Woke up really early.  Whenever I have a terrible time skating I should take the next day or two off.  Instead I got to a mediocre skatepark at 6:30am.  I was pretty stiff, but not too sore.  I credit the Puig’s, they are decent for reducing pain, unfortunately board feel too.  After some total nothing carving around slow and some ‘nollie’ shoves I started with the warm up lines.  First one was switch nose jib, boardslide the rail, ollie to fakie the bank.  Next was ollie onto the little manny pad, front 180 off, fakie flip, switch front nose.  Never quite got that.  One that took a bit was front 50, ollie the bank hip, then front tail the little hip.  Took me a few tries to get a b/s flip on the main bank.  Then did more and followed with a kickflip to fakie near the main hip.  That was the highlight for me, it was downhill after that.  Couldn’t get front 50 shove, back 50 the little ledge or kickflip to fakie the main bank.  Argh.  

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup pj ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s, bones stf v1 52mm 103a, adidas puig b/w size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to campus after a nice walk with Liz then dinner.  Missed the old guy session at the curbs, but I wasn’t really feeling like skating curbs again anyway.  It was a nice cool temp.  I had setup an 8.25 with Thunder 148s and put some old Bones wheels on.  Cruising into campus it felt great, lower to the ground and the hard wheels felt great.  I ended up at a spot I haven’t really skated before.  It’s a ledge that looks perfect, but got knobbed right away.  Anyway one of the knobs is missing making for a 4 foot section.  I did some lines to warm up.  Ollie a manhole cover (my first ollie was surprisingly painful), noseslide the ledge, no comply 180.  Then the other way switch noseslide, nollie tail a short downhill section, front 180 the manhole.  Switch 180 the manhole, kickflip on flat, noseslide to fakie, fakie flip.  The kickflip took awhile.  Argh, I could feel the board was lighter, but I still struggled.  I couldn’t crook the ledge, the truck difference was messing with me.  I did have some fun slappy crooks on the uphill section. Too bad it’s knobbed because it would be fun to go all the way up.  I managed a couple incredibly slow front 50s.  For how bad I was feeling that made me a little happy.  Until I tried to line them out with halfcab flip.  That’s when things got depressing.  It took forever to get an incredibly slow one.  Not much went on after that, I tried some treflips, but didn’t land one or even commit.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup pj ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s, bones stf v1 52mm 103a, adidas puig b/w size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 not really that much pain, but I just had no energy or ability to jump)

Went over to the school after 7 on a cold night. The curbs were wet, but the flatground area was dry. I wasn’t feeling good and warming up proved difficult. In fact I think it took about 8 tries to get a kickflip. I choked it up to having new shoes and tried to stay patient. It was really tough though I had so little confidence and skated so slow. I was hating how bad I’ve gotten at flip tricks. I managed the warm up line of kicklflip, no comply 180, fakie flip. Then fakie flip, halfcab flip. Halfcab flip proved difficult and I was really struggling to make the board move. I didn’t land anything more actually. I posed a few tricks, switch flip felt possible, but bailed something taking it to the shin and had a reflex that focused that board. Ugh. I sat quite depressed for a few minutes getting super cold then went home.

(setup 8.3 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow hanger cast baseplate, spitfire 51mm 99a radial slag green, adidas puig b/w size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Had a few hours of free time on Mother’s Day and needed to bring boards to Emage. Was gonna meet Will, but it didn’t work. And it was probably for the best as it started to rain the second I pulled into a parking spot near my favorite granite ledge. DOH! I debated skating at all, but I would get a few crooks in before the ground was totally saturated. The weren’t great crooks.

After Emage I stopped by Safeway ledge as it was dry. I had purchased some Adidas Puig shoes. I didn’t want to deal with the uncomfortable 440s so I went right to skate the Puig’s. And they felt pretty amazing to be honest. I didn’t land much for flatground and didn’t want to do too many kickflips because I hadn’t had a chance to pre-goo the toe. Well I didn’t really land all that much on the ledge either, but it felt good to skate a ledge where I can actually do back 50s. I should have cleaned up the back 50 shove, but I chose to try other stuff instead. I kind of did a couple front tail jibs, kind of a front smith, close to back 5-0, didn’t even try flip in anything argh. Still it was fun.

