Got the early shift this week. So after a nap, a smoothie dinner (motivated my Reynolds and PJ) and a visit to Crisis I met Darin and John and Broomfield park. They were warming up on the quartapotty so I joined. It was fun. John gots pivot fakies perfect now. Darin can front blunt every time. I got most of my tricks. We tried to manual the blue pad too and I ran into. It wasn’t looking good for ollies. We ended up getting some stuff. Nothing special for me until John got me to ollie into the brown slanted ledge. That was cool! I’ve wanted to do that for awhile. Then we played a game of SKATE that lasted pretty long doing tricks we don’t always do. John got me with impossible and varial flip. I got him with halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, something, nollie tre (first try!) and a fakie varial flip. We hucked a bit more after that, but left as I was getting really tired.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

I don’t have many good things to say about these shoes. The horrible lack of durability is inexcusable. Get it together Emerica. Neither of these lasted longer then a week.

Jake and I went to Valmont on the way to Longmont to meet Dave. We warmed up with some tail scrapes across manual pads and not landing much. I managed the long manual and a nose manual. Jake challenged me to a game of SKATE and it didn’t go so good for him. I got him letters on front shove, fakie flip, halfcab flip, varial flip and one of the ugliest treflips I’ve done to date.

Then we went to Niwot high. It was hot and the ledge didn’t grind well. We struggled. Jake managed front tail to fakie, halfcab noseslide, a front 50 that took way too many tries for him to be happy, front 5-0 and ended on a back 50 that also took a long time. I got a crooks jib, halfcab noseslide, front 50, front 5-0, some bad front noses. Tried to ollie onto a different ledge and kickflip off, but didn’t really get the ollie up. Hucked kickflip noseslides for awhile and got remotely close. Dave showed and we pretty much just left. Doh, sorry Dave.

We went to this new spot. Those banks are steeper then they look. We started off slow not knowing what the spot would entail and it turned into a really fun session. Dave and Jake jumped over a large cable spool via hippy jump and ollie respectively then did front tail and pivot fakie. Sick. Dave also feebled a sketchy flat bar. I got a halfcab flip and then a pivot on the bank coming down past the wood. Neat. Then we skated flatground for awhile and Jake did a bunch of heelflips which he hasn’t landed in years. Rad.

Went to the research ledge after lunch. Got there well before Dave and Rob. Felt slightly less arthritic and had more energy, but skating was still tough. Started with the same routine of some 180s down the hill and noseslides. Tried some crooks posted up for longer. Had a couple good feeling ones. Started trying back 50s and it was a hopeless cause. Rob and Dave showed. Around then I had one of my better lines of the day. Fakie bigflip, kickflip up the curb, crooks the ledge, manual the long pad. Then I flailed at treflips for a good 30 minutes trying to start a line. Eventually landed one poorly and tried to follow it with front 180 up the curb, fakie flip on flat then halfcab noseslide. Didn’t get the hcns. Couldn’t get another treflip. Those dudes were getting in the groove. Rob manualled everything. Dave was doing rad wallie manuals. Then it started raining. Argh. Fuller worked through it though and filmed a super rad boardslide pivot on the stair. In the rain!

Then we went to Red Curbs. I mostly just did front 50s, 5-0s, and front smith attempts on the taller curb. Dave filmed Rob get a line or two. Pretty rad.

We weren’t even old then. Especially Nick and Steve. Anyways this was a clip that I made after a skate trip to LA in 2006. Starring Troy “Chief” James, Josh Pluger, Steve Lynn (needs to start skating again), Nick Wirtz (has anyone seen him?) and me.

