I pulled Ledgy out from the backyard, brushed off the snow and headed to my favorite parking garage. Upon arriving it was wetter then normal and there was a car parked in front of the best slappy curb. Doh. I warmed up with some kickflips that felt great, some boardslides on Ledgy, slappy trails on the curb and manuals. Started to get in the groove a bit with front 50s/ almost back 50s when Fuzz showed up. We skated the ledge mostly for awhile. Fuzz had some back and forth lines like front 50 / back 50, front 5-0 / back 5-0. He also had front 50 front 180 out and noseslides. I didn’t land much of anything. I’m not sure what was going on. I landed a few noseslide/crook/jibs, halfcab noseslide, front 50s, front nose (no slide) to fakie, switch back nose (no slide). Got into a few kick back tails on the curb. Went for a line of front 50 on the ledge then treflip and SNAP broke the tail. Argh. Luckily I had a spare old board in my trunk and Fuzz and I teamed up pitstop style to change out my board. We skated the ledge a bit longer before the real fun on a parking block ensued. We did mostly transfers. New ones for both of us. Fuzz did nosestall popped over back 180, fakie tail stall to f/s halfcab transfer and his “first” no comply over a parking block (not sure I believe that 38 year old!) and a few more before coming dangerously close to rolling his ankle. I struggled with wallie back 180 for awhile and eventually technically landed one. Got a first ever slappy crook stall back 180 transfer, no complies, kickflip, wallie front 180. We had fun and it was cool skating/chatting with Fuzz as it’s been awhile.

What happened to that new Suciu deck you ask? Well now that’s quite embarrassing. Monday morning I was getting ready for work and could not find my work badge and could not find it anywhere. Somehow this pisses me off more then almost anything and I was looking under my dresser when my board (which leans against the side of the dresser) fell on my shoeless foot. Ouch. My reaction was a quick kick to the middle of the board. Snap. That did not help my temper fit. In all honesty though I cannot believe that board broke. I didn’t even have a shoe on and didn’t put much into it. So much for that hemp layer making it strong. Oh well, back to Null! I had also worn a hole threw my previous Stratfords so it was time for some new ones. These were 10.5 instead of 11 as the 11s seem slightly big. I set up an 8″ instead of 8.1 this time. Well, actually my debate this time was to setup a 7.875 because Generator shipped 7.875s instead of 7.75s and I used to love 7.875 (I just managed to say 7.875 three times in one sentence!). Luckily I held off for now and stuck with 8″.

I have become such a recluse. Rather then invite others over to skate I just wanted to go out solo and try a lot of flatground tricks too. I had a couple good warm up runs and great first few kickflips. The 8″ board actually felt quite a bit smaller and I was happy about that. I tried a few crooks and boardslides on the ramp before laying into the flatground for awhile. I got to heelflip and did another accidental 3/4 flip to primo. Only this time I didn’t bail off, but landed it perfect. Ha, that made me laugh quite a bit. I was 4/5 on treflips. Struggled with b/s flips, f/s flips. Felt close to nollie flips, nowhere near switch heels, nowhere near inward heels, front heels. I definitely would have rather been skating outside somewhere with room. Last thing I did was try an alley oop fakie back 50 to fakie which I would eventually get and call it a night. That might be a new one.

Another warm day, but much windier. I was feeling burnt from skating so hard lately, but Dave and Neil were wanting to skate so I tried. Ollie was in too. We first started at the spot above. Ollie did that line immediately. I could hardly push my board I was so sore/tired. He killed it with a few more 180’s, manuals, fakie shoves too. Dave and Neil killed the ledge. Neil had some crazy good lines. Nose manual a sidewalk, ollie up the curb, front tail the ledge, ollie a tall metal thing, ollie up the curb, almost crooks shove. He also did front 50s. Dave had super long backside slappies. Some with a nollie front 180 out. I didn’t see it, but he said he did a kickflip at one point. Yes! Also saw lots of 180s off curbs, slappy noseslide, front 50s, front 5-0, front hurricane. I was sucking. Couldn’t front 50, crooks or back 50. Struggled ollie’ing up curbs, etc. I posed a bunch of switch b/s flips that kind of hyped me up though, that’s a dream trick. It might be realistic.

Then we checked out this bank spot Dave had seen nearby. I got that dorky boardslide above and the a mutant boneless to tail. It was fun dorking though. That thing is way hard to skate and has a huge crack at the bottom of the main bank so you have to go in from the sides all weird. Ollie had fun there too with some carves and goofy stuff. Neil couldn’t ride up the side so did ollie onto the bank, ollie on the bank, ollie off the bank. Ha. Dave tried some bluntslides and wallie to grassrides and some other stuff then we called it a day. I should probably take a day off from skating and let my body rest up a little.

