Everytime I go to Fort Collins I’m in love with their skate scene and skaters. This time was no exception. After hitting MRKT up I rolled over to Northside with Jake. The park was almost vacant. Awesome. My arthritis hot pocket feeling was in effect so I avoided ollies for the most part and for the most part kept it mellow (aka my skating was shit). I did manage a line starting near the flat bar of wallie the corner of the mustache barrier, front tail stall on the brick bank, wallie over the other end of the mustache barrier. Jake was ripping some big ollies and 270 transfers on the far side. That park rules. We tried noseslides for awhile. Jake was trying back nose to fakie, fakie treflip, kickturn then front nosegrind. Never got the nose grind. I was trying front noseslides and sucking. Landed one horrible one. Tried a bunch of back noseslide 270 shoves out. Didn’t really get that close. I’ll blame the arthritis. Next was the miniramp for awhile which was pretty fun. I got a few Rampy tricks (front d, back slash revert, fakie back smith fakie) wanted more, but Kyle showed up and shut it down on his opening run. Jake had done a sick no comply 180 staple gun though. Struggled for a rock ‘n roll on the taller barrier then pretty much just dorked around after that. Mike had showed up. Kyle was ripping one footed blunt slides on flat. Mike proved you can do treflips on 8.75″ boards. Jake has tres on lock. I did dumb 2mph back tail stall shoves on the little bank thing near the wall. Even though my arthritis was in effect I had a blast.

Met up with Carleigh, John, Fuzz at Crisis and Jason showed up! We shot the breeze for awhile then headed over to Broomfield park. Jason hung out and watched. So rad. At one point he even gave John some advice on back 50s which worked. Anyway, for me the session wasn’t so great. The chilly temperatures had my arthritis kicking and I could tell as soon as I put my board down that I would struggle to skate decent. Oh well. The things that did make me happy were first try kick back 5-0 (although I came to a halt), front feebs on the quartapotty, trying to boardslide the tiny rail (haven’t done something like that in months) and almost getting front 5-0 shove on the black box. Awhile into the session the arthritis in my ankles became too much and the hot pocket sensation had me on the bench. Carleigh was kinda cruising around on her own. I saw and early flatground kickflip, but she was swearing about how she couldn’t do them so maybe I was seeing things. Saw some nice boardslides on the black ledge, front 50 shove attempts and an awesome varial flip wilson. John and Fuzz were killing it. Fuzz had front nosegrinds, back tails, front tails, front lips, bluntslides, fakie 50 halfcab out, staple guns on the bank (so gnarly) and so much more. John skated maybe the best I’ve seen him skate. Bigspin front noses to fakie, no comply 270 back tails with slides, front tails to fakie, treflips, halfcab flips, and a banger front 50 down the 6 stair hubba. He killed it.

Carleigh, Max, Dean and I headed out to Denver around noon to meet up with Derek at Denver Park. It was sunny and warm and it felt great (unless you are Dean who had the audacity to bitch about the warm weather wtf!). Derek showed up and as expected made our warming up look really dumb. Even Max, who was just sitting around sore from the day before who joined to pursue his social butterfly skills. Derek’s casual frontside wallride became motivation for the rest of us to do regular wallrides. Carleigh has done it before and after a good slam put them down on the regs. Dean and I battled it for awhile and were super close. I finally got one. Then we headed up to the downhill ledge spot for Derek to try a line he’s wanted to get forever.

When we first showed up the Denver Shop crew was there. Everyone was kinda warming up and stuff. Nathan Fantasia was killing it. The gap to manny gap the second 2 was crazy. Tyler had some nice flippers. Carleigh was doing downhill lines. Steven Gritz was killing. It was awesome. I did may manual first or second try and slammed pretty good on a powerslide on the roll away. Scraped up my elbow pretty good. Oh well. Then it was time to film Derek. He got his line! Hyped. After saying goodbye to Derek we went back to the 5 sets of two stairs as I wanted to try the early grab. I got it and it felt as dumb as I had hoped. Felt great to film a trick. Dean killed it too with four firecrackers then a front 180 in front of a cop car.

After that we kinda chased the Denver Shop dudes for awhile then met them on top of the Magnolia Hotel parking garage. They redid the parking lot and now there is a gap over rail. There is also sick concrete there and I basically skated flat for an hour straight while Steve and Nate went for tricks. It was fun and hot and awesome. I did most of my tricks except for the elusive treflip family. My no comply 180 followed by a f/s halfcab flip was my favorite. Most everyone else skated flatground too and it was fun.

After that we ate some food at Wahoos then went to a loading dock gap over rail for Carleigh. She’s 0-2, but that’ll change soon. Then we hit Broomfield park for about 20 minutes of pure awesomeness. Dean was ripping and landing on treflips! Get those dude! The last time I was at the park my arthritis was still too bad to skate. This time I felt amazing and I skated the best I have in a long time. Got back 50s on the blue curb, back 5-0, back 5-0 shove, kick back 5-0 almost, front d on the quartapotty, front feebs, ollied and manualled the downhill blue ledge, nose manualed the blue ledge, basically felt like I could skate again! This knee brace rules (even though it broke kind of)! I want to skate more!

Gran Taylor showing why is SOTY, Bledsoe with one of the best back tails ever, vets still killing it and Crocket and Johnson showing why they are now pro. Insane!

Another insanely nice March day. After playing football with Ollie for a couple hours I skated for about 20 minutes in front of the house. My new knee brace rules! I wanted to add one new flip trick I haven’t done since the pre-itis days and it turned out to be f/s halfcab flip. Love that one. I tried a bunch of nollie tres too and got really close once. Struggled at 3 flips again. Kickflips felt great. Jason showed up and we headed over to Dean’s to work on the magazine.

