On a super nice day I hadn’t been called for work and when to dog park to meet Rob and Eric. It was slightly overcast out and oh so nice in the 60s. Rob and I started slow. In fact, Rob never got past starting and left after 20-30 min. Eric somehow always has the fire going though. Tailslides, heelflips over parking blocks, crooks, wallies, 5-0s. Ripping. Nick and Jake were there. Those two are awesome and really fun to skate with. Kevin showed when we were trying tricks on the little pad. I had done a lot of accidental front 5-0s and some fakie 50s. Kevin rattled off tricks super quick and after doing a first try fakie nosegrind he got me to do one 3rd try. Not too bad. I almost got a super good line for me. Fakie 50, halfcab flip, crooks the cinder block, treflip. I struggled with front 50s on the wood death box and got a terribly slow one. Oh yeah, I was wearing cupsoles – NB# 288S. They felt decent, but definitely different and less board feel than bald vulcs. I tried switch front nose shoves for awhile. Kevin rattled off tricks. I tried crooks then 50 then treflip and slammed super hard on an underrated treflip. I don’t remember the last time I slammed that hard. Kevin said I actually bounced. Ugh. Earlier he had a bad slam on a kickflip and then again on a switch front crook attempt. Ollie’s friends Alex and Gabe showed up. It was rad seeing them skating. I scraped myself up and forced myself to skate more. Was trying noseslide to fakie then switch noseslide 270 shove, but didn’t get it. Kevin did an incredible front crooks. Then we called crooks then treflip. We both did it. Then we played a game of SKATE. This one went alright for me. I got kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip, first try nollie tre (and Kevin got a letter on it!) and came somewhat close to switch flip. I lost, but I wasn’t bummed.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 50mm classic shape 99a, new balance numeric 288s maroon size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 especially after the slam)

Was having a good morning getting ready for skating when I got called for work. It wasn’t a bad call, but it took a few hours and it kinda killed my skate motivation. And it showed when I arrived at the dog park. Kevin, Dan, Sean, Mike were all trying varial flips. But my body wasn’t up to try them quite yet. I cruised around trying to get warmed up, but it never really happened. Those dudes were all ripping. I was hyped to see Dan skating. Sean and Kevin were doing some lightwork over the barriers. Sean had nollie back 5-0, ollie, backside flip the wallie, turn around ollie the hydrant then front 50 the picnic table. Dang that’s lots of hopping! Kevin did switch nosegrind 180, ollie, nollie shove. I did slow front 50 and posed backside flip. Near the end I got a slow front 50 shove. That’s about the only trick I was remotely hyped on. Kevin and I had tried a bunch of halfcab crooks. Neither of us got it, he was of course way closer. Man I was in some serious pain.

Then I went to look at a Casey to see the spot Eric had shown me. It looked so good from the road I got out of the car. It’s a little kicker to a pad then a little two stair-ish gap after. The kicker was deceiving though as it drops away at the last bit making the timing weird. I got a switch 180 then front 180 the gap. I wanted to do kickflip then front shove, but I never got the kickflip. The weird kicker got to me and I went home.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 50mm classic shape 99a, new balance numeric foy 306 navy size 12, thin es insoles)
(pain level 6/10 super sore)