Woke up to sunshine and a forcasted high in the 50s. Awesome! Then got called for work and was stuck with that for a couple hours. Had been hit up by Bernie, Dean and Neil so we met up and went to the school out on Arapahoe to get things started. At first it was just Dean, Neil and I. The first few attempts at manuals were pretty bad. Warming up when your older is no fun. But we did it and Bernie and Garret showed up. I had a switch front 180 up a curb to no comply 180 off that hyped me up. Neil can ollie more times per minute then anyone and was ripping. Dean slammed going up the long 3 and almost hipped himself on the top one. Sketchy! Bernie can manual off of something before he can ollie off it. Garret is young, but still fun to skate with and smiles a lot while making relatively hard tricks look easy. Neil put a trash can on it’s side after a curb and everyone except me did tricks over it. My ollie has turned to crap. People lost interest and went to the back area.

In the back I tried to ollie this a few times, but failed until Bernie tried it and didn’t get it first try. Then I got it. Only because I had to show up Bernie. Ha, it was just cool that it was tall enough for him to actually take more then one try to ollie it. Which him and Garret both did after that and blasted huge ollies unlike mine where as you can see I somehow popped it under the takeoff? I didn’t think that was possible.

Then we found this surprisingly good bank to wall. I say surprisingly good, but it was actually really bad, but somehow better then we thought it would be. Neil wasted no time wallriding it. Dean got close. Bernie did a cool wallride to fakie before getting super close to f/s wallrides (above). I can’t do a regular wallride to save my life. I did manage a couple wallrides to fakie which I’ve never really tried before. I tried kickflip wallrides for a bit and just kicked the wall a few times. Tried f/s wallrides where you have to ollie up the curb first. Obviously didn’t get too close to that. On the way to our cars I tried to ollie the trash can still while everyone looked on. I’m sure they were like “come on already land it” and I eventually did after slamming up the curb the time before to get me pissed enough.

Neil and I picked up Jason and brought him to the next spot above. Well, he chilled in the car, but I’ve never been to this 3 up 3 down before. It’s got lots of runway for b/s, but almost none for f/s. When we got there Bernie was trying manual varial flip out and got really close. Then he tried manual 3 shove out and got closer. Also kind of close to manual b/s bigspin out and lastly almost a manual double flip out. So yeah, that means we were there for awhile and lots of skating went down. It’s narrower on the top then I would have thought. Neil and I both took a few tries before we could ollie up it. And if Neil has troubles with it, you know it’s weird. Ha. He got quite a bit. ollies or no complies up. One foots or “Neil comply boneless” down. Couldn’t quite commit to nose manuals or back 50s on the second step. Deano skated the middle stair with me a lot. Got front 50 to front tail on the lower one. Almost front 50 shove and front 50 bigspin. Garret spent a lot of time pointing the camera at Bernie, but got in some good manuals when he wasn’t. I skated about as hard as I could and had a blast. Got some silly tricks like front 50 on the middle ledge to front tail the low one, almost got front 50 to front tail to shove out. Back 50s on the middle stair. Ollie up kickflip off took forever and was hideous when I finally landed it. Funnest trick was a front 50 on the middle one to nose pick (Bernie called it front crooks but that’s just silly) to fakie on the lower one. Got front 50s on the top some with ride out, some with front 180 over the stairs. I think everyone there but Neil could have skated there all day. Instead we moved on.

Bird bank! When we first got there Bernie busted huge b/s, f/s and ollie to fakie. They were so sick. Him and Garret then raced for tricks. Garret won kickflip fakie but couldn’t get close to f/s flip which Bernie ended up not getting either. Garret got a sick treflip fakie. I took a long time to get a b/s flip. Dean and I did some stall tricks too. Dean almost got back tail, did a sick no comply to tail. Neil did a bunch of ollies, no complies, etc. After awhile Jake showed up and joined in on some fun. We were all winding down, but he got us skating. We tried some manuals across the lower parts. I went through a slam real hard phase. Dropping in or landing manuals, didn’t matter, I’d slam. Jake and I were to wallie manual the pad, then ollie a couple railroad ties around the corner. Not sure he got the manual, but I guess he got the ollie. I finally got them too. Bernie did a crazy wallie to fakie manual turn around to manual down. So sick! Jake and I did some f/s ollies on the bank before a game of SKATE that took awhile, but I ended up winning on a treflip. Day over. Totally awesome. Not a razor scooter in site all day.

