Met Jason and Nate at the Mikes Camera manny pad.  I was there first and it literally took me 10 tries to land a regular manual.  I wanted to quit, but since those guys were coming I waited.  Took a lot of tries for a nose manual too.  Then out of the blue I got a first try kickflip manual.  I got a manual front 180 out which is a trick for me, came super close to a fakie bigspin manual (tiny tiny scrape) and came somewhat close to a heelflip manual which I’ve never tried before.  I tried it because I felt I had to try something new after what Nate was doing.  He landed on nollie flip nose manual.  WTF!  He was trying sw flip manny one way, nollie flip nose man the other way.  So sick.  Jason did a text book halfcab manual to slam.  A bum came over and was super annoying.  Getting way to close, demanding money, using my work phone, wanting to try our boards, etc.  He sucked so we went to the ledge.  I was pretty tired and slammed more than normal, but didn’t totally suck.  I got back board pop out first try, back noseslide first t, a few back crooks, front 50s and a slow back 50.  Jason killed it with the back 50s and front board pop out.  Nate did Jason and I’s tricks as warmups then tried back bigspin to front board unsuccesfully.  My body can use a rest.

After kind of helping Brian move his motorcycle engine I went to the Longmont park to help out with the contest.  I didn’t have to do much and kinda dorked around for awhile.  Did some no comply 270s on a curb and some front nosestalls on the curved ledge.  Then it started raining.After a huge meal we went out to the school we all love.  Well, most of us love anyways.  John, Jason, Fuzz and I skated.  Brian and Neil did not.  We started out with a session on the bank to brick just kinda doing various stalls.  Fuzz did a ton of good ones easily like front pivot to fakie, front tail fakie, blunt pivot, etc.  John landed his signature move – the front shove front nose.  Jason had a bunch of front tails.  I had a couple tricks like front smith stall to fakie and a front tail back shove out that I struggled with for awhile.  Next we skated the ledge for a long time.  And by a long time it probably felt like forever to Brian who needed to go feed some dogs and Neil who had to get back to his couch.  Lots of tricks went down.  Jason had back 50s and front 50s ever try.  He also got noseslides both ways and was close to back 180 nosegrinds and put down a textbook front smith.  John wasn’t feeling the ledge so much, but skated.  The only trick I had without much work was back crooks.  I kept going over the ledge on frontside grinds and I totally suck now at back 50s.  I ended up getting a back 50 after some work and a front smith-0.  I call it that because it felt like a front smith to me and people called it a smith, but it wasn’t quite dipped enough to be a Carrol smith or anything.  I came close to some other tricks.  Really close to front 5-0 shove.  Fuzz can skate a ledge.  So many tricks.  Front 5-0 180 out, front salad, back 50, front 180 nosegrind forward, fakie front tail, etc, etc.  He has never done a crooks pop out before and landed a few of them.  At the end of the session Fuzz and I were trying back noseslides to fakie followed with f/s halfcab flips off the curb.  We battled til dark when Fuzz gave up and I landed a really bad tic tac’d one.Feeling totally done I brought everyone to their motorcycles at the Longmont park.  John, Fuzz and I ended up skating it.  We said we’d cruise around and see how it felt.  An hour and a half later we left.  Ha.  We had a blast.  Highlights for Fuzz were front 50 the ledge on top of the euro, front blunt fakie on the side of the step up, front d on the 7′ quarter, boardslide the flyout ledge, and a ton more I don’t remember.  I had a front d fakie on the side of the stepup, cali grind manual above the stepup, the funniest and worst noseslide ever on the flyout ledge, cali grind down the stepup, probably nothing else.  John kills that park and started with halfcab front blunt fakies over the hip, front 50 the ledge near the stepup,  ollie into the euro, so much more.  We ended with a game of SKATE amongst kids that were doing tricks like switch inward heel bigspins.  We shut it down.  Ha.  It was not the best game of SKATE.  Fuzz was struggling getting off the ground, I was slower than normal, John hit his shins.  I was the first out.  I don’t know what won it, but we had fun and wow what a long night of skating.

