The snow has kinda melted.  I felt like street skating and didn’t have a chance to get to skate until after it got dark.  Long past when anyone else I know seems to skate.  Ugh.  But it ended up ruling.  I put my mp3 player on Murder City Devils and cuised around downtown.  I came upon a little curb high manny pad right away that I’ve never skated before and hit it up for awhile.  Took me awhile to do a manual, but I’m used to taking awhile to warm up.  I noticed a really tall ledge around the corner that was only about 2 feet long and had a fun run of a nose manny followed by a noseslide.  So hyped.  I turned around and almost got a kickflip manny to back it up. Sick!  I moved on since I had been there too long already.After some rolling around and walking around puddles I ended up at the low and narrow ledge that I was just happy to ollie onto and ride around once before.  Got it first try again today.  It’s about 15 feet long with a curve, about 10″ wide and it’s beveled weird.  I decided to dream and try a manual.  A few tries later I locked into a perfect one and rode away completely amazed.  I don’t land tricks like that.  So hyped.  I sat and giggled for a bit before moving on to the two stair then over to the nearby bank where I failed at some frontside slappies.  Then some dude came up and asked me if I had any “medicinal”.  I responded saying I had some Ibuprofen at home.  He was so confused.  I love messing with people like that.  I left because that dude was hanging out singing and being annoying.  I kinda cruised around downtown seeing what was dry and ended up near the white ledge which was wet.  Spotted a pile of snow to ollie off the sidewalk into the street.  I had to time it with the light and pedestrians, but after a few tries I got it.  It felt great because I was actually going fast and only took 2 tries.  I ollied a couple more various piles of snow and called it a night.  So hyped on the manny on the curved ledge and the spontaneity of street skating in a downtown area.  I need spontaneity to keep skating every day.

Lazer, Jason and Nate were it for another snowy Wednesday night Rampy session.  Nate was really sore for some reason and it showed.  That may have been his worst night ever.  Jason was slow to start, but ended up ripping his patented edge to edge grinds and coping destruction.  Lazer and Rampy are dream made in heaven.  Yes, I just compared Lazer to heaven.  I’m sure he’d be stoked on that.  I skated ok.  My highlights were going for a fakie pivot fakie and getting a fakie 5-0 to fakie as it grinded a few inches.  Rad.  Also almost getting fakie hurricanes.  I may have landed one I’m not sure.

Seriously, another blizzard?  This winter blows.  I got off work, but spent almost 3 hours driving about 30 miles to pick up shirts and hats for Null.  It changed from pouring rain to 5″ of snow in about 30 seconds.  Ugh.  Anyways, after dinner, a nap, some kid time and the dishes I went out to Rampy around 10:30.  I had no real goals or motivation, but I ended up having fun despite having some of the worst flatspots ever on my new sample wheels.  Argh.  I guess the back 180 test last night did them in.  I just didn’t notice on asphalt.  About the only tricks I did on Rampy I was hyped on were front and back smiths.  Other then that I ended up just skating flatground and hucking tricks.  Somehow it was fun even though I would stop sometimes due to the flat spots.  I did a lot of hucking.  Landed on a hardflip for the first time ever.  Didn’t ride out though.  Landed on two switch kickflips, but slammed on both.  Felt cool to land on those at least.  Other then that I did a few basics.  I stopped skating when I realized I was gonna pass out due to hunger or exhaustion or both.

Tired from a long day at work followed by a stressful attempt at getting all the Null stuff I had to get done.  I brought some boards to FedEx then headed to the ol’ baseline Safeway to skate the crappy ledge thats there.  I started off sucking.  Really sucking.  I guess having wider wheels messes with your grinds.  Ugh.  It took me a long time to land anything.  I settled in to trying a line of back 180 a gutter, halfcab flip then back 50.  First the back 180 took forever.  Then when I finally had that dialed the halfcab flip took forever and lastly I had problems with the back 50.  I blame the new shoes mostly.  Ugh.  I eventually got the line and I did feel quite a bit better.  Coming the other way I would try front crooks and got a few little jib ones.  After getting the line I just started trying kickflip 50s and front tails.  I got a few kick 50s and even came close to kick 50 shove out.  I would love to get that some day.  I got a couple ok front tails, but it’s hard on that ledge because it’s uphill.  Not the greatest session, but I am still getting used to the new setup.  5 – 9 inches of snow tomorrow night.  LAME.

