After an annoying morning that seemed to take forever to get ready I met up with Dave L, Dave F and Will from Seattle at Rocky Mtn. It was basically totally dry except for a puddle running across the runway to the ledge. To add to my morning my first attempt at a slappy would results in a full slam. Ugh. Rob would join us and hang. It was good to see him, hope he can skate soon. Kevin and eventually Fuzz would join too. I had decided to go for the marathon run to get warmed up. Ollie down the 2 and 3 stairs, flatground trick, ledge trick, bank trick, ride down the dirt hill, a couple little ollies, kickflip into the downhill sidewalk. It took a few tries, but I got it. The stair ollies, no comply 180, switch noseslide to forward, boneless on the bank, ollies over some puddles and stuff, kickflip. It was really fun. Kevin had shown up around then and was immediately ripping as always. Will had some clean ollies on the bank, popped over a median, had some good shoves, halfcab flips on flat. Dave L had a nice back 180 up the curb then fakie ollie onto a median and manual down it. Pretty sure I could never do that. He was also doing nice back 50s then trying to backside ollie onto a median and manual down it. It looked so hard. He wasn’t really feeling it and started filming Kevin and Dave F. Kevin had been doing a bunch of stuff, but went in hard on an insane line. Manual a rock to ollie a snow pile out, front tail to fakie, switch 180 off the curb, heelflip on flat, ollie up the curb and nollie flip to fakie on the bank. It was funny because he did it once, but bailed the little halfcab off at the end. Dave was doing these crazy cab manuals on the brick medians. He was also doing nollie 270 manuals. Tech Dave. He had a line with a fakie ollie onto a median and a front 50 on the ledge. I was struggling beyond believe, but managed to keep skating and have a little fun. I was having problems with kickflips up the curb which is normally an every try thing for me, especially at that spot. I had sworn off the 5.2 highs, but eventually started liking them. I did have a fun line of kickflip up the curb, manual a brick median, crooks the ledge. Then I just kind of skated the ledge slow and did flip tricks in between tries. I got a few flippers. Heelflip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, treflip. They felt good. Got halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, switch front nose, slow front 50, accidental front 5-0 to tail, super slow back 50, close to noseslide 270. Overall a fun day even though I skated terrible. I should know to expect it when I make changes to my setup. Even though all I had done was put a high hanger on instead of a low. Same size even.

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, mob grip, venture 5.2 highs, 51mm bones stf v2 wheels, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 88a doh dohs bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10 sore from skating so much)

After work on a Friday I met Dave at a dry hockey rink in Longmont. The temp was in the upper 30s, but it felt colder than that. I was pretty sore. Dave and I both struggled to get going. I quickly realized why I have moved away from low trucks in the past. Basically every little bump in the concrete becomes so amplified. And I really struggled with kickflips or anything. I guess except treflip, I got one pretty quick. But I couldn’t heelflip or halfcab flip to save my life. Dave had a good amount of flippers. Varial flip, sex change, fakie flip, fakie varial flip. He had some good lines with front shoves, switch front shoves, nollie cabs, cabs, fakie shoves, switch back shoves. Not all one line (ha ha), but some good ones. Then we decided to have a “quick” game of SKATE as the sun had gone behind clouds/mountains and it was getting cold. The “quick” game lasted forever. Neither of were landing tricks, and when we finally did the other person normally landed it too. Like varial flip and fakie flip. But we did get some letters. I only remember getting Dave with heelflip, but he did get to SKAT before I hit him with a 270 flip that took several tries. He had gotten so close on an earlier attempt I wanted to see him land it. He had gotten me to SKAT as well with tricks like cab, sex change, I forget what else. There was a trick I landed that I was totally surprised and stoked that Dave got, but I forget it now. Argh. Anyway, glad we skated, it was mostly fun. Ha ha. I did at least eliminate low trucks from the list of trucks for my 2020 setup. Yes, I am really trying to come up with a setup I’m happy with and stick to one size for all of 2020.

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, mob grip, venture 5.2 awake lows, 51mm bones stf v2 wheels, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 88a doh dohs bushings, new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10 cold/sore from a full work week)