I haven’t posted a ‘best part of the week’ in a while. This is partly because nothing has really stood out to me and partly because a single PJ instagram story is better. Anyway, Dilo rips. He is refreshingly unique without being contrived. And man he has pop. It’s unfortunate he chose such a terrible song though, because this could be part of the year had it been edited to a decent song.

As I was finishing up work I got a text from Dave saying he was across the street. At first I wasn’t into the idea, but then considered how lazy I was and thought it was a good idea. There was a crazy plume of smoke coming from the nearby wildfire. I started pretty bad though not being able to front shove off the curb. Front slappies made up for it though they were feeling great. Dave started with a perfect slappy front crooks to fakie. I have only seen him do that once or twice before and he was doing a bunch of them. Also front 50 180s off the curb cut, super long slappy crooks, etc. Jake and Saul showed. Saul went right in to some great slappies everywhere. Painted or not. Jake and Dave did slappy crooks shove. I couldn’t quite get slappy front feeble. Jake challenged me to a game of SKATE. He went for double or nothing on fakie flip and was at SK quick. A heelflip and b/s flip later and he was at SKAT. I forget the trick I won with, but Jake was really not stoked. Ha. I guess it was a good reminder to me how that extra 1/8″ wheelbase on the 8.5″ makes things way harder. Alex was there. He did varial heel and treflip. Pretty rad. Jake, Dave and I played another game. It was a really long one. We landed on tricks a lot, but didn’t ride away. Jake got a f/s flip and Dave got a pretty epic make (I didn’t ). I spent a lot of my tries trying treflip and was very close on most, but couldn’t get it. I had gotten letters on fakie shove body varial from Dave, f/s flip from Jake and a couple more. I was hyped to get a helipop. Dave won the game on a fakie sex change. I was close to getting it 2nd try, but didn’t. Jake left after that. Dave and I skated the last remaining light away. He did front 5-0 shove a couple times. I tried a bunch of switch flips and did a new curb trick – slappy nosegrind to disaster. I suppose the term nosegrind is a stretch, but it felt cool anyway.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings flat boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, nb# abzorb insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I met with Sean at Broomfield park around 4:30. Kevin and Darin and others would show in an hour or so. I had put softer bushings in for my change of the day. Overall I liked it, but it did take some getting used to. After some warming up Sean and I played a game of SKATE. It was another game where I got pink slipped. I don’t remember the tricks, but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Sean just landed some good tricks quickly. Then we hit the black ledge. Sean of course flew through his routine. Surprisingly I got on almost all front 50 attempts. I had some good crooks. I even lined some stuff out with a b/s flip out of the bank, boardslide down the little rail first try. I was feeling alright. Kevin showed and Darin too. Around then Kevin, Sean and I got stuck trying treflips because Sean wanted to learn relearn. I would get the first one, but it wasn’t very good. Kevin and Sean got fakie tres. I got a nollie tre that made me feel even better. Kevin and Sean got regular tres. Kevin went on to get nollie and switch too. All 4 tres! I came incredibly close to fakie tre. But then we moved on. We were at the manny pad for a while. Darin did bluntslide as Sean nose manualled it. Sean had a crazy line of front 180 the double set then fakie manual the manny pad. Kevin switch nose mannied it easy. After a while Kevin and Sean left. I tried some qp lines with Darin. He did back tail then back tail fakie. I did a few fakie pivots to fakie followed by some halfcab heel noseslide hucks. Most of which were not close at all. I came incredibly close to a switch flip. 303’s ‘Bama showed. It’s fun seeing shop dudes skate and rip. He is one of those dudes that goes for it on every try. Fun night.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings flat boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)