Got off work tired, but was driving home looking at dry asphalt and totally wanting to skate for a bit. Turned into the neighborhood street and it was wet. Doh. I kept thinking it would get dry in the two more blocks to my house. Nope. I ended up not caring. It wasn’t too too wet and my setup is old. I did a few wet griptape kickflips, but ended up starting switch no complys until I landed a couple bad ones. Then I did a regular one backed with a switch one and called it a fun little session.

Tonight’s guests.  Brian, Lazer, Jake, Jeff Hulslander, and a late arriving Carleigh.  Jeff and Jake skated hard and killed.  Everyone else including me didn’t seem overly hyped and the session seemed a bit uninspired.  I blame myself.  I didn’t do much other than finally land a hurricane and slam finally committing to a back disaster.  Jeff had lots of crazy stuff.  Front salad, front feebs, front blunt, lots of almost tricks that he somehow rode out of.  Once Lazer lands a trick it seems like he never bails it again.  Although he slammed dropping in and catching on the edge I guess.  Doh!  Jake took longer than normal to get the stalepick, but when he did it was butters.  Carleigh got a front d quick like.  Toward the end Brian and I had a worst run competition.  I’m pretty sure he won, but we laughed it up for awhile.  Tricks like rock fakies 1 inch over the coping, switch willies, back 50s stalled forever, flatground failed kickflips, etc.

Another chilly, but skateable night in the lower 20s.  Nate, Jason and I rolled out with a little over an hour to skate before Nate’s indoor soccer game.  We started rolling around and ended up at the white ledge parking garage, but skated the sticky ledge in the back and cellar door thing.  Nate to a rock transfer which was pretty scary looking.  Jason did some fast front noseslides.  Then we cruised around a bit on our way to the parking block spot.  Ollies felt pretty good on the way.  I went the long way and went through the alley by the ice rink that’s normally an instant bust then ended up at the bank with a tall(er) flat bar.  I got a noseslide on it in a few tries which hyped me up because I’ve never even worked up the courage to try it before.  We skated the parking block area for a bit.  Nate and I got some bluntslides.  Then we ended back up at the flatbar.  Nate worked hard and got a sick front 50.  I got another noseslide or two and somehow did a tiny crooks.  Rad!  Then Nate and I attempted to get all east coast on a quick up to ollie over a little pipe to front tail.  Nate was trying his in a sick line of cali grind, nollie flip then the front tail.  He almost got it.  He had nollie flips almost every try though. Jason kinda just stood around for some reason.  I was trying cali grind, kickflip, front tail.  I came close too, but couldn’t quite get it.  We skated the ledge for awhile then moved over to the curved two stair.  Nate ollied a huge planter and I kinda manualed the 2 stair.  I also ollied onto a narrow ledge and rode around it which I’ve wanted to do forever.  Normally I go too slow and scrape the edge and bail.  This time I did it first try like it was nothing.  Jason stood around again.  Nate’s ollie was ridiculous because the landing was about 3 feet long before he had to roll off the curb.  With only a few minutes left before Nate had to take off we rolled to the boardslide ledge.  On the way Nate and I rode up some ice piles onto curbs.  So sketchy but really fun.  I got a front board popout on the ledge pretty quick.  Still slow and crappy like how I do them, but it’s a start.  Coming the other way I was trying easily the fastest boardslides I’ve tried there.  I was going fast enough that I was scared when I ollied up the curb for setup.  Rad.  Jason skated this spot and got into some long front boards.  Nate was skating it too, but I guess I missed what he did there.  We had to leave quickly anyway.  Really fun night other than feeling weird about Jason just standing around at spots instead of skating.

Totally jocked out and made a list of 10 tricks to do on Rampy and went out there after reading the kids to sleep.  Mostly tricks I’ve done, but a few tricks I’ve done very rarely.  5 frontside tricks: 50, smith, disaster, tail, 5-0.  The tail took the longest.  The 5-0 was scary.  backside tricks: 5-0, blunt to pivot, boardslide fakie, boardslide, 5-0 fakie.  The blunt pivot was scary since I never do blunts.  The one I landed was horrible.  I got all the tricks in about 20 minutes then tried hurricanes for a bit before going inside to play the Wii.  Nerd.

