Man this video is really great. This is my fav Alexis part and maybe my fav Louie part. They win this week and that says a lot considering how many great videos came out this week.

For some reason I went skating again. I was excited to check out dog park again as it’s been awhile and I hadn’t seen the lights. There were a couple young skaters I’ve seen around showing off their youth and energy at all times. They wouldn’t stop, except to sit and smoke up. With the lights the park feels much smaller as the edges aren’t really skateable. I had put some thicker insoles in to hopefully ease some pain, but it just made me feel even more terrible on my skateboard. I would go on to have quite a depressing night. It stated when I couldn’t get back 50 over and over. There is a new ledge there that’s a little longer and wider with a big piece of angle iron that seems to grind and slide well. I took too long to get a halfcab noseslide on it, got crooks after the youth did a couple perfect ones, switch front nose. The shadows messed with me on some other stuff like the cinder block ledges. I couldn’t get much for flatground. Got a bad switch noseslide shove. Was starting to get up on front 50s on the new ledge when the lights shut out early. Doh. I need to take a break from skateboarding. Mentally and physically I need a recharge. We’ll see how long I can go.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knees)

After making some progress in figuring out where the auger is stuck in my drain I met Dave on Campus. The video above basically documents what we skated. I felt terrible initially. Just so out of it, sore and afraid of knee pain. Dave was was riding down the stairs already and doing kickflips when I got there. It stinks having to park off of campus now. We looked at the rails off the ledge, did some stalls on the steps, some kickflips, etc, then moved on to look at some other things. We hit the brick curb area for awhile. It was fun trying to line things out. It’s crazy how hard it was for me to ollie that pile of snow. I don’t think I cleanly got the ollie, but I did get a fun line. I forget exactly how it started, I think it was a tail stall on the manhole that Dave kickflips, kickflip on flat, ollie the snow, front 50 180, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I was going slow for the last couple, but it still felt pretty great considering how sore I felt. Dave had a bunch of kickflips over the manhole, easily 180’d the snow and even switch ollied it! I treated the top as a mini bank and did a frontside kickflip which took too long and couldn’t quite get front 50 shove after. But I would get a fun one while Dave was perfecting a ride off grind. Next up Dave avoided a scooter doing the wallie ollie challenge. Then he did something on the black bar and we ended up at the bank to curb. That spot is way harder than it looks. I was happy to get up the curb somewhat consistently and get a crooks first try. Then I started trying 180 up tail stall shove and would get one in less than 20 tries (which is incredibly quick for me ha ha). Dave did some ride on nosegrinds to fakie then started trying nose picks to fakie. I added in a back axle stall that also made me a little happy before filming Dave try the nosepick. But I messed up and didn’t hit record on the one he landed. Luckily he kept trying and would get an even better trick that will someday grace the big screen. After that we was done. I could have skated more, but with my soreness and the sun going down I called it when Dave had to go.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

