Such an awesome night. I had to sell some boards to SOL after work so I went there, met up with Dean and waited for Trick Factory to show up in the Square State bus. They took so long that I was actually able to beat Allan in a game of foosball (granted I lost about 10 games). Then we hit the road to Fort Collins for the BBQ/demo. When we arrived it wasn’t that crowded, but that didn’t stop Jack and I from not skating the park. It quickly turned to chaos and any chance I had of skating the park was crushed. I watched for awhile. The Lifebloods and Blood Wizards were killing it. Especially this dude. The Fort Collins locals were shredding too. Watching skating is awesome and all, but it was super nice out and there was a perfectly good parking lot to be skated. I think I played four or five games of SKATE total. All with Jack, some with others included. I could go into tedious details, but I wont. I felt great. Arthritis was nowhere to be found, I had energy, etc. Super happy about that. Jack could have easily won all the games had he done tricks like switch heel, switch flip, etc. But he’s nice like that and would limit the tricks I couldn’t do to a couple a game. I think I landed almost every flipper I’ve ever done. Including a nollie tre and nollie varial flip in the same game. Fuzz had the three basic fakie heelflip tricks and the halfcab back heel took out everyone. It was a blast skating like this. I landed on several fakie tres and b/s flips, but never got either of those tricks. Only got one treflip too. But yeah, so much fun. At the end I started doing slappy crooks on a curb and one of the bigwigs at Lifeblood gave me a shirt. I’d like to think it was because he was hyped on the slappy crooks, but who knows, he probably just felt sorry for me. I did a few kickflips at this point that felt like the best kickflips I’ve done. Happy times. I tried to teach Conor how to do slappy crooks and rumor has it he landed one, but it sure took him a long time. Ha. A bunch of Bloods piled in the bus on the way home. Bonus.

Met up with Carleigh around 11 with the weather report claiming a 100% of rain by 2pm. It was humid, but not hot and still I began sweating right away. It felt good as did my legs. We were just kinda cruising around waiting for Dean and Crisis kids to meet up with us. I think I finally felt somewhat warmed up when they showed up. I had a little line of something like pop shove into the handicap ramp, kickflip on flat, crooks the bench. Conor starting doing long ass boardslides:

I did a little line of fakie ollie a crack then fakie bigflip into the handicap ramp. Yippee. After a bit I played Justin in a game of SKATE. We both took forever to land our tricks. I came out on top and was happy on landing a 3 flip pretty quick. Other then that I felt kind of awkward on a skateboard.

After that Dean and I headed to Denver and picked up Derek and Aaron. We were looking for a place to park and drove by “The only spot in Denver” and saw someone doing treflips down the street hauling ass. We were like who is that? Then another dude does a 100 mph kickflip up the curb and back tails the ledge. At that point Dean was like “Those dudes must be pro” and it clicked that the Krooked team was in Denver. Ha, it was Mike Anderson doing the treflips and Brad Comer. We could have lurked, but we moved on. Went to a gap Derek was thinking about. We messed around with some flatground and Aaron tried to ollie a fire hydrant, hung up and slammed about as hard as one can slam. It was like five full pushes to whiplash into the ground. He walked it off though and skated the rest of the day. We ended up at one of the funnest spots in Denver. I had some ollie up the curb, boardslides on the ledge then it was all filming for the rest of the day. Derek struggled on a feeble for awhile. Dean got a line. Aaron ripped it. I filmed. Ended up meeting Sunny Daze and I filmed Chad for awhile. Then it rained, we chatted with Tyler Bush for awhile about Four then the night was done.

Had a really blah and downer of a day. Got some stuff done early, but the day seemed to drag on without much happening. After a fun game of football with Ollie cheered me up I went to Valmont as the thunder clouds loomed above. The warm up period consisted of various slappy noseslides. Frontside, b/s, switch, etc. It was fun. Then I waxed the ledge beyond belief. I guess the wax was still warm as it had been in my trunk, but it went on so thick that Hulslander would be proud. I have been thinking about front tails a lot lately so I tried some. It was scary with how fast the ledge was and the first couple I got into slid so fast that I just kind of fell off to fakie which I was fine with. They were at least sliding which is rare for me and I followed one up with a f/s halfcab flip. I went for back 50, but did a back 5-0. Love when that happens. Also got back 50. Came close to kick back 50, halfcab noseslide and crooks to fakie. I did a ton of slappy crook stalls on the curb. Man that trick rules. I should wax that curb up too. Did a few flippers, nothing too special. Had trouble with front 50s. Never got a treflip. Got one front tail to forward that slid awhile. Then the rain came and it was total chaos. I went home and setup our new TV so the kids could watch Harry Potter. It’s my fourth TV. None of which I pay for and everyone of them has been slightly better then that last. This one was so heavy though. Can’t wait until people start getting rid of flat screen tvs.

