On a nice warm day I met Sean at dog park right after work. It was not crowded. My new shoes felt terrible so I challenged Sean to SKATE. About the only thing I landed was kickflip, fakie flip and heelflip. He smoked me. The rest of the session was mostly a wash for me as well. I once again had the fear of trying to front 50 the cinder block ledge. I hate that I have to overcome that fear every single time I go there. Sean’s ollie the barrier then a quick ollie over the hydrant was crazy good. He also worked the East side with some lines line front nosegrind the two step then nollie back nosegrind the black ledge. Back nosegrind the two step then nollie back nosegrind 180 the black ledge. Wow. I was wanting to huck, but kind of tried a line for awhile. Nollie back tail the little guy, crook the two step, front tail the black ledge. I kind of got it after Sean had left. I had changed to back 50 to start with though. The front tail was just a brief little jib stall. I also came incredibly close to switch flips. There was one in particular that I was over and it just didn’t quite flip fast enough. It would really help my moral to land one. It got kind of crowded after that and I was tired so I left.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin flat nb 288 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After some chores, hiking with Liz and a nap I ended up meeting Dave L at Douglass. It was almost cool out! I had new shoes, Es Accel Slims. They didn’t feel great or terrible. Dave had already been close to 50 on the ledge, but we played a game of SKATE. I struggled with the different shoes for sure and couldn’t even get a heelflip. I had gotten a lead with tricks like fakie flip, halfcab flip and a couple others that Dave normally lands. He got me with switch shoves, back 3 and some more. I had several two try tricks at SKAT. I got a regular cab. I can’t tell it may have been my best one and felt almost like I did it right. I ended up losing on switch front 360 which I was also closer than expected on. I need to work on that one. Then we skated for awhile. Dave ruled the 1 down 1 up. So many different 180 versions up and down. I didn’t land many flippers at all after that, but on the ledge I had a few great feeling crooks. Maybe the best crooks i’ve done there. Then Dave and I started chatting. Then he left and I wanted to battle through some flip tricks. I finally managed a heelflip and f/s halfcab flip, but the rain started in so I left.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin flat nb 288 insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling really run down I met Sean, Jack and Kevin at Broomfield. Kevin and Jack were skating, but we left quickly after having to beg Jack to leave the skatepark (ha). We went to Galileo first. Aka stop rock central. It’s one of those spots I should love, but I don’t. Everyone else does though. We were there for a long time. People were doing their thing. Our crew was huge. Donnie, Garrett, Hayden, Bo, Laroy, Sean, Jack, JJ, Kevin and I. Hayden almost got nollie front 180 fakie 5-0 180 on the little one, but slammed super hard. A few bluntslides when across both by Kevin, Hayden, JJ and Garrett. Jack’s first try was front noseblunt. Wow. Him and JJ added back noseblunts. Donnie did switch front 5-0. Garrett never got the Nolan. Hayden came up short. Kevin was ripping. I heard JJ say the spot is hard. Bo was filming right away so I never did. Unfortunately my arthritis was kicking and I was very sore and lacking confidence. I spent about an hour trying to back 50 the low ledge and felt like quitting skateboarding. I started messing around on the bank with a couple basics and Kevin challenged me to bank SKATE. I had to triple or nothing a kickflip to fakie and was borderline losing it. After that it was fun though. I got b/s flip, f/s flip, fakie flip, shoves to fakie and a great feeling halfcab flip. I think Kevin got to SKA. He won and got me on tricks like switch flip, nollie flip, switch front shove (almost had it) and ended me with switch frontside flip.

