I met Neil after a long day of work at a very crowded Broomfield park. Everyone in the video was there and ripping. I landed my first kickflip of the day which hasn’t been happening much lately. I skated ok overall. Neil kinda hurt his knee and sat down most of the session. Ro was there and back noseblunted the double set rail. Geez. Made me feel great as I was struggling to back 50 the black box at slow speed. I didn’t land anything new, but felt ok on my board and was glad to get out for a bit.

Wanted to skate downtown Boulder. Parked and opened my car door and the wind was so intense I just shut my door, cursed and drove to my favorite wind protected garage. Things started really slow. Borderline board focus slow. I bailed like 3 kickflips in a row. That just doesn’t happen. So I decided to try it over a parking curb to start a line and they started working. Shortly after came a weird sequence of events that hyped me up big time. Skating with John the other night reminded me that I could do fakie back tails on low curbs years ago. So I tried one on the sidewalk curb, got in, slid a whoppin’ inch or two and randomly decided to shove out. Landed it. I had never done that before. Followed it with a fakie flip and then a switch slappy crooks to forward which I had also never done before. Two new tricks in one line. Not sure that has ever happened before for me. I went on to have a pretty great session with the exception of struggling at treflips. Part of the flip trick problem I think is for the first time in like 5 years I didn’t buy shoes that were small for my feet. I had been doing the snug fit for flippers, but it hurts when you run out of tricks. Anyways, I told myself to get used to it and all seemed good. Over the parking block I got kickflip, no comply, front shove, halfcab, fakie ollie (sideways approach), fakie bigspin (took awhile) and b/s flip. I also did a lot of slappy tricks. Back 50, back feeble, back crooks, back crooks fakie, front 50, my best slappy front feeble ever, switch crooks to fakie (these are really new obviously so I was going slow and barely grinded) and a bunch of front crooks. I have no idea how, but I just committed to it with some speed finally and did a few that grinded pretty far. So freakin’ fun! I also got a front lip on the block that felt good. My flatground game wasn’t all that, but I did land a few heelflips again finally, a couple treflips, fakie flips, fakie varial flip, fakie bigflip, halfcab flips, varial flips. Tried a few ones I’ve only rarely done like fakie varial heel, nollie bigflip, switch varial flip. Got really close to the nollie bigflip, not the others. On the little sidewalk curb I tried a bunch of fakie tails with bigspin out. Why not? I’m going slow enough to try. Ha. Also got the best kick back tail I’ve done in awhile with a tiny slide. Came close to kickflip front 50. Lastly on the curved manny pad by the entrance I tried a bunch of manuals to no comply 180 out and felt kinda close, but never put it down. Best part of the new insoles/shoes is how little soreness I felt when I was done. Yea.

Woke up early feeling well rested and since I have the late shift at work (start at 9:15) this week I started thinking about skating before work at Boulder park and couldn’t come up with an excuse not to. So there I was a little after 8am before the flurries hit carving around the park kinda hyped. I haven’t skated there in probably a year and it didn’t take long before I figured out why. I mean I still had fun and all, I just don’t know if I’ll want to go back soon. I didn’t intend to skate the ledges or do flippers on the bank. Just carve around and do some tranny tricks. Had a couple fun runs with small ollies over various hips. There was snow in the middle of the mini part so I couldn’t really skate that. I’ve never done anything on the coping of the deep end before and tried a couple axle stalls. One I bailed when I shouldn’t have, another I had a pretty interesting feeling bail/slam/run out. Didn’t keep trying though for whatever reason. Then I left for work right when the snow started falling.

It was supposed to be 60 mph wind gusts. Somhow Boulder was avoiding it and John and I took advantage. I was pretty tired and uncoordinated. I almost rolled my ankle a couple times and was like 5-20 on kickflips for the night. Horrible! We mostly skated the non-red waxed curb. We started mostly with slappy slide tricks before getting gnar with tricks like front 50s. Ha, I actually got several back 50s which felt great as that trick normally escapes me now. John almost got a front shove back 50, back big front nose. Flip tricks were hard for both of us. I didn’t really land any flippers I was hyped on, varial flips were working though. I got a kick back 50, bailed a bunch of kick back tails, never landed a front lip. Somehow nose manuals were being super elusive and it took a combined 50 tries before I finally landed one. John slammed and kind of hurt his bruised rib so sat down for a bit. I tried treflips and nose manual shoves out. Got close to both, but then the wind kicked in and we bolted.

