This made my day

On the way back from our family vacation in Allenspark we went through Nederland and stopped at the skatepark. Ollie and I cruised around for awhile before the stoney baloneys came and bummed out Ollie. He was cruising around pretty good then did the 50-manny-50 and I felt like dad cam’ing it. So there it is above, for your viewing pleasure. Ha, the thing I’m actually the most stoked on is the backside carve after. I’ve never really seen him pump a corner like that. I was feeling pretty out of it and tired for some reason. I guess a few hikes and the higher altitude was messing with me. Plus, that park kinda blows. I managed some lines with front slashes since I’m trying to listen to Grosso and learn frontside grinds. I had a few front 50s on the ledge there and was trying to put together a line, but king stoner sitting on the ledge was bumming me out. I did a few back 50s on the mellow 7′ part of the deep bowl of poorly poured concrete. So anyways, yeah, not the finest session.

After unpacking, a nap, dinner, chilling I went out to Street League park and met up with Fuller, Dave and Matt. I didn’t skate well. Well I guess I actually kinda started ok with some front 50s and crooks on the ledge, but then after that ollie’ing was super hard. The only other thing I did I was remotely hyped on was kickflip to fakie on the wedge kicker thing. John cruises that park pretty well. Did front shove fake on the wedge, front 50s on multiple ledges, ollied into the euro and was extra chatty. Ha. Dave put down some textbook front smiths on the one qp, got a ollie up to fakie back 50 on the wedge and I can’t think of much more, but he was skating well. Matt back 50’d the entire main ledge 2nd try then tried to say it was hard. He front 50’d the one on the other side later, had a lot of solid tricks throughout the park and back 50’d the big hubba. Gnar! We ended with a game of SKATE that didn’t go so well for me, but was fun and John ended up taking it with an impossible.

Today was the first day of vacation I’ve used all year at work. We were going to head up to the foothills and stay in a cabin after lunch so I felt like skating early in the morning. Ollie was down to join. We went to Broomfield thinking there wouldn’t be a big skate camp there. Wrong. So then we drove to Westy and basically had the park to ourselves until the last couple minutes. I had new shoes. Those Adidas did not lost long at all which is pretty lame considering you look like a jock in them. Speaking of lame, my new shoes. Emerica Provost’s. They are not good shoes. But it’s what I ended up with this time around. I didn’t skate very good, but did a few things that made it seem alright. Like 50’ing that hubba (it’s so low to get on), front 50 the taller cement ledge at the park and ollie the flat gap. I was gonna boardslide the tiny rail if I landed a threeflip first try, but still wussed out when I did. Doh. Ollie was skating well for him. The boardslide was probably the highest one he’s done. He pushed regs a little, manualled some funny things, had come nice halfcabs and seems natural flowing around the park. Fun kickoff to our family vacation.

Up early in the morning again. Roxborough is a TF favorite and we thought the Fremonsters would enjoy. Rob and Neil met up and we took off with Ollie too. The drive was a pretty one and the park was almost empty when we showed up. It’s been way too long since the session to remember what to write about. Eric mostly skated the bowl he’s dropping into. Dan came through with the surprise again and fakie tail stalled the stallion. Sick! Joe and Dan were boardsliding the rails easy. Matt was popping up onto the ledge too. Rob, Neil and I were just kinda cruising doing lines. We tried some ollies on a hump at one point. Ollie was carving around good and having fun, but his allergies went nuts and he had to go chill in the car. Doh. It was a fun session, that park is a fun warmup.

Then we drove back to Boulder, dropped off Ollie and picked up Lazer and went to the research center ledge. Matt went off. Long front tail, nollie front 5-0, and filmed a banger line. Joe did a textbook fakie front 50 bigspin out amongst like 100 other tricks. Lots of chilling went down. I was the opposite and got super mad at skatebaording, but once I was done acting like a baby it started to be fun. Just in time to go.

Then we went to Longmont for one of our favorite spots in the area. We ended up staying for quite some time and closed out the trip there. Several others joined us and people would be skating the bank while others were skating the ledge while others were skating flatground. I was so sore that I decided an Ibuprofen was in order. It helped a lot. I was almost going to sit, but ended up skating alright for me. Beat Joe and John in a game of SKATE, got front 5-0 shove on the ledge and had fun. Dan manualled all of the ledges. Joe did front lip to front 50 to front board. Take that Lakai! Matt almost did nollie heel noseslide, almost b/s double flip over a median, so much more. Lazer died on a crooks. John did a bunch of no comply boneless variations on the bank. Eric skated the bank too and filmed for awhile. Near the end we had a game of CHODE which is only dork tricks. Basically the funnest thing ever. Then the night was upon us and we bolted for a fun get together at Fuzz’s. The only bummer is it celebrated Neil’s going away. Which means he moved. Which means he wont be the first person to text me ever Saturday. Gonna miss him! Epic times with the Fremont crew, they are some of the greatest people to skate with. Can’t wait to skate with them again soon (I hope).

