I woke up with my body feeling good. The best it’s felt in a long time. Did some cleaning and errands around the house and eventually headed out to Longmont to meet Derek, Blaine and Chad. I went to Rocky Mtn Elem which is one of my favorite spots ever. When I got there there was two random high school age dudes skating. Both had Null boards! So awesome. I said hi and tried not to barge their session much. After feeling so good earlier in the day it didn’t seem to translate to skating well as I struggled bad. The two random kids left and a few minutes later Blaine, Derek and Chad showed. Right when they would almost get warmed up it would shower just enough to be too wet to skate. I never got warmed up. I did one line with an ollie onto a curb, front 180 off then switch noseslide coming out regs. Then we all did some ollies up the curb to tricks on the bank. Blaine did ollie up, ollie to fakie and halfcab off. Tight! I took about a million tries to get a kickflip to fakie. Almost rolled my ankle super bad. Everytime I stepped off my board on the bank my shoes would almost come off. These shoes suck. They are too high off the ground. Chadman tried a line for a bit, but we ended up moving on to Longmont High (above). Derek did that back 180 in like 5 tries. Which is too bad, because if it was in under 3 tries I was gonna get him and Blaine a burrito (Chad wanted one too, but he could just have the leftovers). Seeing the back 180 was crazy. Derek is gonna self deprecate, but I haven’t seen a trick like that go down in awhile. He did it so insanely perfect. Then we went over to the blocks on the other side of the school were Derek got a sick line in a couple minutes. Geez killing it. Chad tried some stuff, but just wanted to eat. I started trying flatground just to get something going, but it didn’t work. Couldn’t even really land kickflips. Stoked on Derek killing it so hard, but man what a tough day for my skateboarding. Maybe one of my worst ever. Oh yeah at the first spot once I kicked my board out intentionally once and Chad grabbed it and wouldn’t give it back until I calmed down. So funny. Chad rules.

After another afternoon rain storm Ollie and I set out to skate after his first day of school. It looked like it would rain any second so we stayed close. I somewhat randomly chose the newish research center as it has quite a variety. We messed around nearby on a curb for awhile and did some 180’s off it and stuff. Then we went up to the area above. It’s not as good as it looks, although we really should wax those stairs up, they would grind really good. I ollied the four stair a few times. Then had a where I started on the 3rd stair by the handrail where Ollie was coming from in the photo and ollied up one stair, then went around the corner and front shoved the 2 stair, then manualled the little section of ledge on the front left of the photo. Pretty fun run actually. Took longer then it should because I’m not used to the thickness of my new DCs. Ollie had fun. He ollied twos and three and pushed mongo going along stairs. That kid is close to kickflips! And fakie bigspins. Can’t wait to see him land a kickflip. Then we went to the front and rolled down the long two stairs next to Max’s gnar. But someone was studying up there so we moved on. I took a few tries and crooked the ledge and then many more tries to manual the long manual pad. If I didn’t do the manual I would do the little quick gap. Ollie slammed a couple times trying to ollie up that curb with speed. Poor kid. He’s finally coming around on them ollies though. It’s rad. The Thursday Night Bikeride came by and Ollie hid behind some pushes and yelled at them. That was pretty funny. Then we headed home because Ollie wanted to be rested for day 2 of school. What a good kid. Then he told me I should go skate some more. Great kid!

Then I went to the old trusty spot. I mostly just wanted to skate flatground because I knew it would help me get used to these new thick shoes the best. I did wax the ledge though so when I did skate it it grinded better. I only did a few basics on it. Some faster then normal front 50s though. Flatground didn’t go so good. I wanted to get at least one rare trick, but between varial heel, front heel (never done it), fakie hardflip, nollie tre (probably shouldn’t count it as rare) and fakie f/s heel I had nothing. Doh. I did have quite a few treflips though. I put a box after the little kicker (by the grate) and tried a run of manual next to the wall, treflip on flat then come around and ollie the box. Never did them all together, but I did ollie the box on it’s own which was high for me. Then I got tired and went home.

What a crew! We met at Crisis. It was Carleigh, Neil, Dave, Blaine, Fuzz, Rob and I. While Fuzz rested up a bit after work we skated his curb. It was pretty fun. Rob’s kickflip fastplants were so good.

Then it was off to Denver where we started at the Greyhound station slappy curb and more. As you can see in Blaine’s Instagram clip above Fuzz was ripping. Neil and Rob were going off too. They were hopping over the little median like it was nothing. The funniest part was that Neil could not slappy onto the totally angled slappy curb. He had to ollie.

Next we went a fun building with a few options. I chose some noseslides off a two stair which I had never done there before. Fuzz chose 5-0 across a skate stopper the wrong way on a bench. Neil eventually nose grinded it too! Dave came close to hippy jumping one of them.

