On a warm night I went to campus armed with a setup that would ollie better darn it. But it didn’t. At all. 8.5/14.25 with T2s aka the most useless truck made to date. Anyway I started at the mini bank to area and as soon as I had a ghost pop ollie to fakie I knew it would be bad. Bailed several switch ollies over a tiny gap. Moved on down the bank to curb. Sucked it up. Tried to do a nollie front tail (in which I didn’t even ollie up) and follow it by a b/s flip. Couldn’t get the b/s flip. Going downhill I had a little ollie up to nollie shove and some noseslides. Wasn’t confident enough to go fast enough to try anything else. Went down below and saw the amazing sunset and had to try a trick or two on the weird Ralphie ledge. Got noseslide to fakie, couldn’t get crooks.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 sample, jessup pj ultra, thunder t2s 149, snot 53mm franky wheels, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

It was cloudy and looked like rain in Boulder, but sunny and warm in south Denver where I met Cass and Jake at Thomas Jefferson. It would be a fun session. Jake kinda killed it stacking lots of tricks. Crooks, crooks shove, front 50, front tail, nollie front tail, nollie back tail, halfcab noseslide, fakie back tail, fakie front crook. I’m probably missing something. Cass had some really good crooks early on, 50s, couldn’t get kickflip 50, such good front noseslides, front nose shove. Also showed me up with a front shove out of a kicker first try in a warm up line. I really struggled with pop. Got a front 50 right away, then could not do it again. Had a lot of crooks, noseslides, nollie front tails. The kickflip off took a while, but man it felt good. And it felt good taking the slams and my foot not complaining too much.

(setup 5/10 8.3 null, jessup pj grip, venture v8 5.8 ti hanger, snot 53mm franky wheels, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Back in sunny CO without too bad of jet lag I biked to campus to meet Eric and Jack. They were at Baker. There were a couple cars ruining the ledge, but the manny pad was still good. Bratcher and Eric got mannies pretty quick. Jack with the manny to grind for trick of the day. I was skating an 8.25 with slappy lows and it sucked. There was a youth soccer tournament on campus so we had waves of kids walking through. Which of course meant we heard ‘do a kickflip’ like 100 times. I started trying some in anticipation so they wouldn’t say it. But I couldn’t land them. Argh. I got a manual and a nose manual eventually. The nose manual I tapped on was funny because the kids walking up were so hyped. Jack tried some switch manuals. Eric was going for 180 nose manny.

We went to the little ledge after that. I was sucking so bad. Got some slow front 50s on the lowest part. Bratcher had a first try back 50 to back tail, but couldn’t get one again. Eric had some good front 50s then front lip too. At the end I managed a goofy line that brought some joy. Going uphill back 50 then curve around ollie the little 2 stair then back uphill to a little nollie back tail. Felt good to get out and street skate in the sun, but man I am rusty.

(setup 0/10 8.25 slappy lows vans half cab wafflecup)
(pain level 4/10)

Had some free time in the morning. Went to the riverside skatepark again. there were skate/bike lessons. I attempted to skate it, but wasn’t really feeling it and could tell the people doing the lessons weren’t hyped. So I skated a street spot on the other side of the bridge. The ledges were super tall. Tall enough I couldn’t even noseslide. It started to rain and my foot was killing me. It dried quickly. I took a long time to get the manual into the bank. The bank was quite a bit steeper to me than it looks in the video. Maybe because my foot was killing me and I was afraid of any impact. A manual front 180 into the bank would have been so much cooler. Went back to the skatepark since the lessons were on lunch break. But the vibe was so weird and the skate coaches were just cruising around vibing and I hated it. Seems like dudes with fresh Asics and Ace trucks are likely to be vibers. so I went back to the street spot. On the other side I tried to fakie bigflip into the mellower bank. Then sw 180 in. Then I wanted to sw 180 manual in, but ended up having to leave.