Totally cold and dreary day. I had intended to hit a couple shops, but got called for work then became rather lazy. I was able to talk Ollie into skating Rampy for a bit before dinner. He rarely shreds the gnar anymore, but he still had a blast. He did most of his tricks. B/s & f/s scratch grinds, rock ‘n roll, body varials, fakie ollies, coffins, cannonballs and a new one, fakie cannonball. I was pretty tired from skating so much recently and the weather, but was hyped to be out there with Ollie. I skated ok, but the only trick that stands out was a first try hurricane. Sweet.

Ran some boards to 303 in Denver and it started to rain. Chadman was down to skate so we went to a parking garage that the fine dudes at 303 recommended. Chadman got a nice kickflip manual to hill bomb before I could even ollie then we got the boot. Doh, the garage looked epic. We walked to one we saw nearby that wasn’t so epic, but it had concrete and slick parking blocks so what more do you need? Chadman did his best to shoot is board into the wall after ever boardslide attempt. Pretty bad Chad. Ha. It was only 34 degrees outside according to my phone, so pretty darn cold. But we skated and had fun. Chad did some crazy lines ollieing parking blocks into a narrow space between the blocks and the wall then do a trick on them. Fakie ollie one to f/s halfcab boardslide was tight. Also the wallride into the sketchy wet downhill was gnarly. I didn’t have much for tricks. Managed a couple halfcab boardslides to fakie, bluntslides, kickflips over a manhole and b/s 90 flips off a little bump. We ended with a couple games of SKATE. Chadman killed me on the first one with impossible tricks like switch heel and hardflip. No repeats on the second one which I beat him with sketchy tricks like treflip to skier landing, etc. We had fun.

Congrats Fuzz! Crisis has been straight killing it for two years now. Wow, Connor rips!

Coldest night of the season so far and the grey skies all day made me dream of east coast / europe street skating. It was 41 degrees so I bundled up, drove downtown and started with a warm up at Canyon Center with some wallrides. Went pretty good and got over the chills quick. Had some fun wallrides to fakie and tried doing some front tails on the side of a low one which didn’t really work. I decided to go without earphones and I think it works better for me. I’m not coordinated enough to be able to listen to music and skate at the same time. After Canyon Center I rolled down a couple alleys and ended up in a brick alley with a mini ledge that is almost a bank to ledge behind a big parking garage. It’s pretty good and waxed now which surprised me. I did a bunch of basics on it. Lots of stalls initially that were really fun. It’s kind of downhill backside, uphill frontside. After I did backside tricks I would try f/s no comply 360 and I landed almost all of them. So I tried a line of back 50, no comply 360 and kickflip a manhole. Well of course at that point I couldn’t land the no comply 3 anymore. Doh. I did eventually get it and somehow pulled out the sketchiest kickflip ever right next to a taxi. I felt cool for a second. I tried a bunch of front tail shoves and came close, but never got it. Posed some kick back tails and front 5-0 kickflips out. I should land those tricks sometime. I moved to the white ledge in the front of the parking garage. I haven’t skated it in forever and all I could think was how many awesome sessions I had there with Jason. So anytime I was pansy footing things I would just say to myself “Jason” like the intro to his part and skate harder. Back 50s came pretty quick. Crooks though, wow, it was like I forgot how to do them completely. I finally got a few, but I was definitely frustrated. One particularly sketchy one was followed with a speedy treflip on the bricks after and then a front board on that tall/dark bench. This line really hyped me up. The treflip going fast (for me) on bricks felt so amazing. Seeing as how I hadn’t gotten kicked out somehow yet I went for the real Jason effect and tried a line including the curb cut in front of the garage. Actually I went back even further and started by ollieing the weird 3 stair (only weird because to get speed for it you have to run, drop your board, roll off a 2 stair then curve around for the 3) then would do a pathetic ollie off the kicker and back 50 the ledge. Slammed on a 3 flip after, but felt really good doing that line and just cruising that far doing tricks. Half the time when I landed the 3 stair there was traffic so I’d have to turn quick and hug the parked cars. It kinda ruled. I started heading towards the car and went through a brief total loss of coordination and bailed up a few different curbs right in front of people. Ha. I stopped at the Canyon Center to try a few flatground tricks, but wasn’t expecting much after how many curbs I couldn’t ollie up. I ended up rattling off over 10 tricks real quick. Several of which were first try like heelflip, fakie big flip, f/s halfcab flip, b/s halfcab flip. I got a good treflip. Started trying fakie tres and almost had that first try too. Was real close the next several tries and started getting further away so just went home stoked instead. It was really funny too, because when I took my jacket off (Crisis coaches jacket ballin!!!) my shirts had completely soaked through with sweat. Guess those type of jackets don’t breath too well. Ha, that’s probably the most I’ve sweat all year and it was only 40 degrees.

