Posted in Skate Journal on October 25th, 2019 by corpo
On the first night of below freezing skating I went in search of dry and ended up at upper valmont. I started in a weird location I’ve never skated before. Basically just a 20′ manny pad, but it had a slightly weird downhill approach and the curb was extra low. It made me struggle. I couldn’t get the manual. I tried for a really long time, then gave up and ollied up the curb, then ollied a tiny gap then did a kickflip. Then I went to the 2 stair area that I had waxed a few months ago. It now has a camera right above it so it’s a little weird. I just did a couple front axles on it. I had put in a Bones Hard Bushing on the bottom as I wanted a little more stability. I ended up hating it. I guess I’m a loose truck kind of guy. I had tried a few flippers. Not much worked. I was skating hard though. The 8.5″ felt huge this time around. Of course. I went across the street to the manny pads. I still struggled to manual there. Argh. I was skating hard. Came close to a line of switch 180 up, then ollie up, front shove out of the weird curb cut, manual, nose manual. Nose manual was the only one I didn’t get. The whole night I was haunted by an image of a raccoon I had seen get hit by a car right before pulling into Valmont. It was just such an unpleasant image. The cold never really bothered me at least.
Posted in Skate Journal on October 23rd, 2019 by corpo
Went to the dog park before work on the last nice morning in awhile (according to the forecast). Warming up felt pretty good, I did lots of boardslides, then noseslides, then everything. I had put the green spits on my 8.5″ setup. It felt great out of the gate and felt great throughout. Since halfcab noseslide to fakie is a somewhat new trick for me I decided to go challenge Dave to it. So I filmed that for a couple of tries then said no more filming. I couldn’t get halfcab crook. I struggled with wallies over the little barrier for some reason. Got front 50 and front 50 180 on the concrete bench, crooks, switch front nose, a slow first try back 50 on the lower step. Flatground went decent. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, heelflip, multiple treflips. Near the end I tried a line of slappy crook, treflip, ollie the small barrier. Even though the treflip was pretty bad and I tapped the barrier with my back wheels it felt good. Off to work.
So this is it. 8.5. One year goal. Starting today. 8.5″ deck, 8.5″ Ventures. One year.
Posted in Skate Journal on October 23rd, 2019 by corpo
Got out kinda early since we’d be bringing Nolan to the airport we hit the top of Indian School for awhile. Nolan got a sick line then we all bombed it. Dean was with us. I was the last. Everyone else had warmed up at least a little. I dropped in without having set my feet no the board yet. It was a little weird, but it worked out. It’s a really fun run. I was a little sketched going under Tramway, but other then that it was pretty chill. There was a wind going up the ditch so it made things slower and the last stretch required a lot of pumping. Stoke we did that though.
Then we went to this spot. It was my idea since everyone was pretty beat and didn’t want to go to a gnarly spot. Although there is a tall ledge here too that Jack and Garrett messed with a little. I only landed a front axle, front tail and no comply to tail. Hayden had nosemanual 180. Jack gapped out to axle stall on the far one, did a front pivot on then narrow edge of the right curb, then slammed trying to shove pivot it. Sean had a nice back tail front 180. Dean had done a rad fast plant over the other tall ledge. ABQ Jack had done a cool manual pop over the curb. Garret was trying nollie shove nosepicks.
We left for a hubba to bank spot. Kind of hard to describe. Lets just say I was so tired I didn’t even attempt to skate. It was super windy, we were all tired. Jack went for the back 270 to front tail and got it super good pretty quickly. Agush was skated it too going for nose noseslide to manual. Garrett had a rad switch noseslide and rode it out switch. Sean and Hayden went to war. Hayden eventually got the front tail front shove, Sean the front tail 270. ABQ Jack did an insane front heel over the rail into the double bank. Then we left for home. Good times. Great trip.
Started at a crazy ditch with ledge on top and a wide spine. I walked up the ditch for awhile to look at it. Then played SKATE with Hayden, Monico and Nolan on a super mellow bank on top of the ditch while Sean, Garrett and Jack warmed up on the ledge. It was a super fun game. There were a bunch of silly tricks, some standard tricks. I was happy to get a first try sex change, a front 540 kickturn and much more I can’t remember right now. I got taken out by a flamingo. Hayden had it too. I’m not sure who won, I went on to film. Jack and Monico got good tricks pretty quickly. Garrett on the other hand took a long time, but it was well worth it. Then we looked at a hip/over guardrail spot in the same ditch. It had gotten super windy though. Hayden got a couple cool tricks and Sean almost died trying a huge 180. Glad he survived.
Then we went to campus. We all did wallrides on this. Jack’s was so good. Monico somehow wallied over this in the past?!?!?! Hayden had some incredibly good wallride nollies. I had some fun ones. Then we filmed Nolan rock fakie it. So nuts!
