It was insanely windy in Boulder as Matt and I left to meet up with Rob and Dave. But not so bad at Broomfield. There was a big game of SKATE going on the quartapotty so I had to find somewhere else to warm up. Doh. We were all at the top mostly. Rob was trying to manual out of the bank to the hump to the wallride. He got really close. Fuller was doing steezy backside ollies and really good qp tricks on the brick qp. Front smith, cab pivot. Matt was ollieing the little rail, back tailing the black ledge, lipsliding the little rail, all kinds of tricks that are easy for him that the rest of us couldn’t do. Rob and I played a game of SKATE. He got me with some no comply tricks at the start, then I got him with flippers at the end. Everyone was kind of doing their own thing. Matt did a fakie 5-0 first try and then did switch back 50 before I could do regular back 50 (or kickflip back 50). I got a front 50 shove that felt good, almost front 5-0 shove, treflip, nollie treflip!. Rob pulled out a three trick line. He’s getting it back! Dave did a low to high pivot. We were tired. Rob and Dave left and Matt and I went to maybe skate more. He did a treflip. So did I! We called it.

Rob and I met on a very windy night at the Valmont garage and mostly just did slappies for an hour or so. It was mellow and fun. I got quite a few for me. Slappy crooks, crooks fakie, feeble transfer. At the end learned a new one. Slappy crooks 270 out. Hyped! Rob had a nice slam on a back pivot attempt, sick feeble transfer real quick, almost a crazy no comply front slappy.

* insole note * the black sti lab insoles are the winning ticket!

After driving to 303 I didn’t have the energy for a downtown solo session so I headed towards home and stopped at Louisville. There were quite a few people there, but it worked. It’s been too long since the session for me to remember everything. I struggled on the bank to ledge, struggled with back or kick back 50s on the ledge. Managed to front 50 the taller ledge pretty easily and try back 180s out. Got a back 5-0 (grinded to a stop) with a front 180 out on the little ledge. Kickflip to fakie took a few tries. Bikers clogged up the snake run. At the end of the session I took a long time to get a 3 flip on flat then called it a night.

insole note * the black emerica leo ones also suck.

Man this part is awesome. These dudes rule.

ps .. buy the DVD here.

Jake and I played a game of SKATE in front of my house on a crisp spring morning. I got letters on kickflip and fakie flip. That pretty much sums up how I started. I blame getting used to the new setup a little, but missing those is ridiculous. Then we went and picked up Dave and started at this spot. It was a hard warm up unless you are Jake. He was ollie’ing up the the dock like it was nothing and lined out lots of tricks off. Front 180, front 180 off the nose, nollie, f/s halfcab, ollie over the bench and one heck of a stomped no comply 180. Dave and I eventually ollied up it. We did little grab plants off while putting our hands on the top of the bench. I got a back 180 version as well. I had some slams on some no pop back 180s and landed a no pop front shove off. I could’t commit to the ollie over the bench.

Then we went around to the front where Simon and his friends Tyler and Aaron met us. All nice dudes. They all ripped the bank. I avoided it. After an incredibly embarrassing fall up the curb (not on purpose) I went and hid on the manny pad. I tried a bunch of manual kickflips out (have never really tried for some reason) and got remotely close, but just felt dumb. Jake and Dave got axle stalls on the bank. It’s so gnarly. Dave also did some fakie ollies. Simon’s ollie to fakie is crazy. Aaron did a boy varial that was crazy.

Then we went here and did a little landscaping to make this board slideable. It was epic. Simon was the first to get it. He got it third try! So sick. He got a few more too, but they weren’t all easy. He came remotely close to back 50 too. Coming off the end denied Aaron for a long time before he got a few of them. Coming off the end looked weird. Most of my attempts were not close at all. I would only slide a couple feet then bail out. Jason and Lindy had met up with us to watch and I felt so dumb bailing in front of Jason.

I would eventually get it though! (Dave’s video camera died mid make. Doh!). I can’t believe that when I finally got to the end I actually landed it. Whew. Felt amazing. One of the hardest boardslides I’ve ever done. Not scary, just difficult.

