I work the late shift this week and since I woke up early I was at the dog park shortly after 7 with a couple hours to skate. I had the park to myself almost the entire time until the end when a young kid with a Null board worked on front 50s. I struggled to wake up and get it going. For the most part it was another strugglefest. But there were a few highlights. I snapped several ollies over the wallys world. One of which was easily one of my best flatground ollies. I managed a fakie 50 on the cinder block shuffle. Had a few over the corner back 50s on the low obstacles. Manualled the weird black low pad. But I really struggled at frontside 50s again, the narrower trucks really seem to mess with that. Flatground wasn’t good either. I barely got a halfcab flip and took like 10 tries to get a heelflip, couldn’t get a treflip. The 440s felt like big stiff boots this time.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 custom hollow baseplate v-hollow axles, stock bushings, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Got to dog park around 9:30. Eric was there, Rob would arrive shortly. We did some warming up then mostly stuck to the newer curb high ledge. Aka the only thing I can back 50. Ha ha. I was hyped to get a back 50 shove out and a very pivoted back 50 front 180 out. Rob got a back 50 body varial out, first try back 180 fakie 50 to fakie. Eric back 50 back 180 out, manuals, close to heelflip back 50, fakie back tail. I did quite a few flippers and was stuck on getting a trick I’ve wanted to do forever – fakie front 50 halfcab out. I was close right away, but the weird angle iron messed me up. I also tried a bunch of front nosegrinds and never quite got one (had a few with the back wheels touching on the pop out). It took me about an hour to get the halfcab out. Dave F would show up shortly after that and do it within 10 minutes. He wouldn’t let me film it for our challenge though. He’ll do something harder. Dave L and Kevin showed shortly before I needed to leave. I had taken too long to get a front 50 on the cinder block ledges and gotten a fakie nosegrind somewhat quick. That’s about all I can remember. I had worn my 440s and liked them this time, they had good heeflips.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 custom hollow baseplate v-hollow axles, stock bushings, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Kevin and I rolled to Loveland hitting LOCO and Sk8 Ratz on the way before first hitting the awkard vectors of Loveland High. Kevin hadn’t been there before. I was wearing cupsoles to help the pain, old PJ 533s. They felt good until later on. Loveland high was kind of whatever. We tried some stuff, but nothing really stuck. I got remotely close to a frontside cab over the hip, slappy crooks from the driveway onto the pad, beanplant into the bank and the lucky first try 5-0 on the round bar we found. Kevin had some fast ollies up the curb to noseslide the curb, switch back 180 the hip, a bunch of ollies and then tried that line for a while with the pop shove. He got robbed.

We went to the nearby skatepark next. Kevin destroyed the ledges. Him and my skating were night and day different. I kept doing 5-0s instead of 50s. I had some okay crooks, the terrible front 5-0 shove, kickflip over the hip and close to b/s flip over the hip. I was quite unhappy with my ledge skating. Another skater showed and asked to play SKATE. I said yes and another dude joined and we played a couple fun games of SKATE that Kevin won. I was out quick in the first game on Kevin’s round of switch/nollie flips. The second game I did pretty well and matched a few tricks like heelflip, varial flip, halfcab flip and was only at SK with everyone at SKAT. I should have ended with fakie bigflip, but instead I took two turns trying 360 flip (landed on both at least) and by then it was over. I was hyped to do a front 360 even though it turned out I was supposed to do it switch. Those games were fun. Then we headed to Sean’s.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 custom hollow baseplate v-hollow axles, stock bushings, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 533v2 PJ grey size 13, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 5/10)