I attempted to skate on Friday too, but my achilles was hurting so bad I couldn’t push.  Ugh.  Tried again on Saturday and it was a bit better, but still sucked.  We started at a bank spot that I’ve never skated before and that spot is so sick.  It’s got a waxed bank where you can go over some holes and a shorter ledge.  I got a couple weird back hurricanes over it where I turned to forward the wrong way.  My legs didn’t have it in them to pop onto the little ledge.  Ugh.  Fuzz was ripping of course.  Brian and I were stressing over what we could do that would be filmed.  John straight showed up Reed Goodman.  Ha.  Jake had some good front  lipslides over the hole.Next we went to Fairview where I was to try my stupid kickflip noseman dumptruck.  I didn’t get close.  I did get frustrated though.  My heel started acting up and I was over it.  I don’t really feel like doing another 2 mile an hour trick anyway.  I lurked or filmed the rest of the day.

Another day, another day of thinking about this one trick I’ve gotten too close on not to try anymore.  Nate had bruised his heel really bad playing soccer and had told me early in the day that he would sit and film me until I landed it.  Sweet.  He was propped up in the cold with a bomber and the camera and kept telling me “you got it!”  Jason showed up and brought some lights which made it look even better.  He didn’t really skate either, just hung out and watched.I had some new shoes as my Lakais were totally dead.  Some Adio Cranes.  I’ve been wearing them around for awhile so their broke in.  Why Adio?  Well they used to hook Greg up and it was basically all SOL had that met my shoe requirement of fake vulc.  Anyways, it felt a little weird for sure, but change is good when your trying the same thing over and over.  I did a rock ‘n roll and a axle stall as warm ups prior to giving the ol’ kick back tail a go.  First one was close.  Then nothing for awhile.  About 30 min in I started trying switch f/s flips near where I start and was getting close.  Eventually I told myself to not land the kick back tail so I could land a switch f/s flip.  Well, that appeared to do the trick as the stars finally aligned and I put the kick back tail down.  It felt absolutely amazing.  I had no idea I was doing it either.  I had gotten to a point where I felt like I was just passing the motions trying it.  I just kept telling myself, go fast, turn the shoulders and maybe one of these will go.  I rode away in shock and disbelief.  It all happened so fast.  I was riding away before I realized I had really done it.   I put my board in the car and we took off after some high fives.  Went straight home and loaded the footage.  It came out great.  I flail my arms a bit, but the kick back tail was as good as I’ll ever do it.  Thanks to everyone who sat and filmed my try this.  Jason, Nate, Rob, Jack and Brian. Thank you all so much.  I am so looking forward to skating somewhere else!

Filming for a video straight sucks. Sometimes it’s cool filming stuff that’s hard, but going somewhere and trying a certain trick over and over seriously blows to me. I really wanted to land the kick back tail and be done though. If I get that trick my part can be done. I warmed up on Rampy waiting for Brian and John to show up and had fun. Did my best 5-0 to fakie and a stand up back nosegrind. Also did a new trick of feeble to back 50 to fakie. Totally dumb, but whatever. Started trying feeble to nosegrind and kinda got a horrible one. Then we went to the carwash. I was feeling so good at first. I did a rock ‘n roll first try and and axle stall in a few tries. I hadn’t even really tried those there before. The first few kick back tails were close. I was really feeling it and ready to commit. But it turned out that only the very first one got into back tail. I was so close time after time but the board never came into tail. My body was so ready and I thought I was gonna land it numerous times. But no. John got a sick back kickflip. My side started acting up and my left leg was pretty numb. I could barely push or do flatground kickflips. Ugh. I gave up peacefully after awhile. I know I can do it now, but it’s gonna be a different time. Hopefully my side pains go away.Some cheeseball thoughts I gotta remember next time I go back. John nailed it when he said I gotta crank my shoulders. It’s four hard pushes. Do some other warm up tricks again. Land that shit already.

