Another one of those saturdays that has nothing short of 20 phone calls just to go skate.  A large crew assembled at my house while Jake and I played a couple games of SKATE.  I won the first one and was feeling decent.  The second game kind of dissolved as it was time to move on.  The crew was Bernie, Sam, Rob, Brian, Lazer, Jake, Dean, Carleigh, Jason, Neil and me.  Whew.  Three cars.  The first stop was the OG Louisville tech spot.  Double sided curb and lots of wood pallets to pile stuff up.  Lazer and Brian got some crazy ollies over a wood hip.  Bernie was manualling a pallet (two pallets tall and for some reason very awkward) then trying front tail 270 out.  Jason was doing 200 foot long boardslides.  Sam was skating as well as I’ve ever seen him skate.  Rob and Dean were doing their thing.  Carleigh was setting up a board.  I wasn’t skating too well, but kept at it and ended up getting a line full of poorly landed tricks that still made me happy.  Ollie up a curb, kickflip off, heelflip on flat, front 50 the ledge, nollie treflip no speed landing.  After awhile Lazer got crazy and tried to back 180 the wood pallet hip.  He paid a bunch, but eventually got it.  So sick.  Neil was doing some ollies off the pallet, manualling the two tall pallet and trying crooks shoves.  I tried front shoves out of the pallet for awhile, but didn’t get it or even commit.We were gonna leave, but Bernie was trying some crazy wallride on the top of a pallet.  I brought my camera over and he did it in like two tries.  So sick.  Carleigh, Sam and I skated the ollie into the bank then the little gap for a bit.  We all got the easy route, Sam got front 180 quick and I eventually followed.  Some more skating around the area went down.  Jake was trying to ollie two cones, but never got it that I could see.  Rob was doing some cool b/s shifties off the little kicker.We eventually left for the mellow bank to tall ledge/wallride spot.  Some sat around.  Dean rolled his ankle on a no comply.  Neil worked up to manny to the bank, no comply tail.  Jason did sone rad alley oop front noseslides. Bernie made us all feel old with a first try kickflip pivot.  I got a couple front 50 stalls quicker than I would have thought.  Tried back 50, but didn’t get close.  Rob was trying too and didn’t get it.  Jake took awhile to get a front 50, but when he got it it was gold.  Sam was ripping nose mannies.  Brian tried alley oop front wallrides for a long time.  Lazer got front smith stall.  Carleigh was popping some nice ollies and almost got a back nosestall on the ledge.  After awhile I tried wallrides and came remotely close.  I committed, but can’t figure out how to not land primo.  People were ready to leave, but no one could come up with a plan so I just skated flat for awhile.  Treflip, heelflips, halfcab flips were on.  I think overall I was 50% on treflips for the day which is really good for me.We eventually left and went to Broomfield park.  I was sore and did nothing but dork around for the first 30 min.  The park was super crowded so I really didn’t see much of what anyone else did.  Lazer and I had a crappy game of SKATE on the quarta potty that was mostly just interrupted by kids standing in the way.  He did get me to finally do f/s pivots on it though.  I did some slappy mannies on the blue ledge and put one into 5-0 and got the shove out.  Rad.  Did one slappy manny into back lip and tried to shove out.  It was goofy times.  Derek, Chris Jones and Daryl were there too as well as other buddies.  I eventually started actually trying to skate and did a few things I was hyped on.  Back 5-0 shove out, double flips, front feebs on the qp.All in all one of my better days of skating.  Dean took these photos with my camera.  He’s a way better photographer than me.

The man, the myth, the legend Rob Helmstetter was in town to help celebrate the grand opening of Fuzz’s new shop Crisis.  After we hung at the shop for a long time we made it over to the Broomfield park.It was really hot and we basically had the park to ourselves.  We had a pretty mellow session going.  Rob had some nice manual and nose manuals around the blue slant.  I don’t remember anything really standing out for me.  I guess I tried to wallie into the bank and landed it with a deck check and was happy to get a grind around a corner in the bowl.  After awhile new guy Derek showed up and we all played a game of SKATE after Rob and I finished up one (I honestly can’t remember who won but I think i lost on a b/s flip).  The game of SKATE was hijacked by one of Derek’s friend that landed a bunch of tricks in a row.  After awhile I just started filming a Derek park montage and snapped the above photo of Rob back smithing the brick qp.  Nice new Crisis shirt!After that we hit Community and sold some boards then hit the little Arvada park.  It was mad crowded with young kids and teenagers.  Most of which weren’t really skating.  We were able to cruise around the masses without too much inconvenience. Rob got a sick manual coming out of a qp and going a long time before rolling back in.  We both got front slashers on the steep bank (new for me).  Other new tricks for me were back feeble on the steep bank and fakie 50 transfer the spine.  We didn’t stay too long, but it was fun.

