Had to bring boards to MRKT so started asking if anyone wanted to join and soon enough I had a full car. Matt, Bernie, Nolan and Allan. Yes, Allan. Allan from Sol Allan. Unbelievable. After a brief stop at MRKT we went to what appeared to be an empty Northside as we pulled up. But nope, everyone was behind the qp and the park got fuller by the minute. I had fun cruising initially, but kinda lost interest quickly. Before I had ollied nolan already noseblunted the brick bank, and then front 270 to switch 5-0 to forward. Geez. Almost back noseblunt too. Seeing Allan skate the mini ramp section was rad. Matt and Bernie mostly skated the ledge. It was basically too crowded for everyone so we bailed to Spring Canyon to check out the new stuff.

It was crowded too, but not as crowded. Nolan killed the tombstone. Airs both ways and back smith over it. Almost a nose manual nollie flip out too. Geez, he can skate street too? Matt killed some stuff. Pole jams, treflips, ollies, back tail the bench. Bernie ripped. Front board up the rail to manual the new box. I failed at nosegrinds on the small ledge. Was kinda bumming, but I guess I’ve gotten better at ollies because I was ollieing onto the potato chip with enough speed to hit the qp at the end easy. Got a front rock. I played a game of SKATE with Bernie, Matt, Teagan and another dude. I thought I’d be out immediately, but when I got a treflip I was hyped. Then everyone got letters when I landed varial flip and then fakie varial flip. Ha ha! Bernie ended up winning the game on a fakie double flip. It was a fun game and put me in a better mood. Until the last cali grind curb session when everyone, but me could grind down it. Doh!

After freezing my butt off watching Ollie’s flag football practice I cruised to Longmont and met Dave, Rob, Neil and Lazer at one of Colorado’s best spots. Rocky Mountain Elementary. I had played tennis in the morning with Liz and stretched after so thought I’d be in pretty good shape. Nope, I was hella sore and starting out was rough. I tried the long dropin a few times and had to jump out and kind of strained my legs. Great start.

Lazer was ripping the speed bump a new one. Ollies and shifties over the whole thing and later tried to ollie a tall cone and came up just a few inches short. Gnarly. Rob was boosting some ollies off of it too as was Neil. It got me motivated to try, but I’m sure mine weren’t lofty. I did manage a run I was hyped on though with a speed bump ollie (not the whole thing), ollie up the curb, front board pop out the ledge, then ollie onto a brick median and ride down it (I was supposed to manual down it though). Neil got lipslides again of course. Lazer did front tail fakie on the ledge. Rob did back 180 up the curb then switch boardslide popped out regs. Dave did boardslide to fakie. I got a line of b/s ollie a concrete median on the bank then a manual front 180 out on a brick median. Flatground was sucking for me, but i think it was more soreness then the big setup. Dave did a sick beanplant over a median like Rob did last week. Neil too. Rob did a back pivot going straight up the bank to the curb and a b/s flip on the bank. I took forever to get a couple crappy slow back 50s on the ledge. Rob got front tail on it. That was pretty much it for the day.

Had a busy morning of homeowner fun attempting to seal a leaky roof near the stack pipe. It was ok. Then headed to Crisis with Ollie and met up with Rob, Blake and Neil. We went to Safeway ledge first so Ollie sat in the car. He don’t like ledges yet. Ha. I was on an 8.5 board and setup new Null wheels. I was out of 8.3″ boards and didn’t want to go down to 8.25. And since most of the wheels I have skated lately have been 50mm (and worn down) the 52mm Nulls felt big. So my setup felt pretty large and I felt it. I didn’t do much new, but came closer to locking in good smith grinds.

Neil was slaying it. He was happy to be skating again and it showed. Lipslides, boardslide a crazy display rack, front tailslides, fast and poppy. Blake mostly skated the display case and got boardslides too. He got pretty close to crooks as well which would have been gnarly. Rob is the man. He almost did back 180 to fakie smith grind 180 out. Or something, I don’t even know but it was cool. He also had some good front noseslides on the fence ledge and a million other tricks on the regular ledge.

