Was exhausted after driving down from the mountains and the sand dunes the day before. My third day off of the year! Did a few manuals in the house where I would setup for kickflip position. Then I watched Johny Dangerously with the Ollie and his friend.
After snowboarding with my brother and Ollie I stopped at the Buena Vista park still in my snow pants for a real brief skate. Dewey and Andrea were there. I did a few axle stalls around the park then grinded the little rainbow roll on rail which was fun. That was it. Dewey was ripping as usual.
My brother was off site seeing bso I got some stuff done then went skating. I had a new board. Ollie art on the top and bottom, so awesome. It didn’t help me much though as I started off skating horribly. I tried a line of boardslide, front tailslide the one stair, kickflip on flat, crook. Never got it. Almost lost my shit. Got a front 50 that was slow. Going faster was supposed to help, but I just stuck. I finally had one ok line of noseslide to fakie, halfcab flip, crooks. Other then that I had a squatty treflip, front board pop out, and that was really about it.
Later on in the day after some football I met Dave at Steelyards which was too crowded to skate. So we roamed around the new train depot area over to Folsom. We didn’t really do much or find anything great. It was nice out and fun though.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)
After dinner at Under The Sun with my brother and a couple drinks Steve went out to Rampy. I thought he was joking, but he kept skating it. Just starting from the bottom and doing kickturns. Then he worked up to dropping in and before I knew it he was doing rock ‘n rolls! I was in the middle of setting up a new board so I couldn’t grab mine. So we just shared one that was in the garage. Felt like an 8″ with Thunders and some pretty small wheels. It was fun. My first few runs were pretty sketchy. I got a few of the standard tricks then started trying to show Steve a Texas Plant. Took a bit, but I got one and it felt great. Steve went on to do a few back 50s, rock fakies then almost died on a halfcab rock. That was the end of the session.
After doing Crisis in the morning I went to Lafayette to meet Nolan and give him a board. The park was full of scooter kids and parents. Ugh. I ended up not caring and got a couple of lines I was super hyped on. First was wallie the rock hip, axle stall the weird round qp with a circle on top, front rock the mini tooth qp. Next one was front 50 front 180 the little ledge up top, halfcab into the bank, f/s ollie on the manhole qp, boneless the qp by the entrance then front axle stall the tiny qp at the entrance. Whew! Hyped on that one. Nolan showed. I didn’t really see him skate much, he kinda had the flu. I did a few other random things, but then bolted after a quick whaddup to the No Love dudes that had just showed.
Then I met Dave on campus. We started out under the engineering building. We warmed up for a bit then I filmed Dave get a rad line of front 50 to front tail, nollie back 180 then switch ollie a crack. Ha! It was rad though. I had a little line of halfcab flip then b/s 90 flip. Still felt neat though. And tried to front 50 the ledge that was real close to the handrail. It was too close for me in the end.
Then we went over to this area and stayed there for awhile. I did a rock walk down the five stair. Jack wallied this thing really easy. The rest of us couldn’t. It seemed easy, but with the tiny setup room it wasn’t. Dave got a couple cool grab wallie tricks. Jack filmed a “dork” trick.
Then we went to this slappy ledge thing. Dave immediately slappy front 5-0’d it. Then went on to do slappy crooks and slappy front tail. Geez! Carleigh locked into some good slappies. Jack wallied the ledge then mostly filmed. I had done a couple slappies then was trying a line. Ollie up onto a ledge, kickflip off, slappy. I was struggling with the ollie though and after landing one kickflip I snapped my tail on the next. Doh.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)
Had a half day at work on a gorgeous day. I went to Fort Collins to sell boards at MRKT. On the way I stopped at Fossil Creek. It was a weird scene. Normally no one is there. But this time there were scooter kids, parents, Zumiez kids and a couple dudes that seem down. I started off horribly. Not even being able to pop at all. It was brutal. But after a few minutes I was able to back 50 the curb then crooks the ledge. That is one of my favorite ledges to crook ever. I had some front 50s on the lower part of the ledge, then on the taller part. Even had a couple back 50s on the tall part and got into a few kick back 50s. In the end the scene bummed me out too much. Too many kids with headphones throwing a fit when they didn’t land their front 50.
I met up with Mike and his buddy Chris at MRKT. Then we went to Northside. It was crazy busy, but ended up mellowing out after awhile. I hid in the corner and did the kickflip bank ride thing above. Pretty hyped on that. Mike and Chris were killing it. Mike has a very unique style and bag and it’s rad to watch. After awhile Mike and I tried no comply tailslides on the China bank and ended up getting them back to back. His was over the ledge and legit. Mine had a grab and I kind of pansy footed it. Oh well I did the dropin to quick ledge ride so that was cool.
