On a cloudy warm morning I went to the dog park before work. I work lates again and am still having to wear glasses so the cloudy skies would help. I had changed my setup yet again, 8.5 this time. I feel like I should just accept it’s the ideal size for me. Anyway, warming didn’t feel great, I struggled with a lot of things, but ollies felt decent. I had a warm up line of front 5-0 the min cinder block, front 50 the low pad, boardslide the wallie barrier, then kickflip. Except the kickflip took for freaking ever! I couldn’t believe how bad they felt. Next warm up line was front shove on flat, crooks cinder block ledge, kickflip on flat, back 50 the low pad, front 180 the mini cinder block. This took way too long as well. My crooks were terrible, front shoves were terrible, kickflips were terrible. It took a few tries to get a back 50, but I ended up getting them decent. I changed the line to pop shove, back 50, front 180. The front 180 did not come easy, but at least I did back 5-0 before that to make it feel cool. Then for the super depressing part of the session, front 50s on the cinder block. I thought I’d just do it then front nosegrind 180 the mini cinder block after, but no, the front 50 felt terrible. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, it was that my mind didn’t want to. I got a few, posed some flips tricks and was about to leave super depressed. Instead I made myself huck a couple dream tricks for a few minutes. I tried halfcab noseslide 270 shoves on the cinder block ledge (not even remotely close) and switch crooks on the metal butter ledge. I got kinda into a couple of those so at least that felt cool. I left somehow not in a terrible mood.

(setup 8.5 nolan null deck, ultra grip, venture 5.8 custom hollow cast baseplate titanium hangers, 52mm spitfire green/yellow swirl classic 99a F4, new balance numeric 255 b/w size 12, thin rubbery adidas insole)
(pain level 3/10 some knee pain wanting to come through)

Met up with Nullers at dog park on a bright morning and with my glasses on had a lot of trouble seeing. Add on how awkward my 8.75 setup felt and I pretty much did nothing. Literally not a single thing to take away from the session for me other than I hated my 8.75. Eric was there doing some ripping. Riley almost got noseblunt bigspin. He shouldn’t have given up! Sean took awhile to get nollie back nosegrind 180, but man it was good when he did. Hayden learned front shove back nosegrind. Jack showed and we left. We hit Coot Lake ditch. I did a tiny scratch grind and posed kickflips before filming. Donnie, Sean, Jack and Riley all got a trick or two. They had some gnarly falls too. That bank is really rough. Then we had a brief run at the ol’ Schwinn warehouse with the yellow ledge and kicker. It was funny because we rolled up on a dude skating with his girlfriend filming him. There was a little kicker setup to the ledge and he was front 50’ing like a champ and later 5-0s. He was cool. I basically posed a couple flippers, but was too sore and unmotivated to really care. Riley had a nice 5-0, Hayden a cool pole jam, Jack a crazy wallride and front nose 270 shove. Then I had to bounce to sell some boards.

(setup 8.75 null perception deck, venture 6.1 trucks, 54mm classic full 99a F4 lance green wheels, new balance numeric 255 b/w size 12, thin adidas rubbery insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After such a busy week of work I lounged in the morning. Add in a stye in my eye forcing me to wear contacts and I was pretty unmotivated. I had just about left to do a solo campus in the afternoon when Dave hit me up and we agreed on the mellow gunbarrel bank. We arrived at the same time, for some reason I was on my 8.75 setup. The board didn’t feel that huge, but the 54mm classic fulls felt huge. Pretty quickly we piled up the crate and tire for the added fun. Nothing came easy for me and I had a pretty bad slam right away trying to wallie over a little tire wedge. I had done a kickflip to fakie, front tail, front pivot on before trying kick back axle for like 30 minutes. It was so frustrating. In that time Dave did like 20 tricks like pivot shove fakie, both shove nose bashes, back tail on the tire and many more. I ended up giving up on the kickflip axle, did a no comply to tail, front smith and then took way too long to do front tail revert. Part of the issue was really old grip tape. Dave did a switch pivot! The insanity. Then pop shove noseslide, manual in, quick footed tire ride. He was ripping. I did the basic kickflips and added a f/s quarter cab flip on my last try before Dave had to leave. He ended on fakie flip. BOLTS! Can’t believe we skated there for so long, but that’s part of why I really enjoy skating with Dave. We just skate and feed off each other trying new things. It’s fun.

After that I went to a nearby ledge spot that looked pretty fun. I was beat, and frustrated to take like 20 tries to do a front 50. Then I went home.

(setup 8.75 null perception deck, venture 6.1 trucks, 54mm classic full 99a F4 lance green wheels, new balance numeric 255 b/w size 12, thin adidas rubbery insoles)
(pain level 3/10)