Feeling sore and not very motivated I went out on a snowy Sunday to the Valmont garage with the good parking block. I ended up skating somewhat hard and for a couple hours. Had some fun warm up lines with basics. That curb slappies well. I would line out stalls on a curb, flipper, slappy, trick on the tiny curb, etc. I was happy to get a rare slappy feeble, front 50 on the parking block (I’m normally too scared to 50 anything that narrow), fakie varial flip, halfcab flips were easy. I failed at ollieing a cone, kickflipped one on it’s side, almost got kick back tail. I ended by doing a GleNBD on the tiny curb – front 180 fakie 5-0 stall shove out. I followed that with a crack-the-board front lip on the parking block that I struggled with way more than necessary.

(setup 8 null dream machine deck deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow hanger and cast baseplate, old 53mm bones pj v1 wheels, bones medium bushings, mob grip, new balance numeric 288 sport b/w, stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a nice and sunny day Dave L picked me up and we drove through the melting snow to yellow curbs. At least yellow curbs is somewhat open so you can see the sun and it’s not as dungeony as other parking garages. There were a lot of puddles unfortunately from cars that had parked during the Friday snow. It was a tough warm up for me, but after a few slappy crooks it got fun quickly. Dave was quick on the manual tip since he’s so good at them. He was also locking in front tails and back 5-0s. I tried some lines with flip tricks and they went alright. I’m really liking the 8″ setup. It felt weird for tailslides, but that’s it. I got a line of slappy crook, heelflip, back 50 the rounded curb, no comply 180, fakie 50. Also something like manual, back 50, terrible backside flip, fakie 50. Tried slappy crooks to fakie, halfcab flip, back 50, kick back tail. Got kinda close to the kick back tail. Skating the 8″ reminds me of my mid 30’s and how much better I was at skating then. It’s cool. Jack and Carleigh showed. Jack warmed up with some awkward slams and Carleigh got dragged into a bush by Ella chasing a rabbit. Jack almost did nose manual 180 switch crook. Dave was close to nollie 180 switch manual, but would get a switch manual. I was trying front 5-0s or nose manuals then nollie tre, never got the nollie tre. Got a front 50 back 180 out. Carleigh started trying to take advantage of the nearby sun, but then we ended up getting the boot by some construction manager thinking he was important.

After that we drove a bit and ended up at Southern Hills as the smooth section was dry, the benches weren’t. We skated flat for two hours. It was frustrating, but super fun. I was unhappy with how many tries tricks like fakie flip took, but would get through a few. Halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, bad f/s halfcab flip, way too long for a sketchy treflip, same with heelflip, landed on f/s halfcab heel and nollie tre, but never got them. I was quite tired and sore by the end. Carleigh did some kickflips then went on a battle with heelflips. She got robbed over and over until surfing out a sick one. Jack started with heelflip and got harder and harder. Treflip, f/s flip, varial heel, switch tre! and then learned Rick flips. He did a few before breaking his board. Doh. Then it was dinner time. Yum.

(setup 8 null dream machine deck deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow hanger and cast baseplate, old 53mm bones pj v1 wheels, bones medium bushings, mob grip, new balance numeric 288 sport b/w, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)