(setup 2/10 null sample 8.5/14.25 jessup pj ultra thunder team hollow 149 53 pink snot franky vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 8/10 os peroneum pain was bad enough I shouldn’t have been skating, but when you only have one chance to skate a spot, you skate the spot )

On the first day of a family vacation in Glasgow went to this really fun looking park in the afternoon. We walked there and it was quite a long and boring walk. I tried to skate flatground at times and really struggled to kickflip and it made me so mad. Arrived at the transport museum skatepark to a couple rollerblading parents with kids doing non-stop loops on bikes. So I kind of stuck to the manny pad / 2 step thing. The biker kids doing laps were non-stop for real though, and had no awareness to look ahead. I had travel legs for sure and didn’t do much. After a while I had Ollie grab my phone and film some tricks, most of which all came in one sequence. Was happy to do some crooks and got one up onto the pad. Had some nollie tails off the pad. Would like to have skated the bank to curb spine more, but them kids would not leave it alone. Either way, it was fun to see this spot and skate.

(setup 4/10 null sample 8.5/14.25 jessup pj ultra thunder team hollow 149 53 pink snot franky vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Broomfield on a whim around 8 because Will was going. Got there first, warmed up and felt okay. My warm ups were basic and went okay. I didn’t ollie much though and I never tried front 50s even. I did get a fakie 50 on the blurb though, lots of crooks and noseslides. Some other stuff. Bank to curb was fun. There was a lot of people skating, it was kind of hectic. Will had switch manual easy, some good ollies into the bank over a cone. At the end I took like 20 tries to get a kickflip and my foot was not happy. Will took less tries to get several switch flips. I tried some tres, but called it a night. My foot was not too happy about skating and not being able to kickflip at the end left me with mixed emotions. I had an 8.5/14.25 with thunders and it felt good for everything except flip tricks.

(setup 5/10 null sample 8.5/14.25 jessup pj ultra thunder team hollow 149 53 pink snot franky vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 7/10 my foot sucks and I should probably not skate anymore)

Was up in Salida for my friend Zach’s 50th. Liz and I stayed at a lodge that was directly across the street from the skatepark. So I had to skate it. Had the park to myself for a long stretch, except of course some families walking their toddlers through on striders because that’s such a safe place to learn to walk. I felt off and was a little hungover. First thing I did was a noseslide on a tall ledge then axle stall on the qp with rocks for coping. After that I kinda rally stunk it up. Could not kickflip on the bank. I did manage a very slow front 50 on the ledge which I was happy about. Otherwise didn’t skate well, but that’s okay.

(setup 3/10 8.5/14.25 sample, pj grip, venture 5.8 v-cast bones medium bushings, 53mm snot franky pink wheels, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 with footprint gamechangers)
(pain level 5/10 )

On a nice morning I went to dog park. Bratcher was there, Jesse would show about when I needed to leave. I was there first, and skateboarding felt doable so I went for it. Lotta basics, hesitant to try some tricks. But man it felt good to be popping the board again. Got some front 50s on the lurb and a shove out which hyped me up. Had some crooks and noseslides. Did a couple kickflips. Took a while to do a fakie flip. Started playing switch rocks with Jack on the little qp. He had several, I would get one and had to bounce right away. Man it felt good to ride a skateboard again and my foot did alright.

(setup 6/10 8.5/14.25 sample, pj grip, venture 5.8 v-cast bones medium bushings, 53mm snot franky pink wheels, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 with footprint gamechangers)
(pain level 3/10 foot felt pretty good)

On a nice afternoon I met Garrett at dog park. He was already ripping. Kickflip manuals and trying tailslide to boardslide which he would get. Nice switch heel after too and a nice treflip or too. I really wanted to do a kickflip and I did. I had skated my 8.25 though and it felt like garbage. I did an ollie on Garrett’s board and it felt so much better. Although I couldn’t kickflip it. I also did a few crooks and stuff which felt good. Bailing kickflips didn’t hurt, but weird sideways movements did.

Met up with Cass and Kyle and Broomfield. Taylor was there as were Square State dudes. I rolled around and actually felt okay and did some actual skateboarding without popping. And it felt awesome. Slappy crooks, axle stalls on the bank to curb, front slashes on it, switch front nose the blue box, some other stuff. It was fun. Kyle ripped briefly, Cass was beat. Felt amazing to get out on the board and do some basic tricks. Then we went and checked out the new shop and it was great.

setup 8.5 14.25 slappy lows