skate journal: hangover skating at arapahoe ridge (nov 18, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 20th, 2018 by corpo

After a fun night at J Mascis Kevin and I worked on his part for awhile before looking for something dry. Dave joined and we ended up at Arapahoe Ridge. I felt terrible. The only things i did worth anything were a pop shove up a curb then front shove off one. Oh and a similar plant thing to what Kevin did. Kevin was kinda bumming taking the last few days of filming kinda serious. Dave got a cool line down the long 3. Nollie back 180, switch ollie, switch pop shove. He also had some good ollies up all 3. Kevin was manualling, doing some other stuff. Sean joined us. He joked around with the hand assisted dorking too in between easy ollies everywhere. Dave split. Kevin and Sean pieced together lines involving ollies, hippy jumps, quick feet, kickflips and heelflips.

(setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, dc foamy insoles)
(pain level 5/10 mostly just the hangover)

skate journal: redder curbs on a snowy day with a fun crew and then some st julien (nov 17, 2018)

Posted in New Deck, Skate Journal on November 20th, 2018 by corpo

Joe was still here, but it was snowing. I didn’t sleep well. Damon showed up at like 9:30 am on a snowy day to skate garages. Ha ha. Joe, Damon, Kevin and I went to Redder curbs around 10:30. I had a new board as the cracked tail had gotten worse the day before. I went 8.38 this time instead of 8.5. It seemed quite a bit smaller surprisingly. That garage might be small, but it sure offers a lot of variety. It’s kind of hard to see what everyone is doing though since it’s kind of a circle. So maybe that will be my excuse for not documenting a lot that happened. The curbs didn’t grind so great initially. It’s that weird new paint they used. But we threw some wax on and grinding started happening. We played a game of SKATE pretty early on. I had to do triple or nothing on kickflip, but other then that it went alright for me. I even got a defensive cab which normally gets me a letter. I do feel like I made it onto the front trucks before pivoting. I think Kevin won the game on something like switch frontside flip. The game helped the warm up for sure. Everyone was starting to get in the groove of a line and we started filming each other. Rob showed up and got in the mix quickly. The slam on the back 50 was so bad. I skated better than the previous day, but still had some struggles and fear trying to front 50 a curb. Argh. Jack and Carleigh showed around the time we got booted. Doh. That still gave Jack some time to do a crazy wallie manual thing off the pillar.

Then we hit 303 and had some tacos before going to St Julien. I was wanting a nap so that’s what I did. I watched the tail end of the session which looked fun. Jack kickflipped the whole parking block, Carleigh and Joe did lipslides, Damon was trying heelflip front blunts, when Kevin wasn’t waking me up he did nollie noseblunt. Whoa. Then it was off to J Mascis!

(setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 3/10 probably from the cold)

skate journal: struggling at york street with a fun crew of friends ripping (nov 16, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 20th, 2018 by corpo

Joe came out a day early for the J Mascis show and we had the whole day to skate. It was a little breezy in Boulder, but since we’d be in Denver later we decided to head to there early on. We were out at a decent time and went to York St stop rock DIY spot. It was just Joe and I at this point. Almost right away I did a first try nose manual across the long pad that locked in so good. I kinda knew at that point it would be downhill for me. Cass met up with us. We were mostly skating the ledges at that point. I called out a 5 trick line challenge and managed to get mine quick. Kickflip on flat, front board the taller ledge, crooks up the granite ledge, boardslide the flatbar, polejam the tiny pole jam. I don’t think Cass was really going for the challenge, but he learned front boards on the taller ledge. Joe took awhile, but got front shove, front board, front 50, kickflip, pole jam the tiny one. Carleigh showed with Ella shortly before Rob and Fuzz joined. Cass, Joe and I were skating the bank on the backside of the ledge. Cass did a bigspin. I had fun with the chinese nollie then 5-0 fakie thing. Then a manny pad session ensued. I had fun with a front 180 up switch front nose off the little ledge. Joe did front 50 to manual. Rob and Fuzz were working on boardslide to manual. It took Fuzz a minute, but Rob man, he did boardslide manual body varial out so good. Carleigh would get in some boardslides in between Ella not listening to her. Ha. I started trying nose manual shoves, but was struggling with the manual part and my knee was hurting. Rob got in on it and did it in like 3 tries. I was happy for him, but it definitely made me reminded me how bad I suck at skateboarding. So I moved on and tried to ollie the low part of the banged up flat bar. I got close for awhile, committed, but could never get over it. Cass ollied it first try. Another reminder of how hard skateboarding is for me. Then we hit the ledges for awhile. Well, Carleigh and Fuzz tried pivots fakie on the bank thing. Carleigh would end up getting some really good ones without cheating at all like I do. On the ledges I was getting incredibly frustrating. Cass, Rob and Joe were rattling off tricks. I wasn’t. Rob had back 50 back shove out, back 50 body varial out on the low ledge. Also close to front nosegrind. Joe did front smith on the tall one, 50 front boards, lipslide to 50 up the granite, back 50 up, crooks the low ledge and a bunch more stuff. I was at least enjoying doing crooks down the granite. So at least something was working, but when I would bail trying crooks up it I would almost lose it every time. I took a long time to get a front 50 shove up the granite, but I landed with no speed so it doesn’t count anyway. Joe lipslid up it and I got his back with my favorite crook of the day. Then I saw the footage and saw my crooks looked more like a willy grind. Argh. As fun as the crew was I was quite depressed and angry about my skating.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10 weird sharp left knee pain at tiems)

