On a warm morning I drove down the Parker and met Rob and Jake at the park. It wasn’t crowded, but there were quite a few more people than expected. Some old guys in pads and kids on big wheels. I was there first and had done a couple laps, but those guys showed quickly. My board was really feeling huge so I got the 8.25 out briefly, but it felt really small and dumb. Rob was manualling and nose manualling the manny pad right away. Quick up to back 50s too. I was kinda just doing basics around the park feeling a little overwhelmed with the options. Pretty quickly I had a fun little line of boardslide the flat bar then cali grind up/across/down the pyramid. I got Jake to boardslide it. I had a run of crooks the ledge then nose manny the low pad. Went through a few frontside ledge basics. Jake and I skated the bank to ledge starting with noseslide to fakie and noseslide. We battled for crooks. I got a little one first. Jake got better ones to fakie then eventually followed it up with f/s halfcab off the tall ledge. I saw rob get back 50s, front 50, halfcab boardslide, halfcab noseslide, nollie lip and probably more on the ledge. Jake and I battled a super long line for awhile. Ollie off the ledge into the kicker, boardslide the flatbar, wallie up the bank to ledge then ollie a 4 stair. There were a few factors working against us like kids playing on the 4 stair area and the fact that the line was basically a lap around the park. I got to the 4 stair and splatted like 3 times hard on my hip before finally getting the line. Jake would get it next try. Rob had done some tricks on the bank like one foots and kickflips. Then I skated the ledge some more and tried to rattle off some tricks. I got front 50 to front rock, nollie front tail, front smith, halfcab noseslide, crooks, crooks shove, crooks to fakie then started trying crooks bigspin. I got pretty close a few times, but ended up getting too tired and chatted with Rob and Jake for awhile.

Then Jake and I went to Greenwood. Upon getting out of the car I was much more sore than anticipated. I would never do anything beyond a noseslide and had a bad slam on a back 180 in which I kind of rolled my ankle and slammed onto my already aching hip. Ugh. That was it for me. It was cool to see the new stuff there, maybe with more energy and less pain I would like it. Jake had some good pole jams, kickflips and nollie back 180 the kicker.

(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 3/10 at Parker then 9/10 at Greenwood)

On a nice day I went to dog park and met Rob, Dave and Ed. Warming up was pretty brutal. Especially because lots of talking was going on which was rad, but not the best for skating. I started to feel the effects of a big board which I think was more because I was quite tired and sore. Boardslides were fun as always. I’ll start with Rob since he bounced first. He definitely got into demo mode with some long lines. I was impressed with decked boardslides on the tall bench, crooks the new bench, back 50 back 180 out, ollie over wallie world, fakie bigs and a lot more I’m forgetting. It was rad seeing Ed skating. His ollies have so much pop and he gets his back leg up all good. He had good manuals, boardslide to fakie several parking blocks, rad tweaks off the little mountain launch ramp. I didn’t skate very good, but also not terrible. I was happy to get a first try front 50 to front board on the cinder block ledge, front 50s on the black angle iron ledge, halfcab noseslides felt way better with the big board, some okay crooks and slappy crooks, f/s halfcab flip but couldn’t get heelflip, treflip or halfcab flip. Dave continued his recent destruction with back 5-0 back 180 out, front 50 180 and 5-0 the beam, switch crook and front crook the cinder block ledge, sex change, long slappy feebles and much more. As we were winding down local ripper Andrew showed up and put on a demo that was fun to watch. Franky grind!

(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 3/10)

Got to the Stephen Day park shortly after noon on a crisp day after a terrible night of sleep. Rob and Dave were already there, but had been chatting so we all started skating at the same time. Warming up seemed to go alright for everyone. Dave was right to tailslides over the hip. He would go on to do it switch which is pretty mind blowing. I tried to ride over the hip switch and pretend to go into tailslide. It didn’t even seem possible. Rob had manuals, no comply shoves. I started with a few things like tailslides over the hip and kickflips on the bank before posing ollies over the rail. I would get close and committed a few times, but never get too close. Rob did the cool nollie big then no comply 270 pretty quick. Dave did the line with switch front tail over the hip, cab kickturn, ollie to boardslide down the rail but I missed it. So he redid most of it then just the boardslide again. Rob and I chatted for awhile then he bounced and I had the park to myself for awhile. I did some selfie cam for a bit to get the stoke going again. Started with front tailslide over the hip, then halfcab flip on the bank. The halfcab flip where I fell really showed me the benefit of the wider board, I can’t believe I was even close to somehow riding away. I also tried a few fakie bigflips on the bank, but I would need a longer bank. The boardslide around the C is so fun. Then I made myself front 50 the C which is so scary to me. I did it in a line where I came back and halfcab noseslid the straight part of it. I also ollied up the tall rounded ledge once. Then I went in on the treflips. I did them all after nosesliding the bump to ledge. I would get 3 of them. The first felt great. Then I turned on the phone, did it again, but with a good tic tac. Then a 3rd time and it felt great. Some scooter kids had come and I somehow handled it rather well. Also another young skater who was really nice. Fun day, landing treflips hyped me up.

(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 3/10)