Tired and feeling kind of sick from a very late night breakfast burrito after the Jeremy Fish Art Show I met up with Neil, Fuzz, Nate and Carleigh and we drove to Longmont where we met Jason and Dave Fuller.  We met at the little concrete park with the hips.  I love that park.  But today was not my day and to top it off I had new shoes, wheels and a board.  I’ve had 3 pairs of the DC Crews in a row so I knew it would be tough.  But I didn’t think it would be as tough as it was.These shoes have nowhere near the support the DCs have so it felt like they were in worse shape then my DC’s except that there isn’t a hole in them and they still have tread on the sole.  Oh well.  The new wheels weren’t Null wheels either so that was kinda weird.  They are some sample wheels from ATM.  Yes, I might switch nullethane.  Who knows.  Anyways, I sucked.  The only good thing I did was my best tailslide ever over the hip.  Jason was killing it.  He back feebled the curved ledge so perfect.  He also had some nice backside ollies over the hip.  Neil was killing the one foots over the hip, nose mannies and nose bonks.  Carleigh landed a rare front 5-o and a pop shove real quick over the hip.  Fuzz did everything.  Monster ollies over the hip, back 5-o the top of rail coming up the bank, boardslide to manny, bluntslide, fakie ollie over the hip, a ton more and ended it with a front 360 over the hip.  Dave had some cool hip bluntslide transfer tricks, front boards to fakie on the bump to longer ledge and style for miles.  Nate was killing it too.  Feeble the curved ledge, back nosegrind the regular ledge super easy, nose manny lip slide, front lip around the curve to front 5-0, feeble 180 around the curved ledge, manny to front tailslide, and back lip on the reg ledge. Wowsers.After awhile we split out.  Neil headed back to Boulder while the rest of us headed to Northside.  My car load stopped at MRKT first to sell some boards though.  Oh I forgot all about mentioning it was two days after 15″ of snow and it was mostly gone right?  I guess Ft Collins didn’t get nearly as much snow though.  Jason and Dave were already at Northside as well as Andy, Grant, and some other rad Ft Collins locals.  They seriously have the best scene.  Everyone is so positive.  There weren’t many people there at all and the weather was great.  So awesome.Jason was skating the banked ledge.  Back 5-0, back tail, back board and slamming on back board transfers coming the other way.  He eventually got one.  Dave was cruising around doing some casual stuff everywhere.  Nate was on a mission.  I think he landed everything except a super long and sick front board transfer on the banked ledge.  Fuzz was on a killing spree, but couldn’t put down the front noseblunt slide on the tall bank.  So sick.  Carleigh was doing some good ollies on the flat bank.  I was skating that park better than normal.  Not good by any means, but I did some new stuff for me.  I was trying a run of backside cali mongo push over the china hump, backside flip on the bank and then no comply pole jam.  Never got the polejam.  The other new trick for me was a boardslide on the banked ledge.  The locals were killing it as usual.  Such a fun scene.Lastly we were gonna head to Fossil Creek, but got a desperate phone call from Chad Dad asking to meet at the Courthouse instead because he was on diaper duty.  Ha.  I was completely dead at that point.  I managed to get Chad to SKAT in SKATE though.  Two of the trick were front 180 and sw front 180 though.  Seriously.  His last trick was switch heel and I hucked it coming surprisingly close.  I got closer next try, but then never close again.  Argh.  The rest of my session was spent watching and doing dumb cali grinds instead of ollieing a gap.  Fuzz and Nate were murdering it.  Ollies over rocks, wallies, manuals, gap ollies, everything.  Carleigh was trying to learn halfcab flips.  Pretty fun ending on a good day.

