Feeling totally exhausted I rallied over to the curbs across the street shortly before sunset.  Pushing felt kinda weird still from my slams to the hip last weekend.  I got a few of the basis slappies, a couple flippers, a wicked shinner on a b/s flip attempt and almost called it a night.  But I messed around a bit longer and did a switch barley stall on a curb which was pretty darn fun.  Also got halfcab flip and a few heelflips, but couldn’t get treflip.  At the end tried a few switch front slappies.  Almost got a really good long one, but ended up settling for a not as good one which still put a smile on my face.  

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a breezy, but nice day after work I cruised up to Fort Collins to skate and hit MRKT.  I went to meet Bo and Hayden at Spring Canyon, but it was super mobbed with people.  Like literally 40 people skating.  I had done a few laps not really doing anything yet feeling the effects of a long drive when Bo and I decided to go to Fossil instead.  A short drive later we were at an almost empty park and the wind had disappeared!  We started out on the top area for once.  We had all done a couple warm up things when Hayden started doing kickflip up the curb, treflip off.  We all tried it.  Bo somehow landed on, but didn’t ride away from like 20 treflips.  It was crazy.  I only got a few kickflips up the curb and committed to a treflip, but never put it down.  Hayden’s treflips were so casual and perfect.  He increased the line to treflip up, treflip off, ollie up the ledge then treflip down the 3.  Dang!  Bo had some nice hops down the stairs.  Then we played on the main ledge for awhile.  I did okay.  Didn’t completely struggle with slow front 50s, had some crooks, halfcab noseslide, switch front nose, bs flip.  Bo was shredding so hard.  Back lip shove, front lip, close to front lip 270 shove, super long crooks, front 5-0 shove, pop shoves, kickflips.  Hayden was shredding too.  Long back tails, back smiths, front tails, manuals and we filmed that line as it was getting dark.  He did so many treflips.  I’m jealous.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Not feeling too motivated after my first day of work in a few weeks I left the house not knowing where I would skate.  The sun had just set and I randomly thought of Basemar and it’s fun alley that is lit very well.  But I didn’t anticipate the area being covered in old kids clothes.  I moved some of them a bit out of the way and tried to get some warm up lines going.  I had put my 6.1 axles on with the big 53mm conical fulls.  Dumb idea.  First line was nollie to fakie the narrow bank, switch 180, front 5-0 a little yellow curb.  I couldn’t get a kickflip to fakie.  Then I tried an even dumber line starting up in another corner riding down a level or dropping down to tail then trying to manual to cali grind to manual the downhill pad section.  Never got close to the manual part and the smell back there started to get to me so I went out to the front area.  I had forgotten about the weird mellow bank with the flagstone ledge along it.  I then noticed a new approach I’ve never done before ollieing up the curb, noseslide attempt a tall flagstone ledge then stalls on the bank to ledge.  I had a really fun one ending with a front smith stall.  The noeslide was questionable, but it was so tall and dry I didn’t really care.  I tried a bunch more to do front tail shove, but never got it.  It was fun ollieing up the curb pretty well for once.  Then I tried a line of halfcab flip, nose stall to fakie a bench on the same bank followed with fakie flip.  I never got the fakie flip and got frustrated and left after a front rock and terrible wallride nollie.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1s no big washer, 53mm conical full spitfire f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling a little less sore I went and met Sean and JJ at the dog park after a mellow morning with the family. It was almost 80 degrees! Suns out guns out! Ha ha. I was skating my 8.5 setup. Again I didn’t like how it felt, but it didn’t feel too small or too big at any point. Sean was working on fakie 5-0s the tall bench as well as nollie back 5-0 front 180 out which he would get a couple of. And he grinded them far. JJ is a shredder. He did front board around the kinked flatbar, nollie front lips, back lips, front boards, lots of tricks. I didn’t get too far into my list or skate very hard, but it was a nice chill session. I still managed to get a switch crook jib, switch noseslide 270 shove, front 50s, a couple flippers. Hucked quite a few kickflip crooks which still feel realistic, but I never committed. Oh yeah and I had some new pink 212s.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm f4 101a radial slims, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling way to sore to skate, but wanting to see everyone I went to curbs. Dave L, Saul, Rob and Ed were there. I did two slappy crooks and one front slappy. I could barely push my hip hurt so bad. Dave L had some nice 50s and a f/s slappy to tail that was sick. Also back 5-0 to manual to back 5-0. Saul had his normal slappies and landed every slappy crook I saw him try. Ed had some good ol’ long slappies and poppy ollies. Rob went pretty hard. Had good manuals and nose manuals, back 50 shove (I think), no comply shoves, bean plants, front tails and a bunch more. Sorry for being that guy that just sat and talked.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

