Went out to Rampy for about 30 min after the kids went to bed. Sucked it up and was bummed on skating. Took a bunch of tries to do a front D. Eventually just started trying hurricanes again. I may have landed one, if it was it was the tiniest grind. I landed most of the attempts at least which were just deck rock ‘n rolls. Feels like the motion is closer at least. Listening to old 90s mix tapes is fun.

Tired from a rough night I skated in front of the house for less then an hour.  It was nice out and I had my mp3 player on shuffle and skating went better than I figured it would.  Didn’t land anything new, but got most of my flippers including a 3 flip and f/s halfcab flip first try.  Also got another good no comply bigspin.

Almost 60 on a Saturday!  Awesome.  Brian and Neil arrived at my house first.  Then Nate, Jason, Bernie, Jake.  We picked up Jack and Fuzz on the way and met at a brick bank spot that was a fun warm up spot and fun spot in general.  Jeff met us there too.  My car arrived first though so Neil, Jack, Bernie, Nate and I had the spot to ourselves for about 20 minutes.  Neil was ollieing a bunch, Nate was doing front board slides, Bernie did some manuals (ha ha), Jack had some cool hurricanes and stuff.  I started off pretty crappy.  I was having troubles ollieing into the bank from this crack.  Ugh.   I got a couple 5-0s to fakie with my standard lame late revert.  Things felt better for me when I landed a front board 180 in out of nowhere.  The other car of TFers showed up slightly before Jeff.  Fuzz killed some huge ollies and grabs and a bigflip.  Brian grinded the most bricks.  Jake can’t do 5-0s to fakie unless the spot is gnarlier.  Jason was ripping.  Jeff skated some of the best I’ve seen him skate though.  He was ripping so hard just circling around the bank doing various flippers and grinds like they were nothing.  Toward the end of the session Brian and I were racing to a kickflip on the bank.  After Jeff called out $1 to who gets it first Brian had the option to go first, but decided to talk himself up instead.  So I went and did the kickflip poorly.  Fun spot.Next we skated a crack ridden ledge spot with a 3 stair.  Jake and I bet a beer over ollies up the 3 stair and I miraculously did it first try.  We double or nothing’d for front 180s up and tied.  Cool.  Everyone was kinda looking around at the spot first and it seemed like people weren’t into it.  But we stuck around, waxed some spots of the ledge and the session ended up being fun.  Jack was doing some rad ollies out to a ledge and Fuzz was on it too. Brian was on the phone.  Nate tried a bunch of boardslide popouts to fakie.  Jason did some fast noseslides and some back 50s on the normal ledge and got close to boardslide 270 out on the up ledge.  Jack cracked his board trying to switch heel the 3, then hurt his ankle trying to switch var heel it. Neil had hurt his ankle at the first spot so was chilling.  Fuzz back 50’d the whole up ledge.  Bernie tried a line of front 5-0 the normal ledge, front tail bigspin out on the up ledge.  He got close.  His front 5-0s were so good.  Jeff almost crooks up the whole ledge.  I was sucking.  I got a bad noseslide followed by a 2mph no comply 270 back tail and tried some kick back 50s.  Never got too close.  We left for another spot and on the way to the car I landed one of the better treflips I’ve ever landed.  Rad.Next spot was a 3 up 3 down.  We were all pretty sore by then so the warming up was tough.  Took me a few tries to ollie up the 3, but when I did I got a front 180 down first try.  Yippee.  I also worked up to ollie up kickflip down and got it.  The kickflip was super slow and my hands went down, but that’s the first set of stairs I’ve kickflipped in forever.  The last time I think I kickflipped a 3 was back when Monico got on Null.  It was fun though, I’d like to do get back to where it doesn’t take me 20 tries to commit to it and I can actually go fast off the stairs.  Fuzz was ripping.  Manual.  Front 180 up, fakie flip, fakie ollie down.  Jeff came close to ollie up, 3 flip, back 3 down.  So ridiculous.  He was ollieng up the 3 so easily.  Bernie  nose mannied it and came close to manual 360 flip out.  Jason got ollie up back 180 down.  Jake got ollie up and front 180 down.  Right before leaving I did a few flippers on a sidewalk and ollied a little ledge.  Gotta practice them ollies kids!