After a bad night of sleep due to knee pain and then dealing with plumbing issues for several hours I gave up because I needed to get outside in the nice weather. I met Rob at Douglass around 2:30. The warm up battle didn’t seem overly long for either of us. Today I could land kickflips, but struggled with halfcab flips. We mostly tried lines starting out on the road, going up the curb and hitting the various ledges. I had a decent one early on. Pop shove on flat, ollie up the curb, first try heelflip, noseslide to fakie, switch 180 off the curb. Rob got fakie bigspin, back 180 up the curb, then halfcab boardslide the side of a bench. It was nuts. He also had front boardslides, no complys up the curb, some of his old patented quick foot action – back 180 – fakie bigspin – nollie shove all done super quickly. He got a couple kickflips, but they didn’t come easy. Flippers weren’t really working for me, neither were crooks. I would get a couple halfcab flips, fakie flip, but couldn’t get b/s flip or treflip. I also couldn’t even ollie onto the bench. Argh. There was a pink haired scantily clad woman dancing on her rollerskates while we were there. It was a little distracting. Then I left to meet Skelly and his buddy Mike at Saul’s. They were late, so Saul and I skated. He had his patented fun to watch fast grind lines, close to some proper stand up back 50s. I did some carve grinds and axle stalls, couldn’t get a front slash even in the shallow. Mike and Sean skated it pretty well when they got there shortly before dark. Mike had some smooth style and good slams. Skelly had lots of front smiths and back grinds. It was rad seeing the stoke that everyone gets when they see Saul’s.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After a nice day of chilling with the family and eating Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast Jake and I rolled to Longmont to meet Dave and Rob at Rocky Mountain Elem. It’s one of those good winter sun spots. Dave and I talked about our rough starts. I figured after a long walk and an earlier work out I would be feeling good. Nope. I think I was 1-5 on kickflips to start. Yikes! Someone has been giving the curbs there some love and they were extra fun. Nollie front lips were had by all, what a fun trick. Jake pretty much stuck to the curb. Good slappies, slappy crooks, his first ever nollie back lips and a second try pop shove lip. Rob had a banger line going. High speed ollie up the curb to beautiful no comply, back 180 up the curb switch boardslide. Had I brought the camera I would have requested to film it. We all tried regular front lipslides too, Rob being the first to land one. I think he got the shove in variation too. Dave was the second to get a front lip. He was charging some high speed ollies up the curbs to tricks on the medians like front 180 nose manual, kickflip onto one, a crazy pop shove with a sideways land that he survived. He almost got a sex change on the bank. Boardslides to fakie, some flippers and ended the session with a front 50 on the ledge second try that was way better than any of the ones I did. I pretty much tried two lines the whole time. Flip trick, front 50 the ledge, lipslide the curb, flip trick. Backside kickflip low on a bank then crooks shove the ledge. I would get quite a few kickflips on the bank with varying degree of cleanliness. A few crooks shove felt really good and close, but I never got my feet on one. The ledge is growing. And it’s not just because I’m getting older. It’s actually lifting for some reason. Anyway flip tricks were a struggle to start lines, but I did get a few halfcab flips. 1/10 on heelflips ugh. Got a halfcab 90 heel, one incredibly slow treflip. I think I only got a couple front 50s, they were so hard for me. I would get the lipslide at the end, but went to fakie. Oh well it was fun sliding some. That spot is hard. I was skating with some good motivation, but I was pretty disappointed in how badly I actually skated. At least the crew was a good one and the sun was nice.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I had about an hour to kill before an old guy curb session I brought LGJ out to a dry asphalt parking lot behind the research center by Foothills Parkway. I wanted to do at least 10 ledge tricks in an hour. It sounds easy, but LGJ is hard. Sorry I forgot to take a photo again. I am not good at quick ledges. Especially when they aren’t short. I started off terribly. Oh yeah, I had a new board. A 303 CLFX deck since I’m out of 8.25s and I want consistency these days. I had new wheels too. Spitfire 52mm F4 classic shape. I am hoping I this wheel flips faster than the radial slim and I like them this time around so I can stick with it. I should find a better parking lot, but this one worked. I got boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie quick. Front board. Almost a couple good front noseslides, but instead I settled for a really bad one. I tried to do a line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, b/s flip. I got all the tricks, but the halfcab noseslide was super hard for some dumb reason. I had put a plastic pad under LGJ and it helped prevent it from sliding away. Got a switch front nose or too, switch backside was hard I kept moving the ledge when I’d get in. I had a good slam trying fakie nosegrind. Got a couple incredibly slow front 50s. Lots of crooks, a crooks to fakie. Couldn’t get close to halfcab crooks. Got halfcab noseslide to fakie. Landed a terrible treflip.

