On a somewhat cool day I met Dave F, Dave L and Rob at Rocky Mountain Elem. I had been called for work early that morning and didn’t get much of any sleep. I was the last one there. Since my 288S had finally bit the dust I was in some 22s I had gotten recently. I put some Lakai insoles and they felt good. Right near the start Rob did a no comply 5-0 on the curb to get things firing. L was doing his casual ripping with some shoves, back 50s, manuals. F was doing boardslides to fakie, front noseslides, kickflips, sex changes. Somehow I started off landing almost every flip trick I tried. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip, f/s halfcab flip, b/s flip. But things would come crashing to a halt pretty quickly trying front 50s as the exhaustion kicked in and my right knee really started hurting. Argh. Fuller went in on his incredible b/s pivot to switch crook down the bank median. He did one so good. Rob did back shove 50 on the curb, a bunch of no comply 5-0s, back 180s up the curb to cab kickturn on the bank, bigspin front nose. I would get a couple of the worlds slowest front 50s, one was followed by a kickflip off the curb, both were eventually followed by treflip fails. I did a line I was happy about, back 50 the curb, kickflip up the curb, decent crook the ledge (then flail a treflip of course). I tried front smith grinds, but I think all I landed was a f/s pivot. Still felt cool. F filmed L trying a line with a rock ride, some shoves, then back tail. He did it really good. This was when I went to leave which lead to chatting for awhile. I took a good two hour nap when I got home. And man my right knee was hurting.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 53mm spitfire f4 99a conical full red/blue swirl, new balance numeric 22 maroon size 12, lakai carrol insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Right after work I bolted to the curbs and saw Rob and Saul leaving.  Luckily Jake and Dave L were still there even if they were trying to wrap things up.  They didn’t skate much.  I saw Jake do a slappy or two and Dave get frustrated with nollie shoves and do a kickflip up the curb.  I did some slappies then tried to show off to Jake that I learned switch front slappies.  It took awhile and Dave had left, but I did get one and it felt pretty awesome.  I had some okay flippers too and got Jake to try heelflips in the grass.  He was close.  After Jake left I went to the side of the school with the goal of doing 4 two trick lines.  4 lines for a total of 8 tricks.  48.  Like my age.  Ha.  Might have to make this a theme for the year.  I got fakie flip then fakie bigflip pretty quick.  Then halfcab flip followed by treflip.  It only took 3 tries to get the treflip which really hyped me up.  I didn’t end up getting any more lines, but I was close to f/s halfcab heel and front heel.  Tried f/s halfcab flip followed by nollie varial flip but couldn’t get the nollie varial flip.  Hucked a few other things, but ended up getting tired and sore so I went home for dinner.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288s size 11.5 maroon no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold morning I woke up at 6am with the plan of getting to the dog park to do 48 tricks before work. I had made a list and everything. Mostly as a reference in case I blanked out and forgot what tricks to try. I would obviously have to stick to easier ones since I was on a time limit. I arrived shortly after 7am and it was 30 degrees. It didn’t feel too cold though. There was a rollerblader dude there. After posting up my phone immediately to film the slappy crooks I explained what I was doing. He offered to film me, but I would never put a stranger through that. Ha. He was cool. So yeah the video is mostly in order. I started with slappies to get the legs going. Most tricks went pretty well until the front 50. I just couldn’t commit with any speed. I was about to nix them when an accidental 5-0 worked out so I stuck with it until getting the shove out. The nollie front tail to fakie was also a total fluke, but I was happy. I had also done a switch front nose 270 out, but missed it when making the video. I was skating really hard, I was exhausted, breathing heavily and having fun. Flip tricks went okay. The treflip came in about 15 tries. I had to give up on nollie tre even though I was super close to a bunch of them. The halfcab heel took a bit. I wanted to ollie the barrier from the kicker as my ender, but I was tired and a bmxer had shown up and was hitting the kicker. I did about 53 tricks total so I’d have some to weed out. I got rid of a super slow front 50 and back 50, front 180 over the parking block, pathetic front board the new bench. I left feeling very happy, fortunate to be able to skate even if it’s not as good as I wish. This session was more quantity of tricks over quality though. I was very happy to have landed a treflip. 48!

