After a nice nap, dinner and tossing a football around with Ollie, Jason and I headed downtown to skate.  We started at some weird alley spot when Little Jack rolled by and eventually joined us after playing cool guy and cruising right by us.  Not much happened here and we ended up at Wells Fargo where we skated the dinky quarterpipe for awhile.  Jack did some cool ollies in weird spots as well as a bunch of rad pivot shove tricks.  Jason ollied to front d around a corner.  I bailed pivots to fakie and tried fakie feeble and turn all the way around to land it.Jack took off for home and Jason and I went over to the white ledge feeling somewhat warmed up.  After trying some dumb quick ollies we hit the ledge where I failed miserably.  Jason got some good grinds and noseslides.  We started hitting it after the kicker and Jason as usual put down some good ollies and backed them up with long back 50s.  I was unable to snap my ollies and felt bummed on it.  I managed a back 50 eventually then another line with crooks and almost a fast treflip.  I’m finally moving more than 2mph on my treflip attempts.We left of the ‘pop out’ ledge by University Bicycles.  I finally got in the groove here.  Got a real good line for me.  Fakie flip, sw front 180 up the curb, horrible front board pop out, a i-hope-there-are-no-cars-coming kickflip off the curb, then a back 180 up the curb.  I had trouble getting the kickflip up the curb, but back boardslides were going down ok.  I tried another run with treflip, ollie up the curb, front board popout.  I landed a treflip at one point, looked up and almost ran straight into a biker going the wrong way on the bike path.  Awesome.  I thought that would be the only treflip I landed, but I ended up getting quite a few more.  They felt great and I was skating faster than normal.  Jason got a super long front board pop out to high 5 from me and we headed out.On the way back to the car I had a blast.  Got a long manual around a sidewalk corner and was going pretty fast so I didn’t push before getting a back 180 up the next curb.  We hit the new Walnut ledge on the way out and did a couple basics.  The brick section was fun and we ollied the 3 stair.  I got lucky and mannied up the RTD median and ended with a super fun ollie quick ollie over a couple manholes by the car.  Man I wish I didn’t take so long to warm up.

Another exhausted night.  Went swimming with the kids for a couple hours which was a blast, but very tiring.  Went to go skating when I got back, but ended up watching the new TWS video a couple times and almost not skating.  But Carleigh sent a text that she still wanted to skate after she skated Broomfield with TF.  We drove around a bit looking for a new spot then hit the ledge behind Safeway.  It looked dry so I put and entire test batch of graNULLa wax on it.  Other than it getting everywhere it worked really well and the ledge was going in no time.  Carleigh got a couple front 50, back noseslides and solid kickflips on flat.  I seemed to do my basic tricks pretty quick, but never landed anything else.  I tried a few halfcab crooks and failed miserably.  Basically only getting my shoe covered in wax.  Neat.

Super tired from getting up really early for work, picking up Bernie after work, driving through an intense thunderstorm to CO Springs to deliver boards, it rained the whole time we were there so we couldn’t skate, and a long drive back I went out to Rampy for a bit.  Highlights include a back 5-0 to fakie followed by only one setup trick (tail stall) before doing a first try front lip.  Other highlight was standing in a manual in the flat not moving and doing a shove it.  Yes, I am 12 years old.

So bummed I missed this show in Omaha over the weekend.  I also can’t believe that Joe and Matt bailed on it.  Posers.  Ha.

So tired from the long day and night in Fort Collins.  Went to a kids birthday party, had a couple beers and heard of an unfortunate divorce between some friends of ours.  Ugh.  It was raining and I got a call from John to skate red curbs so I was down.  He showed up, but forgot his board so he had to turn around.  I was hurting for awhile, but started trying a mellow run of manual the first curb then front tail the second.  Never got a real tailslide.  Did pose a few back 180 nosegrinds though and even landed one.  Not sure if I’ve landed that before or not.  John showed up and killed it.  He did back 180 fakie 50 to front tailslide.  Slappy sw front nose shove back to sw front nose.  No comply 270 back tail front shove out.  He killed it.  Other than getting somewhat close to a kickflip front 50 and a halfcab flip noseslide I didn’t do much.  Red curbs is fun.

