On Valentines day several married men met up enjoy the warm indoor Square House facility. The crew was Ed, Saul, Kevin, Sean and me. Ashton and a friend were there for the first few minutes, but then we had it all to ourselves. They were hucking down the stairs and hitting the bump to ledge. Kevin and I were the first ones skating. It took some getting used to the slipperiness before tricks were hucked. Ed and Sean were there shortly after. Saul a bit later. It’s been awhile since I’ve skated at an indoor masonite park. It’s really exciting, but also very disorienting. We had a fun session. I took awhile before I could do much of anything. I had some fun back 50s on the quarterpipes, kickflip to fakie on the little bank, chickened out of skating the flat ledge because of speed, had a fun front shove out of the kicker, some crooks that felt way better than the one in the clip, posed some kickflip 50s, did some wallie nollies on the pyrmaid wall and ended with the b/s flip that was a nice way to end it. Ed was the first to leave. He had some good “Street Ed” ollies, sylee rock ‘n rolls, 50s on the qps. Saul was the only one to successfully slappy the curb as it moved around, hit the halfpipe area a lot and did his first ever rock to fakie on the 15’ vert wall (wish we would have filmed that lol). Kevin was ripping. He had back d’s on the tall qp, lots of tricks on the ledges, even more tricks on the little qp, and several tricks down the 3 stair. Enough that Sean started following his lead. Although Sean beat him to switch front shove. Kevin had wallie nollie on the pyramid wall too, a million back smiths, the switch flip took awhile. Switch Gish was in effect, but man it was rad when he got it. Sean is so graceful and powerful. The back 5-0’s and nosegrinds were so solid, f/s flip over the hip was way quicker than it looks, the front 270s were all so good, kickflips down the 3, the back heel came pretty quick. What a fun crew. Lets do it again.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

In a week of amazing parts this video stood out to me. I like that Santa Cruz still makes longer videos and shows off their roots in skateboarding history. The editing is really good, I love the 80s skate video vibes. Knibbs, McCoy and Eman have amazing parts. RIP to Henry, seemed like such a talented and fun skater to be around. Hoping for an Asta part in the next one ..

Went to the garage on a very cold and snowy Saturday afternoon. I was hyped to try some new Ace bushings. I had heard good things on Slap and liked how Sean’s setup felt. But upon putting them in they felt like they had no rebound and kept popping out over the washer. As you can see from the bolt I had them about as loose as I could. They didn’t feel too bad initially though. I also wore some old 288S shoes and started out pretty good. Got to kickflips quickly and did my first 5 in a row. Took a couple to get a fakie flip, but then did 4 in a row. Same with b/s flip. I got some of the best feeling heelflips I’ve done recently too. Then I went for the dreaded treflip. I really thought I was going to land one in under 5 tries. I was so close. But then the bushing problems became too much so I stopped and swapped the small bushing to a Venom bushing. This made for a weird clicking noise that would add to my frustrations as I kept not landing treflips. Then I put some old Bones medium bushings in which finally felt decent. I started to get more right knee pain so I switched shoes to old faithfuls too, NB 212s. They hurt less. I struggled with treflips for a bit, but then went for the Ironman challenge of kickflip, heelflip, treflip. I never quite get it, but I did eventually land a really bad treflip. It was enough to cool my temper and stop me from throwing my board as hard as I could at the ground (in a manner that would not chip or hurt the board). I tried some nollie flips after that and was very close, then some nollie front heels that weren’t so close. Pretty terrible session really.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, several different bushings, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a, nb 288s/212s)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cloudy and cool day I snuck away to dog park at lunch break. Initially it was just a scooter kid and me, but then a couple other skaters joined. I had made a couple slight setup changes. Cast baseplates and bones wheels. Initially my setup felt great. It’s hard to warm up in 19 degree weather, but I wasn’t really that cold, in fact I took my jacket off. About the time I started to get warmed up my bushings started to freeze. There was a brief window where I was skating alright. I did some back 50s on the long low ledge that came off the end, I even did a couple with front 180s out. I tried to do back 5-0s, but kept sticking. I had some fun crooks on a new ledge. Then my right knee really started to hurt and prevented me from trying to pop more than curb high. Flippers were weird with the frozen bushings too. I couldn’t do heelflips, got halfcab flip and b/s flip. Didn’t get a treflip, but the bushings really messed with that. Man I hate tight trucks. I ended trying a bunch of fakie 50 halfcabs out. I was going faster than normal and came close to some decent ones. Then I had one where my knee pain became too much and I left to go back to work.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, stock purple bushings no big washer, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a, es accel slim plus size 12, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 6/10 right knee)