skate journal: research ledge and some fun crooks (nov 15, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 15th, 2018 by corpo

Last day at work for a couple weeks! To celebrate after work I took a nap. Ha ha. After dinner I went to the research ledge. The temp was decent in the low 40s. There was a few students standing waiting for the bus which was annoying to warm up while they watched. But my first noseslide and noseslide fakie worked out. Then some boardslides fall out. Then the ol’ crooks which is so fun there. I got a really bad back 50/stall kinda quick which was nice too. Which allowed me to do another crooks which was even more fun than the first. Halfcab noseslide was next, got a really slow and bad one. I forgot how tall that ledge is. Had a few kickflips on flat, backside flip, almost a fakie tre, landed on some heelflips. Tried crooks shove for a bit, but mostly just did some fun feeling crooks. Got another sloppy back 50, then a clean back 5-0 on accident. Ha, it felt awesome even though I basically came to a halt on it. Hucked some front smiths without getting into it, front noseslides, got one slow front 50. Switch front noseslide. Tried halfcab crooks for a bit without getting close. Then ended with another fun crooks and called it a night.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 1/10 very slight knee pain)

skate journal: square state warehouse and a new trick (nov 14, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 15th, 2018 by corpo

After work on a nice day I went to Square State to check it out, sell some boards, hang with Brian and hopefully skate some. I was pretty blown away by how cool it is in there. I mean I shouldn’t be surprised that Brian decorated and made it fun to hang out at. But it was still impressive. We did some business then started skating. Brian wasn’t supposed to, but I had some shoes he could borrow and we messed around. Kevin had been in the are for a dentist appt and joined up. There was a kid there Ashton that is cool. Quin had left. Kevin had no problems warming up and kickflipped and switch flipped up the euro right away. I always find it disorienting to skate in an indoor park. I’m not sure what it is, but as long as I can remember it throws me off. We started with a bounce off the lower qp onto the upper one then ride back down over the low one. I was last. No surprises there. Brian also did it to rock fakie. Kevin did it frontside too. Then I went in on Dave’s latest challenge to me. Kickflip rock fakie. Brian played with me and was was trying impossible nosepick fakies. Whoa! I had a bunch that I committed to, but the board was upside down. It took about 30 minutes, but I got it and I have to admit it felt pretty cool. Brian got close, but stopped when I moved on. He wasn’t supposed to be skating anyway. I was impressed with his lack of slams. We used to joke about how I was the guy who bailed and he was the guy who slammed. Kevin had done like 30 tricks on the ledge. I couldn’t crooks or 50 the regular one, but I had fun trying back 50 and nosegrinds on the little ledge. All in all a fun time and I look forward to going back.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 2/10 not much pain but felt very disoriented)

skate journal: garage flat with motivation (nov 13, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 14th, 2018 by corpo

It took 3 days to recover from the front shove session. Man I was so sore for two days. It was brutal. I had gone to 303 and picked up the new TWS Duets video and watched it. Man it was good. Franky Villani did a weird sex change trick at some point and I knew I’d want to try some variation of one in the garage. But I started with the shoves, worked in to kickflip. Actually tried backside bigspin for awhile until I got a really bad one. It was fun though. Then worked through a few basics. Fakie flip, halfcab flip, backside flip, heelflip (cracked my board pretty good on it doh), treflip. Lots of these landings I call garage landings. Since I have to go so slow it makes for some awkward landings. Then I went in on the fakie sex change which felt really fun. Took about 10 minutes to get one. Then I hucked a few other life goal flippers. Switch f/s flip, nollie front heel, neither were close. Tried switch varial flip and didn’t get both feet on. Doh.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 2/10 some plantar fasciitis pain)

skate journal: being stubborn on a stubborns saturday at creekside and dentist 5 (nov 10, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 13th, 2018 by corpo

While waiting for people to arrive I went across the street and started warming up on the curb. I didn’t feel great, but had some fun basic grinds. Rob showed and joined in on the fun. Then Kevin, Fuzz, Jack and Carleigh. I was trying front 50 nollie shove out, then up the curb and front shove off. Took a long time. Argh. Rob was doing back 180 fakie 50s, slappy crooks, etc. Kevin did some flip in 50s, switch/nollie tricks. Out of nowhere Rob did a sick line of back 50 shove then front shove back 50. Whoa! We went to film it around the time Jack and Carleigh showed. Carleigh landed every kickflip I saw. Jack did a cab back tail. The wind kicked up and the vibe changed and the filming didn’t go so well. At least Rob kept his board in one piece.

