On a hot morning I got to dog park around 9:30. I had the park all to myself for awhile. Kevin and Dave L would show up shortly after 10. I had worked out my legs pretty hard already in the morning so they were working, but sore. I was happy to get a warm up run of front 50 a cinder block ledge, noseslide to fakie the next one, fakie flip. Was also trying a line of back 50 the weird black pad, crooks the top of the two step, manual the regular black box. Never quite got it. I managed a bad 270 flip to make the minimum. Kevin showed and was going through his tricks so quickly. Dave L showed and was popping over things like it was nothing. At one point I randomly saw a line to ollie the cinder block ledge and went for it first try. I had never cleanly ollied one before. I snapped right over it, put a hand down, but man it felt rad. I kind of wanted to leave after that since I was so happy for the moment. But of course we kept skating. Kevin was rattling off so many ledge tricks. I got close a line of halfcab noseslide to fakie then fakie nosegrind. Cass finally showed right when we played a game of SKATE. Since he wasn’t warmed up at all he was the first one out. I was the second. I did get a few tricks at least. I missed the switch flip/nollie flip Kevin combo. Luzius didn’t though, he killed it, also a first try 360 flip. I got really close on mine. There was more skating after that, but I don’t remember much. Kevin was denied on the switch 5-0 shove again. I didn’t get the Joe Hamilton, but wallies over the little barrier are so fun. I really need a new board, I hope those Jack pro boards show up in 8.3 soon!

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really hot day Kevin and I hit 303 and Emage then met Cass at a new park near his place. I wanted to like it because of the shade and banks, but it’s so poorly constructed it’s insane. The finish on the concrete is super rough and has jagged fiberglass pieces sticking out, the ledges have the largest bevels ever, there are huge cracks before all banks, the flat bars go into a wall, ugh. Great concept, but terrible implementation. We met up with Kevin, Ryan and Greg. I had some fun front tails over the super steep hip and well, that’s about it. I tried some other stuff, but it didn’t work out. Greg was ripping. Treflips, fakie bigspin boardslides. Cass did a few noseslides. Kevin had a couple lines with crooks, manual the pyramid and managed to noseslide the bank to ledge from flat. Dave L showed, but we left for a nearby school. This school is fun, but it was super hot out and it killed us. There was a manny pad to long 4 stair, parking blocks, and these crazy plastic benches that were about a foot from each other. Dave L was ollieing up the long 4 and took a couple slams. He may have manualled down all of them. Kevin ollied the nearby gap, 50d the benches. I was kinda all over, dreaming of lining out the whole place. Luckily I got a 270 flip pretty quick so that pressure was off me. I only got a manual into the 4 once, couldn’t kickflip up a curb, couldn’t no comply flip a parking block and couldn’t front 50 a bench. But I did have some fun noseslides and tried to line out noseslide to fakie to halfcab noseslide. I also got crooks. Kevin challenged me to a game of SKATE in the shade which was fun. I landed quite a bit, but not a cleaner 360 flip. I was happy with first try fakie varial flip and 2nd try f/s halfcab heel. Then we got some food and chilled for a bit. These hot days are rough.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Sean and I rolled up to Loveland on a nice morning. We arrived to a crew of mostly old dudes and it was awesome. Andy, Marcus, Joe, Jay, Bryan, Jake, Luzius. It was awesome. Fuller was already on fire when we arrived. He did that line with the nollie shove hippy jump pretty quick. Somehow I had already done my required treflip for the day too. I was feeling good actually. Got the boneless plant over the big rail first try then went in on the flyout treflips. Got a bad one in a few tries, then a better one in about 10 tries that felt great. It’s really hard to remember what everyone was doing. I haven’t seen Jay in years that was awesome. Andy still has amazing style. Marcus still rides a small board and that hypes me up. Bryan has some tech moves that come out of nowhere. He almost got a fakie shove tail on the bank to curb. Joe was crushing the ‘how many 360s can you do’ challenge and cruising around having fun. Sean was doing a good job of not showing off as the young guy. But he had some solid grinds on everything. Jake was ripping the bank to barrier. I’m not sure if he got all he wanted, but the front 5-0 was hot. I got the ollie up to kickflip fakie on the bank pretty quick, noseslide to fakie over the hip. I started playing on the spine and Fuller joined me to work on his ‘spinemenship’ ha ha. I was feeling really rusty on transition initially and took a few tries to even blunt transfer and regular transfer. But it started to come. The line of transfer, front feeble, smith transfer was really fun. Dave took a bit to get the back disaster transfer, but man when he did it was so sick. Riley had joined us for a bit and cruised the park a little making sure not to bend his knee. The stoke on his face was incredible at one point when he pushed fast to catch up to Fuller. I got a fun line of noseslide the mellow downhil ledge, slappy the bank to curb, short front 50 on the bump to up ledge. Luzius joined around then and was popping smooth olllies and manuals around the bank to ledge area. Sean was nose manualling the picnic table as a setup to learn cabs over the a-frame bump. Fuller was shredding the front 50s over the hip, tailslides on the bank, nollie cabs over the hip. When he did one I yelled ‘that was nollie kids’ to a few kids that did not care whatsoever. Ha. I took awhile to get an okay crooks on the hip to ledge. Then Sean shut down the bump to mini hubba (post soon). What a seriously fun session.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling pretty lazy and totally surprised that a few of the new Null boards showed up I went and met Jack and Joe at the hill ledge. I brought Jack’s board and had Joe shoot a few photos of me handing it to him. It was an awesome experience and feeling to say the least. Jack was filming Joe try back nosegrind to switch front crook. It was nuts. He got into a few of them. After several hugs with Jack I joined Joe. I don’t know why I haven’t skated there recently, it’s an amazing spot and the college kids didn’t seem to mind we were there. I did boardslide, noseslide, noseslide fakie, crooks, took a long time to get halfcab noseslide, failed at halfcab crook, then started trying kick back 50. I got into one and came to a complete halt. So I hucked a varial flip out that was kinda close. Joe kept trying his trick and would go through waves of getting close. He did a really easy flatground tre and it made me think they should be easy, I got one in about 8 tries. Joe also had some monstrous hardflips and heelflips. Joe eventually took a slam to his wrist and sat down, I did too. Jack started messing around and of course ended up doing a new trick. Feeble front shove to back 5-0. Wow. What a fun little session.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a very hot day Kevin, Eric and I rolled to 3rd St park in Greeley. Dave L would join after awhile. I had changed my setup to 8.3 with 5.8s. It felt a little weird, but not too weird. This was because I could barely ollie up to nose manual at Golden the day before. I didn’t have much juice and was having troubles committing to stuff. That seemed to be going around. Eric however went right for the hammer and did rock to fakie, back rock and front rock on the big bank there. He also rode up the bank then down into front 50 which was nuts. I fell into a zone of trying treflips up the bank. I was close so many times, but it took forever to land one and by then the sprinklers had turned on and we were gonna move on. Kevin had gotten a nollie tre up it, nosegrinds, 50 the long hubba. Dave L with super lofty ollies, casual manuals and switch manuals, pop shove and varial flip up the euro.

