It was 98 degrees when I left the house. Since I hadn’t skated the day before and all my friends were gone I was hyped for a solo session and brought 32 ounces of cold water to keep me alive. It turns out the sun went under a cloud right around then. Awesome! Although I could have brought Ollie. Oh well, I was in the mood for a solo session and it felt right. I had watched the new Transworld video two or three times throughout the day. I love that video. The soundtrack is so good too (except Beasley’s part for me). Anyways, I was hyped to skate and it wasn’t as hot as I had thought it would be. I started off horrible though. Great. I couldn’t even do a kickflip. I wanted to do a bunch of runs with a trick up the curb, then a trick on the bench. I managed an ollie up, front board jib first. Cool. Next was switch front 180 up, boardslide pop out. After that was halfcab up, front 50 which was good for me since I’ve haven’t 50’d a narrow bench like this in a long time. I tried b/s pop shove up followed by boardslide transfer for awhile, but could not get the transfer. Ugh. On the way there I thought the best I could do was treflip up the curb, then crooks on the ledge. I’ve only tre’d up a curb once before, but surprisingly it came relatively quick. I did that line once badly, then another time much better (not saying much). I ended up getting 4 treflips up the curb. Hyped on that. Even if they were slow. Coming the other way I wanted to do front shove up then front 5-0. The front shoves were going really well, but I couldn’t get the 5-0. I settled with another front 50. The other line I really wanted to do on the drive there was kickflip up, front board to fakie transfer. I came sooo close, but ended up giving up on that one. In between tries coming back I would try b/s flip up then fakie bigflip off the curb (almost) or manuals. I was getting pretty beat, but wanted to ollie something. I found a rock in the corner that had a weird approach. Perfect. I thought of a line to it and went to work. Fakie flip, horrible switch pushing, sw front 180 off the 2 stair, ollie the rock. It took a few tries and my switch pushing was so bad. I got the line with a sketchy ollie then had some speed going towards a curb and I posed kickflip front board and slid it, but fell. Awesome. I called it on that. Sometimes solo skating is the best. We went on to have a great family 4th of July dinner and fireworks.

Nate showed up at 11am and after some chatting we headed out to Boulder ditch to get warmed up. I was feeling better, but still not 100%. It was hot and muggy, the muggy part being rare for Colorado. Anyways, it was just Nate and I for awhile and since that spot is so hard to skate it took us awhile to land much of anything. We started mostly just doing the tiny qp and not landing a whole lot. Nate did get front pivot to fakie. We eventually ended up skating the ledge in the photo above. Nate did a bunch of tricks on it. The back 50 was gnarly, but then he even stepped it up to back smith! Bernie and Sam had joined us. Bernie did some really good front tails and front tail to fakie. I managed a boardslide and a little crooked grind which hyped me up.

Then we went to Crest View which is one of my favorite spots in Boulder now. I need to skate it more this summer while we can. Chad and Bonner met us. Nate was hyped on the spot and skated hard. He did like 100 boardslide transfers. One was even in a run followed by a nosegrind. Wow. Chad and Bonner were ripping. Bonner ollied one of the benches. Bernie and Sam played basketball for awhile. I started off having fun, but started to get worn out. I was still kinda sick ya know. I tired a little line for awhile with a kickflip up the curb then front board to fakie transfer, but never got it. Nate killed it. I’ll miss you dude, have fun back in Portland.

Oh yeah, around 8:30 Ollie and I went out skating. He’s been into it a bit again. We went out to a little nearby strip mall (behind Safeway) where there are some curbs and curb cuts and a metal grate loading dock. We had a blast. Ollie ripped it. He got a back 180 off of everything we skated. First it was this weird kicker. Then it was a curb cut. Then it was off a curb. He also did one of the sickest coffin rides I’ve ever seen. The metal grate spot was weird because you couldn’t just ride right up the bank, you had to ollie because there was a crack at the bottom. Ollie handled it though and did a first try rock fakie and worked up to rock ‘n roll. He also kinda wallied up it then did a back 180 off a curb. Trying to get his back I tried switch front 180 up the grate then b/s flip off, but didn’t get it. We goofed around for quite a while and it was a blast. We did some little grinds on a mini curb kicker. Ollie did front slash after a few tries then showed me up with a really long backside one. So awesome. He rules.

Felt like crap all day. Worked from home instead of going into the office. After work and a couple naps Nate and Derek met up as we were gonna go to Chris’ art show in the Fort. We decided to stop at Niwot High as it’s one of the best bench spots around now and Nate loves them benches. I basically skated like total crap and gave up after awhile and sat down. Derek ripped it. Fast back tails, nosegrinds, etc. Ripping. Nate had some warming up issue, but eventually started ripping like he normally does. Lots of long back 50s, front lip, nollie front tails, some good flippers, etc. So stoked Nate is in town, but wish I would have felt better.