TF day.  Started off skating in front of my house as usual.  Felt better then I would have thought, but not very good.  I filmed Brian and Fuzz at a couple spots before skating a new crazy bump spot.  It was fun, but not that fun.  I was happy trying boardslides down a little hubba.  Our crew was pretty big.  Brian and John were battling late flips.  Carleigh was battling heelflips.  Jason back 180s.  Fuzz was doing monster airs.  Neil was cussing.  John was slamming.  Rob was styling.Next we went to my nemesis.  The car wash in Lville.  Ugh.  We put the sign in a new way and it was better.  But that didn’t stop me from not landing it.  I think it’s a mental block at this point.  Jason, Lazer and Fuzz were killing it.  The spot is weird.  I tried kick back tails forever and definitely got into some that I should have landed.  Even rode out of one but bailed before the curb.  I think it’s a mental block at this point.  I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about how I should just land it.  Ugh.  At the end I totally freaked out, focused my board and threw it around for a long time.  Gotta say that was pretty fun.  Felt better then just leaving empty handed.  The worst part is I have to go back.  UGH UGH UGH.  It’s partly awesome because this trick is really good for me, it’s party horrible because I don’t like going to a place and trying one trick over and over.  Please, wish me luck, I need it.This is me when I snapped.  After the board landed I think Brian said something about how it showed I was related to the strongest man in the world.  Can’t wait til I try it again.Another one I bailed that I shouldn’t have.  Thanks for the photos Rob.  I still can’t believe that shirt didn’t give me enough power to land it.  I mean it is the best shirt of all time and all.  You would think it could do kick back tails by itself.

Had the day off work and started it off by skating the little indoor weird spot at the Reunion sale.  They have a steep little quarterpipe, wallride, a couple ledges and a manny pad made of a stack of osb sheets.  John wanted to get a line, but we skated for awhile first.  It took me awhile to get a wallride, but I eventually did.  Maybe if I wasn’t so stupid and refused to take a 5 minute break and relieve my bladder.  Oh well.  I also got a run with a nose manny, kickturn then kickflip manny.  I filmed Nate and John for a bit then Nate and I headed to 1st & Sheridan in Denver.  I felt like crap when we got there and couldn’t do anything.  Freaked out a bit and sat for awhile.  I really hate skating under the pressure of having to film tricks.  Can’t wait for Off The Couch to be done.  After awhile though I was skating ok for me and Nate rules and was willing to film.  I got a front 50 kickflip out in about 5 tries.  Awesome!  That was the number one trick on my list.  Then I attempted a run with boneless 360 followed by 50 front board.  Never got it.  Ugh.  Killed myself trying too.  My left leg is sooo sore from jumping off it on the boneless over and over.  Later on I tried no comply 360s to start it and landed more then ever, but still couldn’t do the 50 front board.  Lame.  I’m not good at skateboarding.  After we met up with Bernie and John and went to this weird hip/downhill manny pad spot.  I was dead tired, but managed to manny and nose manny down it before filming Bernie almost get a really sick trick.  Doh.

Met up with Nate at Valmont on an even colder night. Nate started off quick then went downhill quick complaining of stomach pains. It’s funny how often Nate is in pain while skating that’s unrelated to skating. Ok, maybe it’s not funny, but just weird. Anyways I started out slow as usual, but seemed to have lots of energy and started skating pretty hard. I got a front board pop out, back board popout, back noseslide, back noseslide to fakie, front noseslide to fakie, front 50 quick like. Then moved on to trying halfcab noseslides which took awhile this time and then tried them to fakie. Somehow I managed a decent one quickly. Rad, never done that before that I can remember. I hucked some halfcab flip noseslides and was somewhat close at one point. Got a good front 50 shove and the best front tail I’ve ever done. It slid at least a foot. Ha. It was the best front tail I’ve done though. I put down a good front 50 front board pop out too and failed and front 5-0 shoves. That used to be my trick there. Doh. Nate had taken off pretty quick in stomach pains. Jake showed up the latest. Jason showed up too. I came even closer to getting my dream run ending with the front 180 fakie 50 bigspin out, but slammed pretty hard on an ollie off the dock once. Towards the end I realized I wouldn’t be able to land a 360 flip on flat to save my life so I just putzed around trying 3 flip one way, switch flip coming back. Came insanely close to switch flips, but no dice. Landed a couple treflips. Jake is trying to learn that trick so we hucked them forever. I only landed a few, but probably tried 50. Ugh. Jake and I played a long game of SKATE that wouldn’t die because we wanted to end it on harder tricks. I was trying 3flips or nollie 3flips and he was trying frontside flips. After several close calls he put down a frontside flip and started putting on his hoodie thinking he was winning it. No way, I landed a horrible one first t and Jake started crying. Or just being bummed. Ha. So I put down a 3flip after that and we went home tired and stoked. Fun night.

