On a beautiful morning Dave and I went to check out the remodeled Windsor skatepark. We met up with Hayden, Bo and Witman and Alex showed too. As well as a lot of scooter youth, but whatever. When we arrived there was also an old guy crew that had the very telling signs of an old guy crew. Andy Anderson boards, full pads, punk music and bags sitting on the ledge. The new stuff was all good with maybe the exception of the bank to ledge. I had some fun crooks on the middle sized ledge and a few slow back 50s on the lurb. Hayden first try front 180 fakie manual! Dave was over at the mini for a while then did some manuals and nose manual on the pad. I filmed Hayden treflip then switch front board then I did the kickflip up. The euro is kind of scary, but so fun. Hayden and I alternated for a bit him doing switch heel up the euro and I did b/s flip over the hip. Took me longer than it should have, but it was super fun feeling when I got it. Bo has such crazy pop, ollieing over everything. It was cool skating with Witman, he has such a cool casual style. His friend Alex was rad too and wearing D3s. I’m somehow not remembering much during the middle stretch. Dave’s line was cool. Skating the miniramp was fun. It’s nice skating a mellow mini instead of the standard concrete mini that’s super tight. I took way too long to get a front d but at least I got all my front 50s. I skated the ledges more, but didn’t really get anything. I got really sore. At the end Dave and I were just watching the session. It was cool, at that point it was all skaters. Some of which had crazy hairball style. Cool park, would like to skate there again.

(setup 8/10 null flaherty 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 not so bad initially but became unskateable after a while)

On a warmer than expected Saturday morning I showed up late to Broomfield park. Met up with Ladd, Paul, Sean and then some Crisis kids showed which was awesome to see. I had gotten into a groove of trying a line starting with a flatground trick, trick on the bank to curb, brick qp trick, noseslide to fakie the bank to ledge. Never quite got it, but never really stuck to a certain line. I hadn’t done a back 50 on that qp in a long time, felt fun. Sean showed and after some catching up we stuck to flatgound below the stairs .. for like two hours! I took a long time to get a treflip, nollie treflip and fakie bigflip. Heelflips and halfcab flip were quicker. But man, the nollie tre felt so good. Paul almost did one too and almost had switch varial flip. Ladd was getting used to a larger 8.75 deck, but still rattled off nollie heel, treflips, nollie flips, and more. Sean went through like all of the tricks he can do. And they looked good. It was great seeing Maty and Chase. Fun session. Need to skate flatground more.

(setup 7/10 null flaherty 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 sore from having a couple drinks the night before)

After Cass did me a solid and picked up some boards from 303 we bolted to dog park on the last Friday of daylight savings time. When we arrived the park was dead. Within minutes it started to fill up. Turns out the CU skate club was having a party. We had started out on the jersey barrier/bank to curb area. I thought things would go for me when I did a front slash on the barrier, boardslide the cement chunks then no comply to tail. Cass slammed really hard on a back 50 down the barrier. He went straight to shins. Doh. He skated some after that, but was pretty much toast. I would go on to get super frustrated and angry at times. I had a new board so I think the steeper new tail was tough to get used to after skating such an old board. I took too long to do a crook stall to fakie on the bank to curb. The main ledge area was popping so I kind of randomly just skated the metal bench and flatground. I would get some crooks, one really bad treflip and one less bad nollie treflip.

(setup 3/10 null flaherty 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cool day met up with Paul and Rob at dog park. I had put smaller wheels on. I loved them and would go on to have a decent session for me. I had alright pop, okay crooks, first try kickflip onto the c pad, nose manual the curb, very close to kickflip 5-0 the lurb, locked into a couple crooks on the upper tier, close to halfcab crooks. Rob had back 50s, back smith, front board, manuals I think. Paul had his 5-0 moves, said he was pretty tired, talked to Matt more than I did ha. Fun session, only tried a few treflips but wasn’t close.

(setup 7/10 null abstract 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cool day I stopped by the parks after work. Dave was there when I got there, we started at the park. I had made a setup change, basically forged v8 5.6s on an 8.25. I loved it. Early on I had some fun in the top bowl area, then a first try kickflip on the shark fin. Paul and Will showed. Dave had a first t f/s kickflip on the bank and a gorgeous 5-0 over the rainbow. I did a line of f/s kickflip on the bank then kickflip to fakie on the shark fin. Will and Paul had some good ollies over the euro. Will good wallies. I started trying treflips to fakie in the little bank. They were all so close. Then I landed a few! I know they weren’t perfect, but actually landing them and doing more than one felt so great. Paul joined the treflip game and did 8 in a row at one point, then a couple more after. Dave added fakie flip and varial flip to fakie. Then a really nice ollie into the bank.

