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)

Feeling incredibly sore I went to Broomfield on another nice Feb morning. Met up with Bratcher, Salty, Cass, Jeff, Nick, Garrett, Joe, Eric, lots of old dudes. I rocked some cupsoles and it helped a little. A lot happened so here’s some highlights. Nick hardflip the six after not doing it, going to a different park and trying it off a ledge and then coming back. Eric lipslides, first try heelflip, front 5-0s and front tails. Bratcher front boards, 50s. Salty mean slappies on the bank to curb, boardslide the lurb. Cass did two perfect kickflip back 50s in a row on the lurb, then a couple more that weren’t totally locked in. Also several hardflips. I had a fun line of crooks the black ledge, noseslide to fakie the bump to ledge then a fakie bigflip on flat. Hucked several halfcab flip noseslides which felt close on a few of them. Garrett arrived a couple of hours late and hurt his back on his warm up routing. Joe did front crooks to fakie into the bank then fakie back tail heelflip out. So insane! Oh yeah, wearing cupsoles felt so insanely different and I changed my setup around trying to find what worked best and landed on the 8.3 with thunders which I would not say I was sold on.

(setups 8.25 with slace, 8.5 with t2, 8.3 with thunder team hollow, converse fastbreak white size 12 with half 574v insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

On another very warm February Saturday morning I went to dog park and met up with Jack, Jesse, Eric and Paul. It was a fun session. Oh at one point we were treated to seeing Boulder legend Elijah skate for the first time in a few years. And he still looks like a natural doing 50s, front boards, manuals like it was nothing. Eric ripped too with some fast 50s, 5-0s, front tails, lips. Close to 180 nose manuals. Jesse slammed on a pop shove manual attempt, but was the man and front 180d the hydrant off the kicker. Paul lined out the kicker with 180 the grate then halfacb off the kicker. And ollied into it. Bratcher was rattling tricks off the kicker. Fakie ollies every try, halfcab, sw 180, melon, close to nollie back 180. I took a while to get front shove, but it felt great. Then equally as long to get kickflip which also felt good even though it was a weird one. I had some okay crooks again. Paul, Jesse and I played a game of SKATE in which I got letters on front shove, sw shove, fakie flip and fakie heel which was the only one that wasn’t upsetting. Tried a bunch of noseslide 270 shoves which weren’t too close. Good session dudes.

Then drove to Longmont to sell boards to LOCO and ended up skating with Dave at Rocky Mountain. I was so sore it was insane. I definitely should not have been skating. But we did and we tried hard. Dave messed up his toe and was still charging. Crazy. Had some slappies on the curb. Dave did a few lines of course. Some that started with nollie to fakie on the bank. One near the end of the session: noseslide the ledge, manual a median on the bank, slappy crook. I did some ultra basics on the ledge, some 50s on the curb. But everything hurt so bad. I tried a line for a while of the nollie 270 shove on the bank then front shove back 50 on the curb. But I never committed to the curb trick. Would change it to slappy crook. I called it after that.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 sean, jessup pj grip, slace 8.25 trucks, 52mm bones v1 stf 103a, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

After a brutal week of work I got out on a really nice, but breezy at times Friday afternoon. Will was at Valmont kickflipping the euro. I putzed around. Not remembering much just tried to do lots of ollies on banks and stuff.

Then we went over to dog park, Ted had showed up. As well as about 50 college students for a CU skate gathering. Their youthful energy was contagious. I know Will as busting his normal ledge/manual moves. I was somehow 2-2 on manuals on the little pad which is ultra rare for me these days. Somehow the lane with the benches and flat bar remained chill so we seemed to stick around there for a while. I was happy to get the wallie/crooks/bs flip a couple of times. Will had never skated the tall bench before and did like 5 tricks quickly. The nosegrinds were nuts. Ted popped up into 50s easily too. Somehow I’m not remembering much else, but we did skate and have fun.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 sean, jessup pj grip, slace 8.25 trucks, 52mm bones v1 stf 103a, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Totally exhausted. Met up with Bo and Hayden at Fossil shortly before dark. Skated 3 setups, including my 8.25 with ventures which I probably liked the most. I didn’t even get a crooks. I had a good feeling switch front nose, some noseslides. That’s it. Hayden had a stylee back smith, noseslide pop outs a mile, crooks, front tail, etc. Bo had an insane amount of energy just popping up and down everything and it was pretty amazing to witness. Ledge lines going up and down the 3s.

(setups 8.25 8.3 and 8.5 ha ha)
(pain level 6/10)

After dinner went to 30th and Pearl area. Skated my 8.25 with ventures. Other than a easy first try kickflip and one good front 50 I very much disliked it. Ugh. Warm up run that took too long was noseslide to fakie one of the taller ledge, sw 180 on flat, slappy crook. Then I mostly flailed around for a while before getting a line of front tail a banked curb, nollie back 180 flail, sw 180, noseslide the first ledge, sketchy crooks the next one. Then I went over to the brick area with the low escalating ledge. Had a fun and bad line of switch noseslide to forward then nollie tail. Messed around with front 50s, got one good one early on. Then went to suck mode and barely got another one and a few accidental garbage slow front 5-0s. My knee pain was pretty bad, I think that really played into it unfortunately. Left bummed.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null flaherty, jessup pj, venture 5.6 v-cast bones med bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay green rev lts size 11.5 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After a long drive up to Salida and a stop at the awesome Ramps & Alleys shop I was dropped off at the Salida skatepark. I had it mostly to myself, except for a few scooters and their parents walking behind them through the skatepark. After some initial feel out I ended up in the corner by the rec center and had a fun line of axle stall the weird rock coping corner then a noseslide on the tall ledge. After that went into the main area and kind of mostly stunk it up. I had several ghost pop ollies over the hip that bummed me out. Didn’t really do much to be proud of other than the noseslide which was tough battling against the wind. I had one bad manual on the manny pad, couldn’t get nose manual or front 50. Had some fun crooks on it though. Could not get kickflip or bs flip over the hip. My board did not feel poppy or good whatsoever. I really hope someday I feel good while skating this park.

(setup 1/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder team hollows 149 bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a radials green, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

The relief of finishing the work week was great. Was heading to dog park after work, but then randomly remembered this spot and went there instead. I had brought my 8.3 with thunders instead and like anytime skating thunders the first time, I liked them. It was pretty cool out. Didn’t try many flippers, but I did pop more than expected. After some jibbing I did ollie more than expected. Didn’t really land much. Did get one line of ollie up, briefest noseslide a bench up top, ollie down the 2. It was not easy or graceful. Did the fun front nose stall to pivot. Tried to front tail tall to something on the lower curb, but couldn’t get the tail stall. Had some little grinds on the step. I wish I had brought wax because I still want to grind it to something on the ledge. Did some stalls on the ledge. All in all, pretty fun for a quick session after a long exhausting work week.

(setup 6/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder team hollows 149 bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a radials green, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)