It was supposed to get into the upper 30s, but it didn’t. Instead I went to red curbs in 25 degree weather wearing a winter jacket and gloves. It was pretty fun for awhile. I didn’t have much motivation though and didn’t want to make my sinus infection worse so only skated for about 30 minutes. I just did a few front/back 50s and front tails, kickflips, manuals.

Was finally starting to feel a little better after fighting a gnarly cold/sinus infection for a few days. Liz and the kids were gone so I put Pretty Sweet on and stood on my skateboard in the living room for awhile. Then I did some kickflips. I told myself I had to do 10 in a row. After two misses I ended up doing 17 then sat back down. This winter weather is getting pretty old. It’s even cold out on Rampy.

Hit 303 around 11, then met Chad at the snowy Commerce City park. I was able to skate for about an hour before needing to be home and head to my mom’s. The little ledges on the far side were dry. We skated those for awhile. Chad flipped in to frontside and backside 50s, back tail. I got way techer with front 5-0s being my techest trick. Almost got fakie nosegrind. We played on some other stuff for awhile. Chad had a super sick line with an ollie to fakie, halfcab tailslide (while nose grabbing) over the boob (seriously don’t know how to describe it, but it’s super scary looking) and probably some other trick that was super gnarly. I got a tiny back 50 on the qp and an even tinier f/s ollie. One of the flat banks was open. Chad did the MJ casper trick on it. I did a b/s flip and then ollied off of the thing Chad 5-0’d above which seemed tall to me. We did some gaps on the top benches, but there was snow all over so we were pretty limited. Chad did manual kickflip out easy. I did a front shove off the bench and a kickflip. Chad did nollie nose manny (maybe nollie flip out?? I forget). Chad rules. Fun session considering how snowy it was and stuff. Oh yeah, forgot to mention I tried about a hundred 3 flips. Landed on most, but only rode away from a couple.

This is some of the longest I’ve gone before updating my journal so this entry will be blunt. Which doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any blunts, because there was. And although the dust kicked in and you would think we were smoking blunts, that was not the case.

Connor came with Fuzz and held it down pretty hard. Fuzz and I don’t understand how he can have so many tricks. This was a front 5-0 to fakie. He did miss a first try boneless though like he said he would do.

In between pouting over a bad joke Carleigh did some tricks like feeble fakie and front d.

Jake didn’t have his best performance, but it was still a double double. Pivot fakie and gave the pool coping it’s first nose pick.

Fuzz was in good spirits. Fakie tail stall nose yank back to tail stall. Ha. He did it to fakie pivot too. Lots of other tricks.

Brian left before the phone photos started, but he would somehow grind the coping a little and do blunts to fakie that were as close to hanging up as possible.

I had a very uninspired session. The crappy pool coping is taking it’s toll on my motivation to skate Rampy. I had a couple ok runs for me. Got a front d revert. Came close to a lien boneless to tail thing.

Was told to work from home in the “blizzard”. It only snowed a couple inches, but I still bailed on driving to work. Around 4 I skated for about an hour on Rampy. I went out with the intention of learning some old man tricks, but I didn’t end up even really trying any. Instead, after doing some basics I resorted to trying kickflip axle stalls or 360 flips on flat. Maybe my first viewing of the DGK video is too blame. That video has lots of flippers in it. Basically every time I bailed on the kick 50 I would try a 3 flip. As you know there isn’t much flat on Rampy, so I was pretty excited to land any at all. I got 4 of them, but landed on about 20. As far as the kick fitty I came surprisingly close to getting into one. That’s why I kept trying it. I’ve never done that trick on any halfpipe before. It’d be way easier on a mellower/less tight ramp.

Almost forgot to mention I had new shoes! Huf Southerns. These shoes are crazy weird. They come with an insole that is super thick in the sole and really stiff. So I took it out and put two flimsy insoles in it. Seems to work so I guess I’ll see how it goes.

Rob’s friend Marco made this. It’s some older dudes (not old, just older) skating for fun in NYC. Lots of fun spots, more fun and even some Null boards. This rules.

Had the late shift at work so didn’t get home until about 6:30. It was windy and snowing slightly in Boulder, but Dave still wanted to skate. So after eating I met him at Broomfield park where it wasn’t as cold as I thought it would feel. We basically had the whole park to ourselves all night. A few other people were there at various times, but they were never skating/biking the same thing so it was like we had it to ourselves. It’s been a bit since I’ve skated there and man, there are so many fun things at the park. Warming up didn’t take long at all either so that was a plus. When I got there Dave was trying fakie 540 kick turns on the mellow bank so I tried too. Almost got it first try, then kept getting it further away. Fun. We had lines going to get there. Dave had pole jam (off the side which seems even harder to me), bluntslide, rock fakie on the brick qp. I had f/s flip on the bank above the bowl, axle stall, noseslide to fakie on the black ledge. We mixed it up though. I was hyped on doing halfcab flip, then kickflip into the bank, manual the black box, rock fakie on the brick qp. Dave got a bluntslide 270 out then moved on to the bump to flat bar where he did boardslide, boardslide fakie and boardslide shove. I played on the black ledge a little. I got front 50 back 180 out and I think backed it up with the first and only fakie 540 kickturn I landed. It’s harder then I thought it would be, but super fun. We both had a couple falls trying it. Then we kinda moved down to the blue ledge where we both struggled with nose mannies. I never did land one, but Dave got a couple. I managed a few slow front tailslides (yes “slides” as in they actually slid), front 5-0s, fakie nosegrind, kind of a fakie nosegrind 180 out to stop, back 50 while doing tricks on the quartapotty like front feeb, front d and front t. I also got kickflip back 50 and then a kickflip back 5-0 which I haven’t done intentionally in a long long time. Hyped! Dave was doing crazy lines with fakie ollies on the steep bank, ollie out from the quarter potty to b/s pivot on the wallie hubba thing, back 50s on the ledge and almost back nosegrinds. He also did a front 50 back 180 out. We were having a blast. The park was just ours. The main lights shut off. Doh. Dave spent that time doing tricks on the brick qp. I skated slow and did flatground. Got 3 flip and nollie 3 flip as an icing on the cake for a super fun night. Stay away winter.

