Slept in late again.  India had some plans with a friend so Ollie was all alone for the day and we went to the Louisville park.  Basically no one was skating, prolly because it was very hot and sunny.  I dorked around while Ollie mongo pushed all over the place.  He was kinda ripping.  The only things I did that I thought were kinda good for first thing in the morning was front 50 across and down the hubba and ollieing into the bank off the manny pad.Next I waited for Josh Steele to show up and head to Denver to film some stuff for the Null promo.  We met up with Bernie, Sam and Jeff at the Speer ledge spot.  Bernie was already done skating due to the heat.  Ugh.  Jeff slammed really bad early on trying out a line and tore up his back a bit.  Ugh.  Josh, Todd and I found this amazing ledge that Josh tried to back nosegrind back 180 out.  He got close before getting served hard.  Ugh.  We headed back after that.  Tough day filming eh?Later on I skated at the school with Ollie and he was ripping even harder.  He took seven full mongo pushes and ollied this little two foot flat gap at full speed.  Pretty sick, but I think he’s inherited some of my pop, meaning a lack of it.  Ha.  I didn’t really do anything new, but kinda did my typical cruising around the spots there avoiding rocks.After making a last minute run to Target I picked up Nate and we skated the Ideal Market area for an hour or so.  Nate waxed up the lip of the banked sidewalk, but I don’t think we grinded it any longer than normal anyways.  I got the basic grinds down right away and then didn’t land anything else.  Nate got a disaster to fakie I think.  He also got a nose manny turned around to fakie which was gnarly since coming in fakie on that thing has a huge crack.  I ollied a water bottle on top of a curb at the end of the session and then we played a game of SKATE.   Well, we didn’t finish the game since Nate got too tired.  Ahh, poor 25 year old.  Ha ha!

The crew started as Brian, Neil and I.  After filming some intro stuff for Brian we went to a car wash bank spot that was gnarly.  Not a good warm up spot.  Unless your Neil.  The bank has a curb on the bottom and one at the top.  He got a line with a wallie then a no comply to tail on the bank.  No filming will ever do it justice to be able to keep speed up the bank like like that after ollieing up the curb.  I was screwing around trying to do manuals and kinda landed a couple that had some heel drag.  I took off at least two layers of my deck trying, but it was fun.Next we med up with I-Path John and went to the double sided curb.  This spot was on my list of to-do spots for off the couch.  Basically a flatground trick, slappy 50 transfer, and another flatground trick.  The 360 no complys and halfcab flips weren’t working so I started trying fakie bigflip and it just felt perfect.  A few tries in and I got my line.  Fakie bigflip, slappy 50 transfer, no comply finger flip almost primo make.  Sean and Mike from Ft Collins showed up with Jim and Rich from John Doe as well as Nate and we kept skating this spot for awhile.  Brian broke his board trying an acid drop thing over some tables.  Neil almost did switch wallrides.  Nate almost did a polejam wallride.  John got a sick ass run with a no comply, fakie flip, halfcab flip, noseslide shove and front shove revert.  Ridiculous.  Jim back tailed the ledge super good.We hit a weird bank spot that Nate had seen.  Sean 180’d a crate then half cabbed into a narrow drainage run out.  Next Nate found this crazy long loading dock with flat bars on the sides.  We all had fun boardsliding down it.  Neil got a halfcab boardslide.  Mike got a halfcab noseslide.  Nate closed it with a feeble.  Next was the steep bank spot.  Jim got pivot fakie and staple gun to fakie.  John slammed over and over on front tails.  Brian sat in the car then came out for a blunt fakie cameo.  Sean had some good backside ollies.Lastly we went to Honey’s Hole so Brian could get something he’s had on his mind for awhile.  Prior to filming it I got a back tail in the kinda steeper bank.  Kinda hyped me up.  Next I filmed Brian.  Others were ripping.  Mike got front shove to fakie and then did it switch.  Sean was popping ollies into the bank like it was nothing.  Then went front 180.  Sick.  John was killing it too.  Backside flip, some kinda sal flip thing, back d revert so many tricks.  Brian got his trick, but I filmed it bad.  Ugh.  He kept trying it, but never got it again.  I felt bad.Over all a fun day though.  Not even that hot out.

I only had about 40 minutes to skate before a date with Liz after work so Nate, Neil, John and I met at Neil’s spot where we all decided it would be best to suck as bad as possible.  With the exception of Nate I don’t know if any tricks were actually landed.  I was really bummed.  I even slammed on a flatground front 180.  Not even going fast.  I got into some switch backside boardslides though.  Almost got a crooks and came close to a front 5-0.  Lame session.  They happen.

Still tired from the trip and getting home so late.  Ollie wanted to skate, but it was raining.  We hit Rampy.  Ollie was ripping.  He had runs with several little backside slasher grinds and was going faster and linking more tricks.  India was sitting on her board, but having fun.  Stoked me out.  I was sucking bad.  The kids started just goofing off and I was annoyed.  They went in eventually and I did almost nothing, but attempt frontside ollies.  I got a couple ones where the wheels may have left the ground.  Ugh.