After that it was the mini hubba area where the pressure was on my to noseslide it. I had a nervous feeling in me, but somehow this visit to the spot made it seem doable. The six stair is longer than it looks. Monico put down a few basics. Jack did a few other side slides. Like over to noseblunt, then over to front blunt. He was slamming but man the one he got was insane. Hayden tried front 180 fakie 5-0 180 for a long time. I was in the mix, trying noseslides every so slowly taking baby steps towards really trying it. I’m going to write a lot about it, because it was one of my favorite things I’ve done on my skateboard. I was getting no confidence from flatground tricks as I bailed one after the other. I was would go so painfully slow and just barely get my board up on it. But all of the Nullers were being encouraging and kept wanting me to try. At one point I started talking trash about how easy noseslides are and finally went fast and fully tried. I didn’t land it that try, but the feeling of finally committing and standing on it was incredible. I would do a few more that I really thought I would land, but I kept coming up short. I lost some momentum and couldn’t commit again for awhile. I thought I was gonna be defeated. I knew this would haunt me for a long time if I didn’t get it. Somehow I convinced myself to really try it and I landed it. It’s kind of funny because it didn’t feel right, but it was the one I landed. Like I wasn’t really on top or something. But wow, yeah I landed it. Jack got a rad photo, Nolan filmed it great. A huge thank you to Sean, Nolan, Monico, Jack and Garrett for motivating me and sticking with me. I didn’t skate a ton on the trip, but this noseslide made it worth it.
After that was the icing on the cake. We spotted a curved curb by the van. Hayden and I started messing around with slappy crooks. It was fun to commit to it. Hayden got one first. Then I got one and he got my back with the 180 out. It was a super rad feeling and such a great way to end the day. Some more slappies were had after this, but I stopped because my stoke was so high. Amazing day.
Up not so early on a gorgeous day we set out to this spot. It was just me and the Nullers for this spot, Monico would arrive a little later than the rest of us. It’s crazy how spots like this are just everywhere in ABQ. People did their warm ups. Garrett died on a drop in that slid out. It was sketch. So he was out of it for most of the session. Jack and Nolan made noseblunts look easy. Hayden styled out some ollies to fakie and noseslides. Sean did a lot of flatground and had some sick front tailslides. I skated, but didn’t really land anything. Then I filmed Nolan get a banger 5-0 to fakie. You know it’s gnarly if Nolan is filming a 5-0 to fakie. Monico showed and skated some flat with Sean and Hayden.
Then we went to the insane rainbow bank spot. It is so much gnarlier than it looks in videos. Jack did a noseblunt on it right away. So incredibly gnarly. I putzed around on the bottom bank that everyone jumps over on their run out. It has these fun little 1′ gaps. I’m surprised there was no forensics on it at all. I took a long time to do a little gap to back tail. I technically didn’t roll away because of rocks, but whatever, I needed to start filming Jack destroy himself. And oh man did he ever. Jack was so close so many times to noseblunt shove, but man he slammed. Over and over, hard. It was a brutal display in determination and stubbornness. Hayden and Garrett skated the hip on the other side. Hayden put down a sick varial flip. I was impressed how quickly Garrett did back 3 over the hip. Too bad we were joined by the Agush who already did blizzard flip because Garrett was close to that too, but when he heard it was ABD he stopped trying. Nolan got a cool front tail to 5-0 and somehow avoided death on the roll away. Jack eventually had to stop. I felt bad for him, but the effort was commendable.
Then we went downtown. Went to a ledge over trashcan spot that Monico kickflipped so casually first try, but we got the boot. So we went to a nearby spot that Monico and Sean killed. Monico makes tall things look short. He had a sick back 3 into a bank. Sean did such a powerful back 5-0 to front 180 into the bank. His ledge skating is incredible. Then we were off to dinner. Yum.
Posted in Skate Journal on October 22nd, 2019 by corpo
On a nice day we headed out in a van from Boulder at 9am. It was Jack, Hayden, Sean, Garrett and me. First stop was a flat bar in CO Springs that looked awesome. I posed like I was going to boardslide it, but that was about it. Jack and Hayden had some warm ups on it before we got the boot. Then we were in Pueblo near the shop and looking at a tall flat rail. I did a wallie nollie or two. Nulls posed some tricks to get a feel, but we got the boot there too. Doh. So we ended up at the dam spot. I did a few tricks on the tiny qp up top. Hayden joined at times. Then we all mostly rolled into the bank and tried tricks on the qp. Except for Sean who mostly just skated the ledge. Nosegrinds, nosegrind 180, 5-0s, all looking good. I tried some layback front rocks. I thought I was committing, but they never stuck with my feet. I filmed Jack stomp a nosepick/impossible line really quick. Then Garrett work for hurricanes. Jack also did a nosepick shove which was ridiculous.
