It’s funny how warm 45 degrees feels this winter. Ok, maybe funny isn’t the right word, but it was Saturday, 45 and sunny so we had to get out. Jake, Neil, Blake and I met at Southern Hills. I got there first with a shovel and broom. I was skeptical at first, but started shoveling around the ledges and it seemed like it might be good. Neil and Blake warmed up with a game of SKATE. Blake and I had some lines going. Kickflip into the tiny bank with no speed, trick on the bench (he did noseslide, I did front jib), ollie up the two stair, turn around and ollie down the two over a pile of snow. So fun! I got a crooks on the bench and was starting to feel good when a security guard came and ruined everything. Argh.

Lots of driving and looking later we found this and it ended up being quite fun. I took the panorama at the end while driving so it screwed up, but whatever.

We messed around at another bank at this spot, but a puddle could not be tamed under it so we gave up. We started pretty basic, but some fun lines came of it. Trick into the far left bank, ollie onto or manual the sidewalk, push up the bank then ollie off the loading dock. We all did it with kickflips to start. Blake added a front 180 off the dock since he’s goofy. As you can see the landing of the loading dock wasn’t exactly ideal, lots of water. I tried a line for quite a while. Varial flip into the bank, ollie onto the sidewalk (although in the one I got I actually manualled it), then back 180 off the dock. The back 180 could maybe only qualify as an over 40 Baker Maker. I was hyped on that though.

We lurked around for awhile and found this nearby. Neil skated the manny pad and nose mannied it. Blake and I dropped in on this narrow brick retainer. He landed it first. I was scared at first. Then did one and kickflipped off the curb. Blake front 180’d off the curb. Pretty fun. At the end I took too many tries to manual the manny pad.

After several days with very cold temperatures it’s crazy how warm 29 degrees feels. It felt so warm I wanted to skate outside! Since it was still business hours and there was snow everywhere I went to this abandoned business knowing something would be dry. I was kinda bummed to not have the curb up/down as an option, but I made due. I was still pretty sore/arthritic so for awhile I just pushed and did chinese nollies off the metal grates. It felt good to have the sun in my eyes. Eventually kickflips started coming and then more. Did a line of pop shove, kickflip, varial flip that took me awhile, but got me warmed up. Tried to f/s halfcab over a metal grate and it took me forever. They stick up a little and it totally weirded me out. I did eventually get it and then kickflipped the next one which is longer because you have to pop a couple feet early because of a crack. The concrete is super rough at this spot. I could not land a treflip to save my life. One excuse I’ll make is that my Venom bushings blew out on day one of the new PJ trucks and keep getting worse. It seems to make a little unexpected twist right before I wind up and pop for that trick. Pretty lame excuse right? Well I’m gonna get some new bushings soon hopefully. I tried a bunch of tricks unsuccessfully. Varial heel, front heel, switch flip, nollie varial flip. Tried a line of kickflip or front shove over the grate (front shove took way too long), front 180 the next one then switch varial flip. Never got the sw varial flip. started trying halfcab flip over a grate and got one that felt so good. Once again I skated like crap and probably skate too much for my body, but I liked being outside in the sun.