We got up early after a decent night of sleep and were the first ones to the Gunnison park. It ruled. We both felt better right away and were doing tricks we had to work up to last time as warm ups. I had a line of kickflip over the b/s hip a kickturn and then a b/s flip that felt great. That alone made my day. Skated the big bowl for a tiny bit. Failed at back smiths in the little bowl. Watched Ollie back 50 in the older bowl (photo above). Front 50’d the old ledge and crook’d it. Did a ton of ollies over the hips, some of which might have left the ground. Front smith the 3 foot section. Ollie did a first try fakie shove into the mellow bank in the old section as well as f/s halfcab. We skated for quite awhile. Doesn’t seem like it from this entry, but we skated for almost 5 hours and it was hot. We ended with Ollie front 180’ing the flattened cone and then trying back 180 and giving up mad. First time I’ve seen him actually frustrated. Then we did the 4 hour drive back to Boulder and it was done. What an amazingly fun trip.

Had a long drive to Montrose and an almost longer driver around Montrose to find their stupid park. Worst directions/signs ever. It was super hot when we got there and neither of us slept that well camping the night before. Ollie was over it immediately and almost didn’t skate at all. I did Donut Duty a couple times, did a couple back 50s, lost speed and was over it. That park has gone to crap. There are chunks below the coping, there were firework debris everywhere, huge piles of cotton/weeds, and water running through the park. I had high hopes for it since this park was such a formidable park when we did our Indecisive trips in the mid/late 90s. Oh well, it doesn’t always work out. We went camping again and had a blast.

We drove from Buena Vista to Gunnison. First stop was the park. And there we stayed for quite a awhile. My legs were still not feeling so good. Ollie did the bunny hop right away. So rad. He loved that park. Rolled in on the 3 foot section, did front and back 180s all over the place. The front 180 from the deck into the bank was my favorite. Lots of little half cabs over the hips too. Some other dudes were at the park. Some of the nicest locals I’ve encountered. It was cool talking to them. Ollie and I skated the spin thing and rockride for awhile. I got quite a few spine transfers. Roll over, front 50 to back 50, front feeble to back smith, front feeble to back smith to fakie. Got a tiny f/s flip over the hip and a bad b/s flip where Ollie said “Over 40 it’s a make” that really cheered me up. We skated for a long time. Ollie out lasted me. Oh yeah I got a grind over the little 3 foot love seat thing. Off to camp ..

Ollie and I embarked on our first father/son skate and camping trip. We left Boulder pretty early and traffic really wasn’t too bad. We went to Silverthorne and Ollie started ripping right away. The little fly out above, 180s up and down the little banks, dude was having fun. My legs were not well. Something about the altitude and arthritis doesn’t mix well. I fell pushing at one point and got upset. That’s how my trip was starting. I think I was way too excited about it ahead of time. I failed at rolling in, but did a few things I was ok with. Front slashes in lines, back 50s in taller spots easy, b/s flip on the new bank, front rock and had fun pumping.

Then we went to Leadville to meet Rob and Fuzz. We were there way before them. Neither of us were skating great. In fact after awhile we decided to stop skating until Rob and Fuzz arrived. They finally did and things felt better pretty quick. Rob had skated there before and had some really long lines. Long manuals, fast back 50s, poppy ollies on b/s hips, standard rob steez. Fuzz killed it with lots of lofty f/s ollies, a gnarly kickflip to fakie, more lofty ollies, high speed front 50s. Ollie got into gear and had a bunch of front 180s into a little kicker, mongo pushes, rolled into the little qp, manual up the a frame, and a rock fakie in the bowl. Leadville is at 10,000 feet. Rob says it’s a good excuse to use for feeling exhausted the whole time. Good, because I needed it. I had a funish line of front d on the little qp, kickflip up the curb, back 180 off. A b/s flip on the round hip, not much else. The bowl was my favorite part and Ollie and I only briefly skated it at the end of the session. I had a fun little roll in and some little grinds. Then we went to my mom’s to watch fireworks in Buena Vista.

Watched the premiere of Static 4 and 5 at Meta. Had a couple ciders. Then went skating with John and Matt to the Wells Fargo qps. There were a few other people skating them. It was fun. It was really brief. John did pivot fakie. Matt ollied out over the brick wall. I did a front board transfer to fakie. Oh and board sitting in the photo is late after missing Matt credit card himself trying the ollie again. Ha.

Met up with Dave here. He started on the manny pad. I started doing 180s off one of the ledges and some slow slappy stuff. Then we both skated the manny pad and it was fun. Dave came so close to a ton of tricks. I forget all what he actually landed. But halfcab manual, almost hc manual back 180, nose manual, almost hc nose manual, a lot more. Plus he was trying switch front bigspins and wearing new Adio shoes. How’s it possible to have new Adios? Ask Dave. I got nose manual, but couldn’t get nose manual shove. Got a first try switch front 180 to manual, then tried it over and over and only got a couple more. Got one kickflip manual with a toe scrape, but not a clean one. Also had a fun line with nose manual, ollie up the ledge and back 180 off. Landed a double flip to complete stop.