On a warm morning I drove down the Parker and met Rob and Jake at the park. It wasn’t crowded, but there were quite a few more people than expected. Some old guys in pads and kids on big wheels. I was there first and had done a couple laps, but those guys showed quickly. My board was really feeling huge so I got the 8.25 out briefly, but it felt really small and dumb. Rob was manualling and nose manualling the manny pad right away. Quick up to back 50s too. I was kinda just doing basics around the park feeling a little overwhelmed with the options. Pretty quickly I had a fun little line of boardslide the flat bar then cali grind up/across/down the pyramid. I got Jake to boardslide it. I had a run of crooks the ledge then nose manny the low pad. Went through a few frontside ledge basics. Jake and I skated the bank to ledge starting with noseslide to fakie and noseslide. We battled for crooks. I got a little one first. Jake got better ones to fakie then eventually followed it up with f/s halfcab off the tall ledge. I saw rob get back 50s, front 50, halfcab boardslide, halfcab noseslide, nollie lip and probably more on the ledge. Jake and I battled a super long line for awhile. Ollie off the ledge into the kicker, boardslide the flatbar, wallie up the bank to ledge then ollie a 4 stair. There were a few factors working against us like kids playing on the 4 stair area and the fact that the line was basically a lap around the park. I got to the 4 stair and splatted like 3 times hard on my hip before finally getting the line. Jake would get it next try. Rob had done some tricks on the bank like one foots and kickflips. Then I skated the ledge some more and tried to rattle off some tricks. I got front 50 to front rock, nollie front tail, front smith, halfcab noseslide, crooks, crooks shove, crooks to fakie then started trying crooks bigspin. I got pretty close a few times, but ended up getting too tired and chatted with Rob and Jake for awhile.

Then Jake and I went to Greenwood. Upon getting out of the car I was much more sore than anticipated. I would never do anything beyond a noseslide and had a bad slam on a back 180 in which I kind of rolled my ankle and slammed onto my already aching hip. Ugh. That was it for me. It was cool to see the new stuff there, maybe with more energy and less pain I would like it. Jake had some good pole jams, kickflips and nollie back 180 the kicker.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10 at Parker then 9/10 at Greenwood)

On a nice day I went to dog park and met Rob, Dave and Ed. Warming up was pretty brutal. Especially because lots of talking was going on which was rad, but not the best for skating. I started to feel the effects of a big board which I think was more because I was quite tired and sore. Boardslides were fun as always. I’ll start with Rob since he bounced first. He definitely got into demo mode with some long lines. I was impressed with decked boardslides on the tall bench, crooks the new bench, back 50 back 180 out, ollie over wallie world, fakie bigs and a lot more I’m forgetting. It was rad seeing Ed skating. His ollies have so much pop and he gets his back leg up all good. He had good manuals, boardslide to fakie several parking blocks, rad tweaks off the little mountain launch ramp. I didn’t skate very good, but also not terrible. I was happy to get a first try front 50 to front board on the cinder block ledge, front 50s on the black angle iron ledge, halfcab noseslides felt way better with the big board, some okay crooks and slappy crooks, f/s halfcab flip but couldn’t get heelflip, treflip or halfcab flip. Dave continued his recent destruction with back 5-0 back 180 out, front 50 180 and 5-0 the beam, switch crook and front crook the cinder block ledge, sex change, long slappy feebles and much more. As we were winding down local ripper Andrew showed up and put on a demo that was fun to watch. Franky grind!

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Got to the Stephen Day park shortly after noon on a crisp day after a terrible night of sleep. Rob and Dave were already there, but had been chatting so we all started skating at the same time. Warming up seemed to go alright for everyone. Dave was right to tailslides over the hip. He would go on to do it switch which is pretty mind blowing. I tried to ride over the hip switch and pretend to go into tailslide. It didn’t even seem possible. Rob had manuals, no comply shoves. I started with a few things like tailslides over the hip and kickflips on the bank before posing ollies over the rail. I would get close and committed a few times, but never get too close. Rob did the cool nollie big then no comply 270 pretty quick. Dave did the line with switch front tail over the hip, cab kickturn, ollie to boardslide down the rail but I missed it. So he redid most of it then just the boardslide again. Rob and I chatted for awhile then he bounced and I had the park to myself for awhile. I did some selfie cam for a bit to get the stoke going again. Started with front tailslide over the hip, then halfcab flip on the bank. The halfcab flip where I fell really showed me the benefit of the wider board, I can’t believe I was even close to somehow riding away. I also tried a few fakie bigflips on the bank, but I would need a longer bank. The boardslide around the C is so fun. Then I made myself front 50 the C which is so scary to me. I did it in a line where I came back and halfcab noseslid the straight part of it. I also ollied up the tall rounded ledge once. Then I went in on the treflips. I did them all after nosesliding the bump to ledge. I would get 3 of them. The first felt great. Then I turned on the phone, did it again, but with a good tic tac. Then a 3rd time and it felt great. Some scooter kids had come and I somehow handled it rather well. Also another young skater who was really nice. Fun day, landing treflips hyped me up.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a very nice morning I arrived to an empty NorthGLENn park. Then Dave and a bus full of Square State kids arrived. It was fun though. Simon and Jake would show too. Then Brian with another bus of kids! I had a new setup:

