Was feeling very arthritic, sore, tired, down. Stood on some manuals on the carpet then tried to figure out pressure flips for a bit. Didn’t get close. I will never understand that one. I suppose that’s fine.
Another day of working from home leaving me feeling tired and run down. Ollie didn’t want to skate or let me go anywhere. It was super nice out so I skated flat in front of the house. I felt horrible initially and the first ollie felt like it almost pulled a muscle in my groin. Ugh. I almost quit immediately, but instead I went on to skate flatground for 2.5 hours and have one of my favorite flatground sessions ever. Kickflips came, then halfcab flips, fakie bigflip and a few more basics before I started with 360 flips. I wanted 5 before I moved on. I got them, took awhile, and they weren’t close, but I would eventually get to 5. Tried a line of f/s halfcab flip then f/s flip. Got it quick. The f/s flip wasn’t great, lots of pivot, but whatever. Then I really started hucking. Lots of nollie inward heel attempts, got a horrible varial heel. Well, it wasn’t all that bad, just slow and I landed it sideways. But it was bolts of course. Ha. I started trying fakie treflips and like 3rd or 4th try rolled away. Whoa. So I turned around, did a front shove, hucked a nollie treflip and landed it. Feeling pretty hyped I went for treflip next (I had to avoid cars for a bit so I was pushing along the sidewalk so I could still count it as one line) and put down one of my best tres ever. I felt so great. I landed all 3 of them good. I wasn’t skating fast, but that’s me. I had put the 3 3flip challenge on my list of things to do by age 40 before the reactive arthritis hit me. Since I would have to wait between cars often I was giving JP the play by play over gchat and he told me I had to do a switch 3 flip too. So I tried. I got really close. Never both feet on, but it seems doable. Also hucked front heels, Rick flips, got a b/s halfcab heel first try, switch varial flip first try, several heelfips, landed both feet on a nollie flip for the first time in a few years, b/s flips. Watched a biker run into my neighbors car. Hucked f/s cab kickfips for awhile and landed 3 that would count on defense because of too much pivoting and not a fluid motion. But I think it could come! I finished after hucking a few flatground airwalks so I could spice up my airwalk post. I am loving the low trucks. Oh yeah, I had new NB# PJ shoes. The brown/gum ones. Clearly they skated awesome and man it’s a good feeling having a PJ Ladd pro model shoe.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)
I was not feeling like skating and had to be around in case Ollie got home from Elitchs. Dave was working nearby and stopped by to peep footage and try to talk me into skating. After peeping some footage we saw it was raining and we went out to the garage. Shortly after Riley joined as he was coming over to get a board. It ended up being a session! Riley was skating my board and did all of this in about 30 minutes. Dave had some moves too that I will hopefully post soon. Riley’s tricks are above, he shredded hard. Dave unleashed a large bag too. He did pivot fakie, lots of back tails to fakie, Texas plant, back boneless, some other plants I don’t know the name of and a lot more tricks I’m forgetting. I did a lot of my standard Rampy tricks. It was fun. I will miss Rampy.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)
Went to the Valmont area yet again in hopes of skating this bank to do an airwalk to fakie for the old man instagram game. Unfortunately there were no lights on this bank and it quickly got too dark to film. I still had a decent warm up though. Shoves, kickflips, halfcab flip, boneless, no complies, etc.
So I went over to this other one which was a bit steeper then I remember and lit pretty well. I tried airwalks to fakie for two hours. Luckily there was a curb (in the background) that I could entertain myself on too and I did like 10 kickflip back tail stalls on it. I believe I did an airwalk to fakie. Here’s a screenshot of it, still waiting on Judge Fuller to say yay or nay. But in my eyes I did one. Granted it’s one of those over-40-defense-first-time-ever kind of makes. I was sweating like crazy. There was no one in this area. At one point a suburban creeped up all slow, parked for awhile, then left. It creeped me out. After thinking I landed an airwalk I did a quick line of kickflip into a different bank, ollie onto the curb, ollie off a little loading dock. Fun.
Then I wanted to ollie this little median. It should be really easy right? Remember who I am. To get hyped I started doing tricks off the little curb. I did kickflip, shove, front shove, switch front 180, 360 flip (took awhile, but can you believe it?) and finally varial flip before I got the ollie. Pathetic huh? Ha I was hyped either way. I was sweating and skating hard. The 360 flip off the curb was a battle and the first one in a long time off of anything.
Then since I was in the area I went over to the ledge in hope of rattling off a few ledge tricks before I went home. It went pretty good! Noseslide, crooks, back 50, halfcab noseslide, front 50 the middle section first try, front tail the lower part, fakie front 50 f/s halfcab out (felt super rad), couldn’t quite ride away from front noseslide, got a front 50 shove on the middle section, ended when I couldn’t get kick back 50 or front crooks. I tried a ton of nollie inward heels and got pretty close to a few. Really fun sweaty session.
I had taken off the little riser and I liked it more. I know low trucks aren’t for everyone, but if there is one thing I’ve taken away from my recent change to a smaller/lower setup it’s that I ollie just as good, if not better with it. I was on a 8.5 with 54mms a few weeks ago. That was miserable. Ha.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream (I think I can finally retire them since they are so bald))
If at first you don’t succeed, wax, wax again.
After a long day of filming and skating the day before it was mostly a family day. I got to get out for a couple hours during the hottest part of the day. Shortly after noon. I drove by Southern Hills hoping to skate there, but they were doing another one of those clean up the school things. Ugh. I was thinking of trying airwalks to fakie so I wanted to go somewhere else with a mellow bank and a ledge. Valmont again then. I felt a little better initially. I had setup a new board and put tiny risers (1/16) on. After some warmup no ollie noseslides I started trying real tricks and it became apparent that I wasn’t actually feeling better. In fact, I struggled way harder then the day before. I never got a back 50. Got a couple front 50s on the middle part. I had to wax like crazy to do so. Airwalks on flat were not happening so I never tried them on the “bank”. 360 flips went alright, landed a nollie varial flip. Hucked nollie inward heels for awhile which somehow seem like they would be easier then nollie heels which I’ve never landed. Had a fun run of kickflip up the curb, heelflip on flat, ollie off the loading dock. Also front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, front 180 off the loading dock. Started to feel warmed up. Got a couple brief front tailslides. I was at least trying them good enough that I would slide out sometimes. Tried front smith for awhile and got pretty close. Was trying switch front noseslide bigspin out too when it started raining. Doh. Went to the red curb valmont garage nearby and some dork in a BMW had to tell me that I wasn’t supposed to be skateboarding there. Thanks dude. I kept skating for awhile. Tried a line of slappy crooks, 360 flip on flat, fastplant the little median. Got close to the fastplant, but couldn’t get the 360 flip so I gave up thinking I could find some dry on the other side of town. Nope, it ended up raining for a couple hours.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows 1/16 riser thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)
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)
After work then running boards to MRKT I remembered this little park on the way back to Boulder. I was still feeling very arthritic and pretty run down so I didn’t want to skate much. This was perfect. When I first arrived there was a guy holding a barking dog on the deck of the ramp as his buddy kick turned on the ramp. Luckily they left right away. The ramp sucks. It’s super mellow with tiny coping that doesn’t grind and the metal is super slippery if you are running out of tricks. I didn’t get very far in my trick list. Ended with a run that had a back smith stall and a little front smith in it. I’m glad I got a brief session in.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)