Met up with Garrett and Gordon at York St. Also Ryan and Dale from Ritual and Anthony from Bluecar joined. And it was a really fun session because we only skated the tiny qp. Well, at least that’s all I skated. Gordon and I warmed up with a game of qp SKATE. He won with cab axle stall. I was happy to get a first try front tail though, it’s been a while on that one. Went on to get a lot of my other old Rampy tricks and came up short on kickflip axle stall again. Garrett blunt kickflip fakie and back noseblunt were cool. Ryan varial flip pivot fakie was sick. Dale blunt 3 shove to fakie.

Then we went to Rino spot at 40th and Franklin. I was pretty sore still, but man there is hundreds of feet of curb there. Gordon was killing the slappies. Frontside, backside, switch all of them. Also 50 the bank. Dale had some perfect treflips. Ryan felt out some tricks. Anthony went for a tech line. I would get a line that made me kind of happy. Nose jib to fakie the bank, sw 180 up the curb, noseslide a ledge. Garrett did pop shove 50 so good.

Then we went across the street to a flat gap and I filmed the dudes get some banger in between rain showers.

(setup 3/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, venture 5.8 v-cast flat top washer, bones x99 v1 52mm , new balance numeric 272 brown size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

Met up with 98% dudes at Boulder park. I was so incredibly sore, my body was a mess. I had some fun with my ultra basics there, didn’t get beyond that. Collin was shredding hard. Back boneless do disaster was cool. Dan’s cab for Squeeks was cool.

We went out to the butter benches. It was funny the guy working at the bagel place welcomed us to skate and said we could borrow a broom if needed. I couldn’t not land anything. Death of the 8.25 with Royals. Dan had a casual good line and tried another one with nollie front 180 up the 2. Joe’s sw ollie up was so good and the fakie crooks wow. Ian skated fast. Wade’s front nose was awesome.

Then to Casey. My legs were so toast. I filmed Scotty get a line. Dan had manual no comply 180. Wade a cool front board up.

(setup 7/10 8.25 null abstract 43, pepper g5, royal 144, spitfire f4 99a tablets 52mm, various shoes, but ended on splays)
(pain level 8/10 everything)

Finally feeling less sick. Went to dog park after work. There was a couple dudes there that were really nice. One dude doing lots of cool flippers and even nose manual nollie flip out. I was skating okay, feel like it was the first time in a few weeks I actually ollied. Had most of my basics on the curbs/lurbs. Still didn’t get front 50 on the bench or taller ledge. Dave showed right when I landed a first try fakie bigflip. I would also get halfcab flip, b/s flip, fakie flip. No heelflip tricks or treflip though. There was a fun wood thing to wallie. Dave also feeble transferred it. Crooks on the taller wood bench were still fun. After a while Dave and I went in on smith grinds on the lurb. Well, we each landed some before we went to film it then it took a while before we got them again. Dave actually grinded his. I know the smith 180 looks terrible and is just a pivot off the nose, but I still liked it. I got a switch smith to regs kinda quick. Then battled a full switch crook forever and never got one. Dave would get some other bangers like back 50 to slight crook, Franky grind, nollie front nose, front 180 fakie 50 180. Really fun night and it felt good to finally have energy.

(setup 7/10 8.25 null abstract 43, pepper g5, royal 144, spitfire f4 99a tablets 52mm, new balance numeric 306cup with half insoles)
(pain level 5/10 hip flexor wasn’t terrible)

Stopped by Boulder park on the way into work. It was nice, but warming quickly. Skated about 30 minutes. Started on my 8.25/14/venture and hated it. Changed to my 8.5/14.25/venture and hated it slightly less. Couldn’t ollie much without pain in the hip flexor/groin. Only fun thing was really long back 50s on the qp. For a bit I tried a line of front 50 the qp then kickflip nose stall the hump to ledge. Didn’t get too close. Left sooner than I needed to because of pain.

(setups meh)
(pain level 7/10)

Nice night. Went out after dinner with low expectations and wanted to skate something different. I chose to skate my 8.25/14/venture hollows setup for some reason. It was okay. I started at some tiny flat gap. Did some ollies and 180s. Couldn’t commit to a b/s flip or kickflip or front shove.

Skated around. Ended up at the loading dock I almost lost my mind at last time. I did slow kickflip and halfcab flip into it. Then a good feeling shove it on my way out.

Ended up at the curb cut thing and did some 180 crooks and shove. Also hucked nollie flips that were close. Okay night.

(setup 4/10 8.25/14 sample, null grip, venture 5.6 v-hollow, 52mm spitfire 99a tablets, new balance numeric 306cup grey size 12 with half insole. I had gamechanger lights in for a while, but took them out to reduce hip/goin pain)
(pain level 6/10 hip flexor/groin)

After hitting every light between Boulder and Loveland I stopped at this ledge to bake and suck in the sun for a while. I only skated about 30 minutes. I felt quite sore and off when I started. I would manage some noseslides, one very slow front 50 and some crooks. The ledge was sticky and the sun prevented wax from working.

