After last night’s brutal session a setup change was of course in order. I’m sure it has nothing to do with my lack of motivation. Anyway, I got out of work at decent time and biked over to Willville thinking I had limited time to skate. Dinner plans got canceled, but I still only skated a little over an hour and I was beat. I did skate hard. Basically just skated the mellow pad/ledge area. Would do a warm up line of halfcab noseslide, kickflip on flat, ollie onto the pad and ride back down to fakie. Was supposed to be an ollie to fakie or a shove or something cool. But it wasn’t. Did a couple flippers, front 50s, kind of a back 50. Tried to line out manual into the downhill, treflip, ledge trick. Never got the treflip. I kind of blame my setup change, but mostly the the completely bald and dead 600s I was skating. I also struggled with fakie bigflip and heelflips. Then started trying kickflips onto the pad with the slight intention of doing kickflip manual into the downhill. Only got a couple kickflips though and neither went into manual. I ran out of juice and called it a night.

(setup 7/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, ace af1 hollow 55, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 600 knox black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Worked from home, was lazy and didn’t do exercises all day. Attempted to go skate near sunset and had nothing. Even the roll into campus I could tell things weren’t good. Started behind the UMC and said I had to do at least one okay line to move on to another spot. Well, didn’t go well. After some brief curb stalls I started in a line trying to front 180 up onto this flagstone ledge. Took me FOREVER. And when I finally got there I was rolling off a 2 stair to setup for a 3 stair and died on a crack. One of the more painful slams I’ve taken in a while. I shook it off, changed up the line a little. Ollie onto a different ledge, ride off, front smith stall a curb, ollie the 3. My ollie down the 3 was soooo bad. I went to the nearby downhill hallway ledge spot. Struggled with a couple noseslides and called it a wrap.

(setup 1/10 null keyhole 8.25, null grip, venture 5.6 v-cast ace low bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 600 knox black/gum size 12 currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

On the way into work I stopped at dog park for 35 minutes. It was a little cool out, but I had the park almost all to myself. I had an alright session. Had back 50 shove out on the curb, front 50 shove on the green ledge, some crooks, halfcab noseslide, maybe a couple flippers.

(setup 6/10 null keyhole 8.25, null grip, venture 5.6 v-cast ace low bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 600 knox black/gum size 12 currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to research area on an incredibly nice evening. Was tired from an early morning work call though and very sore. I felt way off and would never get it going. Took a while to get a warm up line of switch 180 a little brick flat gap, noseslide to fakie, fakie flip. Actually they had reknobbed it all so the noseslide had to be brief. Then I went for ollie up the ledge, crooks the upper level, heelflip on flat. Didn’t really go in on the heelflip. Tried to ollie a chair on it’s side, but it got dark and didn’t seem like the lights would turn on. But they did, once I had left the area.

(setup 6/10 null keyhole 8.25, null grip, venture 5.6 v-cast ace low bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 440v2 size 12 wide navy with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

Showed up at big Arvada to meet up with a good sized crew of great dudes. Bratcher, Eric, Salty, Gordon, Garrett and more. It was quite cold when we started and there were quite a few scooter kids surprisingly so warming up wasn’t easy. I ended up being there for like 4 hours, but it’s all kind of a blur. I know I hit the little qp at the top for a bit, skated the bank by the blue chip, did some boardslides over the parking block. Gordon and I were at the top for a bit he was doing manuals and fast 50s on the granite pad. I was doing incredibly slow front 50s. I had changed back to 8.25 with Ventures and would mostly like it though. Then we skated the blue chip area for awhile. Salty had some fakie front 50s, got me to do an alley oop fakie front 50 that gave me a good slam. I spent a while getting a bad front heel on the blue chip. Although there was one which was almost perfect. Eric got going on the hubba and after some noseslides by Gordon and I he 50’d it like a stud. Gordon and Garrett would go on to manual it. Garrett with the b/s flip up the 3 after. Jack had some nice front boards on the parking block. Gordon and I got no comply pole jams on the weird granite. I couldn’t ollie up the big pad like I could 10+ years ago. No surprise there I guess. Skelly showed at the end so I tried to skate more, but was pretty much toast at that point. Fun session.

