Drove up to Winter Park to meet the Factory with Farm cranked the whole way. Showed up at the scooter/tourist infested skatepark and dorked around for a bit until TF showed up. I wasn’t skating too well at all, but kept at it. It took me forever to do this little ollie into boardslide transfer, but after that things started clicking. I got a manual on the step up manny pad pretty quickly, then went for nose manny which took awhile, but just ollieing up the first ledge at speed every time was fun enough to keep trying. Brian, Neil, Fuzz, Carly and Lazer were playing add a trick in the bowl or something. It started sprinkling lightly and before leaving I got a nollie treflip on flat first try and a b/s kickflip on the big wall not first try. Pretty fun session.Later in the evening after the rain we ended up at Kremmling skatepark where one of my favorite sessions ever went down.  There was some puddles around so we could really only skate the shallow (but still vert) bowl and the street area.  I started off pretty slow, but finally nailed a kickflip axle stall on the bank to curb to get me going.  Brian was ollieing all over the place.  It was awesome to see him cruising around cracking ollies.  He even ollied up the three stair.  He also rock fakied the crazy jersey barrier thing before anyone else had even set their board down.  Lazer, Neil and Fuzz were killing everything.  Lazer did a blunt to fakie on the bank to curb and a front feeble to fakie like it was nothing.  Carly kickflipped up the step up gap.  I ended up getting a wallie up the 3 stair and then we started skating the little bowl again for awhile.  It took me awhile, but I got a rock ‘n roll in it and a silly layback front rock thing which I’ve never done before.Next we played a game of flatground SKATE that ended up going on forever and was a total blast.  Pretty much everyone was doing ‘double or nothings’ on every trick.  It was hilarious.  I got two letters on a double or nothing front shove.  Lame!  I did a heelflip for Brian and managed to do his b/s 360 no comply when it came up.  The whole game was hilarious.  Somehow Fuzz was one of the first ones out as he couldn’t get a 43 shifty.  So whenever it would have been his turn he kept trying it.  Brian pulled out the best 360 flip ever landed on the back wheels at less than 270 and slid for awhile before riding away.  Epic.  Brian won the game on a front foot impossible. Yeap, I repeat, Brian won the game of SKATE.  He said it’s his first win ever.  Rad.At this point we were all beaming having a ball.  Brian, Fuzz and I were working on tricks instead of leaving.  Brian dropped into the jersey barrier then dropped in fakie from and axle stall.  It was the most retarded thing I’ve seen him do I think.  Lazer dropped in switch.  It was ridiculous.  Fuzz was working on front disaster in the taller area of the shallow bowl and got it.  Brian grinded over the stairs.  Lazer boardslid over the stairs.  I managed an axle stall which was pretty scary to me and one of the best feeling tricks I’ve done in awhile.  Coming in off the pool coping the board was airborn for a bit.  Right before leaving Fuzz and I tried a few 3 flips until we landed them since we hadn’t yet.  Then we left.  One of my favorite sessions ever.

Jason and I met up with Mikey and Jack for some skating and Null filming. We started near Silver Mine subs and just kinda rolled around for awhile looking at stuff. We skated for a bit at the old folks home bank. I haven’t been there in years. Jack god some wallrides on the fence. Jason did a crail I think. I got a bad b/s flip. We messed around on flat ground for awhile and I came very close to the elusive switch kickflip.We moved into campus and checked out spot after spot, but nothing really went down until we got all the way up near Meta were Jack filmed a nice little gap back 5-0. After we skated a new spot for awhile just kinda screwing around. Jack had some cool mannys and wallies. It looked like a gnarly storm was coming and rain drops started falling so we started skating down to the car. It started to get worse so we ducked under the enginnering building area and the gnarliest storm I’ve ever seen unleashed itself. High powered winds and the hardest rain/hail I’ve ever seen. You couldn’t even see but 10 feet. It lasted for about 10 minutes and then the sun came out. CO is crazy.Later on Nate and I met up at the bank to curb spot by Neil’s house. I was pretty beat from being out all day already, but ended up skating really hard. It took Nate awhile to show up at the spot and I just started trying a really long line. Kickflip a manhole cover, ollie up the curb to manny, slappy lip the bank to ledge. Got that one. Then started trying pop shove over the manhole over, manny, kickflip the metal grate, slappy lip. Didn’t get that one. Going the other way I tried front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip, boardslide. Think I got that one too. After awhile the heat and exhaustion set in and I was more into just trying tricks on the curb with Nate. The only new trick I got was slappy front lip to fakie. I came close to crooks pop out as well. Also came really close to switch kickflips again. Argh. So hard.

