I work late this week so cruised across the street for some slappies at lunch. Todays setup change was to put 5.8 hangers on and venom 92a bushings. Immediately the bushings were too soft and I was getting wheelbite like crazy. Argh. Even when coming out of slappies. I didn’t really do much of anything and kept it pretty mellow. Got a front shove from the curb cut to the parking lot and a b/s flip out of the curb cut. Jack came and met up and skated for a bit too. He had a front slappy even though he says he sucks at slappies. He was ripping the flat ground. Heelflips, fakie tre, varial heel, halfcab flip, backside flip and almost got rick flip from curb cut to parking lot. Man it was good to see Jack again.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.8 titanium, vemon 92a bushings with flat top washer, 53mm purple swirl orb wheels classic shape, 3 speed washers on the outside of each axle, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 5/10 some good sharp knee pain)

On a nice morning I had gone for long walk then decided to skate flat. It was still pretty early, around 10am. I was armed with a list of 15 tricks. I wasn’t limiting myself to a certain amount of tries, but if I wasn’t close at all I would stop around 10 tries. I had warmed up with a few kickflips and was skating the 8.25.
Halfcab flip – came quick and felt good
Backside flip – took close to 10 tries
Fakie bigflip – around 12 tries
Heelflip – came quick
Halfcab heel – didn’t get it, but it was close and I committed.
Front heel – not close. Feels doable, but never committed
Treflip – got a really bad one 20th try.
Nollie varial flip – can’t land this to save my life anymore
Switch flip – not very close
Switch heel – they flipped really well, but never committed
Varial heel – committed, got close, but never landed on the grip
Switch tre – not even remotely close
Frontside flip – got a decent one for me, but it was really slow
Nollie bigflip – not as close as I hoped
Heelflip body varial – the last trick was originally rick flip, but I swapped it for this one to try and get Dave a trick. I was close before I turned on the camera, and not that close once it was on. Doh.

After lunch I went to Rocky Mountain to meet the Daves. Max and Will would come about 30 minutes after us. The parking lot was almost completely wet from the melting snow. The drains from the roof sounded like rivers. The sidewalk was mostly dry except the ledge area which now had a pretty water gap added to it. It would let up later on and sound more like a babbling brook. Max laughed at that and said I should crook over the babbling brook. Ha. I did a little line of kickflip up the curb then noseslide to fakie over the water gap. Dave L was doing some good manuals. He had a nose manual that bonked off a grate then back to nose manual. Dave F had the sickest boardslides to fakie over the water gap and skates the banks like they are doable. Max and Will are on another level. They were doing really hard tricks immediately. Max had b/s flip over a median on the bank, ollied the bank flat gap, slammed super hard on front heel over a median, did a lot of manuals/nose manual spins on the median that shouldn’t be possible, back tails over the water gap so much more. Will was a little more low key, but was killing it too. Front 3 over a median, back tail the water gap. I’m forgetting other tricks right now, which is a shame. I managed to cleanly ollie onto the narrow ledge by the entrance. It hyped me up. I failed at crooks over the water gap. I blame my new wheels, narrow trucks and lack of skill. Dave had a nice front 50 over it as we were leaving. I wish my legs didn’t lock up at the end so I could have tried too.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.6 v-hollow trucks, stock bushings with flat top washer, 53mm purple swirl orb wheels classic shape, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 5/10 – it was fine playing skate early, but gradually more sore at the school)

