Had to bring some boards down to Emage so after a fun little interview with Transworld Business (should be online soon) Bernie, Will, CJ and John arrived at my place. We hit Emage then went to the park and met up with Jeff and Greg. I was sore and sucking for a long time, but everyone else seemed to be having fun. I don’t normally like that park, but I tried to keep an open mind and I succeeded this time. Jeff took off pretty quick, but CJ, Will, John and Greg were ripping. John can skate parks really well and learned pivot fakies in one of the satellite dishes as well as did some big ollies and wallrides. Ripper. Will and CJ boardslid the crazy downhill rail into the bank. Bernie slammed trying to switch nose manny the tall 2. Then we migrated over to the kinked rail/awkward 2 stair area. I got a tail drop shove into the little bank then ollied the 2 stiar which was harder than it should be. Before leaving I had some more fun cruising around that area. John and Greg were killing it. Will fakie flipped the awkward 2. Before leaving John and I tried boardslide transfers into the bank and I nearly died just posing it. I also tried some powerslide tailslides on the bank and got close. I had fun, but I was sore and that park really is too damn slippery.

Got off work early and met Carleigh on the east side of campus. For whatever reason we started with this dumb parking ramp entrance where you had to ollie up a tiny curb, then there was two waves of downhill banks to do tricks into. We sucked it up so bad for awhile because it was so hard to get tricks into the first one after such a quick setup up the curb. We eventually put down a few things and it was surprisingly fun. Carleigh got back shove on the first one front 180 slam on the second. She moved on to trying kickflips into the first one while I tried front 180 up the curb, f/s halfcab flip into the first bank. We bet a beer on it and let’s just say Carleigh owes me a beer! Ha. I also ended up getting a no tic tac backside flip (so rare for me not to tic tac on that trick) into the second bank as well as a line of ollie up the curb, b/s 180 into the first bank then halfcab flip into the second. Rad!We went up to campus where we just kinda dorked around for a minute and ended up at this tiny gap off a narrow ledge. It was way harder for both of us than it should be, but we did it. I combined it with a horrible kickflip off a curb for added goodness before we had to cruise back to our cars fast as the rain started. Fun session.

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.