Got off of work and everyone was dealing with female issues.  Made me feel lucky.  Liz you are the greatest.  I went to Google to pick up Nate, but he was hating life on the phone, then back to pick up John on his 35th B-day, then back to Google where Nate was still on the phone.  John and I skate the bank into the parking garage and it was pretty fun.  John got the ol’ 270 no comply back tail into the bank, fakie ollie, front tail on the upper right one (sick) and some other silly tricks.  I started trying halfcab flips and they felt weird.  Stuck with it and eventually got a bad one in.  I followed it up with a fun powerslide, kickflip, no comply and fakie flip in the garage though.  I also got a back pop shove into it second try.  Fun.  Brian showed up and joined the kickflip in race John and I had going.  I landed one, but it was horrible.  John landed a good one.  Brian didn’t get it, but topped it 100 fold with a perfect first try backside no comply 360.  So sick.  Nate’s second line manager was lurking so we headed to Wahoos to eat.  Seeing as how we skated over there we thought it would be appropriate to push mongo there.  Awesome.  After a margarita and food we ended up back at google and skated for a bit longer.  Not being sober allowed me to manual down the bank.  We had some tic tac races up the parking garage.  Brian and his big wheels won.  I slid out once with Nate in hot pursuit and he almost leveled me.  So funny.Next up was an impromptu beer infused totally silly and awesome Rampy session.  Lazer met up with us too.  I think most everyone did their tricks.  Lots of laughter and slams went down.  I don’t know if anyone landed anything new.  Brian, Nate and I laughed too hard trying to slurp our beers the loudest.  At the end Brian lobbed a beer can from the flat up onto the top shelf for the closer.  Epic!

Went over to pick Nate and we watched a new video called Rich Mahogany.  The first parts were awesome and we should have just watched a few and leave.  But we ended up watching the whole video and I think it kinda drained us cause I was really tired.  We started off at the white ledge parking garage, but didn’t skate the ledge.  We did quick ups to front board transfers up the sidewalk on the other side of the ledge.  I was having troubles landing ollies up the curb.  Ugh.  We both got it eventually.  Nate popped out forward, I popped out to fakie the easy way.  I also ollied the curb down into the sidewalk which was surprisingly scary.  Especially considering how badly I was skating.  We ended up getting the boot and rolled to the new planter ledge in front of some new art studio.  We got some boardslide popouts pretty quick.  Nate did them frontside too and they were really sick.  We started trying lines with tricks up the curb then boardslide variations.  I was still feeling pretty weird on a skateboard and it showed.  I could barely kickflip up the curb.  Nate was trying pop shove up and totally slammed right in front of a car.  It looked painful and hilarious at the same time.  The people in the car slowed down to see if he was ok, but then saw me laughing and even Nate laughing so they moved on with confused faces.  I should also mention it was pretty cold out.  Lower 20s for sure.  So we took a break to heal up Nate then headed over near the St Julien for the wood benches.  I continued to suck and was getting really mad.  Ugh.  We went over to a yellow curb to play a game of SKATE, but the concrete was bad so we just played curb SKATE which ended up being way fun anyways.  We had lots of the same kinda tricks you normally do in that, but at the end it was tied up at SKAT and we were trying harder tricks.  I tried kick front 50 and Nate was trying front smith shove out.  I kinda got mine although it was more of a front feeble slop.  After that I got a few slow kick back 5-0s and tried a front shove of the curb and SNAP went the board.  Doh!  We left downtown and stopped at Ideal Market on the way back since there is some super fun looking pyramid launchers now.  They were indeed a blast and we skated there for about 20 minutes.  I had to skate with my board backwards for the most part.  Wallies from the pyramid into the downhill of the driveway were a blast.  That place has endless potential, but the busy street kinda messes with it.  Right before leaving Nate made me try a back hurricane on a mini parking block and I got a couple.  Rad!  Overall I skated pretty bad, but at least there were some highlights.

After a pit stop at 303 Mikey, Nate and I started out above the RTD station on the east side of the 16th St mall. Mikey and I talked some business while Nate started killing right away. We got the boot and went across the street and saw this weird ledge that Jeff or Brian Bourquin manualled a long time ago. It had a taller drop then the video showed, but I eventually was able to just ride off the end. It was scary because it’s really narrow against a wall with a drop at the end larger then Valmont. Guess it’s been awhile since I’ve jumped off anything. Next up we went to a downhill ledge where Mikey tried nollie noseslides and Nate and I tried to get all Busenitz. Nate got some good back 50s then we started trying weird ollie combos up the curb, between poles, powerslides, boardslides on the ledge, etc. We never got a line, but it was super fun. I was getting some pretty long powerslides for me, but was hardly able to ollie up the curb due to feeling old and frail. Next we hit this stairway that had 6 sets of 2 stairs in a row. All pretty close to each other. Mikey was able to ollie up all sets. Sick! Ollieing down each set was pretty fun. Nate got up a few, but never all 6, I got up 2 sets and that was hard enough for me. They were so close. Before Mikey had to leave we bombed a hill which was insanely fun. It’s the same hill Nate and I have done several times, but this time it was even more fun and we all got some ollies off the little drops in granite. So fun. As we were heading to the car I did a no comply 270 back tail for Mikey and out of nowhere Jeff appears parked in his truck. Sick!After Mikey left we met up with Chris, Earl, Daryl and Thomas at the history museum.  Everyone was skating and having fun.  Nate manualled and nose manualed the bank.  Chris, Daryl and Earl boosted some ollies off the kicker.  Thomas and I did some side rock things.  I tried a trick I think Little Jack did there.  Side rock kickflip out.  Never got too close.  We got the boot and rolled over to this wallie thing by the library that was crazy.  Basically it was an elevated heating vent that banked up at the ends.  Basically the height of a loading dock with a perfect wallie out.  Chris Jones killed it.  No comply wallie, wallie one foot, some more rad tricks.  Daryl had some rad wallies too.  I took a few tries, but finally put a regular wallie down.  Such a fun trick.  Ridiculously fun.  I think I get too much sympathy for bad old man skateboarding as the kids seemed hyped on it.  As we left I ollied a little ledge and landed horribly, but it was funny and a great way to end the night.  I thought it was a ledge on both sides, but the side I landed on was only a curb high drop.  Ha.  Fun night.  Street skating is the funnest.