Jake got it a few tries after me too. We were hyped!!!

Poor Dave was the only goofy footer at the session. He did manage to front 50 it with a couple scoots and a couple where he popped out early all sick. He tried some lipslides at the end too that he could have probably eventually got.

But we ended up at Dave’s house where Jake and I skated awhile. Jake slayed as usual. Back blunt, front blunt, a bunch more, but couldn’t put down the no handed nosepick he wanted to do. I did alright for me. Got a front d on the parking block side which I thought was new, but then I remembered I did it a few years ago when Brian said “If you disaster it this try I’ll learn nollie tres”. Ha. I was hella sore after all that skating. Neil, you need to learn how to post photos/screen grabs without reducing the quality!

Since switching back to my orthotics I haven’t found the right insoles to skate with yet so am going to make a note of which ones I tried because I seem to forget and try them again. I had tried Etnies ones. They aren’t so good. Bad board feel.

This is insane.

After a lazy snowy saturday I went out to Rampy to break a bunch of new stuff in. I had liked my “test” big board enough that I wanted to keep with it. Which meant I wanted to get off those Ace trucks as quickly as possible. Thanks to Emage for having Venture Wides in stock. Another 8.4 board (I can’t do 8.25 with the big trucks because I hate seeing the wheels past the board), new Venture wides, same 51mm STFs I had with my last setup. I also put in the original thick insoles that come with the Stratfords to try and help soreness. I skated in them, but decided after they are too thick.

Ok eh, enough talking about my setup and on to the show. I mean the bad skating. I was really tired. Probably still from the marathon old man/lady night. Anyways the board felt good on Rampy. I like how Ventures turn so much more the Ace. I didn’t do anything new on trannie, but I had some alright runs. Did a few tiny f/s ollies. Flatground went pretty good. Took a bit for kickflips, but most of the awkwardness I felt was due to the thick insoles, not the setup. I did manage f/s and b/s flips first try which really surprised me. Got a couple 3 flips and hucked a few tricks. Then went in and watched MIB 2 with the kids and ate tons of popcorn. Man I love popcorn.

Today was over 30 day at Launch. I had the early shift from work and got out at 3:30. I had some boards to bring MRKT so I figured I’d be going up solo early and skating Fossil Creek on the way. Miraculously through ghat and texting a full car was established and we were meeting at SOL. Carleigh was super late (ha joking) so we started skating the curbs in front of the recently closed down 7-11 next to SOL while we waited. We ended up doing this for awhile. Carleigh front boarded the “hubba”. Fuzz and I got boardslides from the narrow top part. Dave boardslid and 50’d it. “It” being the “Hubba”. Hubba hubba. We had fun calling it a hubba even though it’s just a parking block off a curb. Kickflips up the curb felt great. Some slappy crooks did too. Rob was back! He was ripping all kinds of steezy pivots and stalls on the curb.

