Feeling lazy and run down on a Saturday I met up with Jack and Carleigh at India’s dorm on a very nice day. There were some cars and lots of snow around limiting the spot some. We mostly did tricks off the little drop. Well, Jack and Carleigh did “tricks”, I just did ollies. I was wearing some new shoes. Lakai Sheffields. They are very comfy and I have high hopes for them. Jack rattled off lots of tricks. Kickflip, shoves, varial heel, hardflip, impossible, cab, fakie ollie, no comply 180, etc, etc. The crack nollie heel was first try on film. Funny thing is I thought he was gonna go the other way after the land so that’s why I’m so far away. Carleigh got kickflip and pop shove, I just didn’t happen to have the phone filming for those. She also did 180s. I had a couple lines that sound okay on paper, but luckily were not filmed. Ollie off the drop, kickflip axle stall a step, nose manual. Going the other way a terrible f/s halfcab flip then manual then a sketchy ollie up where we were ollieing down. Jack also did the crack nollie tre which is insane. Shortly after that Ella broke through here chain and harness to chase a squirrel. It was insane. I kind of lost interest in the area and went over to the nearby 2-3 and did the firecracker then ollie. It was weird how scared I was to ollie the 3. I need to put some thicker insoles in these shoes I think. Anyway, fun mellow day. Jack had cracked his board so we left. I did a slappy crook on the meetup curb and we was out.

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture FTC trucks with forged baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel bottom one, yellow 92a small top one), no washers inside each axle, bones stf v1 51mm pj wheels, lakai sheffield grey/silver size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a super nice Friday I skipped out for a lunch break. The skatepark was kinda wet and had some scooter kids, so I chose the more dry hockey rink. I was incredibly sore when I started and almost called it after taking so long to get a kickflip. I went on to skate slow and without confidence for an hour. It was so nice out it made up for the sucking. I came close to nollie tre. Landed terrible heelflip and 360 flip. I really hate these shoes and plan on retiring them.

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture FTC trucks with forged baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel bottom one, yellow 92a small top one), no washers inside each axle, bones stf v1 51mm pj wheels, adidas busenitz vulc b/w size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 7/10 everything hurt)

On a warm night that started in the mid 40s I drove into campus in search of dry. The meet up curb was snowy, the rock ledge was snowy, ugh, so I ended up going under the engineering building. It was dry, but the lights weren’t on over the double bank section which was a flip trick bummer. I started with a back 180 up where I wallie nollie flop off. The wallie nollie flop felt pretty fun though. Then I went for the back 50 off the 3 stair which is normally a first try thing. But this time it wouldn’t grind and it made it tough. I tried back 360s when I would bail. Got kinda close. What a random trick to try. I got a few back 50s and tried to back it with an ollie down the next crack ridden 3 stair. I slammed hard catching a crack right before the ollie down 3. It was close to getting too hurt to skate, but I got up and decided to ollie up the 3 stair instead. Now I’m never going to say I’m good at ollieing up 3 stairs, but this 3 is harder than most. Cracks and long. But as you can see I would eventually get it. And man it felt great. Street skating can be very rewarding.

Next I went up to this little ledge. From the looks of it, it’s been skated more, but it was quite sticky. I told myself 10 ledge tricks before I could bounce. I got boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie, switch noseslide to forward, front nose to fakie, front nose 270 out, took awhile to get a crook, switch front nose, and halfcab noseslide jib. I guess that’s 9. Maybe I forgot one. I posed some flip tricks in between. I was pretty sore from the battle of ollieing up the 3 stair. I had put some old bones STFs on. They were small, but they felt better to me then those soggy big Spits.

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture FTC trucks with forged baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel bottom one, yellow 92a small top one), no washers inside each axle, bones stf v1 51mm pj wheels, adidas busenitz vulc b/w size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went out to the garage late in the evening on a cold/snowy night. I tried to skate my real setup, but the soft wheels and destroyed tail felt terrible. I wasn’t really motivated at first, but then I just started to huck and it came together. I had a 360 flip early on, couldn’t hardflip. Started hucking sex changes the hard way, but never got both feet on. My frontside flips are still terrible. I can’t heelflip in these shoes because of how thick the heel is. The 3 shove took awhile, but felt fun. The halfcab heel took awhile to get and I called it then.

(setup garage putter 7.5″ – adidas busenitz vulc b/w size 12 stock insoles)

On a very cold day New Years Day I went to the Steelyards garage to meet up with Sean and Carleigh. I got there first. It was colder in there than I remember. But man, that curb is so fun. I was getting into some grinds pretty quickly. Sean showed next. We brought his flat bar out that is pretty tall, it took me a few tries to boardslide it. I had done some basic flippers, but nothing much, some basic curb tricks, but not much. Sean came out and was immediately doing his tricks. I guess I should say he did at least do his dynamic stretching first. Carleigh showed shortly after that. She made boardsliding the flatbar look easy. I had to really focus to ollie that high. We were all doing our own thing for awhile. I got a front 50 back 180 out, nollie front 5-0 and some switch crook jibs. Sean was doing variations of the line in the video. Lots of pop and energy. Carleigh started in on learning back 50s and was getting closer with each try. I filmed Sean do his line and Carleigh try back 50s. In between tries I started hucking a dream trick front shove back 50. I would eventually start committing and several minutes later I kind of got it. Carleigh got back 50 a few tries later. Sean learned switch front 5-0 too. That’s new tricks for all of us to start the year!

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture FTC trucks with forged baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel bottom one, yellow 92a small top one), no washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 99a classic 52mm green/yellow swirl wheels, adidas busenitz vulc b/w size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10 felt pretty cold)