On the way to 303 Ollie and I hit Zuni park for awhile.  It was pretty crowded.  I kind of treated it as a day off of skating and didn’t ollie once, just skated the 3 foot qp the whole time.  I got quite a few tricks.  Front 50, front smith, back 50, back smith, back disaster (3rd one ever!), front lip (took way too long), front feeble (took too long as well), and the one that put the biggest smile on my face alley oop fakie back 5-0 to fakie.  Fun.  Ollie didn’t rip as hard as last time, but it was crowded and I think he was intimidated.  He got some back scratch grinds and almost ollied over the little kid table top.  But he smiled the whole time and wasn’t afraid to fly out into the grass, ride down the hill aways and jump and roll in the grass.  Being a kid must rule.

Headed up to Market with Bernie and Carleigh to sell some boards then skate campus since it was dark when we got there.  I had mentioned a manny pad I wanted to skate and everyone was down.  We acquired some crew at MRKT.  Chad Dad, Chris Jones, Andy Bonner.  Awesome.  We started off down the sidewalk to campus and it was already awesome.  Everyone popping little ollies, mannies, Chad hitting me in the face, it was awesome.  First spot was the ol’ two up two down that I used to skate with JP forever ago.  Seeing as how there were six of us I’m probably gonna blow it on remembering everyone’s tricks so I’m gonna go for a new format.  Two up two down:Bernie: The best kickflip manny I’ve ever seen.  Manual around the corner and down the block like it wasn’t even a trick.  Almost nose manny too.Carleigh:  Pop shove and kickflip down.  Almost a kickflip up.  Oh yeah she claims she’s never ollied up a “set” of stairs before.  I don’t buy it.  Ha.Bonner: Nose manny around the corner to the end of the block.  Ridiculous.Me: Manny.  One in a “line” where I mannied then at the end I rode down the stairs on my front wheels (I’ll never be able to do that again) then ollied a cone that was setup.Chris: Manny around the corner to the street like it was nothing.  Nose mannies.  Almost kickflip up, kickflip on flat, kickflip on flat, kickflip off.Chad: Still got it.  Almost kick nose manny.  Kickflip the cone.  Way more then I can remember right now.Next up was the most messed up spot.  Basically it was a 3 flat 2 flat 2 flat 2 flat 2 flat 2 flat 2 flat 2 then a 4.  We all looked so dumb riding down it, but it was totally awesome.   Here’s a blurry cell phone photo of a Bernie back 180 bail.I know, the worst photo ever, sorry.  But it literally went way up into the dark by that building.  It took everyone several tries to get to the end and multiple attempts to finally land the 4 stair at the end that has no setup time.  Bernie was the first to get the whole thing and it kinda went from there.  I was super hyped when I finally got it.  My ollie down the 4 stair was so bad, but I didn’t feel like trying it again so I quit.  Bonner ended up getting a kickflip down the 4.  Chris Jones had an insanely sick drop down the 3 followed by ollieing a 2 flat 2 as a double set then landing in a two stair basically.  Chad manualled into the 3 and almost got kickflip out.  Carleigh got about as close as you can get but ended up hanging up, diving and hitting her head pretty bad.  She was fine though.  Bernie held down the tech line with a manual drop to manual across the bike path in the middle then a back 180 down the 4.  Ridiculous.Next was the manny pad that Chad does his ender in Null And Void.  We acquired a college student at this session.  Plaid shorts and a Null board.  Awesome!  Bernie almost got halfcab nose manny drop to manny.  I basically did manny drop to manny first try, but touched a little then never got it.  Chad tried some cool stuff, but didn’t get it.  Carleigh came close to manny.  Bonner and Chad Dad took off at this point and we went to the new area with the curb kicker and rocks to skate.  We were pretty beat by then.  Bernie and Chris went for some tall ollies and grabs.  Chris even ollied a weird curb cut gap at full speed next to a wall.  Jude (? the college dude’s name I think) had a huge heelflip and some other moves.  Carleigh put down pop shove and kickflips pretty quick.  I was so beat, but put down a kickflip and a quick front shove before failing at some ollies that were one foot tall.  Ha.Super awesome session.  Totally what skateboarding is to me.  Push around and skate whatever, meet people, skate with homies, skate with people you don’t know so well, do it all, man it was fun.