Then we went to this bank spot. People seemed bummed on it at first because there was dirt everywhere, but we stuck with it and it ended up being my favorite part of the day. We mostly skated it to the left of the stairs and dirt. Neil had some nice one foots to fakie and a kickflip fakie. Rob got some rad backside one foots, back kickflip, back big, some type of boneless variation. Blake had a back kickflip, back heeflip and a front 360. Tight. Oh yeah we were skating it in lines. Trick on flat then trick on the bank after awhile too. I had a kickflip to fakie, line of no comply 180 then fakie flip on the bank, heelflip on flat then alley oop back kickflip (I guess like a back 270 kickflip). Had a bunch of great feeling halfcab flip too. Couldn’t get a treflip though. Blake ollied the 4 stair, I bailed. Things started going downhill for me then. Ollie was killing the grassride game. Front 180 into the grassride, fakie ollie into it, and even a fakie shove into it with a sketchy ride out. People were hyped.

Then we went to this spot. I’ve filmed here a lot and barely skated it. I was super sore and it didn’t get much better then that. I couldn’t manual it to save my life. I ended up giving up and settling for a couple ollies onto it then ride onto the middle stair and back 180 off and also front 180 off into the parking lot. Very frustrating session for me. I should listen to my body and not skate. Ollie was hyped on the spot. He didn’t ollie up, but he did lots of back/front 180s and halfcabs onto the lower stair. He also rode onto the lower stair into manual. Rob got manual drop down to the lower stair, and I want to say he manualled the lower stair too. Neil got nose manual and more. Blake killed the game with manual to 5-0, lipslide the 2 stair then pull up and was the last one skating. He better be right, he’s only 17! Ha.

Went to Lafayette on a cold night. Was maybe going to meet Dave there, but he couldn’t get out that early. I arrived around 8:30 to a completely empty skatepark. Wow. I cruised around in ways I have never before there. I wanted to do a few of the flyouts like all the little kids do over the hump at the entrance of the park, but I can’t pump or pop so I came up short every time. Kind of a bummer considering every 12 year old kid that’s normally there wearing full pads can do it every time. I had fun though. It was the first time I was there with a bigger board and it felt a little weird at times. Good though.

The lights shut off at 9 so I headed to Longmont to meet up with Dave in a parking garage I have never skated before, but Dave has been saying how good it was for a couple years now. He wasn’t kidding, it’s a good one. Several perfect parking blocks and wood to make manny pads and wallrides with. We were both kind of doing our thing for awhile getting warmed up. Slappy crooks, wallies, manuals and more. I ollied a little median and tried a kickflip on flat and SNAP cracked the tail almost clean off. No! Luckily I had an old deck in my car as backup. Aka the board that will never die that I skated in Rochester a couple years ago. After that I laid off the flip tricks for the most part. We arranged some wallie/grind to wallride options seen in the photo and man it was fun. I got wallie to f/s wallride. Then Dave did a sick front 50 to wallride.

We filmed it for the Crisis spring break street trick contest. Cool. Then Dave started trying a line of manual the wood we setup across the parking block followed by a wallie off the parking block to b/s wallride on the wood (photo above). As he did that I tried no comply to front tails. I got one. Dave said we should film it.

So 55 tries later I got it. That 55 is not a joke. I counted because they are all on my phone. Dave is a trooper for hanging in there and filming it. Landing it was an absolutely great feeling though. Regardless of how dorky or dumb it looks it was an incredibly hard and rewarding trick. After that Dave filmed his line all steezy and almost got slappy crooks back 180 out. I got remotely close to slappy front crooks. I did quite a few flippers by the end. They didn’t feel great though. Dave had some sick nose manuals. We had lots more lines/combos on the wallrides/parking blocks just skating. One I got was slappy crooks, b/s wallride, wallie. Twas fun. I was trying nose manuals too when the lights shut off. It was around midnight. Wow, that’s a lot of skating. I have to admit that filming a trick is a neat feeling. I got home and was climbing into bed at 1:30 when my work phone went off. So I got no sleep. Ugh, horrible. But the great skate session kept me feeling alright.

