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.

Went to meet Rob at Research Ledge and it started sprinkling as I got there. I did couple noseslides and noseslide shoves (kind of) when Rob showed up skeptical of getting his new board wet. He cruised the hill once, I did a crooks and then the rain became too much.

So we went to Red Curbs for a pretty solid session with the exception of me not being able to land treflips and Rob having troubles with nose manuals. I got a couple slow kick back tails, a front lip, front 5-0 180 out, slappy crooks to fakie followed by a varial flip slam that made me laugh. Rob has slappy crooks down so good now. He had a bunch of them. Halfcab board to fakie, lap over lipslides, fast back 50s, bigspin front nose. A couple other dudes came and we skated with them for awhile. They were good. So good that one of them gave me advice on how to ollie higher. Suck up them legs! Ha, as if I didn’t already know I suck at ollies. Everyone left and I stayed there doing front smiths one way and trying hardflips the other. I would love the make hardflip my new flip trick for August. Time is ticking!

New shoe blues. Ok, so they are actually black and blue. Ha. Sorry, it’s early. I went out to Rampy on a rainy night feeling exhausted as I always seem to be lately. My first few runs were so bad I wanted to focus my board and burn down Rampy. So I started hucking. Frontside ollies and whatever the trick is called where you take your front foot off onto the coping, grab the nose with your front hand and then put it down to tail. I had a few frontside ollies that felt ok. A couple of them were probably above coping. One of which was really scary and riding away from that one was a blast. I only got one of those boneless/madonna/sweeper/whatever they are called but it was fun and cheered me up.

Had a lazy Sunday going. Met Rob at this spot in the afternoon. It was hot out. Jack had had told me about this spot awhile ago. It didn’t disappoint. Manuals didn’t come easy initially because it’s so low. We both tried to manual the wide part around the corner and thread the needle into the median. We both got close, but didn’t quite get it. Then we did some lines. Old man challenge manual the wide part then kickflip a curb after it. Also did stuff over the narrow part of the median then 180 manual tricks on the next median. Rob did no comply then back 180 nose manual 180 out. Nuts! I did ollie then front 180 nose manual. I also tried switch 180 manual the first median then front 180 nose manual the second. Got pretty close, but never had enough speed.

Then ‘The Studio’ closed up and a car left from the landing so we skated this part of it. Rob got no comply up the 2 stair. I did a front 180 up the curb (back behind the bike racks), switch front 180 down the 2 stair then ollie the 3 stair. Fun. Then took awhile to get kickflip up the curb, ride off the two stair and ollie over the low ledge into the sidewalk. Super fun! Then we skated these weird wide parking blocks which turned out to not be as good as they look and you kind of just rode along the edge instead of grind them.

Then we went to this fabulous new spot. We took awhile to get going, but we all skated good it seemed. Dave had some fast front 50s, some really long ride on back 50s and crooks. It was cool because the the brick made it feel like a gap, but you didn’t have to clear it. Rob killed it with a big back of tricks. Front tail, nollie front tail, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide fakie, crooks, and more that I can’t remember. I had a few really fun feeling crooks, slow front 50s, front 50 shove, front 5-0 and front 50 front 180 out in a line with a backside flip off this little curb.

I actually had a few lines with flip tricks. Felt great. We skated hard. Then we checked out a new nearby ditch spot that looked better then it was for skating.

On the way back to Rob’s van Dave and I ollied the 3 then 4. Quite fun and a great ender to the day.

Woke up really early after a crappy night of sleep. The family was still sleeping after I had ate and watched a skate video (Blind – Damn) so I left to go skate. Went to Safeway ledges as I needed to get to Crisis later on anyway. I was there shortly after 9am and surprisingly didn’t take too long to get warmed up. Actually I skated some of the best I have in a long time. Coming from the far side I started pretty much every line with a crooks on the fence ledge. Early on I had a crooks, front 5-0 front 180 out, fakie bigflip then pop shove. Put me in such a good mood. I had some of the best back 50s I’ve done in awhile and followed one up with a front 5-0 on the fence ledge. Flatground was doing decent too. Had a couple great feeling treflips. Also one of the best kick back 50s I’ve done in awhile. I set a box out and would ollie it before crooks on the fence ledge. Couldn’t get front 5-0 shove out, but managed a line with ollie, crooks, front crooks jib to fakie, halfcab flip, ollie the grate going down the hill. Couldn’t get kick back 5-0. Couldn’t get rick flip or nollie tre. But came close on nollie f/s flip and hardflip. Pretty much ended trying halfcab flip noseslides for awhile. Got pretty close actually. All of this by 11am. Stoked.

After chilling at Crisis for awhile I went to meet Rob at a manny pad in Boulder. Ended up at this one and wow I was sore. I struggled through it and got to a point where I was trying switch front 180 manual back 180 out. Didn’t get too close before the rain ht.

So met Rob at Red Curbs. There was a couple other dudes there escaping the rain. It was totally dry when I got there, but the heavy rain quickly ran into the garage limiting how you can skate. I wasn’t able to nose manual the main pad last time I was there, but did it first try this time. Rob was doing a bunch of fakie b/s nosegrinds, back 180 50s, patented Rob tricks. We kind of settled into trying some lines between the curbs. Rob got a killer line of lap over lipslide, kickflip the puddle, back 180 fakie 50. I came close to back 50, kickflip the puddle, kick back tail. Man I was sore at this point. Stoked I skated so much though.

Had a long work week and had a brief window of time where I could get out so I did. This park is like 3 miles from IBM so I went there. At first there were these kids there, but even worse were their mom’s standing right at the top of the bank so when I bailed a trick under them I felt extra old and dumb. Luckily they left after awhile. I had done a few lines. Mostly involving ollies over the flat bar and kickflip on the bank or a slow ledge trick. I really hate the one low ledge as it’s narrow with grass on the other side. Later on I settled into a couple things with ollie over the rainbow rail then front 50 up one of the escalator ledges. Coming back at one point I did the best treflip I’ve done in a long time. Last thing was trying to ollie up onto the tall ledge you can see the girl standing on. It’s so tall. I got close over and over again until finally making it once, but it was sketchy and I came off the side quick and didn’t ride away. Oh well. Way funner then work.