Went to Boulder park on a dreary morning that is supposed to change to rain/snow. I started on my big setup. I quickly realized I was really sore, tried and unwilling to try hard. There was another dude there that was on the opposite end of motivation. He was trying axle stalls in the mini ramp section. He never got one that I saw, but he would hustle so fast to get back up and try it again. It was kind of motivating. I wanted to hit the ledge, but it wasn’t working. I almost died on a roll in to the mini, had troubles popping the board on hips, couldn’t heelflip, had a good back 50 on the tighter qp. After awhile I decided I should try my smaller setup with Thunders. Immediately I felt better popping it. But that excitement quickly disappeared. Still couldn’t 50 the ledge, was scared carving. On the big board I was doing shoves out of the kicker to setup for the ledge. I tried front shove on the little board and didn’t get close. There was a different dude there. He was cool. He was mostly carving, but had some good grinds, flippers on flat and good style. I needed to get going to work so I decided I’d at least do a b/s flip over the hip and call it good. The first few were close and then it was all downhill from there. I literally took 45 minutes to land it. I had several close ones that felt totally right. It was driving me nuts. I threw my board a couple times. I was so angry it was insane. Peewee showed and a couple tries later I landed it. It didn’t even feel good. Like on the ride out the board made a weird turn and somehow I stayed on. Needless to say I’m totally over Thunders. I guess I need to either deal with the bigger setup and enjoy Venture 5.8s or put the 5.2 lows back on. Setup madness is so frustrating. I’m jealous of anyone who just rides the same thing without questioning it and changing things.

(big setup 8.5″ null rabethica deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, venom 88a bushings, old 52mm bones stf v5 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)

(small setup 8.25″ null monico deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)

Went to the slappy meetup curb trying to motivate. I was sore from playing basketball with Ollie and being old. I did a couple slappy crook and realized that was all I was gonna do. I did about 20 of them, tried a few switch ones, technically did a fs halfcab noseslide and called it a night. The big board started to bum me out, although the trucks felt great while crooksing.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, venom 88a bushings, old 52mm bones stf v5 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints 5mm insoles)