks were decent.  3 flip, fakie flip, heelflip, sw flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip and more.  John beat me in the end with the b/s flip.For awhile everyone was kinda doing their own thing.  I wasn’t skating well, but was at least skating harder than I’ve been able to lately.  I noseslid the bank to tall ledge, b/s flip on the flat bank, kickflip fakie on the bank.  After awhile a ledge session ensued.  John has such a cool bag of old guy meets young guy tricks.  Slappy sw noseslides shoves out.  Stuff like that which is awesome.  Jake did a bunch of back 50s and put down some crooks and front 5-0 front 180 out.  I got some slasher grinds (smith attempts not dipped enough), back 50s, back 5-0, halfcab noseslide, crooks and a lot of tries on front 5-0 shove out.  Nate was trying to back lip the whole darn ledge.  So sick.  he almost got it.Next up a hip ollie session went down.  John won that one.  Nate came in second and I clearly took last.  I love how I’ve been skating 20 years or something and can’t ollie over a hip and get more than a foot of air.  Oh well.  At the end of the session Nate and John ollied up and down the step up, I ollied the step up and I did 3/4 360flips before the light shut off.  I landed the last one as the lights shut off.  Felt cool and a fun way to end a fun session.

After a late night and long morning celebrating 12 years of marriage to the greatest woman ever I met up with Brian, Neil, Fuzz and eventually Jake downtown.  We started near Canyon center and kinda cruised around everyone having troubles warming up and doing some pretty funny ollies and whatnot.  After awhile Brian and I eyed up a frontside wallride and Brian put it down second try.  So sick.  I kept trying them and Brian and I were goofing off in between talking about how we should call the next old man video “Off The Couch 2 With a Vengeance” or something.  I was totally dorking out lining up all fast then dragging my foot to a halt and doing a stationary kickflip then trying the frontside wallride.  I never got the wallride, but came really close and for the first time ever put two feet down and feel like I could land it there sometime.  It helped being able to grab the top of the wall.  Ha.Then we went into the Canyon Center area where Brian and Fuzz did some insanely sick wallies before Jake joined us and we skated the shorter banks trying tricks.  I had gone back to sucking, but Fuzz and Brian put down some cool tricks.  Fuzz had switch pivot fakie.  Brian did feeble lunchbreak to fakie.  Then we rolled down the alley just kinda skating whatever.  We hit a little manny pad for a minute.  Fuzz put down front 180 nose man and did it switch too.  Jake tried manny front 180 out.  I sucked.  Brian almost nose mannied it.  We ended up at Wells Fargo.  Jake almost got a back shove out of the little qpipe.  I sucked.  Neil sat.  Brian did a blunt to fakie.  Fuzz tail dropped from afar into the qpipe.  A cop came and we left.  On the way out I tried a few half assed attempts at nosesliding the brick ledge out of the top part of the Canyon Center.  Felt good to try it even though I didn’t get close.

Went to Southern Hills with Ollie and 5 of his buddies.  Most of which were cool, but there was a loud one in the group that was kinda driving me nuts.  Oh well.  Ollie was having fun and so were his friends.  Lots of ollies down the two stair and off the benches, manuals down the handicap ramp and some funny, intentional falls.  I was completely sucking.  Sucking sucking sucking.  The only things I felt decent about were my noseslides.  Everything else sucked.  Ollies, kickflips, basically anything requiring coordination.  It was so embarrassing.  I could barely olllie up the two stair and it took me like 8 tries to ollie down it (from the crack).  Ugh.  I’m glad Ollie had fun at his party, but man I sucked and it was depressing.

Got home after work and felt really good.  I could not suppress the urge to skate.  I went out to the street and tried one kickflip. BOLTS.  I went to go back inside, but some kids skating at the school came over so Ollie and I went over with them and skated.  This little 5th grade kid was ripping.  180s the four stair both ways and kickflips and other tricks on flat.  Cool.  Ollie was a bit shy at first but busted out the video trick part a few times.  He even did a front board pop out on accident this time.  I was skating pretty cautious again, but not as cautious as the day before.  I played on the curb at the top of the stairs for awhile just kinda testing different moves like 180s in and out of stuff.  Nothing hurt.  I started hucking kick back tails and got 3 of them.  Rad!  I did a couple flippers on flat, but nothing serious.   I guess I’m skating again, but still gonna be cautious for a bit.

