Still feeling arthritic I went to 303 to get some Nikes for their Zoom Air insole. I wore them in my NBs. They feel really good. I walked/cruised around a bit. Found the mellowest tiniest hip ever. Did a fun line of front 270 over it then switch front 180 off a curb. Was going to try and add to it with a manual but a CU van came in and parked on it. Like no hesitation just straight park right in front of me and didn’t even look at me. Then I saw the parking blocks and started trying Dave’s trick. The no comply body varial. It came pretty easy, but it was hard to not flip the board. I was going really slow, but it still put me in a good mode. Then I hit the Folsom bank. I had fun even though I couldn’t get a 360 flip at the end. Next I wanted to do a line at the rec center with a trick on the ledge, ollie a rock, back 180 the 2 stair, but there were to many rocks from the construction to battle through. I ended up at the tiny yellow ledge and took a few tries to get back 50 and front 50. Almost got a back 5-0 too. Then I walked back to the car as my legs were toast.

(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 brown 379s size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 6/10 in the knees, knees, knees)

On a gorgeous night I went over to the school. My arthritis was raging pretty hard. I started in the Westgates, did a few regular slappies, but the knee pain was just too much. So I switched shoes back to the 379s. It felt better, but still hurt. I got a fakie flip, but couldn’t get another one. Tried a line for a bit of front 5-0, back 180 into the curb cut, fakie bigspin out of the curb cut. Bailed the fakie big one too many times and called it a night.

(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 913 westgates b/w size 12 and brown 379s size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 7/10 in the knees, ankles, wrist)

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)

On a cool, but finally dry day, I left work for a long lunch meeting Dave and Rob at Gray Skies. Dave was there first, Rob arrived basically when I did. We started our warm ups. Three dudes carving/manualling/turning around on flat. Ha. But things started to come together. I missed my first kickflip, but then got 3 in a row after that. Other flippers came pretty quick after that. Fakie flips. Had a line of pop shove, kickflip, varial flip. Got a treflip pretty quick too. Dave was last to get a kickflip, but then he started doing sex changes in lines after kickflips. He was doing them really solid. Rob did a crazy line. Fakie big, nollie shove, shove, front shove, no comply shove, kickflip then almost bs flip. He had gotten a few solid bs flips. Rob was also going for a line of back 180, fakie 3 shove, halfcab flip. Not sure if he got the halfcab flip in that line, but once he unlocked it he landed a bunch. And a heelflip too. Dave was popping nollie shoves, switch no comply 180s, front shoves, going for front bigs, had varial flips, almost fakie varial flips and fakie sex changes. I had gotten a couple f/s halfcab flips, finally a couple sloppy heelflips, halfcab flips, a sex change, bs flip, kind of a fakie big flip. Doesn’t seem like a long list, but it felt like I skated alright. I left right as Dave stomped a fakie varial flip. Fun day with the dudes.

(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 3/10 knee)

On a rainy night I forced myself to go skate a parking garage. I wasn’t really sure where I would end up, but it ended up being the Steelyards. I waxed the curb along the sidewalk and starting trying lines to get my rusty soreness going. First real one was front 50, back 180, fakie bigspin. Another was pop shove, back 50, go around then nollie back 180 off the curb. Then front 5-0, kickflip, wallie nollie. This one was surprised me. Halfcab flip, back 50 back 180 out (done horribly though), switch front 180 off the curb. Then I got more into huck mode as I was warmed up enough to have the motivation to try single tricks. I couldn’t quite get a switch crook. Couldn’t get close to front shove back 50. Had a couple f/s halfcab flips, hucked a few fakie lazer flips and they felt doable. Around then a security car rolled in and I took about 5 tries to get a treflip and left when he asked me to.

(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 heelpad)
(pain level 4/10 knee)

On a warm day I rolled up separate and met at the spring canyon ditch spot. Taylor, Brenden, Dave, Mike, Ed were there. John showed up immediately after. Hayden, Andy, Peyton and others after awhile. Dave was already lining things out when I got there. He is built for spots like this. Ed was on the tailblock then 50 pretty quick. John slammed hard on his first axle stall attempt. Everything is harder than it looks in the clip. The pool coping is bigger on one side. But man what a fun spot. I managed a no comply grab to tail then 50 over the “death box” which was really fun. Then John did a finger flip to tail and I wanted to learn it. As you can see it’s still a work in progress, but it felt cool. Maybe not as cool as front 5-0s on the pool coping, but still fun. Even little slashes on the qp were hard. There were a lot of awkward slams. Taylor had such sick front 5-0s. Brenden did some really cool unique stuff. Dave was doing legit lines with wallies, back 180 over the bank medians, etc. John also did front shove to fakie then front shove revert but we’re saving that for Stubborns 2 (slower, lower, older ha ha). Mike had some long back 50s, nose stall to front 50, no comply front 5-0. Hayden showed up and did some stuff quickly. The fakie flip is sick because setting up for that bank is so hard. I had tried kickflip and failed. It was good seeing Hayden getting back into the groove after his foot injury. Peyton had some wild moves. Russian boneless, flamingo, boardslide down the bank median. I think all in one line.