Then I met Bo, Sean and Mike at Juniper Pl DIY. By then my body had completely seized up in pain. I attempted to skate, but it was scary and painful. Even pushing hurt. Didn’t really notice this arthritis flare up coming, but man I was in it for sure. Bo on the other hand was hopping onto or over everything. We were all jealous of his pop and energy. Mike had some patented no comply pole jams, boarslides, front noses. Skelly had the bank mound grind, poppy ollies.

(setup 3/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, venture 5.8 v-cast flat top washer, bones x99 v1 52mm and splays size 11.5 green with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 9/10 arthritis as well as groin/hip flexor pain)

On a warm Friday I went to meet Will and Sean at dog park, but it was wet and currently raining. Chatted with Justin and his friends a bit. Then Valmont cleared up enough to skate it so I went there. And it was great because there were no scooter/striders. I felt better than I had since being sick, but was still keeping it mellow. Will had some mega pop as he always does over the hips. I did kind of a silly line going from the bump to ledge then over to the mellow flat bank for a kickflip. I had done a bad bigflip previously. I would get a longer line even off back 50 in the pond, crook the bump to ledge, barrier ride, then tried kickflip to fakie but didn’t ride away. Sean had some good pop, fs carve the barrier.

Over at GB it was a fun session with lots of dudes charging. Ted, Nick, Justin, Justin’s friends, Will, some dudes from Omaha, etc. I didn’t pop much, mostly just did crooks, noseslides and boardslides. No flip tricks. Sean had the good halfcab boardslide and one foot. Will almost did halfcab crook. Nick hardflip and b/s flip off the grate. After a while most had left and Sean and I were just sitting. We were treated to Ace and Noah rattling off tricks off the metal gate. Pretty fun. Felt good to skate for real again.

(setup 6/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, venture 5.8 v-cast flat top washer, bones x99 v1 52mm and splays size 11.5 green with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10 sore from being sick and groin/hip flexor pain)

Still fighting this plague I was feeling a little better and wanted to skate a little. Went across the street to the school and tried some slappies. I say tried because I felt so off that even slappies were scary to me. And it was super depressing. Seriously took like 5 tries to get a slappy crook. Frontside slappies were better. Ollies felt almost impossible. It was an ultra depressing session. I knew I would suck since I’ve been sick so long, but struggling to slappy crook? That’s a new low for me.

(setup 1/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, venture 5.8 v-cast flat top washer, bones x99 v1 52mm and splays size 11.5 green with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 6/10 sore from being sick and hip flexor pain)

Still not feeling good, but wanting to get out a little I went to the ol’ meet up bank spot with Dave. I still felt pretty disoriented and run down from whatever plague I’m fighting. Warm ups were manuals on the deck, nollie shoves. Dave showed. We got into tricks out of the bank. He did shove and kickflip. I randomly started with nollie front 180 then took a long time to do front shove and not so long to do kickflip. Dave did a rad line of sw front nose the railed ledge then varial flip out of the bank. Then close to halfcab flip into the bank. I posed front heels before they hurt my hip flexor too much. Then randomly started hucking sw back 180s out and it was not even remotely possible at first. But eventually I would get a couple sketchy ones and they were fun. Now to add a flilp! Ha. I chilled for a while as I was exhausted. Dave died on a Hale into the bank. Then as I was leaving I setup the cone to ollie. Dave got a couple clean ollies. I almost had front 180. But some dude came in hot and was not happy we were skating there. Doh. Still a fun session.

(setup 7/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, venture 5.8 v-cast flat top washer, bones x99 v1 52mm and splays size 11.5 green with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 6/10 sore from being sick and hip flexor pain)

After sleeping in I eventually went to meet Cass at this mellow bank in Broomfield. It was insanely hot when we started. Just sun beating down on us. Neither of us had skated in the last week so we were rusty to begin. Cass got things going first with a front shove to fakie that was really popped. I took a while to get a couple kickflips. Had a fun line of no comply 270 to tail the sidewalk then carve back down and do kickflip to fakie. Then I basically tried fakie hardflips the rest of the session without getting too close. Oh and some front heels too that hurt my hip flexor. Cass on the other hand rattled off tricks. Fakie casper, bigspin underflip, hardflip to fakie. Saving them for Stubborns 2. Kyle showed up and did the most casual kickflip to fakie and treflip to fakie before going on to do a kickflip primo to fakie. So sick. Alecs and Nick showed up briefly. Then we got rained out which was okay by me as I was still fighting the funk.

(setup 7/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, venture 5.8 v-cast flat top washer, bones x99 v1 52mm and splays size 11.5 green with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 6/10 sore from being sick and hip flexor problems)