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Lazer has been hitting me up for awhile wanting to skate Rampy. I had another long day working from home and dealing with furnace crap, but we made it happen around 7 for an hour or so. I had fun. More fun then I thought I would even though we had a really mellow session. Neither of us got new tricks, but we did quite a few out of our bags. Well, I posed a lot of tricks anyway. Makes me want to keep Rampy.

Had a really long and exhausting day dealing with furnace stuff while working from home. Then a long battle of nerf guns with Ollie and hanging with Jason for awhile I went out to Rampy totally tired and not all that motivated. Kickflips felt good. Then kind of hucked for awhile. Mainly fakie varial heels and switch varial flips. Didn’t get either. Went to sleep.

Went out to Rampy late after helping the kids with homework and insane amounts of fun playing Nerf guns with Ollie. I had no desire to actually skate the ramp.  Instead of just skated on the flat. And it ended up being really fun. I started with kickflips and went from there. I didn’t get too crazy. I decided to try back side and front side bigspins and got sloppy versions of both.  Got a 3 flip, failed nollie casual flip. Tried double varial flips and the board landed on my foot hard so I called it a night. Can’t wait for Rampy to be gone so I have more room. 

After a snowy, cold and lazy morning Neil tried to convince me that it wasn’t snowing in Broomfield. Seeing as how there was already a couple inches of new snow in Boulder I didn’t really believe him, but figured I’d try anyway. Neil was right! We went by the park and saw it was dry, but decided to use it as a backup if we couldn’t find something better. Low and behold we found this spot, a spot I used to skate with Jason a lot. The temperature was 19 or 20. Cold. I had long johns on under my jeans. I mostly started warming up on the bank to stairs. Front pivot, front tail, couldn’t stall backside for some reason so just kickflipped in instead (way easier). Neil was popping one foots, no comply to tail. We both took several tries to ollie the two stair into the bank. It’s scary for some reason. Maybe the rough ground and the big metal contraption sticking out. I don’t know, but we dedicated a try to Jason and that got us to both commit. We also raced to kickflip up the two stair. It tooks us forever, but I eventually got a rocket flip to somehow make it up the two stair.

Then we started filming each other with our phones. Neil got another line that was super rad with a pop shove in, boneless, no comply to tail and kickflip to fakie. Whew. He was also messing around with long nose manuals, but kept running into ice/cracks/rocks/etc.

I had fun with the one above. Also got another line with a front 180 off the corner of the two stair and a fakie varial flip as well as 360 flip to fakie.

Then we went to the park and it seemed like it got way colder. My bushing started to freeze up something fierce. We mostly just cruised and then Neil got in the car. I did a few basic tricks on the black ledge and called it a day. Stoked we filmed a little even if it was with phones.

It’s funny how warm 45 degrees feels this winter. Ok, maybe funny isn’t the right word, but it was Saturday, 45 and sunny so we had to get out. Jake, Neil, Blake and I met at Southern Hills. I got there first with a shovel and broom. I was skeptical at first, but started shoveling around the ledges and it seemed like it might be good. Neil and Blake warmed up with a game of SKATE. Blake and I had some lines going. Kickflip into the tiny bank with no speed, trick on the bench (he did noseslide, I did front jib), ollie up the two stair, turn around and ollie down the two over a pile of snow. So fun! I got a crooks on the bench and was starting to feel good when a security guard came and ruined everything. Argh.

Lots of driving and looking later we found this and it ended up being quite fun. I took the panorama at the end while driving so it screwed up, but whatever.

We messed around at another bank at this spot, but a puddle could not be tamed under it so we gave up. We started pretty basic, but some fun lines came of it. Trick into the far left bank, ollie onto or manual the sidewalk, push up the bank then ollie off the loading dock. We all did it with kickflips to start. Blake added a front 180 off the dock since he’s goofy. As you can see the landing of the loading dock wasn’t exactly ideal, lots of water. I tried a line for quite a while. Varial flip into the bank, ollie onto the sidewalk (although in the one I got I actually manualled it), then back 180 off the dock. The back 180 could maybe only qualify as an over 40 Baker Maker. I was hyped on that though.

We lurked around for awhile and found this nearby. Neil skated the manny pad and nose mannied it. Blake and I dropped in on this narrow brick retainer. He landed it first. I was scared at first. Then did one and kickflipped off the curb. Blake front 180’d off the curb. Pretty fun. At the end I took too many tries to manual the manny pad.

