Day 2 started at Donut Hill as well. Same crew, but no Drew, he would meet up later. Riley was super beat up, sore and tired. I was feeling better and instead of filming I skated. Other then the weird pain in my side only when I would drop in I was good. I got grinds around the corner (top left in the photo above), scratch grinds on the pool coping on the top right and carved tile in the deep end. I was hyped. Dan was ripping too and got a front disaster. Not bad for a dude that claims he can’t skate any tranny over 4 feet. At the very end Matt said you cant treflip on big boards so I beat him to a treflip challenge. Take that Matt! Ha as if I’m that defensive of big boards. We went to a few spots, but Riley wasn’t feeling them. Then we ended up here:

Drew knew the people that live at this and invited them all out for a session. Everyone was super good except me. You had to roll through a little dirt patch and it messed with me so bad. I only managed rock ‘n roll, front rock and a weak little crook/jib thing. One of the dudes did kick back tail. So rad. Riley killed that thing. He got a bunch of tricks including a stalefish disaster. WTF? Oh and it was first try. After that Drew had to go so we went back to Fremont. Matt and joe had shown us some good spots and we ended up at a bank to loading dock manny pad where Riley got a banger. I skated with Joe a tiny bit before Riley got close and we were playing a game of SKATE, but I was sucking to new levels and was happy to film Riley. Last spot was a pretty long 3 flat 1 that Riley committed to sw heel on, but rolled his ankle bad. Doh. Day done, session over, sleep time. Riley it ruled seeing you. Drew, thanks for the amazing tour guiding. Motive, you guys are the best.

So hyped to see Riley again. It’s been way too long. Riley and his homie Brandon picked me up i Fremont then we met Matt, John, Dan and Drew at Donut Hill. I tried to skate, but it wasn’t really happening with my side. So I filmed mostly. Everyone killed it. We went to spots, Riley and Drew got tricks. Things were groovey. Filming lines seemed to somehow strengthen up my side and around dusk I was finally able to skate a little. We were at a bank to rail spot. Riley and Drew filmed sick lines. Joe and i did some little tailslides. Matt got an ender. Crooks to forward. So gnarly. Dan manualled a lot. A Element pole jam was brought out and we dorked around on it. I hadn’t really done any regular pole jams, but then they wanted to film a sequence of all of us doing pole jams so I had to man up and did a few of them. The bigger setup sure is nice for that. Riley did about 10 different pole jam variations including switch 180, back 180 and skier. So sick. After that I started posing my dream trick of no comply pole jam finger flip. I was getting close and Dan insisted on filming it and somehow I landed it. Pretty hyped although it was kind of a weird one where I held onto the board for awhile and stood there. Oh well, we had fun. Then we crashed at Joes.

Still dealing with the side pain quite a bit and it caused my neck and upper back to go to shit as well. Ugh. On top of that a 9 hour drive to Omaha and I was dropped off at the park to meet up with Joe. We skated the mini snakerun section. I was sucking. I tried a hurricane and that set my side off. Ugh. I posed around the rest of the night, but that was about it. Came close to an axle stall in the 7 foot section. Joe killed the ledge. Fakie hurricane, hurricane, back 50 boneless out, so many tricks. He was ripping. Drew showed up and killed the park bigtime. Crooks transfers on the tall flatbar, back 360s over the hip and atf ripping. Cory Foster and Trey were there too. Not sure Trey landed any tricks, but Cory did some insane stuff. It was funny seeing them do some “Muska flips”. And we were out.

Met up with Bernie and the Commission dudes at the Winona ditch for a skate jam. I just watched of course and filmed with Bernie’s camera. The casper flip that went down was pretty sick. Some other good stuff went down. Click on the photo of Carleigh for Jack’s photo blog of the day. Next spot was a long ledge. My side had started hurting and I thought I could loosen it up with a little skating. Nope. It got really bad. So bad I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get in a car. Luckily it takes people forever to land manual tricks and it loosened up enough could at least get in a car. Jack got a sick manual. Chad and Derek almost did.