Went up to MRKT to sell some boards and give them some stuff for their Windsor run that I wouldn’t be able to attend.  When I showed up Chad and one other dude was there who left right away.  I was so hyped to skate the park with so few people to laugh at me.  Eric from MRKT showed up after awhile and eventually a couple others, but basically the three of us had the place to ourselves.  So awesome.  Eric was working on front tails on the east wall.  Chad did a sick line of kickflip to fakie then switch polejam.  I was kinda cruising around figuring out what I could do there that would normally be too embarrasing to try.  I settled on a run where I would ollie a bump, back 50 on the jersey barrier, roll in to the halfpipe area, back 50, rock fakie, fakie smith fakie.  Never got the last trick, but was hyped to finally roll in to something taller than a curb.  Chad did another run that was ridiculous.  HUGE ollie over the b/s hip, rock fakie then cab flip over the hip.  So retarded.  I finally tried to ride over this weird wall thing that I normally wallie out of and got it second try.  Cool.  I also did a really, really bad wallie frontside grab.  Never done that before.  Also got a b/s 5-0 on the brick bank over the bench.  Before leaving Chad and I played the longest game of SKATE ever.  Chad won, but it wasn’t easy.  I struggled with treflips and of course missed all the nollie/sw flips/heels.  Super fun night.  Oh, and today is 150 days of skating for the year.  Halfway to my jock goal of 300 days of skating this year which is gonna be really hard.

After a very long stop at 303 Carleigh and I parked on 18th & Champa and went street skating.  First stop was a 2 up 3 down and neither of us really had the legs for it yet.  A few blocks later we ended up at a fun spot with a 2 stair and a weird manual pad.  I eyed up a boardslide popout down the two stair and after 10 tries I landed it.  I was pretty hyped on it.  Before I could commit to it I would have to do some kind of frontside stall on this other ledge.  If I didn’t land the stall I wouldn’t commit to the boardslide.  So funny.  Soon we ended up at a very long two stair.  Well, “two stair” might be an exaggeration because it went from the ground up.  So it started as two cracks then worked it’s way up to two stairs.  Carleigh ollied the short part lickety split.  I tried a bunch, but kept landing with my back wheels before the gap.  If there is an easy way out I always opt for it.  When I was going back to the starting spot I was doing kickflips and man they felt good.  Vulcs are amazing sometimes.  Anyways, a few more deck checks and I decided to ollie it where it was taller so I can’t deck check it and I landed it.  Awesome.  That was a long gap for me.  Basically it was a 5 foot flat gap with a slight drop.  We cruised around for awhile longer.  Not much happened for awhile other than skating a curved ledge for a bit.  I got a back noseslide to fakie and a front 50 on it as well as an attractive woman in a small black dress and heels asking to ride my skateboard.  Ha.  After that we ollied some bushes for a bit until Carleigh almost shot her board into a window.  She got up saying “I would have ran away and then noticed the security guard standing about 10 feet away.  Ha.  Last spot was a 4 flat 4 where Carleigh tried to ollie both sets one at a time (I doubt anyone could ollie the whole double set).  She came close, but before she could get both ollies security gave us the boot.  Doh.  Street skating in the city rules.

