Kevin had called out an 11am dog park session which worked good for me as I didn’t have as much time as normal. I got there first. The park was arranged pretty weird. Upon Kevin and Rob arriving we did some arranging and it worked out pretty good. The crew ended up bing Kevin, Rob, Mike, Bernie and cameos from Dan and Aki. I had nothing for a long time. I was able to pop ollies alright, but my flip tricks weren’t going well and I didn’t have much drive. Kevin was ripping the ledges a new one. Back tails, back smiths, crooks, back 180 nosegrinds, nollie nosegrinds, nollie front crooks, etc. Bernie started mellow, but got into the kick back tail battle with Kevin. Bernie would get a couple that looked oh so good. Mike hadn’t skated in a couple months and it showed. He is human after all! He still ripped though. Nollie back tails, back nosegrinds, all done with power. Rob had the sickest fakie nosegrind 180. I need to try that trick, looks so fun. He also had some long lines, front noseslides, halfcab noseslides, back 50 mongo out, back 180s over the parking block every time and much more. Rob had left. Aki had shown. Good to see him. He hadn’t skated much lately either. Still had some good 50s though. Dan showed on his lunch break right as we were about to play a game of SKATE so he joined and then won it. I wasn’t happy with getting a letter on treflip, but I managed a few tricks and was the 3rd one out. It was funny getting like 3 letters on kickflip and fakie flip. I also got halfcab flip, heelflip and fakie bigflip. I of course got letters on Kevin’s nollie and switch flips. Dan put down Janoski and won it with nollie front heel. After that we were mostly chilling, dorking around. I hucked a few kick back tails on the little guy, but never got both feet on. I told Bernie we had to do a new trick before leaving so he went and did fakie back tail kickflip out like 3rd try. That was a new one for him. And he got it so quickly! I started trying the switch nose kickflip out. I wasn’t close at all for awhile, but then just put my board on the ledge and tried it. I figured out that thinking of it as a backside flip really helped. Then as you can see above I kind of did it. i was actually pretty happy about it. Hopefully it’s a step towards doing them moving.

(setup 8″ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 high red cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, venom 91a bushings flat roadside washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Had more time before we left for my mom’s than I thought I would so hit up Jake and Rob for an early dog park session.  It was cold at first, but warmed up quite a bit by the end.  Especially when the strong breeze wasn’t blowing.  I was there first and quickly realized I was feeling alright for me.  Warm up line was switch front nose cinder block ledge, halfcab nose black ledge, crooks new bigger ledge.  Got back 50 on the a-frame, first try heelflip, front 50s weren’t as hard as normal.  The small board was kind of awesome at everything, perhaps because I kept the high trucks on it.  Rob and Jake got to ripping pretty quickly.  Rob halfcab noseslide the street bench, halfcab boardslides, crooks, back 50s, noseslides, kickflip, front nose 270 the new big ledge, almost backside flip, super steezy no comply back 360.  Jake had some solid front tailslides, 5-0s, did 2 or 3 varial flips in a row, joined me on crooks shove/bigspin attempts on the new ledge.  Neither of us got close, but we had some fun crooks.  Jake broke his board on a frontside flilp.  Doh.  Those guys were wrapping things up, but I had 3 tricks left on my list.  Somehow I would get them all.  Nosegrind 180 the little ledge.  Ollie the barrier off the kicker (after a switch nose 270 shove).  Then a sloppy treflip that took too long, but they all felt good.  Fun send off for the holiday weekend.

(setup 8″ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 high red cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, venom 91a bushings flat roadside washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Feeling kind of out of it I went out to the garage remotely thinking about varial heels and nollie varial flips.  I did a few warm up kickflips, slammed on a fakie flip, did a few other tricks then went in on varial heels.  I tried for 25 minutes.  I landed the one other one, but put the hand down and didn’t want to count it.  I was so close so often, but to actually land it was hard.  And when it finally did it felt kind of lucky.  I was hyped though.  I listened to Dinosaur Jr Give A Glimpse yet again.  That album seriously rules. 

(setup 8″ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 high red cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, venom 91a bushings flat roadside washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 2/10)