Met Dave at Twin Peaks on a warm and muggy Sunday around noon. I had changed bushings yet again. This time stock Indy bushings I had laying around. I really want to avoid wheel bite and have more stability. These felt stable for sure. Dave and I started with a warm up game of SKATE on the bank. It was rad. We had quite a mixture of tricks. Shoves, kickflips, bonelesses, etc. I randomly tried a regular boneless to fakie and it ended up being really fun. And maybe the start of my comeback as Dave was looking to pink slip me. Dave got a letter on me with kickflip to fakie. Ha ha. He almost got me with fakie flip too, but luckily I had two tries. I milked the two tries a few times. I was able to get the worse “switch front shove” ever done, but it actually hyped me up. On fakie/switch tricks Dave was pushing switch like it wasn’t switch, I was pushing switch like it’s very hard. Ha. I almost went down a couple of times. Dave got me with fakie shove. I hit him with b/s kickflip, f/s flip, no comply shove to fakie, boneless to fakie (which he got later and it looks really cool) and the last trick was no comply bigspin. Kind of surprised that won it. Then we both tried 360 flips for a long time. I think we both got close. Neither of us landed on the boards though. I think that trick is way harder on a bank. Then some lady came out of the school and told us we weren’t welcome. Doh. First time getting kicked out there.

Then we went to this nearby spot. It was way worse than I remember. We struggled initially, but being the amazing street skaters we are we adapted and conquered. Ha. Okay, we didn’t conquer, but we did manage to skate it. Dave had the moves again. Manual around the basketball hoop, wallie nollies, nollies, back “360” off the curb cut and ollied up the tall part of the ledge! Conquered! I took a long time to kickflip onto the sidewalk, couldn’t noseslide the unslideable bench. I took a long time to do some 2mph ollies up a lower part of the ledge and did a very non-popped backside 180 flop off the ledge. It felt cool though. I tried a couple tricks on the bank to curb part of the ledge that I enjoyed like front 5-0 to fakie. On the way out I tried to kickturn the steep bank because Dave told me to. I forgot how steep it is. It actually took me a few tries to get it. Lame.

(setup 8.125 null inspiration deck, venture 5.2 low awake trucks, 1/16″ risers, stock indy bushings, swiss bearings, 50mm spitfire classic formula 4 wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 black/white 12 stock insoles)

I met Eric and Rob at Louisville for a flatground session to start the day. It was cool because Brian and Ric were still there after their skate lessons so we hung for a bit. I was still feeling sore from Saul’s. I thought I would loosen up, but I didn’t. I was really hard to skate being that sore. I got a few kickflips, fakie flip, halfcab flip. That was about it. I had put some Thunder bushings in since I remembered liking them in the warmer months of the year. But I didn’t like them. I had a new deck too. The Jason deck. I guess Jason never cared about flip tricks much so it makes since his presence didn’t help me. Ha. Eric and Rob chatted a lot. It still rules seeing Rob in the mix again. Rob got kickflips back, had some really long manuals, did the best backside 180s. Eric was getting denied on heelflips. All seemed right, it just wasn’t happening. After awhile those two went into the skatepark and I just stubbornly tried a line of kickflip, one foot then varial flip. I kind of got it. It was incredible how little I could pop. Then I joined those dudes in the park. I was happy to show Rob I can finally do beanplants like him on banks now. Okay, wait a minute. I just mean I can do the same trick as him, not with the same style obviously. I did some ride on grinds onto the ledge and some boardslides on the flat bar, but that was it. I went home pretty sad at how sore I was.

(setup 8.125 null inspiration deck, venture 5.2 low awake trucks, 1/16″ risers, stock thunder bushings, swiss bearings, 50mm spitfire classic formula 4 wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 black/white 12 stock insoles)

After work I went to Saul’s, but not after taking a brief nap in my car first. I was stiff and sore and it showed. The crew ruled. Allan, Ric, Saul, Eric, Dave, Mark, and young guy Will that destroys. It was a really lazy session. With that many people there was no snaking and pauses between runs. Dave was taking 2-3 times the amount of runs as everyone else. Dave ripped it. He gets better every time he skates. It’s not fair. Allan is still the king of speed. Ric is the inspiration. Saul does more grinds in one run than anyone else. Mark keeps you on your toes. Eric got the back d on the qp and had some good lines and still rules the funny slams. I totally sucked, had fun with carve grinds though. It didn’t take long for my legs to totally shut down. I don’t get how pumping can hurt my legs so much. Or maybe it’s the bails and running down the transition. Carleigh showed after a few people had left and the session got going again. Fun crew. Bum legs. I didn’t have time to go through all the clips so I just loaded the amazing line Dave did when I was just sitting enjoying the warm weather.

(setup 8.25 null fortune deck, venture 5.2 low awake trucks, 1/16″ risers, stock venture red bushings, swiss bearings, 50mm spitfire classic formula 4 wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 black/white 12 stock insoles)