Next we went to Peak View park which was super fun even though the sun was so hot on us. I managed a backside flip over the hip in a few tries and did another one. Back 50s on the diamond cut coping were really fun too. I hucked treflip for a bit and got kinda close before overheating. Kevin got nollie b/s flip over the hip, pole jams, some nice grinds on the qp. Eric was trying boardslides on the spine, but was beat and it didn’t really work out. Dave had manuals, switch manuals, nice ollies, manual the china bank.

Then we went to the school. We warmed up with a game of SKATE. Dave was the first one out, Kevin got me out on heelflip. It was fun though, it definitely got us warmed up and I did a few flippers. Kevin went in right away on front 50s and was trying to come up with other stuff like back 180 out. But he slammed and overheated. Dave couldn’t quite get into boardslides on it. He had some cool drop down / up shoves and manuals on the long 3 stair though. I tried to drop down and kickflip up and struggled. Dave and I hit the 4 stair area for awhile. He had a sick ollie then front board pop out. I had ollies then back board or noseslide. Then spent a long time trying front 180 then switch front nose. I would get several, but none were very good. Got a couple flippers in between tries like heelflip and varial flip. Man it was hot. Looking forward to a break.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10 some soreness and mental fatigue from skating in the sun so much0

On a hot day after driving down from a fun night of camping (and bad sleeping) Kevin, Ollie, Eric and I met Sean and Dave L at Golden park. It was hard to get going for me. Ollie was cruising around doing his thing. That was all I really noticed since I hid in the corner manny pad spot for awhile. Ollie tried to manual it with me, but never quite got it. I might not have either. I took a long time to get nose manuals and was very frustrated. I was trying 360 flips too and not getting close. Just bumming overall. I joined Sean and Kevin in the ledge section for awhile and did nothing. Sean is so solid and awesome to watch. Kevin was shredding too. I hucked back 360 flip over the little hip for awhile and got kinda close. Then looked like a total tool going slow and did a treflip out of a mellow bank to relieve the stress of needing to do a treflip. It was another bad 270 flip. Eric had some good boardslide transfers on the spine. Dave L had rad manuals and nose manual on the bank to ledge thing.

