Super nice night. Carleigh and I arrived at a mostly vacant park and Fuzz showed up shortly after. My legs weren’t feeling very good and it showed quickly. Ollies were hard. I mostly just skated the quarta potty and did slappy noseslides, some with 270’s out which felt pretty neat. After a bit the three of us settled into a quarta-potty and blue ledges session. Carleigh was trying back disasters on the qp and front tails on the ledge. Then she did her second front board ever on the downhill blue ledge. Then her 3rd. 4th, 5th, etc until it basically looked like she had it on lock. Rad. Fuzz looked pretty rusty initially and had some sketchy looking slams. He was doing different tricks on the qp then doing back 180 fakie back 50 on the ledge. Sometimes to fakie, sometimes with a 180. I was skating the qp decent, but couldn’t land a ledge trick to save my life. I guess I had a couple crooks on the up/down blue ledge and some front 5-0s down it. Oh and I got a few switch back noseslides down the blue ledge too. I was hyped on that! I started hucking and managed a kickflip back noseslide. This is where it gets awesome. Fuzz said I can call it a “slide” because it slid off the ledge and I’m 40 years old so everything counts. Yes! I must admit a bit of pleasure in calling “I’m 40 that’s a make”. I should add a “with shitty arthritis” in there too unfortunately. It was almost lights out already and everyone kind of broke up and skated other stuff. I almost rolled my ankle on a crooks on the black ledge. Argh. I saw Carleigh trying back tailslides on the hump above the flowbowl and get a first try front d on the brick qp. And some surfer style frontside ollies too. I wanted to get to the qp with a f/s halfcab flip then a kickflip into the bank, but I couldn’t commit to the kickflip. Doh. Fuzz did some crazy tricks on the brick qp. Then the lights shut off. Doh. But since the softball players are allowed to have their lights on the park had some light. We all skated the quarta-potty. Fuzz and Carleigh were trying to learn backside hurricanes. They both had a couple spills. Fuzz got his first. Carleigh got one after getting in a sour mood because of some tool in a jeep playing dumb music. I did a bunch of tricks I’ve done before, but would try a 3 flip or f/s flip after every trick. Had 4 treflips in a row at one point. Felt great. Fuzz went on to learn frontside hurricanes too and did a bunch of them proclaiming it as his favorite new trick. Rad!

This spot has been in the back of my head for awhile. Ollie and I had drove down from the mountains and we had a family picnic then were lounging around (okay I was taking my old man nap) when Rob said he wanted to skate for a bit. I mentioned this spot and it was on. Ollie wanted in. Ollie and I got there first. After I went down it a couple times I wasn’t sure if Ollie should cause it’s kinda fast. But he thought it looked find and it didn’t even look like it concerned him at all the first time. Nice. Warming up took awhile for me. About the time Rob showed up I was finally feeling good and had a fun line of nose manual to the downhill, turn around ollie on and do a kickflip to fakie. Ollie was having fun. He had one or two legit manuals across the top. From the bottom he would ollie to rock, then lift up, take a push, shove his board halfway up the bank, let it come down, jump on it then back 180 off the curb. So awesome. He also had a really good slam trying a 360 body varial and Wilson’d hard. He laughed it off quickly. Rob seemed to warm up pretty quick. We skated from the bottom for awhile. He had ollie up, back 180 one foot, back 180 off. Ollie up, bs flip. Ollie up, boneless, no comply, etc. And the nice smith grind above through both stoppers and the totally dry concrete. Or maybe it was a stall. I had kickflip to fakie, b/s flip, no comply bigspin, no comply shove to fakie, boneless. A good feeling treflip on flat. From the top front 180 up the curb then halfcab flip into the downhill. Slammed pretty hard trying to roll into it switch. Then the wind kicked in hardcore. I nose mannied across the bottom and we were out. That spot is really fun.

Wasn’t planning on stopping by the Fairplay park on the way to my Mom’s, but Ollie requested it so I couldn’t say no. We arrived to Zeke cranked up on a boombox and only a few people at the park. One pool only dude, two mongo pushers (besides Ollie) and one dude that had a good ollie. The perimeter of that park has some fun stuff. It’s not perfect, but perfection is boring. Just ask PRod. Ha. The sun was blinding in spots and I definitely didn’t want to skate the bowl until the sun factor was eliminated. Ollie was doing 180’s off the kicker pretty quick, pushing mongo around the park, frontside kickturn over the rock qp, roll into the little brick qp, front board transfer the bank to curb, manual the top of the hip, fakie shoves on flat, firecracker the 3 stair and would not let us leave when we were supposed to go. My legs were feeling really arthritic so I mostly kept it mellow. Had fun on the brick coping qp which is the weirdest coping ever because you have to ollie into it. Did front tail, front smith and almost a kick back pivot. On the bank to curb when for kick back pivot and got kick back smith. I’ll take it! Ha. Tried a few front smith stalls to kickflip out. Kinda wish I would have tried that more. Took quite a few runs in the bowl. I can only drop in on the mellowest spot there. I’m such a pansy. Almost got a grind on the 7 section though. Last thing I did that felt good was a front lip on the bank to curb. Then it was back to driving.