As I said it snowed about 15″ Friday.  Saturday it was sunny and kinda warm.  In the morning I went snowboarding with Ollie at the sledding hill nearby and it was a serious workout.  We hiked the hill about 15 times and I even had some fun jibbing it up.  But it took it’s toll on my legs and it was really hard to get things going on the skateboard.  I met everyone at the blue flatbar spot where my first attempt at an ollie was oh too depressing.  No one seemed overly hyped.  The session heated up when Jason started working on his “20 stair landings” off the loading dock that’s about the height of a 3 stair.  Brian and Jason were dueling until Jason put the worst (best) one down.  It was a perfect mixture of over landing, hands flailing, power sliding and awkward squating.  Jason you rule!  I tried a line of halfcab flip,  kickflip over Carleighs hoodie, 3 flip then ollie up the loading dock and got it horribly.  Jason also back 180’d down the dock really good.  Neil was cruising around.  Carleigh was working on halfcab flips.  Brian hurt his foot trying a trick I can’t remember right now.  Impossible maybe?Brian and Neil left and Carleigh, Jason and I went to the nearby mellow bank to tall ledge.  It took Jason and I a really long time to get nose stalls on it and initially we thought that would be our limit.  I started trying front 50s and got close.  Jason did a really good front nose then front 50 first try.  He went on to do a front smith too.  So sick.  I was kinda under my front 50s so sometimes I would end up getting into front feeble which I ended up landing.  Always cool when you land a harder trick than you’re trying.  I wanted to also get a front pivot, but my legs just didn’t have the pop.We drove around for awhile looking for another dry spot and found a new crazy loading dock.  It was pretty steep with curbs going down the side and a few big gap options that none of us wanted any part of.   We mostly just did tricks into the bank which was harder than it should be due to puddles on the top of it.  It was also kind of weird because there was a crack a little ways into the bank which you want to do tricks over, but it’s tough to get that much speed.  Jason blasted some good ollies into it and went on to get 180s both ways and a halfcab.  Carleigh took a minute to get pop shove then went to varial flip.  That took her a long time, but she landed it perfect right before we got the boot.  Sick!  I got some bad ollies, front 180, really bad kickflips, pop shove, halfcab flip (my favorite of everything), front shove, sw front 180, and had some kind of wallies from the curb at the bottom.  Oh yeah I also pushed as hard as I could up it and did a kickflip fromt he crack onto the top.  That was a lot of pushing.  Whew.  Fun session.  Fun new spot.  Carleigh has some photos, but they aren’t up yet.  Hopefully they will be soon.

Spring time in the Rockies means one extreme in weather to the next.  Sunny and almost 70 one day, 15″ of snow the next.  I skated Rampy with a vengeance for awhile after working at home.  I started off skating well and did most of my tricks first try and linked some decent runs.  I’ve done fakie front pivot to rock ‘n roll before, but it was on accident.  I did one intentionally first try.  Cool.  For some reason I got the idea to try f/s halfcab rock fakie having never tried that trick before.  It seemed to make sense since I do so many fakie pivot tricks.  It took me awhile to get into them consistently and when I went to commit the first time I slammed in such a bad and awkward way that I thought I was gonna break my hip or leg for sure.  It freaked me out.  I tried to skate a bit more, but basically just called it a day.

A bit tired from partying at Lazer’s for St Patricks day, but another gorgeous spring day and I had it off work.  I brought in some new hats to get embroidered then got denied buying some shirts at wholesale prices at Imprints.  Ugh.  Was totally bummed and gonna drive home, but Tyler was down to meet up and skate at Commerce City so I was down with that.  I arrived first and there was no one else there.  At all.  No kids on tricycles, no skaters, no families using the benches as picnic tables, no one.  Rad!  I cruised around and at my leisure and warmed up slowly.  It wasn’t long before this dude showed up and immediately began to murder the park.  Seriously some of the best tech skating I’ve ever witnessed.  He landed everything he tried.  I did a few of my ledge basics then started trying a line.  Front tail stall on the bank, kickflip on flat, manual the first ledge, front nosegrind the second one.  I got super close, but bonked on the way out of the nosegrind.  Tyler and his friend Steve showed up soon and Tyler and I chatted it up for awhile.  Great to see that guy.  We had a pretty mellow session.  I tried a few kick back tails on the ledge.  I had to go so slow to try it.  Oh well, baby steps.  I got close a couple times.  Tyler and Steve were ripping, but not overly motivated either.  We skated the bowl for awhile which was pretty funny.  Tyler managed to grind over the death box though.  No one skated all that great, but it sure beat work.