I needed to bring boards up to the Skateboard Market and a few others were interested in skating up there. We hit MRKT first then went right to the streets. We started out at a fun bacnk to ledge, but the heat was intense and the tar was all melted and sticky. No one really got much. We cruised over to a nearby alley/ditch spot that we skated for a long time. Carleigh spent a long time working on a backside wallride and eventually got it. The rest of us skated the bank to ledge spot mostly. It took awhile for people to start getting used to it. Well, except for Fuzz of course. He did a bunch of tricks like front tail 180 out, front pivot 180 out, blunt pivot, nosepick, stailpick, etc. He’s good. I took a long time to get a back axle stall, but got a couple of those. Also got boardslide, noseslide and a roll in that was way harder for me than anyone else and I almost rolled my ankle on the first commit that I slammed on. Neat. Oh I also hucked an alley oop kickflip 360 that I’ll count as a 360 kickflip in my head. Sean had some troubles with front board, but put down two in a row. He was hyped on the second one and said “at least that one was legit”. He wasn’t saying it gangster at all, but Fuzz laid into him saying it was all gangsta. So funny.After a drink break we hit up a jersey barrier spot behind a gas station.  There is a hill going into it with a little drainage section at the start of the hill.  We all started trying tricks over the little two foot drainage section into the hill then wallrides on the barriers.  180s and sw 180s went down pretty quick, but when it came time to kickflip we all struggled.  I got a couple crappy ones first.  Everyone eventually got them and Carleigh put down a good one with a wallride after.  Sick.  I put down a treflip on flat and thought I’d be in the zone, but ended up not really landing anything else.  It was super hot and sunny right there.  Carleigh put down a shove then wallride too.  Sean got some one foots over the gap and wallrides.  Fuzz struggled a bit at flippers, but got tricks like halfcabs both ways over the gap.  Sean slammed super hard on a fakie ollie, but got up and did it again.  We were having a blast even though it was super hot.We rolled over to campus and ended up at a new kicker spot.  I struggled more than I should have.  The spot was rad though.  The kicker was a mellow sidewalk kicker into a parking lot that was slightly downhill.  Fuzz busted some big ollies out then, a sick b/s shifty and almost put down a front 360.  I got a couple tiny ollies then struggled at front shove.  Coming the other way Fuzz manualed everything, kickflipped in then manualed a rock then rode on some more rocks.  So sick.  I kickflipped in and b/s 180’d too and got a couple rock rides that made me happy.  I was ollieing up onto them comfortably.  Carleigh got a shove quick then went for kickflip and eventually broke the nose on her board landing on the front.  Not to be discouraged she bent it into shape then went back and landed the most perfect kickflip we’ve ever seen her do.  Awesome.  We rolled back to the original spot to film Carleigh do her wallie out of the bank to ledge.  After listening to some martial arts dude for awhile we went back to the jersey barrier spot where Sean had met up with some young guns that were destroying it.  They did no comply jam and wallie late shove.  Ridiculous.Fuzz and Carleigh went to get adult beverages and Sean and I ended up skating more.  Carleigh and Fuzz filmed us.  I got a line with 360 flip, kickflip the gap, lame front wallride.  Carleigh hadn’t really filmed before so we went for it again so I could get the wallride better and she could be closer, but it ended up not working out.  I slammed really hard on a couple 360 flips.  Fuzz was filming too and got Sean do a full cab, halfcab into the downhill then wallie off the side of the barrier.  Sick!  I changed up my line and went for nollie tre.  I put a good one down then slammed really hard on the kickflip into the downhill.  Doh.Last part of the day we went back to the kicker so Carleigh could take a photo of Fuzz’s b/s shifty.  Then we got pizza and beer and stayed in the Fort way late.  Super fun day.  Street skating is the bomb.  Look for photos from Carleigh soon.

