Woke up super early and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I got up and did some yoga then hit the dog park. Well actually, I intended to go to Boulder park, but when I pulled in there was like 5 kids skating and I wanted to be alone. Dog park was chill because the parking lot was closed. I started off better than I thought considering I was on the big board. I started with the basics and worked up. Ollie, nollie, switch ollie, fakie ollie. Then all 8 shoves. Man some of them were so bad. Then all 8 180s. Then kickflips which were working better on the big board than the small one. I was still skating incredibly slow though. Got fakie fip and halfcab flip. Was trying backside flip when I saw the time and I had to split in 5 minutes. So I posed 360 flip and switch front heels. Didn’t commit to either, but really only tried for a couple of minutes.

Then after work I met Dave at Wilville on a beautiful evening. I skated there. I was sore from already skating, but I wanted to try and power through it. Warming up seemed like it might be possible. We did some tricks on flat and then tried manuals on the top part of the middle bank. I was messing around with switch 180 to manual while Dave was trying manual. We got the boot though. Doh. I got a nose manual on the way out (I think). So we wandered around for awhile and my soreness kicked in. We skated the little curb at the base of Spanish Towers. It kind of sucked. Ha ha. We ended up back at Wilville. We messed around out front for awhile. Dave rolled in on a bigger bank. I posed bonelesses. Then Dave went back for the nose manual and got it. Then he did the gnarly bank roll ins back to back with a slide between. It was sick. I almost died rolling into the second one. Then we hit the boardslide for awhile. I thought I was done, but Dave hyped me up to keep trying. I ended up getting a boardslide even after a few scary first attempts. Dave did 50s, boardslide transfer, a lot. I tried front board transfers, didn’t quite get one. Then we bounced. Glad I worked through the soreness.

(setup 8.38 null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, Venom 88a bushings, 50mm STF v1 wheels, bronson bearings, new balance numeric pj 533 black/gum “hyperfeel” 12 with Remind Cush Chico insoles)

On a coolish night I went to campus feeling tired. I was hoping skating would change that. I started with a few dorky whatever nose jibs then got a slappy crook or two and moved on. I tried some kickflips on flat as I rolled ..

.. to this spot. I tried to do a bunch of flippers here, but I had almost none. The STFs did feel fast compared to the old Spitfires so that was weirding me out because I was trying to skate as slow as possible. Man I have no confidence these days. Almost no drive either. It’s like as soon as I can tell my legs aren’t up for it I just give up. I used to have more drive to get through it though. Anyway, I got shoves, kickflip (which took awhile ugh), fakie flip, halfcab flip. Tried 360 flips for awhile and came up empty handed. I landed on a couple. I also posed some switch front heels which were flipping, I just don’t know how to get my feet back on the board. I also did a few stall tricks on the first stair. Then I moved into campus a little more. I was near the hill tunnel, but just kind of gave up on skating. I really don’t like 8″ high ventures.

(setup 8.1 null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 high trucks, venom 91a bushings, 50mm STF V1 wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 “hyperfeel” black/gum 12, remind cush chico orthotic insoles)