After 35+ inches of  spring snow throughout the week I went out on a Saturday afternoon in search of something dry.  I found the front of one of the newer research areas.  There is a ledge/manny pad/4 stair and a taller ledge with limited runway.  There was some snow melting and falling from the roof which ended up becoming so much that it prevented lines between the ledges.  Initially at least it was fine though.  I did a couple warm up lines.  Slappy noseslide to fakie the low ledge, switch 180, noseslide the tall ledge.  Ollie off the tall ledge, no comply 180, switch nosesslide.  Switch front nose the little one, turn around, crook the tall one.  Front 180 off the tall one, halfcab flip on flat, front 50 the lower one.  Oh yeah, I was on mixing boards again.  8.25 with 5.6 trucks and 8.38 with 5.6 trucks.  This happened because of how hard flip tricks were yesterday.  Neither felt great.  I came close to a slow front disaster on the 8.3, couldn’t do it on the 8.25.  Got close to back 50s on the 8.3, but not the 8.25.  The approach backside was terrible, uphill with lots of cracks.  I did a few of the worst front tail jibs ever.  A bunch more snow came and kinda prevented the line aspect.  I got pretty down and depressed about my skating.  Even with the smaller trucks the 8.38 felt hard to flip other than straight kickflips. At one point I did a halfcab flip on the 8.3 and then on the 8.25. The 8.3 worked, but the 8.25 felt good. So I kind stuck to it after awhile, the 8.3 just felt kinda large and unnecessary. Then I tried nollie varial flip for awhile and got more depressed. Although capturing the snow falling right behind me was pretty cool.

(setup mixture of 8.25 & 8.38 setups with 5.6 trucks on both)
(pain level 3/10)

After work I walked around to the back of the school hoping it would be dry since it gets a lot of sun. It was dry. And it was super hot with all the sun coming off the bricks. Nice. I didn’t have any real plans, no 10×10 list, only loosely wanted to try a few switch backside flips. Warming up took awhile. I think it was like 5 or 6 tries just to get a kickflip. It was rough. I was about half an hour in and had only landed kickflip and fakie flip. Then for a brief period things clicked. Got halfcab flip followed by backside flip. Fakie flip followed by f/s halfcab flip. Also got fakie bigflip first try, finally some heelflips. But then I hit a wall. I hucked a lot of tricks. One switch bs flip was close, a few nollie inward heels were close, a couple janoski flips were close. Tricks that I can normally do at least 1/20 did not come. Treflip, nollie varial flip, halfcab heels. I finally just gave up and walked home through the melting snow. I was very bummed on the lack of a treflip.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, venture 5.8 trucks custom cast baseplate with hollow kingpin and titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, all 3 speed washers on the outside, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10 and i say this again – i struggled to jump)

After work I chilled for a minute, changed my setup and headed to campus as the clouds were moving in.  I did a few slappy crooks at the meet up curb then headed down to the flagstone ledge.  I wanted to be pretty close to my car considering it looked like it could start dumping rain any second.  There was a puddle on the frontside approach that limited the angle and speed.  I was okay with that since frontside scares me these days anyway.  It was a bit of a struggle initially, but I was skating it backside too which I’ve never done before.  Backside went pretty well.  Noseslide, noseslide fakie, boadslide, crooks, switch front noseslide, halfcab noseslide.  Didn’t get halfcab nose to fakie, back 50 or kickflip nose.  Frontside I tried just ollieing on for awhile.  I don’t think I ever got a clean one.  I had a couple mediocre switch nose jibs then took awhile to get front 50.  But I was getting into it.  I was just going really slow and not locking in right.  I got one though and it felt pretty awesome.  As the rain started I tried treflips for awhile and got one!  That’s my fist in a few weeks.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, venture 5.8 trucks custom cast baseplate with hollow kingpin and titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, all 3 speed washers on the outside, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10 but once again my legs were kind of numb and lacking pop)

Went over to the curb right after work.  Saul and Jake were there, Dave L would arrive shortly after that.  I don’t think a whole lot out of the ordinary happened.  I saw Jake get a really nice frontside flip, slappy bluntslide.  Dave had a cool manual to back 50, some back bigspins.  Saul had some really long backside slappies, slappy crooks, frontside slappies and some sick flashy new swirl wheels.  I struggled on flip tricks out of the curb cut, but did get first try front shove into the parking lot, a couple tiny switch slappy crooks and the normal slappies.  