Ollie and I sweated it out on Rampy after a thunderstorm hit. No new tricks from either of us. He had some really good front slashes for him. I had a first try front feeble and maybe the best crooked grind I’ve done on ramp. After awhile I went out for a short flatground session. My legs were feeling pretty arthritic and it’s harder to skate flat then rampy. But I did ok. Couldn’t get b/s flip, but got treflip. Failed at a varial flip then fakie varial flip line because varial flips are impossible to land when you actually want to land them.

After lots of basketball with Ollie I went for a late and quick session at this ledge. I was pretty sore from sore from all the basketball, but wanted to get out in the nice weather anyway. I ended up skating better then I thought I would. Had some fun crooked grinds and would try to line them out by manualling the long pad around the corner. Tried some switch bs noseslide shoves and got really close. Hyped I was getting on a ledge that tall switch even though I was kind of John Brandow’ing it. Started trying crooks front 180 out and got close. Then some dude who clearly saw me skating the ledge walked up, said hi, sat down on the ledge and lit up a cigarette. WTF. I just threw my board to the parking lot and left pissed off. Probably a good thing because it got me to actually leave quickly, but man, how weird.

And he can kickflip crooks. Wowsers

First time with new shoes in awhile. The Supras put up a good fight and showed me that cup soles are better for repeatedly hucking flip tricks which is my favorite thing to do. So I got another pair of cupsoles. This time Vox – Lockdown Cups. They are a bit bulky for my taste, but we’ll see ..

It was a gorgeous evening. It had gotten to 99, but since we’re in a desert it cooled around 7 when we met up. We watched Suciu’s part in Sabotage 3 which inspired all of us then drove up to campus. We started off in this parking lot. Everyone seemed hyped and on their game pretty quick. Rob had a sick no comply shove up the curb and a push down the 3. Ha it was awesome. He also no complied up the 3 and did a bunch of long manuals around banked curb. Jake and I failed at manualling the curb – 3 section. Jake did have a nice ollie up, front 180 down, f/s halfcab off though. I was breaking in the new shoes and having fun. If I didn’t get the manual I would do a 180 off the curb after the 3 then a fakie flip trick. I was surprised at how good the new shoes felt. I managed a switch front 180 up, front 180 down the 3, sw front 180 off the curb.

Then we ended up at the new area where the old brick plaza was. Rob had some good boardslides, front nose to fakie, some creative slams as well as some rad no comply variations. Jake kickflipped the little brick section. I had a couple great feeling treflips followed by crook attempts turned into noseslides.

Next up was the fun little manny pad area. Jake went for halfcab manny and some wallrides on this fun barrier that was on the end of the sidewalk. So you could ollie onto the sidewalk then wallride the barrier down the 3″ to the parking lot. Ha. Rob came close to 180 nose mannies both ways. Had a sick nose manual drop down to nosemanual then turn front 180. I was feeling really good and skated non-stop. Got kickflip manny and nose manny shove. Maybe sw front 180 manual too. Had a really fun line of ollie up the curb then wallride down into the parking lot then lipslide a parking block. Also frontside wallride up onto the sidewalk, then ollie onto the tall orange ledge and front 180 off.

Last spot of the day was the double mellow banks. Jake was looking pretty tired and even kicked his board a couple times. Unheard of for him! He did manage some good lines though. Kickflip into the first, nollie 180 the second (I think?). Fakie bigspin then pop shove. Quite a few more I can’t remember right now. Rob did no comply shove then back 180 and maybe called it after that. I had pretty much the best flip trick showing I’ve ever had there. Pop shove the first, kickflip the second. Halfcab flip the first, back 180 the second. Fakie bigflip the first, front pop shove the second. Anytime I landed the second trick going forward I would loop around and try to ollie up the 3. I bailed most times. B/s flip the first, halfcab flip the second. Treflip the first, kickflip the second. Fakie flip the first, sw front 180 the second. And the ender, F/s halfcab flip the first, kickflip the second and finally got a clean ollie up the 3. Hurray for cupsoles making flip tricks even more fun!