I haven’t had vulcs in forever mainly due to the foot/leg pain that comes with the added board feel.  These have some weird soles that have EVA and a layer of rubber/foam that makes them beyond the average vulc so I’m trying them.After what was easily the worst and most annoying game of kickball with the family ever (at least one kid was crying at all times) I had to get out and skate.  Carleigh was nearby and down for a short late night session so we drove to the Basemar and rolled to the south side of campus.  First thing we skated was a 2 flat 1 flat 2 flat 3 flat 1.  It was fun to try to make it down all of them and we eventually both got it.  It’s so weird landing a set of stairs then immediately rolling off another set.  Next we were by the business building and both rolled in on the kinked and knobbed hubba.  I almost went from the top, but the skate stopper in the middle of the kink is so scary.  Next we hit up the curb/ledge on the other side of the business building.  Carleigh did her first ever boardslide pop out.  I got a few of those as well as halfcab boardslide and front board.  I came remotely close to slappy front lip, but we left.  On the way out I ollied some construction tape that was between two barriers.  I suck at ollieing over stuff and was feeling it so made it taller and tried again.  Two tries later I landed one of my best flatground ollies ever.  Sweet!  The new shoes feel ridiculously good while skating.  The board feel is incredible, but I could sense a bit of tenderness when I tried treflips.  I landed one of the funniest ones ever with at least 5 tic tacs out before the walk back.  Fun night.

Was already tired from when I got home from work.  Unloading tons of boards, bringing some to FedEx, playing football with Ollie and then playing kickball with the family and neighbors didn’t help the situation.  But since I have this goal of 300 days of skating this year I didn’t really have a choice but go skate in a beautiful evening.  I called up Jake who was down and after picking him up we went downtown.  We parked by the big parking garage with the white ledge, brick bank in the basement and kicker on the top.  We went up to the top to start things out.  It was pretty surreal up there.  Seeing rooftops while you skate is kinda weird.  Anyways, we warmed up with a friendly game of SKATE doing mostly basic 180s and shoves.  Once it started getting more tech it just kinda dissolved and we started skating.  We tried some runs where we did a trick into the downhill, manualled the manny pad then ollie the kicker.  Jake slammed really hard on an ollie early on and tore up his hand.  Ouch.  The concrete up there is not forgiving.  We both kinda struggled for awhile.  We had gotten the ollies, but scraped on the mannies above around the time Ted showed up.  Even Ted had some problems ollie’ing it so it can’t be that easy.  At least that’s what Jake and I say.  Jake got a run with a front 180 at the end.  I got a no comply shove into the hill, manual, then a horribly bad front 180 to finish off the fun at this spot for me.  Ted did like 10 perfect treflips, but didn’t get the weird wallride or 3 flip footplant he was trying.After a few wallride misses in front of the garage we headed out over to Wells Fargo area.  We hit mannies for awhile.  Ted did a no comply hardflip manny.  So sick.  Me and Jake tried the most frustrating trick ever for awhile.  Front 180 nose manuals.  Ugh.  If you don’t count scrapes I landed kickflip manual and sw front 180 manual.  But I do count them so I didn’t land them.  Then we went over to the qpipe where Jake learned back bluntslides and I added front feeble grind and fakie front tailslide to my tricklist there.  Fun times even though I was dead tired by the end.

“Go Skateboarding Day”.  Pretty cheesey, but it’s nice when you can tell people like Nate that he absolutely has to skate and can’t hide out at work.  ON a nice evening Jason, Nate, Carleigh and I piled into Carleigh’s car and we met Brian and Neil at the new and not quite finished yet Broomfield park. Skelly, Mike and the Ft Collins crew were there ripping too.I picked the wrong day to be sore and unable to ollie, but we skated for awhile and it wasn’t super bad.  It didn’t hurt that I had a new deck and the new Null wheels.  Neil was there first doing nose mannies and ollie norths everywhere.  Nate started ripping  and sweating quickly too.  He foamed at the mouth with all the ledges and manny pads and even did “the Dill trick” – nose manual back revert switch manual.  Ridiculous.  Carleigh ollied up the stepup easy, almost manualed the blue pad and much more.  Jason was “taking it easy” because of back pains, but still managed 50s on the convex and concave ledges, manuals and tons of tricks on the little cement qpipe with pool coping.  I made Brian fall by saying “Hi Brian” real loudly as he flew through a corner grind.  Sorry!  He ripped the bowl, made a couple attempts at his dream trick, got some front 50s on the ledges, destroyed himself trying a back 50 and skated hard.  I didn’t skate great, but had a blast and some tricks hyped me up.  Like I said my legs were sore and ollie’ing wasn’t easy, but I got front d, front tail and front feeble on the little cement qpipe, fakie nosegrind the blue ledge, 50s over the convex and concave ledges, front 50 the ledge to drop, carved the bowl for awhile and finally landed a trick I’ve tried so many times.  A kickflip out of a side rock.  Straight out of Little Jack’s bag that I saw him do in Denver like 3 years ago.  That’s how long it took me I guess.  Ugh.  I did it on the main angled pad in the middle.  Fun session.  Another fun park.  CO is looking good these days.