(setup 6/10 null keyhole 8.25, null grip, venture 5.6 v-cast bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 440v2 size 12 wide navy with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Somewhat early after my first day of snowboarding in a couple years I met Bratcher at Willville. It was pretty nice out, but the wind would gust hard at times. I had done a silly warm up line of switch nose jib, nose manual the grate, manual into the pad. Then we mostly skated the lower ledge. Jack put his phone right by the ledge, kinda funny. We managed not to hit it somehow. The switch noseslide 270 shove was first try, but other than that I struggled pretty bad. Had a couple flippers, but didn’t get past halfcab flip. Jack’s switch boardslide was so good. At the end I mostly got a nose manual and kickflip onto the pad.

(setup 3/10 8.3 thunders 52s, nb 440v2 wide)
(pain level 4/10)

Stopped by after work feeling very tired. Thought maybe I’d get some juice, but no. The wind didn’t help. Did a couple crooks and noseslides, that’s about it.

Was feeling pretty tired after a fun night going to see Ovlov in Denver and getting home late. Went to square state and it was only Donnie and Tom there. The 3 of us skated for quite some time before Skelly showed too. Oh, a couple lady skaters came, but stuck to the corner. Warming up with just Donnie had me trying to skate faster quicker. We kind of dorked around on the corner hip next to the bank to curb. He did lipslide and sugarcane. I did cheater ride on grinds and came remotely close to back lip. I had some fun grinds off the bank to curb down into the lower bank. Donnie would got on to absolutely slay the place. Tom had some really smooth tricks and the ride on grinds from the bump to flatbar were so cool. I kind of did a bump to front board on the rail. I mean I know it counts, but I didn’t really get up on it. Also had some fun back 50s on the diamond cut that I’m normally scared to even just axle stall. All in all a pretty fun session.

Went out to the garage on a very windy day before dinner. Had a setup change. 8.3s with slappys. Felt weird, warming up was tough and took too long. Oh I had started in some old Es Swifts and then changed to some NB 212s and really liked them. I had done a few kickflips, fakie flip then went in on heelflip as I had seen a great Mariano one earlier in the day. But of course since I had though of them, they didn’t work. Seriously took like 50 tries to get one. Luckily after that I went like 3/10 on treflips so I wasn’t so depressed.

(setup 4/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, slappy lights 8.5 with indy 92a bushings, spitfire f4 99a classic 52mm orange/black, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 with rewind cush insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Another day, more skating! We went to Broomfield where quite a few people would be skating. We added Hayden, Bo, Rob, Will. I had made a totally random setup change and it didn’t really work for anything other than crooks on the black box. 8.25 with Indy hollow mids. Some of us played a game of SKATE. Bo won it on a heelflip, I think I was the first out. Will had his ledge moves and added back smith. Bo was an amazing ball of energy popping up / on / over everything in sight. He even kickflipped over the double set rail! Was going seeing Rob out there getting his manuals on the banked pad, front boards, noseslides, shifty flyouts. Hayden looked pretty good, popping around and front 180 fakie manual the bump to pad, back nosegrinds, a lot of ripping. Joe struggled a bit with front smiths again which was surprising.

After a big lunch we ended up at Sheridan DIY. Most of us were zorched. Skelly was charging though. So good to see. Hayden even just messing around was ripping and the impromptu double curb wallie was so good. We had some fun quad boardslides on a railroad beam. I had the little slash then wallie which was fun.

Then we went to Parris’ backyard ditch. He had a crew already there, but it was chill. One dude Johnny was ripping it so good. Skelly would go on to shred too. I did one front 50 in the pool coping and a totally not decked front rock on the rocks. Joe with the axle stalls on pool coping which he wasn’t used to. Keegan front d on the rocks. Ben got in on the action, had some fun grinds. Then we chilled by a fire as it had gotten super cold. Fun day, so sore, taking tomorrow off!

(setup 2/10 8.25 null keyhole, indy forged mids 144, bones 52mm stf v1, new balance numeric 440v2 wide size 12 with 574vulc and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)