After work I stopped by the Dog Park on a cloudy warm day. Out of nowhere clouds came, thunder and then rain. But it didn’t saturate the place. Kevin and I played around on the kicker as a bank to warm up after doing some squeegee action. We did kickflips to fakie, nollie 360 pivots. Then the two benches dried up and everyone and their brother was there to skate them. We played with back 180 nosegrinds. Well, I didn’t get close at all, Kevin did them. Then it was line time with the masses. Kevin didn’t land much, but was trying hard tricks. I was happy to pick up where I left off with halfcab noseslides. Got a front 50, almost committed to nosegrind after. Got a few crooks, hucked kick back 5-0 after. Had switch front noseslide and still couldn’t get fakie nosegrind even though I was locking in. Kevin had nosegrind, nollie nosegrind, switch nosegrind 180, back smith, many more. Flip tricks worked okay for me. I guess I only got halfcab flip and backside flip. Couldn’t get treflip. Then the rain came in heavy and we left to check out the new cidery in Boulder.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 212 grey/yellow size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotic and NB# PJ insole )
(pain level 2/10)

Right after work on a hot, but dry afternoon I went to dog park aka greenblock aka valmont. It was chill when I got there. Just a few kids skating, but they would manage to constantly get in the way with no clue or concern about others. I almost died on a attempt to manual the tiniest manual pad. Great start. Sean showed right as I kind of started to feel warmed up. Of course he immediately surpassed me with one ollie. We started on the two bench area. I took awhile to start getting front 50s, but they started coming. Sean was going fast enough he didn’t have to push between tricks. He was doing back nosegrind then kick back 50 then back tail over the step. Wowsers. I was having fun with halfcab noseslides, definitely doing them the best I ever have. I worked on that then crooks to fakie which was hard on that quick bench. Tried front 50 then front crook. I never really got on the front crook, but it seemed like it could work. Then I started trying switch front nose followed by fakie nosegrind. Never quite got the fakie nosegrind. At that point it was just too crowded for me. Julian and Chris from Longmont had shown up, a bunch of college kids. It was too heavy for me. Sean front 180’d the picnic table and toyed with kickflip over it. Forgot to mention I had switched to a thicker insole, but it just backfired. The Nikes were too much and I had no board feel with the orthotics in there too.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 212 grey/yellow size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotic and nike zoom air insole )
(pain level 3/10)

Trying to get out early on Saturday I met Dave at the Dog Park. Dave L, Kevin, Sean, Mike would eventually meet up too. Dave and I had some time to warm up which was nice. It took a bit, but things started coming. The new benches are cool. It’s so hard to remember who did what at Dog Park sessions because they all blur together. Dave had some amazing lipslide 270s on the metal beam, front board the plastic barrier, nose manual, solid 50s, an over 50 front nosegrind, front board through the kink rail, several varial flips. I was hyped to boardslide down the plastic barrier, had some good feeling crooks on the top of the step ledge, got a fakie nosegrind on a new bench, cant remember much more. Dave L had some solid manuals as always, casual ollie over a new bench, nose manual the wood box. Kevin was linking lines on the new benches so quickly it was disturbing. Ha. Basically every trick done with speed. The kick 5-0 took a few tries as he kept manualling instead of grinding. We all played a game of SKATE. Kevin won. Dave L had a sick 360 flip that got letters on everyone. I got out on heelflip which was kind of a bummer. Sean showed, killed it. He did front board up the plastic barrier as well as a million solid tricks. Mike showed right as we left to watch the Tony Hawk part. It didn’t disappoint.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 212 grey/yellow size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotic and NB westgate insole )
(pain level 2/10 (first time this low in awhile!))

After a very frustrating day at work I went for a short one across the street. I didn’t have much energy. I never got a clean regular slappy, but I did get some slappy crooks and frontside slappies. I took a bit to get a line of front slappy then nollie back 180 off the curb cut to the parking lot (although I didn’t clear the crack). Felt cool. I had worn the new 212s with my old tried and true spenco orthotics. Didn’t feel great, but my knee hurt less so I guess that’s a win.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 212 grey/yellow size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotic and NB westgate insole )
(pain level 3/10 but had no energy)

Right after work I met Rob at the Dog Park. Well, the rain was teasing us so we sat in our cars for awhile. It seemed to clear up so we skated. There were a few others there, but not too crowded. Warming up is never fun, but it seems much worse after work. Rob was working on back 180 over the parking block then halfcab flip. He would get it with a back 50 over the arc to start the line. He had some clean snaps over the wallie barrier. I had some sketchy wallies over the barrier, wasn’t as good at heelflips as last time, crooks on the plastic bench felt good, got a noseslide 270 the ledge, a bad halfcab noseslide on the plastic bench. Rob had a sick back 50 to boardslide the narrow low ledge. We both kickflipped the parking block, but Rob did it in two tries, I took like 5. We did some crooks on the picnic bench then I got into a rut of failing on front 50s that pretty much ruined me. There isn’t much worse of a feeling than failing at front 50s for me. Bummer ending to a decent session.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, currex runpro medium arch insole )
(pain level 5/10 right knee)