This was a reminder why I normally avoid skateparks in the summer. It was packed. But it wasn’t that packed with actual skaters. There was at least a dozen kids on scooters, bikers, ICP worshippers, gang bangers, dogs, lurkers, people trying to bum cancer sticks, drunk dudes calling me newby and saying nothing in this world is better than beer except for pussy, and the list goes on. Well, with that said on to the skating. The crew was pretty awesome. Carleigh, Jack, Connor, Fuzz and John. Carleigh and I skated the bowl for a little bit and got the legs going. After that I kind of just tried to hide out in corners and dork around doing dumb stuff. I think I killed about an hour doing that. The ledge area up to cleared out and I joined Jack for a flat bar/ledge session. It’s kind of weird northGLENn is the park I associate most with my arthritis pain as I tried to skate there when I shouldn’t have been skating at all. So there are so many things I haven’t even tried there and have to overcome my silly mental blocks. Basically I’m just making excuses for sucking. Jack was trying back bluntslide 270 out on the flat bar at the top (seen here in picture 15 look at Derek in picture 15 yes!) and I’ve wanted to boardslide it forever. It took us both several tries but we got them. Jack’s trick being ridiculous of course. I boardslid it a few times and was hyped. It’s not a big rail by any means, but it’s the biggest I’ve done since the arthritis ordeal. Jack also did boardslide 270 shove and crooks on the following ledge. He told me to do boardslide the rail, crooks the ledge so I did it first try. Although the crooks was about 1 inch long. I blame the big trucks. I messed around for awhile again, not sure what was happening. I ollied the little part of the step up poorly, but first try. Bailed the kicker flat gap. Lost horribly in a game of SKATE with Connor and Jack then ended up back at the bowl with John and Fuzz. Both were ripping it. John had feeble grinds. Fuzz had a run with a ton of tricks including a fakie rock in the deep end that impressed me quite a bit. I didn’t bail axle stalls and I got tile in the deep end. I might have even scratched a little frontside slash in the shallow. Pretty fun. Some weirdness happened after that and I ended up soloing it trying noseslide 270 shoves (not close), b/s flips on a mellow bank and treflips on flat. I got about 5 treflips before the lights shut off. Happy to have landed tres on the big board and they felt fine. Kind of a weird skatepark night, but it was fun.

Carleigh, Jack and I met Brian and Neil at the old Lville tech center bank to wall spot. My OCD about board sizes had taken over and I went big, setup a 8.38 deck with some Thunder 149s I found in my garage a few days ago. Yeah I suck, I’ll give my 3 day old 8.1 to someone worthy though. Jack and I found a nearby different bank/dork spot that was super fun. He was doing cool lines of ollie over a curb, ollie back over it, then bigspin pivot to fakie. Not sure he got the big piv fak. I had a couple back tails, front board stalls that were fun. Then we went to filming as Brian wanted to do alley oop wallride. He got super close, but broke his board which messed with him. That’s what happen when you don’t skate Nulls. Jack on the other hand was on a null, and he got a banger of a trick. Ha. I was feeling out the board and rolled my ankle on a nollie shove. Ugh. Somehow and I have no idea how, it didn’t hurt. I guess having rolled it numerous times over the years helps out for something. I tried a couple wallrides, but never really committed to trying it. Brian and Neil left then we just tried manny tricks over and over. Jack did some neat balancing acts. Carleigh scraped the crap out of her tail. I might have done nose manny front 180 out, but I think I touched. Posed nollie bigspin out a couple times. Manualled a taller part of the pad. Couldn’t nose manny it though like Jack did every try. We left for trivia night, but Jack and I skated a curb in front of the liquor store for a few minutes. It ruled.

Jake and I rolled to Lafayette and met Fuzz, Neil, John and the Old Man Army was there too. Upon arrival the park was crowded with the things that make skateparks lame. Lurkers, bikers, scooters, etc etc etc. Fuzz and I almost bailed on it, but we stuck around. People started with a flyout ollie over a rock. I wasn’t in for that and just dorked around the park for awhile not landing anything. I couldn’t even do a fakie flip on a mellow bank or front 50 the bump to ledge. I got in the snakerun action after awhile. Everyone else was doing ollies over the rounded hip. I did a kickflip to the upper bank. Kind of a kickflip wallride, but it’s too mellow to call it a wallride I think. Then it started raining and a short intermission was taken. After that John and Fuzz played pivot to fakie. Jake, Neil and I played on the tight bank at the entrance of the park. Neil was trying front 50s, but not so lucky. Jake did back blunt which is ridiculous and attempted a few front blunts. I got a few basics and added front feeble and front pivot. I was really hyped on the pivot. I was also doing some little b/s flips n the mountain bank. Fun. Everyone went over to the little qp and I stuck at the entrance. I kind of got a line of wallie up the qp, 360 flip on flat, turn around, ollie off the qp, b/s flip on the bank then front 50. I was going for front pivot and the 3 flip had a 3 point landing. Tight. My board was driving me nuts though. It felt so small when I would ollie off the qp and kickflips were feeling weird. Maybe I’ve finally got my board control back enough that I want a bigger board again. I went over to the little bowl. Did a couple tricks like hurricane and front feeble. Neil snaked everyone. John rips. Jake did a back blunt. Fuzz did back 5-0 to back d and a bunch of other steez. Then we had a couple beers at a nearby bar and called it a night.