Then went and met up with Eric, Saul, Ed, Jake at Glenn Close. Miles from Square State would randomly show up as well as a young kid. It was fun. The classic shape wheels definitely slappy easier than a more square shape. Since Jake was the first to leave I’ll start with him. He was going in on slappy shoves for awhile. I tried some too and we were looking for motivation so I jokingly said if we don’t get it in 5 tries were doing 20 pushups. We both did 20 push ups. Jake had bluntslide, may have gotten the slappy shove, frontside slappies, slappy crook shove. Ed has one stylee slappy and was ripping some energetic lines with pops off the curb cuts and manuals. He ended with such a good front slappy. We can all thank Saul for shoveling the spot earlier in the day. He bashed the scary spork deck into the curb for some good slappies both ways, did the hook, I think got slappy crook. Eric was on heelflip tip. Off the curb cut, over the tiny bank. He had a good slam off the curb cut on one. I’m not sure if he even hit the curb, but he did go for a few long manuals. Miles was fun to skate with. He had a mean kickflip and treflip. I had my normal slappy tricks, but couldn’t get slappy front feeble or the slappy shove. I came close to switch front 50. I was inspired to get a better treflip than earlier so I tried a line of front slappy (or slappy front crook) then a slow treflip. I needed to get going after that as did everyone else. Fun crew. Wish I would have taken a photo of all of us together.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a way-busier-than-it-should-be day of work Jake and I rolled to campus. It has snowed and appears to be sticking around longer than we hoped. Uni Hill was snowed out, we went under the tunnel and ended up behind the UMC to a good section of dry concrete and a couple puddles. I had some new shoes, the NB# 212, aka the one shoe that does not hurt my feet at all. It helpsed, I was able to skate. We did some lines over little puddles. Starting with 180s, switch 180s and moving on to really technical tricks like kickflips and fakie bigspins. Ha. It was fun though. Jake did a bunch of front axle stalls on a tall flagstone ledge to start a line, then nollie back 180 then fakie bigspin over the little puddle. I tried a bunch of front axle’s on it too, but only got one. I did have some front and back axle stalls on the 2nd step, darn near died trying to kickflip a little pile of snow. Then we played SKATE. The first game was kind of a wash as Jake got burned by fakie flip and missed a triple or nothing. I added heelflip and halfcab flip and that one ended. We played another game that was really good with a lot of tricks for both of us. I was up with f/s halfcab heel (hyped on that one 3rd ty), first try varial flip, and f/s halfcab flip. I matched Jake’s fakie flip and f/s flip (maybe my fav trick I did), but he came back with switch shove, nollie bigspin and a creepy spin. After that I got a halfcab heel that didn’t count due to heel drag, but I was still hyped. We battled treflip for awhile and I got one first. Jake almost matched it, but then went down swinging. It was a fun session. One of these days we’ll both have our treflips down good again. After the game I took a few tries and got a sketchy fakie bigflip.

(null 8.25″ spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm radial slim f4 101a, 3 speed washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock hard rubber insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

it’s funny, because I really tried to just ignore pain and skate a thicker insole on Sunday, but now my toe hurts so bad I couldn’t skate. I tried a couple kickflips and realized I should stop. I also felt sick which seems to happen after every time I hang out in the cold filming someone. I need to stop doing that.

(setup who cares)
(pain level 8/10 right big toe)

Had a great talk with Liz about getting older the night before after my depression session. She rules. Getting older isn’t easy and lately I’ve been feeling quite old (I know I’m not, but it’s hard to deny how you feel). I went to sleep feeling better about myself.

On a cold morning I woke up early determined to not be so unhappy with my skateboarding. I went for a brisk run, stretched for a bit then went to Broomfield park at 9. I had the park all to myself and I told myself I couldn’t look at my phone for 1.5 hours. I skated hard, did some stuff I always do, did some stuff I am too shy to do around people. Once I got somewhat warmed up I tried a long line that kind of morphed over time and I never got the manual to end it, but it was something like: kickturn on the steep bank, front 180 into the mellow bank, halfcab noseslide the black ledge, tiny little frontside ollie on the brick qp, front 50 the blue ledge, axle stall quartapotty, then manual the blue box. I would never get the manual even though I was quite close. When I would bail something in the line I would just keep going, but try other stuff. I got another one of those funny back 50 attempts on the blue ledge that turned into a slow back 5-0 shove. On the black ledge I did okay. Front 50, front 50 180, front 50 shove, multiple accidental 5-0s, several crappy crooks. I did a couple f/s flips on the hump up top which I haven’t done in a long time, ollied onto the brown ledge, 50’d the sad ledge, almost back 50’d the happy ledge, several kickflips to fakie on the little bank, kinda close to nosegrinds on the blue ledge. My hour and a half was up so I went home to eat and then meet up with nullers. I didn’t really do much, but I felt better about it. I had worn my 306s with the stock insole for a bit of added cushion and put the 5.8 trucks on. It seems like a good setup to actually try to stick to.