In between trips to the shitter I managed to get out and skate some flat. I had intended to go to the curbs, but the annoying family was there biking. I started out with the no-pop shoves then posed nollie front heel for awhile. Some felt totally close. My street isn’t what it used to be, it’s getting rough. Bummer. I wasn’t feeling motivated so I just gave myself two tries on every trick I’ve done before. Started with kickflips and ended with Rick flips. I didn’t land much, but the act of trying them felt good. I landed on treflip, f/s halfcab heel, f/s halfcab flip, but did not ride away. Got heelflip first try which felt good. I was wearing the 868s again as I seem to be going through a phase of needing cupsoles.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, currex runpro medium arch insole )
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice night I finally collected on my rain check to skate campus with Ollie. When I skate with Ollie I try to just skate fun stuff and not get focused on trying hard tricks. I had some new shoes, NB# 212, they felt thin after the 868s, but still good. We pushed a bit and ended up the flag stone bank spot. Right out of the gate Ollie was ollieing onto it then worked up some speed into rock ‘n roll. I filmed him do the tricks for a bit. The rock ‘n roll to manual has a tilt. Oh well. He could have cleaned it up, but we were having too much fun. I got the halfcab board transfer pretty quick and tried to do a back 180 out, but we moved on. We did the drop in a couple times. I tried to kickflip off the curb, but wasn’t ready for that. Next up was the gap to manny pad. I thought Ollie was going to slam super hard trying to gap to manual, so he just did the ollie. I’ve never seen him ollie a flat gap so that was cool. I took like 15 tries to get the manual which was a bit of a bummer, but still fun. We hit the tiny manny pad around the corner. I got manual and nose manual. Ollie couldn’t get the manual so we moved on. I ollied down a big part of the knobbed Baker ledge which was fun. Ollie did the drop down 180 pretty quick and dropped in on the top part of the ledge too. I bailed a couple noseslides on the dried out ledge around the corner. I posed some front boards on the loading dock to low rail. Ollie came close to doing a good boardslide 270. I took too long to back 50 it. The drop in to stair ride was way too fun of an ender. The shove version took me a bit, but was so fun. I had to give up on riding the correct way off each step. Ollie did it way before me. Then we had a fun push back to the car and I ended on a great feeling slappy crook. Super fun night.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 212 grey/orange size 12, currex runpro medium arch insole )
(pain level 3/10)

Around noon on a warm Sunday I went to dog park feeling arthritic like I ate gluten the day before. So I warmed up by sweeping the puddles thinner so they would dry. Kevin showed right about when I started skating. As bad as I felt I seemed to skate pretty good for awhile. I was trying a line of wallie, heelflip, noseslide to fakie the lo-hi, switch boardslide the butter bench. I had gotten every wallie I tried and to my surprise my heelflips were super consistent. I think I got 8 in a row at one point and probably got 15 or so total. I was hyped, but couldn’t get the switch boardslide. Got some halfcab flips instead sometimes. Kevin was ripping as usual. The line above took awhile, but when he got the noseblunt the rest came easy. Dan showed up on his lunch break. It rules skating with him sometimes now. He was shredding so hard. The bailed line above doesn’t show it, but he really did slay it. Nollie cab over the barrier, lots of flip tricks, nosegrinds over the top of lo-hi, got the front noseblunt on the ledge. Sean showed up and so quickly destroyed. The lines above came relatively easy, but he got stuck on back 5-0 shove for awhile before changing it to nosegrind shove. The nosegrind on the table was so sick. That was pretty much it for me, I filmed Sean on campus after that which was fun too.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, currex runpro medium arch insole )
(pain level 6/10)

After lots of planning that changed Rob, Kevin and I ended up at the dog park as clouds rolled in. There was almost no one there and the clouds made it nice out. We did our warm up things then had a good session. Rob had a sick line of back 50 the lo-hi then nose manual shove the manny pad. The steez on the shove out was incredible. Kevin had worked up to the top stair on the lo-hi and did the craziest front smith to floater. Kevin has no problem with the taller ledges. He did something to front blunt the butter bench. I had gotten a couple crooks on the butter bench that felt alright, finally some back 50s on lo-hi, wallies, somewhat close to front nosegrind. Right before the rain rolled in I got a switch front nose shove that felt great. No tic tac finally. Then finished with an over the corner back 50 on the lo-hi that will hopefully come easier in the future.

After some food we ended up at redder curbs. Kevin and I played a warmup game of SKATE without many flippers that I lost badly while Rob cruised around to warm up. Kevin had some nice back 50s, but started feeling sick from the heat/food. Rob was trying front tail front shove out, some were close. He was doing really sick wallride nollies to start. I had been messing around with slappy front crook then nollie front tail to fakie when Fuzz showed up. Kevin wanted to film my line. I thought it would be easy, but somehow I forgot how to do nollie front tails. Maybe I can blame the big bulky shoes I was wearing, but probably not. I did get it once or twice. Once with a bad fakie flip after. Then we got more food and had some drinks at Deviant. Hanging with the boys was so fun even if I was the only one that couldn’t hop up from my knees.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, currex runpro medium arch insole )
(pain level 3/10)