Next we went to Superior which I’ve never been to before. We started in the snake run and man that thing is way more fun than I ever anticipated. The asphalt is a good surface for it, way faster then the brushed finish at the Estes Park one. Then I basically did nothing except pump around a tiny bit and do the worlds smallest flyout. Ollie cruised a little. Sean went up and down. Eric almost died trying to manual the volcano. Kevin had some nice back 5-0s out of the bowl onto the 3′ qp. JJ had the best noseslides. Can you tell I was super tired and not really paying attention?

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture awake 5.2 lows, 1/16″ riser, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 51mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a morning of stressing whether boards are coming or not Eric showed up and ended up bolting for Winter Park. We looked for a camp site briefly before going to the skatepark. At first it was pretty dead, but it quickly filled up with the 2-3 flyout kids and a couple snow bros it takes to ruin the vibe. We started out in the tiny qp section. Eric rock fakied the steep part. I did some simple tricks on the little parts. Ollie cruised around doing some 180s, f/s halfcabs, shoves. Eric went to work on the rock fakie. He took a couple slams and got shown up by snow bro #1 doing a pivot, but he got it. And it was sick. I tried and failed to nose manual a box for awhile. I tried kickflips on the steep bank for awhile. Got on that was about 1/4 of the way up. Ha ha. Also tried a line of backside ollie on it, kickflip to fakie, halfcab noseslide, but I just didn’t have the ability to pull the trigger for some reason. Ollie had a nice drop down manual. I started trying the line of back 50 then treflip to fakie. It took awhile, dodging lots of people and the weird layout of the park, but I got a really sketchy one and it was very relieving. Eric and I skated the ditch area of the park. He did the Sal flip and the Sal f/s flip. I took awhile to get a Sal f/s flip, but the one I got felt great. Kevin had shown up, tried that for a bit and did a couple slashes before we went on to have a great night of camping.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture awake 5.2 lows, 1/16″ riser, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 51mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

This shoe might be the best vulcanized shoe on the market. It’s got a great shape with a wider toebox and lots of durability. There is a rubber internal toecap. The only two negatives I have to say about this shoe are that the sole goes bald kind of quick, however it still retains it’s grip so it doesn’t really matter. The other thing is it’s kind of a clumsy vulc. I think the internal toecap kinda takes away the flex in the front of the shoe. But really, the shoe is a good one. Really comfy, good durability and it breathes well.

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

I’ve had a couple pairs of the Westgates now. They are a good shoe. This pair with the yellow sole did not grip or flick as well as the previous pair I had with a regular gum/white sole. This shoe is very comfortable though. I could skate longer than normal in them. The board feel isn’t as good as the 288S or 533v2. But it’s still decent. They have a good heelflip.

On the first day of summer, Go Skate Day and Father’s Day my family drove to Denver. We were running late for the #pushforprogress and pulled up right as everyone was skating off. So we went right from the car to pushing a couple miles. I should have rode my cruiser, but instead I had my regular board that I had switched up again and put Venture Lows on. Anyway, I didn’t ollie or anything although did do a fun wallride on a jersey barrier. Ollie and Kevin were in our crew. Man it was cool. I was stoked all the Nullers were there too.

Then after a nice nap Ollie and I went to campus to do our annual Father’s Day skate session. The rain was threatening and we got in a few minutes on the narrow bank before the rain dumped on us. The lightning was so crazy. I had front shove to fakie and kickflip to fakie before doing fakie flips. We were trying to line things out going up a handicap ramp and off a loading dock. I couldn’t commit to the back 180. Ollie had some ollies. Ha. He got pop shove to fakie first try. He was close to front shove to fakie, but at least rode out a couple times turning around. He was popping his tricks way more than he used to.

Then we went to the engineering building to avoid the rain. It poured so much that it quickly limited the options at the spot. We had done a couple lines down the banks. I got close to kickflip into the first one, nollie the second then ollie up the 3. But the rain runoff stopped that. Ollie had back 180 into the first, halfcab into the second. Then we just played on the lower bank. Ollie tried kickflip to fakie for over an hour. He never got it, but he did at least land a kickflip and turn around. It was cool seeing him work so hard. I had the bad 3 flip out, but it felt good to land. The ‘tre a day’ thing is stressful. After that I got a heelflip, close to nollie varial flip and close to front heel. After Ollie landed the kickflip we headed home for dinner. Oh yeah, I had new shoes, my favorite as of late, 288S. They felt good.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture awake 5.2 lows, 1/16″ riser, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 51mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)