Had the day off work and was planning on hitting a couple shops in Denver.  Nate wanted to join so we headed out early to Parker.  There was some snow, but most of the park was skateable.  We started in the bowl section which wasn’t as well off, but there was a path from the roll in over the pyramid into the big steep flat bank and back.  We both wanted to grind the top of the flat bank, but couldn’t get our back trucks up there.  Instead we both settled with lines of backside tough guy (or in our case it was more like backside wuss guy) then roll ins into the tranny of the pyramid.  Pretty fun.After that it was mostly ledges for the next couple of hours.  My new shoes were feeling really good.  It’s funny how much I like these DC shoes.  The Crew seriously rule.  My calf had been hurting pretty bad from the night before, but the pain seemed to be going away with every push rather than getting worse.  Anyways really early on Nate slammed hard trying to do a front nosegrind pop out.  We both were kinda doing our own little lines.  I know we both did front 50s on the Pier 7 way-to-tall-to-be-a-real replica, Nate was doing front Ds on the little q-pipe, I was ollieing into the tranny (well, the end of the tranny anyway), etc.  Ledge tricks were going ok.  I got lots of crooks, a crooks to fakie, didn’t get crooks shove, back 50, bad back 50  back 180, front 5-o, front 50 front 180 and of course a super sick 2 foot long boardslide that started it.  Nate had quite of course.  Back 5-0, back nosegrind and ended up getting a few back 5-0 front shove’s out.  SICK!  At one point we both did a super fun line of ollie from the bank up onto the 2 block then ollie the 2 block.  That was my highlight of the session.  Nate was giving me crap for not getting front D’s on the qpipe so I forced myself to do them.  But I didn’t just do the same ol’ boring disaster, I thought it would be cool to add tic tacs to everyone of them.  Fun.  I was trying a back 50 then ollie a snowpile that was right away in the landing, but ended up totally slamming and thinking I sprained my wrist really bad.  It ended up being ok.  Took some of the wind out of me for sure.  Towards the end of the session Nate and I were basically each trying our own thing.  He was doing lipslides from the bank onto the 2 block.  I was trying to ollie up the first ledge, front 50 the second then pop down into lipslide on the lower ledge.  I came really close.  Close enough that Nate thought I landed it.  So if we use his opinion where he looked away right before I fell off, I landed it.  Ha.At the very end we skated the kids mini bowl.  Nate was worked up to some really good frontside ollies over the hip.  I did some really bad front ollies and got a couple back 50s around the hip the hard way.  Fun!  Nate was just dorking after an ollie and did a super easy fakie front 5-0 to fakie.  He lands new tricks just like that.  I wanted front 5-0 270 in, but ended up just going with front tail 180 which I’ve never done before.  We left for Continuum feeling completely exhausted and cold.About an hour later we arrived at the Aurora park which had way more snow.  Ugh.  We ended up skating a tiny mellow q-pipe for about an hour and it ruled.  We both did a few of our not-so-basics quickly and starting trying new stuff.  For some reason I chose front feebles and I battled it for quite a long time, but eventually put a couple mediocre ones down before doing a legit one with a grind.  So hyped.  Nate started trying frontside nosegrind pop outs.  Whoa.  He would also eventually get a couple.  Such a ridiculous trick.  I had moved on to kick back pivot attempts (never done this on real tranny before) when someone else joined us and did it first try.  Both Nate and I were cracking up like WTF?  It ended up being really funny and the dude was really nice saying he didn’t see me try it before that.  Either that or I was so far away that it didn’t resemble it.  Ha.  I kept trying it though and ended up getting a kickflip to back smith lunch break.  Rad.  Then me and the guy that totally showed me up (who ended up being a super nice guy) tried kick back tails for awhile.  We both got kinda close, but no where near a make.  Before leaving I wanted another front feebs and did my best one yet second try.  Absolutely perfect way to end a great day of skating.  Then it was off to 303 then race home to bring India to 4H club.  Yippee!

