Close your eyes! Ha. Sorry, it was a warm morning and I was in the mood to skate in shorts and then I took off the shirt. I skated for about 15 minutes before starting the 10×10. I had done a few kickflips, halfcab flip, b/s flip then decided to come up with a list to motivate a little. Here’s the list.

Halfcab flip
Heelflip
Fs halfcab heel
Varial heelflip
Nollie varial flip
Fakie bigflip
360 shove
360 flip
Nollie 360 flip
Fakie 360 flip

The halfcab flip was first try. The heelfip was 6th try, but I tried to get a better one and couldn’t. Bummed I didn’t get the close f/s halfcab heelflip because even after the 10×10 I couldn’t get it. I didn’t feel close to varial heel at all. Nollie varial flip came in a few tries and felt good. I tried 360 shove next and was bummed at how the board kept flipping a little. The fakie bigflip didn’t feel good, not sure why because they have been working lately. 360 flip was 7th try and felt great. Nollie tre was 10th try I think? Maybe it was earlier and I tried to get a better one. I was hyped to get close to fakie tre. It took about 15 tries total. Then I went for the 3 shove and it was another 20 or so tries before I landed that terrible one. Argh. Then I made myself ollie the cone and go to work. Ollieing the cone felt good, got it 3rd try.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Feeling a little better I went across the street in the evening. I wanted to start at the curb, but due to recent rain it was littered with pebbles everywhere. It was so annoying. I quickly ended up behind the school which had fewer pebbles and more rocks to skate. Ha. I only had about 30 minutes to skate. I spend most of it trying a line of front axle stall on the tallest rock, crooks a little bench on a nearby table, heelflip on flat, ollie onto the tallish quick rock. I realize these descriptions are terrible and have included a couple screen shots for reference. Sometimes I tried smith stall instead at the start. My new setup was popping good. I was also surprised heelflips were working. I never committed on top of the rock though. After awhile I gave up on the line and would just try the rock by itself. On the way back I would try flip tricks and to my surprise I was rattling them off. 360 flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, b/s flip. It hyped me up enough to finally commit to getting on that rock a few times. I never rode out though.. I’ve been wanting to try that for a few months now so that felt good at least. I had put some Bones medium bushing in, they felt much better than the hard Venoms.
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(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

And might win part of the year too. Incredible. Such a great mix of style, spots, trick selection.

Joe, Chad, Ollie and I met Kevin after a nice drive at the Evergreen park. It was looking like rain, but it had held off for now. As if being sore from several days of skating wasn’t enough of an excuse I added a new complete to the mix. Indys again. Yup. The reasoning. First, the Ray Barbee graphic seriously spoke to me. Second, I’ve been enjoying the bigger boards lately, but wanted to try Indys because of the smaller wheelbase than Ventures. This comes the day after I called Indy’s useless. Ha ha I suck. It felt stiff and made for some awkwardness throughout the day, but it wasn’t too bad and I liked it. As soon as we got to the park Chad threw some lofty cabs that looked so darn good. Kevin had beaten us there, but was still battling the warm up kickflip which he got. He might have even gone on to do it switch. We skated for quite awhile with just one other dude. My highlight was a kickflip onto the hip from the red kicker, front disaster on the qp, kickflip over the hip. Also a b/s flip that took way too many tries. Ollie was having fun and staying in the mix. Fakie shoves, regular shoves, f/s halfcab the hard way over the hip. Kevin killed the little ledge too. Switch nosegrind front 180, kick back tail. Him, Joe and Chad were getting at the taller ledges off the stair. Joe with the front 50 to front board, Kevin crooks, Chad feeble. Some other dudes showed up right before Fuzz, Rob, Neil. They weren’t shrimpin’ like the rest of us. Fuzz did a few ollies then fully committed to shrimpin. Rob went for it though. Starting with the bean plants, kickflips, manuals on the curb, boardslides, back smith the curb. Neils of Fire had them one foots, nose manuals, front 50s, lots of tricks going. Joe and I battled halfcab flips and both got them eventually. I saw Joe do back 50 front 180 out on the sharp ledge. I had some crooks on it, switch front noses.

I wrote the section above a few days ago and didn’t finish. Now I have no recollection of how it ended. I know I was sitting for awhile. I guess most of us where and Bobby was going for the fence ollie. Joe was still going. Front 50 to manual. Chad was trying bigspin tailgrabs over the hip. Chad had also nosegrinded up the ledge. Kevin nosegrinded down it at some point. I know I am missing a whole lot. It was a fun session. I was still feeling pretty sick and after the drive home went to sleep for a couple hours. It was tough being sick and skate guide at the same time.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, venom 94a bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)