Played basketball with Ollie for a couple hours which ended up wearing me out way more then it should have. Ollie and I went to Southern Hills where we met John. Ollie didn’t really skate except for a few high speed coffins and cannonball grabs. John and I did our warming up. I felt ok for awhile, but the fatigue kicked in quick. John and I settled on trying some lines. His was 360 flip on flat, ollie up the 2, back 180 off the 2, switch front noseslide, halfcab flip, nollie back tail. Yeah, crazy huh?!?! He never quite got the halfcab flip and only got the back 180 twice. I tried varial flip on flat, ollie up the 2, front shove off the 2, crooks. Got to the crooks once but did a noseslide instead. Doh. We skated the ledges a bit too until John tried to knock himself unconscious on a front 50 slip out. Such a bad slam. That pretty much ended the session and all I skated all weekend. Doh.

We all met at Crisis. Dave was a little later so Fuzz and I played on the red curb in his shop for awhile. Nothing serious, just kinda doing different slappy stalls and stuff. Then we piled in Dave’s car and headed to Denver. First spot was the bank to curb behind the church on Broadway. Perfect warm up spot. We played a game of SK8 that kind of dissolved, but was fun and full of basic tricks (until Dave started doing eggplant variations). Fuzz learned a nose stall body varial. Fuller learned the Rattray River Dance trick. And since I don’t have a good name that starts with Fu (although I’m sure you can think of one) I did the typical Glen kickflip pivot thing (although it was more back smith). We were laughing pretty hard at times. Fuzz did a nose stall revert that had a late extra revert. Things like that get us laughing and stoked. We pushed on, ended up at 18th & Welton. The barriers had snow on them. The ledge had a bit, but Dave put his gloves to use and cleaned it off. He then proceeded to do super long boardslides then worked on boardslide to fakie. It took him a minute, but he put it down. That’s a ridiculous trick. Fuzz and I were struggling with the boardslides and switch boardslide attempts. Fuzz had some sick slappy back 50s though. I got me a fun feeling run of slappy feeble stall, wallride a barrier then kickflip a steaming manhole (man that sounds bad) cover. I tried another line coming the other way of back 180 off the curb cut (man I suck at back 180s), switch mongo push (yeap Jack), sw 180 up the curb then front 5-0 the ledge. Never got the ledge trick. We moved on. It’s all kind of a blur for awhile. We hit a bunch of different parking garages. Dave did some really long boardslides. We almost got locked in a stairwell. We did some 50s down some parking garage curbs. We rolled by the elevated bank spot and all got ollie up to frontside wallrides first try. So we left. Spot destroyed. Hit another plaza for a bit. Fuzz went for a crazy ollie up then manual, but didn’t have the hops. Dave and I tried some boardslides. I got kinda close to crooks. It was pretty crazy with all the christmas lights shining all bright everywhere. We ended up at the Chase garage with the good manny pad. That place has crazy flat lighting and it was messing with me pretty bad. Dave was the only one to land a legit manual. I got a kickflip up, no comply 180 off. Fuzz was kinda chilling. Then we hit the granite two stair area that is one of my favorite spots in Denver. Fuzz did the rad little grind on the skate stopper. Dave did a cool wallie. Last time I was there my knees sucked and I could barely ollie up a two. This time however I felt great. After taking a bit to get a front shove down a two I had a rare streak of skating where I actually felt great. Did a run of front shove down a two, ollie up two and then back 180 off two. Simple tricks I know, but felt so good. Then for one of my favorite lines ever. First try kickflip down two, ollie up two, back 180 down two, roll a bit, turn around, heelflip on flat and then come back and almost backside flip a two. It was so close. I got back to the b/s flip one more time and didn’t get as close. Also came really close to kickflip up a two. Got switch front 180 down and was gonna try to line out til b/s flip again, but we got the boot which was kind of a blessing as I was breathing heavy and tired. That is the best I’ve felt on a skateboard in a long time. Made me really happy. I guess I haven’t done tricks down anything in a long time as I felt like I was landing really hard. Like my body would get jolted all crazy. This is only a two stair. Ha. Oh well, need to keep street skating like this. It’s the best.

My picks for parts of the year and stuff. The online stuff is easy to post, but a real part on a DVD still counts the most to me. So part of the year goes to Cory Kennedy in Pretty Sweet. Video of the year is the 5Boro video.

Best online part – Mark Suciu – Cross Continental.

Best not-a-full-on-part part – Austyn Gillette – Quik.

Honorable mention – PJ Ladd – Cruising NYC

All in all a pretty good year for skateboarding in my opinion. Now if only people would stop supporting the mega corporations.