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288s size 11.5 maroon no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

In what is becoming somewhat of a birthday tradition we assembled at Evergreen park on a nice breezy day.  It felt like we were the first people there since winter as there was pine needles and gravel around the park. It’s gonna be impossible to remember and document all that happened. I’ll start by saying there was a lot of people and for some reason the pressure of skating around everyone really got to me this time. I could just not get it going for the life of me. Kevin was the only one there when I showed, but Sean, Rob, Ed and Jake would arrive shortly. There were some others there and a decent sized crew of Evergreen youth would show up too. Hayden would show with Jake 2, Peyton and Bo too. Fuller and Simon would show when we were contemplating calling it a day. I’ll start by saying I was skating incredibly bad to start and it literally took my 15-20 tries to get a kickflip to fakie on the little wedge behind the hip that was supposed to be the start of a ‘fun’ warm up line. I was thinking in my head “maybe this will be the year I hang it up”. I’m not sure if it was a Rob bean plants over the hip or his back 50s, Kevin’s smile, Hayden’s treflips or Sean’s front 3s, but I did start to have fun. I still didn’t land much, but I did have some fun. The backside flip took longer than it should, but not as long as the previous time and I got fakie bigflip over the hip in about 5 tries. That would help me mentally. I was hyped to see Rob boardsliding the hubba. Kevin was shredding everything like he do. Sean’s warm ups would be my ender enders. His back nosegrinds on the aluminum bench were incredible. Bo’s energy is contagious. Lots of pop on everything, pressure flips, crooks on the aluminum bench were gold. Jake killed the steep qp, got fakie bigspin over the hip, nollie bigspin. It was rad that Ed joined. He had some poppy ollies over the wedge, grinds on the qp, boardslides. Hayden and Jake 2 brought the heat immediately and you could tell they were hyped to skate that park. Hayden still appears to have stolen treflips from Bo. Apparently Peyton hasn’t skated in months, but it didn’t show and he was shredding. I sat to eat a snack and Rob, Ed, Kevin joined me. It was looking like we might bounce, but then Simon and Fuller showed up. So we had to try to get it going again. I’m glad we did because the park cleared out a little and some fun was had. Dave and I played with various noseslide transfers on the wedge/back of hip. Kevin and I rotated filming for a bit until we got our lines. I was happy that the b/s flip came somewhat easy again, but getting crooks instead of boardslide after the nollie front tail was hard. Sean did like 100 front 3s and f/s halfcab flips over the hip. Kevin is a trooper filming him and even did pivot fakie while filming once. Amazing. Dave did a b/s flip over the hip which he doesn’t think he’s done before, also halfcab flip, bunch of switch ollies. When we left he was still skating and did a switch front 3 over the hip. Simon is so good, the back lip on the vert qp was bonkers. I was trying to get treflip over the hip and was almost committing when my board landed on my foot and hurt my toe enough that I basically stopped skating. It bummed me out that I didn’t ever get my feet on it. All in all a fun session. It’s weird though. Hard to live up to the hype. I skated mostly terrible, but felt lucky to have so many rad people to skate with.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 212 pink size 12, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling really tired after a week of work I went to Saul’s.  Jake and Saul were already there skating.  But we ended up mostly talking it seemed.  Saul had some fire though and did some good grinds.  I got one shallow end front slash and posed some Madonnas.  But I couldn’t even do the axle stall setup when Saul attempted to film me so I could see how far off I was.  Jake didn’t go too hard for him, but still rattled off a bunch of tricks I hope to do there some day.

saul 8.75 setup venture 6.1s 53mm spitfire conical full red/blue.  shoes: nb# 288S maroon size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling totally exhausted I rallied over to the curbs across the street shortly before sunset.  Pushing felt kinda weird still from my slams to the hip last weekend.  I got a few of the basis slappies, a couple flippers, a wicked shinner on a b/s flip attempt and almost called it a night.  But I messed around a bit longer and did a switch barley stall on a curb which was pretty darn fun.  Also got halfcab flip and a few heelflips, but couldn’t get treflip.  At the end tried a few switch front slappies.  Almost got a really good long one, but ended up settling for a not as good one which still put a smile on my face.  

