Running late after a tough night of not sleeping I met Jack, Hayden, Bo and Riley at a new manny pad spot in Loveland. Yes, I said Riley! And it ruled seeing him skate. He switch manualled it like it was nothing. Fakie shove manual, gave me some pointers on switch flips and switch heels. It was great seeing him. He had to take off and around then Joe joined us. I had skated the old guy spot in the other corner of the parking lot for a bit. There is a fun bank to ledge, but it does require ollieing up a curb. There is also a nearby ledge and 3 stair. I got a no comply to tail on the bank to ledge then ollied the 3 stair. It was a fun warm up. That place would be really fun to try a harder line. Then I skated with the crew. Jack was doing the sickest wallies on this rock to quick nose manual. Hayden was doing manual shove manual. Whoa. Bo was ruling it filming. Joe was doing pop shoves up the ledge, hardflips off. I started with some slow ollies up and posing treflips off. Then started realizing I should actually try it. Eventually I worked up the courage to go fast enough to ollie up, kickflip on flat then treflip off. Bo was kind enough to get me in the rotation. I kind of landed it. Well, I did land it. My hands may have been down, but it still felt rewarding. Actually it was rewarding to be skating hard. Maybe Sean is right about me not eating enough protein after all as I finally had energy. Jack got robbed on his trick. Oh yeah I had worn some old 212s. My favorite shoe. Seeing as how I’ve still had knee pain wearing cupsoles I tried and really liked the added boardfeel. I was in more pain after this though.

Next up we went to the old Loveland library where Jack tried a few gnarly gap to lipslides. I worked on my studly base tan taking photos. Next up was a crazy little electrical box that I was too sore and sketched to try. Bo gave kickflip a few goes, but didn’t put it down. Joe didn’t get the back 5-0 either. Jack got the classic one foot nosegrind. Hayden felt out a few tricks then put down a solid boardslide to fakie. Bo went for front 5-0 and got so incredibly robbed. It was nearly dark so we went and got the classic mexican post-skate meal. Good times with good dudes.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow light, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, all washers on the outside of the wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w/yellow size 12, nikesb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10 felt good until I stopped skating)

Not feeling too good on a nice day I went to meet everyone at dog park at 11. I think almost everyone was already there when I arrived. Eric, Kevin, Rob, Bernie, Sean, Jake, Dave L. Eric was bringing the heat already. Lipslides, 5-0s and I saw a legit nosegrind. I was struggling early and fell on a ledge and acted like a baby and Rob called me out which kind of woke me up and got me out of my self hatred funk. It’s hard to remember what everyone was doing because there were so many people skating. Bernie had some nice controlled 5-0s and manuals. Rob was charging too. I saw halfcab noseslide the two step, front board the tall part of the weird obstacle, back 50 to boardslide Slow & Low. Sean ollied the manhole, fire hydrant and then the jersey barrier. Jake had some nice ollies then bluntslide curbhenge. Birthday boy Kevin was ripping his normal tricks. I think he was stuck on kick back tail. I struggled with back 50s on the tiny guy and instead got a few back 5-0s, wallies, got a line of front 180 the manhole fakie flip on flat then fakie nosegrind the cinder block ledge. I also tried a back 50 on a low ledge and got into 5-0 and was leaning in a way where shove out made sense and got it. That cheered me up some. Luzius was ripping and hiding in the corners it seemed. He can do the most casual front or back 180s over anything.

Then we was off to Crestview. We would lose Dave and Jake, but gain Jack. I was feeling oh so out of it I went and did a few nose stalls on a curved ledge around the back. I tried to skate the bench with Jack, Sean and Kevin, but I could barely even commit to the slowest of boardslides. It was so frustrating. Sean front lipped it. Kevin was back 50’ing it easy, doing boardslide pop over. Jack did boardslide pop over to manual shove out, Louie boardslide. I went and played on the manny pad with Bernie. Rob and Eric were chilling. Bernie did a fakie manual, I got nose manual. Bernie went for front 180 fakie manual, I tried kickflip manual. My kickflips up were decent for me, but I didn’t lock one into manual. Jack, Sean and Kevin joined us on the manny pad. Sean did an ollie over a cone to quick nose manual. Kevin had a good slam and came real close to switch flip manny. Jack came close to fakie tre nose manual. Jack and Bernie entertained us by manualling the whole sidewalk and parking lot.

After chilling we went to the nearby bike path snowboard jump. It was the perfect spot to chill and catch some phat air. Sean’s ollies were phenomenal. Jack did some other tricks too like impossible, almost kickflip under flip or something. Kevin charged some back 180s but couldn’t give us a switch Gish. I took too many tries for a kickflp and then even more tries to not land a 360 flip. Oh well, it’s fun just rolling down that bike path. It was funny when some Square State kids recognized Sean and Jack. Then it was dinner time. Yum.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow light, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, all washers on the outside of the wheels, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10)