Got out of work and it’s still light out.  Awesome!  Doesn’t mean it was warm though.  Met Jason and Nate at the 30th & Iris ledge.  One of my least favorite ledges only because I totally suck at downhill spots.   Nate was doing good back  50s and front 50s before Jason or I even touched the ledge.  As usual it took me about 10 tries just to get on a 2mph front 50.  Pretty early on Jason slammed really hard on a back 50 and bounced his tailbone on the ledge.  Ouch!  After that him and I skated down the hill of the bike path.  I was trying to get some slides in and hit the ledge.  The sidewalk isn’t very smooth so slides destroyed our wheels.  Jason didn’t care as his setup is pretty old.  My wheels are only a few days old though.  I had been trying kickflips into the downhill then two power slides before trying a front 50 on the ledge.  But I didn’t get it until I skipped the first slide and just did a longer slide (with all my weight directly on my front left wheel) and got the front 50.  I was pretty hyped for sure.  Granted the powerslide slowed me down too much and I flatspotted my wheel really bad, but it was still a blast.  Jason took off after this as his back was shot.  Nate was getting tech.  He got front smith, front tail, fakie nosegrind and probably more.  I don’t really like to skate that ledge stand alone very much because it bums me out.  I found a little pile of snow about the height of a curb and a foot long or so and would start lines out by kickflipping over it.  I think I may have done one of my best kickflips ever at one point.  Felt so good.  I got a few runs.  Something like kickflip over the snow, front 50, varial flip.  Kickflip over the snow, front 50 shove, bail.  I almost got one line with a front 5-0 and then 3 flip, but bailed the 3 flip.  Coming backside I did lots of halfcab flips that felt good, some bad crooks and hucked some kick back tails.  It ended up being a fun session although I hurt my calf in my back leg while pushing.  I decided that would be my last session on the floppy Herman 2s as pushing shouldn’t hurt.

Man Tyler is so good!  So is the board on the ender 3 flip!

Another cold and still snowy day so I’m not sure why not so many people showed up. Maybe it was because the last session was so crowded. Either way it was mostly just Brian, Rick and I. Carleigh showed up later on after I cursed her name for not being able to land front disasters anymore. Ha.All three of us seemed to skate pretty well. I probably had my best run on Rampy ever at one point. I think I did a front smith, fakie front 50 to rock ‘n roll, back 50 fakie, front tail and 30 rock fakies. Sweet.  I also tried a few blunt to pivots which I should have just done to fakie, but I ended up just getting a blunt to sloppy axle stall.  Rick shredded as usual and did the first ever fully decked fakie rock (or fakie hangup). Proper back smiths, front smiths, slasher lipslides, knee slides, back 5-0s, etc all done like he’s skating a backyard pool. Brian jocked out and broke some records. First he did the most frontside tough guys in a row at 14. Topping Jakes record of 10. Then he totally out grinded me in a longest fakie smith grind contest. Carleigh had shown up by then and participated in the contest, but instead did fakie crooks which disqualified her because that trick is actually legit. The longest grind marks are up there for anyone to take at this point. Brian would like it to be known that he is the current champion. He also pulled out one of the gnarliest tricks I’ve ever seen on Rampy first try. We couldn’t even figure out what to call it. It was something like fakie hurricane to fakie. His body did a full 360. Maybe he’ll do it again some day and we can actually figure out what it is. Carleigh arrived and quickly showed me how easy front disasters are. She also showed why skateboards aren’t designed to be jumped onto upside down in the middle of the coping by trying a kickflip to rock and landing bolts on an upside down board. SNAP! Rampy’s first broken board. Pretty fun session even if I did lose that fakie smith contest to Brian. Oh well, maybe next week.

Nate sent me a link to the Secrets of Skateboarding!  All trick secrets exposed!  I’m so stoked!  I can’t wait to learn new tricks effortlessly, naturally and instantly! There’s nothing but hard hitting, proven techniques! And check out the bonus!!!