8.75 Null Jack Night Skate deck, big Ventures and big colorful 53mm conical fulls (yikes!). Why a change after so long on 8.25? Because I haven’t been landing anything on 8.25 anyway so might as well ride a board that actually fits me and enjoy the ride more. It was funny how mad Dave got at the crowds. But it really wasn’t bad and getting to skate with Brian was awesome. My warm ups went decent considering my huge setup change. I did the kickflip on the bank and then noseslide pretty quickly, had some fun 50s both ways on the noping bank, enjoyed some hip ollies. Everyone seemed to be up in the handrail area so I joined. Jake did some solid no comply 180s into the first bank, front rock and pivot on the barrier. Simon boardslid the rail, to manual, to fakie, noseslide too. I think he did stuff on the barrier as well. Dave boardslid it then front boarded it, boardslide and feeble transferred into the bank and probably did tricks on the barrier too. Jake got going with bluntslide and noseblunt. I got stuck filming for awhile. Brian almost got some ride on bluntslides then the crazy dropin. Simon and Dave did all kinds of tricks on the noping bank. Daves crook fakie and Simon’s bluntslide rock fakie were so good. Dave also got switch front crook fakie (I think). Earlier on Dave had done one of the best lines I’ve ever seen him do. Feeble transfer into the bank, ollie the kicker gap, lipslide the top qp, back 180 up the euro, switch crook the bank. I tried a bunch of front feebles and only got one which didn’t really grind. Near the end I wanted to relive the blunt to back d on the little noping qp. Much to my delight I followed it up with a fakie hurricane. Dave did the 180 switch crooks and we bounced to Ambulance ditch where Dave did a quick hammer for Stubborns 2. I hucked nollie tres. Some of which felt totally doable. But Dave had to leave so we left after about 15 min.

I stopped by Broomfield park on the way home, but it was super windy and crowded. I went to the nearby Safeway ledge and it was somewhat protected from the wind so I skated. I thought I would be too tired, but I kept going and skated for a good hour. I made myself do 10 back 50s which took awhile considering how bad I’ve gotten at that trick. I also did front 50, front 5-0 (accidental of course), front 50 180, front smith stall, front tail stall, got into a few switch crooks, took too long to do nollie back tail and couldn’t get very close to kick back 50 with the big board. Long, fun day of skating.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Some Saturdays I wake up feeling some weird pressure about skating. This was one of them. We were headed to the Springs with no real plans of where to skate although I had thought of two tricks I wanted down there. The gap to noseslide and the noseslide 270 shove in a line. Sean, Kevin and I went right to Manitou, but the shop was closed. So we ended up at the high school with the perfect long ledge, good flat and it’s the spot with the gap to noseslide I wanted to do. So the pressure mounted quickly and I just felt kind of weird. Sean and Kevin were getting it quickly with noseslides, crooks (Kevin), 50s. There was a weird wood object that worked perfectly as a wallride initially, then we rotated it for wallies. I didn’t have much success with flippers, but did noseslide, noseslide fakie and maybe a crooks jib on the ledge pretty quick along with some fun frontside bank rides. I couldn’t ollie up onto the ledge, but I did pose a few gap to noseslides which didn’t feel quite as possible as before. Sean’s back 5-0 was so good. We probably would have skated there a really long time, but Jake came and brought security with him. Ha, not really, but we did get kicked out right when Jake showed up.

So we drove halfway back home to meet Jack, Joe, Bo and Hayden at a school in the north part of the Springs. Jake was so bummed when we pulled in and it was a rail spot. I felt bad. So rather than go check out the rail Jake and I went to look at something we could skate. And we found a fun little loading dock area. I mean it’s not a destination spot, but it would offer some fun for the time being. Hayden, Sean and Bo would join us. It’s funny looking at a spot initially and then what happens after a few minutes of skating it. At first we just did tail drop springs off the loading dock into the “bank” (which was really almost flat). Hayden, Bo and Sean had some ollies up to manual that looked hard. I had a nose stall to fakie that was kinda fun. Sean and Hayden did the quick boardslide drops. We setup a wallride. Man Hayden had some super smooth wallrides. Jake and I ended up doing some fun lines. Mine is above. Just riding off that loading dock with speed was hard because of a crack, but it was fun. The wallie took me a few tries. Jake would go on to do it with a 180 wallie was was pretty sick. Then we went and watched the hammer fest on the rail which unfortunately ended with Jack hurting himself.

Then we went to Broadmoor ditch. That thing sucks. Ha. I tried nollie bigspins for a bit, then gave up and filmed. Joe would also get frustrated by not landing tricks. I don’t think Sean actually landed anything either even though he was close to a banger. Hayden quickly did halfcab, cab then battled beyond a cab for the sickness. Kevin would battle nollie flips to fakie forever followed by switch front 3. He was so close to giving up, but luckily he didn’t because he ended up doing it oh so good. Bo did a ride on front 5-0 then battled kickflip out for awhile. And he was really really close! Then we had dinner. I got home late and sad about how terribly I skated, but had fun with friends.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, bones medium little bushing ace big bushing, spitfire f4 52mm tablet shape 99a, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12 with footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)