Woke up early and got here around 9am. We drove through a rain storm and the park was wet when we got there. Dan, Matt and I messed around with no complys on a dry patch of sidewalk for awhile to try and get warmed up. I had some dangerous bails and my body let me know it was not rested or happy I was skating again after six hours the night before. I didn’t do anything worth writing about. Joe was a board sliding machine. Dan and Neil were doing boardslide transfers on the flat bar. Matt was ripping everything. Eckert was carving the snake run. I had to leave after about an hour to head back to Boulder and see India graduate middle school. So crazy.

While I was gone Neil brought the fremonsters to the arvada foundation spot and it sounded like they loved it. I met up with them at Crisis and we went across the street to Safeway ledges. Not the best session of the trip. Dan slammed right away. Joe did like 100 tricks though. Matt tried an uphill line. Neil sat. Blake and Alec ollied stuff.

Then we deciding to drive while it was raining to Denver since we had an in to the new Bad Egg pool through Tim. It was a risk. First, it was raining and second I didn’t know if any of the Fremonsters would like it. It was a good sign when we started getting close and saw sunlight and somehow pulled into a dry pool. It ended up being an incredible session. I’ve never heard so many people say “this is the best session ever”, “this is the best skate day”, etc, etc. Everyone carved tile in the deep end. I don’t remember all that much as I’m writing this way too many days later. But I found photos of everyone on facebook and that helps make it easy. Eckert killed it. I think he got most of his patented tricks. Rock fakie, halfcab rock, front slash, fakie pivot, more.

I had a blast too. Got some back 50s in the shallow end pretty quickly then struggled with them later on. Got a couple non-decked front rocks, a front slash, some fun carves and was just stoked the crew was happy with the spot.

Tim rules! He didn’t even skate hard, but he slayed it. He was more on baby duty watching his new little guy. So rad. He was on the tile more then he was in the flats. It was amazing.

Matt got a line or two that I’m drawing a blank on right now. He ripped it.

Neil had a tough time with the grinds initially, got scared to drop in for awhile, then figured everything out and had some really good long runs. So gonna miss Neil.

Dan was the surprise here. I thought after looking at the pool he didn’t even want to skate. Doh. But little by little he kept improving and before long he was doing ollie to front smith and ollie to front d in the same line. He ollied into the deep end and was carving like he claims to have never before.

Carleigh slashed the deep end in her first run, had a lot of grinds and did a proper back 50 in the deep. So sick.

Ashley also ripped it. She is just a few months after having a baby and has a torn ACL, but was still charging it. At one point Dan said one of this funniest quotes of the night. He asked Carleigh if she had the same Null wheels as him, then he asked Ashley if she just had a baby, yeap. So then he said “Apparently I need to inspect my wheels and have a baby then maybe I can grind this.” So funny. Ashley worked on layback grinds for awhile and got a super good one in the end.

Joe made a lot of jokes about how there is not transition in Nebraska and the first time he carved tile in the deep end he stopped and said “I touched tile, I don’t even care anymore, I’m too stoked.” It was awesome. He got quite a few tricks and almost finished with a Joe Hamilton at closing time.

Man we had fun. So happy the Fremonsters loved the pool and can’t wait to go back there.

Wowsers here we go. Three days of skating with Matt, Joe, Eric and Dan from Fremont/York Nebraska. These guys are as skate rat as it comes and the expectations were that they would skate well into the night. It started around 4pm at the Lafayette park which was the meeting place. I arrived first, Fremonsters next, Fuzz, Carleigh, Neil and more would follow. I don’t even know where to begin on trying to document all the skating. Everyone kinda did their thing for awhile. Matt and Joe were hitting the rails and hubbas pretty quick which amazed me after a 7 hour drive. I hubba session went down. Joe was doing front 50 so easy. Fuzz got it too. I could not commit. Doh. I was quite a bit bummed. Fuzz and Joe went on to do double front slips (Joe down, Fuzz bump to ledge). So sick! Carleigh, Fuzz and Neil carved over the China bank bench. Fuzz went frontside too. So gnarly. I struggled with fakie flips on the bank to get me motivated to carve over it, but I never got it. Dan got a sick front board 270 shove out, and I boardslide the bump to ledge. Matt was doing all kinds of tricks. Then we all seemed to hit the toilet bowl for awhile. Or at least most of us. Fuzz had super good ollies to front d on the rock (photo above). Eric, Fuzz and I rolled in over the parking blocks which was really fun. I got a front smith in the corner and front d on the parking blocks like Fuzz. Dan had the sickest fakie rock to 360 back to rock. Then a large game of SKATE/flatground session started with Carleigh’s girl friends and everyone. Joe landed his first ever heelflip. We played a game of SKATE and Dan did casper flip and I somehow landed it. I was super hyped on that. Also got a 3 flip and the win. The lights went off kinda soon.