After an impromptu run to 303 on a cold and windy night I stopped at the Broomfield park on the way home. At first no one was there, but within a minute Meta’s Dakoda and Rob showed up. I was just doing laps on the quartapotty and blue ledge. Trying to stay warm. I changed up the insole game yet again. This time for some Remind insoles that I scored at Ka*Mitt. They felt great. Hyped to finally have a winning combo for shoes/insoles. It was an adjustment though since the Remind insoles are orthotics which meant I didn’t have to rock the same carbon fiber insole I’ve rocked for like 5 years now. I landed quite a few of my regular quartapotty tricks first try. But I struggled on the ledge. I need to skate ledges more. It took me a few tries just to commit to back 50s. Ugh. But I made up for it by doing a back 5-0 shove. Well, basically I locked into 5-0 and put the brakes on so bad that I almost came to a halt and decided might as well shove out. My flip trick game was going pretty good until Dakoda and Rob played a game of SKATE and then I just felt dumb. The black ledge had ice around it so I avoided it. It could still be skated, but I’m too clumsy to avoid the ice. I got a fakie nosegrind on the blue ledge, boardslide the tiny down rail, landed on a nollie tre, got a few crooks on the black ledge (I could avoid the ice with this one) and then I got tired. Tried a few treflips, but I was cold and kinda sore so I called it a session. Oh yeah, Cameron had shown up and went right to killing the black ledge. I was less sore then normal in that much wind/cold and it felt good running out of trick and having shoes/insoles that felt comfortable instead of cheap vulcs that hurt my feet.

Rating: STYLE
Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: OVERALL

This shoe straight up hurt my feet. I’ve been in more of a cupsole zone lately so I’m not sure why I even picked these up. The sole and the insole are very thin. Great board feel, but too much pain for me. A pretty nice looking shoe for sure, grippy sole, good fit. Didn’t last very long though.

Neil’s Of Fire b/s ollie

Gnarly Carleigh front tailslide.

On PJ Ladd’s birthday a small crew headed to Pueblo in search of warmer temperatures and drier spots. We got both. The crew was Carleigh, Neil, Chadman and myself and we started on campus at the mellow bank spot above. Although it was pretty warm and dry, we didn’t escape the winds. Parts of campus that weren’t behind buildings weren’t skateable. Doh. The bank area was fun though. Neil did a pretty crazy long wallride over a grass gap, his patented b/s ollies, one foots, front 5-0s, etc. Chadman was hyped to skate for fun and it showed. He had some really nice front 5-0s on the bank and tried kickflip out of some. Chad also killed it on multiple swing sets (there are swing sets all over campus now hanging from trees) and was seriously enjoying the non-filming session. I was feeling weird on my board and was 3-10 on kickflips. I don’t remember the last time my kickflip ratio was so bad. Wind really seems to effect my arthritis. I managed a few little front 5-0s and a gap to f/s bank ride front 180 out. Also a few switch f/s noseslides on a weird ledge and even got one with a front 180 over a little gap right in front of it. That hyped me up. Carleigh had a bunch of back 5-0s, front 5-0, front tail and tried back blunt.

Chad showed us this area which was fun for awhile. There was another bench that was setup perfect to do tricks into the bank. I tried to noseslide it, but didn’t get close. Chad got kinda close to back 50’ing it. Then we played flyout for awhile. Roll in next to the stairs in the top photo then fly out below. I had a fun line of varial flip on flat, then front shove out flyout. Carleigh got close to kickflip. Chad did kickflip and f/s flip.

Then we went to Ka*Mitt and sold some Null and were super hyped the Fred joined us and showed us this spot. We didn’t really skate it like that as there are a couple benches there too and some good flatground. I was skating like crap and still struggling with kickflips. I got a couple flipper basics, a boardslide on the bench and a few frontside wallrides on a rock. Carleigh did a bunch of kickflips, noseslide the bench and close to front 180 nosegrind. Neil got some boardslides but was mostly chilling. Fred was going full tilt on some back overcrook attempts. Gnarly. Some steezy no compy back 360s. Chadman had one of the steeziest 43 shifty’s ever, hardflip, boneless to frontside rock ride, and spent the most time becoming one with the river.

Next up was this ditch spot that was truly amazing. Rick from Ka*Mitt met up with us too and slayed it. Full speed flippers down the middle of the debris riddled ditch and front 50, front 5-0, front smith and front tail on the ledge. Fred was determined to get the back overcrook. Carleigh was shooting photos. Neil got a no comply to tail. Chad was cruising. I had a fun line of kickflip a little pile of grass on the bank then crooks on the ledge. Then out of nowhere some dude came flying out behind the fence with a bat telling us to leave. Things got sketchy for a minute.

We went to another bank spot, but only Fred and Rick really skated it. Chad and I found this silly little miniramp bank and played a game of SKATE on it that he won. It was silly, and fun. Then Neil came over and said he found some other really fun stuff nearby so we hit it. First up was a perfect flyout over a curb. I never ollied it. Chad and Neil boosted over it and Chad ollied into the bank a few times too, even trying to manual out.

