Another snow day with temps way below freezing I went to the garage. This time I took all the bikes out and put a space heater in for a while before I skated. So it was pretty nice in there. I got kind of upset about my back 180s and took a while to get an alright one. Then to flippers I started with switch flip because hucking seemed better, none were close. Then I got my first 5 kickflip, first 3 fakie flips, first 2 b/s flips then 2/3 on halfcab flips. Was feeling pretty happy at that point, but heelflips ended the good streak and I took over 10 tries to get a couple. Then to treflip where I took around 20 tries to land one, but got two in a row and went on to get 3 more. The 4th one felt really great. I forced myself to move on even though I kind of just wanted to keep trying treflips. Could not get nollie flip, sw fs flip, nollie tre. Took a while to get fakie heel and fakie varial flip. Got pretty tired and called it a night.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, slappy lights 8.25, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After 10″ of snow the day before the sun was out, but it was only 17 degrees so nothing was melting. I went out to the garage before lunch and skated for a little over an hour. I had worked out pretty hard and my legs were sore from that and the session the day before. I wore vulcs, which somehow didn’t seem good this time. Anyway, went through random warmups before board flippage. Kickflips didn’t come as easy as yesterday, but I still managed 5 in a row once I got going. Sw flips were not close. Fakie flip quick, nollie flips were remotely close. Went for heelflip and for whatever reason I couldn’t do one. Rather than freak out I moved on. Got treflip 2nd try! And then another really bad one on try 10 so 2/10 is my best in a while. Managed to get a heelflip in a few tries after that. First try halfcab flip. B/s flip in a few tries. Randomly tried sex change which didn’t come as easy as I hoped. Added fakie bigflip, varial flip, really bad f/s halfcab flip. Couldn’t get nollie varial heel or switch varial flip. Tried halfcab heels at the end and was very close, but didn’t get one.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, slappy lights 8.25, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc grey/orange size 11.5 with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold snowy day I went out to the garage in the early afternoon with yet another setup change. Wore cupsoles for a change up. Had a blast. Did typical warm up tricks for a bit. Got to kickflip and bailed one then got 5 in a row. Switch flips were not very close. Fakie flip yes. Quite a few nollie flip attempts, a couple were close. Got a couple good feeling b/s flip and halfcab flips. Took a bit to get a couple treflips. Had a great feeling heelflip. Went in hard on nollie tres, a few were really close. It’s just so hard in the little garage and going that slow. Next up battled front heel which technically I may have landed, but not really. Some were close to feeling good. Took too long to get fakie front heel because of the low speed and terrible setup. At that point I wanted to land a copule more tricks so I did varial flip and fakie bigflip. Then I hucked some switch f/s flip and nollie varial heels. Neither were close, but both felt possible if the stars somehow aligned just right.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, slappy lights 8.25, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10 felt good for a while, but pretty sore near the end)

It was so incredibly nice out so I took an early lunch on a Friday and went to Boulder park. I have completely ruined my new years goal of no setup changes. I had an 8.25 with hollow Thunder 147s and hated it. Mostly, the squeek in the pivot cups was insane, to the point that I think the only other person at the park left. I skated about an hour still. Did a few normal basics there. Kickflips didn’t seem any easier really and so there was no doubt this setup would not last. Did have b/s flip on flat, but halfcab flip still took a few tries. Got one front 50 on the bench. Then tried to do a line of front disaster on the little qp then front 50 shove. Never got another 50. Went in a bit on front 50 back 180 out on the hump to ledge and would eventually get it. Felt pretty cool. Then it was back to work. Oh yeah, I had new 574s. I had no chance to break them in ahead of time, but they still skated alright.

(setup 1/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, thunder hollow 147 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc grey/orange size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

A warm evening with a big storm and cool down coming so I really wanted to skate outside. Will and I had been talking and decided on Arvada. Cass, Garrett and Donnie were down too. As always, I was amazed at how crowded it was upon arrival. It’s so hard to get in the groove when 50 other people are skating. I mean it wasn’t that crowded for Arvada standards, but there are so many ways to skate it, so many different lines. Felt like I just kept getting in everyones way. I had a setup change which felt okay initially, but once I failed at front 50s on the tiny granite pad I about lost my mind. But before that, things were okay. Early on I saw Cass front nose the flat bar really well. We boardslid down the little parking block over the gap which was quite fun. Will had never been there before. Garrett popped ollies over the pyrmaid with mad style. He had manuals, nose manual, but not kickflip manuals. Ha, he actually focused his board on a failed nose manual. But still did some skating and then skated his Sk8 mafia mini. We skated like 3 hours. A lot happened. Donnie destroyed the little qp above the snake run. Sugarcanes both ways. Inspired me to commit to a measly front feeble. Will got close to manualling the big pad into the hill. I had a fun run of back 50 the qp, noseslide the pad into the hill, ollie up the tiny euro. Oh yeah, Donnie, Will and I played part of a game of SKATE. I think I was somehow in the lead when a young kid slammed very hard and required some attention. I had fun trying treflips on the sk8 mafia mini, landed on it. Donnie and Garrett did really good ones. My shoe is bigger than that board. Cass had a nice kickflip on one. Near the end I made made myself do 5 tricks on the mellow circle pad since people were finally not standing on it. I got kf to fakie, b/s flip, bad f/s flip, halfcab flip and a few bigflips. Donnie did an amazing back 360 kickflip and no comply to tail the little nearby qp. Will added some kickflips to fakie. Garrett was doing some crazy tricks on the mini, like tailslides on the little qp. What the heck. Anyway, that was the end, I was starving. Fun session, I might even go there again soon.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null keyhole, null grip, venture 5.6 v8 with bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a stf, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue size 11.5 half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a tough day of work I napped, had a couple ciders and was about to get ready for bed when I decided I should at least do a kickflip. I had disassembled my 8.5 and tried some on the 8.3 and 8.25. Neither felt great. I actually slammed pretty bad landing primo at one point. I didn’t have socks on and I hadn’t even tied my shoes. Ha. Still felt good to “skate” a little though.