So then we went to Street League park. Keep in mind I had already skated almost 5 hours. Yikes. Street League park was empty. Insane. Josh Steele me up with this there. Him and Richard could skate the park to it’s potential. Richard had nice back 5-0 and nosegrinds (photo above) without using the kickers. Joe had mad ledge tricks and boardslide the up/down of the little wide rail. Matt had long feebles on the flat bar, nollie crooks, nollie noseslide, a ton of stuff. I’m not remembering exactly what Dan did, but I’m thinking there was a front 5-0 to front board and maybe a front nosegrind to front board too. Neil was slaying it. Front nosegrind the ledge, boardslide down the little rail, lipslides on the ledges, ollie one foots, ripping. Eric and I messed around on the big kickers. We didn’t didn’t get many points, but we had fun. I got a sloppy kickflip to fakie front the high kicker to the low kicker. Eric was doing manuals up to side rocks and maybe even manual down. Josh came out slaying with lots of basics down the medium sized rail and some really gnarly slams. I got really frustrated on a kickflip from the upper bank to the lower bank. Finally got a couple. Got the bump to front 50 on the benches. Pretty fun. I should probably skate there more as the ledges are so good. I saw Matt front 50 like 30 feet to front tail. So sick. Josh did some amazing flatground to end the night. What a fun first day of their visit. I didn’t skate very well, but it was fun and just being around those guys is a hoot.

Played soccer with the kids for awhile, ate, helped with homework a little then went to Denver to bring boards to Emage. Didn’t really plan anything because I didn’t know that I would actually go. I considered Denver park for a brief second then realized I would be much happier skating downtown. So I parked on 15th near the granite wedge spot, did some warming up curb ollies, pushed. Ended up at a spot I skated with Fuzz and Carleigh a long time ago. I was carving a curb cut corner and ollieing onto a little ledge in hopes of ollieing off a big part of it, but people kept walking by with their dogs and they would freak out barking. It was so annoying. So I moved on. Ended at the cheese wedge spot and was in the process of getting warmed up and got the boot of course. I had ollied onto a wedge and off already and normally that takes me several tries. I looked at a perfect ledge over rail spot that would be a gnarly ollie for me. I should have at least tried it, but I didn’t. I ended up at the slappy ledge against the wall spot on the corner that I’ve wanted to skate for awhile The slappy part was easier then I remember and oh so fun. I tried to line it out with the 3 stair which I kind of did, but I started noticing people in the buildings still working at 9pm and they were clearly annoyed by the noise I was making. Argh, I really wanted to line out something fun. Oh well.

I moved on to this spot (both photos) which has two sets of small stairs which I love. Last summer I had tried a line there, but got the boot. I tried the same line. Ollie up the curb, back 180 off the two stair (top photo), fakie bigflip on flat, front shove the 1.1 stair (bottom photo). It was hard getting used to so many people being outside and skating around them. It feels like it was just winter a week ago and no one would be outside. Anyways, I tried the line for a long time. I got the fakie bigflip quite a few tries early on and bailed the front shove for various dumb reasons. Then I couldn’t land the fakie bigflip for awhile, but eventually I did and got a great feeling front shove. It felt really awesome to get that line. I was also hyped on all the back 180s because I normally struggle with that trick. I think the bigger setup helps for the basics. And three days on the Indys and no complaints yet. Crazy. I headed home after that.

Got stuck working all day missing out on a miniramp/ditch session with friends. So around 7 when I got done working I asked Ollie if he wanted to skate campus with me and he said yes. Awesome. We started out in the area above, I’m not sure what building that is. Ollie and I dropped in on this little thing. Then we ollied the longer two stair in the middle of that photo and messed around. I started trying a line of kickflip off a curb, ollie up the long two, curve down the handicap ramp then front 50 the 2nd stair of the curved set on the left. Took me a few tries and Ollie was losing his patience and swinging a branch at me saying “The swamp man is after you!” It made me laugh and I got the line with a really bad front 50, but whatever, I’m still getting used to new trucks (I think I finally found the winning combo for the bigger setup though!!!) and how they turn. Then we ollied a 3 stair and came upon this four stair which Ollie did this coffinish grass ride and I just ollied it.

Then we came up on this rock ledge which I have never seen before. It doesn’t grind too well and it took me a few tries to get a couple. Long enough for Ollie to get bored and download a new game onto my phone (Don’t Tap The White Tile), set a high record and shoot a photo of my butt sticking out on a front 50. So with kids these days that tells you it was only about 5-10 tries.

