A photo posted by @newbalancenumeric on May 7, 2015 at 1:39pm PDT

A video posted by @newbalancenumeric on May 7, 2015 at 10:01pm PDT

Yeap, you knew I would get them official PJ Ladd pro shoes as soon as I could. We all knew the dude hypes me up more then any other pro skater and I’m stoked to be able to support the dude in some way. It meant I didn’t have a chance to break them in yet so things were rough initially. The new shoes have a much stiffer sole, are a bit thicker and don’t fit quite as well as the old ones. But with that said the new ones are much grippier and seem more durable. Only time will tell if that’s the case and they seem like they will probably break in pretty nice. Either way I’ve been running the 479s for several months so it was a big change. After a couple noseslides I started trying a run of halfcab flip, ollie up the curb then crooks. But I was really struggling with the crooks. Argh. Got fakie bigflip, varial flip, ollie up the curb, no crooks. Ha. On the way up the hill I started hucking switch heels. For the first time ever I was somewhat consistently flipping the board. Man I would be sooo hyped to get that one. None were real close, but I was getting one foot on so it’s a start. Had a run with no comply 180, fakie flip, the worst f/s halfcab flip in history, 180 up the curb, halfcab noseslide bail. Had some slow and hands down treflips, tried halfcab heelflips. I guess in all my flatground game did ok in the new shoes. I did a back 5-0 first try which was intended to be a back 50. Ha. Tried kickflip front noseslides and got pretty close. Hucked halfcab crooks for awhile and never got close. All things considered it was a decent day for a first go in new shoes.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ pj startford 533)