We skated off and ended up at this weird kinked curb going down a set of stairs. I struggled to ollie onto the curb and ride down the narrow kink. I think everyone eventually did it. Dave and I went over to the bigger set and did it with doubles. We went on to try it with manuals out. Dave did it. Fuzz took the cake on slam of the night shortly after trying to kickflip into it. He’s fortunate to have just gotten out with a bloody knee. Dave also got back 180 off the curb into the street which was fast. Rob no complied in. I got switch front 180 in. Connor joined us and manualled in all easy.

Some parking garages were hit. Curbs slappied, 50d. We managed to not get arrested. We hit so many spots. There is no way I can remember them all. Fuzz, Rob and I had a fun downhill ride at one point with Blaine waiting at the elevator below telling us the cops had been called and we needed to split quick.

This spot entertained us for awhile. It was skated many different ways. Connor would do drop down manuals. Including fakie manuals or nose manuals. Pretty rad. Fuzz powerslid under the bar while holding on and tried to pull himself back. Neil nose mannied around it. Dave surfed under it (late photo above) and had some cool 180/180 combos down it. I had some 180s too, lots of kickflip slams and then a kickflip down the first one and front 180 the second. Blaine and I wussed out of ollie’ing it. Neil did it though.

We kept pushing and rolling and cruising through garages. We hit a 3 stair that everyone firecrackered. I think Carleigh did it first. It was Rob’s first 3 stair firecracker after learning on a 2 stair last week. Connor ollied a tall ledge to drop with ease. Then we found the dream curb spot we’ve been looking for every time we’ve been downtown since we found it the first timne. We didn’t last long before getting the boot, but it was a blast while it lasted. I got another back 5-0 that felt great and some slappy crooks. Fuzz had some rad slappys up a curb cut and around a corner. Carleigh was going frontside. Dave back 50’d into the curb cut and I think did slappy crooks up a curb cut. Rob was cruising it too. I think next we ended up were Connor works. Ha, American Apparel. He had to leave though. I was the only one skating at this point. Oh I think Carleigh and Rob were doing some flatground. I tried a line of ollie up a weird curb, horrible back 180 down a 2 stair, fakie bigflip on flat, then front shove another 2 stair. I struggled with the fakie bigflip. Doh. I only got one. Then we got the boot and decided to call it a night.

But of course we found a good ledge to skate first, next to the Greyhound garage again. Fuzz did front tail and switch boardslide to forward and a back 180 off the curb. Fuller got his back with a boardslide to fakie then switch back 180 off the curb. Carleigh tried to relearn boardslides to fakie. Rob did a sick boardslide to manual. I went off in the distance and rode off a ledge onto another one then posed a bunch of kickflip front boards on the ledge. Then we was really out. These nights are awesome. My new shoes definitely messed with me enough that I didn’t skate all that well. The heels are really high. Doh. Fun times though, these Denver night missions are so great.

Had a short amount of time after going to SOL and before date night with Liz. Since I was in Longmont I hit up Fuller and we skated Longmont High for about 30 minutes. The normal area was covered in teenagers so we went to the main ledges. It was super hot outside and I had new shoes. Some DC Mikey Taylors. They are cupsoles and were not very broken in. Dave struggled a bit more then normal. Got some rad no complies though. My flatground game was back to the drawing board with the new shoes. The heel is really thick on them. At least they aren’t vulcs though. Can’t believe how bad those Lakai vulcs felt for just one night. Anyways, I didn’t get much. Tried a line of ollieing onto one ledge then front 50 another one. Never got them together and I never actually landed the front 50.

Had some new shoes. Lakai – Picos. They are vulcs. I wanted to try vulcs again and see if I truly am sold on cupsoles or not. Well, I made the idiotic mistake of getting 10.5s again. Right out of the gate I didn’t like them and felt like I was swimming in my shoe. We got to the spot and after a couple bad ollies and failed manuals I wanted to quit and get new shoes. But John was already ripping and Rob showed so I had to skate. Rob was totally ripping. Manny and nose manny the long way no problems. Almost with back 180 out of the nose manny. He also had some good flatground no comply moves and a back 360. So jealous of that trick! I took a long time to do the long manny, but came remotely close to doing one with a front shove out. I want that trick! I did a fun line of ollie onto the manny pad, quick back 180 off, fakie flip on flat, switch front 180 up the curb then ollie a gap into the parking lot. John came super close to halfcab manny back 180 out. Did treflips, but struggled at kickflips (so weird!). Had some good flatground as well. Some lady came by and told us the noise was amazing and John sat down. Kinda ending the session.

