Finally feeling somewhat good, but not up for a long session I went across the street wanting to do some more slappy front crooks. Man they are fun. I did quite a few both ways. Then some 50s and went back to the street to skate flat for a bit. Got a good feeling halfcab flip, a treflip that was ruined by wheelbite, heelflip, some other tricks going slow. I had put different bushings on and they felt good.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling jittery from too much caffeine on a nice sunny morning the whole family hit the BV park. I hate that park. I haven’t skated in front of my mom in forever. I tried to show her and my brother a bean plant to tail on a qp and slammed so bad with my back on the coping. There was stop rocks all over the park so it was scary rolling then all of a sudden hitting a qp. So that was rather embarrassing. My brother skated a tiny bit. My nephews mostly sat on their boards and raced around. I got a couple kickflips to fakie, some little qp tricks, bailed front 50s on the ledge that turns into a qp and yelled when I repeatedly hit stop rocks. As if the Buena Vista skatepark didn’t already suck enough, the addition of millions of stop rocks and broken pool coping put me over the edge.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Up in the mountains I hit flat near the Salida pool while my brother swam with his kids. It’s a small little basketball court. It’s smooth, but so small it’s hard to do more than one trick in a row. I felt a little better than I had in a few days although for whatever reason my board felt small and my shoes felt big. I got a few of the basics. One slow treflip, one slow heelflip, couple f/s halfcab flips, a couple fakie bigflips. I slammed a bunch trying f/s halfcab heels. Didn’t get anything unusual or hard, but it felt good to skate some.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 88a bushings no boardslide washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really nice day I had some time while my brother was hanging with his kids at the creek. I went over to the curb and started messing around. Slappy crooks were fun. Did some 50s, 5-0s, front 50 back 180, some fakie 50s. Tried a dream trick variation for awhile. Crooks shove the hard way. They felt doable, but not close. Ended by getting a few slappy front crooks which I’ve never done on that curb before. It felt cool.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 88a bushings not boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Heads up, I’m writing this almost a week after the session so my memory of what happened might not be so good. It was my first day in contacts in quite some time, the weather was decent. Kevin and I went to meet Dave downtown. We ended up near the dentist 5 where we saw Will and crew skating. Kevin and I tried some flippers in the street which is when I realized my arthritis was bad and my skating would suffer. I didn’t think it would suffer as bad as it did though. I felt as if I could not skate at all. I debated going home. Dave showed. Kevin had done a few flippers, ollied the 5 super easily. We ended up hitting some nearby parking blocks. Jack, Carleigh and Sean joined. For awhile there was one block by itself and another with two orange cones sideways on top of it. Kevin, Sean and Jack ollied it like it was absolutely nothing. Jack went on to do like 30 tricks over them. It was quite incredible. Switch varial heel was hot. He did fakie tre before fakie flip. Sean agreed it was easier. Okay I’ll take their word for it. Carleigh kickflipped the curb quick then ollied the coned curb. Dave ollied it too. I was the only one to not ollie it. I did try and commit, but couldn’t get over it. I had a no comply flip over the block in a couple tries which was my one saving grace. Dave was doing sprack to manual to almost boardslide. Kevin switch ollied the coned block, kickflpped it, 180s. Sean did the cleanest backside flip I’ve ever seen over the block. It was seriously stunning. At times I was so frustrated that I was whining like a baby. Sorry friends, it was frustrating. At least my friends were ripping.

Then we went to Saul’s minus Sean. Saul and Eric were there. I felt a little better not having to ollie and had fun. Eric was ripping. His grinds keep getting faster and longer, almost lipslides, manual to axle stall to fakie, heelflips. Saul too. He had some long grinds. My favorite is still the crazy quick carve grinds. Carleigh learned to ride on grind transfer in then backed them with some solid runs. Jack was funny at first just doing hurricane grinds from the deck transfer in. He did some crazy stuff like front 5-0 to fakie over the hip, nosepick shove, bigspin pivot. Kevin shreds transition. Switch disasters, sketchy roll ins, lofty back disasters, pivots fakie. Dave is always a treat to watch there. Such long lines, huge bag of tricks. The photo is him doing a front smith with the whole crew in the background. I had some fun carve grinds, a couple front disasters.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 8/10)