This part really hypes me up to skate.

Got off work after another crappy day, fell asleep on the couch, ate dinner, swam with the kids which cheered me up, then boxed up some boards for Fremont Matt and brought them to Fedex on Baseline.  Skated around for a bit after that.  Just kinda warming up there was a cone after the kicker and I ollied it a couple times before skating the parking blocks by Subway.  Got a few lines.  Sw front 180 over a parking block, ollie the weird kicker under the sign, ollie onto the sidewalk, ride off, ollie onto the sidwalk, ride off, ollie a curb to little drop.  Sw 180 a curb, kickflip another curb, wallie off a curb to manual off the two stair.  I got the wallie mannie first try which hyped me up because I’ve tried that way too many times.  It helps they redid the parking lot.  Then tried another line with sw 180 the curb, halfcab flip, kickflip over the curb then wallie manny.  Didn’t get that again.  I also dorked around on the curbs a bit.  Got front lips, front blunts, back blunts.  Tried back blunt shove, but didn’t get close.  Then I went over to the C ledge on campus to try and get ollie up 180 off without pushing.  It’s kinda tall.  Normally when I ollie onto it I lose my speed, but I was getting some good ollies and the 180 off came easy.  There is a little gap out so it’s extra fun.  Since the 180 was so easy I wanted to try front shove.  The bench has a weird slant to it and it made it way harder than it should have been.  At least that’s the excuse I’m going with.  It took forever.  I went through various waves of exhaustion where I had trouble ollieing up the bench, but eventually put it down and cruised right down the bike path to get out there nearly getting hit by a biker without a light.  Cool.   I ollied a little parking block gap on the way to the car and called it a fun night.

After a run to 303 Jason and I went to the Broomfield park.  We met wannabe Nuller Derek there.  Ha.  Before we even got out of the car I already saw him doing some pretty ridiculous mannies.  Lots of pivot 180s in the middle of mannies, 180s in, out, shoves out.  When Jason and I started it wasn’t very pretty.  Both of us were sore and had troubles ollieing up the downhill blue ledge to setup for the porta potty.  Jason was doing mannies almost every try on the blue ledge though.  Front feebles on the qp were feeling better than ever for me.  We messed around on the top for awhile.  I got a few f/s flips on the bump by the bowl and followed them up with crooks slams on the black ledge.  Jason got a sick back 180 up the euro.  I failed to ollie up it.  Ugh.  Back down the the lower level I got a run with nose manny, front feeb, back 5-0, treflip.  Then tried nosegrinds forever and never got any without a little tail tap on the way out.  Argh.  Jason wrecked himself trying a nose manny and sat out the end of the session.  Derek was doing some crazy front 180 switch 5-0s to fakie on the brick qp.  Some dudes showed up in basketball shorts, shirts and shoes (Nikes are basketball shoes kids).  They had the worst styles ever, but were somehow doing some decent tricks.  One dude could pop over a tall cone easily.  I guess that makes sense, basketball players can jump high.

Super tired from what I don’t know.  Had a mellow day, but it felt like my cold was coming back.  I went to the Table Mesa shopping center for about 30 minutes.  I started at the bank with the long manny pad and the wallrides.  I had a couple manuals that were 3/4 of the way which felt good.  I’d be so hyped to some day do the whole thing.  I came close to some b/s wallrides and got one switch front 180 to wallride.  I didn’t have much drive though and was kinda just passing the motions.  I went over to the library and posed a few attempts down the 3 flat 1.  I’m compiling a list of tricks I want to do in Boulder before I turn 40.  Ollie’ing that is one of them.  I got a couple years, but I should probably figure out that list.  Other tricks on it so far are 50 50 Sussex ledge, manual Willville, ollie a bench gap at Southern Hills, maybe ollie the St Julien 9 stair, etc.  Maybe I’ll make it official some day in the future when I get it narrowed down.