So we went to Valmont and skated a pretty dry ledge. We ended up doing some tricks though. I got noseslide, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, front tail stall, almost front tail shove, back board pop out, bad crooks, bad back 50, horrible nosestall 270 pivot out. I was hating swimming in the shoes and new I couldn’t even skate them another day so I was pretty lazy. John got front 50s right away, killed his patented switch front noses and much more I can’t remember. Rob did a few front noseslides. All with epic extra reverts on accident.

Oh yeah, this was the first time I’ve skated in glasses in awhile. It was fine. Gotta get some different shoes for skating though.

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

These shoes lasted 14 skate days

This is the closest I’ve experienced to the perfect skate shoe in awhile. For a cupsole the board feel is really good. They broke in quick, they look good (can’t go wrong with black suede, white sole, and a skater owned logo). My only complaints are that the sole wore out sooner then I wanted it to. 14 skate days is still pretty high for me though. The other issue I have with them is the weird cracking noises they make. Kind of like the sound of snow packing under your feet. I never noticed it actually skating though, just standing. So whatever, this shoe is about as good as it gets.

Ollie and I went to the Arvada park on a hot Saturday afternoon. There was a gathering to remember Dave Tuck. A skater I barely met, but clearly a positive influence on the Colorado skate scene. We were going to meet Neil and Fullertron there. The park was really crowded, but most people were in the bowls. Makes sense. Before we even got into the park I had said hello to about 10 people and it was awesome seeing so many people out. I had watched a few (ok more like 10) PJ clips before leaving so I was thinking I’d get tech and skate the Pier 7 replica. I ended up being extremely lazy though (I blame Liz) and taking a long time to warm up. I made a goal of 10 tricks on the Pier 7 thing and it took me a long time. Ollie managed to ollie up onto it a few times and did front and back 180 off. He was also doing fakie shoves and trying fakie 3 shoves on flat. I ended up getting back board, front 50, front 50 front 180 out, crooks (hyped on that one), manual (finally – never did that there before for some stupid reason – ok, well it’s because you land in the slightest of banks), back 50, slappy noseslide, slappy front tailslide, front 50 front shove out and front 5-0. Then we went over to the blue pad area. Ollie did his ride on to drop down manual first try, ollied the gap off the blue pad several times and front 180’d off a taller part. Mike was there wallie’ing up the ledge like it was nothing. I tried a bunch of times and failed. Like a bunch a bunch. I would do flatground and crooks on the tiny qp. I managed to ollie up the gap second try though. Dave joined and treated us all to “nollie 360 eggplants” off the blue pad. What the heck? Put your foot in nollie position, grab indy, put your left foot on the edge and turn back 360 while dropping. He did it so good. Ollie and I tried them. Watching Ollie try a trick so foreign to his was awesome. He ended up doing mute grabbed back 180 with his right hand on the edge. Not sure what that’s called, but he was hyped. I eventually got the eggplant 360 too. It was clearly an over 40 make, but man it seemed cool. Then the four of us headed out to the nearby foundation spot.

This spot rules. Notice Neil sitting in the background in both? Ha. He skated though. Long enough to do some rad nose mannies, but he was beat quick. Ollie did those rad little gap to wobble manual a bunch of times. He also had 180s off the drops and slammed super hard riding up the plastic launch ramp that has a hole in it. I got a couple lines that made me really happy. Kickflip up, front 5-0 then ollie the taller gray part behind Ollie in the photo above. Then the one that really really hyped me up, pop shove over one of those little 2 foot flat gaps, kickflip off a ledge, boardslide down the metal hubba, ollie the gray thing again (seemed scarier then the photo shows) and landed on a backside flip off the next ledge. Also did a front 180 the little flat gap and a f/s halfcab flip off the ledge. It was so slow and bad, but only a few tries in so I took it. Dave did back board, back board to fakie and front board down the metal hubba. He also had a line of something like back 180 a flat gap, switch front 180 off the ledge then boardslide. Another line that resulted in a switch back 180 off the ledge. Probably a lot more that I’m not remembering right now. Super fun session. I put a hole in the sole of my shoes though so I’m gonna have to skate something else. Doh.

Had a busy day at work, then Rob and I headed up to Fort Collins where we met Chadmang and did some business with the lovely MRKT skateshop. We got some food and when trying to figure out where to go we decided to just roll out from the shop and see what happens. This new spot was the first spot and pretty darn epic. There is also a little manny pad, smooth parking lot and some gap/stair options on the left side. The right side however is super rough and makes the approach from the right pretty hard. Unless you are Chad I guess who lipslid it a few times and did nose manny or manny across the top into the bank. So rad. Rob front boarded it first try, worked for a sick switch boardslide, popped some nice ollies off it and had some steezy 180’s and no complys as setup tricks. I had some boardslides and a crooks. Then tried a few various lines going the other way trying to end with an ollie into this weird 3 stair. I did a few front boards pulled up into the ramp which were fun. But the line I eventually got was just an ollie into the downhill of the ramp, then a manual then an “ollie” down the 3 stair. I say “ollie” because I surely didn’t pop it at all. But it was fun because the stairs are really close to the manny and I had a brief feeling of being quick footed. Chad ollied a pretty sick gap there too.

