Nursing a hangover and not that motivated to skate I needed to bring Ollie to SOL to pickup a new sweatshirt as we had promised him awhile ago.  After he picked out the most expensive Spitfire hoodie we went to one of the metal parks there.  I skated like crap as I expected.  The only thing I did that came easier then I thought was boardsliding the flat bar across the table top.  I also boardslid off the taller ledge on the other pyramid. I spent a long time trying front tails on the smaller qp and failed.  Ugh.  I blame the new shoes.   Ollie was skating pretty well.  He did rock fakies on the 4 foot like it was nothing.  Lots of cannonball cali grinds with huge smiles too.  He’s so fun to skate with.

Had some morning basketball fun with Ollie then some waiting around video watching with Brian, Neil, Jason and Ollie.  Greg and his photographer buddy Dean arrived and we went off the the Canyon center.  It was a big day for Ollie as he joined us.  A big day for me because I had to be on good behavior and keep an eye on him.  After the previous session I decided I need a more legit excuse to totally suck on a skateboard so I started up with my new bright blue shoes.Yes, this is really what they look like.  The brightness kinda bums me out, but at the same time they remind me of something Louie Barletta would wear so they make me smile.  They are some I-Path Lyndhurst shoes given as a gift by my buddy John.  Thanks John!It was windy at times, but mostly it felt hot as we rolled into the Canyon Center.  Everyone warmed up on the metal banks.  Brian was trying front rocks on the tall one, Greg was trying feeble to fakie, Neil and Jason were just kinda cruising around, and to my surprise Ollie wasn’t being overly shy and was doing little wallrides to fakie and even rock fakies on the smaller metal banks.  Stoked me out so much.  I was just kinda being mellow and warming up too slow.  Eventually Greg and Brian started trying wallies and I filmed them.  Greg got wallie, wallie front 180 and wallie stalefish.  Brian got wallie to front 50 down the other side radness.  We rolled nearby to this wallride spot but got asked to leave right away.  Darn old people.  After Brian put down trick #2 for With A Vengeance (wallie gap) we left for the Canyon Center.First we stopped at a little grocery store to get some snacks.  I let Ollie pick out whatever he wanted and he chose Junior Mints.  We don’t have too much candy lieing around the house so he was super excited.  We got to the Canyon Center and Greg went to work immediately on the 9 stair.  He ollied it a few times, then fakie ollie, then posed some fakie dog piss’ since he’s already landed it on video.  Dean was taking photos and was nice enough to show Ollie.  Greg also did fakie melon about 5 times.  Sick!Neil and I were skating around on the ledge area.  Neil put down a sick line of pop shove over the cone, halfcab over the ledge, heelflip, crooks fakie.  So sick.  I was trying front 180 over the cone, halfcab flip, no comply over the bench but never got all of it.  I wish I could blame it on the new shoes, but they were fine.  Eventually Neil and I tried kickflip up the ledge and then kickflip down, but neither got it.We were leaving when Greg scoped out a gnarly ledge ride to drop on the corner of the Canyon Center.  We stopped and filmed until Greg got it.  So gnarly.  I filmed it and Dean shot a sequence.  Ollie was hyped to see the big stuff Greg was doing in person.  All of us were though.  Greg rules.Next we went to the old folks home bank to curb, but the wind was too much for that spot.  Lastly we ended up on campus where I had seen a monster gap to manual that was bigger than I remembered and too much for Greg.  We all skated around and Carleigh went nuts and ollied, pop shoved and kickflipped a larger than normal 5 stair.  So sick!  Jason ollied it super good too.  Dean and I had tried a few, but had not committed when Greg offered us each $1 for the next try.  I committed, but didn’t land it.  Dean didn’t either.  I can’t believe how foreign jumping down a five stair felt.  It felt good to actually commit to it, but the ollie felt so bad and it also made me feel really old.  Oh well.  Ollie was having fun cruising around the place and riding through grass.  I scared myself and dropped in on one of the ledges, but didn’t ollie off.  I also got a first try 360 flip in the new shoes.  All in all a pretty epic day for me.  I didn’t skate all that great, but seeing Ollie having a blast all day and knowing how stoked he was made it such a great day for fatherhood.   That night TF went out and it got roudy.  Beers, shots, fights, etc.  Fun times.  Mostly.