On a cloudy morning I woke up really early and have the late shift for work (9:30 am). So I went to Boulder park armed with an arsenal of barely used shoes to see what I liked best. I went with some Lakai Picos first and ended up sticking with them. They weren’t perfection, but they were much better then the Fallen Vibes. I cruised around the park for awhile kind of surprised at how slow my wheels were. I guess they are getting pretty small now. I really didn’t do a whole lot. All of the tricks I had in my head on the way there didn’t seem obtainable (back 50 the deep end mainly). To my surprise I did flip tricks for awhile and perhaps did my first ever 3 flip before 9am. At one point I was cruising around the back of the park and nailed my head on a tree branch that sticks in. Ouch. Just a little goose egg and a tiny amound of blood. The funnest thing I did was drop of a ledge in the far NW corner of the park to a quick roll into the middle part of the bowl. Then I went to get some water and get stuck talking to one of the dudes lurking at the park drinking Steel Reserve.

New shoe blues with the Fallen Vibes. I was the first of us old dudes there. I slammed on an axle stall on the quartapotty to start the session. Not a good omen. It didn’t get much better then that for me. There were some other older dudes that were really good. As Rob would say later, I felt more intimidated about sucking in front of good old dudes then good young kids. Doh. Anyways, we skated. The crew was Dave, Rob, Eric and I. Dave kinda destroyed the hump on top of the bowl. Bluntslide 270 out, proper back tailsldes. I got a line of f/s halfcab flip on flat, roll into the little 3 foot section between the pool and bowl, ride around, boardslide down the tiny rail, front rock the brick qp, b/s 90 flip to halt flyout. Ha. I haven’t skated with Eric much, but he’s got moves for sure. Rob had a real cool old guy trick that I can’t remember now. Like a sweeper slide of some sort on the hump. Halfcab boardslides on the slanted brown ledge. Lots of good. At the end I tried a line of f/s kickflip on the hump followed by front 50 on the pier 7 ledge. I got close, but didn’t land it, got mad and made myself try the 6 stair which I failed at. I committed, but didn’t ride away. I blame the shoes as I was coming disconnected with the board. The main lights shut off and I still hadn’t gotten my March new flip trick. I tried a few fakie double flips in the little light, but couldn’t get one. So I started trying kickflip sex changes and got a couple. Rad! I don’t believe I have done that before. It’s possible, but I’m gonna count it as a new one.

I had such a bad time in those shoes that it is unlikely I will keep skating them. In fact I might not even skate cups anymore. Why can’t skate shoe brands make as good of cup soles as NB+? Argh.

One of the best dudes ever and one hell of an awesome part.

Well my NB+ Stratfords died an early death. The inside of the heel blew out and rather then repair them I decided to move on. The shoes were close to being done anyway. So I once again tried some non-NB+ shoes. Etnies Highlights. Aka the Bledsoe’s. Aka the shoe with the all foam sole and weed graphic insole. They are insanely comfy, but I started to have my doubts about the grip pretty much right away. Ugh. Anyways I tried some warming up and it didn’t go well. Jason and Lindy were on their way so I was chilling. Then randomly Sean Flaherty and Meta Sam showed up to film some stuff. Sick! Sean rules. He got to business quickly and did his trick in a really good line. Dang. Stoked that Jason got to see that. And stoked that I got to see it. I had cruised around and done a few things. Got a line of front 180 into the handicap ramp, halfcab flip on flat then a crooks jib on a bench. Sean and I had a treflip race which I won. Ha! Sam was hucking some kickflips and popping ollies higher then he thinks. He also ollied a hat. I don’t care what you say Sam, that was rad! I went home and put my next skate shoes on (Fallen – Vibe) and did a couple kickflips on them. Rubber soles are so much better. So far I’m 0-2 on ending the NB+ reign of awesome, but perhaps the Fallens will change that.