(setup 8.5 null collage deck, venture 5.8 trucks cast baseplate with titanium hanger, 1/16 riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10 but I didn’t have much pop)

This is one of the raddest crews in Colorado. All of these people rule and this video stokes me out and makes me want to go skate.

Went out to the garage with the goal of all four varial flips. I had my quiver ready to go. 8.25, 8.5 and 8.75. I started with the 8.75, but after failing at some fakie flips I moved down to 8.5 and stayed there most of the session. Varial flip and fakie varial flip happened somewhat quickly. The nollie version started flipping right away, but I would never actually land it. It was so frustrating. I tried for about 45 minutes and just could not do it. I tried the 8.25 but got no closer. I partially blame the bushings for being too tight. My bones had broken so I went with stock Ventures and they felt too tight. I never got too upset and left peacefully when the Swervedriver Raise cassette ended.

(setup 8.5 null collage deck, venture 5.8 trucks cast baseplate with titanium hanger, stock bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10 but I didn’t have much pop)

On a really nice day Ollie and I headed to campus. We parked up by the hill. We were in front of the student center to begin and there is a new rail that can be hit with one quick push. I kinda tried it, but never committed. I would like to go back for that, but not sure I’ll be able to be quick footed enough for it. Then we hit the area up by the tunnel to the hill. Ollie leaned cab rocks. It was cool. he was also doing manuals down the hill, ollieing onto the narrow crack paths and making it around the corners. He did the little slappy wedge bonk too, but off the side. I was really struggling, it became apparent that the 8.25 for street skating felt incredibly small for me. I couldn’t ollie onto the narrow path before the gap or do side rock flips out. I did get a few lines though. Slappy wedge, noseslide, wallie. Noseslide to fakie then fakie front side rock. Crook then something. Couldnt get halfcab noseslide. Got a line of switch front noseslide then cab rock. That line hyped me up. I had a funny slam trying the cab rock as Dave rolled up. I basically dove off the side of the loading dock. Dave was quick on the slappy wedge and did the back 180s all steeezy too. The front boards were good. He had a kickturn on the bank after. Ha ha. It was funny. He was going for 540 kickturn, but just did 180. I should have put that in slow motion in the edit. We moved down a little and hit this curb/ledge/step. Dave had a cool line we should film for stubborns sometime of wallie nollie, 180 onto a two stair and ride off, front board pop out. He also had some nice boardslides. Ollie had some cool drop down manuals and some clean ollies up the curb. I sucked. I got a first try crooks and then couldn’t do another. Then we cruised down the hill to the fun area on the corner with a 2 stair, benches where Dave did the transfer thing, Well, normally it’s fun, but I was really struggling. Slammed on a front 180 off the two stair, slammed doing front 180 on the tiny gap, and a real painful slam on a halfcab flip attempt that bashed my ankle so hard. Ollie had some cool manuals down the hill then front 180s off the two stair. Dave did a cool ollie to street plant thing off the ledge as well as the transfer. Then we moved to the upper stadium bank. I took awhile to land a trick. Pop shove to fakie, awhile to land kickflip to fakie. Dave was rattling off tricks. Front shove fakie, kickflip fakie, fakie flip, sex change, switch back 3, close to fakie sex change. Ollie had f/s halfcab, f/s ollie and tried kickflip to fakie for awhile. I hucked varial heels for awhile hoping to find some benefit to the smaller board. I committed, but it never flipped enough. I took awhile to get the sex change too. Then we headed home. I struggled, but still had fun. I credit the crew for that.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate with hollow hanger, 52mm bones easy street stf v5, 3 speed washers on the inside of the each axle, bones medium bushings, jessup ultra grip, new balance numeric 288S jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles at all, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10)

There were an insane amount of amazing parts this week, but this one was my favorite. Lines for days, tech with style, amazing spots, good music/filming/editing. This is the style of skating I wish I could do the most and it’s pathetic how little of it I can actually do. Gotta work on that.