Skated in front of the house for a bit. I would try some tricks, wait a bit while the pain settled in the knee and go again. I tried a line of frontside 180, fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip, but never got it. Around the time I tried 3 flips the pain seemed to hurt more so I didn’t want to push it and went back inside and iced it.

Had a horrible day at work. Went home with the intention of meeting at Crisis by 7, but I fell asleep. It was much needed and Jake, Fuzz and Dean showed up at my house around 8 anyway. We went to campus. It was super nice out. Dean was free. We dorked around a little bit before ending up at this kind of long median manual pad that’s downhill. It took us a long time to get one and of course Fuzz was first. I eventually got one and both Jake and Dean had gotten really close. I was noticing that my stance felt really off and I seemed to be completely on my back (right) foot doing everything. We went to the steep bank spot at the bottom of campus. Jake owned this spot. First t rock ‘n roll then first t axle stall. I had done a fun wallride then went for axle stall and a couple tries in something happened in my knee and I had to sit in pain for most of the evening. Ugh. Those dudes had a fun session. Dean got a caveman nosepick. Fuzz did a lot too like pivot, blunt pivot, back pivot to back tail, back smith, etc. It was really the Jake show though. Back hurricane, front feeble, front pivot, nosepick, stalepick, roll in, so much more I can’t remember right now. So sick! We went up under the engineering building. I basically just tried manuals without really ollie’ing and powerslides. Thank god for being able to do powerslides, because they were a blast and kept me from being completely depressed about my knee. Everyone did some cool lines. Dean skated hard. He did a fakie dogpiss into the first “bank” then fakie ollie into the second. No comply 180 into the first, fakie ollie the second. Jake did kickflip then nollie front 180 and more I can’t remember right now. Oh I did a little fakie ollie into the first then a sw front 180 into the second which was probably stupid and hurt my knee more then it was worth. Fuzz did some rad fakie around the world then front 50 the ledge. Slappy noseslide, front 50, then an uphill front 5-0. On the way back to the car I fell trying to push switch. Ugh. Then we went and had a beer and ranted about how lame the skate industry is. Bitter old dudes. But seriously though, get out Nike, you don’t belong here.

Went out to Valmont to meet Dean and try to get a photo of him for Nullozine Jr print edition. He was already setting up the flash and went right to business. I was feeling pretty energetic, but sitting and playing Atiba for an hour kind of drained it. After Dean left I then had a couple long phone calls and then was supposed to go hang out with Carleigh and Jack before she leaves for “an adventure”. I decided I needed to skate a little and ended up skating really hard solo until Jack and Carleigh showed up. I waxed the crap out of the ledge while I was on the phone so it was really good. I really wanted to get a front tailslide. I didn’t get a good one until after they showed up. And it wasn’t good, but it did slide and make the noise. I tried a lot of flip tricks that I didn’t land. Switch frontside flips felt close even though they weren’t. I didn’t do much else geez. I talked with Carleigh once they got there for the most part. Jack ripped it. Oh I have a video clip I should maybe not upload because the quality is horrible.

Man this is such a great edit. Why couldn’t the new Real video be edited this good? And wow it works so good and he even does the unproper 5-0 to fakie on a bank like me. This must have been after the phone call from him to get tips on nollie tres too.

This is seriously amazing! Draw on paper and it goes right into vector graphics on the computer. Oh man!

With my ankle wrapped up for added support and a knee that was still hurting I went out skating with Ollie. That’s all he wants to do these days and I think it is impossible to say no when your kid asks you to go skate (not that I need much convincing but my knee and ankle are not feeling too good). We started at a little bank spot with parking blocks at the bottom that has been a longstanding favorite of his. Right out the gate he was ripping. He ollied into the bank above the sidewalk and back 180’d off the curb (going somewhat fast) within a couple tries. I figured I should try it and it took me more tries and my back 180 wasn’t even as good. He officially is better at back 180s then me now. He also back 180’d into the bank then did a halfcab off the curb. He tried a lot of flyout 180s both ways, but didn’t get too many. He seemed to ollie up the curb almost every try though which is normally tougher for him. Other tricks he did that hyped me up were backside ollie on the bank, back 180 up a curb, front board on parking block and wallie up onto the bank off a parking block and turn around and ride out of it somehow. I was being conservative (old) on my hurting (old) body, but managed a few things that hyped me up. A little line of backside flip on the bank carving into the sidewalk then kickflip off. Also a line of pop shove on flat, backside ollie onto the bank then crappy backside flip off the curb.

Then we went to Valmont and skated the manny pads for awhile. I did a nose manual back shove out first try and started thinking about the nose manual nollie treflip out that’s on my list. I wanted to do nollie front 3 shove out first and got remotely close but it seems like I should just try with the flip while I’m at it. I had tried it in a line of front shove, manny, nose manny huck and flail out. Never got close to the nollie 3 flip out, but it still feels possible. Ollie was cruising around ollieing up curbs better than he ever has and 180’ing off both ways at speed. The ollie onto the manny pad then front 180 off quick was my favorite.

Then we went around to the loading dock area and Ollie said he was gonna try to ollie off the top part for the first time. He did it easy. Then he did it again for the camera. This skate dad needs to document his every step! Ha. It is really cool to watch almost every step of someone progressing at skateboarding though. I tried to 50 the ledge after that, but my knee was really acting up and we decided it was time to go anyways. Fun night.

Some good photos and write up of a day out with Carleigh on a Girls Skateboarding blog. Good work Carleigh.

After a crazy Friday/Saturday of camping/partying for Zach’s bachelor party I attempted to skate a little with Ollie. I was as hungover as they come and my knee hurt like crazy. After doing some business at 303 we rolled to a park we have never been to before (first one in this montage (skip the helmet kid to Jimmy)). The park was crowded with kids doing everything but skateboarding. Ugh. I mostly just cruised around and did a few grinds and front rocks. Nothing special. Ollie ripped it though. He did rock fakie, back rock and front rock on the narrow sections of the qp. He also put his board up on one of the benches and did 180s off it. One of the back 180s was super good. His ender was the carve the qp up onto the ledge then back 180 off. So sick. He’s super into skating right now and even asked me to clean out the garage so Rampy could be skated. Awesome.