After a busy day at work and then busy day with kids Matt picked me up and we met up with everyone at Broomfield park. And I literally mean everyone. Eric, Blake, Neil, Rob, Fuzz, Carleigh, Jack, Darin and more. The park was crowded with youngin’s too. I was about to go into ‘stand around and watch at a busy skatepark’ mode, but ended up skating. Matt was doing good stuff on the ledges already. I went up up and ran into the steep bank a few times to get warmed up. Fuzz too. It’s really hard to know what all everyone else was doing because there was so much going on. Rob did a rock ‘n roll on the steep bank which I’ve never even see him try before. Fuzz did some steezy decked rocks and front rocks. I had dropped in on a taller part of the pool coping in the flow bowl hoping that I would get over the fear of dropping into the pool. I then said if I land a front rock on the steep bank I’d drop in. Landed the front rock. Doh. But ended up dropping in fine into the shallow end. That was enough tranny skating for me! Ha. Then a black ledge session went down. I didn’t really skate it. But I saw a lot go down. Matt back tail, fakie 5-0. Fuzz lipslide, front nosegrind and bluntslide to scorpion. Rob and Neil crooks. Neil front nosegrind. Darin lots. I took a long time to nose manual the blue box, but did it. Blake was trying noseslide transfers onto the brown ledge. I got a super rare front nosegrind. Stoked! Then played with Darin for awhile on Kickflip, heelflip, treflip all together. Felt good on the kickflips and heelflips, but treflips were elusive. I landed a few with hands down, but that’s an over 50 make and I’m not 50 quite yet. Matt did that quick. And fakie too I think. I ollied the six stair in a couple tries. Felt great. Really fun. I should ollie more stairs and should have tried the double set. Jack was all over the park killing it the way he does. He is not a stock skater and it rules. He hyped me up for the six stair. Matt and I posed a couple kickflips down it, but never got close to committing. Carleigh got a couple back d’s on the brick qp as time was winding down. Fun night. My flatground game was off, but dropping into the pool, ollie’ing the six and getting a front nosegrind made the night fun for me.

Skated flat in front of the house for awhile trying to break in some new shoes Liz got me for my birthday. They are a little small, but seem like great shoes. I started off slow and doing lots of the basics. The goal was to land a new flip trick since I hadn’t gotten a new trick for April yet. It started to rain so I had to chill for awhile. Went back out about 15 minutes later since it’s CO and it was dry. Pretty much settled into only trying tricks I’ve never done. Nollie f/s flip one way and fakie double flip the other. Didn’t get either. Not even close on the nollie f/s flip. Very close on the fakie dubs though. Argh. I randomly thought about a trick I’ve wanted to do before. I don’t think I’ve done it, but if I did it was only once or something. Fakie varial flip revert. Got it like 3rd try. Was hyped. Did it a few more times and called it a success. I had done a few varial flip reverts first to get the feeling down and had never really done those either.

Had a slow start to the day after a great night/morning date with Liz. Ollie and I met up with Matt, Rob, Blake and Neil at the research center ledge. Not Ollie’s fav spot. Those guys skated it and Ollie and I went to the other side of the building and skated the long set of 1 stairs. Ollie had fun. Rode down all the stairs and manualed the last one. I did the same, with a switch front 180 down the two stair above to start. I was feeling pretty coordinated and not sore. Weird. Then we went back to the ledge. Saw Neil do front lip and crooks shove then had a horrendous slam hitting a rock right before popping a halfcab. Saw Blake slam on a front 50, then do crooks shove. Rob nose manualled the hill, almost got crooks, did front 50, manualled everything too. Matt didn’t stay long, but landed a lot of tricks all solid like he normally does. Back tail, back smith, switch tre, tres, etc. My flip trick game was not on point. I blame Liz for making me lazy. I did have some fun crooks, a front board pop out that felt great, back 50 that took forever.

Then we went to Red Curbs as the rain started. Man that place rules. Ollie didn’t skate too long, but he had lots of manuals, front 180s and a couple front boards too. Rob owns Red Curbs. Back 180 fakie 50, fakie back nosegrind!!!!, fakie nosegrind 180, I’m not remembering them all, but he killed it. Blake had some front 50s to manual, front 50 front 180 on the curb to median. Ride on back 50s with some variation out I can’t remember right now. I took a long time to get a back 5-0, a bunch of slappy crooks, did a kick back tail that was worse then the one in my Off The Couch part, but at least I followed it up with a very bad nollie varial flip. I was pretty sore, but at the end went into a ride on front 50 rage with a bunch of tricks out; no comply shove, boneless and boneless 180. Fun. Rob and Blake ended the session with some rad ride on back 50s and pushed while grinding.