Then we drove to Fort Collins and stopped at Fossil Creek. I wasn’t sure how the rest of the crew would like this park, but man, everyone had a blast (except me at times ha). Right out of the gate I saw Carleigh noseslide a ledge down a curb. Rob got a second try kickflip. Dave front 50’d the ledge off the 3 stair. Then did it with a cool grab/plant out. Lots of manuals were done on the curb section. Fuzz manualled the curb then came around and ollied up the 3 stair to manual. Dave tried a nose manual and fell. Fuzz said “I’m in on trying that one with you” and did it first try. Not sure why Dave didn’t focus his board. Ha. Carleigh wallied up the 3 stair high ledge. Dave, Rob and Fuzz skated the ledge down below for awhile. It was during this time I got really frustrated. I struggled with everything. Tried a line of noseslide the ledge off the 3, ollie up the curb, ride off it, ollie up the 3 stair tall ledge, kickflip off the 3 stair. Came close, but no cigar. Front shoves were giving me problems. I started trying to start the line with either front shove or kickflip down the 3 and could not land either. I was fully committing and my food was sliding off the grip or something in the landing. It was weird. Then came a really good feeling kickflip down the 3 followed by a commit down the 6 stair (that I splatted on, but was still hyped I actually tried) and I felt better. I should realize that my setup is very different then it’s been in awhile so there is going to be frustrations. Plus the grip is two year old Jessup. Anyways, everyone was back up top now. Carleigh was doing wallie after wallie mixed it with a slam or two. Alfred the Fossil Creek local was there ripping. Fuzz got front 50 and front smith on the 3stair tall ledge. That front smith! Wow. I got a front 50 on it and have to admit the stability of the bigger board made it seem more doable. Dave had some rad runs like no comply or ollie up the 3 stair, shove on flat, layback boardslide the 9 stair hubba. So good! He also had a bunch of various street plantish tricks off the 3 stair ledge. So good. Since this journal is all about me me me, I will finish this section with a few more tricks that I did. (It’s only because I don’t remember what else everyone was doing). I got a front 50 shove off the ledge that goes off the curb. Kickflip up the curb, b/s flip off. Alfred did a treflip off the 3 stair ledge and I got his back with kickflip up the curb, treflip off the curb. So hyped on that! Then we left. Ate food. Missed MRKT being open and went to Launch.

Launch was surprisingly mellow. Chase was there, Wade, Squeeks and an assortment of Fort heads. All ripping. You can tell Squeeks isn’t 30 yet because his runs are really long. Ha. I was so insanely sore at this point I could barely walk up the quarterpipe. It took awhile to get moving. Then I went on the ramp and quickly realized I didn’t have the energy to skate the ramp. So I mostly just skated the bank to curb. Dave joined me for awhile. Carleigh was on the ramp the whole time. I didn’t see much until the end when she was trying back disasters over and over and taking the term “disaster” to heart. Ouch. Rob bowed out early. Fuzz was having a heart palpitation and it got scary at times. Argh. So not much skating for him. There was another dude skating the bank to curb area. He did tricks switch and regular, rode his board backwards half the time. I didn’t understand which way he skated. I struggled with a few lines, but got them. Front d on the qp, b/s flip on the bank. Front tail on the qp (took way, way too long and I almost took out Fuzz’s ankle on a bail) then kickflip to fakie. Back slash to fakie then fakie flip. I also got a halfcab flip on the bank. Dave would have six trick lines on the bank and qp. Some of my favorites were the blunt grab in, blunt to plant in (there must be a better name then this), back tail, back tail to fakie, fakie tail stall shove out. He didn’t quite get a f/s halfcab nosebash. My last trick was a kick back smith stall on the parking block. Hyped. Was going for axle stall, but I’ll take it! Super fun day minus Fuzz’s heart issues.

I’ve been away from home in the evening too much lately. After bringing stuff to Meta I only had about 20 minutes to skate and I randomly chose the area behind Ihop. It ended up being pretty fun even though my legs were so sore (not from skating, but from insole issues I think). I started with some really bad ollies, and then had some not as bad ollies. I still am not decided on the big setup, but I do like how it fits me for the basics. I ollied in/out of some curb cuts, over some curbs, did a couple flip tricks. Cursed at the Ace trucks. Tried to ollie a curb then up the loading dock, but that was too quick for me. Went home and the kids were busy with homework anyway. Doh.

I just started getting into this band and they have a lot of potential for me so I was hyped for this show. On top of that I won free tickets through the Larimer Lounge email list. Cool! Zach and Fuzz joined and we got there near the end of the Disco Doom set. Doh, they sounded like they might be pretty good. The next band was AAN. I have nothing good to say about them other then the singer had a decent voice. Creative Adult played relatively early on a very uncrowded Tuesday night. They killed it! Sonically they were amazing. The songs sounded perfect and they rattled off songs quickly. Visually there wasn’t a whole lot to look at for such a heavy band, but whatevs, they played great.

Lastly, Fuzz poured an entire beer on my shoe. Just because they are corporate scum shoes. What a jerk.