65 degrees at 5:30 pm.  Incredible.  Neil, Carleigh, Fuzz, Nate and I met at Meta to do some shredding on campus.  Ok, so maybe we also wanted to look at college girls in their cute little St Patricks day outfits.  You be the judge.  We started out kinda dorking around on the ledges right by Meta.  Nate was actually skating them.  I was kinda just running into them, but managed a front 50 at the end before we rolled down to the parking lot with the trannied curbs.  The corner to make it into there is kinda sharp and Carleigh didn’t make it.  I didn’t see it, but I guess she ate shit super hard on a manhole cover.  Ouch.  We all cruised around for a bit before settling in on a little rock session.  We did some different stalls on it.  Fuzz was skating his Whale Cock board and still doing trick right and left.  I was hyped on a front smith stall and a front nosepick.  Nate was ripping too and ollied onto a rock and ollied out all quick like.Next we were behind the Student Center where Neil and Fuzz stared at girls in between doing some shredding.  Neil got ollie onto the ledge, drop down then no comply boneless the 3 stair, back 180 on flat, no comply up the 3 so good.  I got ollie onto the ledge, drop off, ollie the 3, kickflip on flat, turn around ollie up the 3.  Fuzz did some crazy manuals and took the drop.  180 on fakie ollie off.  All on a cruiser board.  Carleigh was trying to ollie onto a ledge then ollie over a handrail.  Nate wasn’t up to the drop so just hung out and did 3 flips.We rolled into the new area where Fuzz and Nate ollied the flat gaps.  I did a crappy ollie to axle stall.  Nate also did a ridiculous ollie onto a tall bench, ollie the crack, then ollie off.  Probably the trick of the day.  Neil, Fuzz, Carleigh and I played a game of SKATE.  Kind of anyway.  It kinda dissolved.  I took a few tries to get a treflip and 20 tries to get a front shove.  I don’t know why that trick hates me these days.   After that we ended up at the brick courtyard area where Fuzz and Neil sat and watched women while Carleigh, Nate and I posed tricks on the bench.  I crooked it which felt good considering how crusty that ledge is.  Nate posed some tricks that should not be attempted by 30+ year olds.  Carleigh hates front boards just like me.We hit the downhill manny pad by the 1-7 stair spot.  Neil and I took a long time to get it.  Fuzz and Nate got it first try.  Carleigh got a good manual to the crack which is sick considering she’s just learning them.  Fuzz and Nate decided to be cool and manny to a manhole, ollie it, land back in manual and go all the way to the street.  Must be nice.  On the way back to the hill Nate and I did the roll off the tall ledge down onto another ledge then ollie off the drop.  I got it with a front 180.  Nice way to end a pretty mediocre session for me.

After a super busy day at work followed by more business unloading new decks and packaging up orders I brought a box to FedEx off Baseline around 9:30 pm.  I felt like skating and it was pretty warm out still so I cruised around there for awhile warming up.  Had fun ollieing parking blocks for awhile then found that they had taken out part of the Ace Hardware building and there was a super smooth foundation waiting to be skated.  There was a low curb in the middle of it so one way I would try to ollie over the curb and manual to the parking lot.  Coming the other way I would ollie a gap into it then do a trick over the curb.  I ended up having a blast and falling a lot.  I managed a couple ollies over the curb to mannys and even got a nose manny version.  Was hyped on those because the manny after was about 30 feet long which is a lot for me.  I tried a few kickflip mannies over the curb too, but it was kinda dark and I kept landing primo.  Coming the other way the gap in was kind of awkward due to rough asphalt, but it made it fun too.  I ollied into the foundation and kickflipped over the curb a few times.  Then the goal became to b/s flip it which I did in a few tries, but it was too bad even for my low standards.  So I tried again and it took awhile.  It doesn’t help that I made the gap into the foundation taller with a peice of foam which tired me out having to ollie higher each time.  It was fun though.  I eventually got an ok one, then made the foam taller to try and ollie it.  First try I slammed and broke my work phone.  Oops!  Ha.  Second try I got it and left for my car which was a fun speed ride in front of Wild Oats ollieing sidewalk cracks away.  Fun!