Rampy again.  Solo this time.  Wasn’t really too motivated to skate and it showed.  I sucked it up for a few songs then decided I had two songs to learn back Ds.  I got closer, but still didn’t land one.  I about went inside, but instead decided to skate like a 10 year old and try stationary manual shove’s out.  Got a few and it was fun.  Tried a few stationary manuals to kickflip out too.  Didn’t even get remotely close.  If I were to ever land that trick I sure would be a happy camper.

PJ from Excess sent me a link to this clip early in the day and it got me really hyped to skate Rampy.  Then Jake called me and reserved an 8pm skate date and I got even more hyped.  Then Jake and I were standing on the deck of Rampy about to begin the session I won a Rho Sham Bo and the session was on.  I was all hyped to try tons of weird new tricks, but ended up taking forever to warmup.  Ugh.  Early on I had some long-for-me boardslides to fakie.  Jake seemed to be ripping outta the gate.  He did a couple tricks I’ve never seen him do, but I forget what they are right now.  He started working on a line of switch back 50 (or maybe fakie back 50 to fakie), tail stall, back 5-0 to fakie, tail stall, back feeble 270 out.  He slammed really hard on one of the first switch 50s, but stuck with it and got the line. I was kinda all over the place for awhile.  I got most of my tough tricks.  Ones that stuck out were fakie f/s axle to rock ‘n roll first try and the best front tail I’ve ever done.  I couldn’t get a hurricane though.  At then end I started trying blunts to axle stall, but they started going pivot so I went with it and landed my first ever blunt to pivot anywhere other then a curb or Honey’s Hole.  Radical.  Fun night.  I think the funnest trick may have been the Matrix like dodge of the coping I did on a failed blunt stall.  It was all slow motion and I just kinda bent my body out of the way of coping.

Snowy, but not too cold (35) I brought Ollie and his buddy Cooper to Red Curbs.  I was pretty sore and tired, but really want to get the new trucks broke in and there’s no better way to do that then to skate.  I skated ok.  Definitely mellow like I do a lot when I’m with Ollie.  My highlights were some good back 50s, almost getting a manny back shove out, ollieing the rock, ollieing a somewhat tall piece of styrofoam, some ok front tails and getting close to some kicky back tails.  Cooper is starting to finally get ollies good enough to get up curbs most the time.  Sick.  He even got a couple manuals.  But he would slam really hard sometimes.  Ollie skated well.  He can’t ollie as well yet, but he looks really natural and does some stuff that floors me sometimes.  Tricks like slappy front 50s, halfcabs off a curb and little pull up manuals.  He did his first back 180.  Rad.  We skated about an hour and it was really fun.

