Back home on the scolding hot front range. Got a bunch of stuff done during the day then took a siesta knowing I’d be skating late. Fuzz and I turned down a Northglenn park invite because as Fuzz said, “Parks are for scooters”. Ha. We had both watched the amazing Austyn Gillette QUICK part and felt like pushing through the streets. While waiting for John we went to a parking lot near Fuzz’s and got things moving quick. Lots of boardslides on a parking block, ollies up curbs, etc. We were having a blast. It was pretty funny too, as we were skating Colorado legend Travis La walked out of a restaurant he works at and hung out awhile. John eventually showed up too. We kept skating. It’s funny that John struggles with boardslides considering all the other amazing tricks he can do. It took me awhile, but I managed a slappy crooks which really hyped me up. Halfcab boardslides went down. Fuzz’s slappy 50s and noseslides were so good.

Off we went to meet up with Meta at a loading dock spot. Meta kids were going off so us three old men played a game of SKATE for awhile. It didn’t go so good. Fuzz had a heart palputation, my feet stopped working and we lost interest. After awhile we went exploring. We saw a crazy bump that Dompierre busted a huge tailslide on a window sill out of. Ridiculous, completely ridiculous. Then some dudes at a warehouse told us to come check out their miniramp. What? Ha, it was in a loading dock hole and too dark to skate, but we saw their board press and stuff. Pretty random to say the least.

I was trying some stuff on the other side by myself mostly. Ollie up the little curb, front 180 over a pallet, f/s halfcab flip. Tried a few rick flips, not even close. I got a couple ollies over the pallet up the loading dock which was fun for me, actually going kind of fast. Then I skated this door wallride thing with Jack and John for awhile. We all did the basic wallrides which was really fun. John and Jack did soft rocks. Jack did a wallride to manual. I got a f/s wallride that felt great. After that John and Fuzz got in on the loading dock ledge action. I got too tired and didn’t have the will to ollie up the curb four pushes deep. It was already like 2am at that point. Sean, Josh and JJ got some cool stuff on that ledge though.

I got back from Durango and watched three straight amazing clips. Nate sent me this one of Madars Apse. So good. Thanks Nate.

I don’t care that Mark Suciu is an am, he’s got SOTY on lock in my book. This is throw away? wow.

Wow, Austyn Gillette makes me want to go push through the streets and do the gnarliest tricks at full speed. No offense Austyn, but I think I’ll wait til this evening when the temperature drops under 100.

Woke up early on another sunny and hot day in Durango. Waited forever for Ollie to wake up and lost a bit of my motivation. For some reason I had been craving skating the six foot qp all morning waiting for Ollie to be ready. We stopped at the Board Haux to show them Four/Null and they were super hyped on both, even bought some boards. Sick! The park was almost empty. Luckily no parents yelling at kids or razor scooters. After some basic carving around for warm up I actually started skating ok. I got a little line of f/s ollie over a nipple bump, manualled the long section and then back 50 on the qp. I also got a line of switch boardslide to regs on a parking block, noseslide down the hubba (came out early though) then ride over the pyramid, pump to fakie the big qp to setup and get a fakie bigflip over the hip. Ollie cheered for that one so I guess it must have been ok. Ollie was cruising around, mostly just joking, but still skating. He had some little 180s (the hard way) on the hips, early grab cannon ball airs over the nipples including a switch one and the gnarliest trick he did was manual up, over and down a nipple. I seriously have no idea how he did it. He wasn’t even going fast. So I sucked it up on the qp after that. This always happens to me. Anytime I think of something I want to skate I can’t do anything on it. Since I had been thinking about all the tricks I wanted to do on the 6 ft qp I was doomed to not land anything other than the basic back 50. I tried hyping myself up by doing flatground before it and even landed 3 treflips in a row at one point, but no, I could not land a front disaster and eventually had to just leave because Ollie was bored and we were supposed to go tubing down the river. Oh well, I guess the fact that I was able to land several 360 flips outweighs not being able to land a tranny trick.

This years family reunion for Liz’s family is in Durango. We arrived early so naturally I went to the park to try and get in some skating before the madness started. I had thought that park was fun years ago when I was there with Jeff and the Fremont dudes. But no, it’s not. Especially when the flow section is inhabited by by moms yelling at their kids on longboards. It was some of the worst skate coach parenting I’ve ever witnessed. The mid sized bowl is a joke of transitions. My arthritis was hurting and took away any sense of confidence I had so the big bowl was too intimidating. So I just fully dorked out on the mellow hip, went slow and hucked some tricks. To my surprise I got a fakie big flip within a couple tries. Also managed a bad b/s flip and an awkward f/s halfcab flip that took a lot of tries. There is a really good 6 foot quarterpipe lining the back wall of the park. Normally six feet is about 3 feet past my tranny trick limit, but after getting axle stall first try I wanted more. I threw a few front disasters and really wanted it, but we ended up having to go. I might skate that park again, but I’ll probably just end up skating flat somewhere instead because that park is about as motivating as the Boulder park.