Sore from skipping rocks for hours the day before and with only a few hours left in the family Seattle trip we went to the Seattle Center to check it out and so I could see the skatepark.  Oh, and it was over 100 degrees.  The park kinda sucks.  It’s not layed out well.  I skated horribly, mostly my own sore old self, but still, the park isn’t all that.  The only things I did worth a crap were wallie up the bank to ledge, kickturn on the window (barely), crooks the ledge first try, and well, that’s about it.  They had this cool mellow bank spine, but it didn’t work right.  I really need to learn to ollie higher.

After a fun night of seeing the Mighty Jesus Lizard Josh and I decided to start wearing our hangovers off at the ballard bowl. The bowl is pretty fun really. I didn’t try much initially other than carving and I kept getting in the same ruts. Josh had some good tricks in the shallow and was skating it like a mini. I wussed out of trying the grind on the pool coping. Oh well.Next we went to University of Washington to explore as neither of us have been there. Josh had heard that the ‘red square’ area was good for skating so we asked some people how to get there. The best was when Josh asked an elderly Chinese man where ‘red square’ was. Kinda funny. We found it eventually and it wasn’t as good as we hoped. We were both kinda dieing and after some bad 3 stair ollies we started playing a game of SKATE in the shade. We realized we were right next to the library so we moved away and ended in the sun. It didn’t seem to bother me at first and I Josh fell prey to my amazing flip trick skills. That is a joke. The game went on for awhile. We played another game and the heat was wrecking us. Josh pulled through and banged out some good flippers and won that one. We never managed a tie breaker?!?! Doh.This is where it’s going to get fuzzy. It was like skating with Nate, we cruised around and tried all kinds of stuff. Josh always landing what we were trying at least 5 tries before me. First it was an ollie up a ledge, quick up a two, down the two and off the bench. Next was dropping in on a kicked bank next to some stairs. I don’t remember anything else before we stopped at a Chipotle and got some food. After that we started with a downhill manny pad where we continued the tradition of Josh landing stuff before me. He mannied it and then nose mannied it before I mannied it. After that we cruised down a hill then rode did an idiotic downhill ledge drop run. I didn’t even get the satisfaction of landing it due to a squirrel running right under the last one. Ugh. After that we skated another dropin thing where I slammed on the warmup dropin about halfway down the bank. Great. We eventually both ollied onto the ledge and rolled down it. I was pretty hyped really as it’s a bit gnarly for me. Some more cruising and spot checking went down and we ended up at a brick area with all kinds of two stairs and across the street some 3 stairs. We both ollied up the 3 which took some effort after all that skating. And well, we’re old so it takes effort regardless right? The two stair area weird too. After some dorking I settle on attempting something up a two stair, going around a corner, ollieing up a 3, front 180 down a 2 into a narrow landing, then something off the next 2 if I ever got there. I didn’t. I was really trying a kickflip up a two to start it, but a cop put an end to that. Lame. We pretty much just cruised down and left campus at that point.Last up was a skate plaza in Bellevue that ended up ruling. When we first drove by it looked lame and there were tons of people just standing around. We went and got some drinks then game back and it seemed like a different place.  That place seriously rules.  Josh ripped that place.  Nose mannies everywhere.  Front tailslides on the bank to ledge.  Nose manny up and around the uphill pad with a front 180 out.  Much more.  I was dead tired, but having fun.  I got a manny around the uphill pad.  A front 180 fakie 50 180 on the kicker to banked ledge.  Bad front 50 on the bank to ledge.  Way too many tries for an axle stall revert, then a first try fakie smith fakie stall.  I couldn’t get a manny down the downhill pad.  The last few tricks I got were a back boarslide transfer into the bank, front board transfer then lastly a front board back 180 transfer.  Fun.  Long and awesome day.  The next day was rough though.  Couldn’t even hardly walk.

Liz’s brother had all kinds of activities planned for us on this trip.  Luckily one of them was a stop at a nearby skatepark.  Unfortunately it was in the morning after skating late the night before and my body was having troubles.  The park reminded me of the Louisville skatepark kinda.  Not great, but you could have fun for sure.  I was having a tough time doing anything and was kinda just cruising around doing nothing.  I lost a game of SK8 to a kid and then basically just watched Ollie skate around.  Ollie was riding my board which is clearly way to big for him, but he was having fun and I figured I’d shoot some photos and stuff.Ollie ollieing the 3 stair.  We’re gonna start going by his middle name initials HD so we don’t hear anymore of that “Nice ollie Ollie”.Here’s Ollie cruising around.  I’ve been on him about the mongo push, but he’s 7 so I guess it can slide.  My board was clearly too big for him, but my favorite part is the casual board dismount at the end.