The rain subsided for awhile and the street dried up in front of the house. I went out for awhile and started the long and tedious task of warming up. It wasn’t as bad as normal. I didn’t really land much before Ollie came out with his board wanting to skate a little. He did a fakie shove on the sidewalk and came close to some pop shoves. I had loosened my trucks a little and it seemed to help. For whatever reason I thought of trying a f/s nollie bigflip and landed on it first try, but fell off. Whoa. I got close on a few more and posed some switch f/s flips that were not close at all. Then we rolled over to the school. We went down the little handicap ramp and ollied over puddles. Ollie slid out pretty bad once it was funny. I started trying kick back tails going one way and front tail kickflip out the other. Both were remotely close. I got in to a lot of back tails, but had too much of an angle every time and would stick. The front tail kickflip out attempts were not slides and I’ve never even done a kickflip out of a tail stall before so to get remotely close had me excited. The rain came back though and ended that. Ollie had also been pushing fast and doing early grab cannonballs over cracks. He also had front and back 180s off the curb. So hyped he joined me.

My current frontrunner for SOTY for sure. Even though I know it’s not remotely possible since he’s an am and probably doesn’t skate for a company that’s paying off Phelps all year.

I’ve been wanting to skate here awhile. Carleigh already did, but it looks so fun. Carleigh had gone to a yoga class for the first time in awhile before skating so she was kinda beat, but we skated for awhile. We started by the bus stop and each noseslid the flatbar a time or two. Then we ended up at some nice asphalt. I skated while Carleigh ate pizza. There was a nice red curb and I started posing slappy crooks on it and got several. I am so happy to have learned that trick, it’s one of the funnest tricks ever. I was trying to manual a sidewalk going fast, but kept failing. Had a little line of fakie bigflip, front shove, kickflip a manhole. Carleigh struggled with kickflips the day after landing almost all of them. Skateboarding rules like that. She ended up getting a few and we moved to the main area. The fountain was spraying water in a lot of the area so it wasn’t always skateable. I took awhile to ollie the 3 stair past the crack in setup to ollie the gap and when I finally did I ollied the gap first try. Then the wind changed and the fountain sprayed making the gap unskateable the rest of the session. So we ollied the little ledge to drop. Carleigh landed on it, but slammed a few times before finally getting it. I went the pose a bunch of ollies route until Carleigh landed it and gave me the motivation to commit. Hyped on doing that. I went for a line of kickflip up one, b/s wallride, ollie the 3 stair past the crack. Fun. I should ollie gaps more because I really do like the feeling of rolling away. Carleigh was pretty much done at that point. I skated awhile longer. Did some f/s wallrides, some slow and not really landed b/s flips off the 1. Then posed f/s halfcab flips off the 1 for a bit before landing one somewhat on accident. I thought I was bailing it, but ended up landing it. Kind of funny. I ended on a really high note of doing a 360 flip off as well. Even though it was slow it felt amazing and I landed it full 360. That trick rules. I had a fun time. Sometimes its weird having new wheels on perfect concrete. It’s like it’s too smooth or something. I know I’m weird, but I think I need little flatspots to feel the concrete better or something.

Carleigh and I picked up Fuzz at Crisis then we met Nate and Derek at 303 in Denver to do a little business. We drove down to 14th & Arapahoe area. We parked and accidentally found this alley with some fun stuff in it (the little ticket building had been removed so it was a weird tall manny pad). Nate wallied up on it good. Derek nose mannie and 180 nose mannied it. Fuzz ollie up and almost manualled. I didn’t even front rock it. Then we went up to the new ledges that are everwhere on 14th, but not on google maps yet. Nate skated the curved one in the corner so we didn’t see him much. Derek did some steezy kickflips, halfcab flips and would ride on the narrow curb then pop up to the ledge. I think he got front tail and front 5-0, maybe a nose manual too. Fuzz, Carleigh and I were trying kickflip then noseslide (bs for carleigh, f/s for Fuzz and I). Fuzz and I were not doing so good with the kickflips. Fuzz actually slammed pretty hard quite a few times. My arthritis was kind of kicking in my ankles. Carleigh was throwing down kickflips so good, she backed one of them up with and epic noseslide to full body layout holding onto the ledge or something trying not to fall. It was hilarious. I eventually gave up on that line as I didn’t want to keep bailing kickflips. I would try no comply 180 or front 180 then f/s halfcab flip, front nose to fakie. I was sucking at no complies though. Derek was doing that trick too good I think he drained the area of all no complies. Ha. Anyways, I got a line of front 180, f/s halfcab flip, front nose to fakie (with a nice hand on the ledge landing) then b/s halfcab flip. Cool. Fuzz gave himself a five count, but couldn’t put it down. The Denver fireworks started going off so we made a dash to watch them, but they were done before we could get to a good view. So we skated fast away from the crowds which was really fun. We ended up here. Carleigh chilled. Fuzz had heart issues again and had to walk it out. I got a little line of front 180 up 2, sw 180 on flat, boardslide a bench through the stopper, then ollie the four stair. It felt neat. Especially the little powerslide at the end to avoid a pole. Nate and Derek were ripping. Firecracker the four to front boards on a curved ledge. I eventually filmed Derek get a sick little line of firecracker, nose manny then nollie bigspin. It’s fun downtown street skating footage. Got me hyped on the Null video again. Fun night.