Had a productive day calling mega skate companies looking for advertisements for Four (I talked to Colt Cannon and James Craig among others!) and selling some Null boards at Meta. All day I wanted to skate hard, but I could tell my knees were still stiff. Derek and Chad showed up and we met up with Carleigh and eventually Dean at Wilville. I dorked around as Derek was going for revenge on a drop down b/s flip. Unfortunately he never got his revenge. Chadman ripped it too and almost got some goods. I started trying this line and it seemed like my legs were gonna work. Front 50 the ledge up top, kickflip a crack, ollie onto the ledge, ride into the bank, ollie off the curb, manual the sidewalk (at this point it’s downhill and kinda fast (for me .. derek would push downhill at it)). I didn’t quite get the manny, saw a cop and hid our boards. Carleigh wanted to ollie a rail and after it appeared the cop didn’t care I filmed her and Dean shot photos. Sickness Carreigh! After that I tried my line again and got really pissed at how much my legs had shut down in such a short period. Ugh. I would eventually get it though with a couple small *tilts* on the manual. Oh well, in a few months that shit will count (being 40 is gonna rule for excuses. Oh what’s that my tail scraped on a manual? Screw you I’m 40 ha ha). Next up a week in Durango with Liz’s family reunion. At least the park is decent there.

Up to MRKT after work with Carleigh to sell some Nulls. The weather was nice and the wildfire smoke wasn’t sticking in the air. Mike joined us. As did everyone from there because their scene rules. Mike was ripping the whole park. Carleigh and I tried to discredit it because he lives there and skates there all the time. Ha, like just living somewhere can make you a good skateboarder. My arthritis was once again not cool. Ollies were slow/awkward. I managed a little line of dropin, ollie on a hump, front rock the little barrier, then kickflip smalllly over a hump (WordPress says smallly isn’t a word. Oh well.). Then Carleigh and I raced for wallie over the barrier. I tried my best to be chivalrous and let her land it first, but low and behold I somehow stayed loose and floated a wallie before her. She did it go. It seems like most of the rest of the time for me was spent trying to do a b/s flip on the brick bank. I didn’t get close at all. People skated the ledges a little. Bonner and Andy showed up. Such awesome dudes. And rippers. At the end of the session Mike, Andy, Carleigh and I did a few various slappy grinds over the hump. Mike was slaying it and forgetting that he’s regular footed with lots of switch slappies. So sick. Andy, Carleigh and I learned frontside slappies up and over. I’ve thought about this one for awhile and got it kinda quick, b/s slappy frontside 180 revert as i came off. It felt so fun. Then I managed the otherway, f/s slappy b/s 180 revert out. Skateboarding is fun. Fort Collins is the best.

My level of excitement for this album is through the roof.

Best band ever.

October 15th at the Bluebird! Whew!

Had another one of those unexplainable bad nights of sleep. Carleigh and I went by Crisis and did some bidness with Fuzz. A homie of his stopped by and handed everyone a Left Hand Milk Stout. I was super hungry so it hit me really hard and trying to skate after that was weird. Both Carleigh and I felt nauseous. The sun was kind of blinding too. See all the excuses I’ve already prepared you with to explain my sucking? It actually wasn’t that bad. Since I’ve been mostly skating street and the ledges are harder it was almost funny how easy it was to try tricks at the park. I managed a few frontside nosegrinds which I normally struggle with try after try. Was thinking of trying shove or 180 out, but Fuzz started a game of anything goes (except tranny) SKATE with Carleigh and Keenan. I got outed pretty quick. Keenan and Fuzz lasted forever. Carleigh had some heelflips (say goodbye to those ha ha). Fuzz gave Keenan a run, but lost in the end. By the end of the session my body was falling apart and a slam hurt way more then it should. Arthritis sucks. It’s crazy to describe, but when I fall it tingles around my whole body. I’m not sure why it seems to be getting worse lately. I wish this shit would go away. But at least I’m mostly able to skate compared to last October when I couldn’t even get out of bed.

Pretty hyped on this.

Pretty hyped on skating all day after PJ won BATB5. Kinda wanted a solo session and went to Southern Hills. I did all the things I normally do throughout the day to feel good. Rode the bike at work for a bit, stretched, walked for awhile, etc. But when I got on my board it felt horrible. I’m still getting used to the new shoes, but clearly it was more then that. My knees were stiff and it felt like I had ankle weights on. Ugh, arthritis sucks. I tried to skate hard, but multiple bails while setting up for tricks is tough on the confidence. I stuck with it and did a few things I should be somewhat proud of in hindsight. But everything was done poorly and even slower than normal for me. Noseslides and crooks were the only decent tricks with speed. The crooks hyped me up because I wasn’t just doing the end of the ledge, I was getting on at the start. Granted I wasn’t grinding all the way, but it was cool. Other tricks I got on the ledge, front 50, front nose, front nose fakie, front board, front 50 180 out, noseslide 180 out (so bad) and a weird crooks to fakie. Flatground was bad too. In total I got a bunch, but it took a long time and they were slow as hell. Kickflip, heelflip, varial flip, fakie big flip, fakie heelflip, 360 flip, f/s halfcab heelflip (PJ inspired minus a half) halfcab flips both ways. I left feeling pretty old. My body is not working so well. The arthritis seems pretty bad in my shoulders and knees right now. I can’t even throw a ball to Ollie without it hurting too much. Ugh.