Feeling very arthritic with lots of knee pain I couldn’t avoid the perfect weather. I wore some new shoes in hopes they would help. NB# Westgates (thanks Tytus!). They felt incredibly stiff before skating, but they ended up feeling great the first session. I started at the curbs, did a bunch of slappies, a couple flip tricks. Tried some fakie 50s and nosegrinds. Got one front slappy. Then I went to the street in front of my house determined to do 10 flippers before going in. I had already done kickflip, varial flip and backside flip while skating the curb so I only need 7 more. I got fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip (first try!), halfcab flip, 360 flip, a weird heelflip that came quick and I credit the shoes for landing it for me, fakie varial flip and a terrible fakie bigflip. Then I went in and updated this journal. It’s almost like a real time update. Maybe some day in the future ..

(setup 8.75″ null valley deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), spitfire f4 classics 52mm green/yellow swirl wheels with 3 washers on the inside, new balance numeric 913 westgates b/w size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 7/10 knee it got less painful as I went on. Guess I’ll be on cupsoles for a bit)

Determined to get further than the school across the street I drove 3 minutes to Southern Hills shortly before dinner on a gorgeous Mother’s Day. I was feeling pretty out of it and bummed on the Nuggets losing. I took my time before starting the line game. Boardslide, front 50 the step, noseslide. Then the same going frontside. I alternated backside / frontside each time I got a line. Noseslide to fakie, switch front 180 on flat, crooks. Then I went in on the elusive front 50 in a line. For awhile I was trying switch noseslide, back 50 the step, then front 50. I got in a few times and bailed a couple because of how slow I was going and how chunky it is. Then I switched it to starting with front 50. It took me a few tries but I got a front 50 and it really stoked me out. I managed to get the rest of the line too, back 50, no comply 180, switch nose. There were a few intentional back 5-0s on the step mixed in that felt cool. Also some heelflips, f/s halfcab flip. Then I went for a line of halfcab noseslide, front 5-0 the step, ollie onto a bench. The ollie onto the bench is weird because of angles there. And halfcab noseslides aren’t easy for me either. I got a few of them, some of which even felt good. Most of which were bad. I had a couple scary attempts to get on the bench at first. I would eventually get on one and kind of come to a grinding halt on the edge, but I landed it and I was fine with that because right then I got the text that I needed to be home. As much of a struggle as it was, I’m glad I tried. Getting one slow front 50 after being 0-3 the last few times there felt great as did doing some intentional back 5-0s.

(setup 8.75″ null valley deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), spitfire f4 classic 52mm green/yellow swirl wheels with 3 washers on the inside, new balance numeric 379 tan/gum size 12, fp 5mm insoles with heel pad)
(pain level 6/10 knee)

On a nice day I met up with Rob then Sean, Matt, Dave, and eventually Fuzz across the street.  Rob got in the groove quick with back 50s variations like shove out, 180 out, no comply out.  Back 180 fakie 50 to a super cool late revert.  Sean didn’t ollie the sign out of the curb cut, but he did have some solid grinds right away.  Matt took a couple tries to get a treflip, but man that first one was textbook.  I was skating alright, pretty sore though so not flipping the board as much as usual. Regular slappies are so fun.  Dave waxed the curb a bunch as his warm up.  Ha.  He had some good long noseslides then even longer crooks and switch crook.  So crazy how he can post up so well on them.  Pretty sure he got shove out of both.  Fuzz arrived, had an awkward slam pretty quick, but started ripping.  He had gotten into this line of ollie into the curb cut, front 180 out of the next on the hard way then fakie nosegrind 180.  He got it once, but went to clean it up and mid fakie roll away after a fakie nosegrind jib he focused his board.  Doh.  He must have been on a bad one and he bounced.  The board focus was pretty impressive as he was still moving, but he slammed hard.  We tried to imitate it for a bit and just posing it was scary.  Back to it Rob was the first to leave.  But not until he had done a bunch more stuff.  Poppy ollies out of the curb cuts, bean plants, slappy crooks, kickflips out of the curb cut, a lot more I’m forgetting. Oh wait, actually Sean was the first to leave. He had done the line above as well as a fakie flip out of the curb cut to the parking lot that was so smooth. Matt was trying a line of treflip, nollie front 180, halfcab noseslide. It was funny though, Matt needs a taller ledge because he was struggling with curb tricks. He would get a lot of tricks though. Dave too, so many different tricks. Not sure if he got the front 5-0 shove though. In the end it was Dave, Matt and I. The wind was my excuse to not try a treflip out of the curb cut, but really it was all the knee pain I was in. I struggled to get the front shove out of the curb cut. I had a lot of fun slappies and got a few frontside ones. The only new trick I got there was a slappy to shuffle fakie into the bank. I tried so many of them, but only got one. I managed a couple front slappies at the end where I got on top. Dave had been lining out shoves and bigspins and switch slappy crooks. I know I’m missing a lot. It was a fun session.

(setup 8.75″ null valley deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), spitfire f4 radials 52mm blue/yellow swirl wheels with 3 washers on the inside, new balance numeric 379 tan/gum size 12, fp 5mm insoles with heel pad)
(pain level 6/10 knee)