Feeling very sore and arthritic I just pushed out the door, over to the school and did a few dork tricks on the curb that did not involve ollieing.
Met Dave and Rob at 303 shortly after noon. We wanted to try Cheeseman park, but it was mobbed with a wedding party. Tried the North High fountain, but it was full of water. Ended up at the little park off of Dayton. I was really sore to start. Not sure why. It was very warm and sunny. There was only a couple of others at the park. Rob had some rad back 50s on the curb to get things going. We worked up to some lines and whatnot. Dave was doing front 5-0s on the quarterpipe over the ledge so easy and fast. You could tell it was his birthday, he had some extra pep. He had some manuals, nose manuals and 50s on the curb in his runs with big transfers over the qp hips. Rob had manuals, nose manuals, back 50s, noseslides, crooks, front boards, maybe halfcab boardslides too. I had some crooks, couldn’t back 50 the taller ledge or nosegrind the curb, skated slow and awkard, but ended up getting a fun line like Dave did above, except I kickflipped off.
Then we went to this gnarly ditch. It is so much gnarlier then it looks. We met Dave’s friend Dave. We’ll call him Other Dave. Other Dave has skated this a lot and it showed, he was flying down it and would eventually ollie into the deep hip which is so gnarly. Dave cruised it fast too, lots of backside ollies, a sick early grab into the deep hip. As usual I tried some kickflips. Took a long time to get a kickflip to fakie on the mellow part where Dave starts above, but got a frontside flip in a few tries. Rob had a bunch of steezy tail block spins, backside ollies and ended with a nice backside kickflip.
We tried to hit a bowl, but got the boot before getting a carve. Ended up at the Police Bank. It was hot. Really hot and sunny. Rob and I just did a few kickturns. I blew out a bearing so had an added excuse to not skate it. Dave had front rock and the alley oop pivots above. Other Dave did rocks and a front slash that was pretty incredible. A friend of Other Dave’s showed and skated around too. He had an old board from mid-2000s. It was a blast from the past. Advocate board with Venture gold PJ trucks. So sick.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)
Went to Safeway ledge on a lazy Saturday around noon with the sole intention of doing one of two tricks for the game of OLDFART. I was thinking front crooks or kick back 50 shove out. I tried kick back 50 more. Landed quite a few sketchy ones without the shove and a 5-0 or two. But never got it clean enough to challenge with. The front crooks took awhile too. I was nowhere close then all of a sudden landed the one above. It made me pretty happy.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)
After skating well into the morning Dave talked me into an afternoon flatground session at the dog park. Neither of us had high expectations, but after a couple of quick ollies I had a long line of basic tricks that got me really hyped. Just fakie shoves, 180s, kickflip or something. Dave was having some good lines too. He had cabs, nollie cabs, shoves, fakie shoves, switch shoves, kickflips and remotely close to switch tres again. I rattled off quite a few of my normal flippers quickly, several first try. Heelflip, varial flip, fakie varial flip, halfcab flips, frontside flip, fakie bigflip, kind of nollie cab, took awhile to get halfcab heel and 360 flip, couldn’t quite get nollie treflip or varial heel or fakie tre. Way more fun then I was expecting to have.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)
Got out of work early, chilled, then ran to Meta and Crisis and had an hour to kill before leaving for Denver. I went to Safeway ledge. I was hoping to start the night off strong, but I didn’t. Everything was hard. I messed around with some nollie cab back tails. Never got it, but it seems possible. Did 50s both ways, got a kickflip back 50, another not-dipped-enough front smith or two, front 50 yank out. Jake showed, but it was time to meet at Crisis so we rolled over there.
Jake and I played on a parking block in front of the shop while we waited. It ended up being pretty fun. We did some basic pivots at first, some blunt pivots, etc. Rob and Dave showed as Jake and I put down our parking block enders. Jake did front nosepick and I got his back with front pivot kickflip out. That one hyped me up. Then we all tried some lines going down the parking lot. Rob ollied over a manhole to manual the whole parking lot. Jake was doing ollie over the manhole, powerslide then kickflip into a steeper section. I was trying switch front 180 over the manhole, powerslide the steeper section, kickflip up a curb, ride off a 2 stair, ollie up a curb to front rock. Did it all except for ride away from the front rock. Managed to flat spot my new wheels really bad too. Doh. Dave was going switch ollie over the manhole and some manuals around the sidewalk. Fuzz finished setting up his board and we left for Denver.