Had a skate date arranged for early in the morning from the night before with John at some new “scooter park” in Boulder. Sounded cool. After waking up early on a Sunday for a change and getting the grocery shopping done early I took Ollie and his friend Cooper and we met John at this new park. Took us awhile to find it and when we did we didn’t think it could even be considered any type of scooter or skate park. It was cold and windy and I almost didn’t get out of the car. But we started skating it. It’s basically a little cement pond with 1 foot tall banks that are super mellow. There are a couple spots you can slide, but definitely nothing you can grind. It started off pretty weak, but ended up being one of the funnest sessions ever even though at times it was frigid. Ollie and his buddy Cooper were having a good time. John and I were landing new tricks an finding different ways to make the tiny slab of concrete more fun. John was somehow doing blunts to fakie so he had to fakie manual basically 3 feet since he likes long boards. I did a coupe bad back tail stalls and back tail front 180 and back tail shove. Cooper was doing front tail slides. So sick. Hadn’t even really ever see him do a trick before. Ollie was doing weird manual reverts and some little ollies. So I of course had to say “Nice ollie Ollie”. Oh the fun of naming your kid Ollie. It started to get a bit nicer out after awhile. Another kid showed up and he had a Null deck. Rad. I got some long front tail slides and got a shove out of one. Hyped on that. John and I battled frontside flips for awhile trying to get them all the way around on the bank. We got ’em. Did we get them good? Of course man. Ha. Then we tried to ollie into the bank. John did it every try. Me, I suck at ollies. Took me awhile and when I did it was a sketchy no pop ollie. Ugh. After awhile the kids resorted to grass rides and John and I tried to line in out by ollieing over the little gap into the bank, somehow make the turn, then do a trick over the tiniest hip in a park ever. Ended up being a complete blast. I got a run with the ollie in and then a kickflip over the f/s “hip”. John got ollie in, powerslide/lipslide, b/s flip over the hip. So sick! Super fun session.Later on I went to go skate campus with Nate, but Ollie decided he wanted to skate more so we met Nate at some weird banked manny pads over near Red Curbs. Nothing too eventful was going on. Ollie almost landed a back 180 out of one of the little kicker things. I ollied up into the loading dock which was hard. I ollied out a few times too which still scares me for some embarrassing reason. Nate did a front board to fakie transfer then switch front 180 the other side. Then Nate and I played a game of SKATE while Ollie jumped off the loading dock while landing on his board and pulling his shirt over his knees. He loves doing this. He calls it ‘midgit mode’. I have to admit that I’m not digging the Herman 2s so much for flippers. They have a good flick and feel, but they hurt sometimes. Anways, the game of SKATE was OK. I think I won, but it was because Nate was being nice. Although he did get a nollie big heel, but I’ll take a letter on that any day.Next we went to Boulder ditch per Nates suggestion. It started off sucky which it always does at that place. It’s so hard to skate. Nate and I played on the little q-pipe for awhile and got a few tricks. Front tail was my hardest probably. Nate got a front slasher to fakie. After this Ollie was busy carving over a snow pile and doing rock fakies on rocks and I was trying a line of axle stall on the taller q-pipe followed with boardslide on the narrow ledge. I ended up getting it, but it took awhile. Nate got some good front and back boardslides before almost getting back board 270 out. Fun times.

Skaterday yeah!  Unfortunately I had to bring the daughter to her 4H Llama club.  Ok, well it’s not that unfortunate, because it is pretty cool seeing her with her friends training an animal I’ve never been fond of.  That lasted most of the afternoon and was pretty draining.  A quick nap (yes I’m old) and I headed out to skate in the last few remaining minutes of light.  It was pretty cold (30s).  I went to this nearby school because I remember some weird round manny pad spot I had checked out on a bike ride some time a long time ago.  Kind of weird how you randomly remember spots.  Anyways I went there and unfortunately they had put in benches which could be cool, but it’s too small of an area really.  I messed around there for awhile before realizing I couldn’t really do anything there and it was too tight of an area to have fun.I went over behind Jason and I’s old favorite Safeway ledge and was surprised to see that somebody had waxed a new spot.  Cool!  It’s a really low ledge against a wall and it’s downhill for backside.  For awhile I skated it both ways trying some lines.  First one I got was backside flip (really bad), halfcab noseslide (bad) and back 180 (bad bad) over a manhole.  I was trying front 5-0 then 360 flip, but never got the 3 flip and eventually just gave up because skating uphill was dumb.  Next line I got was halfcab flip, crooks, kickflip over the manhole.  Felt good about that one.  Next was pop shove then back 50.  I like ledges with a wall behind them.  Makes them less scary.  I did every back 50 I tried and I normally blow at that trick.  I tried a kickflip back 50 and got it first try.  Rad!  Also got another one third try.  I was hyped and started thinking that today was maybe the day to get the trick I’ve wanted forever.  Kick back 5-0 shove out.  Well, I couldn’t get the kick 5-0 part.  Ugh.  Got close and locked in a couple times, but fell off.  Oh well, pretty fun ledge and it’s lit.

The DC’s are finally shot.  Best shoes ever.  So I was too sore to really skate, but I wanted to start breaking these new Herman’s in.  Before a little coffee date with Liz I skated in front of the house for a bit.  Had a few of the basics down before my legs really complained and after slamming on a halfcab flip I called it.