We eventually ended up at the flat rail where I felt so incredibly sore. Kevin, Sean and I started messing around on the steep bank. It is super fun. Back 50s, pivots were the firsts, then front 5-0s and more. Then we started lining it out even more. As you can see above Sean and Kevin had some long lines. We were fully dorking. It was awesome. I did get a line of a little fakie side rock, kickflip then back 50. I was so sore the kickflip barely possible. I attempted a couple boardslides on the rail, but could not squat because of pain and gave up. Its funny the trick Jack was accidentally doing on the rail. Feeble to 5-0 to shove. Feeble front 180, blunt pop out 5 feet etc. Him and Hayden were feeling out tricks and then started getting oh so close to bangers. I feel bad for Hayden, he got straight up robbed. Joe had joined us and was trying back tails on the rail, but never locked in. After we had a nice dinner. Skateboarding with friends is awesome. Arthritis, not so awesome.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 7/10 arthritis flare up)

On a warm day I headed up to MRKT and stopped at Fossil on the way. I had run a bunch of errands in the morning and was feeling productive, but not so much motivation in the skate department. I had hit up Bo and he was down to skate at Fossil for awhile. He showed up at the same time and so did front 5-0 first trick. I spent awhile doing basically nothing to try and get warmed up. It was apparent I would be struggling. I almost never feel good on my board when I’m at Fossil. Ugh. Bo rattled off lots of ledge maneuvers like back lip shove, front lip, front 5-0 shove, back 5-0 shove, back 50 treflip! And of course lots of good treflips. I took awhile to get crooks, barely 50d the lower part, halfcab noseslide, had a good feeling switch front nose, struggled with all flip tricks. I tried to kickflip up the low part of the ledge, got a bad one in a few tries. Then I tried another because I wanted to treflip off the ledge. Bo tried b/s flips. There was another dude visiting from Florida that did pop shove up and heelflip up, he was cool. Bot and I tried forever. I was getting so frustrated. Like questioning if I can even skate the way I want to anymore. I would never get it again. Bo got the b/s flip then bounced. I chilled for a bit, then decided I just couldn’t leave feeling this bummed on skating. I was really sore, struggling. Got another crooks that felt alright, switch front nose. Got a line where I ollied up onto the ledge near the Carroll gap, heelflip on flat, kickflip off second try. I left on that note. I was still bummed, but not totally bummed.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Went to dog park after work. Rob was there when I got there. It wasn’t too crowded, but not dead either. After some cruising around to warm up Rob and I stuck to the little long ledge area for awhile. Flip tricks weren’t working for me again. Rob had some nice back 50s, back 50 back 180 out and a back 50 one foot out. Also manual and nose manual. I took too long to get a manual and nose manual. Had some back 50s, fakie 50s. Couldn’t kickflip the little PVC thing. Jack and Max showed. Jack was in a post schoolwork daze, but still managed some great flippers right out of the gate. Kickflip, heelflip, switch heel, fakie tre. Max had tried to get me to switch heel again and they do feel doable. Max was ripping, he skates so unique. Lots of big pop and flow. At one point he fakie shoved into the mountain ramp kicker so casually. He also ollied into it to manual and curved all the way back to a nose stall transfer into it. He ollied the Jersey barrier in a couple tries. I didn’t see Jack land a whole lot, but he was trying some crazy tech tricks like treflip crook and some feeble to something on the tall round bar. I got remotely close to noseslide 270 shove, had some okay crooks, couldn’t land a treflip. Since Huf had passed I wanted to ollie something taller than normal for me. Somehow I front 50’d the tall side of the two step. I was going super slow and only grinded a little, but it still felt cool. Max was hyped. Glad Rob stayed and skated, great seeing Max skate again and always a pleasure watching Jack rip.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Finally got on my Ledgy Jr aka LGJ (coined by Ollie) after dark feeling quite tired. I had a tough time finding a parking lot lit enough and ended up at lower valmont.  I tried to take a photo of LGJ, but apparently took a photo of my foot instead.  But it’s a foot tall, 18″ wide and 4′ long.  Square State built it and did a decent job.  But it needs some more work.  I need to add some rubber to the bottom so it doesn’t slide around and Ollie is going to paint it to look all cool.  