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.

Was so bummed that it was raining when I got off work.  Went home, took a nap, watched some skating and decided I better do a bit of skating at least.  Went out to Rampy wanting a quick session and a new trick.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever done a fakie hurricane, at least not intentionally, so that was the goal. I ended up getting a few in about 15 minutes.  Cool.  Winter sucks.

The snow has kinda melted.  I felt like street skating and didn’t have a chance to get to skate until after it got dark.  Long past when anyone else I know seems to skate.  Ugh.  But it ended up ruling.  I put my mp3 player on Murder City Devils and cuised around downtown.  I came upon a little curb high manny pad right away that I’ve never skated before and hit it up for awhile.  Took me awhile to do a manual, but I’m used to taking awhile to warm up.  I noticed a really tall ledge around the corner that was only about 2 feet long and had a fun run of a nose manny followed by a noseslide.  So hyped.  I turned around and almost got a kickflip manny to back it up. Sick!  I moved on since I had been there too long already.After some rolling around and walking around puddles I ended up at the low and narrow ledge that I was just happy to ollie onto and ride around once before.  Got it first try again today.  It’s about 15 feet long with a curve, about 10″ wide and it’s beveled weird.  I decided to dream and try a manual.  A few tries later I locked into a perfect one and rode away completely amazed.  I don’t land tricks like that.  So hyped.  I sat and giggled for a bit before moving on to the two stair then over to the nearby bank where I failed at some frontside slappies.  Then some dude came up and asked me if I had any “medicinal”.  I responded saying I had some Ibuprofen at home.  He was so confused.  I love messing with people like that.  I left because that dude was hanging out singing and being annoying.  I kinda cruised around downtown seeing what was dry and ended up near the white ledge which was wet.  Spotted a pile of snow to ollie off the sidewalk into the street.  I had to time it with the light and pedestrians, but after a few tries I got it.  It felt great because I was actually going fast and only took 2 tries.  I ollied a couple more various piles of snow and called it a night.  So hyped on the manny on the curved ledge and the spontaneity of street skating in a downtown area.  I need spontaneity to keep skating every day.

Lazer, Jason and Nate were it for another snowy Wednesday night Rampy session.  Nate was really sore for some reason and it showed.  That may have been his worst night ever.  Jason was slow to start, but ended up ripping his patented edge to edge grinds and coping destruction.  Lazer and Rampy are dream made in heaven.  Yes, I just compared Lazer to heaven.  I’m sure he’d be stoked on that.  I skated ok.  My highlights were going for a fakie pivot fakie and getting a fakie 5-0 to fakie as it grinded a few inches.  Rad.  Also almost getting fakie hurricanes.  I may have landed one I’m not sure.

Seriously, another blizzard?  This winter blows.  I got off work, but spent almost 3 hours driving about 30 miles to pick up shirts and hats for Null.  It changed from pouring rain to 5″ of snow in about 30 seconds.  Ugh.  Anyways, after dinner, a nap, some kid time and the dishes I went out to Rampy around 10:30.  I had no real goals or motivation, but I ended up having fun despite having some of the worst flatspots ever on my new sample wheels.  Argh.  I guess the back 180 test last night did them in.  I just didn’t notice on asphalt.  About the only tricks I did on Rampy I was hyped on were front and back smiths.  Other then that I ended up just skating flatground and hucking tricks.  Somehow it was fun even though I would stop sometimes due to the flat spots.  I did a lot of hucking.  Landed on a hardflip for the first time ever.  Didn’t ride out though.  Landed on two switch kickflips, but slammed on both.  Felt cool to land on those at least.  Other then that I did a few basics.  I stopped skating when I realized I was gonna pass out due to hunger or exhaustion or both.

Tired from a long day at work followed by a stressful attempt at getting all the Null stuff I had to get done.  I brought some boards to FedEx then headed to the ol’ baseline Safeway to skate the crappy ledge thats there.  I started off sucking.  Really sucking.  I guess having wider wheels messes with your grinds.  Ugh.  It took me a long time to land anything.  I settled in to trying a line of back 180 a gutter, halfcab flip then back 50.  First the back 180 took forever.  Then when I finally had that dialed the halfcab flip took forever and lastly I had problems with the back 50.  I blame the new shoes mostly.  Ugh.  I eventually got the line and I did feel quite a bit better.  Coming the other way I would try front crooks and got a few little jib ones.  After getting the line I just started trying kickflip 50s and front tails.  I got a few kick 50s and even came close to kick 50 shove out.  I would love to get that some day.  I got a couple ok front tails, but it’s hard on that ledge because it’s uphill.  Not the greatest session, but I am still getting used to the new setup.  5 – 9 inches of snow tomorrow night.  LAME.