On a warm morning Neil and I went to Dog Park to meet Eric, Dave and Rob. To our delight Collin and Dan were there too. There were a ton of puddles still and we did some sweeping to thin them out and dry quicker. Dan and Collin were going for ollies over a tall cone. Well, Dan was going switch and he did it. Wow. Dave and I warmed up on the kicker ramp. I was once again feeling a bit out of it and not as motivated as I would think. But we had fun. We did windshield wipers and all kinds of tricks like that, some fakie flips on flat, etc. Dave did nollie shove to rock fakie and I had to try it too. I got it a few tries and it was quiet fun. Dave did halfcab to rock transfer into the bank. After that we were all over the park. Neil was filming everyone as he had quickly worn himself out enjoying the spot so much. He got some good lines from Eric, Dan, Collin, Rob, Dave. Eric had crooks the butter bench, 50 the picnic bench, wallie 180 the barrier. Rob crooks the butter bench, boardslide the tall metal bench, 180 the barrier, back 50 shove the little metal ledge. Dave front board the kinked rail, quick up hippy jump the manny pad, no comply wallie the barrier, boardslide fakie the tall round bar. Dan quick up to boardslide the manny pad, back 50 the round ledge, nollie front 180 the barrier, switch backside flip the manhole. Watching Dan skate in person rules. He has the best east coast powerhouse style. Collin switch wallie the barrier and halfcab flip on flat. I was kind of hiding is a very depressed state struggling to land anything. Seriously though, I took like 10 tries to get a slow 50 on the picnic bench. I had one brief moment of skating okay with a first try front 50 shove then a halfcab flip. Neil get banging line or two. One foot off the kicker, nosegrind the ledge, quick up to nose manual the double manual pad, ollie the barrier like it’s absolutely nothing. He asked me to film a line and it was looking good at first. Crooks the picnic bench, kickflip over the parking block then ollie the little kinked rail, but I messed up the rail. Then I couldn’t do the kickflip again and lost it. Threw my board hoping it would stay in the rafters. Luckily it didn’t so I just went and sat down. After some chilling I joined Dave as he casually boardslid across and up the double parking block combo. I was only able to boardslide up it though, not the flat part too.

After some food and chilling we went to Glenn Close feeling totally exhausted. It was pretty fun actually. Neil just chilled. Saul joined after a bit. Rob had some good back 50s with the no comply shove out (I think), slappy crooks. Saul had his great slappys. I struggled with regular slappys, but had some fun crooks one and somehow managed a line for Neil of slappy front crooks then front shove off the curb cut. After that we had a nice dinner at Southern Sun and I said goodbye to Neil for awhile. Doh. Man it rules skating with him, such a skate rat, such great energy.

(setup 8.5″ abstract 6 deck, venture titanium 5.8s with regular cast baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, footprint gamechanger orthotic insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a fun wedding I had some time in the early morning before the big family breakfast so I went to this park. I didn’t think I would like it so I will say I liked it more than I thought I would, but that doesn’t say much. The fact that the weird china bank lines up the entire side is whack. It’s not very functional. But some of the other stuff is cool. The weird halfpipe at the bottom was weirding me out until I finally realized one side is a foot taller than the other side. How whack is that? I got to a point where I tried a line. Back 50 the halfpipe, noseslide down a hubba, step up onto the platform, front slash the top qp, then try to wallie into back 50 on one of the china banks. Never got the wallie 50. Then I had to go. I probably wont ever skate there again.

After a nice family breakfast then a drive to Evergreen I showed up at the park 30 minutes before Rob, Fuzz and Neil. I thought I was really excited to skate, but things felt off and warming up did not got well. I remembered I needed to do a nollie back 180 over a hip (challenge from Dave) so I did that. Came really easy, but it was scarier than I thought it would be. I did a warm up line that took awhile. Switch 180 the hip, rock fakie the qp, halfcab noseslide the little ledge near the fence. Then the dudes showed up as I was trying the next line. Nollie back 180 the hip, fakie rock, crooks the ledge. Took awhile to get the crooks and I was feeling the new truck no grooves blues. Fuzz chilled for a bit to get the vibes going. Neil’s of Fire was in full effect though. I was blown away. He was so quick to land so many tricks, had so much energy, was popping up / down / over so many things like it was nothing. It was inspiring. Rob had the juice too. Manuals, bean plants, 50s on the curb. I went in on another line, front 50 the little ledge by the fence, front slash the qp, kickflip the hip. When it took my ~7 tries to get a crappy kickflip I wanted to focus my board. Fuzz had joined and was shredding so hard. Switch boardslide the parking block, back d revert the qp, fast manuals, 50s, huge ollies over the hip. Neil was continuing his ripping. Huge ollies over the hip, tried front tail to nose manual, casual ollie over the parking block ledge. There was another old dude there charging and bringing some hype. Rob ollied the parking block ledge pretty easily. I took a couple tries and didn’t manage a clean ollie over. Neil had back 180s out of the little kicker, cabs, one foots. Rob had nose manual shove, back 50 no comply shove, halfcab noseslide. I got a line of front 180 the kicker, switch front nose, switch front 180 off the curb. Then we all went in on backside flips on the hip. Fuzz got several of them, but they weren’t to his satisfaction and he ended up kind of losing it, sat down for awhile, then got up and tried again until he got a perfect one. Rob had a line going into it and this annoying kid kept going and I think he can be blamed for Rob not getting the b/s flip. Neil was the 2nd to get one. No surprise here, but I was last. I had hucked nollie tres and varial heels over the hip going the other way and didn’t get close to either. After getting the b/s flip I just kept skating. I think finally not having incredible knee pain makes it hard to stop. I had a couple terrible ollies up the euro. Then I did a few tricks on the spine behind the hip. Back nose to fakie, switch nose to forward, front 50, back 50. Couldn’t get kickflip back 50 or front smith. Then we left and those guys ate gluten while I sipped water like Jason would. Ha ha. We had fun, but man skateboarding is hard these days.

(setup 8.5″ abstract 6 deck, venture titanium 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, footprint gamechanger orthotic insoles)
(pain level 3/10)