After a bad night of sleep I got out later than I wanted to. Met up with Gordon, Paul, Cass, Kyle, Ryan. Seemed like everyone skated alright. Cass with treflip and hardflip flyouts, crooks shove, ripping. Paul front 5-0 front 180 was so sick. Gordon manuals so easy, 50s, 5-0s. Kyle was kind of messing around with flippers and did a nollie double heel first try. Ha. Ryan had some good flippers too the switch heel. I skated pretty mid, but all things considered with how sore I was to start it went okay. I didn’t land anything really noteworth, but it was okay.

(setup 7/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper grip, venture 5.6 v8 bones medium bushings hollow hanger, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

Met Will at dog park after work. It was breezy, but nice out. I was very sore and seemed like the knee pain got worse as I went on. I’m reminded of how much the 600s hurt my knees. Nick was there, but couldn’t get it going because of the wind so he left. Kind of a weird session. Will did switch manual and was trying to go right into switch front 50 on the bench. I don’t think he got both together. He had some nice nosegrinds and all that. I was okay on the lower stuff. Had a couple flippers. Tried the line above for a while starting with fakie flip, but as soon as Will started filming I couldn’t land one. Argh. So I just did the halfcab noseslide then kickflip and when I landed the kickflip over the curb I decided why not try no comply flip. And it worked out! Left on a good note after that.

(setup 7/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper grip, venture 5.6 v8 bones medium bushings hollow hanger, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

In the midst of a long work day I managed a quick lunch break session at Blue Skies. It was colder than it’s been in a while. I mostly skated my 8.3 with thunders because the 8.25 slace board was so squeeky. I did not feel good, cruising around I did not feel good even. I had some okay things during the warm up period. But could not commit to anything requiring skills. Near the end I really wanted to ollie the lowest part of the snake rail which is nothing. But I could not do it, I committed and just ran into it. It was a very depressing note to leave on.

(setup 2/10 8.3 thunder team 600 currex)
(pain level 5/10)

Stopped by Boulder park on the way into work. Took my board out and out of nowhere the trucks were incredibly squeaky. What the heck. It was so annoying. Not as annoying as my skating though. I went on to completely suck. Changed to my 8.3/thunder setup and hated it slightly less. I had a lot of bails. Bail, bail bail. Pretty much all I did. Failed a front 50 on the bench and put an end to my old 8.3

(setup 0/10s 8.25 slace and 8.3 thunder team, 600s currex)
(pain level 5/10)

Off to enjoy the time change I went to dog park on a warm breezy afternoon. Ted and Nick were there. Somewhat quickly Ted gave me some tips on inward heels so I tried a few. Some were remotely close. Ted got one. Nick did a pop shove tail grab off the grate. I tried some on flat and was really close. There were a couple rippers charging the ledge over pad. Nosegrind pop out was so sick. As was the front 50 back big out. I couldn’t get a nose manual. I did however front 50 the bench for the first time in months. I would get a few slow ones. On the lurb got front 50 shove which I also haven’t done in a while. Sheesh. Got a first try slow fakie 50 on the bench. Ted did some fakie nosegrinds and fakie 270 noses (I think). It was a decent session. I wore some 600s and liked them better than other recent shoes I’ve had.

(setup 4/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 600 size 12 black/gum with currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to dog park on a beautiful day after helping a little at the square state rebuild. I was very sore. I did a few basics. Only thing that stood out to me that I liked was a few kickflips over a parking block. Garrett shredded and got two first try lines that were insane. Cass continues his flip trick domination. Dan with the endless lines. There are too many people to list. After we went to Southern Sun which was a nice time hanging with friends.

(setup 2/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay/xero mixture not liking either and the pain they cause although it seems worse than what the converse did to me)
(pain level 7/10)

As it warmed up and the snow melted I drove to Longmont to meet Dave and Rob at Indian Peaks. There was no snow in Longmont so it was totally dry. Rob cruised on his bike, but it was great seeing him and catching up. We started in the front area. I never really seemed to get going or land anything. A field trip contributed to the lack of focus. I don’t think I landed a single flip trick other than kickflip. Had some slappies and 50s. Dave had some tech like sw crooks, fakie crooks, back tail. I posed some flip ins. We were asked to leave at one point and on the way out I tried to kickflip up the curb and my board hit my knee soooo hard. Threw a fit in front of the kids. Brilliant. We went to the side of the school which ended up being quite fun. Dave had some crooks on the ledge, front 50 easy, kickflip out of and into the mini bump. I had some fun feeling shoves into the bump, one of which I followed with a front 50. Also had a couple slow b/s flips into the bump and switch noseslides after. Fav moment of the day was doing a line of halfcab flip into the bump, slow front 50, slow b/s flip on flat. Then we went to the bank. I managed shove to fakie, b/s kickflip and kickflip to fakie before I was too sore to continue skating. Dave did a sick line of front 3 followed by switch front 3. All in all a fun day.

(setup 3/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, converse fastbreaks white size 12 half 574v insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

On a really nice evening I went to Square State because Brian was there. But, his back hurt too much to skate ha ha. It was cool though Jason and Chris skated. Actually Christian was there too, but had to leave early on. Got to see him do a good front blunt. Jason and Chris were skating the 3 stair so I joined in that I only ollied it and then posed front shove and kickflip which I couldn’t make myself commit. Chris had such a good kickflip. Jason would do like 10 tricks which were all crazy. Nollie tre, nollie heel, nollie lazer, nollie inward heel, nollie varial heel, treflip, f/s flip, cab, kickflip 50 and kf 5-0. Geez, what a killer. Chris and Jason skated the qp in the back for a while. I made myself ollie up onto the stage a few times, tried to line out the bank to curb area. At the end Chris and I skated the little curb. He got close to back 180 fakie 5-0 180 out. I did the best nosegrind 180 out and it felt so cool. Then nollie tail 270 shove. I tried to get kf 50 on the curb while Jason did kf 5-0 on the hubba, but I never quite got it. Was remotely close though. Fun night.

(setup 5/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, converse fastbreaks white size 12 half 574v insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to Square State in the evening hyped to see Brian and skate some. I had a new board which felt good with the mostly new kicks. Brian and I played on the china bank for a bit. I had some axle stalls and maybe a front slash onto the other bank, a kickflip on the bank. Brian did rock to feeble to fakie, front slash, blunt fakie which kind of ruined his back. After that Alex and Nick were playing SKATE in the middle and I tried a bunch of treflips near the china bank. Landed on a couple bad ones, but never got a clean one. At the end I posed some halfcab flip noseslides on the little ledge, but was not close.

(setup 4/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, converse fastbreaks white size 12 half 574v insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Nice afternoon. Got to dog park an hour before sunset. A couple normal heads were there. I joined Ted and Jason for some attempts at pressure flip. Jason has them good. Ted and I had some that seemed close, but a lot that weren’t. Robbie was there shredding, so fun to watch. His back smiths are insane, so dipped. I don’t remember much after that, but then I started trying a line for a while. Nosegrind 180 the curb, sw noseslide, then kickflip 50 the lurb. Never got it, but was incredibly close. Dave joined us. We were doing whatever when a scooter kid came over and asked to jump over me. It was actually pretty funny as I had asked if he wanted me standing or bent over. After he jumped me Dave and I set up the kicker so we had a 1″ ollie to grind the wood box. And it’s funny because it took both of us several tries. Me more than Dave of course. My trucks were driving me nuts with the kingpin nut coming loose every few seconds. Dave did the cool long line then I bounced for dinner.

(setup 1/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder team hollows 149 bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a radials green, converse fastbreaks white size 12 with half 574v insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)