We parked by the pedestrian bridge and walked over it arriving at our first spot. Most were skating the round banked bases to the bridge. I was kind of stuck in a zone of trying to ollie a 3 stair then noseslide off a one stair so I didn’t really see what everyone did. I saw Dave do a front pivot. Fuzz joined me with some manuals then noseslide attempts. I couldn’t do the manual. I started doing a different line. Wallride the jersey barrier, ollie up a curb then crooks the ledge off the curb. I got it second try. The crooks made me happy, even though I couldn’t do it again. Jake was trying front tails. Dave was doing fast wallride/wallies. We moved on to the cheese wedge spot. Fuzz did front 50 down one. Dave did boardlide to fakie. Rob had front boards and a pretty gnarly slam on a boardslide (or maybe it was a halfcab boardslide?). Jake manualed up one. I posed back 50s. More pushing. I think next was a ledge spot against a fence with a lot of strop rocks. Everyone else skated a red curb near it for a bit. I posed on the ledge, got a back 50. Jake did front tail, front 50, noseslide. Fuzz did front 50. Then we crossed the street and found a really fun new spot. I saw Rob get a boardslide on a really fun looking granite ledge and we got the boot.
We went along the bikepath for awhile. But not before Dave slammed super hard on some gravel on one of the most painful looking slams I’ve seen in awhile. Doh. Ended up at a weird spot that only I skated. I tried a line of wallie nollie, kickflip up a crack and then ollie a weird 3 stair. I tried it for awhile and realized everyone had left. Took a minute to find them. Got some snacks and a 7-11.
Ended up here for awhile. Dave killed it with the 4 stair ollie then 4 stair firecracker. Also he ollied over the little skate stopper into the bank. I did the little back 90 tail drop into the double bank. Everyone skated the bank to skate stopper for a bit. With hands on the rails for assist. I tried to get a good photo, but nothing good came up. Lots and lots of pushing later we ended up at the skyline park granite ledge. I was too tired and sore to skate it. That says a lot. Jake put down a lot of tricks. Back 50, front 50, front 5-0, I don’t remember anymore, it was a blur. Dave did another fast boardslide to fakie, tried front crooks for awhile.
Then we went down into the old parking garage. Again, I was too sore and tired to skate it. Look at me pouting above. Rob had some halfcab boardslides and noseslides. Fuzz had some front 50s. Dave did boardslide to fakie again, front 50 nollie 180 out, back 50 nollie 180 out and I think switch crooks. Jake did too many tricks to name. 50s, front 5-0, front tail, front lip, crooks, crooks shove, 180 nosegrind, fakie nosegrind, fakie 50 halfcab out. Wowzers. That was it, we skated well past midnight.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)
Went in front of the house, did a few manuals, powerslides and tried to do a slide around front 360. Yippee.
After a nap at work I went to Safeway ledge. I beat Rob there, but it started to rain right when I got there. The ledge wasn’t getting hit though so I just kind of did some slappy noseslides and back 50s avoiding the wet. Then it dried. Had some front 50s, 5-0, more back 50s. Rob showed with a new whip. He would go on to get slappy noseslides, back 50s, back 180 nosegrind, an accidental nollie front smith, nollie front tail and probably more that I’m forgetting. I got a kick back 50, a not-dipped-enough front smith, some fun front 50 yank outs and couldn’t pull off a front crook even with hosercam running. Fun short session. Then it was off to the Broomfield park for the GSD event.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)
After a tiring day at work I drove up to MRKT and then went to Fossil Creek. Since I was so tired I didn’t hit up anyone for fear that I would only skate for a few minutes. I was prepared for a park full of kooks, but there were only a couple on scooters. But they left when I got there. For the next hour and a half I had the park all to myself except for an occasional longboarder getting pulled by a dog or some kids on bikes (what have skateparks turned into?). I did not skate well. I had a few posted up crooks, a front 50 shove on the taller part of the ledge. Back 50s and front 5-0 on the low part. Oh, a first try halfcab noseslide on the taller part. Close to front smith and kick back 50 on the low part. Flip tricks didn’t go well. I couldn’t ollie the curb off the 3 stair. I at least left before sunset sparing some energy for tomorrow.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)
Excitement for Glimpse is high!
Got up at 5am since it was supposed to be 100 degrees and I wanted to try noseblunts without anyone around. Got to the Zuni park by 7am and after doing some basic qp tricks I laid into the noseblunt battle. It took about 30 minutes before I got one. The key being I got one! It felt pretty rad even though I clearly wasn’t posted up as proper as one can be. I expect nothing less from me. Ha. I was doing flat ground tricks for the most part between tries.
Then I skated the park for awhile and ended up having one of the most fun lines I’ve done in awhile. 360 flip on flat, back tail transfer a hip (far right background), came around and front tail transfer the main hip then got lucky with a kickfilp flyout. I ended by doing a bad kickflip on the main bank.
Went to Westy park to maybe try a front crook on the bottom ledge, but it didn’t work out. I got into a few, but never landed one. Got a few other basics before moving on to Safeway ledge where I tried front crooks or kick back 50 shove out for quite awhile in a motivated sweaty awesome little session. Got both to close. Landed a good kick back 5-0 on accident. Did a few more flippers. Then I went home and slept and slept.
(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)