On a hot and lazy afternoon Ollie and I set out to go skate. I was so lazy I even wore shorts. We ended up at this spot and I figure since it’s a ledge spot Ollie would be over it pretty quick and we’d move on. We were just kinda goofing around for awhile then Ollie pretty much did the first line in the video. I figured it would be cool to film it with my phone so we did. I love how he has no idea about what is cool in skateboarding. He’s wearing basketball shorts, he’s pushing mongo and he swings his arms around on purpose. But watching him is the best. He is only doing it for fun and he smiled the entire time. I had a couple runs starting with the tre stair too that were fun. Ollie, ollie up the curb, manual around a pillar, front nose to fakie on a ledge. Ollie the three, front 180 up the curb, sw front 180 up the smallest ledge, front shove off a taller ledge, 3 flip on flat. Ollie the three, kickfilp up the curb (hard because it’s so quick). I’ve wanted to do that ollie up the ledge then ride off ever since Jack manualled it in the snow forever ago. It took me awhile. I kept thinking my big butt would hit the rail as I ollied on. Hyped on getting that though. Ollie was doing lots of front and back 180s off various ledges. The best though was after awhile he was ollieing off the 3 stair then ollieing up the curb after. He was so hyped to be ollie’ing up a curb with speed. The look he gave me after the first couple was mind blowing to me. That is the most hyped I’ve ever seen him on a skateboard. I had a few other things I did that I was pretty hyped on. First try kick back 50 on the low ledge, a couple frontside flips. The crooks then treflip was extra great feeling because I just said if I land the crooks then I would try a flip trick and it worked first try. Ollie was doing a bunch of the quick ollies on different flagstone sections. It was so sick. I was finally able to do it as we rolled to the car. What a fun session. Sharing an amazing skate session with your kid is an amazing feeling. I put this up there with lots of other incredibly fun sessions I’ve had and am so grateful for all of them.

(Sorry for how lame facebook videos are to embed)

Met up with Jack, Carleigh, Rob and Crisis. Then rolled to Broomfield park with Blaine and met Derek and Nate. Warming up took a bit for me. It wasn’t as easy as it’s been the last few days. Jack and Carleigh seemed on a mission to skate the brick qp. Jack and a nice texas boneless (I think that’s what it’s called) and some lofty ollies both ways. The backside ollie with the cali grind out was hot! Carleigh had a quick front d. Rob and I were kind of all over. He had a nice halfcab boardslide shove out. Derek was trying front tail bigspins out down the double set rail. He got kinda close. I didn’t get much there I haven’t done before. I had a good feeling 3 flip on flat though and added backside crook (kind of) to my bag of only like 4 tricks I’ve done on the brick qp. Then we headed out to a street spot which ended up being this newly creted barrier.

Kudos to the dudes that creted this. Hopefully they keep at it as it needs some work, but it’s a good start. It’s infinitely harder to skate then it looks. Jack didn’t look for excuses though and did a back boardslide, back feeble and maybe even a back 50. I got a frontside ride from one crete section to the next. Pretty sure I set the record for doing it as low as possible.

After this we just started skating flatground. There was a slight downhill. Rob manualled the whole thing and almost nose mannied it too. My style has gone to crap and I linked up four tricks that would be cool if I didn’t know how badly I did them. Halfcab flip, heelflip, treflip, backside flip. Looks good on paper at least. Ha. I tried another line with fakie bigflip, front shove then nollie tre, but never got the nollie tre. We settled in to different tricks for awhile. Frontside flips,hardflips, etc. Not much was landed. Then I posed a halfcab double flip that came close. Ugly ass trick I’m sure, but I’ve kind of wanted to do it for awhile to just say I’ve done it. Jack did one first try. Ha. Carleigh tried backside flips while Rob and I tried double flips for quite some time. We both got close for awhile. Jack was trying cab double flips and getting just as close. Shortly into it Jack had offerred to buy me dinner if I landed one. Well I did. It was kind of a fakie 90 double flip, stop, put the hands down and laugh before riding out. But I’m 40 and have constantly lowered the bar on steezy landings all my life so it counted. Ha. Pretty fun day for sure. After we hung out at Crisis and watched skate videos and bet on Street League. Jocks.

Another post work Friday session here. The park aint great, but it’s location and lack of crowds is. There was even a couple other people skating for awhile. And they were pretty good. But no one wants to read about how good young skaters are on this blog, it’s just about old people. Unfortunately we skated pretty good for old people today I think. We mostly warmed up on the bank. Dave and Rob both had sick no comply bonelesses. Or whatever you call a boneless that’s grabbed backside. Dave had a pretty bad slam on a switch shove or something. I was in a flip trick mood and went with it. Got a few treflips and a couple in lines. I still can’t ollie up the middle ledge. Man it’s tall. At one point all three of us got tricks in a row that we had worked on. Mine was front 50 kickflip out (little kid trick!!). I think Dave’s was nollie into the bank. I don’t remember Rob’s trick at the moment. Whatever it was I’m sure it was steezy though. I had a blast and landed lots of tricks, but I felt like my style was extra bad. Seemed like after every trick I would have a weird hand motion or tic tac or something. Dave also had a good front board to fakie on the flat bar, front 50s on the ledge, slash on the bank to sideways ledge, and a first try fakie flip on the bank. Rob had some no comply 360s on the bank, front board on a tall ledge and lots more. I couldn’t get a b/s flip on the bank. So funny. I landed lots of flippers though and since thats my favorite stuff I had a blast. Good start to the weekend.