Then I met up with Sean, Donnie, Bo, Hayden and Jack at Broomfield. We seemed to arrive at the same time pretty much. I was sore and pretty much just posed kick back tails or halfcab heel noseslides. Sean did a bunch of halfcab heels, did one up the blue pad, did heelflip nose manual. jack had a bunch of back 180 fakie manual halfcab out, almost fakie front shove out. Donnie learned nollie shove 5-0. Hayden did front 180 fakie manual combos. Bo missed a treflip! Ha, he shredded.

Then we watched Jack roll in the grass and Donnie defy physics at the grass spot before moving on to the crusty bank spot. I was so incredibly sore at this point I couldn’t even push fast enough to pivot the bank to 2″ crack part. Hayden got some manuals quick and put down a sick one to fakie. Jack got a crazy nose manual thread the needle. Donnie did some crazy manuals and rode another big board though the rough. Bo ollied the table the hard way. Sean ollied it and kickflipped over it then amazed us all with his speed generating and pop skills. Wow Sean. Wow.

(null 8.25″ spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm radial slim f4 101a/bones stf 52mm 103a v1, 3 speed washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 in the morning then 7/10 later ugh)

Got to Broomfield a little later than I had hoped. The crew was rad though. Dave L, Rob, Cass, Ryan, Eric. I started on my 8″. I say this because mid session I switched to 8.25. Ugh. Rob, Cass, Ryan and Dave were already hitting it when I got there. Ryan was ripping, lots of poppy flip tricks, solid bump to bar tricks, even lines to the steep bank. Rob was ripping the back 50s so casually, front boards. Cass and I played a game of SKATE that I would enjoy even though I would once again get letters on a treflip. He did double or nothing on kickflip and missed, so I returned the favor on treflip after getting very close the first try. I had a good feeling heelflip, sketchy halfcab flip and couldn’t get either halfcab heel. Cass got me with hardflip, backside bigspin and ended me on fakie tre. At least I had gotten a fakie bigflip on defense, I would have been mad if I lost on that one. Eric had shown and wasn’t his normal raging ball of energy. It’s nice to know he’s human, he still had some good back 50s, front tails and more. But it was kind of a bummer to see him struggle. Oh well, skateboarding can be like that. Dave had some cool quick manuals, back 50s, boardslides. I’m not sure if anyone had a great session, it seemed we were all kind of out of it. Maybe Ryan did. Everyone took off, I was going to try and do some more before leaving, but I ended up going to Safeway.

I really wanted to do a kick back 5-0 shove after getting a kick back 5-0 recently. After some not so easy 50s both ways I went in on flipping in. I stuck with the 8.25 setup even though I was struggling. For the most part I wasn’t close on most, but I did get into a few and got a couple sketchy kick back 50s. I probably tried for an hour and gave up.

Trying to torture myself even more I went to the nearby ballfields that I haven’t been to in years. I stiffened up quick. This would be some of my worst skating ever. Which really says a lot. It was the kind of session that made me question if I should keep trying. I would go back and forth trying to line things out. Had some terrible halfcab noseslides and the slowest front 50 ever done on the little ledge on the far side. On the tall ledges I was able to get noseslide and a crook jib. Front 50 seemed beyond impossible. I didn’t successfully ollie up the ends of a ledge, but was able to ollie up in the middle where it was lower. I had another one of those halfcab flip bails that I just kind of came to a halt and fell off my board. It was so miserable. I managed to leave without hurting myself or my board, but man it was one of my most depressing sessions ever. I was scared of rolling my ankles in the 440s so had switched back to my 306s which then resulted in knee pain. Gotta love being me.

(setups 8/8.25 ventures new balance 440s no insoles then 306s with nike sb insoles)
(pain level 4/10)