After another night of insomnia and a busy day at work I met Rob at Dog Park after work. There was almost no one there. It was great for awhile. I had wore my old 379s and immediately liked them. Rob got on the picnic table pretty quick and I knew he wanted the manual. After a good slam/hangup he did it in a few tries. That got the session firing. I tried to get his back, but alas I wouldn’t get the manual even after several more tries. I got close, but most importantly didn’t let it get me down. A bunch of youth showed up. It was still fun though. Rob and I were going in pretty heavy on the 2 bench lines. He was doing front board then nollie front lip. He had a good slam on one of those too, but ended up getting a great one. Also some front 50s, front tail, crooks, halfcab boardslides. I was happy to get a front 50 shove in a couple tries. The halfcab noseslide to fakie took a few tries this time. Dan showed. Rob was trying kick front boards at that point. I missed the one he got unfortunately. Dan and I were hyped he was flipping in. Dan rips so hard. He started with some solid 50s then worked up into some long lines with his patented style. Such a treat to watch. Then we hucked off the kiddie kicker. I had gotten a bad kickflip and was trying to clean it up. Dan kicked off the train with nollie cab, rob back 180, then me with a terrible kickflip. It was fun. Dan and I hucked nollie inward heels for a bit. He was close. I wasn’t. Then Rob and I went to Saul’s. It was a pretty mellow session. My chipped wheel was way worse than I ever imagined and it definitely made me not want to skate much. But I had a few fun scratch grinds and several bailed axle stalls. Rob had some rad laps below coping and a few carve grinds. Saul did Saul. Super rad lines with quick grinds and turns. Also the best stand up back 50 I’ve seen him do. Dave showed at the end and killed it before we went to Dave Ls for the Shredder Orpheus premiere. That was a good time!

(setup 8.38 null dream machine deck, Venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular stock baseplate, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic wheels, 3 washers inside each axle, bones medium bushings, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, currex run pro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After work and another bad night of sleep I went to Dog Park and met Rob and Dave L. There weren’t many people there initially. It was nice. It’s hard writing these entries when I’ve been there multiple times since. Anyway, I remember having an okay start. Some fun slappy crooks, kickflipped the parking block, back 5-0 the tiny pad, ollied the 2″ gap onto the picnic table. It hyped up Rob to do the same. Max H was there destroying. He is such a ripper and nice dude. Halfcab nosegrind 180 was nuts. Fakie shove board break over the barrier was sick too. Dave L was on his normal program of several tricks over the parking block and manuals. He has a nice causal back 50 on the benches. I finally got to show Rob I learned one of his tricks, halfcab noseslide to fakie. I was hyped on how hyped he was on it. Rob is always a great hype man. He had some long lines, several 3 shoves. I forget the trick he was going for on the bench, front tail? I bailed a couple front 50s on the bench and it kind of ruined my session. Argh. Then about 50 people showed up and we tried to play a game off to the side, but at that time the biker lessons came in. So we played in the middle and it was total chaos. Rob set a backside flip and both Dave and I got them. That was the highlight. The lowlight was probably me missing several heelfilps then getting a letter when Rob did one perfectly first try. That also took out Dave. Rob took me out with a b/s shifty one foot. I stuck around until I got a 360 flip which took quite awhile even though I was committing pretty much every try. It was depressing. I was pretty over the grandpa shoes. I went home and didn’t sleep because my mind was wondering why I never progress and my knees hurt really bad. Argh. I think it’s because I change stuff way too much. Gonna try and stick with things that have worked. ~8.5 and vulcs with arch support insoles.

(setup 8.38 null dream machine deck, Venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular stock baseplate, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic wheels, 3 washers inside each axle, bones medium bushings, dc legacy 98 slim b/w shoes size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)