An absolutely gorgeous day in the 60s. Neil and Blake were on their way to Boulder and I started warming up with some flatground in front of the house. After 8 days in a row already and a lot of drops at Fossil the day before I finally felt a bit stiff/sore. I seemed to warm up ok though. Flatground tricks felt alright. I got a few of the basics before they showed. We went to the bank to ledge/curb spot by Neil’s old apartment first. Ollie joined us. That spot is hard. I managed slappy nose slides most ways on the curb, boardslide the curb, noseslide the ledge, almost die trying a hurricane on the curb. Ollie wasn’t liking that spot much and spent most of his time throwing rocks around. Blake had a nice 50 transfer from the top, almost boardslide from high to low, front lip. Neil front lipped the stair and got front tail on the curb.

Then we went to Casey as we had seen the ledges were skateable again in the Channel8 video. When we rolled up Neil and I both noted how tall they were. Ha. It looked grim at first, but we all did our thing. Ollie did some ollies and 180’s off the ledges landing some in grass rides, shot rubber bands at me, played tetherball and continued his streak of being awesome. Blake tried to ollie from one ledge down to the next one, but never committed. He had a steezy kickflip into a grass ride and some 180 nosegrinds (like above, except not just a pose for the camera). Neil was trying for a long line starting with a nosebonk over a rock, flatground kickflip, front board one ledge then front 50 the next. The kickflip got the best of him. The easiest part! Ha. I had some good runs for me. Crooks the ledge in the photo (tiny jib crooks), noseslide the second ledge, heelflip on flat, ollie the corner of a rock. Going the other way I got 360 flip, front board the end of the ledge, front 50 the ledge in the photo. I was really hyped on that one. Another run I got a crooks jib, noseslide to fakie, halfcab flip on flat, worst ollie ever over the corner of a rock. I tried front 50 shoves for awhile, but slammed and put my fingers in the grate on the top and ripped open my pinky. Doh. It wasn’t bad, but I did need to get it cleaned out.

After some more spot searching we ended up here and it was really windy. I felt like leaving, but Ollie started flying around the park and Blake and I got hyped (Neil sat in the car). Some tricks were done, but we ended with a flyout session that was a freakin’ blast. The first early grab I committed to resulted in the funnest feeling I’ve had in awhile. I stuck in the grass immediately and did a half flip slide thing down the hill that had me laughing so hard. It was such a pure fun feeling. I get a few early grabs/ollies without slams that were also fun. Ollie was killing the cannonball grabs, also straight ollied it and almost front 180’d into the grass too. He also did a few kickflips while holding on to those bike racks. Real ones soon? Blake tried kickflip into the grass forever and had a ton of hilarious falls. Epic end of a great day.

And one of my favorite skaters of all time.

Had the day off work and had a nice morning with Liz. Was feeling kinda lazy and needed to get to MRKT so left around 2pm on a super nice day where the snow was melting fast. The hour long drive did me good and listening to loud music had me feeling more energetic. I drove by Spring Canyon and it was completely wet. Then drove by Fossil Creek and there were a few dry things and people skating. I started to warm up with some slappy nose/tail tricks on the manual pad when Alfred showed up. He was there last time I skated there. He said we should play a game of warm up SKATE. Now keep in mind that last time we skated he beat Jack. Well, turns out I would win ending on a fakie bigflip. Lets think about this. Alfred beat Jack. I beat Alfred. This makes me better then Jack! Ha. Everyone else but Alfred had left so we just skated the bottom manual pad area for awhile then started trying lines with tricks off the loading dock size drop. I got a back 50 on the manny pad, kickflip up the ledge and front 180 down the drop. I was hyped. Alfred got ollie up the manny pad, perfect nollie flip off, ollie up the ledge, nollie back big off. So good. He also manualled the ledge and dropped down to the narrow ledge with a back 180 off. I had a few 360 flips on flat, front 50 back 180, crooks, bad kick back 50s, kickflip and front shove off the ledge. Then we moved up to the top area and another dude named John joined us who was 37 and used to skated with the Boulder Brothers Boards crew. So rad. He did a bunch of manual tricks. Nose manny, switch nose manny, halfcab manny shove out, switch front 180 manual. Alfred was doing a bunch of switch front boards on narrow ledge next to the curb, ollie’ing snow gaps, manuals that went around and down things. I did a few boardslides, fell kickflipping up a curb, almost b/s flipped off, ollied a little snow gap and at the end front 50’d the ledge off the curb and ollied the narrow ledge. Such a fun session.