Worked my ass off all day working from home and cleaning the house up trying to get it looking really nice for the kids and wife to return to. Nate said he wanted to skate, but never called. I was so rusty at first, but kinda got it going. I went back to trying the fakie bigflip, front shove, 360 flip line and never got it again. I did come very close though. I missed a lot of front shoves for some reason. Going the other way I was trying back 180, fakie flip, switch flip lines. Yeah, I know I’ve only landed one switch flip in my life but I hucked one and it felt like I should do it. I ended up credit carding my balls pretty bad though and had to chill for awhile. After that I just tried switch flips. I never got one, but I committed several times and put both feet on a couple. One of them was super close to a make. Sick!

So it’s finally summer in CO.  Hot dry days and warm nights.  After work Little Jack and I rolled to Denver and met up with Jeff.  We drove around for awhile trying to find a rail, but ended at a fun alley bump spot.  We didn’t stay long.  I got a couple ollies and was thinking it would be fun to kickflip, but we split to the rail we were trying to find earlier.  I filmed Jack do a back 50 and then we got booted.  Next we ended at a fun wallride spot that Jeff almost landed a front wallride on before we got booted by some dude.  Last we ended up at a crazy wallie spot that Jack wallied and Jeff got his back with a wallride.  Rad.Jack and I hit Commerce City on the way back.  We messed around on the planter for awhile then skated around.  There were lots of dudes trying flyouts so skating the ledges kinda sucked.  I settled into trying a run near the entrance of a no comply to tail, manual, cali grind.  I got it once with a scrape on the manual and the no comply to tail was kinda whack too.  Oh well.  Jack and I went to play flatground SKATE, but there was some dude bumming us out so bad.  He was swearing at the top of his lungs, throwing his board, demanding everyone’s attention and letting us all know he wasn’t having a great day.  Ahhh.  Then the lights shut off.  They were filming too.  At that point the dude said to the filmer, “You better erase every one of my tricks or I’ll break that tape.”  Classic.

After a nap and a huge dinner I picked up Jason and we went up to the hill to meet Nate. We were down by the tunnel ledge waiting for Nate and I just kinda set my board up on the ledge and attempted to roll around the whole ledge and ended up hitting the top ledge and diving to the ground right in front of Nate. Rad. I was laughing before I even hit the ground and somehow it didn’t hurt.We ended up staying there and trying to skate that weird ledge. Jason got some really good front noseslides. Nate did some really good front 50s and nollie front tails. I did a couple mediocre front 50s and rode into a cali grind on the last part. This took us all about an hour. That ledge is hard to skate. Oh yeah, my tail was already cracked really bad and spongy. At the end we were messing around trying tail stall shoves and stuff and I cracked it way more.Next up Jason and I went down into campus to the plastic ledge. It took Jason awhile to get a boardslide and I never got one. Ugh. Jason landed the best crooked grind I’ve ever seen him do and some good noseslides too. I was going slow trying to man up to crooks on that ledge when the cops came and we left with a warning.We haven’t been to Lville park at night in a long time. It was really crowded. I mostly just skated the ledges. Got a few crooks and a quick back 50. Couldn’t get the front 50 back 180 out. Argh. Then I settled in on trying back nosegrinds on the low ledge. I haven’t done that trick in forever, since the Vans park was around. It took awhile, but I got into a few and rode out of a couple that probably had little back truck scrapes. I couldn’t just land it perfect you know, because it’s me and lately I suck on a skateboard. We left when the park closed.

After a late night and a huge lunch Jason, Neil and I headed to Longmont.  We went to Skyline HS which has a sick ledge in the back of it.  It was kinda shady which was good, but the heat was still intense.  Neil was trying a sick line, Jason was trying a tall front nose and I was trying some random stuff, but we never pieced it all together.  We left to look at the Longmont contest and chill for a minute.Next we went to the ‘chocolate chip’ bank spot.  I remember skating this about 20 years ago before I could ollie.  Ha. Jason killed the front boardslide and Brian had the one foot front kickturns.  I was sucking, but had a fun switch b/s kickturn and tried to manual out of a regular kickturn.  Came close, but never got it.  I got a back rock after a lot of tries.  It was easy when I finally committed, but scary up til that point.  It shouldn’t be that hard.  Oh well, blame it on the heat?  Oh, and the fact that I suck at skateboarding.