We decided to head towards the courthouse downtown instead of campus and after some cruising we ended up here. This little loading dock had all kinds of options. Rob did the back 50 and a steezy backside no comply wallride. I ollied up from the kicker (in less tries then it took Chad!). Chad ollied up too and then kickflipped up it first try all easy and tried to go right to wallride. Then some concerned old lady started yelling at us that we shouldn’t be doing that. Geez she was angry. Chad just sat there “It’s ok lady, calm down, we’re all ok”. So funny. We made it to the courthouse and it was a little anti-climatic. I did a little line of fakie bigflip, front shove then ollie a tiny median.

Around the corner we ended up skating here a bit. I did a front 180 down the top 2, then a switch front 180 down the second. Chad did that line up it just to show off. Rob has surprisingly never done fire crackers before, so he learned them down this. But not after a super funny slam on the first attempt. I got another line of kickflip down the first 2 then back 180 (no pop) the second. Took a few tries to get the kickflip. Oh well.

After all this we needed a break and skated a few more blocks to a gas station. Chilled a minute then headed back. I tried pushing switch a lot. I looked dumb. We skated the curbs in the parking lot for awhile. Rob and I each got a frontside slappy. I got a pathetic excuse for a kick back tail. Some drunk dude hung out with us being drunk. I ended with a little line of manual a little pad, front 180 up one, switch front 180 off, kickflip up the median, b/s 180 off. It was a blast. Then we hit the Perkins bump for what was supposed to be one ollie. But it took me a long time to get it. Guess I was tired and well, I suck at ollies. I got a great feeling treflip on flat though. Chad had some huge ollies clearing two cracks. Rob had a nice back 180, nice boneless and ollie. That was it. One fun night. That was some real street skating and we all had a great time. Lets do it again!

After a run to Crisis and some Subway, Ollie decided he’d rather not hang out drinking beer and smoking and decided we should go skating. Ha. We went by Broomfield park, but it was crowded so we went to Lafayette. Which was not crowded at all. I was tired and sore. Do I need to even say that anymore? I’m always tired and sore. It’s one of the perks of getting older. While in the warm up stage Ollie said “I had a dream I did a fakie 360 shove” so he started trying them and got so close. We just kinda cruised the manny pad, mini section for awhile. I felt like trying some tricks up/down the manny pad. Most weren’t even worth mentioning, but the front 180 up switch-no-pop-back 180 down felt rad. I did a bunch of 3 flips on flat to make me not worry about the high trucks as much. Ollie was doing lots of back 180’s off the manny pad and ollieing off the little qp above. He was following me at one point so I said “do the same trick as me!” and front 180’d it. He was saying “I can’t do that” in the air, but landed it way better then me. Later on I wanted a clip for the blog and suggested he do the 180 again, but he couldn’t. Ha. We skated the flow bowl for awhile. I really like how the Ventures turn versus the skittish Thunders. I had some back 50s and took too long to do a rock fakie. Ollie dropped in and did some good carves in between mongo pushes. He rules. At one point later on I rolled by him and he said “Bonjour monsieur”. Totally cracked me up. Near the end I failed to nose manny the manny pad and then ate shit so bad on a front 50. Ugh. Ollie made up for it by doing the rock rock fakie.

After a really long drive down from the mountains I quickly setup a new board since I had broken my Atlas Nulled in Fairplay. As punishment for breaking two boards in a week I decided to setup the weed graphic. Just Say Null. It’s funny at least and it’s funny how few people get it’s jokingly an anti-weed board. Anyway, after being bummed on how those Thunders turned in the Fairplay bowl I decided what the heck, lets go back to Venture, but this time the highs. Seeing as how I’m a complete freak with almost brand new trucks of several brands sitting in my garage this was pretty easy to do. It was about 9:30pm when I got out and I was dead tired from this crazy adventure park in Buena Vista we had gone to early in the morning. I rolled around the Table Mesa shopping center not doing much. Then found they repaved the area in front of Savers so was super hyped to try and skate some flat. They even repainted the curbs too! Unfortunately though they kept shutting off lights and it was so dark. I managed a line of manual, front 5-0, kickflip. Eh. Then I went around and ended up at some parking blocks behind King Soopers and tried my best to boardslide the graphic off the board. Ha ha. I eventually did a few more flatground tricks. Halfcab flip, heelflip and varial flip. All had a better feel to them without the unwanted squirl of Thunders. Rad.