After several days with very cold temperatures it’s crazy how warm 29 degrees feels. It felt so warm I wanted to skate outside! Since it was still business hours and there was snow everywhere I went to this abandoned business knowing something would be dry. I was kinda bummed to not have the curb up/down as an option, but I made due. I was still pretty sore/arthritic so for awhile I just pushed and did chinese nollies off the metal grates. It felt good to have the sun in my eyes. Eventually kickflips started coming and then more. Did a line of pop shove, kickflip, varial flip that took me awhile, but got me warmed up. Tried to f/s halfcab over a metal grate and it took me forever. They stick up a little and it totally weirded me out. I did eventually get it and then kickflipped the next one which is longer because you have to pop a couple feet early because of a crack. The concrete is super rough at this spot. I could not land a treflip to save my life. One excuse I’ll make is that my Venom bushings blew out on day one of the new PJ trucks and keep getting worse. It seems to make a little unexpected twist right before I wind up and pop for that trick. Pretty lame excuse right? Well I’m gonna get some new bushings soon hopefully. I tried a bunch of tricks unsuccessfully. Varial heel, front heel, switch flip, nollie varial flip. Tried a line of kickflip or front shove over the grate (front shove took way too long), front 180 the next one then switch varial flip. Never got the sw varial flip. started trying halfcab flip over a grate and got one that felt so good. Once again I skated like crap and probably skate too much for my body, but I liked being outside in the sun.

On another very cold day I went to Sol right after work. I was wanting my typical after work nap and feeling very arthritic, but oh well. Bernie was there and after a few games of foosball with Allan, Bernie and I skated some flat. I was feeling so bad. Like I would never be able to do a kickflip. At first I kinda just did some slide around 180s. We started up with a game of SKATE though and it ended up getting better. I managed to win it on a nollie varial flip that Bernie probably shouldn’t have counted. Longmont Chad and another dude had joined us. They were ripping. After SKATE we messed around with some more flatground. I could not get varial heel, front heel or fakie tre. I tried a lot of fakie tres. Argh.

Then Dave showed and we skated the ramp. Man I sucked. Arthritis makes me feel so disoriented so skating that ramp when I feel so rotten is guaranteed suck. I landed nothing I was proud of and everytime I went to get back up on the deck my legs hurt. Bernie had fun. Lots of back 50s, front pivots, front tails and more. Dave skated good for him which says a lot. Long back 5-0s, boardslide fakies. His bag is full of tricks. Loved the b/s ollie truck bash, fakie pop rocks, so much more. It makes me want to get better at ramps. Chad skates the ramp like he skates flat. It’s so gnarly. He pops, hovers and commits. I’m jealous.

Went out to Rampy on a very cold night (-10 degrees) after helping the kids with their homework. It’s funny, not only did I daydream of skateboarding when I had homework years ago, but now I do the same when I’m helping my kids with it. So funny! I started out with some mediocre runs on Rampy to get the legs flowing. My arthritis was acting up a little, but I was determined to not let it bother me. I started wanting to do some Rampy tricks and then kind of started skating more flatground and then kind of just lost interest in the ramp altogether. I had gotten a fakie front pivot to fakie (about as unproper as it gets), a back smith and almost a fakie front feeble. Flatground went off. I started going through almost all of my tricks. Kickflip, pop shoves, fakie flip, varial flip, heelflip, fakie varial flip, halfcab flips, bs and fs flips, treflip and started digging into rarer tricks. Couldn’t get close on hardflip or switch flip. Started trying varial heel and much to my surprise and stoke I got one! I looked back through my skate journal and couldn’t even find when I landed one. So that means it’s been over 5 years since I’ve landed one. Hyped! Also added nollie varial flip, fakie bigflip (so hard in such little space), f/s haflcab heelflip and then several tries later got a switch varial flip! So hyped. It’s been a long time on that one too as I couldn’t find any makes in my journal. Whoa, two tricks in one night that I haven’t landed in over 5 years. Keep in mind though I’m basically skating in a 4′ x 8′ space so I’m going super slow. I don’t really care though, I was having a blast. Since I had done f/s halfcab heel and varial heel I felt like it might be my lucky night to get my first front 180 heel. It was so hard to setup for that trick in such little space, but I kept getting close, kept trying, almost gave up, started getting close again and then landed one. Whew! What a cool feeling trick! I should probably land one in the streets for it to officially count for my new years goal of 12 new flip tricks, but for now, I don’t care and I’m calling it. 2/12! Front heel! I might be the only 40 year old that would rather skate the flat of a ramp. Ha.

Wes Kremer is so good. I must say I have a lot of respect for Sk8Mafia. Even though it’s not my style they have stuck to their guns for years and they keep pumping out footage and progressing. Kudus.