A short drive to Albuquerque later (ha ha) we ended up at UNM. We had Nolan and Monico with us!!!!!! We went to a fun plaza area with some plastic ledges and tall concrete curbs. Everyone messed around for awhile. It was fun to watch. I was feeling very tired, but since I wasn’t filming tried my best to actually skate. Had a fun switch front nose. Then pieced a dork line of halfcab noseslide, kickflip on flat, front 180 a 3 stair. Monico bounced. Everyone but Sean played no comply SKATE. Looked fun. I think Hayden one after they changed it to sudden death. Sean ollied a bunch of stairs. Jack did a sick wallride. Then we hit the parking garage with Nick and Dean. Sean had a nice front 50. Jack back 50 flop out, kick back 50. Fun night.
After work on a gorgeous day I went to dog park fearing I would have another bad session. But when I pulled in I saw Dave F was still there and it really hyped me up. There were a couple other young kids and I got to see Dan ollie the table before he had to leave. Dave was invested in a sick line. Shralp a parking block to manual to boardslide the beam, then front board shove the small square flat bar. He did it! So good. I had done the warm up boardslides and was feeling alright. I tried to get Dave’s back with a halfcab crook, but it didn’t happen. We both tried it for awhile. I got in to quite a few, but never got one. Dave did a cool front wallride on the barrier then a back 50 on the bench and maybe backed it with a pole jam. I almost got a line of boardslide the butter bench, crook the tall bench, front 50 concrete bench, treflip. The front 50s were slow and bad, but at least I didn’t have the fear of trying it that has ruined some sessions lately. Dave did a crazy line of hippy jump the low square bar then nollie shove the tall round bar. So good. He tried to regular shove hot dog it too, but didn’t get it. He had some nice kickflips in there too then had to leave. I continued to have fun. Got a no comply flip over the parking block and also a first try kickflip over it. Also an okay treflip and even closer to halfcab crook. Had some fun halfcab noseslides and switch front noseslides. Tried a line of no comply flip, crooks, heelflip, kick back 50 the box. The only trick of which I landed was the crooks. Ha, but there was a couple great feeling ones. Then I went to celebrate my daughters 20th birthday. I’m old. At least I still skate and have fun with it most of the time.
After getting some chores done I went to “Lower Valmont”. Ha, that’s what I’m calling the newly rediscovered area just west of Foothills. I had put my 8.25 setup back together. I’m determined to ignore the voices in my head and just stick with the size that I’ve enjoyed the most over recent years. 8.25. I pushed around for a bit, did a couple flatground shove warm ups then went to the mini bank. Did kickflip to fakie and fakie flip. Then went and looked at the marble rock. The traffic was weirding me out so I went over to the manual pad. I struggled on the manual pad and with flip tricks. But things felt good. I would eventually get a halfcab flip that felt like how I used to do them without too much effort. Also a first try backside flip that felt great. I got manual and nose manual then tried the switch 180 manual 180, but never got too close.
(setup 8.25 null abstract 6 deck, Venture 5.6 trucks, venom 88a bushings , spitfire F4 52mm 99a green swirl wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 306 Foy b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles) (pain level 3/10, but not much energy)
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Posted in Skate Journal on October 15th, 2019 by corpo
Went to dog park right after work on a very nice day. There was almost no one there. Just a couple kids and then a couple 20 something rippers. My legs felt fine, but I had nothing. Literally not happy about a single thing I did in an hour. Only committed to the front 50 on the little bench once going super slow. It was pathetic. I would later realize it was partly due to trying some different insoles which were much thinner reducing my already minimal amount of confidence. I really hate skating right after work, but it’s kind of the only way I can skate here with how early it gets dark. Phil showed up, that was cool talking to him at least. I did a few switch front noses, halfcab noseslides. Got into halfcab crook, but didn’t land any. Oddly enough, I wished I had a smaller board this time around.
Our plumbing backed up so I used bringing India to campus to use the shower at the gym as an excuse to skate campus for awhile. She ended up working out for a solid two hours so I had some time to play around. I had setup the 8.5 again, but with 8.75 trucks, softer venom bushings, and smaller old Spitfires. 3 days in a row of setup changes. Ugh. I started on the super micro hip near the gym. Then went to the fitness center area to jib the tall quick ledge. It’s weird, the smaller wheels made things feel taller. The wider trucks made my board heavier. I honestly wished I had the 8.75 most of the time I was skating. I got boardslide, noseslide to fakie, noseslide and some bad crook jibs. I tried to line out crook, front smith stall on another ledge, then ollie onto a ledge. But I never got the smith stall and eventually moved on behind Macky where I found the 3 stair to pole to ollie. The approach isn’t ideal and I never committed to it, but it was fun to pose. Then I ended up at this crack riddled 1 up 2 up 4 down. I just wanted to ollie up the 1 and 2 after watching Jack and Hayden do it so easily. It was so hard, I have no idea how people can ollie that quickly. I kind of got ollie then front 180. I posed some flatground in between tries. Last place was the building with the knobbed ledges in a row between pillars. But all I tried was a line where I ollied down the narrow 3 stair, did a powerslide and tried to manual this weird manual pad. But I kept not doing the manual and I’m not really sure why. Pretty blah day, I blame eating cheese the night before.