My new knee brace arrived in the mail and I didn’t hesitate to put it to the test. After selling boards to Crisis and 303 Carleigh, Fuzz, I and eventually John hit downtown Denver for some shredding. A few people we knew were at 303 and asked if we wanted to roll with them. We mentioned downtown streets and the reaction was “Ewww”. They mentioned Denver park and we were like “Ewww”. Ha ha.

The three of us started above the downhill 16th st mall ledge spot at a huge set of stairs. 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2. It’s a great warmup because all we did initially was ollie and firecracker each set. It’s a blast. Fuzz and I did doubles without ollies or firecracker. Pretty funny. A couple older 30 somethings riding down two stairs. It was a little foreign to me initially since I haven’t hit any stairs in awhile. I wanted to early grab all 5 holding on the whole time, but could only do two. We firecrackered out and went down to the ledge spot. Carleigh worked on front tails and got a good one. I tried to manual from the curb cut to the two stair, powerslide, then boardslide popout. Never got close. Fuzz and I messed around with some downhill lines that were a blast. The first one was manual a sidewalk section, ollie onto a sketchy ledge and off, ollie off the curb cut then head on downhill for some powerslides. It was at this point I started believing in my knee brace and really skating. I was so happy after that line I probably had tears in my eyes. We messed around there awhile longer. I failed at ollieing one of the white posts. Had a fun front 180 into the street and a downhill switch 180. We decided to move on bombing the hill and heading right. I blew it though and bailed a curb ollie and got to watch Carleigh and Fuzz cruise down while I ran after my board. Dork! I caught up and surprised myself with an ollie up a curb then somewhat quick front 180 up a two. These are the things I’ve missed so much. I ollied the little curb above the 4 stair thing at the World Trade Towers to 30 stair landing (I was worried that impact would hurt (it didn’t! (whew!))). We went to try some wallrides, but got the boot and ended up at the marble ledge between the Sheratons. Fuzz got a boardslide to manual pretty quick, but had to avoid a taxi on the ride out and hit a crack stopping him. He tried and tried, but didn’t get it again. Not even letting a dog attack and slober all over his board would help. I got a front board transfer to fakie. It didn’t slide, but it felt really good. After no less than 10 calls for directions John showed up. He killed some noseslides and switch slappy front noseslides. We pushed for awhile. I slammed trying to front 180 a manhole. It hurt. We skated a mini curb cut thing. John called out back 180’s as the first trick. They did good ones. Mine was horrendous. I’d rather go backside flip. Ha. Which I eventually did with some nice toe drag. Fuzz and John got some good front shoves. Carleigh got back 180. John, Fuzz and I tried and failed at treflips. My back ankle was hurting in an arthritis type of pain. No knee pain though still!

Man this is a long journal entry because I haven’t street skated like this in so long! We hit this ledge area by the Convention Center that is new and amazing. The ground is perfect. I had fun ollieing some manholes quick. Fuzz did front 180 the first sw front 180 the second. So quick wow. John had some good noseslides and then we started trying lines. I did a no comply 270 to back tail stall then kickflipped a manhole (without popping the tail somehow) and then ate shit on a noseslide. It felt amazing. Sure I would have rather landed the noseslide, but slamming is a part of the game and I haven’t done it enough lately. I got up hyped beyond belief that I was skating for real. John did our trick (no comply 270 to back tail) on a bench (so tall for that trick!). So crazy. Fuzz went off for a minute doing noseslides to fakie then coming around and trying some weird no comply sal flip variation to front tail. He was having troubles missing the grab on his board (that wanted to go far away on a Voyage) so he used my board and nailed it first t.

I thought we were done, but we realized we were right next to a fun parking garage that Fuzz and I have bombed into before. I got a little gap to manual quick for me, but couldn’t manage the speed to get around the corner. John bailed at the first sign of security, Fuzz went for his line still of ollie a kicker, manual then hill bomb. He made it all but the manual. Night ever. Glenny stoked to skate for hours and not have knee pain. Lets do it again friends!

This part rules.

insane.

I really needed a day like this. After a nap, basketball with Ollie and some leftovers the kids wanted to watch one of our family favorites, The Incredibles. Even though that movie completely rules (especially the part when Dash starts running on water) we have seen it so many times. I opted to go skating. I decided to wear my big knee brace until the tendonitis brace arrives. I had a brand new board that was still hot off the presses! This is the new 8.125 shape. Seems good. I got deep on the griptape art. Looks simple, but really it’s a pile of rocks to remind me to be patient and get my skating back one step at a time.

I went for a solo session for several reasons. First, I just want to dork around to relearn stuff and I’m too embarrassed to try some stuff with anyone around. Second, who knows how long my knee will hold up. It could be five minutes and I’m done like it was in Denver the other night. I started with slappy tailslides, worked up to front 50s, manuals and then pretty much started trying everything. I didn’t land much and if this was a year ago I’d probably be complaining about how little I did. But for where I’m at right now I was hyped. I skated hard, broke out in a sweat and even slammed hard a couple times. Man it felt great. I tried a line of front 5-0 on the little curb, front tail the taller one then b/s flip on flat. Never got a legit tailslide, they all stuck and I’d get off right away. Got close to halfcab noseslide the taller one then kick back tail the second. Took awhile to get a manual, tried to line it out with kick back 50, but never got kick back 50. I did commit every time and they were close though. Tried a few nollie tres. Got some back 50s. Ollie over a yellow flat bar. Almost got a nose manny. Mostly basics and I have a long ways to go to be happy with my skating, but man it felt so great to skate hard, sweat and fall down.

I obviously did not know this person before reading this, but thank you for making skateboarding better. RIP.