This New Balance, oops, I mean Skate Mental clip is so good! Jack Curtin continues to blow minds with that switch pop. So much style too. Throw in some Tom K and you have an awesome clip.
After a nap and some dinner I went across the street on a beautiful night. I felt better than I have in awhile. I stuck around the curb section for awhile. Did some kickflips up, down, shoves up/down, 180’s up/down. Got a few of the basic grinds I do there. Was trying really long lines of basic tricks sometimes and it was fun. I did some hucking too, like kick back tail (got real close), b/s flip up (got real close), fakie flip down (not close at all). I did a trick I haven’t done in awhile, front 5-0 then turn it to salad (aka the Eric Dressen).
It was fun and put me in a good mood. The curb ended up being really slow and I didn’t take the time to skate 50 feet to get some wax. Ha ha. I went to the curb cut section. I started with a kickflip out of one. Fun. Then tried a line of switch front 180 into one and 360 flip out. It turned into kickflip in, treflip out which I got a couple times, but with the hands down. They were fun though. I also tried stationary switch flips with my wheels in a crack as Nate suggested. It seemed to get me closer. There was another dude skating trying the gap out to the street. He never got it, but it was cool seeing someone else skating hard. That’s two days in a row of liking my setup.
(setup 8.38 null monico deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)
Got out around 10 and went to the bikepath ledge/hip/bank to curb spot. When I got there a couple homeless people were drying clothes on the part of the bank that isn’t skated. It felt a little weird skating next to them, but they were kind enough to not say anything and eventually packed up and took off. I was still in a funk, but not as dark as it’s been. I started slow and attempted to not get upset. Slappy crooks worked, very slow back 50s on the lowest part of the ledge kinda worked, bonelesses and stuff over the hip were fun. Around the time Dave showed I got a line of slappy crooks then no comply bigspin on the hip. Also back 50 then b/s flip over the hip. Oh yeah, the setup change for this day was to Bones medium bushings instead of the Venom 88a. It seemed to help me like my setup more. Dave started slow and was struggling too. He did get a cool line to warm up though. switch ollie, fakie shove, fakie tailside shove, pivot on the parking block. He did so many front 50s that were so solid. Front 50 nollie back 180 out, front 50 front 180 out. It’s a crusty ledge. His front 50s hyped me up to keep trying back 50s. Most of my back 50s were slow and tic tac’d. Some were just slow. I hucked my dream trick there of back 360 kickflip for a bit. Then hucked a bigflip to fakie over the hip and got close and thought I’d get that. But it seemed I would get further away. It’s basically just a varial flip to fakie, but with a backside 90 which I couldn’t seem to put together. Dave hucked 360 flips over the hip, got really close. We were both dragging, but Dave would never stop skating. We had a bank to curb session to end it. I did a few basics like no comply to tail, front smith stall. Dave learned nollie back tail. It looked so easy, then I tried it. What a weird trick to do on a kinked bank like that! I was happy with my setup finally, but I could go for more energy for once.
Later on I went filming at Wilville with Hayden and Jack. I pushed a little, but this is more of a filming entry because it was such a unique day. Both Jack and Hayden tried soooo hard, but things just didn’t work. But I was hyped on how they stayed positive and kept trying. It was motivating. It was also funny because Jack was trying a trick up the gap and going so fast flying between people and slamming by them. Some grandparents with their daughter surprised me the most, they were really interested. It was cool. Good effort dudes, next time!
(setup 8.38 null monico deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)