Tired from skating basically every day for a month, but frustrated with work and wanting to push around I met Nate at 8 downtown.  We started out at the Canyon Center weird metal banks and had a blast there.  After a few wallride variations on a taller one we skated a small one forever.  After getting the hardest trick there (rock fakie) we moved on to tons of new tricks.  In case you don’t know the spot imagine about a 2 foot tall bank where every two feet it changes levels.  It alternates between a higher level, lower level, etc.  Each section is about two feet wide and the elevated sections are about 2 inches taller then the lower sections.  I got an ollie into front tail on the side of the taller level then we started trying all kinds of weird variations on the side.  I got back tail, back tail fakie and some more I can’t remember right now.  Nate got those too and to fakie and nose stalls both ways to fakie which looked way harder.  Fun times.Then after a quick pit stop and some random  cruising we hit up the new boardslide ledge.  My legs were getting really sore and I could barely ollie up the curb.  But I did get an ollie up and then a boardslide.  Nate got a nollie up then boardslide to fakie.  Sick!  I started trying a little run with an ollie off a ledge, kickflip on flat then front board pop out.  Never got the whole line, but did get a front board pop out.  Maybe my first ever.  Nate did a couple really good front board pop outs.Before leaving I attempted to manual up this little thing then off a two stair.  I couldn’t do it.  Argh.  Got kinda bummed.  Whatever though, I should take a day off from skating and rest, but I hope I don’t.

Got a phone call from Lazer early in the day saying he wanted to skate downtown instead of Rampy which got me really hyped. Had one of these ok days at work, but I was stuck at my desk on the phone for a few hours so I was really looking forward to the freedom of skating outside. Got off work and it was really nice out, but I decided to wait to skate until Lazer got off work. Then got about 20 phone calls/texts about how cold it was and how we shouldn’t skate outside. Ugh. It wasn’t that cold in my book. We kind of agreed on Circuit City with Flatty and Ledgy. Word got out and quite a few people showed up. The single file aspect of skating a flatbar and a box in a parking garage bummed me out. I was skating horrible. Lazer seemed bummed. Jason was even having troubles. Nate was ripping at least. Everyone else was skating pretty good. Some dude named Dan had some tech tricks like front crooks and front hurricanes. Rad. After awhile Jake showed up and we played 360 flip for awhile. Which turned into awhile longer, and then even longer. It was sick. Jake was attempting to break the 5 tres in one day barrier. I was struggling with them at first, but after a few tries started getting quite a few. One way I would try 3 flips, the other way I would try halfcab flip then nollie treflip. Jake was trying tres one way, f/s flip then fakie flip the other. His frontside flips are proper now all the way 180. Jake got to 4 treflips and got stuck for quite awhile looking for the 5th, but it came eventually and there were a few others you could count too. I got 13 treflips total and the halfcab flip – nollie treflip run. Cool. Some of the halfcab flips felt really good. At the end I was too tired to keep trying treflips and managed a few ok backside flips. The treflip marathon was really fun. So hyped Jake has that trick.

Went over to Creekside with Ollie when it started getting dark. Pretty much everything was wet, but the poor lighting hid the horrendous amount of pebbles everywhere. We stayed in the front for a bit until the janitor saw us so we went to the back of the school. On the way I did one of those little slide into back lip and ride out off a curb. Pretty fun. In the back it was only lit in a little area. Ollie did a funny trick where he rolled to a wall jumped off his board and kicked the wall with his front foot then landed back on the board. I tried it too. So hard! Ha. He also started lifting his front foot and jumping with his back foot while rolling. I tried and almost died. We ollied the little ditch into the grass a few times. I attempted some no comply backside wallrides which seem impossible and Ollie started trying regular backside wallrides. So sick! Other then ollieing some puddles and hititng some rocks that was about the extent of that session.Later on I went to the Steelyards manny pad to meet up with Nate.  I was pretty tired from working earlies and warming up wasn’t easy.  Nate arrived about when I bailed ollieing up the huge 6″ curb and shot my board out past the parking lot.  Brilliant.  Things picked up though.  I mannied the long way pretty quick and after a few not even close nose mannies did on the long way.  After that I started trying more trick up, trick down since I can’t do that with mannies.  Kickflip off went down quick.  Kickflip up and b/s flip off went down 2nd try which I still don’t believe.  B/s 180 up, fakie ollie off.  Front 180 up, sw front 180 off.  kickflip up nollie back 180 off (or as brian would say – a 180 off the nose).  I started trying halfcab up to 360 flip off one way and manny front 180 the other way.  Never got the 360 flip, but was happy that I actually committed to it and did get the manny 180.  Nate was ripping too.  Manny front 180 perfect.  Front 180 nose man, switch man, almost nose man nollie bigspin.  He did a few nollie f/s flips up the curb.  Sick!  He even got kickflip up and off first try.  He had to leave real quick for a soccer game and I stuck around for a few more minutes.  Got a manny rock off, tried manny front shove and almost died.  Then just wanted a good clean kickflip up and down which took awhile, but felt really good.  Fun times.