Had a great day. Woke up early, went to a movie with Liz (Moonrise Kingdom super good) while the kids when to a different movie (Brave). Then got paid $30 to test drive a Lincoln luxury mobile because of some promotion they were having at the mall by the theater. Cool that paid for lunch! Then napped in the 100 degree heat awhile, did some ballet with India (sometimes you gotta make sacrifices being a dad and it seems super good for the legs so why not?), a short bike ride with India (to look at skate spots ha), some basketball with Ollie then I biked over to the mall because I had seen a ledge earlier in the day that looked fun. I biked around the mall a bit looking for what I’d want to skate first. I’ve never skated the mall before and was kinda weirded out what people would think and how quickly security would probably show up. I started at some little downhill sidewalk that would get me moving fast enough that by the end a powerslide was a tiny bit scary. The first section of sidewalk was level then it dropped into the hill. I manualled the first section, then went for a line of nose manual 180, sw 180 then powerslides. The speed for the sw 180 was scary, I never got it.

Then I found this ledge. It took me a bit to get a boardslide pop out, but when I did I followed it up with a little run to the opposing downhill sidewalk and did a slow kickflip off a little kicker then had a fun powerslide or two.

Then I went to the ledge I had saw earlier. It was darker then I hoped, but still skateable. The run up for b/s was kind of non-existent unless you ollie up the curb, but I was trying to stay hidden so everything backside was one little push. I ended up getting quite a few tricks total. Most were horrible. The roundedness of the ledge made it harder to lock into grinds then I would have thought. Front 50, front 5-0, back noseslide fakie, back crooks, kick back 50 (super duper bad), back 50, front 180 fakie f/s 50 f/s halfcab out, front tailslide and almost a front tail shove out but I saw security pull up so I just pushed off all fast and decided it was time to head home anyway. Oh yeah I had the new Henry Clay People album up pretty loud on my headphones. That album rules.

Yes! Another hot day. Was kinda slacking and should have got Ollie out to the basketball court like he wanted earlier. But got a call from Carleigh saying the bus would be at my house in minutes. Gabe and Lazer were in town. The crew was large. We started off at Rock Creek. The crew was Jake, Brian, Neil, Gabe, Lazer, Carleigh and me. I was so hyped to skate with everyone. Rock Creek was a fun start. I skated it decent for me. Brian was killing it. No new tricks I saw, but then again his bag is like 100 deep and I think he hit most of them. There was lots of smiles going on. Jake was ripping as usual. After awhile Jake and I started a game of SKATE. Oh yeah, I had a new board and new shoes.

Es Edgars and another 8.125 Null board. So yeah, back to the game of SKATE. It was going. I bashed my knee really bad on a heelflip attempt and had to sit awhile and then we left anyway. First stop was the all new Wheatridge water fountain. I say water fountain because they just recently sodded around the park and they have sprinklers running 24/7 and they run into the skatepark. What city plants grass this time of year in Colorado? Especially when there are fires everywhere? Oh well. I pretty much had zero motivation to skate while at this park. This was due to the water messing up lots of fun stuff and crowds. But TF rules it and I managed a few dumb things, boardslide on the tight qp/ledge thing above the a frame, f/s feeble grinds on the super small qp, lots of posing including a poser ollie down the double set as we were leaving I should have done. Carleigh and Gabe did lots of booger slides down banks. Gabe also did some rock variations on the tight a frame qp. Brian and Jake did a bunch of tricks on the weird qp on top of the bank as did Lazer. Neil had some nice lines as he always does. Brian did a blunt to fakie on the tight a frame qp. It was ridiculous. The running water/puddles got pretty old quick.

So we went to big Arvada. It was pretty crowded. I wasn’t in the zone. We skated the tiniest qp in the park for awhile. We all fell pretty hard with some funny and entertaining slams. After that Carleigh and I skated the brown hubba area kind of. She ollied onto it. I noseslid it. I was really bumming at that time. I retreated to solo Glen mode for awhile. Boardslid the manny pad then manualled the step up pad. That was fun. Bummed on how long the boardslide took though. Then gave in and skated the best obstacle there, the blue rounded flat bank. Did a few flippers on it. B/s flip, kickflip fakie, fakie flip, big flip, treflip to fakie (took forever), front shove to fakie and fakie treflip (also took a long time). I had fun doing that. After that it was borderline heat stroke, cold beer to try and cool off, a really fun bbq (thanks Brian) and then pass out immediately. I rove you Trick Factory.

NEW DINOSAUR JR SONG HERE! I did my ritual of listening to the song loudly once and only once. 81 days of waiting now until the album ..