Went to Valmont around 10am to get some skating in before heading to Gunbarrel to meet Riley, Scotty and Bernie. I started trying a few airwalks to fakie on the bank that weren’t close. Then slowly worked up the stall game on the low part before feeling good enough to try real tricks. Got a front tail that slid a tiny bit, front smith stall that may have grinded a bit, crooks, noseslides, front 50 on the medium part, back 50, halfcab noseslide. Tried a bunch of kickflip crooks, but couldn’t get it. Had a few treflips on flat. Tried airwalks on flat and landed a few and they felt pretty darn rad. Ended the session with a front crooks on the low part of the ledge. It didn’t really grind, but I popped out forward and it felt really cool. Then I met up with the dudes at this loading dock spot in Gunbarrel. I didn’t do much other then try to ollie a yellow pole and I failed. Riley put down a hammer. We moved on to a spot in Broomfield where I did a couple flippers with Bernie before getting the camera out. Then off to the paint store manny pad where we got kicked out after my stiff legs finally got the courage to ollie up the curb. Then to the steep bank spot where I did a few kick turns before sitting and almost filming Bernie get a banger.

After food and chilling with Fuzz we went to Broomfield park. Everyone was super exhausted. We skated the quartapotty and manual pad the whole time basically. Bernie and Riley followed a fox around for quite awhile and Scotty and I had a fun time. We did a bunch of tranny tricks. He did a bunch of rad plant variations, laybacks and other tricks that Scotty is becoming known for. I went in pretty deep on my list. Struggled with the ledge on the way back, but managed a back 5-0 shove. Couldn’t get fakie nosegrind or fakie 50 b/s halfcab out. Riley did some cool back 180 fakie manuals. scotty powerslid the blue box. Bernie learned front 180 fakie manual fakie front 360 shove out. So rad! What a long, hot and exhausting day.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream (these shoes could last forever))

After driving down from Buena Vista and having dinner with my brothers family I snuck away for a few minutes to the curb. I ended up having a blast. Dorking on curbs is the best. I went through the basic stalls. Got to front tail shove, kickflip 50, accidental kick back smith, several back smith stalls (tried a front shove out which felt impossible), took awhile to get front crook stall, front 50 kickflip out. Then I thought to huck kickflip crook. To my surprise I got one in a couple tries. I was super hyped. I ended up doing a few more, even trying to shove out. So hyped.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Had some time in the morning before we left for my moms. I thought I was feeling better. Drove to Southern Hills, but they were repainting the four square things and other stuff. Drove over to research ledge and quickly jumped on some noseslides. My right leg was feeling weird and hard to lift, but I skated anyways. Next was boardslide pop out. Crooks took awhile and some waxing. Got a bad back 50 and hc noseslide. Started hucking . Close to back 180 nosegrind, super close to kick back 50, tried back smiths. Would do flip tricks on the way back up. Well, try them anyway. Didn’t land much and was so close to many treflips. Ended on a good feeling crooks and went home a sweaty mess. Happy to be able to somewhat skate again.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Feeling slightly better and itching to skate a ledge I went to the research ledge. There was a lady sitting on the ledge when I got there so I went to the long stairs and there were kids playing on them. Ugh. Went to the back and did a few Slappy grinds then waxed up the bottom stair. I’ve wanted to do that for awhile. It has good potential. I did 50s both ways and hucked a few different grinds like back 180 fakie 50, fakie nosegrind and front 180 switch crooks. Went back to the ledge and the lady was still sitting there reading. Argh. I asked if she was going to be there much longer and she said no. So I skated the hill for awhile. Didn’t do very good. Hit my knee pretty bad on a really close switch flip going up the hill. That compiled with the lady still sitting there made me want out of there.

So I went to old Valmont ledge. I was tired and sore and was just gonna skate the low part. It ended up being fun. I just skated slowly and hucked tricks. Got a couple rare front tails, one to fakie. First try sloppy halfcab noseslide. Tried kickflip noseslides for awhile and heelflips on flat. Got a few of both! Ha, well the kf noseslides were really bad. Two weren’t upright at all. The last one is probably the best one I’ve done (not saying much). It actually slid, but I put my hand on the ledge to keep from falling. Oh well, it felt cool.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)