It took a little rubbing and waxing to get the new angle iron going.  I skated about 30 minutes total and quit since I was so tired.  I had a few crooks, front 50s, good feeling halfcab noseslides.  Had a line of switch 180 up a curb (was supposed to manual), heelflip on flat, front 50 shove.  I had tried a bunch of other flippers without landing any.  I left after I got that line.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Right after a busy day of work I went to dog park. Bernie and JJ were there. It was super nice out save for some strong wind that didn’t last long and it wasn’t crowded. Warm up boardslides and slappies went well. Bernie had some nice 5-0s going. JJ was shredding lines. I tried a simple ollie over the pvc and ghost popped and fell. It bummed me out. After a bit I started trying fakie 50 b/s halfcab out on the slow and low. Bernie joined me and was trying fakie 5-0. He probably won, but I got a sketchy one. Then I tried front nosegrind. I was somewhat happy and having fun. Flatground tricks were kind of working in between tries. Halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip, but no treflip or f/s halfcab heel. Bernie did fakie 5-0 shove and was trying fakie flip out when Kevin showed. I tried to race Kevin by getting a nosegrind before he did a switch flip. Well, he won and I would never actually get the nosegrind. That’s when the depression started setting in. Kevin almost got nollie nosegrind shove. JJ was doing front board up the barrier to fakie into the launch ramp then halfcab manual back 180 the wedge. It was incredible. Then he joined the slow & low session and got a back 180 fakie 5-0. We all did our thing for awhile. I took a bit to overcome the fear of just a front 50 on the cinderblock ledge (more depression). Then Kevin, Bernie and I played a game of SKATE. I stupidly suggested we do it over the little parking block and was out in about 6 tricks. I should have gone in totally sideways and cheated a little. Then we played a regular game and other than heelflip it was a maddening game for me. I was out quickly, had gotten close to treflip on my one try, but could not get it after. My nollie flip try was close at least. But I left feeling absolutely terrible about my skating even though Kevin and Bernie were fun to skate with and it was super nice out.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a super nice day I went out to Mike’s Camera area to meet Dave. I was on call for work so couldn’t go far. I was there first and cruised around the area to check it out. A Jeep was parked and took off when they saw me driving right over a median. It was weird. Ha. I tried to start with a warm up line starting in the narrow walkway, down the 2 then over to the ledge. I had slammed really hard on a nollie shove where I hit a rock. I had moved on to kickflip and then heelflip before getting to the ledge. So the line was heelflip, front 180 the two, turn around, boardslide pop out the ledge then I bailed a front heel. It was a fun feeling line. Dave had shown around then and was warming up with nollie/fakie/switch/regular shoves, nollie 180s, etc. He would go on to get a rad line. Kickflip, nollie back 180, switch ollie off the two stair, turn around, ride on grind, then front noseslide. I then tried another line for a while. Halfcab flip, front shove off the 2 stair, crooks the ledge. I got the line twice, the first time the front shove was great, but the crooks was the tiniest little jib. The second time the front shove was sketchy, but the crooks was good. I was happy to get several halfcab flips though, that trick used to be automatic for me. Then rather then just hitting the ledge I became obsessed with another line. 360 flip, kickflip off the 2 stair, noseslide or something the ledge. It took me awhile to get a 360 flip. The first one was bad and I missed the kickflip. Got the next one and landed on the kickflip, but stepped off. Then a security guy came and told us to leave. Doh, I really wanted to get that line. We had fun on the ledge though. We did a lot of ride on grinds and didn’t skate the tall part so much. Dave did ride on back 50 to nollie shove out followed by back 50 down the end. Ride on back 50 180 out then fakie nosegrind down the end. Switch slappy crook, slappy crook, crooks, front noseslide so many more I’m forgetting now. I had noseslide, noseslide fakie, halfcab noseslide, crooks, front 50 on the low part, switch ride on back 50 and I tried a bunch of switch ride on back 50 to fakie bigspin out. I got pretty close, had a couple fakie shoves that I pivoted to bigspin. But I hit my ankle a couple times and it really hurt.