Hyped that it was Friday, nice out, and I was getting off work early.  I felt a little tired so I took my old man nap and then made some calls while watching one of the funner skate videos around – Corridor Of Shame (Thanks Jack).  Nate was ready first so we were to meet on the east side of campus near Silver Mine Subs, but Brian and Neil actually showed up first.  After Brian setup a board we kinda putzed around the area.  Neil did some crooks to fakie on the wavy ledge, Nate attempted some boardslides to fakie, I somewhat attempted halfcab noseslides.  Around this time I started feeling old and frail and it just got worse.  We went up to the wallride bank under the tunnel and that’s where it got really ugly for me.  Brian did some cool tricks like front rock, feeble to fakie, hurricane, and slammed trying some wallride to fakies and a bad hippy jump slam.   Neil tried some flippers.  Nate landed everything. Seriously Nate was ripping.  Nollie big heels, hippy jumps, switch varial heels, nollie f/s flips, everything.  Me, I did ok for a  bit with f/s halfcab flips, but totallys lost my shit trying 3 flips.  I was trying a run of front shove, 360 flip, kickflip wallride and I rarely got past the front shove.  At one point I threw my board.  I yelled some bad words.  I attempted to focus my board (luckily just like everything else today I failed).  I freaked out.  I think basically all of the frustration from not being able to skate much lately came out.  Carleigh had shown up too.  So here’s an apology to Nate, Neil, Brian and Carleigh.  I’m sorry for sucking so bad and freaking out.  To end the session Nate and I bombed the little bikepath hill switch.  It was pretty damn scary and cheered me up.  I had no idea how you bail out of a switch hill bomb so when I got the speed wobbled I got scared.  We made it though.  Horrible session for me.  Horrible.  Might be time to retire the DCs seeing as how my ollies were wearing into my toe.  Maybe that’s my excuse, old shoes?  Ha, no way, I straight sucked.

This clip might win the internet.

My groin was feeling pretty weird and I’ve skated a lot of days in a row so I forced myself to take the day off skating.  I played basketball with Liz and Ollie instead, went to Meta to sell some Null and watched a couple skate videos with Brian, Carleigh and Jason.

so hyped on this.  pat rules.

Had to bring some boards down to Emage so after a fun little interview with Transworld Business (should be online soon) Bernie, Will, CJ and John arrived at my place. We hit Emage then went to the park and met up with Jeff and Greg. I was sore and sucking for a long time, but everyone else seemed to be having fun. I don’t normally like that park, but I tried to keep an open mind and I succeeded this time. Jeff took off pretty quick, but CJ, Will, John and Greg were ripping. John can skate parks really well and learned pivot fakies in one of the satellite dishes as well as did some big ollies and wallrides. Ripper. Will and CJ boardslid the crazy downhill rail into the bank. Bernie slammed trying to switch nose manny the tall 2. Then we migrated over to the kinked rail/awkward 2 stair area. I got a tail drop shove into the little bank then ollied the 2 stiar which was harder than it should be. Before leaving I had some more fun cruising around that area. John and Greg were killing it. Will fakie flipped the awkward 2. Before leaving John and I tried boardslide transfers into the bank and I nearly died just posing it. I also tried some powerslide tailslides on the bank and got close. I had fun, but I was sore and that park really is too damn slippery.

