Woke up early and the kids were still sleeping so I went skating. I arrived at a park I’ve never skated before on a crisp morning that would warm quickly. My bushings seemed frozen from being in the car overnight and never really loosened up. There were two people skating. One quiet girl mostly chilling in the bowl. And this younger dude fully charging like it was his last day to skate on earth. It was kinda awesome and inspiring. He was piling up cones, popping over 4 at a time from flat, ollieing out to manual on the bump to ledge (a typical feature by Team Pain that is way bigger than it should be). The park felt way smaller than I thought it would. Especially with hyper young guy in effect. He was pretty nice and left after about 30 minutes. I had the park to myself for awhile and kinda stuck in a rut of axle stall the parking block then flyout treflip fail. I tried so many times, I couldn’t do it. I did a few front tails on the short elevator ledge that felt cool even if I didn’t slide to start the line. I eventually gave up, tried several on flat, still couldn’t do one, couldn’t nollie tre either. I guess the bigger wheels were taking their toll, but I could not do one to save my life. I started to get really mad. I was able to ollie onto the tall ledge from flat as the one saving grace of the session. I couldn’t even do a front tail on the parking block. The little 3 foot qp would normally be pretty fun I suppose, but in the early sun it had a nasty shadow/glare that messed with me. After awhile a kid and has dad showed up. They were chill. The kid really liked how the park was basically just a flyout park. I continued to try treflip after treflip not really enjoying myself until I finally landed one. It was a relief, but not fun. Oh well, only another week of ‘a tre a day’.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, bones stf 83b 54mm v5, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot morning I met up with Sean and then Fuller around 10:30. I was way more sore than I thought I’d be and even slightly burnt out from so much skating the day before. I had put some old 54mm bones on since I was disappointed in not being able to ollie up the ledge in Manitou. It did seem to make things seem shorter, but I was so tired it was a bad time to gauge it. Sean was ripping. Fakie/nollie nosegrinds flying, back 180 the jersey barrier, 5-0s the two step ledge. I basically did nothing other then some slow front 50s and try treflip or nollie treflip until I finally landed a bad treflip. Dave was crushing fast slappy feebles on the metal beam, no complies over a parking block, boardslides to fakie the line of parking blocks. Also back 50s, front 50s and maybe a front nosegrind or two. We played a game of SKATE at the end that was pretty fun and was over pretty quickly. Sean won with fakie 3 shove and Dave and I tried a few until we both got them.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, bones stf 83b 54mm v5, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 soreness and arthritis pain)

Bernie and I headed to Woodland via 285 on a long drive that neither of us had done before. We arrived at the park about 20 minutes or so before Dave L would show up. There would be waves of little kids treating the skatepark as a playground, but for the most part we had it all to ourselves. Warming up went okay, I felt a little rusty from a day off (ha ha). We had some warm ups of mostly 50s on the various little perfect ledges. Seriously, why is Team Pain incapable of such simple ledges? This park was even better in person. Although I had a terrible slam on a front nosegrind 180 attempt where I came very close to rolling my ankle badly. Luckily I was okay (until the next day when I would realize my neck was super messed up). Bernie was quickly on the manual tip. Dave L also casually manualled and nose manualled. I got a b/s flip over the hip in a few tries. Bernie took a bit to get one and he said it was the first time he’s been frustrated while skating again. Dave took a bit to get kickflip over the f/s hip, those are so hard. I took way too long to get a bad treflip flyout. I got the line in the vid pretty quick. Actually, I did several b/s flips, but with too much toe drag. I had hucked some 270 heels over the hip too and wasn’t close. Dave had some nice lines throughout the park when the kids weren’t around. Bernie did both of the manuals in the clip pretty quick. He couldn’t quite get halfcab nose manual back 180 out though.

After hitting up Mountainside skateshop we ended up at the Manitou Springs skatepark. Wow, what a weird and mostly terrible skatepark. The coping is nonexistent in places, you can’t tell if there are banks or quarterpipes. It was super hot, but we skated for about an hour. I did one kickflip on one of the big main banks. That’s about the only trick I did even though it seems like I tried more. Bernie didn’t quite get hardflip on the same bank. Dave chilled a bit and cruised his stylee ollies around. The scene there was something out of a movie. Kids on vacation, old school young dude playing Blink 182, mountain man with trial shoes. It was fun.

Then we went to the high school since Ryan suggested there was something the dudes wax up. We were really surprised to find such an absolutely perfect ledge. I was really sore/tired at that time and even nosesliding it seemed impossible at the start. I would only go on to get noseslide, noseslide to fakie and crooks. Bernie would do front 50 and front tail I think. Dave had some good front 50s, front noseslides and a killer line. Ollie up the lower bench, boardslide to fakie, switch 180 off. He also back 50’d the 2nd level. Bernie manualled it. I posed some gap to noseslides. I needed the motivation of ollieing up the ledge to commit and unfortunately that was a little too hard for me. I only got up it once. I committed and proved to myself that I could do it, but I didn’t land it. I had done a few flippers in between tries. Super fun day even if I didn’t get one of the gnarliest tricks I’ve tried (ha).

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro 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 4/10 some arthritis pain)