Tired from working early I went to the Longmont park around 4.  Only a couple bikers were there at that time and Nate, Bernie and Josh were on their way.  I spent the first hour dorking around not really trying anything, just getting a feel for my new setup.  It was quite fun actually.  After awhile I started trying to ollie over the rail out of the kicker.  Super scary to me and I never came close to getting it.  Then i played a game of SKATE with Bernie and CJ that I lost badly.  The funniest part was all of us complaining about something new (Bernie had new shoes, I had new deck and wheels, CJ had a new deck too).  What abunch of dorks, theirs kids that would love a new deck out there.  Anyways the rest of the session was basically a ledge session with Nate and Bernie.  Bernie was trying fakie 5-0 frontside halfcab flip out.  I was trying to learn front smiths as I’ve never done one.  So Bernie and I had a race.  First one to get their trick gets a Gatorade from the other.  I landed it first.  So hyped, never done a front smith before.  Now I feel almost as cool as Joe Hamilton.  Almost.  Bernie never got me that drink.  Jerk.

Had about an hour to skate and met Nate and Gabe at the bank to curb.  We played a game of SKATE on the curb which was pretty fun.  Not much else went down then we hit the manny pad where I didn’t land a single trick.  Wow, that hurts.

After a nice relaxing Sunday I finally got out to skate with Nate around 8pm.  It was raining so we went to red curbs.  My warmup period wasn’t quite as long as normal and my legs felt decent and Nate was killing it as usual.  Pretty quickly on I landed a trick I’ve been trying for awhile, manual then right at the end put it in rock then lift up out of the manual.  Rad.  I ended up getting it several times and even backed it up with a wallie over the rock once.  I came the closest to nollie flips I have in awhile.  Gotta remember to keep trying that one.  I then tried a run over and over having troubles with the first trick, but eventually landed it.  Fakie bigflip, no comply front shove, nose manual, crooks.  The crooks was just a bonus.  Pretty hyped on the run though.  Then Nate started trying power slides over the waxed part of the manny pad.  I’ve never tried something like that before.  Nate got on me to do it and eventually somehow the stars aligned right and I landed it.  SO FUN.  That’s two new tricks in one day for me.  Unheard of.  I topped the session off with the best lipslide I’ve ever done and lost in a tired game of SKATE to Nate.  One of the best times I’ve had skating in awhile.  

9 dudes in a mini van up to Ft Collins.  Gabe, Joey (Gabe’s friend from Baltimore), Neil, Jake, Jason, Fuzz, Brian, Rob and me.  Tight crew.  We got there around 1 with the intention of skating street after a quick warmup at the park.  We left the park when it got dark.  It’s just that fun.  I filmed Fuzz and Brian for awhile.  I messed up Brian by getting too close to his runout and ruining him for the rest of the day.  Doh.  After filming Fuzz though I felt more hyped to skate.  After being frustrated with my skating I finally landed a line I’ve been trying for awhile.  Roll in, kickflip on the brick wall, axle stall on the bank to ledge, back smith stall on the brick bank.  Yippee.  Not worth filming.

Ollie’s first session with a friend of mine.  Ollie’s normally super shy, but I guess since he’s known Jason his whole life he was fine with it.  Jason was recovering from his slam the other night that hurt his back.  Ollie did lots of rock fakies.  Jason did tons of back tails.  I didn’t land a back pivot shove out, but I did kickflip over an orange juice container.  Yippe.  Haven’t kickflipped over much lately.  

A huge crew of over 30 dudes (and one wannabee) at red curbs.  The crew was Brian, Neil, Gabe, Jason, Lazer, Rob and a special appearance by Pat Smith of Coda fame.  Rob was ripping hard.  Jason slammed and took out his back again.  Neil was almost doing pop shove nose manuals?  Brian was trying some crazy stuff.  Lazer skates super fast.  I had an average night until a game of curb SKATE with Gabe went down that was insanely fun.  He did a kickflip staple gun first try and somehow I pulled it out too.  Funnest trick ever.  Now I need to bring it to vert.

After watching pretty much the best video in forever, Boondoggle, I was hyped to skate, but tired and it was looking like a solo session.  I drove from my house with absolutely no spot in mind so I decided to stop at Basemar since it’s kinda fun sometimes.  I cruised around it not feeling at it at all and ended back at my car to go somewhere else.  Two missed calls from Nate!  Rad.  We met up to skate in North Boulder by the old Albertsons which is now totally under construction.  Cool, maybe something good will come from it.  After dorking around for awhile we ended up at the little ledge in front of the salon shop. Somehow it was better than I remembered even though I only landed a front 50.  With some wax that spot could be the goods.  Next up was a weird tiny little bank.  I tried to ollie up a tall curb then axle stall it.  It only took me about 20 tries.  Ugh!  I was almost frustrated, but moved on to just dorking on the bank and doing a bad backside pivot fakie.  Then we crossed 28th to hit the democrat bench (it’s got blue lighting in it) at a bus stop.  It ended up being kinda sick, even though you can only skate it one way due to some grooves cut out of it.  I got a couple weak noseslides and Nate back 50’d all money steez.  I was trying backside 360 no complies and landing them.  Cool, it sure would be nice to finally learn that trick and to have it on the rare occasion I play Brian in SKATE.  Speaking of SKATE that is how Nate and I ended the night.  Pretty good game actually.  I was hucking nollie fs bigspin flips and got kinda close before Nate started trying them and landed it first try.  Ridiculous.  Fun night of skating.  I’ve been super busy at work.  Hopefully I’ll have some time soon to get this site better.

Rolled up to the park with Lloyd and Jason after hitting up MRKT on the way.  Met up with tons of others later on.  After sweeping and moving hoses for a couple hours we were allowed to skate it and oh man, what a treat.  Some of the tight tranny stuff is kinda whack to me, but all of it is built with skateboarding in mind and all of it is rad.  I’ll have pictures on this site at some point, but wow, Sean Kelly deserves some serious props for this park.  The session was crowded, but full of smiles on everyones faces.  Brian Ball didn’t stop smiling the entire time.  I rarely stopped skating for 4 hours or something.  I hardly remember what I did, just cruising around that park is fun.  I guess I had the most fun on the China Banks replica (not very close to the OG though).  I had a run where I ollied a little speed bump thing, rolled into the bank then did a bad b/s flip.  I also got back tail and back smith stalls on it.  Way too much fun to write about really.  Everyone was killing it and the crew was amazing.

Jason and I started out of the gates trying to match trick for trick.  It started into a game of SKATE in which I was pink slipped.  It’s not that I skated really bad it’s that Jason landed every trick he can do first try.  It was insane.  I started to work on either back pivot back shove out or front tail back shove out.  I bailed them both repeatedly until somehow the stars were aligned right and I landed on the back pivot shove.  I didn’t ride out for another 20 tries or so, but I’ve definitely never done that trick into a bank at all before.

Went to Louisville park again, this time with Nate, Jason, Gabe and Brian.  It’s never a good idea to skate the same place two nights in a row and the park was super crowded.  Ugh, Nate and I just went to the hockey area and before long everyone ended up there.  I attempted a line of f/s halfcab flip, heelflip, 360 flip and never got the 360 flip.  I was pretty frustrated with how inconsisten I am with flip tricks, but had to remember I never habe been.  Oh well, a night of flippers is fun.