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a breezy, but nice day after work I cruised up to Fort Collins to skate and hit MRKT.  I went to meet Bo and Hayden at Spring Canyon, but it was super mobbed with people.  Like literally 40 people skating.  I had done a few laps not really doing anything yet feeling the effects of a long drive when Bo and I decided to go to Fossil instead.  A short drive later we were at an almost empty park and the wind had disappeared!  We started out on the top area for once.  We had all done a couple warm up things when Hayden started doing kickflip up the curb, treflip off.  We all tried it.  Bo somehow landed on, but didn’t ride away from like 20 treflips.  It was crazy.  I only got a few kickflips up the curb and committed to a treflip, but never put it down.  Hayden’s treflips were so casual and perfect.  He increased the line to treflip up, treflip off, ollie up the ledge then treflip down the 3.  Dang!  Bo had some nice hops down the stairs.  Then we played on the main ledge for awhile.  I did okay.  Didn’t completely struggle with slow front 50s, had some crooks, halfcab noseslide, switch front nose, bs flip.  Bo was shredding so hard.  Back lip shove, front lip, close to front lip 270 shove, super long crooks, front 5-0 shove, pop shoves, kickflips.  Hayden was shredding too.  Long back tails, back smiths, front tails, manuals and we filmed that line as it was getting dark.  He did so many treflips.  I’m jealous.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Not feeling too motivated after my first day of work in a few weeks I left the house not knowing where I would skate.  The sun had just set and I randomly thought of Basemar and it’s fun alley that is lit very well.  But I didn’t anticipate the area being covered in old kids clothes.  I moved some of them a bit out of the way and tried to get some warm up lines going.  I had put my 6.1 axles on with the big 53mm conical fulls.  Dumb idea.  First line was nollie to fakie the narrow bank, switch 180, front 5-0 a little yellow curb.  I couldn’t get a kickflip to fakie.  Then I tried an even dumber line starting up in another corner riding down a level or dropping down to tail then trying to manual to cali grind to manual the downhill pad section.  Never got close to the manual part and the smell back there started to get to me so I went out to the front area.  I had forgotten about the weird mellow bank with the flagstone ledge along it.  I then noticed a new approach I’ve never done before ollieing up the curb, noseslide attempt a tall flagstone ledge then stalls on the bank to ledge.  I had a really fun one ending with a front smith stall.  The noeslide was questionable, but it was so tall and dry I didn’t really care.  I tried a bunch more to do front tail shove, but never got it.  It was fun ollieing up the curb pretty well for once.  Then I tried a line of halfcab flip, nose stall to fakie a bench on the same bank followed with fakie flip.  I never got the fakie flip and got frustrated and left after a front rock and terrible wallride nollie.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1s no big washer, 53mm conical full spitfire f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling a little less sore I went and met Sean and JJ at the dog park after a mellow morning with the family. It was almost 80 degrees! Suns out guns out! Ha ha. I was skating my 8.5 setup. Again I didn’t like how it felt, but it didn’t feel too small or too big at any point. Sean was working on fakie 5-0s the tall bench as well as nollie back 5-0 front 180 out which he would get a couple of. And he grinded them far. JJ is a shredder. He did front board around the kinked flatbar, nollie front lips, back lips, front boards, lots of tricks. I didn’t get too far into my list or skate very hard, but it was a nice chill session. I still managed to get a switch crook jib, switch noseslide 270 shove, front 50s, a couple flippers. Hucked quite a few kickflip crooks which still feel realistic, but I never committed. Oh yeah and I had some new pink 212s.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm f4 101a radial slims, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling way to sore to skate, but wanting to see everyone I went to curbs. Dave L, Saul, Rob and Ed were there. I did two slappy crooks and one front slappy. I could barely push my hip hurt so bad. Dave L had some nice 50s and a f/s slappy to tail that was sick. Also back 5-0 to manual to back 5-0. Saul had his normal slappies and landed every slappy crook I saw him try. Ed had some good ol’ long slappies and poppy ollies. Rob went pretty hard. Had good manuals and nose manuals, back 50 shove (I think), no comply shoves, bean plants, front tails and a bunch more. Sorry for being that guy that just sat and talked.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 7/10)