Was in Denver all day with John spreading the Null and John wanted to skate.  I was hesitant but willing to skate a small qpipe so we hit the Zuni park and it ended up being a blast.  I skated ridiculously cautious and managed not to hurt myself.  I tried a couple ollies on flat and that wasn’t a good idea.  The tricks I had fun were a long for me back feeble grind, back tail on the no coping section and some front tails.  John was killing it.  Proper back smiths. back lip revert, tall backside ollies, front shove into the bank, alley oop fakie grinds, a lot more.  Fun time.  My groin definitely started to feel weird by the end of the session.  Not really hurt, but didn’t feel good.  I think I’ll be able to skate for real in a few days.  Prolly wont skate again before then, but who knows.OH AND THIS SESSION WAS MY 100TH DAY OF SKATING SO FAR THIS YEAR!!!

Met John at the Boulder park and Rick was there too.  It was getting dark so we left soon.  We picked up Nate and headed to a random bikepath spot that John had scoped out.  It wasn’t that great, but we made the most of it.  I can’t really describe what this place was like too easily.  Basically it was a sidewalk that ran sideways along the road then went down to a nearby bikepath.  The top of the sidewalk banked up to the road making for a kicker.  The approach wasn’t easy.  Nate took the quick up over a grass gap route.  John and I took the swerve around the grass approach.  Not a whole lot went down.  We all ollied in from the road then over the grass gap.  Later on I ollied in a little later so the grass gap was slightly larger.  Fun.  John got a steezey back 180 out of the kicker.  Nate got some really good ollies out and looked like he could learn front 360s.  I got a kickflip and front pop shove out of the kicker and tried my best to improve upon my horrible ollies a little bit.  It was fun.Then we drove to find another spot, but stumbled upon an unwaxed ledge spot and just kinda dorked around.  There was this little electric box cover that Nate and John skated pretty well.  John got back lip and back tail.  Nate was ollieing a decent sized flat gap to setup for it and followed with some cool tricks.  At one point I was trying to do a switch manual on an inch high manny pad and something weird happened in my groin and I went down.  It hurt really bad.  At that point I stopped skating with any intensity and felt like I might have to take some time off.  Ugh.  That was basically the end of the session.

To celebrate David Letterman, Shannon Doherty and my birthday the family and I wanted to eat at Suki Thai.  Everyone was gonna bike there, but my tires were flat so I skated.  The bikepath there is really fun and fast.  I did a few ollies and even tried to manual the mellow pad at Willville once.  After dinner I did a few jibs then basically pushed switch the whole way home just to do it.  I can’t tell if it’s helping or hurting my left groin pain. Oh well, I’m closing in on 40 ..

Here’s a little montage that basically sums up the whole day.  All spots represented, everyone in the crew represented, my bad ollies represented, some humor in there, my son’s first shove it, much more and some good music too.  This day was the skate part of my birthday.  The other part was a mellow dinner with the family.  Hey, I’m old, I don’t want to party it up anymore.Some things to mention for the journal that aren’t in the clip ..Brian beat me in a game of bank SKATE on the little bank at the rollerblade park.  I did some lame kickflip variations while he did awesome one foot blunt tricks.Matt Warner filmed a wallie melon that was too good to be used in this clip.Shaun/Shawn/Sean also switch back heeled up the 3 stair.Watching Ollie land his first shove it was pretty neat.My camera ate the end of a tape that had a much better crooks on that escalator ledge.  Honestly, it’s true.

What a day.  Woke up early and grouchy and never got out of the funk.  Went to the Llama farm with India for fix-it-up day.  I spent about 5 hours shoveling rocks and painting a barn.  Not fun and not easy on the body.  After a quick nap I picked up Nate and we went to the Safeway ledge.  It wasn’t in the best shape and I could tell Nate was feeling it initially.  I was sucking and totally exhausted.  After awhile we started to feel it though.  We hucked a bunch of tricks and landed some of them.  Nate did a first try nollie heel front nose jib.  I did a lot of tries kick back tail jib.  We put out a container to ollie over and Nate learned nosebonks then nosebonk front 180s.  So sick.  He did at least 20 180 nosebonks in a row.  I got a couple crooks, one back 50 that took forever, a couple front tails, a first try back 180 nosegrind jib and some fun and fast b/s noseslides.  I also tried a kick back 50 and accidently did a kick back 5-0 mongo push.  That was funny.  Nate got back smith, perfect back tail, back 180 nosegrind, and a bunch of fakie back tails.  He also nollie front 180’d the container thing.  So sick.  Both of us were tired and not skating our best, but it was fun.