Almost took a day off of skating for the first time this year.  But of course I’m not that smart.  Decided it would be ok to do a short Rampy session and Nate was on it.  Nate skated pretty well, he’s getting his new trick front 5-0 fakie down pretty consistent.  We both did the majority of our standard tricks.  I tried a few boardslides.  Kinda got a few.  Pulling out forward seemed more fun.  At the end of the session Nate and I raced to new tricks.  He was trying front tail back revert.  I was trying fakie front 50 to rock ‘n roll.  We got them back to back.  That’s how we roll.  I think my trick is patented by Joe Hamilton so I better give recognition where it’s due.

Pushing 50 for the first time in awhile I met Neil out at one of the few dry spots we could find (The blue flatbar that Tyler does the smith kickflip out of here).  Before skating it we shoveled out another spot so it would dry while we skated the blue bar.  Smart eh?I was pretty cranky and tired for some reason.  I didn’t have much drive to skate, but I did.  Neil was on his game pretty quick.  He hopped over a tall box and lipslide the bar quick like.  I couldn’t front board it to save my life.  I did actually try some front smiths on it though.  Didn’t land it, but I don’t think I’ve ever comitted to trying one on a flatbar before.  After a bit I started trying a run where I ollied a box, 3 flip on flat, then front 5-0 or front smith.  After a few tries I got the 5-0 version, but it was only the last few inches.  Oh well, I’m terrified of flat bars.  Lazer and Brian came and Lazer did all the tricks we thought would be rad within minutes.  I added a nollie front lip at the end which felt really fun even though it was only the last foot of the bar.Next we went to the bank to ledge that Neil and I shoveled out.  Damn thing is tall!  After all the work we put into it we couldn’t really skate it.  It was too tall.  I felt as if I was finally getting the timing down to front 50 it when Skelly called lost somewhere in the tech center.  10 minutes on the phone and still no Skelly I left to meet him, but not before being a jerk and speeding off.  We all met at Rock Creek for a pretty fun session.  Brian skated really good.  Lazer skated really good.  Carleigh and Sean skated really good too.  I didn’t.  It bums me out many tricks I can only do on Rampy.  Ugh.Next we did Red Curbs.  I was beat, but Skelly and Jason drove all the way from Ft Collins so you can’t bail out early.  Ended up being a pretty fun session.  I didn’t skate very good, but dorked around and did a slappy front 50 to manual to tail.  Rad.  Before leaving it took about 20 tries to nose manny the manny pad.  Argh.  Not sure why I was so tired, but it happens right.

Saturday morning.  Normally this means play with the kids for a bit and then skate all day.  But today was the Nation Western Stock Show with India and a couple of the other girls in her 4H club.  So I went out and hit Rampy for 15 minutes before we left and while the coffee jitters were still in effect.  Warmup tricks went down pretty quick and I did a few flatground kickflips and frontside flips.  For some reason I started posing what I think are called sugarcanes.  Fronside ollie past disaster into a fakie back smith.  I didn’t get close, but it felt possible someday.  Then I settled on trying front tails and almost died on a set up pivot and had to get going.  Hoot!

I had the day off work and spent it getting a lot of things done and went on a hike with Liz in the snow.  Fun.  Then when Ollie got off school I took him to the sledding hill to go snowboarding.  We hiked the hill 10 – 15 times and hit some tiny little jumps and it was super fun.  My favorite tricks were a run with a stalefish and then a back 180 melon.  Oh wait, this is a skate journal.  Ha.  So after waking up early, doing chores, hiking, hiking and snowboarding instead of taking a nap I hit Circuit City with Nate and Jason for about an hour.  It became apparent pretty quickly that I was exhausted and starving.  Being the dumbass that I am I still skated.  I came really close to getting the fakie flip, fakie nosegrind, fakie treflip run.  Had a lot of problems with halfcab flips.  Landed a 2mph treflip.  Nate was skating ok, but it turned out he was as hungry as me and he had to quit early too.  Jason showed up and talked on the phone for a long time.  Right when Nate and I decided we were over it he started skating.  Ha.  I watched him rattle off everyone of his tricks in about 5 minutes.  Rad.  Front 50, front 5-0, front smith, front nose, back nose, halfcab back nose, back 50, back crooks, back 5-0 and close to back tail.  Rad Jason.