Met up with Rob, Neil, Fuzz, Jack, Carleigh after work at the Louisville park on another nice spring day.  I got their first and cruised around the park avoiding ollies.  Rob showed, Carleigh, Jack.  Then Neil, Fuzz, Lazer.  No one was skating great.  Some other dudes showed that Fuzz indicated were lame and well, he was right.  As an example I skated by one of them as he bailed a switch front 50 on a ledge and he looked at me dead serious and said “THAT WAS SWITCH!”.  Yikes.  I saw Carleigh trying noseslides down the hubba and thought it would be fun to try double noseslides with her.  But that backfired and she went into one of her pouty moods.  Jack and I tried doubles for a bit with him nosesliding the rail, but he didn’t feel like the slams were worth it.  Understood.  Rob had some nice b/s ollies on the hip and almost a feeble grind on the bank to ledge.

We left for a nearby ditch.  It was fun!  Fuzz killed a back blunt, Carleigh got a back 50 grind, Neil b/s ollies and no comply to tail on a rock, Rob was getting used to it, Jack did back d and front pivot on the taller part, I landed a couple basics and had a fun b/s flip on the bank.  Then we got the boot.  Ugh.

Ended up at the basketball court park and it was a blast.  Rob had a really sick line of ollie up one curb, back 180 off then halfcab back 50 on the next curb.  Neil worked on halfcab manuals and did lots of standard Neil tricks (which rule). Carleigh was there, doing back 50s and avoiding everyone. Fuzz got ups. He was ollieing onto the top ledge super easy and almost tried to manual it. Also had a cool front 180 up the curb and switch back 180 off. I had to work really hard to get up that ledge, but I managed a few time. Tried front shove off and technically landed it with lots of wheel bite and toe drag so I cam to a halt. Still really hyped on that. Jack slayed. Boardslide a half handrail at a nearby house. Ollie up the right side of the ledge, gap to manual over the stairs, up the ledge then nollie flip and hardflip off. Geez. Jack and I finished with a super fun game of SKATE. He held back on the obvious tricks I can’t do, but we got most of our other tricks. I lost on a cab which is ok because I cannot do that trick. I had landed a 360 flip and a nollie 360 flip so that pretty much made me super happy.

On a super nice day I met up with Jack and Carleigh after work at the “Goodtimes Barrier”.  Carleigh had gotten close to wallie’ing over it recently and wanted to go back and get it.  When I got there she was already in celebration mode having done it a few times.  Sick!  We stayed there awhile.  Jack was skating flat a lot and doing some barrier tricks like wallie, wallie front 180, back pivot some other cool stuff.  I started hucking kickflip wallride and it seemed pretty realistic.  Omi showed up and did a few wallrides.  I ended up getting a couple kickflip wallrides.  They weren’t great or very high on the barrier, but they were fun and put me in a good mood.

Then we had a good meal at Wahoos and chilled with Fuzz at Crisis for a bit.  I played with some slappy noseslide tricks like noseslide to fakie revert back to forward.  Jack did it too, but much better and included a crook.  I also did a silly switch nose to forward then lift back up to front lip.  Fun.  Off to the Broomfield park we went.  I waited too long to write this entry so I don’t remember a whole lot of the session.  Carleigh and I started in the flow bowl which was fun until a bunch of people showed up there.  Then carleigh skated the pool and I skated the steep bank with Fuzz and Jack.  Jack did pivot fakie.  Fuzz did front slash and something else I can’t remember right now.  I got a front rock.  Neil was cruising all over.  I played a game of SKATE with Neil, Darin and Fuzz that Darin won.  I was skating pretty well, but kept getting stuck at treflip.  Skated the slanted brown ledge.  Fuzz was doing board transfer 180 and halfcab off.  Sick.  Jack did noseslide shove to nose manual.  I did boardslide transfer to manual (hyped me up!) and almost got it with a front 180 out.  Carleigh battled back disasters on the brick qp.  Most people finished on the quartapotty or trying to ollie a trash can, but I tried more kickflips on the hump then front 50 the pier 7 ledge.  I kind of got the line.  Fun day.

Just when I thought J Mascis couldn’t be any radder. I feel fortunate to have seen Nirvana with Kurt play School. It was amazing. Hyped that J does it justice.

April snow is the worst. It was about 28 degrees out and snowing. I went out to Rampy pretty motivated, but nothing much happened. I somehow did a fakie front smith on one of my first runs which is a trick I can almost never do. That was cool. Flatground was ok. Got a second try treflip then tried switch varial flips for awhile and called it a day after banging my shins a bunch.