Hyped for this tomorrow.

Feeling really tired once again. Liz and the kids are gone and I guess I stay up to late and can’t sleep as good when Liz isn’t there. Awww. Anyways I skated flat in front of my house for awhile waiting for John. It was really pathetic. I was skating really slow and had no hip in my hop. I resorted to trying nollie f/s flips since they were close and it’s on my trick list. Then I went for the reverse line and started with halfcab flip followed by a nollie f/s flip bail. Ugh. John arrived and we went to Southern Hills. The main ledge was a bit dry and we both struggled. John was ripping more than he. I think he got noseslide, noseslide shove, nollie back tail, front tail, front 50. I got boardslides both ways, back noseslide, back crooks, some bad front 50s and close to front 5-0 and the Joe Hamilton (aka front 50 to front board). I posed a few flip tricks around too. I wanted to crooks the whole bench and lined it out with an ollie over the two stair, but I couldn’t commit to much of it. Then we played a game of SKATE that went pretty good. Both of us landed quite a bit. It started to rain at the end and get really windy and John wrapped it up with a nollie flip. Trick sucks. Ha. Decent night for how tired I was.

New shoes (eS Edgar) and a new board (World Industries Flame Boy ha ha ha) and after a day off after Boston I felt ok. We all met around the same time (7ish) and it was still well into the 90s so it was really hot. Warming up seemed pretty slow for everyone. Bernie had some new shoes too and was having troubles. That didn’t stop him from doing his halfcab flips which are so good. Sam’s got nollie heels. He should know better since he’s pushing 40 as well. OH well, Neil busted his moves and was done before the rest. I skated pretty hard, but struggled. I had a couple back 50s. Got close to a couple kickflip back 50s. Tried a switch boardslide and went down sooo hard and almost hit my face, but the bill of my hat saved me. So sketchy. I’m not sure how hard my face out have hit if I didn’t have a hat on. I actually have a bruise on my forehead from the bill. Ha. I kept on skating and struggling. I tried a run of a 2mph backside flip over a crack, halfcab flip on flat then kickflip front board. I’ve done the kick front board once in my life, but it was horrible. I never got too close and I ruined my fresh griptape, but it was fun. I had a couple good feeling treflips. I’m a little bummed on how stiff the Worrest shoes are, but oh well.

Oh man we were beat. We were all sooo tired and sore from the day before. We took awhile, gave Rob a ride to the bus station, did some tourist shopping, then went to the horrible, horrible Waltham skatepark.

This place was worse than it looked on youtube. We made the most of it though. We did 10 tricks each on the little qp and 10 tricks on the flat bank. I don’t remember them all obviously. I know I was mad at one point during the flatbank part of it, but we did it and then went for dinner at some really good Indian food restaurant.

While Pat did some shopping we skated this yellow curb. We were going for 20 tricks total when we got kicked out. After all the spots we skated we got kicked out of this? Seriously? It was after 6:00pm so the liquor store at Black Ice was closed and we could skate there. So we did. The last session took awhile to motivate, but we did it and we had a blast.

I warmed up doing a few tricks on the bank to curb section. I finally got some axle stalls, feeble, back smith, pivot and Rob’s front slashes. I eventually got a front tail on it too. I tried a couple lines for awhile. Back pivot on the curb, frontside ollie on the bank, blunstlide over the grate. But I never got a real bluntslide. The other way I would try front tailslide, backside ollie then roll up onto the deck and kickflip into the bigger bank. I got it, but the kickflip was kind of just a silly kickflip without much speed then roll into the bank. Whatevs. it was fun. Matt killed it with kickflip up the curb, front 180 down. Wallie the curb to manny. Joe ended his night with the line of all lines. Ollie up to frontside wallride to front 180 out, front shove wallride then up on deck for the kickflip in like me. So rad. Charlie was killing it too and slamming a lot on sw heels. I tried a few treflips and ended with a couple tiny back tails on the bank. Such a fun trip. Matt focused my board since it was cracked and I wouldn’t have to carry it on the plane.

Thanks for the great trip dudes.

We started out at this spot. It looked fun like you could skate the lower one as a bank and do slides. Not so easy. It was gnarly. I don’t know the last time I was that humbled by a spot. Dave Bachinsky is seriously good. He did switch front 180 to manual to back 180 into the lower bank. That isn’t possible. It’s an 8 foot drop from the top of the ledge down to the bank and the bricks are rough! It’s insane. Pat rolled in easy. i worked up to it and did it. Matt dropped in. Joe did some f/s ollies then nearly died on the run out of the drop in. Almost worst case scenario. he lied in the grass in pain for a good 5 minutes. ouch. Then we left for downtown.