Went out to the garage shortly after work. Was somehow pretty fired up. I started trying some late flip variations and quickly realized I had no chance. Then nollie front heel for awhile some of which felt close. I committed, but the board only half flipped. Then I went in on 360 flips to get my minimum of 3. I got the first one in 8 tries. I was hyped even though it was terrible. But then it was close to 30 more tries before I got another one, but it felt good and then another one two tries later. I didn’t get too frustrated because I landed on a lot of them. There was one in particular that spun around so easily. It made me happy. After that I tried switch flips and go so close. The board just wasn’t flipping fast enough.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows, stock purple bushings no big washer, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 52mm f4 classic shape 99a, es accel slim plus size 12, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went into the garage shortly after dinner wanting to do another 3 treflips. I started quickly into failing at kickflips. Seriously, got so mad when I didn’t land any of the first 5. I would go on to get a few, but not the 5 in a row I normally do to move on. Fakie flip was a bit of a struggle too. Switch flips were not too close. I tried nollie flips for a while and some felt oh so close. If it would just flip a little fast I would have gotten one. Next I went for treflips hoping the new rhythm I had the night before would carry over. Nope. It took 29 tries to get the first one, another one a few tries after that, then like 20 more to get another. I’m happy I battled and stuck with it, but I’m not happy how long it took. I was beat after that, tried a few switch bs flips and called it a night. I wasn’t as happy with the smaller setup and the lack of flick on the shoes. I should just be happy I wasn’t in a ton of pain.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows, stock purple bushings no big washer, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 52mm f4 classic shape 99a, es accel slim plus size 12, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Feeling a little skeptical of a Boulder park session and stuck wearing my glasses I pulled into Boulder park a little late. To my delight everyone was in the parking lot. Ha. The parking lot is new and there were some manny pad options, a new 2 stair with a weird wallride. Brian challenged me right away with nollie tre. It goes back to a bet he made me 10 years ago. I just had to land a front disaster and he said he’d land a nollie tre by 40. Well, he’s 49 now and going for it again before 50. I definitely wasn’t ready to commit to it as a warm up though. Jake challenged me to SKATE and we would slowly eek out perhaps our longest game ever. Unfortunately not because we landed so many tricks. Kevin and Brian were going for wallrides down the two stair on the weird curved metal sculpture. Rob and Travis were chatting. Other’s started showing up. Jack, Ted, Kyle. Everyone was skating flatground for the most part. Who would have thought Brian’s 49th bday jam would turn into a flatground session? Ha. Jake had got me two letters on halfcab flip, switch shove and f/s flip and I was at SKAT. At one point when Brian was trying nollie tres I tried one and got it. I was hyped. I got a heelflip, something else and took forever to get a fakie bigflip to get Jake to SKAT. He had been trying treflips for a bit, I thought I would get mine quick. Nope. I was really struggling with the bigger board and cupsoles. Brian was playing treflips too and landed on got his feet on some. Kevin did like a million flip tricks, including treflip, nollie tre, first try switch tre, nollie b/s flip, switch f/s flip, switch b/s flip, so many. Ted and Kyle too, man they landed a lot. Jack was going off. Lots of flatground. Varial heel, Rick flip, switch front heel and like 5 nollie tres off the two stair a lot more jaw dropping tricks normally done first try. All this was happening while Jake and I were still trying to land treflips. Ha. I would eventually get a really bad one. I don’t know if it was old age sympathy or just people desperate for one of us to land it, but it seemed to count. Jake got super close, but didn’t put it down. I did a few slappy crooks. Kevin did back 180 nosegrind shove. Rob slammed pretty hard on his first slappy crook attempt, but got a cool line with back 180 up the curb, halfcab 50 (I think?) and then beanplant off the curb. Then we played on the curbs near the entrance to the skatepark. I did some front slappies and slappy front crooks. Kevin did a gorgeous front blunt pop out. Tashi had a rad slappy crook to noseslide. Jack dropped in on a trash can. Then we went into the park. Brian was going for one of his 5 tricks by 50. I don’t know what you call it, but basically run along your board up to blunt fakie. Jack was trying back 3 flip over the weird hip. Kevin may have gotten nollie back big over it. I tried b/s flips, but was struggling with eye blurriness and just feeling too weird. Rob was busy almost taking out scooter kids. Brian would conquer his trick and did it oh so good. High 5s for that one! Really fun day. Great skating with Brian again.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus grey size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 3/10 not bad especially considering how long we skated)

After a busy week of work I met up with Dave and then Sean at a crowded dog park. The wind made the temp in the upper 30s feel really cold. Dave was there first, I rolled in to him doing a first try front blunt on a parking block. Then he went on to do a bunch of them really fast and good. My right knee was hurting, but Dave’s energy hyped me up and I joined him in the parking block lane. I even got a slow front blunt that felt pretty good. I had a new deck. It felt huge, but I think it was partially that I had put harder bushing in. Kickflips were a major struggle, ugh. Sean would join too, tired from a busy week of work. We tried the little angle iron bonk, tiny pad/ledge, parking block, mountain launch ramp. I think Dave was the only one to get all 4 without pushing. The only thing I did I was happy with was a front 180 off the little launcher which I hadn’t done before. Sean said he was tired and sucking then did a front nosegrind on the tall metal bench followed with back nosegrind 180. Yeah, totally sucking. He also ollied the hydrant to quick wallie. Dave and I battled kickflips to fakie on the grey wedge for a bit. They didn’t come easy for either of us. Dave would get two of them at least. I was happy when I finally got one. Then we were kind of all skating different stuff for awhile. I tried switch noseslide kickflip out for a bit and didn’t get close. Dave left. Sean was chilling and made the mistake of pointing the camera at me as the wind and darkness set in and the cold was almost unbearable. I tried fakie 50 fakie flip out which I’ve never done before. I got close on a lot of them, although i did come to a stop on most. I also tried 360 flips and got one bad one. Then kind of the fakie 50 fakie flip out. Obviously it doesn’t really count, but at least I can take advantage of the “over 40 years old, under 40 degrees” excuse.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus gray size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 4/10 my right knee, at least the left knee was feeling better)

Somehow the snow/rain let up and skating was possible after I got off work. I met Jake and Saul at Saul’s. I missed my first scratch grind, but the second one got me hyped. Then I even landed some actual stand up back 50s quickly and things were good. Saul was flowing. His quick grind lines are quite incredible. Jake was attacking the straight wall coping like a man. Also airing the hip, frontside grinds the deep, front disaster. I tried a bunch of front feebles on the brick section, but never got one. Fun session, I need to skate there more.

setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus gray size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 4/10)