Got out of work pretty early, wasn’t really feeling up to street skating after a nap and it was raining anyway. So I dug Rampy out of the garage sale mess and found different homes for a bunch of unwanted junk. I was super hyped. It’s been since the end of February since it’s been skated. Warming up went ok. I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Tricks that felt good to do again where fakie pivot fakie, fakie Joe Hamilton, front disasters almost every try. If I bailed on a setup trick I would attempt nollie flips in flat (none were remotely close). After awhile I was bummed on bailing the basics and started posing tricks. I wanted to do front 50 to front lip for whatever reason. Gave up on that one. Then thought of kickflip front disasters and posed about 20 straight. None close, but they felt doable on something mellower. I figured I should try at least one old man trick too so I tried those frontside lein to tail things with a the front foot on the deck. Riley does them hella good. I don’t know what they are called. I ended up getting one where the tail never left the deck so I’m claimnig I did a sweeper. I was really hyped though. I have never tried anything like that. I got another one but my board was kind of in the air and it went really slow. Still, it was at least a trick I don’t normally try and something that might show my age a little. By the end I was a sweaty mess, it was super hot in there. Fun though!

Another super hot day. Carleigh is still on IR, but said she wanted to hang and film. So John and I decided on the gnarliest 2 stair/curb spot in town. It took us awhile to warm up and the wax was like a puddle on the curb it was so hot. John had some slappy tailslides early. I got one fsng on the curb and backed it with a really bad no comply 180 off the “2” (2 is in quotes because it’s the smallest 2 stair ever). This is the first nosegrind I’ve done on cement and not at a skatepark. Neat! We started doing lines up too. John was doing front 180 up, halfcab flip, but struggling with the halfcab flip. I posed a couple kick back tails to see if I could get close and ended landing one of the three in my life that actually locked in and slid. The camera came out, but I had a feeling I had already landed my good one. John did get a line, but I’m not sure how hyped on it he was. I had trouble with the kickflip up, had a few heelflips to back it, got really close to kick back tail, but never close enough. John slammed super bad (above) and we decided to move on.

After some Xing Tea and a break we ended up at this bank spot. John and I each got boardslides. John almost got a crazy feeble grind. I kind of landed a crook/nosepick without a grab, but definitely slammed (above). Fun day, frustrating that we could film that much and not land what we wanted to, but oh well. We skated hard and had fun. Thanks for filming Carleigh!

Had to work the late shift which gets me out of work at 6. My hands/knees/body have been feeling some unwanted arthritis pain. Enough that I was scared to lift weights at the gym because my hands might lose their grip. Ugh. I met John at a Chipotle in Longmont and we headed up to MRKT. We had planned on meeting Andy and Mike to skate wherever. Nate, Jacoby and Jake joined us. This is the only city where people just kinda gather at shop closing and go out and skate together. Whoever is around, no cameras, just go skate. It’s amazing. We dprked at a weird little bank spot initially then moved on to some curbs. Well, Andy, John and I skated these, but everyone else moved onto some taller curbs. This was a fun warm up. The curbs where low enough frontside and backside slappies went down. John even did back 50. Unheard of. I was struggling to feel my board, but having fun. Andy was ripping. One of the best styles around for his age. We moved on and joined the rest of the crew at some more curbs. This spot has been around forever and just recently painted again. It’s one of the few spots I actually remember skating back in 93/94 in college. Nate did a sick crooky on it. Jacoby had a sick halfcab noseslide. Andy had a good boardslide transfer. Mike did some 20 foot long boardslides. John and I were trying lines with boardslide, flip trick then ollie the gap over the curb and grass onto the sidewalk. He did it pretty quick. I wouldn’t to do boardslide transfer, but the transfer part wasn’t working. Everyone else moved on to the 2 up 2 down, but I wanted to keep trying for that line. I got a slow/tiny switch boardslide transfer, kickflip then ollie the gap to 90 degree stop. Oh well. The 2 up 2 down has been around for a long time too and I remember some great sessions with JP in the late 90s. It was at this spot that my arthritis really seemed to take hold. I struggled ollieing up the two, never got manual, took a long time to get kickflip up and when I finally did I was too close to the handrail and jammed my thumb on it so bad. The pain was insane, but luckily mostly temporary. Oh and I was apparently uncoordinated enough that I cracked my tail ollieing up the two. That takes special skills. John had a quick manual, learned firecrackers and tried for front 180 up, halfcab flip on flat, back 180 off. Mike manualled it, manualled to firecracker and manualled all the way to the street. So sick. Andy had manual easy, kickflips up easy. Nate, Jake and Jacoby left for food. We moved on, got some water in the student center and ended up at the Clark building. We started out on the hip side. John almost died trying to ollie down the 3 above the other 3. Mike ollied the 5. I did a few tricks over the hip including a b/s flip which might be the only trick all night I was actually hyped on. We skated a nearby rock for awhile. Mike and I dropped in on it. Andy almost did wallride to fakie on it. Then we hit the 2 stair with a 3 above it area. Andy had a sick manual at speed. I did a bad ollie up the 2, front 50 the bottom of the 3. Front 180 up 2 and kinda close to f/s halfcab flip off (homage to JP circa 93). Mike did switch firecracker down the 3 then 2. So sick. Hyped me up enough to try regular firecracker down both. That was pretty much the end of the night. We walked back to the car. Good times, great old guys. Ha ha.