Got a promotion and raise at work today so I was feeling pretty good. Ate dinner with the family and they all went to see a kid movie. Liz recommended I go skate so we didn’t spend the extra $20 since I have to get a huge tub of popcorn when I go to the movies. Anyways, I chilled out for a bit, listened to some music and loaded the KOTC clip below then went skating at Southern Hills. Why don’t I skate there more? It’s almost perfect. I started off really slow as usual, but had some weird kind of drive to skate faster and try hard lines. I waxed up one of the ledge in the back that hasn’t been waxed before for some weird reason. I was still using the first batch of graNULLa bar wax and it was soft and getting everywhere. Ugh. It didn’t grind or slide well, but the ledge is in perfect shape so I kept at it. I eventually got a great run for me. Front shove into the downhill part of the sidewalk at the top of the lot, kickflip into the handicap ramp, front board pop out a ledge, crooks the ledge I waxed, then almost a nollie flip. So close! Coming the other way I struggled with front 50s as they would stick so bad. But I had to get on them perfect and stick with it so I guess it was good for me to keep trying them. I got a slow front 50, heelflip, crooks, slam ollieing up the 2 stair. I tried another line of front shove up the curb again, treflip into the bank, ollie up a ledge then ollie off past a crack. I slammed so many times on the front shove and treflip. Hard slams. Slams I don’t normally take because I was actually moving. I was hyped on skating so hard and the slams didn’t hurt much other than my wrist. It eventually got dark so I gave up on the line and just ollied onto/off the bench then did some flatground. Treflip, b/s flip, fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip, treflip primo slide SLAM call it a day.

It’s been a few years since Rich has done this. Email John Doe Zine if you want to enter. It’s seriously a blast. Below is the Null clip from the 2004 contest. It’s the first clip I ever edited. You can tell I filmed it too because it’s super shaky. Awesome.

Didn’t have a whole lot of energy left after all the swimming and roller coasters the day before.  After work and playing some baseball with Ollie I went to the manny pad.  There was a big puddle from the sprinkler system (good thing it was running considering how much it rained earlier) which ended up being fun to ollie as a setup for the manny pad.  Oh yeah, I had a new deck and shoes.  Another Null deck.  Geez.  And another set of the eS La Brea shoes.  This time an ugly green.  Everything felt pretty good though.  I like when I’m sitting on a stack of decks for awhile and take the one off the bottom of the stack so it’s all flat.  Love it.  Anyways, I couldn’t get a manual to start, but I got nose mannies evertime.  I did a little line of nose man, ollie the puddle, ollie up the curb to quick up the next curb.  I was happy the quick up didn’t take 10 tries like last time.  I also got that with a back 180 up eventually.  I put a box in the puddle to ollie and managed to land every ollie I tried over it until the end of the session when it got dark.  Even when I turned the box upright so it was taller.  I really didn’t land much for mannies other than a manual front 180 out and nose manny front 180 out with a little back wheel bonk action.  I got a few nollie front shoves up the curb, but couldn’t land in manual.  Carleigh met up for a minute, but was stressing over moving her washer/dryer so she was too preoccupied to lay down a kickflip nose man nollie tre out.  She left and I killed some time seeing if I was gonna get the washer/dryer by exploring around Sunflower grocery store area.  I ended up in front of Rocky Mountain Kids and spent way too much time trying to get a quick ollie over a rug followed by an ollie up onto a planter then 180 off.  There was like 4 cracks right in front of the planter then two more on top of it.  After quite a few failed attempts I figured I was just being dumb and moved on.  I cruised around a bit, but didn’t really do much.  No wonder spots appeared over night or anything and Carleigh gave her nice washer/dryer away to someone else.  I went home and set up some new wheels since it sucked having everything else new with old wheels.  Am I officially a whiny bitch when it comes to decks/wheels/shoes yet?  Man I hope so.

Took the day off work and surprised the kids with an action packed day consisting of swimming at the Bay, eating out for dinner and then Lakeside in the evening.  I was beyond exhausted and sick by the end of the night.  Such a fun day.