Took a tiny nap after work and Nate showed up.  My legs were dead so we skated Rampy for a bit and had a sweaty blast and got the legs warmed up good.  We both skated Rampy pretty well and I got a few fakie pivot fakies and a couple front tail stalls which used to be very hard for me on Rampy.  Nate was trying back 5-os to fakie when his board got stuck all crazy on the tranny.  We laughed like crazy for awhile so I went in to get a my phone and saw 3 missed calls from Neil.We rolled over to Neils place as did Jason to skate the little bank to curb spot. I’m not sure why I haven’t skated it before, but it’s an incredible spot.  Good flatground, mellow bank, waxed curb, other random stuff.  Sick!  Nate had to leave soon after that but we had all done some stuff so here’s the quick run down.  Neil front lip the two stair, back board the curb; Nate front 5-0, front lip the two stair, boardslides to fakie on the curb, probably 20 more tricks I can’t remember anymore; Jason back 50s on both, front lip the two stair, prolly a bunch more.  I got a boardslide, slappy noseslides, bad front tails and slappy front lip on the curb.  Jason and Nate had to leave and Neil was feeling my front lips so he filmed me try it in a run.  Ollie up the curb, slappy front lip, 360 flip.  Took quite awhile and I got it twice, both look weird.  I’m not very good at skateboarding.  Felt good to skate that hard though.

First day with the kids and wife gone on vacation and it rains.  Figures.  But before it rained Lazer and Neil headed to my house where I was skating some flatground.  Was trying a run of fakie bigflip, front shove, 360 flip.  Came close, but never got it.  We split out to the Mikes Camera ledge where Lazer slammed immediately over shooting a front 50.  It was pretty funny.  He still ripped it of course.  Sometimes I can skate that ledge well and sometimes it treats me horribly.  This was one of the latter.  I got a boardslide pop out pretty quick and bailed a bunch of front 50s.  Ugh.  Tried a few front 50 to front boards, but never got it.  Was also trying back boardslides shove it out, but never came very close.  I guess I’m not Nate.  Lazer brought us over to ollie the six stair where he did it peice of cake, but Neil and I weren’t feeling it.  We started messing around on the metal grate bank but the rain settled in.  Argh.Later on Jason and I hit red curbs.  I was pretty beat from the earlier session, but figured I should skate a lot while the family is gone.  It wasn’t an easy session for me.  Pretty early on I was trying a front 5-0 and ate shit in such a weird way that I hit my head on the curb.  Not bad enough to leave a bump even, but kinda scary.  Nothing like hitting your head while skating a curb.  I was also pretty bummed on how my crooks are just little jibs and the fact that it took me 50 tries to get a 360 flip.  All in all not a great session, but we skated hard and had a good time.

Headed over across the street for a few minutes with ollie. Still getting used to my new stuff. Messed around on the curb for a bit then hit the rock infested sidewalk. Ollie was ollieing over the little 2 foot long flat gap like it was nothing. I was trying some flip tricks and he started trying fakie shove its. He can do half cabs so he started trying fakie shoves. He ended up getting a couple stationary ones. He claims he’s done it before, but I’ve never seen it. Sick! I got a few flippers including a first try wind up 3 flip as we left. Liz and the kids are leaving for two weeks so I’ll be skating a bunch hopefully ..

Fathers Day and Go Skate Day all in one. After fun filled family activities like basketball, napping and lunch at Wahoos I picked up Jack and we rolled toward Ft Collins with the end goal being their video premiere at Northside. In my last update I mentioned I couldn’t stand the ACE trucks anymore. The bushings had blown out so bad that they squiggled all over the place. And you can’t just setup new trucks. I had a new board, new trucks and new shoes. Basically I was guaranteed to suck.Yeah, so I have mall shoes. But isn’t DC more legit than Vans? I mean their both owned by huge corporations. At least DC was started by skaters though. And DC has PJ Ladd.New trucks = rough.We started off at the Egg and I spot. I was struggling big time, but ended up getting a bit used to it. Jack was killing it. Lots of weird tricks, lots of good tricks, etc. He did stuff like ollie and put the back foot on the 3 stair ledge, kickflip over it, front shove pivot fakie, kickflip, fullcab, b/s flip into the bank. I forget what trick he did but it hyped me up enough to get a kick back tail on the bank. I also got a b/s kickflip on the bank where i didn’t do the back wheel shuffle on the bank.After some filming we ended up at the newest of the new Ft Collins parks where we skated the new sculpture stuff for a long time. So fun. Ollieing up one the whoopty doo thing and doing tricks on the q-pipe is fun. Not easy, but fun. I only got front rock and axle stall on it, but that was fun. Jack did boring tricks like blunt fakie, front pivot and rolled into it. I almost did a complete circle in a manual on the potato wedge thing. It was fun. I can’t really remember any other tricks I did, but it was fun trying anything. Jack got a manual front shove and a bunch of other stuff that looked fun. Fun day. Hope I get used to the new stuff soon.