Then we went to a nearby bank to curb. Well, we pulled the curb up. The rebar was still there and scary. It took me awhile to land anything. I never even got front rock or pivot and went in on hurricane. The clip above is basically in order of tricks we did. Dave did alleyoop pivot first try, then did it to disaster and even a revert out. I had sat for awhile and was super sore and thought I might not skate anymore. So I just started trying the rock to feeble and ended up getting some. That might be a new one. Dave’s nollie back neil was cool. The no comply to tail took me too long. It’s such a small bank so it made it hard. Dave had the front hurricane, but the asphalt was chipping away and he couldn’t get it. I tried kick back axle for a bit and Dave was filming it, but had to leave. He said ‘5 more tries’. About 20 tries later I landed it. Ha ha. It was a fun session. There was a weird tweaker dude that came in and asked for a pen. He disappeared behind some bushes for awhile then came out having drawn all over his face looking like a black eye. It was weird. He almost forgot ‘his bike’ when he left too. Some weird stuff going on back there.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling not so motivated I met up with Kevin, Rob and Dave L at Avalon. I hadn’t been there before. There was a dance class in one end of the parking lot so we were kind of in one corner that didn’t offer a whole lot. After peeping some nearby spots that were almost amazing we played a couple game of SKATE. Well, Rob, Kevin and I. Kevin won the first one with nollie flip taking Dave and I out at the same time. I was happy that I committed and it felt pretty close. I don’t remember the other tricks. We played another game with no repeats. I was the first one out on a freakin’ halfcab flip. That’s my trick! Ha I took like 3 more tries to get one. Any more tries and I might have lost it. I didn’t land much in the game other than a first try fakie bigflip that felt really good. Dave matched a switch flip and got treflip. I think Kevin won that one with a Janoski flip. We messed around for awhile. Kevin tried front blunts on a brick on top of a curb. Dave did a couple amazing manuals to no comply 180 out. I tried kick back tail stalls for awhile and got into a few, but never landed one and it depressed me. Then we went over to the weird area that Dave wanted to skate. I bailed manuals down the pad, couldn’t ollie into the narrow path, bailed kickflips and could barely frontside ollie onto the bank. I was super bummed. Dave was ripping. He did the ollie in and the kickflip. Maybe not up to his standards, but he did them and they were sick. Kevin did manual, nose manual, switch manual and had no problem ollieing into the narrow pad. Kevin slammed super hard on the steep bank. We were done after that. I drove around lurking for more spots, but had nothing and ended up going home.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, 88a doh dohs big bushing ace little bushing with bones little washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Up a little later I got to dark park on a nice smokey morning a little after 8. There was a family of bikers there moving a wedge right in front of a ledge and I moved it and they got the hint and left. Ha. I had some urgency when I started. Had some fun fast pushing and boardslides. I would go on to skate pretty well for myself. I had thought of nollie back tail to fakie and shove out. I got it to fakie on the slow & low right away then was going for shove and my board shot up and nailed me in the neck. I’m glad it didn’t take out a tooth or two. Jake & Nick showed. I was kind of all over as usual. Struggled with flip tricks because I had removed the top washer to loosen up trucks a little. But overall it felt better. I had a good ollie over wallys world, another fakie 50 b/s halfcab out, tried fakie 50 back bigspin out but wasn’t close, came pretty close to a legit halfcab noseslide 270 out, several back 50s on low ledges, a bunch of kickflips over the little parking block, nowhere near front 5-0 back shove on a low one, front 50 shove the cinder block and some accidental 5-0s, almost close to committing to front nosegrind 180 on the standard fit black ledge. Cody had showed. I was struggling with treflips. I ended on a line of wallie, slappy front crook then a sketchy treflip. I left happy.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, 88a big bushing ace little bushing bones top washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)