India has ballet on Tuesdays so I get Ollie all to myself for a couple of hours and I try my best to make sure he skates then.  Ha.  He chose skateboarding actually.  We went over to the schoool and just kinda cruised the front sidewalk.  I was trying the little downhill sidewalk to micro gap mannies.  Never got one, came closer to 180 fakie nosemanuals.  Also did a couple no comply 270 disasters then popped up onto the sidewalk.  The rain started coming down and we skated a tiny rock under a tree.  Ollie ollied it a bunch and almost ollied over to manaul.  That would have ruled.  I got ollie over to nose manny which I don’t think I’ve ever done before, kickflips, pop shoves, bad b/s flip, switch ollie then we bailed because the rain was too much.

The first “cold” night of the year.  My thermometer said it was 38.  I was in a hoodie and a beanie and super amped up to skate.  That’s probably because I was solo with no chance of having to film.  John and Nate had considered meeting up, but neither did.  I had a complete blast.  I love fall skating, it is the best.  I started off slow and warmed up kinda slowly as usual.  I did back and front board popouts, back and front noseslides, my best halfcab noseslides ever, front 50s and a first try front 50 shove moving pretty fast.  I also tried and failed at front 5-0s, front 50 to front board, front 50 kickflip out, kickflip back 50 and some real lame attempts at kick back tails.  I was skating really hard though.  Trying flip tricks and coming really close to switch flips.  I tried a run from the far side with kickflip up the curb, ollie off the loading dock then front 180 fakie 50 180 out.  Got that.  Then did front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip, ollie off the dock, front 180 fakie 50 180 again.  Stoked on that line for sure.  I probably ollied off the loading dock 20 times.  It kinda weirded me out as I did it faster then normal and had no idea how to bail.  I committed everytime instead of bailing as usual.  Not sure that I could bail even if I wanted to as my reflexes in the air seem to be gone.  Anyways once I slammed pretty good due to wheel bite and I just sat in the cold air thinking about how amazingly awesome skateboarding is.  I wish I skated like this when we were out filming.  I think I needed a good solo session though, it’s been awhile.  Oh yeah, one of my favorite parts was just a first try ollie up onto the escalator pretty high up.  I didn’t wallie up at all and landed it clean.  Felt super good.

TF filming day.  After a very long week at work Saturday started slow.  I had no board control and didn’t feel like putting in the effort on flippers.  Not sure why I was so out of it.  We went to the “new spot” which is a bunch of angled manny pads and some stairs.  It’s a super sick spot to say the least.  I wasn’t skating up to par.  Rob got a sick line.  I failed at a lame manny to 50 which I eventually landed.  Shortly after we went to Rock Creek where I had fun for awhile and was even kinda motivated to land some tricks I haven’t done there.  I landed a front d then resorted to filming for 3 hours.  Looking forward to cooler weather kind of.

The park was crowded on another super nice night.   We tried to turn the hockey rink lights on so Jake could learn 3 flips, but they never came on.  We skated amongst the crowds.  Jake got a sick line of a 5-0 to fakie then a f/s cab over the hip.  Rob was ruling it fast like with slappy feebles.  I was kinda just whatevs.  Not ripping, not sucking.  I couldn’t crook the ledge though which bummed me out.  I had a new board and wheels though and my last board had a square tail pretty much so the board felt huge.   We played a game of SKATE that ended with Rob heckling everything we did (sore loser) and me squeezing out the victory over Jake.  At the end Rob and I tried a bunch of backside no comply bigspins.  Rob got one.  I came close, but didn’t land it.  Would have been cool to land a trick I’ve never done before.