This is one of those really good parts. Editing, filming, music and most importantly the skating. And you can actually own on DVD (at Crisis soon or at Sequelskatevideo.com). On top of that I’m trading DVDs with the guy that made it. Goodness all around.

Went out to Rampy lacking a little motivation having skated 6 days in a row already. Things were actually feeling pretty good. I did a couple front disasters that felt good and some kickflips. Went up for an axle stall, ate shit and called it a night. Guess I need a break.

A chilly night so I went out to Rampy for a short solo session. I ended up mostly just trying some fakie tricks I hadn’t done in awhile. I started cab rock ‘n roll. Easy. Then fakie rock to back smith. That took awhile. Fakie hurricane, that took awhile too. Lastly was a trick that I can’t remember if I’ve done before. I don’t think so. But a fakie front axle stall then whip the board around to back axle stall. Scary trick. Jason influenced. Fun.

Went to Lafayette park with Ollie after he finished his homework. It had been a warm day, but it felt cool out and the temperature was dropping quick. We showed up at the park and to our surprise Mike from Fort Collins and Sessions were there and only a couple other people. One of which was Mike’s friend Ryan and he was fun to skate with too. My trucks felt tight on my new complete, but I didn’t feel like loosening them. Partly because I was lazy, partly because I wanted to see if tighter trucks help with flippers. I started really slow, not really doing anything, just cruising. Ollie rolled down the flagstone steps into the parking lot below (near the tiny bowl) so Mike, Sessions and I tried it too. Ollie could do it every try, but it took us old guys quite a few tries. Except Sessions, he put it down pretty quick. I was surprised at how small the 8.1 Habitat felt compared to an 8.1 Null. It still skated good. Ollie rolled into the channel and did a pretty fast carve grind in the tiny bowl. So rad. Mike was ripping the park. All terrain killing and some hard slams. He had a couple crazy lines. Ollie the 3 stair, frontside carve the china bank onto the bench, then carve to fakie off. So sick. Cali grinds up/down next to the tube rail. This is probably one of the few times that Ollie annoyed me at the park. He kept standing close and shooting his board into me (on accident) and was wanting to go home soon. Oh well. I had one ok line of kickflip into the mellow bank and then noseslide the ledge. Man tighter trucks are crazy when you land tricks you don’t lose as much speed. Anyways we ended the night up at the tiny tranny to curb. Mike was killing long boardslides to fakie. Ryan was slamming trying front 50s. Ollie tried a couple front boards. I took a long time to do a pivot on the round tranny to mini ledge and then got a few slappy crooks on the tranny to curb that felt really fun.

After the lights shut off at Lafayette I wanted to skate more, but I had to get Ollie home. Mike and Ryan were going to Street League. I thought of a school by Jack’s that had some newly deknobbed ledges and asked Jack if they were lit. He said not well, but enough. I pulled up and it looked so amazingly lit. I laughed, shut off the car and went to open my door and then all the lights shut off. Shit! Ha. Now I saw what he was talking about as it was barely lit. So I moved on and drove by the Ideal Market area and saw all these little curbs and got hyped to slappy a bunch in a row. And it was even funner then I thought it would be. 50s both ways, crooks, crooks to fakie. The one in the bottom photo was super fun because I could try front feebles and get up on it and not run into the next curb. I ended up getting a couple slappy front feebles that felt amazing. Then I tried a marathon line starting from the top photo. Pop shove on the tiny bump then quick back 180 off the curb, fakie flip, switch front 180 up the curb, kickflip off, slappy crooks. Man that felt amazing. My heart was beating like crazy. I guess I don’t normally do that many tricks in a row and I just sat down for a bit and reveled in my happiness.

Then I went behind the building to skate this ledge which I haven’t skated in 5 years! It didn’t go so well. I loosened up on it with some really slow (and when I say ‘really slow’ you know it’s like barely moving) noseslides. Got noseslide, noseslide to fakie, front nose fakie and front nose. Tried front, but could not commit. Got a few crooks. Then I went out front and skated flatground for awhile. Had to do 10 flippers before I could be done. At least it went better this time. Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, gave up on b/s flips they weren’t working, heelflip, fakie heelflip, fakie varial flip, tried switch varial flip for a long time but failed, f/s halfcab flip, tried nollie tres and failed, and ended with treflip. This will go down as one of those ‘favorites’ for me. I am also super happy with my shoe/insole situation and not getting anywhere near as sore as I did in vulcs/sole tech fake vulcs. I actually went to skate more, but the things I looked at were too dark so I just went home stoked.