In Seattle on a family vacation and Josh had just moved to Seattle.  We met up, hugged a bit, then got our skate on.  We went to the Gas Works city park and went to a ledge overlooking Lake Union and downtown Seattle.  It was seriously an amazing view and we didn’t hesitate to annoy the locals that were enjoying the same view.  Luckily there were some people lighting off fireworks which is way louder then skateboarding so we didn’t feel too bad.  Not that we should.  Anyways the ledge was gritty to say the least.  It’s seen better days, but it was still good and when grinded it made a really loud raw grind noise.  We pounded out a few of the basics like boardslides and noseslides and Josh manualled it all easy and eventually nose manny front 180’d it.  Six years into the session I was able to finally manual it.  You can also quick up to another level and Josh mannied that too.   I was locking into some crooked grinds, but having troubles popping out.  I got one eventually and a quick up to slow front 50 on the next level then land on the lower level and front 180 off.  It was slow, but fun.  Josh was killing the front 5-0 180s, back 50s, front tail,  back tail, back tail shove maybe back tail to fakie too?  At the end of the session was working on back tail bigspins and landed on one that could probably make an early 90s video.  I started trying kick back 50s and basically should have landed the first one I committed to.  Instead I chose to let it get much darker by way of missing the trick over and over until finally landing it on the last try of our count down.  Cool.After scoping out all the famous skate spots at Gas Works we headed out and found some little bank to skate near Josh’s house.  It looked so good from the road, but man, them Seattle spots is rough!  Josh went down hard hanging up on a rock that would take out most bikers.  I definitely lowered my expectations of the spot quickly, but we still had fun.  Josh lofted some ollies over the hip and we made a little wood crate wallride in the smooth area to help things out.  I got a little run with a backside wallride then a bad kickflip on the bank.  Josh had a bunch of front wallrides and we each added the wallride to fakie and fakie wallride before calling it a fun sweaty night.

John and I headed to campus for some street skating.  We started dorking out on the tiny new little quarter pipe curb thing.  John was killing the smith grinds both ways and did a line with both and a 3 flip, nollie flip and maybe even a front shove.  Rad.  I wasn’t really warmed up and was struggling.  I managed to wallie the little curb to sidewalk gap and do a few grinds too.  Next we headed to the gray bench where I continued to not land a boardslide and chicken out on crooks.  John got a nice noseslide shove and I got a noseslide fakie.  For some reason the bench was really sticky.  Then we went to the student center area and did little lines where we would ride off the big drop thing.  Basically a six stair drop.  John did front shove, ollie, drop, ollie the 3 stair.  Rad.  I started with kickflip and halfcab flip but never managed enough speed to ollie the 3 stair as well.  Lastly we dorked on some tiny manny pads that I couldn’t skate and then a wallride spot where I continued to ride, but not land frontside wallrides.  After awhile I started trying fakie wallrides and got a decent one.  Rad.  John did a good no comply f/s wallride and then we played a game of SKATE that John won right asthe rain started to come down.  I wasnt bummed though, it was a fun game.  I got letters on a couple really easy ones though. front shove and halfcab flip.  Getting a 3 flip first try helped me forget those though.  Fun night.  Gotta street skate with John more.ps – I’m in Seattle now.

My new shoes.  Emerica Herman 2s.  Those DCs didn’t last long at all.Neil, Jason and I went to go meet Carleigh, Brian and Fuzz for some street skating in Longmont.  We met up with Carleigh at the little under cover manny pad near Playa Azul.  Jason and I both got first try mannies.  I guess it helps to have new shoes, wheels and a deck.  Wow that’s a lot.  The mannies went well.  Neil and I both got the long way nose manual and manual.  I tried to throw in a 180 at the end, but never got it.  I almost got a kickflip manual the short way.  I say the short way, but it really was still like 20 feet which was about 2 feet two long for me.  Doh.Carleigh had to bail so we went on to Longmont, picked up Brian and met Fuzz at the OG Off The Couch spot.  Some Longmont heads were there and built a gnarly wood contraption that Jason and Fuzz rolled over.  That was enough it was sketchy.  I was sucking, but luckily Brian was ripping trying the craziest curb transfer trick.  Back 180 pivot bigspin.  Or something.  I attempted to film it for awhile, but the cops came and Brian got denied.  Doh.Next we went to the Longmont ditch where I was having the worst session ever for the first 30 minutes.  I was being a baby I suppose.  Fuzz, Lazer, Jason and Brian were ripping.  Oh yeah, so Lazer had joined us.  Fuzz was trying a ridiculous line of front 5-0 then back noseblunt on the other side.  Jason was locking into his pattented best back tails ever.  Lazer did a front smith grind which really isn’t possible on that thing.  I was  bailing back 50s.  Ugh.  I finally got a couple and a back 5-0.  Tried a few back 50 reverts, but didn’t get them around and just gave my wheels little flat spots instead.  At the end I got a little back nosegrind in only a few tries to make it not the worst session for me.