We went over to the plaza. Will proved us wrong by doing first try front nosegrind on the bench that we said wasn’t lit well enough. He had some nice manuals and nose manuals too. I struggled with front 50s on the lurb, but I think I got a line I was trying of front 50, noseslide to fakie the bench, fakie 50 halfcab out the curb. Dave did a similar line starting with back 50 on the lurb, front nose to fakie, then fakie back 50 halfcab out. He would try more to fakie, but didn’t get one I don’t think. I tried some switch front tails and may have technically met the minimum requirements of one.

(setup 8/10 null abstract 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 53mm bones v1 stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice morning I went to Boulder park to meet up with a fun crew. It was Bratcher, Jesse, their friend Gordon and Cass. I had a setup change. 8.3 with V8 Ventures. I liked them. I’m writing this after several days so I’m spacing out what happened a lot. I know pretty early on Cass did a perfect b/s flip over the hip and would almost do some b/s flip fakie 50s on the hump to ledge. Bratcher with the nollie combos on the hump to ledge. Jesse was doing Jesse things. We had some fun grinds around the corner to start things. My trucks felt great on coping. I tried like a million crooks on the bench followed by treflip on the hump and got very close, but no cigar. Was happy to finally do the front 50 over the bench though. Took a bit, but was super fun when I got it. Had some things that I liked such as the little quick line with the halfcab 50 on the tiny qp, noseslides the hump to ledge. Near the end we did some slappies on the outside wallie ledge that were hard, but fun. There’s so much more here, it was a fun session.

(setup 6/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v8 baseplate titanium hanger royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After going to Northside in Fort Collins to witness the amazing halloween contest that MRKT does I stopped at Rocky Mountain to meet Dave. The sun went behind the mountains around when I got there, but we still had some decent time. Dave was doing nollie back bigspins on the bank when I arrived. Then he did some nollie noseslides on the curb. He played them down, but they were amazing. I had a few slappies like normal, one ultra lame fakie back nosegrind, couldn’t get fakie front nosegrind. At the end I tried slow noseslide to crooks on the ledge. May have gotten a couple up into crook. Dave was doing nollies to fakie on the bank then switch body varials off the curb, back tailslide the curb. Ended it with a fakie crook ride on grind transfer off the curb. Fun, short session.

(setup 2/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

After two days of loading up furniture, boxes, everything of my mom’s into a U-Haul I had some free time. So I went to the park for 30 minutes to say goodbye. I don’t like that park much. Okay, I really dislike it. And it never helps when there are lots of scooter/strider/mountain biker/one wheelers. This would be no exception. At first it was just two scooter kids and there dad was even cool and trying to teach them to take turns and to avoid going right in my path. Did they listen? Nope. My first warm up run was a fly out kickflip, rock ‘n roll, front grind around the very mellow love seat, pop shove fakie on the mellow bank. The kickflips took too long. Later on I would get a front 180 out of the steeper fly out then a fakie bigflip. I did some fun boardslides on an I beam. Some switch front noseslides on another beam and tried to get f/s halfcab heel after which I never landed. Had some really fun longer feeling back 50s on the long qp and fun carves around, but most were interrupted by kids not having any awareness that a 200 pound old man was coming down the qp he went up. Ugh. Anyway, I think that was it. Goodbye to that park.

(setup 2/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a Tuesday afternoon I went out to dog park knowing I wouldn’t be able to skate much the next several days. But I’m writing this several days after the session, almost remembering nothing about it. I know Paul showed, then Ladd, Mike, Wade did later. I don’t remember any tricks other than a heelflip in a game of SKATE and that every other trick was hard. I was still slightly sick feeling so kept it mellow. It was cool seeing Ladd.

(setup 3/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling a little better I went over to the school on such an incredibly gorgeous day. I would skate for about 30 minutes and actually did some tricks. I mean I didn’t go in that hard, but I would get a few flippers like kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, heelflip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. Did the basic slappies, couldn’t get a switch front slappy. Ended on a line of slappy crook, b/s flip, fakie flip.

(setup 5/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 2/10)