Went to film Bernie at the industrial bank in Longmont after work.  I warmed up for a bit while he warmed up.  I dropped in about 3/4 of the way up the bank, but that’s not much.  I did a kickflip first try for him on flat saying he would land his trick first try if I did that.  But he didn’t.  Two hours later after some hot cocoa to warm up from sitting in the cold filming I played a game of SKATE against Bernie.  I felt bad, but apparently not as bad as he did after running down the bank 50+ times.  I think a switch front 180 even got him a letter.  I did nothing to brag about, varial flip was probably the techest trick.  Why do I sponsor him?  Ha ha, just kidding.  Bernie rules.  Tricks into that bank are gnarly.

I tried to come up with some April Fools Day joke about how I quit skating, but I’m just not that funny.  Plus who would ever believe it?  On a windy and colder night I picked up Jake after 7 and we went to Stonehenge.  On the way there we talked about doing front 180 up fakie ollie off.   That didn’t seem to likely at first when we both couldn’t get a clean manual.  We gave up on a clean manual after awhile.  Jake got an ollie up the tall side turned around and nollied off.  I got a front 180 up the taller side and a f/s halfcab off the shorter side.  Then we started the line we had talked about.  Jake and I did it totally different, but it was cool.  He would do front 180 up the tall part and turn around for the fakie ollie.  I would do front 180 up the lower part to fakie ollie off the taller part.  After getting those Jake tried halfcab up and kickflip off, but it started to get too dark for flippers.  I went the shove route and did fakie bigspin up, front shove off which really hyped me up.  I followed that with a clean manual finally and we called it a day.  On the way back to the car we hit the old bank to curb.  Jake did front pivot and I did front tail, front d and back axle.  I used to skate that spot so much.   It’s still fun.

Nike makes funny commercials along with soccer, tennis, basketball and football shoes.

Such a rad dude, style and bag of tricks all in one.

Neil and I both got off work early and it was pretty nice out so we met at my house then went skating.  We had no real spots planned out and parked on east campus thinking we’d start at the steep bank spot.  It had a bunch of snow and crap in the runway though so we bombed the little hill under 28th and ended at Silvermine Subs where we ended up skating the curved ledge for awhile.  At first neither of us had anything for that ledge.  The setup is insanely short.  After awhile I landed some horrible noseslides and tried to line them out with a manual on the sidewalk across the street.  Awhile later and I was getting crooks popped out forward and still not getting the manual.  Neil got some crooks to fakie after awhile too and managed to eventually put down a nose manual.  Sick!  We tried quick upping the sidewalk before the ledge too, but it’s way quick.  It was fun trying to line stuff out there because we had to weave between traffic, pedestrians and longboarders.  I was doing a lot of unnecessary powerslides too.  So fun.  We got kinda bored after awhile and roamed around a bit.  Jason, Carleigh and Lazer showed up and we went back under the tunnel and skated the ledges for awhile.  Jason got some good noseslides and Neil some good tailslides, but it was kinda whatever.Lazer, Neil and I headed out to the nearby ‘old folks bank’ and on the way skated a few things.  Ollied onto a narrow ledge into a driveway bank and ollied a 4 stair.  Also got a f/s halfcab flip on the way in a sketchy asphalt section that hyped me up.  At the bank to ledge Neil sat down and Lazer busted some cool crail tricks.  I started out good and got back axle and pivot pretty quick.  Then got front tail first try and got a 360 flip on flat to follow it up.  I tried kick back pivots for awhile then kinda worked into kick back tail attempts and eventually landed on.  So hyped.  It may have been suski’d though.  Either way it hyped me up.  Jason had joined and did several basics with his patented 20 stair landings.  I ended the day with a front smith stall on the curb then a fun hill ride on the way home.  Awesome times.

Got home from Estes Park around 11.  Unpacked, ate some food, watched some skating and picked Jason up on the warmest day of the year so far.  We went to ballparks for a very unmotivated and weak session.  Nothing more than back noseslides and front 50s were landed.  Oh, well Jason did some front noseslides of course, but that’s like rolling off a curb for him.Next we met Nate and Carleigh at the Rainbow ledge.  We skated harder here, but the wind really picked up and made it kinda hard. Carleigh got a noseslide.  Jason did some really long front 50s, front boards, front noses, back 50s, back board popout.  Nate did everything.  He got into nollie front lips so easy I thought I could do it.  Nope.  He got a back board popout to fakie really quick, landed on back board popout bigspins (wtf!), front 5-0s, he skates ledges too good.  I got a back board popout, crooks, front 50 shove out and some long back noseslides.Nate had to take off and after a refresher at the convenience store we skated the manny pad.  In an hour I really only landed a nose manual front 180.  Took forever.  Came close, but didn’t get kickflip manny.  Carleigh never got the manny and Jason mostly chilled out.We picked up Lazer and Jake and went to Rock Creek where Darin and a crew of skaters was already skating.  I sucked on the ramp for a long time.  Took forever to land anything and the coping was so sticky.  Some lame razor scooter kid kept going between everyones runs.  Ugh.  Lazer skated well and took a really bad slam.  Jake’s warmup run was so good.  Jason can grind really far.  Darin never bails.  I finally got a run with more than one trick at the end and it felt pretty good so I went and played a game of SKATE with Darin.  Ended up being one of my finest.  Darin got me on hardflip and an impossible.  I landed several tricks first try and got him with f/s halfcab flip, 360 flip, fakie bigflip, something else and ended it with a first try nollie treflip.  Sweet!