Then we somehow ended up messing around on this. It was funny. It’s totally hidden, you can’t get much speed, but it was still fun. We both got front noses to fakie, front nose 270 out (aka the Helmstetter), front 50s going oh so fast. I got a crooks somewhat and posed some kickflip nosestalls. Kinda got into one, but didn’t get up on it.

Then we skated above it at this little spot. Dave wants to wax it and lipslide up it past the one stair. That would be so sick. I ollied and front 180’d into the bank and they were so fun that I tried kickflip too. It took awhile and a funny slame, but I got a good one. That was the end of the night. Street skating rules.

Worked 12 hours (the last 4 at home) then went straight to Broomfield park to meet up with Matt, John and Fuzz. Darin was there too. Fuzz was late so it was just the four of us for awhile. It was fun. Matt was actually appearing to struggle a little at the beginning. Whoa. We mostly just skated the angled brown ledge, blue ledge, quartapotty and flatground. I felt a little weird with the smaller trucks getting into grinds. I didn’t get frustrated about it though. I took a long time to get one treflip, got a lot of front tails on the qp, crooks on the brown ledge, don’t remember a whole lot more. John had some long lines going that had his patented switch front noses in them. He even did a front 5-0 which he is terrified of. Matt did fakie front 50 on the brown ledge, halfcab back 50s on the blue ledge, landed a kickflip in a game of SKATE, slammed on a treflip and ripped. Darin did his routines. The front blunts on the qp are sick. Almost did back 180 fakie 50. Fuzz showed up. Briefly. One roll around the park before some scooter kids got in his way and he bailed. Ha.

Went to Southern Hills after a really hot day that included a strenuous hike with Liz, watching MI3 with Ollie, laundry, dishes and napping. The purpose was to skate flat as I only had a day left to get a new flipper. I started by going through my bag. Got pretty far on the list which included a nollie varial flip, fakie treflip, treflip and fakie bigflip. Landed on a few varial heels. Since the fakie bigflip came so easy I thought fakie bigger flips might. Nope. At the end I was trying nollie f/s flips one way and treflip rewinds the other way. Got somewhat close to nollie f/s flip, but ended up getting a 360 flip rewind! Was so hyped. That’s been a dream trick forever. I didn’t do it well, but I was so tired from two hours of flip tricks that I just stopped at that point and called it a night.

After being on vacation for a week the whole family was grouchy. So I kinda just left with my skateboard and went to Southern Hills. It’s coming up on the end of the month and I haven’t done a new flip trick yet. Flatground went ok. I wasn’t too confident as skating Ventures again felt a little weird. But I really liked the 8″ trucks and how quick the flip was. I got through quite a few of the basics though and added a nollie varial flip. I was struggling with treflips when I noticed I had worn through the sole of my shoe and was skating on the insole. Doh, can’t have that. So I went home to get new shoes and then grab my camera before driving to Longmont to meet Dave.

Got me some Herman G6 Vulcs. They seem good.

It was hot when I got to Rocky Mtn Elem. The ledge didn’t grind because the wax was melted. I goofed around for awhile thinking of a line I wanted to do. Dropin on the narrow brick bank by the entrance of the school, front board popout the ledge, front 180 off the curb, fakie bigflip. When Dave was warming up I asked if he thought it was worth filming and did the line perfect. Great. Of course once we started filming I struggled with the front board, but I did end up getting it and it did feel amazing. I skated lightly after that then filmed Dave get a rad little line too. Then we both felt like we were getting heat stroke. Guess it was over 90 degrees and we were right in the sunlight. Really stoked on getting that line.

Put my old 8″ Ventures on a 8.25″ board. The board looked so small. I skated in front of the house for a bit before Ollie was ready to leave for a short Louisville session. I was able to ollie while hitting the tail again (ha), kickflips felt easier, halfcab flip felt great. I did end up liking how Indy’s turned, but for now I’m just gonna skate the Ventures and not think of getting 8″ Indys unless I actually end up disliking the Ventures (unlikely). We went to Lville. We skated the skate run thing first. It was fun. The Ventures carve differently then Indys, but the grind felt better and I actually landed tricks I got into instead of just stopping. Ollie pumped better then he has in awhile and followed some lines I showed him to keep his speed more. I got a front d, but bailed out of roll ins. Thanks JP. Ever since making that roll in bet I’ve been completely unable to commit to a roll in. Goofed around on the street section for awhile. Didn’t do anything special and definitely noticed that crooks are harder to get into with a smaller truck. But it was cool. Ollie had some nice front 180’s off the ledge. We were both so tired from vacation and driving that we called really quick.