Then we went to the Dentist 5 where Chad, Sean and eventually Eric met us. I think Carleigh had some trick ideas there and Kevin and I did too. I took the longest to ollie it and could only do it in a line. Sean’s casual ollies and 180s were so sick. Jack did back 180 one foot right away. Fuzz ollied it pretty easy. After awhile Kevin and I got into our lines taking turns filming each other. I was going for no comply shove up the curb then front shove down the 5. He was going for back 180 up, switch front shove down. Jack was hucking nollie tres, pressure 360 flips, manual varial heels, basically whatever. Carleigh was in the mix doing wallies up no comply down. I was hyped that I started committing to front shoves within a few tries. I think Carleigh got her line first. She stomped that no comply! Kevin took a bit, but he got a good switch front shove down that set! Sean had started filming us. I committed probably 50 times, but never landed it. I was so exhausted. I wasn’t bummed when I finally gave up though. It felt good to try so hard. Obviously I would have preferred to land it, but oh well, skateboarding is hard. Fuzz had done f/s halfcab first try, fakie ollie. Eric showed up and was heelflipping in the street and ollieing the 5. Carleigh went back for more and got a line to kickflip. Kevin was the last man standing going for switch flip and got oh so close. It eventually got dark and we went for margs.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 3/10 got to a point where my knees were sore, but not too bad. guess these shoes are alright!)

skate journal: flatground friday lunch break at dog park with eric and rob (nov 9, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 13th, 2018 by corpo

Got out to dog park on a cool friday. Rob and I got there around the same time. Warming up didn’t go so well for me. At one point I shot my board out because I missed a kickflip. I was really angry. But it came together kind of. I know Rob had a long line. I forget all of the tricks, but like 6 of them in a row. We started a game of SKATE and had missed kickflip and heelflip when Eric showed. So we kind of started over but were all going for heelflips. It took surprisingly long for us. Rob got his first then Eric and I both got ours too. Pretty cool it worked out like that. The game kind of dissolved for awhile, but Rob and I kept at it. Rob got a fakie flip which I normally give him a letter on. We did f/s cabs. He got me with fakie 3 shove. At times we had all tried halfcab heels. Eric was getting really close. He also got a fakie heel then heel line. I got a first try fs halfcab heel. At the end I tried fakie bigflip and treflip until I got one. I got a sloppy tre and we was out.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

skate journal: boulder park before work (nov 8, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 8th, 2018 by corpo

On a cool morning I went to Boulder park before work. It was cloudy out and I was enjoying it. I didn’t have a plan and I had the whole park to myself so I was all over the place. I never really stuck to anything for awhile, just going all over trying random things. I spent a little more time in the halfpipe area as Dave had challenged me to kickflip rock fakie. I realized I haven’t even done a rock fakie on anything other than the quartapotty in a very long time. I tried a few kickflip rock fakies. They seem doable. Maybe on something a little lower would be better for me. I’m a chicken. I kinda tried a line for awhile. Crooks down the hubba (I would only grind about a foot at the most), back noseslide the bump to ledge, kickflip the little kicker, roll in to the tiny part of the bowl, then flyout ollie over a grocery cart. I wasn’t able to commit to the roll in or fly out. Doh. I took a few tries to get a slow front 50 across and down the ledge. Last thing I tried was a little hip line. Frontside ollie (after rolling down the bank they were scary going that fast), turn around backside ollie, turn around, b/s flip the hip. Got a slow one in about 10 tries. It still felt cool though.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 1/10 felt great didn’t get sore)

skate journal: garage with ollie (nov 7, 2018)

Posted in Skate Journal on November 8th, 2018 by corpo

Went out to the garage because it was kinda cold and it was getting late. I messed around with the no pop manuals for a bit then went into hucking flippers. Took a couple tries to get a kickflip, b/s flip first try. Then kinda did 5 tries at various tricks. Mostly ones I can’t do like nollie flip, nollie front heel, switch fs flip. Got a heelflip on the 5th try, got a super sketchy treflip on the 5th try too. Ollie had come out. He was struggling with shoves then saw me randomly try and ollie grab and so we tried them together. He got a decent one and we called it a night.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 3/10 felt kinda sore for whatever reason)