Got off work early and met Carleigh on the east side of campus. For whatever reason we started with this dumb parking ramp entrance where you had to ollie up a tiny curb, then there was two waves of downhill banks to do tricks into. We sucked it up so bad for awhile because it was so hard to get tricks into the first one after such a quick setup up the curb. We eventually put down a few things and it was surprisingly fun. Carleigh got back shove on the first one front 180 slam on the second. She moved on to trying kickflips into the first one while I tried front 180 up the curb, f/s halfcab flip into the first bank. We bet a beer on it and let’s just say Carleigh owes me a beer! Ha. I also ended up getting a no tic tac backside flip (so rare for me not to tic tac on that trick) into the second bank as well as a line of ollie up the curb, b/s 180 into the first bank then halfcab flip into the second. Rad!We went up to campus where we just kinda dorked around for a minute and ended up at this tiny gap off a narrow ledge. It was way harder for both of us than it should be, but we did it. I combined it with a horrible kickflip off a curb for added goodness before we had to cruise back to our cars fast as the rain started. Fun session.

My back was still spasming pretty bad, but my legs felt good. I wanted to skate. Jake called me and said he was at the Boulder park. What the heck, I figured I could at least carve the bowl. I met Jake, Neil and Jason there. Jake and I carved around the bowl for awhile. Well, I carved and Jake ripped it. He’s got some moves on the coping even. We migrated into the main area where I finally did a grind on the east wall and some long grinds on the little steep q-pipe. Neil was busting some big ollies. Jake was killing everything. He did a body jar on the extension! Near the end we skated the ledge a little bit where Neil put down his front shove back 50, Jake did front 50 to front board and Jason did front 5-0. I boardslid down the backside one. We then played a game of SKATE in the parking lot that I somehow won. It included easily the worst 360 flip of my life. It never left the ground. So funny. Heelflip was the last trick. I actually would like to skate Boulder park again sometime. Rad.

Slept in way to late again on a Sunday.  Cleaned for awhile, had a long talk with Liz, etc then went skating.  My back/side had started hurting.  Probably from carrying in India from the car the previous night after the Rockies game.  Ugh.  Jason picked me up and we then picked up Nate and met with Neil and Fuzz at Fuzz’s house.  I had to setup new wheels after the previous flat spot session and since there are 200 boards at my house I figured you can’t setup new wheels without a new deck too right?Since I’ve been feeling really old and older lately I figured I should draw an old man on my griptape.  Unfortunately it seems less funny and more accurate then I had hoped for.Oh well, at Fuzz’s I realized my back was hurting more than ever.  I drank a couple beers as we watched the incredible Slave video.  Then we went to a tiny bank to curb spot that Fuzz and Jason killed.  Nate had some long mannies, Neil some hard nose mannies.  I was too sore to ollie so just kinda slappied into various slides.  The fakie tailslide slappies being my favorite.  Fuzz and Jason were able to do real slappies and even front 5-0s and tails.  So sick.After a liquor store run we went to this bank spot where I sat out and watched since there was no way my back could handle that action.  Photos stolen from Carleighs site even though I took some of the photos.Jason backside ollie with Tall Can Me BGPs.Fuzz kickflip up to the next level.Gnarly Carleigh frontside ollie. Carleigh’s camera is fun to shoot photos with.Nate got trick of the session with a nose manual on the upper deck.The crew.  Camera shy Fuzz, Not-Camera-Shy Carleigh, Hightower, Would have skated this spot if the video camera was around Neil, Nicknate.Next up we went to another bank spot, but way mellower.  I pouned another tall can and was kinda able to bend enough to do no complies. I would roll off the two stair into the bank and do a no comply bigspin on the opposite bank. I was trashed and having a blast. Out of the blue I tried a no comply bigger spin and put it down first try bolts. One of the funnest tricks I’ve ever done. I rode away laughing and Jason and Carleigh were cracking up too. So cool.I tried another one, but never got it. Carleigh took a sympathy photos which looks way more like a 360 flip to fakie which I surely didn’t even try. A couple other tricks I had fun with were wallies up the two stair and some slappy noseslide tricks. Fun times. Jason, Neil and Nate took turns trying to ollie the small, but totally awkward gap. Nate got it. Peep the photos at gnarlycarleigh.com.