Chris Mulhern has been my favorite filmer and editor for awhile now. Everything he does looks so incredibly crisp and perfect. Throw in grimy Phili spots, incredible skating and a good tune and this really makes me want to go skate.

Had a half day to take at work. I wasn’t sure how my ankle would take it so I didn’t really make any arrangements and went to Sandstone. I arrived to a big family basically having a picnic in the skatepark. Doritos on the ground, coke spilling down the banks, toddlers sliding down the qp. At least they had a few skatebaords with them and kids would take turns riding them. My first push hurt pretty bad and I thought I’d have to quit, but I’m stubborn so I kept pushing around. It took awhile before I did much of anything. I did some nollie shoves and stuff on the mellow bank. Then the first somewhat real warm up line. Ollie over the b/s hip, ollie to fakie the flat bank, fakie shove on a bank. At this point I should mention I was on Thunder trucks again. 148s. I found out Venture will not be doing the 8.25″ anytime soon. Thunders are perfect on paper so I have some soft bushings in there and hope to just get used to them. The lowness felt good on the fakie shove. I slammed pretty hard on an ollie over the hip which kind of freaked me out about changing trucks. I cruised around the park more then after awhile stuck to the little ledge. I didn’t think I would be able to ollie into front 50, but my ankle had loosened up a lot and I was able to. I did mostly halfcab noseslides though and definitely did the best one I’ve ever done. I was up on it and slid for a couple feet. It felt great. Then I did it in a line of front 50, ollie to fakie the bank, halfcab noseslide. Then I did an even longer line. Crook the ledge up top, go into the bank and ollie the hip, kickturn the bank then noseslide the ledge, turn around front 50 the ledge, ollie to fakie on the bank then halfcab noseslide. For whatever reason the front 50 all of a sudden got super hard and it took me several tries, but when I did I got the whole line and it was fun. Last thing I tries was posing from front 270s over the hip in the back, but then it started pouring. Right as Dave got there. Doh!

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, thunder 148 lights, venom 88a bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric black 345 size 12, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 5/10 right ankle and general pain)

Got to Broomfield on a nice night. I had put 5.8 trucks on again, but kept my 8.25″ board. Well, it was kind of funny because I had setup a complete from old stuff and it turned out the deck I chose was totally cracked. Doh. So I swapped that out after a short warm up while Kevin went to work on the ledge. He had a goal of 33 tricks since he’s turning 33 in a couple days. I think he was at 20 when I got back into the park. Wowzers. My skateboard was feeling foreign under my feet. Partly the bigger trucks, partly because I had new shoes. NB+ 345. They seemed a little thin for me, but weren’t the cause of the frustrations I would have all night. Kevin and Mike were slaying the black ledge. Darin and Justin were on the quartapotty/manny pad tip. Garrett showed up and showed his smoothness quickly. I gave up on the big ledge and played on the little one. Darin and I were working on 3 trick lines. My first one was front 50, some trick, back 50. My back 50s were bad, but I liked the wider trucks for it. Darin’s line was good. Front tail, back tail the qp, back tail fakie the ledge. So sick. Garrett was trying to manual down the tall blue bank. That is some serious pop. My next line was front 5-0, axle stall to fakie, fakie nosegrind. It was bad. Darin was trying front 5-0 shove. I mixed in some front 50 variations, both 180s out, front shove out. We were all trying the ironman line and as is typically the case I was the last. I couldnt heelflip with the bigger board. At some point I kind of rolled my ankle and didn’t think it was bad, but as I write this two days later it’s pretty sore. Garrett, Kevin and I played a game of SKATE to end it. I got out first and did a double or nothing on fakie flip and bailed both. Ugh. Those two did a bunch of crazy tricks. Pretty blah night for me. Everyone else was ripping. I don’t think I’ll stick with the bigger setup.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.8 black icon, venom 88a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric black 345 size 12, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 3/10 general weirdness)