We parked right next to the infamous PJ Ladd flatground spot and then skated around the city for awhile. We didn’t really hit much until we ended up at Eggs again which is just fine because that place rules. I had thought about how I wanted to do a run that involved ollieing the 3 stair then crooksing around the corner ledge so i went to work on back 50s to start it. Took forever, but once I started getting them a few tries later I did back 50, ollie the 3 (which was surprisingly fun) then crooks for a couple feet in the corner. Rob nailed some front tails. Joe threw down some great lines. Matt slayed everything. Pat played SKATE with the locals. Charlie showed up after awhile. At the end Rob, Matt and I played a game of SKATE (Matt won) then ollied an egg which wasn’t easy for me. Oh yeah, I forgot I tried about one hundred front 5-0 kickflip outs and never got close. maybe two of them you could tell what I was trying. I also did a few 360 flips and cracked my board on one. Not too bad though (hey, it’s a Null! ha). Then we cruised back toward the car and did some sight seeing.

Then we ended up at the PJ flatground spot. This was the spot I wanted to skate more than any place in Boston. The window sills are knobbed now unfortunately, but still, this is the spot where the best line in skateboarding history went down. It felt cool to skate it. Joe and I started by trying fakie ollies up the curb then trying to do halfcab flips after. Took us a minute, but we got it. Not quite a fullcab 540 flip, but whatever. Next up Matt and I tried to 360 flip the manhole that is at the end of the PJ line. It’s way closer to the wall then the video shows. Matt was trying to one up PJ with a switch tre, but never got it. I never go the regular tre either. We ended up all trying lines down the hill which was amazing. My best was fakie bigflip, pop shove, kickflip the manhole. Pat did some crazy lines obviously. Matt and Rob tried manuals and nose manuals respectively. I tried forever to get front 180 up the curb, fakie bigflip, pop shove, 3 flip the manhole. But I never got the 3 flip. I as really close. Super fun session.

Next up we went to this ledge that smells like chocolate/mint because it’s behind a chocolate factory. Brian would never survive here. After falling pushing switch and accidently shooting my board into a huge puddle of water I thought I would sit this one out. But Matt, Joe and Charlie were ripping so I had to join in. I ended up getting a run of halfcab flip, noseslide, crooks and I was hyped. Matt did crazy stuff. Nollie crooks, smith grind, etc. Joe landed everything. Front 50 bigspin, front 50 front board pop out. Those dudes killed it. We were all so beat and the rain started so Black Ice wasn’t an option later on. We rested.

After a decent game of SKATE near Pat’s house we went to Eggs. Carleigh unfortunately had to leave. Going to Eggs was unanimous though. The spot looked epic to say the least and it didn’t disappoint at all. We got cut short due to the rain/mist picking up. But the session lasted a long time and we had a blast. Matt and Joe got so many ledge tricks and they busted most of them here. I had a couple lines I was hyped on. Noseslide, crooks, boardslide the 3 stair ledge (take that PJ). Front 5-0, front board, front 180 down the 3. Joe had some mean front smiths. Matt had some sick nollie crooks. Super fun.

We did some sight seeing, and rolled around in the rain. Rob did a ridiculous boneless to manual down a hill. Then we ended up at AQ where I took a long time to do the manual above, but no time to do PJ Ladd’s trick first try:

After that we did some chilling then went to another spot that could be characterized as completely incredible, Black Ice:

Yes, this spot is real.

We skated Black Ice for about an hour before the rain kicked in again. It was a blast. Rob had some amazing front slashes on the bank to curb. Everyone was ripping. I can’t remember much. I got a line I was super hyped on though. Wallie from a curb into the bank, front tail slide over the grate, then backside flip on a bank. It really hyped me up. So much fun.

Not a bad day for a rain day after partying so hard at Dinosaur Jr. After awhile we ended up at Orchard skate shop which impressed all of us. They have a ramp inside and let us skate for as long as we wanted to. We probably skated for two hours as we were waiting for Rob to show up. Carleigh ripped it. Matt and Joe came through with their moves and I kind of just blew it. Pat skated it a little. The vibe was great though and it was so cool to be skating instead of complaining about the rain.

Matt blunt to rock fakie, but mostly just a cell phone shot to show the ramp.

After some driving we ended up at this skatepark called Boardwalk I think. It was crowded. Rob and I skated the ramp the whole time. Carleigh joined us for a long time, but skated the ledge with others as well. There was some dudes ripping. Joe and Matt were some of them. Pat skated flat mostly, but managed to do a fakie blunt bigspin out. Ridiculous. After some troubles warming up I basically did every single Rampy trick I’ve done. Even tricks like fakie pivot fakie, fakie hurricane, front feebs, back 5-0 fakie. Hyped! Near the end Rob, Carleigh and I got in a race for a beer. Carleigh was trying kickflip rock fakie, and Rob and I were both trying kickflip pivot (or axle stall). Carleigh was first, but it took a long time and Rob and I were solid sweat before we gave up. So fun. Kind of funny that I only skated Ramp while in Boston though.