Fred and Rick were getting gnar on the bank and everyone was watching, but I felt like skating a little more so started trying tricks off this curb. Well, I was thinking ‘start with front shove and go from there’. Turns out the front shove would be a battle. Doh. Got a few and one with a manual on the next sidewalk. Man I was struggling. Ricky came up and put on a demo. Serious ripping. Full speed ollies over medians, manuals, flippers, everything. Dude has the best treflips which inspired me to land a slow one that cheered me up after skating so bad all day. It was now dark out and the session was done. What a fun day. Fred and Ricky are seriously the nicest dudes.

Another winter night in the upper 20s/lower 30s. Not so good for skatebaording. I started on Rampy for a little bit to get the legs flowing. I had put some thicker insoles in again (NB+ ones) and I don’t know why. I guess for a few shoes now I’ve had a weird desire to put thicker insoles in and it never works out. I felt fine on Rampy, but they bummed me out later on. and I pulled up to downtown to look for something dry to skate. I was pretty tired in general and was gonna try and skate downtown Boulder, but Dave called and I offered to meet him in Gunbarrel. We were pretty desperate and ended up in a parking garage with some square parking blocks. I skated like piss. Dave had some moves. Lipslide boardslides to fakie, etc. I managed a line of ollie over a parking block, ollie up a curb, front 180 off, then switch front board to regs, front board to fakie. We checked out this weird polejam triangle metal contraption for a bit. It sucked. Then we hit a ledge that could be really good for awhile. Dave did a noseslide to manual and I got close to a slappy front tail to manual. Then back into the garage where we built the contraption above. Dave added a feeble on it too. I only did boardslides and tried to ollie this little barrier, but they were bad. Darn snow needs to melt.

Was supposed to meet up with Bernie and Dave in a garage in Longmont, but as I was leaving Bernie called and said it was totally wet. Doh. So I ended up sticking in Boulder. Red curbs was barely skateable because of puddles so I opted for Foothills & Valmont instead. I love that garage. Mostly because the flatground is so good and it’s almost always dry. My body was hurting though. I’m not sure what’s going on. Now I’m starting to think that yoga/stretching is hurting me. I started with a bunch of slappy stalls on a parking block. It was really fun. Got axles both ways, pivots both ways, feebles both ways, crooks both ways, b/s crooks to back 50, back blunt to pivot. Fun. But my arthritis was kicking. I tried a line for awhile of wallie over a parking block, no comply 180, halfcab flip, slappy back tail, ollie a cone. I think I got it, but it was hideous. I was hurting so bad I was about to leave, but ended up sticking with things a little longer. And I’m glad I did. I did go back and ollie the cone clean which made me pretty happy. Kickflip over a parking black, varial flip on flat, almost f/s halfcab flip. No comply a parking block then treflip then kick back d attempt that was close. Tried a bunch of flip tricks I can’t do. Committed to nollie f/s flip. I can flip it perfect everytime until I go to commit then it only flips halfway. Doh. Tried some sw b/s flips as that trick seems like it would be the best trick ever. Didn’t get remotely close. Tried treflip then nollie treflip for awhile. Most of the treflips I landed were crap. Did a really fun line of switch wallie a parking block, push switch fast and do a little switch powerslide. I’ve never done that before I don’t think. This session was a lot of pain and I’m probably stubborn for trying to skate through it, but whatever, I did.

My legs have been hurting and I’m totally over shoes that make things worse. Aka thin vulcanized shoes. So I gave up the Provosts (mediocre shoe) and tried some Etnies Jameson 2s I picked up recently. But they are way too wide for my feet and my foot was moving all around and trying to come out of the shoe. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately for my pocket book) I had another new pair of shoes too, the shoe that proves I am a hypocrite. The New Balance Numeric Stratford. Yeap, the PJ shoe. I’ve been watching a lot of PJ footage lately and saw them at Meta and could not pass them by. They fit my foot absolutely perfect. Needless to say when I went back out to Rampy I was hyped to skate. I rode the ramp a bit and got the legs flowing and then skated flatground for awhile because I knew Carleigh would be over soon. Skating flatground with someone else isn’t possible on Rampy. These shoes flip a little different so it took some getting used to. I got a few kickflips and other basics then starting trying switch flips which ended up being ridiculously close. Man that would be cool. An uninspired Carleigh showed and we began skating the ramp. It went pretty well. We both had some good runs. Carleigh had front d’s, feeble fakies, and got close to front tail and fakie front 50. I had most of my basics and added a fakie crooks before hucking front feebles and kick back 50s which were both kinda close. I was surprised at how good these brand new cupsoles were skating. After Carleigh left I skated flat on Rampy for a few minutes to see if I could get that switch flip feeling back. Nope,