I’m writing this one a couple days late and feeling like crap. So basically I’m pretty sure this entry wont do the day any justice. It was way fun.Brian got to my house first. We started skating flat in front of the house since it was taking so long for others to show up. We played a game of SKATE where we started with some of our harder tricks right out of the gate and didn’t come close to landing any of them. It got really tech when we moved on to tricks like kickflip and fakie flip. Although it was enough to bring Brian to SKA off a failed attempt at double or nothing on kickflip. He got me with a 360 one foot kickturn. Pretty awesome. Not sure what else went down, but I think I won.Others showed up and we were off to Longmont. We all met up at the fun bank school. The crew was Neil, Brian, Jason, Jam, Dave, Fuzz, Carleigh, me and Bernie which arrived late. Since I’m totally blowing it on making this entry remotely interesting here’s what I remember.Neil was skating good right out of the car. Front tails, front lip on the ledge. Manuals and nose manuals on the weird round flagpole manny pad.Fuzz started slow but ended up skating so good everyone missed Brian do a “perfect impossible” when Fuzz was in the middle of a line. His line was something like front 180 (Nobody has a better front 180 than Fuzz), halfcab 5-0, backside flip attempt over the bricks on the bank.Brian was looking forward to Dave’s ramp and trying to drop into a rock on top of a ledge and not die.Dave had lots of cool pivots in weird places on the banks. He’s got really good boardslides to fakie on ledges, but was getting pissed trying to front lip the ledge. Mad enough to ask Neil to focus his board.Jason skated the ledge decent for him.Carleigh slammed super hard trying to ollie one of the medians on the bank. She didn’t complain and got up and did it even though here palm was nice and bloody. Rad.Bernie seemed pretty out of it and was skating really slow/bad for him. He couldn’t even land his staple halfcab flips. Seemed like he finally got it together right when we left and he did a front tail 270 out and a kick back tail on the ledge.I was skating kinda mediocre, but a few tricks were making it really fun. Kickflips up the curb and crooks felt really good. I couldn’t do 360 flips at all though. I struggled to manual the flagpole ledge and had all kinds of problems with front 5-0 shoves. I was still having a blast though. That spot rules. I tried a weird line over a gap onto the ledge and got it a few times. At the end of the session I finally got the ollie up the curb then kickflip to fakie. Followed it a couple tries later with backside flip. You can tell when you make a trick look really bad because no one cheers.After this we went to Dave’s ramp and Lazer, Jake and Nate joined us for another fun session. Jake killed it. Fuzz, Brian, Dave and Lazer killed it too, but Jake man, that guy is on the come up. Tons of new tricks in only a couple tries. Brian was almost getting front blunts on the curb side which would have been ridiculous. Jason slammed really hard on a tail stall and went outside to sit in his car with the heat on full blast. I got nothing. Carleigh had troubles with front Ds. Nate skated well and got front tails on the curb side. Neil can’t chop wood. Bernie continued his mellowness. The only times Lazer didn’t land something he seemed to go down hard. Dave has the best style in the world. Fuzz got noseblunts. Fun day and I didn’t even skate that well.

After a fun day off of work with the Mighty LZA at the Denver Art Museum I picked up Jake on a nice afternoon. We went to the Brian-Ball-Bush-Ollie building since it’s an empty building. We were getting warmed up and having a fun time trying lines to/from a kinda long and crack ridden manual. Unfortunately some stupid security guy came by and gave us the boot. Doh.Next we went to an old Boulder classic spot. Stonehenge. The snow hadn’t melted on the bank to curb so that wasn’t an option. It worked out though and we had a blast on the little loading dock. Jake went to work right away on nollies and got some good ones. Then we setup this weird pipe thing and tried to ollie it. Jake took a few tries and got it. It was about a foot taller than the loading dock. Neither of us are good at ollieing tall off of drops so it was scary. I bailed early on and kinda scared myself with a close call to the ankle. After a little bit longer I told Jake I’d get the ollie if he landed a good nollie. I bailed. Double or nothing and I got it. Pretty hyped because I was scared for sure. Jake got some good half cabs after that and I took a long time to get pop shove up the curb then kickflip off. Felt really good though and I did two in a row. I wanted to get a front shove off and it was taking awhile. Jake got a manny after cracking his tail on a halfcab. I finally got the sfront shove and followed it with a manual first try. I also got an ollie up the taller part and a kickflip off the lower part first try. We played 360 flip for awhile on top of the loading dock. Jake broke the record for getting as close as you can without landing it. I got 4 or 5, but should have done more. I really didn’t commit to many of them. Wish I would have committed to more of them. Either way it was an incredibly fun session.

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.