Fathers day, but since I’ve spent two weeks straight with the family it was skate day.  Well, it turned out that it was father – son skate day since Ollie came along.  Around 11am Jason, Ollie and I went to the Mikes Camera manny pad and warmed up.  Nate met up with us.  I didn’t land much for manny tricks.  Got a lot of fakie bigspins up the curb, but never landed in manny like I wanted to.  Nate did a front 180 nose manual 180 out on accident.  Jason mannied it first try which is rare for him.  Ollie did a back 180 off.Later on Neil, Carleigh and Lazer met at my house and after bringing boards to Community we hit the new Arvada park which ended up being amazing.  Maybe my favorite park in CO now?  It’s a small park, but it has lots of well built goodness with low obstacles that are good for skating.  The short parking block spine rules.  Anyways a ton of stuff went down.  Jason ripped for a bit, but hurt his back once again and slept it off.  Lazer killed it.  Big ollies, grinds in weird places.  Ended his session with a kickflip over the euro and a back feeble on the really hard to skate bank to ledge.  Neils of Fire skated longer than normal.  Steezey back shoves up the euro, back 50 transfers over the hip, big ollies, and lots of good skating.  Carleigh made some new spine transfer tricks she’s never done look easy, pop shove up the euro, slammed rolling in on the 2 foot qpipe, skate hard the whole time.  Ollie ripped it too.  Board stall transfers over the spine while waving to us while he was stalled in the middle, rolled into the little qpipe, back 5-0s on the slappy qpipe, front 50 on the little qpipe, nosegrabs off the ledge and a mean mongo push.  I had a blast.  I total blast.  I did a fakie rock fakie over the spine, fakie rock to rock ‘n roll over it as well as a few front feeble to back smith transfers over the spine, front 50’d around the corner, did my first front 5-0 on tranny in forever on a 1 foot qpipe, rolled into more spots than normal, etc.  I kickflipped up the euro then kickflipped up onto the ledge without the kicker.  Also front 180 the euro and posed some f/s halfcab flips off the ledge.   I somehow even manualled the ledge which is way tall for manual for me and crooks it first try.  I ended it with a line I was hyped on.  Back 50 the ledge, front feeble the little qpipe then 3 flip on flat.  So much fun.  That park rules.

Definitely feeling the effects of sitting in a car all day the day before.  Picked up the new Null wheels in the morning and they look good.  Helped clean for awhile then met up with Jeff, Bernie and Mikey at the Boulder park which wasn’t very crowded.  We started with a few games of SKATE.  I was the first one out in the first two, but the third game went well.  I got tricks like 3 flip, frontside halfcab flip, fakie var flip and more.  Jeff got to SKAT, but beat me.  Fun.  We cruised around the park for awhile and I was not skating well at all.  I tried a few backside kickflips on the flat bank and didn’t even get close.  Ugh.  Jeff was destroying.We went to the Sussex ledge after that.  I tried to front 50 it, but didn’t get very close.  Mikey nollie nosegrinded it.  So sick.  Instead of just sitting around I skated other stuff at the spot like the little bump and the curb.  I had a run going of ollie the bump, slappy tailslide the curb to fakie then f/s halfcab flip.  Never got them all.  Never quite got a f/s flip over the bump either, but I got a second try no comply bigspin.  Skated pretty hard for how sore and tired I was.

Our cabin in Wisconsin had one of these which was so fun to open a beer with.  Made you feel like a real man.  Ha, like that’s possible with me.