As I mentioned in my last entry I broke my board.  Time for a new board and since it was gonna be the new mall grab I figured I’d go the whole 9 yards and setup the new trucks I’ve had laying around for awhile and some new wheels.  Basically a new complete!  I post the trucks so that I can search and see how long they lasted when I move on.  The last ones lasted almost 7 months.  The new ones are more Thunders, this time Malto lights high.  Maybe I’ll be able to skate like him now.  Ha.  Anyways, I didn’t have very high expectations for the day since I had a new complete except for the same bearings I’ve had for two years (ceramics rule!)Jason and Neil met and my house and we picked up Nate and Jack on the way out of town to Longmont.  We met up with Fuzz, Brian and Carleigh at SOL where I sold some boards and we all waited around for Fuzz to set the record for amount of time to pick out a board.  Seriously took him like 2 hours.We wanted to check out this flatbar/kicker spot we saw from the road, but ended up trying to skate a big tree stump on the way.  The stump wasn’t really happening, but there ended up being a ton of stuff nearby.  Jack gapped out to crooks on the post office rail.  Nate front board popped out the downhill ledge to hill bomb.  Fuzz ollied a gap to hill bomb.  Neil almost got a quick up to wallride.  Fuzz quick upped then ollied a tall pole.  Jason back 180’d some sidewalk sections.  Carleigh took some photos.  Birthday boy tried the quick up wallride too.  Jack and Nate had some weird manuals on the median.  We eventually left due to some concerned citizens calling the cops.Next up we hit a new parking lot in the industrial area.  It had a good double sided ledge and a unique loading dock with some cool ollie in/out options.  It really stoked me out to watch everyone arrive at a new spot, check it out and start trying their own stuff.  Jack basically put on a demo.  Some of the best I’ve ever seen him skate.  Bluntslides on the ledge, gap out to loading dock ride, gap to manual to kickflip over a curb to drop and this was just the warm up.  Jason was doing some really long boardslides with a popout.  Neil was doing some good lines and hyped me up to finally ollie the stupid curb to drop.  Carleigh started slow, but started pounding out the ollie up the curb, ollie over the curb to drop combo. Nate dedicated a front hurricane on the ledge to me and landed it perfect.  Had he dedicated it to anyone else I’m sure he would have bailed.  Yeah right.   Birthday Boy was doing boardslides and setup a wood crate to give the place some tranny.  Fuzz was murdering too.  Fakie ollie the loading dock where the drop was large, ollie a trash can, nosebonk the trash can, and trying to show me up by kickflip manualling where I could only kickflip up.  I was having a good time and the trucks were breaking in.  Highlights for me where the crooks on the ledge first try, kickflip up the curb, ollie the curb to drop, ollie the gap then front 180 the drop, front board first try and just ollieing the gap over the curb thing.  Gotta work on those ollie kid!  Ha.After awhile Brian, Neil, me and eventually Jason decided to do 38 tricks over some super mellow concrete hip in honor of Brian’s birthday.  I was going to try and list all 38 tricks, but that’s just not possible.  It was a blast though.  While we were in the middle of trying them Fuzz was basically telling Jack to do different tricks and Jack would do them much to all of our amazement.  We started to near 38 tricks and held out at 37 until Brian got an impossible which only took about 38 tries.  I guess that’s perfect right?  I had been trying nollie tres too, but never landed and rode away.After that the session was mostly done, but Jason, Carleigh, Nate and Jack were still skating the ledge and had pulled the pallet for some weird combos.  Nate got quick up to front 50.  Jack got back 50 ollie in, back 50 front 180 in, back 50 front 180 nose man into the pallet, blunstslide popin to the pallet (ridiculous).  Nate ended the night with a manny up the pallet to front 5-0 on the ledge.  Pretty ridiculous.  really fun day.  Still completely hyped on how everyone went to the same spot and skated it completely different while all having fun.

After a tough night with the wife I met up with Nate to skate campus for a bit.  It was pretty cold again and we met at the brick plaza with the weird short benches.  We both got some basics down right away.  Nate even beat me to a backside noseslide which is funny because he normally can’t do that trick.  There was a pile of snow about 20 feet from the backside approach and we would ollie it on the way to the ledge.  Nate put a couple sick runs down.  Front 180 then halfcab noseslide.  Back 180 then switch front board.  I got an ollie and then a crooks and then was trying tons of front 180 nosegrinds, but never quite got one.  Argh.  Frontside Nate had a few really good front tails.  I tried front tails, but never really even got into it.  We moved on after awhile to some new flat gaps which were about 6 feet long.  On the way I took too long to land a tiny gap off a ledge with about a two foot gap.  Yeah that’s it and yeah I suck at gaps.  We got to the flat gaps and Nate ollied two in a row and I just went with ollie to axle stall.  Fun though.  Next up we were gonna skate the mini bank to ledge but a cop rolled up before much of anything went down.  I wanted to try a front pivot back shove out.  The cops rolled by so we played dumb then headed up to the hill to watch the end of the Nuggets game after I cracked my board over doing a front lip attempt on a curb.  Decent night.  Nuggets killed the Lakers too.