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.

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.