I was more tired than I should have been from a snowy hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Ollie and I went to the park on another nice, but windy day.  Somebody had shot paint balls at the park so there was wet pink paint on all the obstacles.  Luckily there was a dirty old hoodie lieing around so we cleaned up with that.  The warm weather and high winds dried up everything except the ledge area and a streak near the table top thing.Ollie ripped it.  He did a halfcab rock on the quarterpipe, manualed the table top without scraping a few times, tried to grind the 4 ft qp, and learned full cab kickturns on the flat bank which he then proceeded to do everywhere.  Hyped me up.  I finally landed a back 50 on the weird bank to curb, manualed the ledge, did some ollies on the qp, got a first try front tail on the small qp, got a front D on it too and skated the tranny more.  This was all fun until I got into a sketchy back 50 on the bank to ledge and decided to commit resulting in a really bad slam.  My shoulder felt pretty jacked.  I skated for awhile longer, but nothing special.  I had more fun just watching Ollie have a blast smiling up a storm and skating like a kid.

After a nice relaxed morning in the hot tub, some bowling and ice cream Ollie and I headed to the mostly dry Estes Park Skatepark.  I started off mostly just wishing the puddles weren’t there so I moved most of the ice that was built up.  Took about 10 minutes and most of it dried by the end of the session.  Ollie was cruising around having a blast.  He was dropping in on the 4 foot quarter pipe and manualling across the flat of the table top.  After having some troubles getting used to the non-Rampy coping I finally start being able to do grinds on the coping.  I started feeling good after a run with an ollie on the little pump bump, frontside ollie well under coping on the quarter pipe and a front 50 on the smaller q-pipe.  Then I tried a run with ollie onto the table top, kickturn and a flatground 360 flip and somehow pieced it together first try.  I also got a back 50 on the tall q-pipe first try.  I need to skate more bigger tranny, it’s kinda fun.  Next was an attempt at another line of ollie onto the table top, b/s tough guy on the quarterpipe, front tail on the 3 foot q-pipe, nollie tre.  I never got the front tail though even though I would get in almost every time.  So frustrating.  Ollie was ripping.  Rock fakies on the 3′ and then out of nowhere manualled almost the entire pump bump.  So smooth like too.  He also got a willy grind on the 3′, b/s ollie on the flat bank, numerous manuals across the table tops and smiled the whole time.  After awhile the puddle in front of the flat bank to ledge dried up and I was unsuccessful at getting a back 50 on it.  Ugh.  I closed out the session by taking forever to land a f/s halfcab flip and slamming while trying to ollie the flatbar.  Not sure how I had so much fun, but I did.

Jason picked me up on a somewhat cold day and we went and picked up Nate then headed to the Louisville skatepark to meet Neil and skate.  I was in a pretty good mood and feeling somewhat flexible for how early in the day it was and all.  We started in the snake run and a couple runs in I slammed pretty good because a back 50 came to a halt and I got tossed to the flat.  Fun.  We moved around all skating the park our own ways.  Jason never seemed to really warm up and Neil took a few unmotivated runs between complaining.  Nate was skating decent.  He got a long back nosegrind popout amongst other good stuff.  I got crooks pretty early on which felt great.  Jason tried a bunch too, but can’t get the popout.  I tried a bunch of front 5-0 shoves and never got them.  I managed a back 5-0 front 180 out on the little ledge, but it was weak sauce because I came to a halt before doing the 180.  Oh well.  I was skating hard, but in retrospect I didn’t land much.  I got a few slow 360 flips, but couldn’t get bigflips on the bank, back 50s, kick back 50s, front 5-0 shoves, etc.  Shortly before having to head home Zak from Nebraska showed up.  He Joined Jason and I in a bank to ledge session.  Jason probably put down the most, but none of us were landing much.  I got a front smith, front tail and a kick back 50 lunch break.  Jason had some good back tails and Zak was hyped to skate something different than he’s used to.  Good sessoin before the Griswalds hit Estes Park.

Carleigh posted up some photos from last Saturday’s session.  Me front feeble when trying front 50.  I’ll take it.Jason front smithCarleigh var flip.  Bad photo – me.  But hey, I think I took some other ones that were good too, but she liked this one the most.  More photos on her blog.