Was able to get out of work with some daylight left and met Will at Valmont. He was already in huck mode trying backside flips over the euro hip. I warmed up for a while, didn’t feel great on my board. Then I started hucking over it too, first treflip which didn’t feel close at all, then pop shove. Will got his b/s flip and chilled. I was committing to a lot of the pop shoves and kept coming up empty. It was crazy, full commits, just not riding away. Then it was too dark and I left for home. Gotta be honest, the bigger board really seemed to hurt my chances of flipping correctly.

(setup 2/10 null 20 years 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow light 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 574 vulc half 272 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Up kind of early on a cool morning went to Lafayette for the morning session, but no one was skating. Saw there was quite a bit of snow so I almost left, but Dave was on the way so I stuck it out and played around a little. Grey was there after all, had a nice blunt to fakie on the spine. I did a non-decked rock ‘n roll on the mini saber tooth. Dave showed, wasn’t feeling it either. But of course we skated for a while. The lines above are basically the extent of the session.

Dave and I met Ryan and Cass at the DIY with the two qps and amazing curb. I never skated the qps. They were already filming as Cass was trying a slappy back 5-0 back 180 out which he would eventually get. Ryan had dome some bluntside combos and rattled off several of his first frontside slappies. I did a lot of different tricks that covered less than 2 feet of curb. Dave did a lot of tricks that covered at least 8 feet of curb. All things considered I was happy to get slappy front feeble, slappy front 180, kind of slappy to board stall, switch front slappy and several little switch slappy crooks. Dave playing on the hip part of it was cool.

After a while the clouds came out and the weak went for food. Ha. Dave and I went to the warehouse. It was really cold inside. We started at the little manny pads where I didn’t think I’d be able to get things going and Dave did his boardslides. I did a couple of crooks on the ledge. Then we did our lines. The little qp is so fun. Took me a bit to get the back 50 to cheater fakie, but they were fun. Also took a few tries to get a fakie flip, but that’s okay.

Lastly we ended up at York St skatepark with very little juice left. We did some cruising around. Dave did a line of slappy switch crook 180 (with a bit of 5-0 for good measure) then back 50 the qp gap. I did a line of ollie onto the ledge, roll in then the little front 5-0 jib to fakie which was a really fun ender. We did look at the nearby benches and bank to ledge, but didn’t really skate. Awesome day. Lots of skating.

(setup 7/10 null 20 years 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow light 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 574 vulc half 272 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Out somewhat early on a winter Saturday because it was supposed to get windy. The crew was Bratcher, Gordon, Jesse, Tim, Eric and some old man named Glen. I wore vulcs which had a lot less pain, but less confidence with flippers. I would go on to have a decent session with the exception of flippers. Gordon was popping right away, doing lines similar to Paul and Sean. Jack and Jesse warmed up mostly with non-pop tricks. Eric’s front tail on the curb that didn’t lock in was actually super awesome. As were his fast mannies. Jesse and Gordon back 180’d over the grate. Oh, for a while we had a flat bar on the grate so when you ollied it was kind of like you popped over a rail. Felt pretty cool. I only did it once. Jesse made it look really easy. I did a lot of popping, most of which was slow and not confident, but oh well. Had a line of front 180 a tiny snow pile, switch front board jib the last inch of the tiny flat bar, fakie flip on flat. Almost got front 50 the main bench then kickflip 50 the lurb. Got a nose manual, although the one in the edit is clearly not a make. Tried for a bit to finally get even the tiniest front 50 above the pad and managed one. It felt pretty awesome. Eric basically did it too. Had a couple sloppy back 50 shoves. We skated almost 3 hours. I’m missing a lot. Everyone seemed to skate decent. Still wish dog park would have a better ledge.

(setup 7/10 null 20 years 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow light 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 547 vulc half 272 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Out in the garage after work on a Friday. Didn’t feel too good, warmed up a bit, got a kickflip then started hucking nollie flips. Hucked 25 of them, none were very close. I hucked more tricks I haven’t done before. Switch f/s flip (not very close), switch front heel (not remotely close), nollie varial heel (not very close), switch tre (not remotely close). Tried 5 heelflips nope, 5 treflips nope. Got fakie flip first try, a bit for b/s flip and ended on varial flip.

(setup 7/10 null 20 years 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow light 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 8/10 new 440s suck)