I had the day off work. I was up late seeing Drive Like Jehu destroy it. But since I don’t really drink at all anymore I had no hangover and was feeling pretty good and wanting to skate. I went to Lafayette park around 10:30 not really knowing if I could skate because of my groin pain. I started by doing axle stalls on a bunch of various things at the park. The first of which that was scary was the bank to bank at the end of the snake run. I hit the toilet bowl for awhile and did a basic line of kickturn on the rock, axle stall on the lowest extension, front 5-0 on the parking block. It took a bit and I slammed hard into the pump boob at one point. Having the park to myself ruled. It reminded me that my distaste for skateparks is more related to crowds then terrain. I forced myself to do a tiny scratch grind on the 8′ end of the snake run. I should have tried axle stall, but I’m scared. Then I did a bunch of little spine transfer tricks. Just the typical front 50 to fakie, fakie 50 or pivot then back to fakie. Pretty fun. I got a few noseslides down the little hubba. Somehow ollieing backside doesn’t hurt too much. I had a line of b/s ollie the manhole bump, powerslide, hurricane on the spine thing then noseslide down the hubba. That was a neat feeling. Then I battled noseslides down the 3 stair ledge for awhile. I have never landed it. It seemed like the faster I went the harder I stuck, so I had to find that perfect medium that allowed me to lock in perfect. I eventually landed one that wasn’t the whole thing, but it was fun either way. I ended my awesome day trying cab flips on the flat bank in the back corner. I had a really fun run going into it. Wallie the rock hip, front slash the tiny qp, turn to fakie on the manhole bump, 2 switch pushes then try the cab flip. It was a tough place to do them because there isn’t much room to take angle into the bank. Anyway, I kind of rode away from 2 of them. The first of which was only a halfcab flip that I turned around to forward as I was riding down. The second was closer to a real one, but still wasn’t one clean motion. Oh well, it felt great trying a flip trick and somehow it didn’t seem to strain my groin. I had a blast.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

My groin strain is still pretty bad. I wanted to skate, but didn’t want to ollie. I didn’t have much time. I thought about Boulder park and it didn’t get me excited. Then I remembered Red Curbs and got excited. Especially because it was super hot outside. I started with a slappy crook and was immediately happy I didn’t go to Boulder park. I skated for about 45 minutes, never ollie’ing and had a blast. I had lots of ride on front 50s, “nollie” front tails, one to fakie, a nollie back tail that took awhile, switch front noseslides, and ended with a really fun slappy crooks to fakie. It’s so hard for me to not do flip tricks when I’m skating, but I managed. I was happy to leave having not caused any pain to my groin.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)