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.

Met up with basically everyone over 30 years old in the Boulder area at Rock Creek shortly before dark.  For some reason I decided to try skating without my orthotic insoles in my shoes.  It felt kinda good, but I think it really just made me feel less confident then normal and combine that with one of the busiest work weeks I’ve had it was a recipe for blah.  I didn’t really skate the ramp at all because there were too many people skating it.  I played a game of SKATE with Darin and John and lost out to Darin like I always do.  I started off good, but could not land a trick near the end to save my life.  I messed around a bit more, but left for Lville after it got dark.  Jason was gonna skate with me, but he left right away.  I cruised around trying to skate well, but could not.  I couldn’t do crooked grinds and I couldn’t do front 50s.  I did have fun cruising around though and sometimes just rolling around and not being busy at work is fun enough.  I don’t have to land switch tre fakie nosegrinds shoves everyday.

After a late night of poker and beers Lazer, Carleigh, Jason, Rob and I headed to the TF park (ie Lville tech area) as Rob and Lazer both had tricks they wanted to get for their parts.  Rob got his all quick like.  Boardslide transfer then no comply wallride super good.  Street Lazer was ripping with a little line including a switch b180 over a curb.  Carleigh was slamming on kickflips over a curb for days.  Ouch.  I wasn’t skating too well either, but had a couple b/s flips off the little bump and did a run with a pop shove into the kicker, kickflip on curb, front 180 the next.  I was also trying front board shove transfers.  Couldn’t get close while I was sliding.Next we went and filmed Lazer’s potential new ender then found this super awesome bump to skate nearby.  Lazer straight killed it with melon, stale, tuck knee, back 180, everything he did.  Jason was lofting some huge ollies.  Carleigh got a pop shove.  Rob was surfing his ollies and got a var heel.  I attempted b/s flips for a long time before finally getting one.  If we ever skate there again I’d love to b/s flip over the whole thing.  It’s a bump with about a 5 foot table top, but the landing isn’t as steep as the take off.  It’s soooooo fun.  I also got a front shove, great feeling kickflip and some weak ollies.  Super fun spot and a better day then I would have thought.

The TF met at my house on a gloomy and chilly day with rain threatening and we went to the little manny pad by Mike’s Camera.  One of my favorite places ever.  I was sore to start for some reason, but ended up starting to feel good.  Had two nose mannies followed by tre flips in a row.  Got a kickflip manual somewhat quickly.  Came close to a kickflip nose manny, but the rain started coming down and we split to red curbs.As soon as we got to red curbs I wanted to try a line.  Wallie the rock, either nollie or reg 3 flip, manny, kick back tail.  So I was messing around with it and ended up getting two of the best kick back tailslides I’ve ever done.  One was probably a two foot slide.  Sickness.  After getting a couple of those Brian was willing to subject himself to filming me.  I got a sketchy one somewhat quick.  Wallie, 3 flip bad push out, manual sketch, kick back suski.  Doh.  Then I tried to get it clean, but never came through with it.  Got so tired and was having lots of problems with treflips.  Ugh.  I gave up on it, but Brian encouraged to to try the kick back tails, but I never got another good one.  He was following me without the camera.  It was pretty funny.  I pretty much will never land a kick back tail like those two again.  Fun day though.  That was the hardest line I’ve tried to film.

John, Nate and I headed up to the Fort pretty early.  We were skating Northside by 11:00 am and were the only ones there.  I was very slow to warm up, but ended up trying my same ol line.  Wallie the back bump thing, ollie a hump, roll in, back 5-0 the brick bank then pole jam no comply the new little pole jam.  Didn’t get the pole jam.  Played two games of SKATE with Nate and John.  Did horrible in the first one, but won the second one ending with nollie treflip.  Rad.Off to O-ledge in the heat and was stressing trying to get some footage, but never even got the camera out because I was sucking.  We kinda all were too tired and hot.  We played another game of SKATE that was pretty mediocre.  John bailed difficult tricks like pop shove, nollie shove and some other ones that he’ll probably learn if he keeps skating with us.Next up we hit the new Spring Canyon park.  John broke his board pretty quick on a treflip and I was borderline getting heat exhuastion, but kept skating.  I was trying a run of boardslide to nose manny the ledge, back pivot the qpipe, ollie onto the snake and axle stall the tight qpipe.  I got all the trick, but not together.  Nate landed some front board to nose manny 180.  Sick.  We woulda filmed it if we were closer to the car (read lazy).After some grub and a stop at MRKT we went to an old ditch spot with new quickcrete and it ended up being a blast.  Basically there is this weird bank with a wide curb on it so the curb is at an angle.  The quickcrete allowed you to ride up and grind the top.  The angle is tough and there were bikers coming through fast on the bikepath.  But that makes it fun right!  John was slaying the back smiths and got a run with a back smith and a 43 shifty.  Rad.  Nate was trying the back 5-0 to fakie, but that would have been insane to pull in.  I got a weird nosegrind over it and then filmed a run with a back 5-0, then front ride along then a backside flip.  I gotta go into more details though because it’s way harder then it sounds.  The ride along was so hard.  Basically I rode up the quickcrete then turned 90 degrees and rode on the sideways curb down a hill and then came off it on flat.  I almost took some bad slams just trying to get onto it.  After awhile I had it down though.  It doesn’t show on video how hard it is, but oh well.  I had been trying the run with a heelflip in it, but kept not getting the heelflip.  So on one attempt I decided to try a backside flip just cuz and landed it first try.  People, I never land anything first try.  This was easily the highlight of anything I’ve ever filmed solely because I did one of the tricks first try.  And yes the flatground tricks in my Off The Couch part are the favorite part of my part.  Sorry, I’m still in love with PJLWL.

Nate and I showed up to a crowded park.  My legs were really tired still from the kick back fail.  Was taking awhile to get warmed up, but almost got a line of tailstall on the top of the cradle, then crooks the ledge then manual back.  Didn’t get the manny.  We took a break to the gas station so Nate could nourish his ailing body then came back and the park was even more crowded.  We ended up skating the long ledge/cradle area the entire night.  Nate got some nose manny front 180s and almost nose manny front big.  I managed to manual it from the taller side which I’ve never done before.  I got a lot of tailslides kinda on the top of the cradle and a few crooks.  Almost some front nosegrinds, nollie tres, no comply back 360s, was having fun.  I also got on crooks before the end of the ledge and tried to pop out of it.  Didn’t quite get it.  Pretty fun session even though we only skated 1/20 of the park.