We eventually left to eat and continue at Spring Canyon. Upon arrival it was super crowded though. Argh. Somehow the curb out front didn’t have cars in front of it so we mostly just skated that. Mike Salba’d it and it started grinding for real. It took me awhile to get a real slappy. Peyton was charging it so hard. Mike had some solid slappies. Taylor did a rad front slappy to no comply tailslide to fakie. John was doing nollie tails. I got a slappy front crook. I was feeling better as I had switched to some cupsoles I had in the car. Should have kept skating, but I went home.

(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 with lunlarlon insoles then adidas 3st.003 blue size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knee/foot pain)

On a nice morning I went to Southern Hills around 10:30 am. Liz and I had lunch plans and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to skate after that. After the fun flatground session yesterday I was incredibly sore. So sore that it had me scrounging for some old cupsoles that would hopefully reduce the pain. I went with the 868s. Man they are comfy. I started out trying warm up lines as I normally do. Boardslide, kickflip, 50 the step, noseslide. Also front boardslide, back 50 the step, front nose another bench. Kinda worked. I went for a random new line after that though. Noseslide to fakie on a bench, switch front 180 to 50 on the step, then crooks. To my surprise I would get the line. The switch 180 50 was locked in, but just don’t look at my hands as they may have used the 2nd stair to balance. Ha. I thought I was going to bail a crook, but landed it and it felt cool. The bigger setup made halfcab noseslides feel more doable, although I don’t think I actually landed one. Then I went in on front 50s. Ugh. This is where it got ugly. I decided a line would help. Kickflip into the handicap ramp then front 50. I was feeling good, getting kickflips, getting into 50 then all of a sudden I could no longer kickflip. That’s when I switched back to the 379s. But I felt so sore I switched back again after awhile. I guess my body just can’t deal with vulcs right now. After those switches I kinda ran out of time. I hadn’t been able to ollie up the 2 either. Ugh. So all in all kind of a bummer. I thought the huge board would help me ollie up things. It doesn’t really seem to.

(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 868/379s size 12, basically stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 some knee pain)

Dave convinced me to meet him and Rob at Blue Skies on a gorgeous Friday. Warming up wasn’t easy for any of us. Rob went the manual route. Dave seemed on the shove/180 tip and I was on a similar program. Kickflips eventually started coming for us. I had some hideous fakie flips at the start. Struggled with halfcab flips. That trick gets so much harder with a bigger setup. I made up for it with a first try f/s halfcab flip. Couldn’t get fakie bigflip. Magically got a nollie treflip (with some toe drag) that felt pretty great. Rob was lining out some shoves/180s/fakie bigs to kickflips. Dave had some cabs, fakie bigs, kickflips. He had a pretty magical f/s halfcab flip where his momentum stopped, but he wanted it so bad and stuck with it. Rob was doing some cool old school tricks in the mix too. I got a sketchy treflip which fueled the desire to get a fakie tre as well to get all 3 of the tres (switch doesn’t exist in my world). We played a game of SKATE. Or rather, Rob and Dave played because I was out so quickly. I got 2 letters on front shove, bailed a halfcab one foot, got a letter on sex change (although I was very close) and lost on shove revert (can’t believe it). I tried a line of treflip then fakie treflip while they kept playing. I got a few treflips, landed on a bunch of fakie tres, but never got the line. I saw Rob get Dave with a halfcab flip. Dave get Rob with a creepy spin. Dave do the steeziest hand down fakie varial flip. Rob got a sick fakie bigspin then no comply bigspin line. I had to get going to work so I did just fakie tre until I got one. It also had some toe drag, but it still felt great. Then it was off to work. I’m surprised how much I like this big setup. Although halfcab flips and heelflips seem impossible.

(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, lakai rubbery insoles)
(pain level 2/10 felt way better than expected)