John, Jason, Carleigh, Neil and Brian met at my house.  Fuzz and Lazer would meet shortly.  First spot was the ol’ bird bank in the tech center.  Things got started in typical fashion.  Neil pulling something out to ollie over and amazing everyone with how easy it is for him.  Brian building a wallride.  Carleigh skating hard and falling a lot.  Me feeling like I stepped on a skateboard for the first time in months.  Etc.  It was a good start though, everyone was skating pretty hard and making due with a mediocre spot.  John had a line with something like treflip on flat, ollie the Neil thing, back tail on the bank.  He wanted shove though.  Carleigh was ollieing a little crack gap then trying kickflip then f/s ollie on the bank.  Neil was doing kickflip then ollie his ollie contraption, no complies on the bank.  Brian was trying some crazy rock fakie wallrides.  I did a line that felt good for how early in the session it was.  Kickflip a little crack gap, ollie Neil’s contraption, b/s flip on the bank.  The b/s flip felt good because I didn’t pivot it at all for once.  I’m sure I made up for the lack of a pivot by not popping it.  John, Jason and I got into a fakie flat bank session while others were doing some wallrides on wood leaned against a dumpster.  Fakie ollies were hard then John and I started going for fakie front shove (John) and fakie flip (me) while Jason tried halfcabs and then full cabs.  Jason got all of his first and I eventually got the fakie flip, but it took forever.  I sat down to rest for a minute and thought we were leaving, but instead it was time to film Brian.  For some reason I complained a bunch about this and got in a sour mood over basically nothing.  It lasted the rest of the day though.Brian was trying frontside grinds on this and got one.  It was ridiculous.  Jason did some super sick powerslides on it too.  Fuzz and Brian also did boardslides to fakie, John and Fuzz joined Jason on the powerslides as well.  After this was break time.  Drinks, food, a visit to the Lafeyette park that’s under construction and a general feeling of crankiness and no motivation.We went to a nearby bump/hip spot that is really fun.  Fuzz, Neil, Jason, Lazer had some great ollies quickly.  Carleigh and I seemed to have lots of problems getting used to the spot.  Which is a bummer after how much fun and how well I skated it last time I was there.  Fuzz and Neil did some wallrides on a brick wall that looked really good.  Brian layed down to sleep right away and pretty quickly Lazer, Fuzz and Neil joined him for some beers.  It was just Carleigh, Jason and I skating.  Me sucking and Carleigh seeming very frustrated.  After awhile Jason slammed hard pushing and retired to his car.  Carleigh and I skated awhile longer.  I had finally gotten a couple good ollies landing in the downhill and didn’t feel like bailing kickflips so I started trying slow b/s bigflips which I’ve never done on a hip that I know of, and definitely never done a good one on flat.  It took awhile, but I eventually landed a really bad one rolling away at slightly over 45 degrees.  Sweet.  Carleigh had landed a couple good pop shoves and started trying kickflips.  They were supposed to be hard since she basically had it first try.  But .. it was not Carleighs day.  And after several tries I got out the camera to snap some photos thinking it would come soonArsty bailed kickflip shotSo bummed.Not even a goofy TF squad could cheer Carleigh up.  Especially when Neil pulled the ulimate dick move and said he’d do it first try to show Carleigh how easy it is.  It amazes me how clueless Neil can be sometimes.  I kept messing around with photos and eventually took my new favorite photo with the new camera:After Neil spoke up Carleigh quit for the day.  Some goofing around happend for awhile before we farted and went to dinner at the TF staple – 3 Margaritas.  It was a good meal with the highlight being the wait staff singing happy birthday to Carleigh and slamming whipped cream in her face.  Awesome.

Fuzz’s dream will soon be reality.  Please go and support Crisis and be there for the grand opening party!