Neil, Ollie and I started at Wilville on a super nice day. Oh wait, I skated flat in front of the house for awhile to try and loosen up. I didn’t get very tech, but I did have fun trying some faster 3 trick lines of basics with no pushes in between. Wilville is a great warmup. Ollie likes that spot a lot. He was goofing around skating the way only he skates. He did the manual above as well as some funny ones into grass over a plastic cover. Neil was still dealing with his plantar fasciitis so mostly just rolled and popped some little ollies. I did some flatground up top (included a treflip) and was trying a line of switch ollie up the curb (hyped I was able to do that!) and halfcab flip into the downhill. Never got the hc flip. Settled for an insanely fun line of nose manual into the bank, then a kickflip on flat then manual into the mellower bank near the front of Wilville. So fun.

Then we dropped off Ollie, went to Longmont and picked up Rob and met Dave at Rocky Mtn Elem (aka one of CO’s best spots). We were here a very long time. As you can see by the gram above Rob did a really sick beanplant over one of the brick medians on the bank. Dave and Rob skated the bank section for a long time. It’s so hard, you have to push uphill through the parking lot then ollie up the curb to get on it. Rob did a b/s pivot on the sideway curb. Also ridiculous. I was forced to take it kind of easy by soreness. Still tried some lines though. Dropped in the far left brick median, kickflipped up the curb and did crooks on the ledge. Also tried a dream one of drop on on the far left median again and drop to manual on the sidewalk, ollie up the curb, manual a brick median, kick back 50 the ledge. Got kinda close, but not too close. Didn’t do anything special the f/s way. Dave back 50’d the ledge and crooked it. He also got a cool line of ollie a median on the bank, then back 180 another one. The three of us had a double flip session for awhile! Yes, a 40 year old, 45 year old and a 39 year old trying double flips. I was trying fakie double flips to get my March trick, but came up short. Then the three of us skated the bank to curb pushing up the parking lot. I got a no comply to pivot (was trying tail) and a kickflip to fakie that felt great. The kf to fakie was followed by a sw 180 in the parking lot and then a manual on the sidewalk. Rob got another back pivot and another trick I am blanking out on for some reason. Dave did front 50 to fakie (photo above), nosepick fakie, some more tricks and had such good ollies up the curb.

Then we went back here. Dave wanted to 50 it. I wanted to get a boardslide filmed. Dave didn’t get the 50, but he did land like 5 kickflips. And since kickflips are the best I bet he felt good regardless. Ha. I got the boardslide much quicker this time. Thank you for filming it Rob. I kept trying with the dream of manualling out, but slammed a few times and Dave had to go so we called it a day.

Was super tired after work. I’ve been trying to get out of rut of taking a nap after work every day. I was really sore, but wanted to try some flatground since I haven’t gotten a new trick yet this month. I went by the rollerblade park, but it was crowded with kids at the skatepark and hockey rink. Doh. I ended up stopping behind the old Albertsons in north Boulder as I saw they had repaved a little section of the parking lot. I think it’s a Walmart now? I haven’t even been out front of it. Anyways the first few kickflips felt hard and when I couldn’t get close to heelflips I just decided to huck away at some tricks I’ve never done before. Didn’t get even remotely close to nollie f/s flip. Nollie back heel felt doable, but I was not close. Switch b/s flip felt the closest although I never put my feet on it. I did manage a first try 360 flip. I skated for about 20 or 30 minutes and then went home and took another darn nap. Doh. The funny thing about the flatground session is how my board did not feel big.