Another beautiful day. Went two hours of India’s dances and had an early dinner. Then after a nap I went out in front of the house for about 30 minutes. I had put a hole in the bottom of my Lakai’s so it was time for new shoes. Or, another pair of not-skated-til-death shoes from my stockpile. I pulled out some Emerica Provost shoes. They have one of the worst shapes in a skate shoe I’ve ever skated. But they are somewhat ok shoes and I am on a vulc kick so they seem like the ones for now. I didn’t skated great. My mom came out to watch for a bit so that was embarrassing. I showed her what a kickflip is and she clapped. Yeap, at 41 that is the first kickflip my mom has watched me do. I struggled at halfcab flips and fakie bigflips. Those have gotten much harder on the bigger setup. I got a 3 flip first try though which always puts a smile on my face. Glad I skated a little.

One day prior to my 41st BDay I met up with Eric and we went to Longmont to meet Dave, Rob and Neil. It was an insanely nice day out. We packed into Neil’s little Civic and made the drive to the newest Fort Collins park called Waterway. There were three dudes there already and as you can probably see from the photo this park is tiny. Only one person can skate at once. The first half hour or so was pure frustration for me. It was non stop waiting or almost running into your friends. We eventually figured things out and got in a groove. The kids left and Mike joined us. Everyone had moves. Rob had some manuals around the deck, front slashes on the pool coping, back smith the top little qp. Dave killed it. Stalls on the extension, long pool coping grinds, boardslide to fakie on the birdbath qp. Eric was trying back disaster on the corner bank and getting into back noseblunt. Neil had some long lines actually skating the ledge and lots of ollies on, into, under everything. My bailed axle stall count got high quick. About the only thing I did I liked was a front slash on the little corner qp. Mike cruised around like he skated there the night before. He did. Ha.

When we went to leave Dave and I being the little 40 something kids we are had to do the dirt ride. I kickflipped in. Tried a few other things, but didn’t get them. Dave ollied in and then switch ollied in. So cool.

Next up was Fossil Creek. There was a period at Fossil where I felt some of the best I have in months. It’s amazing how good warm weather is for my body (UGH why do I live in Colorado????). I didn’t really do anything new or crazy, but I landed quite a few basics for me and crooked grinds were locking in so good. That bottom ledge rules. Eric got a heelflip off the manny pad. Dave nose manualled the box on top of the manny pad and did a bunch of boardslides to fakie on the ledge. Neil was all over the place doing the basics well. Back 50s, front lips, front tails, nose manuals. Dude can skate. Mike no complied a flat gap, ollie to rock the Carrol gap. Chadman joined us and ruled it. Front board to manual, front smith grinds, kickflip nose manual, poppy, steezy, ruler. Jack and Carleigh showed. I was stoked because I haven’t skated with either of them in so long. Carleigh did the little wallie into the downhill pad right away. Rob and Dave eventually got it. Jack was trying wallie boardslides down the six stair hubba, boardslide 270 shoves on the 3 stair out rail, other neato tricks.

Then we went to Spring Canyon. It was so nice out. I was pretty sore, but went for it anyway and shortly into the session I felt great again. So awesome. Warm weather rules. Again, I didn’t really do anything new or all that great, but some of the basics came quickly and that park is just fun. I was 4/6 on treflips. My favorite trick (even though I did it horribly) was an ollie onto the bench and drop to 50 on the curb. At the end of the session I wussed out on dropping into the pool or carving over the coffin door. Rob had an amazing frontside nosegrind on the curb. Carleigh carved over the stairs and did wallies and pole jams. Mike grinded over the stairs and no comply jammed over the pole jam. Dave had some killer back tails on the spine thing, rock ‘n rolls next to the coffin, boardslide to fakie down the rail. Neil popped ollies onto everything, nose manuals, all them neil tricks. Eric slammed so hard wallie’ing the wood thing, but got up and landed it. Jack manned up to the coffin carve then grinded over it. Manual to boardslide, front hurricane the little rail, front 5-0 3 shove out, texas plant, transfers, everything. I’m sure I missed a ton of tricks. Oh well, it was a long day, we had a blast.

The session in Fort Collins yesterday seemed to only get my legs warmed up. I still took a long time to warm up, but I felt decent. Rob was already killing it though. He did so many tricks it was insane. Front tail, front 50, nollie front lip, nollie front 50, back 50, back smith, 180 nosegrind to forward, so many more I can’t remember now. All pretty quick. He went over to Crisis after awhile and I think I had only done 50s at that point. Ha. I ended up getting some stuff I liked. Kick back 50, front 5-0 shove, front crooks to fakie while holding onto the wall, and a forced slow front lip. Not sure I’ve done that on a real ledge since high school. Only done it at Red Curbs. Flatground went ok. I hucked tricks a lot, landed a 3 flip and the first fakie treflip I’ve done in a long time. Warm weather is nice.