There were several reasons to bail on this show. First, I was on call for work. Second, the presidential debates were in Denver and they had been warning people for weeks not to come near Denver on this night. Third, I have been feeling pretty run down and fighting a cold. But the main reason to go to this show is the completely awesome and underrated Henry Clay People. I seriously love this band and their latest album Twenty-Five For The Rest Of Our Lives is their best effort yet. I really wanted to hear it live!

It seems like everyone used excuse #2 as I arrived before Chad, Dean and Fuzz and was literally the only person there while they did a sound check. Weird, but totally awesome because I got to mention a few songs I wanted to hear. An hour and a few more people later they went on stage. Even though the crowd was lacking they played a high energy set that pretty much ruled my world. All my favorites and left me with a new found respect for the song ‘Anymore/ Any Less’. I am super hyped on this show. I know it kinda sucked for them not pulling in a big crowd, but for me as a fan wow. It was like they played a personal set in my living room or something. It ruled. Please support this band!

Henry Clay People website.

Congrats to one of Colorado’s finest. Well deserved.

Shaun Gregoire

Jordan Sanchez

Both are awesome, fun, creative and motivating.

My legs have felt like total crap the last few days. I worked hard all day to rid the arthritic/tendonitis pain (I think the tendonitis pain is a symptom of my arthritis and the arthritis was acting up due to a big change in weather coming (snow! shit!)). Lots of turmeric (which gives me the shits), ibuprofen, walking lightly, wore my tendonitis knee brace, iced my knees twice, etc. Towards the end of the day at work it seemed to pay off. I went to some stairs and jumped up/down and my legs felt pretty good. Whew. After dinner I took a nap since I’ve been feeling pretty run down lately. Man, how old am I sounding here? Drugs for arthritis, naps, got a little sore throat, ha ha. One of my complaints about street skating is that it’s hard on my legs because ollies out of the gates hurt. I need to carve around to get my legs going these days. Well what do you know, I have a ramp in my garage, maybe I should use it! So I did. I sucked it up though. Seriously slammed on an axle stall. I guess last time I skated it my bearings were still the crappy old ones so maybe that’s my excuse. I ended up not really landing anything, but lots of falling is probably about as good of a warm up for street skating as there is. So I left for downtown, where I haven’t skated in forever. I started out in some random parking lot with some funny plastic speed bumps about 20 feet apart and banked curbs. I wallied one to manual to wallie the next. Stoked me out even though they are only a few inches tall. Also did a few weak ollies on the banks. Moved on. After some boardslides on a parking block I ended up here.

This area has more then you see in the photo. Before I put the box there I tried a few lines. Coming from the back of the photo I would ride down the handicap ramp, manual the pad in the photo, noseslide the flat bar against the wall then tried back 180 nose manual on the little median a bunch of times until somehow the stars aligned right and I managed a nice slow back 180 pivoted on the front wheels without the back wheels touching at all (how’s that for a run on sentence?). Pretty hyped on that. Going the other way I would do front 180 nose manual on the median and tries switch front 180 manual on the yellow pad in the photo. I got close to the sw one, but not quite. I was about to move on, but saw the box in a dumpster and wanted to ollie over it. It took me a few tries as I was kind of timid on my old fragile legs (ha ha), but when I got it I had a fun ride down the hill you cant really see in the photo with a long powerslide that scared the crap out of some janitors emptying trash into a dumpster. I was feeling really tired at this point and didn’t want to push things too much. So I just kind of walked/skated around for a bit looking at spots. I was kind of bummed on how many spots aren’t lit anymore. I did a fakie pivot fakie on the wells fargo mini qp then rolled off down the parking lot doing a few 180s. Seems like a good place to do somewhat downhill flatground some other time. As I pushed back towards the car I managed a bunch of ollies up/off curbs that hyped me up since I was going a little faster then normal. I ended it with an ollie up a curb and ollie down a little 3 stair that I didn’t look at first. Pretty lame on paper, but fun at the time. I’m pretty glad I went skating even though I was pretty timid/tired. Street skating is so much more rewarding then park skating to me. I can’t believe how much I rambled on about a short little one hour solo session. Sorry.

Congrats to Fuzz and Leslie! One of the cutest couples out there.

Lots of fun was had all day and at the reception. Can’t believe our son Jack got kicked out. Geez, what bad parents Liz and I are. Ha, Jack and everyone else in this photo you rule!