Then we skated over to this new red curb and wow is it good. Mike was slaying the slappies. He had some really long ones. Chris was going fast and doing front and back 50s. He can’t slappy, which is kinda funny considering how good he is. He had some sick front 360s on flat and f/s flip and f/s hc flip. Mike had f/s and b/s slappies so good. Then in the end he pulled the switch one. WTF! I had some great feeling slappy crooks and tried to back them with nollie tres. Slappy crooks to fakie followed by fakie bigflip. Got a couple regular slappies, but they didn’t come easy or grind far. Did a bunch of front tails to fakie since I needed to do one for the game. I had no idea they looked that bad. Argh. Oh well, fun day.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)
Somehwat cool night. I wasn’t feeling very energetic. Went to Red Curbs even though it wasn’t wet out to try back tails. I had stopped by the Research Center, but it wasn’t lit well and there was gravel all over the sidewalk. Pretty much right away I settled in to trying BSTS so I’d have a better one then this bad one for our game. I tried for like an hour and although I thought I landed a couple, the selfie cam said no. Ugh.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)
Whoa, I took off another day yesterday! That’s the 2nd day this year. Felt good to sit and do nothing. But back to business! Carleigh and Jack picked me up after Ollie and I were kicking the soccer ball to each other for awhile. It was a bit cool out, but humid and it felt good. At times it sprinkled a little, but not enough to interrupt skating. We were the only ones there which was so awesome. I struggled initially. Really bad. I don’t get why. I had a front 180 off a tier then halfcab noseslide that felt cool. Then it was slim pickings for quite awhile. I was sucking trying front 50s on the bump to ledge, but got a couple. Then put together a line I was really hyped on of b/s flip the bank, noseslide the ledge and drop into the bank then front 50 shove out the bump to ledge. I’ve wanted to do the 50 shove forever so that’s cool. Then I finally front 50’d the bump to kicker ledge thing in the middle of the park. Did a couple qp tricks at the end and finished with a fun line of ollie to fakie on the bank, switch front 180 into the lower bank, crooks the ledge, crappy b/s grind to fakie, switch noseslide. Rad! Jack was having stomach pains and lying down at times. But he would get up and rip. He did tricks like front tail 270 shove, front tail front heel out, front board a whole flat bar, ollie up to front 5-0 on the qp, boardslide 270 shove. Carleigh was tossing some mean back d’s on the qp. Did noseslide shove, noseslide on the bump to ledge, perfect b/s flip on a bank, ended with a front d on the qp.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)
Was supposed to meet John at the newish Pearl & 30th ledges with the little brick gaps under them. He said he’d be late so I went across the street to a tiny manny pad instead. I was feeling super sore and didn’t really want to ollie. I did a couple manuals then tried to do manual kickflip out for awhile. I had a few that felt possible, but mostly I just felt like an old uncoordinated fool.
Then I went over to the ledge and John still wasn’t there so I went down the sidewalk to the bikepath ledge and weird hip. I did a few rock ‘n rolls then started trying a line of noseslide to fakie and cab over the hip. Initially the noseslides to fakie felt great and I was landing them all. Then I went through a period of not landing any at all. Then I got them again and managed to put down two of the worst cabs in history. What a weird trick.
Went over to the ledge and John still wasn’t there so I left to pickup India from ballet.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)
On a gorgeous afternoon I ran some boards to 303 then headed back to Broomfield for a session at Darin’s ramp. I was early though and decided it would be a good time to try back tails at Safeway ledge. Ugh. At first I thought I would have this easy. Did quite a few back tail stalls which is still new enough to me that it felt pretty good. But I have to slide it at least a little for the O-L-D-F-A-R-T challenge so I had to keep going. After awhile it got depressing. Stall after stall, fail after ail. I tried a few switch crooks in there just to mix things up,but for the most part I just went in circles trying to do a back tail with a slide. After a solid hour of this I did finally got one that meets the very minimum requirement for slide. Granted, it slid into a stall, but it felt pretty rad anyway. In multiple decades of skating I have never gotten close to that trick. I might try again before posting this one into the contest, but whew, glad I did one. I might try to actually learn it better over time too.
Then I went over to Darin’s perfect ramp where a small group of dudes were skating. It was rad. Dave kills it so hard. The photo above shows it. It’s impossible to document all of the tricks that Dave did. The beanplant was a sick one, front tailslides, back tailslides, couldn’t beam me on a Texas Plant though, smith grinds, feeble to rock ‘n roll, I don’t know, everything. Strickland was ripping too. Super good beanplant to tail, back smith, almost beanplant to rock fakie. Rad. This other dude was there that slams all the time. I’m so jealous of how he can commit to anything, but man it looks painful. Darin did his tricks good like he does. Back smith, back tail , all of the rock to willy tricks, switch front ds, etc. Dylan showed up and did about 100 tricks in one line that was only 4 walls long. Ha, he packs them in there. I skated mediocre, but had fun. First try front 50 was cool, front smiths, got a bean plant to tail after a million tries, front d to fakie and a weak hurricane on top of my normal tricks. Man it was nice out.