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.

This is a rad interview with one of Colorado’s finest.

Tired from the late night before, work and then eating a large meal with Liz. Had a few minutes while she went to pick up India so I decided to roll over to the yellow curb again. This time I was determined to try and actually skate a little more. Didn’t really work. I waxed a section of curb, but it still stuck quite a bit. The asphalt there is horrible so trying to actually move and do tricks is frustrating. With that said I did a couple crappy lines. Back 50, ollie up a curb, back 180 off. Ollie off a curb, kickflip on flat, front 50. My knee wanted to start hurting. I did a few flip tricks in the street and called it a day. I am not hyped on my body and how long it’s been since I’ve been healthy. Tomorrow marks seven months since the knee pain started.

This day had all the makings in the world to be a weird one and well, it was. The day started early enough as birthday boy Dean, Jack and eventually Carleigh showed up at my house. We headed into Denver, said whaddup to Jeff, picked up Chad and ended up at a fun loading dock spot. I did some warming up as others did. It was a reminder to what a bad state of street skating i’m in. Worrying if every ollie will hurt is not good. The only things I did badly were a crooks on a step and a horrible front shove into a bank. After that Jack and Chad slayed while I pointed the camera. We also met up with Rachel which was cool. After some driving and mingling we drove to downtown where Jack slayed a rail and we were to meet up with Tyler. Tyler and Steve showed. Rad. Then most of the of the Denver skate scene showed up too. Ha. I filmed Chad for awhile almost get a sick line, but we got the boot. We ended up at the hill spot around the corner where lots of lurking ensued while the girls skated the ledge and some random shredding started. It’s impossible to remember what others did because I was kinda being weirded out and hiding. Some dudes started going for the longest powerslides and a good ol’ powerslide session ensued. I was up top taking 100 tries to get a little manual though. Ugh. I did get it and the mellow hill bomb after felt pretty fun. We eventually left, stopped by Tabor were Rachel and Jack got buck, CARLEIGH LEARNED TO FIRECRACKER A THREE STAIR OH MY GOSH and we called it a day. This entry is way more boring than the day was. We went on to have a fun BBQ at Fuzz’s in honor of Dean’s birthday. Happy Birthday Dean! Thanks Fuzz and Leslie for being such good hosts and awesome people. Sorry for making all the hornets nests.

Bummed to see he’s not on Cruz though ..

I’m even a TPuds fan and I can’t believe this would win Tampa Pro. Not a single tranny trick. I don’t mind that he’s just chilling and walking around instead of running, but man, that is not flowing. You gotta link your run for the most part. Getting up on the deck a couple times is ok, but between every two tricks? Not cool.

I hung out with Jason all day. Hanging with him is amazing and put my minor problems into perspective. After going to the Commission best trick contest then hanging at Crisis with Fuzz for awhile we ended up at my house. We were doing some knee brace research and I came across this. Kinda hyped me up because I hate skating in that huge knee brace I currently have. I have no idea if it’s a good idea, but a knee brace meant for tendonitis seems like a good idea about now and all the reviews are incredible. I ordered one. Jason took off and Liz and the kids had just left for the library to rent some movies for the night. I wanted to skate super bad. It was 72 and sunny so Rampy would be a sin. Flatground hurts too much (I thought) and the yellow curb above just called me in. I started with some slappy noseslides and no comply 270s to tail. They felt fine. Did some stalls, they felt fine. And it just kept going. Before you read the next tricks keep in mind everything was slow, stalled, lunch breaked, sloppy and the funnest things I have ever done on a skateboard. It started with a no comply 270 to tail shove out. Then fakie tail shove out (just running into the curb fakie and shove out), then I started hucking fakie tail 3 shove and got one! Out of the blue I hucked a kick back tail and almost did it first try. No pain in the knee. A few later and the family was arriving home and I said “This is for you guys!” and stomped a clean one. I was on top of the world. India even cheered for me (that’s my daughter for the people out there that think I randomly pretended that an entire country cheered for me) and my grin was ear to ear. I ended up getting a couple tricks I’ve never done before. Kick back 50 shove out (I was laughing hysterically at how easy it felt) and I followed it with a slappy nosestall popped up into crooks. Front tail 3 shove out. Like I said all of these tricks were done horribly but I really don’t care. It felt amazing to be able to do what I did and I went inside feeling incredibly happy. Curbs rule (yes I will be waxing some section soon and sweeping the sand away)!

ps – I had some new shoes. Fallen – Slash’s. Their supposed to change colors while you skate them. Aint that cute (not why I got them but I gotta admit I think it’s neat)