Kevin and I rolled in at the same time to this spot. Jack and Carleigh were already there. They were still shoveling and sweeping though. We pitched in a bit too and then skating started. I had new shoes. I couldn’t stand those 288s so I had some new Swifts I’ve been wearing to work to break in. I warmed up with kickflips on the flat bank. Jack was going right to front smith. He did a lot of accidental lipslides, but man he stomped a few so good. Carleigh did a couple ollies over the hip before going in on back heels. She tried the whole session, had a few close ones. Kevin started by trying to front tail the rail, but never committed. I had moved on to 270 kickflips which felt doable at first, but got further and further away. Sean and Dave joined us. Sean had some steezy ollies, then kickflip, then b/s flip, then nollie back heel. Kevin had moved on to nollie b/s flip. He wasn’t committing for awhile and then did one of the most perfect nollie b/s flips. Dave warmed up with ollie, back 180s. Jack was still trying to get more comfy with front smith to maybe get something out. He did such a sick front smith to front tail. Dave did a fakie bigspin. Sean couldn’t commit to front tail. Kevin couldn’t put down switch f/s flip. I couldn’t do a cab. Dave got a creepy spin as I maybe stood in front of Hosercam. I couldn’t treflip the hip. Dave ended it with front shove and then back big over the hip.

On the way home I stopped at Safeway ledge for a brief one. I wanted to change insoles and see if it reduced soreness in my feet. They did. With the added bonus of reduced board feel. Ha. I did a few switch noseslide jibs, then front and back 50s, front 50 180 out, front 5-0, a terrible excuse for a front tailslide and a very sloppy and slow kick back 50. I was hyped though.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, es swift 1.5 navy/clear size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles and then stock insoles with 3/4 spenco thinsoles under them)
(pain level 5/10 my feet were killing me at the ditch spot)

Had to run boards to Skate Ratz. There wasn’t many takers on the trip, but Kevin was down. I showed him the HS spot and then we went to the skatepark to get warmed up. When we arrived there was several toddlers learning how to bike, even a kid on a tricycle. But the parents were cool for once and pulled their kids out of there. I was wearing the 288s again and wow they felt weird out of the gates. I hit a stop rock right away too and had a good slam managing to avoid diving into a ledge. Kevin was ripping out of the gates. He is so good. First try back 50 the tall bench. I was really sucking it up, it was embarrassing. I also slammed on a stop rock after ollieing the lowest flat bar and before the next flat bar. When I finally got the 2nd flat bar my board cracked something fierce. From then on I had a noodle for a deck. That didn’t stop me from sucking though. The only other tricks I got were an ollie barely over the corner of the ledge and b/s flip over the hip. Kevin got a b/s flip over the hip too, but his didn’t have any tic tacs. He had one amazing attempt to ollie up the 3 stair to manual. He was horizontal in the air for that one. So funny. I’m forgetting a lot, we left when he did a little switch front 50 on the flat bar in the photo above.

Then we went to the high school. Kevin front 50’d the out ledge right away. Then we messed around with the various ride on grinds for a bit. Kevin did the one above. Then we filmed him try front 5-0 and front nosegrind off the out ledge. He got one of them. I was messing around with back noseslide to back tail in the corner. I thought it was just a dork trick, but Kevin was into it so he filmed me do the dork trick. Ha. It was fun though, noseslide a bit then turn into a back tail on the down ledge. But I never slid it. I went to fakie though. I pushed off the ledge to give the illusion that I had speed. Then Kevin went for a two piece. And oh he went in. Ride on front 50 180 out switch flip off the dock. Such a sick line, and it didn’t come easy. When he got it we bailed to Skate Ratz feeling worked.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric 288s tan size 11, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knees were good but feet were killing me)

Had the day off work and the weather was pretty warm, but nice. We decided to meet at Louisville park. I decided to try some old NB# 288s I had in the closet. As I pulled in I saw Rob was already there and skating flat. I was kind of wanting to just skate the park, but it was Friday and all so I went in there too. It ended up being pretty awesome. Rob was popping his front shoves extra high already and lining out the smooth flatground. My legs felt better than normal and the high heeled 288s didn’t annoy me too much. Kickflips happened quick, halfcab flips didn’t. Dave arrived a little after me. Rob did a 3 trick line of kickflip, b/s flip, halfcab flip. And I think he did it twice, the second one being better. He went on to do another even longer line that I can’t remember all of the tricks. Dave was skating pretty good too. He had fakie varial flip, varial flip, halfcab flip and was trying lines starting with kickflip then varial flip. I tried a lot of tricks, but I had some struggles. Especially with halfcab flips. I kind of landed a treflip, couldn’t get nollie tre or nollie/switch flips. Then we played a game of SKATE. It was a pretty good one, lots of tricks. I managed a defensive cab which is probably the thing that made me the most happy. I hadn’t been able to do a heelfip before the game, but landed one that felt great. I forget all of the tricks that went down, but I think we all had SKAT and I did fakie bigflip for the win. The cool thing was both Dave and Rob trying it after and getting super close. I hucked Rick flips and got pretty close.

Then we went into the skatepark. Rob had some cool lines to feeble grinds on the bank to curb before bouncing. I had done a couple kickflips to fakie on the bank and front 50s on the ledge. Dave was going through tricks on the bank to ledge. Then Dave called out ‘5 trick lines!’. Oh man. I think we both got our first lines about the same time. Mine was front 50 front 180 out, switch 180 on flat, boardslide the flatbar, nose jib 270 the little ledge, kickflip to fakie on the bank. I can’t remember Dave’s first line right now. Something like boardslide to fakie the ledge, halfcab boardslide the flatbar, front shove fakie the bank, cab kickturn the qp, cab the hip. Dave would go on to do a few more lines. He started with hippy jump, then noseslide the ledge, then roll in, front pivot the bank to ledge, nollie shove on the bank, creepy spin the hip. He was shredding. Also switch hippy jump 180s, back 50s on the ledge. I got suck on my next line for awhile. Ollie onto the ledge, kickflip off, back 50 the tiny ledge, noseslide down the hubba then somethinng. I only got to the noseslide twice, but man I had fun trying. I hadn’t kickflipped off anything in awhile, It felt awesome. Then the rain came and we used it as an excuse to leave.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric 288s tan size 11, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)
(pain level 1/10)