I haven’t been feeling well for quite some time. It sucks. This day was way worse then normal. Arthritis, naseau, dizzy, unergetic, etc. I should have not skated, but I’m just too stubborn. I headed to Longmont to meet up with Bernie and Riley. They said to head to the industrial area and I was a little ahead of them so I found a shady area for flatground and tried to knock out my new flip trick for August. I did more basics then I thought I would warming up (except for treflip which is still being an elusive jerk). Then tried a ton of hardflips, actually committing to some, but never getting both feet on. Thought of trying a nollie varial flip revert so tried that for awhile. Most times, actually probably every time the board would do nollie tre instead. I didn’t get either before those dudes showed up.

we went to that gnar bank to fence spot. Nolan was there and put down a banger over the doorway. I didn’t feel like skating so I just took a couple photos. Riley did a tail block. Then we went to the gap area behind the building. I dorked around badly and got pink slipped by Nolan in a game of SKATE where I landed on every trick (except nollie flip), but didn’t ride away from anything. Riley destroyed the gap over bench. Switch hard and nollie b/s flip done to perfection. I tried ollieing up the ledge a few times, forcing myself to keep skating. Perhaps it was dumb. Then we all left.

I headed back to Boulder determined to skate flatground for awhile to try and get my new trick for the month. The heat was intense, I felt horrible. But I kept skating. Couldn’t do a treflip to save my life. My shoes felt way too big. Tried a bunch more of those nollie treflip rewinds and got remotely close. They mostly turned into nollie tre body varials and I landed on a couple that didn’t flip. But shoves don’t count for my flip trick challenge. Hardflips weren’t happening at all. Tried f/s halfcab double flips for awhile and got pretty close. I didn’t want to settle for a double flip trick though. B/s flips were working and I thought of trying cab flips and the first one was almost a make. Battled it for about 10 minutes and rode away from one! It wasn’t perfect. It would probably warrant a redo in a game of SKATE as I kind of spun ~270, stopped briefly then dragged it the rest of the way around. I don’t care. I want to work on this trick more anyway. So yeah, some of the worst I’ve felt skating in awhile, but being so stubborn has it’s advantages and I landed my new flip trick with one day to go in the month. Whew.

Felt like crap yet again. Had the day off work and had gone for a hike with Liz and taken two naps. Still didn’t feel well though. Dave called after work and was in Boulder and wanted to skate. I stubbornly agreed and went to meet Dave at the Mikes Camera manny pad. Wow the asphalt sucks there now. I was feeling super out of it. Took me like 10 tries to get a manual. I did a nose manual first try though. Remotely close to a switch front 180 mannny. Dave showed up and after a manual agreed we should go check out the rainbow ledge. It was pretty dark, but we went for it anyway. Dave had a really long boardslide pop out. I had a short boardslide pop out. I also had some noseslides and a line with a front board pop out and an ollie down the 4 stair. Oh yeah, I was wearing my glasses which partly explains why I was out of it because I have pink eye. Ugh. I also had a new pair of Es Accents. This pair a half size larger that I’m trying to get broken in for Portland. Gonna get this pair dialed in and if they start to blow out too much wear the smaller pair before the trip. How boring is this to read about?

Then we went to look at the jersey barrier, but it was too dark to skate so we hit these parking blocks for awhile. We did all kinds of stall tricks. Dave did back 180 nosegrind, back 180 nosegrind to forward, back feebles, back feebles almost with back 180 or body varial out, front disaster, maybe front hurricane, probably a bunch more. I tried a bunch of front pivot kickflips out, but never got it. Managed a front 180 front truck pivot, hurricane stall to forward the long way, several feeble stalls which hyped me up since I have never really done feebles. We had a blast and I didn’t seem to make myself feel worse.

Unbelievably good. Part of the year so far and SOTY frontrunner.

Ha ha, J Mascis rules. The new album rules. This video is hilarious. And if you don’t know the “J Mascis is god” reference you obviously aren’t from the 90s.

Went to Lafayette park after seeing my Dr about Pink Eye. Ugh. Felt pretty odd trying to get warmed up. But settled into a fun loop of front 50 or front 5-0 on the little ledge then a frontside ollie on the manhole hump then just kinda whatever next. Kickflip on the flat bank, axle stall on the tight qp, something. Then Liz called and said I had my timeframes wrong and I needed to get home to watch Ollie. Doh.