Then we ended up at these long sets of stairs. Ollie beat me to doing all of them and it made me happy. The last couple were a little scary since you barely land before the next set. We each did it a bunch of times and decided to film each other. I tried to ollie the 5 stair after it and failed as it was a little long for me and has a big crack before it. Ok, so the crack just looks big, but doesn’t effect anything. Doesn’t mean I don’t use it as an excuse to try the stairs. Then we did the hill down from the basketball stadium a couple times. Ollie didn’t even foot drag the second time. I had fun ollieing some cracks going relatively fast for me. That was pretty much it. Hyped that Ollie was down to skate and was so fun to roll with. I had eaten gluten the night before and was pretty stiff. That’s the third time I’ve tried to eat/drink something with gluten and every time it’s resulted in pain. Lesson learned. I just really, really, really want to have a good beer in the summer. Oh well. Argh.

Went to Crisis early to do big bidness before Fuzz opened. While I was at it I setup some Independent trucks. It’s funny how I avoided Indy forever and realized I had never put better bushings in them so maybe they are an option after all. And since the Royals were done due to too much wheelbite, Ace were done because the kingpin was loose and the hangers were bent (POS trucks) I was down to try Indy. With the white medium Venom bushings.

We went to the bank spot out on on 120th. I had a lot more energy then last time, but was struggling a bit due to the obvious reason of having an almost entirely new setup. Rob and Neil each had good lines after a short warm up. I don’t remember them exactly but Rob’s was something like kickflip out of the curb kicker, bean plant on the bank, kickflip on the bank, boneless. All done well. Neil also had a long one with Neil comply boneless, backside ollie, frontside ollie, basics done well. Neil and Rob also had b/s 180s out of the curb kicker, Rob had a kickflip on the bank. I struggled with kickflips out of the curb kicker, but eventually got one in a line with a kickflip on the bank after.

Then we went to a ledge we’ve never skated across the street. We should call it the struggle ledge because we all struggled. It wasn’t that tall, but it was just weird. Rob got a few crooks, Neil got into a few crooks, I slammed on a front board, got into front 50. Then a cop came to boot us and we thanked him for putting us out of our misery. He laughed.

We drove around for awhile and ended up at some abandoned government building. We found a smooth section and a curb that slid well for boardlides and hit it for awhile. Rob had a bigspin front noseslide, lap over lipslides, Neil had lipslides. I had a few “switch” boardslides and then almost got a line of kickflip over a hose, 3 flip on flat then kick back tail the curb. I broke my board on a heelflip on the way back though. DOH.

So we went to Crisis so I could setup a new board. I went with 8.5 this time mainly because there was one of the new Neandernulls with a yellow bottom sheet. Freakin’ gorgeous! We went across the street to the Safeway ledges. Neil was sore and didn’t really skate. Rob and I skated pretty hard for awhile. He got a lot of his tricks. Cab front nose, nollie front 50 first try, front 5-0, lots of good back 50s, back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, back 50 back 180 (I think). I got a few back 50s and then one locked in kick back 50, but couldn’t get another kick back 50 (was gonna try shove out), a hilarious “front smith” where I didn’t grind and somehow fell out of it and rolled away, tried front tail shove, tried crooks on the fence ledge but kept doing noseslides. My flatground game was ok, got a treflip and started hucking Rick flips for some random reason. Even landed on one that could maybe count on defense in an over 50 game of SKATE. Rob and I ended with a really fun game of SKATE that went T-T before I won it on a fakie bigflip. Other tricks that went down were 43 shifty, no comply shove, no comply 360, no comply, front shove, b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip (Rob went double or nothing on it and unfortunately came up short). It was a perfect ender for a really fun day.

Woke up around 5:30 am for some ridiculous reason. I slacked for awhile then decided I should go skate. I thought I’d be pretty sore, but ended up feeling pretty good. I had put my Ace trucks back on and some new Null wheels. I of course had the park to myself. Warming up was not as hard as it should be. Maybe it’s because it felt like I hadn’t really stopped skating from the night before. I tried that dumb flyout into the downhill that every 10 year old kid with pads can do, but still failed. Man that’s embarrassing. It’s fun cruising that park when no one else is there. I did more tricks then I thought I would, but nothing really noteworthy. I got a line of rock fakie the little white tooth qp (yes I consider that a trick because yes I am not good at skateboarding), fakie flip on the bank, then carved onto the bench. Ended with a line that I tried for a bit that I could normally never do with people flying around the park. Front shove on flat near the top of the fish pond (I had tried treflip and failed), kickflip to fakie on the narrowish bank to the right of the ledges, fakie flip on the mellow bank next to the round rail, then tried to noseslide the hubba. I got to the hubba twice and on the second attempt I got tossed to the flat. It didn’t hurt. Well, I mean I guess it did, but the people walking the dog nearby reacted like I had been shot or something. It was one of those slams where you just kind of laugh in the air and wait for it to be over. I guess to the average person walking their dog it must look incredibly dangerous.