(setup 8.3 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow, spitfire 51mm 99a radial slag green, adidas puig b/w size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Dave L and I took the long way to get to the ditch picking up a couple parking blocks on the way. Rob, Will and Dave F would show shortly after that. This ditch looks easy to skate, but it is not. The steep side is quite steep. My first reaction was to go skate somewhere else. But we skated and it ended up being quite fun. We put the broken cement parking block and smaller plastic one at different points. I warmed up with some boneless tail transfer things and rock ‘n rolls. I couldn’t kickflip to save my nice initially. I really don’t like the 440s. Rob had some amazing backside ollies on the bank near the building. Fuller had a really bad slam right away doing a deck 180 on the weird ledge to bank by the building. He recovered though and was quickly doing rocks and feebles on the parking blocks. Dave L was doing feeble stalls on the plastic curb which seemed scary to me. After awhile we moved the cement parking block down and rub bricked/waxed the edge which grinded pretty well once we got it going. Dave L had some nice front slashes then boardslides and hurricane and decked transfers on the building ledge/bank. Will had some grinds on the bank, couldn’t get frontside though. Neither could I, too scary. Fuller had however was doing front and back tails, grinds, then some crazy back 180 pivot transfers. I had some fun slappy crooks once I figured out how to get to it. Rob and Will took off. We put the plastic curb upright on the bank. Dave L had a great line ollieing it to quick nollie lip. Then I tried wallie 50s for quite some time. It had gotten super windy. I worked pretty hard and got an alright one that came to a stop on the grind. Then Fuller did it frontside in like 5 tries without having to push like a madman. Man he’s good. Fun session. Then Rob and I went and helped with some clean up at dog park which felt pretty awesome to help with.

(setup 8.3 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow, spitfire 51mm 99a radial slag green, new balance numeric skateshop 440s size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I should know not to skate right after work.  I had done plenty of exercises and wasn’t sore, but on the drive to dog park I was not energized.  That wouldn’t change when I got there and it was all young kids skating.  I had gone back to the 8.3 with 5.6s.  It felt okay, not great.  The only decent things I did were a couple basic flippers, but even then those tricks should be automatic by now.  I skated for two hours and have nothing to show for it.  I guess crooks on the tall bench, first try f/s halfcab flip, remotely close to noseslide 270 shove.  It wasn’t a total wash I guess, but definitely lacked motivation.  I look forward to some new and better obstacles.

(setup 8.3 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow hanger cast baseplate, spitfire 51mm 99a radial slag green, new balance numeric skateshop 440s size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Got off work with some time to kill before a curb session so I went to take a little nap.  But I woke up an hour later.  Doh.  I rolled over to meet Dave L, Saul and Rob, but I was so beat.  Other than a couple normal slappies and a super lucky first try switch front slappy I didn’t do anything.  I had messed with my setup to prove a point.  Can you still flip a big board in cupsoles?  I had 8.5 with 6.1 trucks and the answer was a resounding NO.  I saw Dave do some good back 5-0s, nose mannies and almost switch 180 manual.  Rob had a sick back 180 fakie 50, back 50 mongo, I think no comply back 50, tailslide, bean plant.  Saul had some hook magic, solid slappies everywhere.  

(setup null 8.5 spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1s with bones medium bushings, 52mm 101a radial slim spits, new balance numeric skateshop 440s size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Up early trying to beat the rain I drove to NE Longmont to mee the Daves and Rob.  We hit a weird flat bar spot.  Wide round tubes with a rounded ending.  We did some sweeping to warm up, some flatground and ollies.  Boardslides started happening, noseslides.  Then the rain started threatening.  You could see the wall coming.  We did a few group boardslides which was fun.  Rob got sick halfcab boardslides, noseslides.  Dave F wallie 50 for the hammer of the session.  Dave L almost front lip, but broke his board.  I had the tiniest crook jib ever and as you can see the worst switch front board.  I was motivated to try that for Jam since he did that trick so much.  

Dave F and I lurked for awhile, found a really sick bank spot then ended up at Rocky Mountain.  It was wet, but the weird stair area below was mostly dry.  We messed around on a really frustrating double ride on grind for awhile.  I fell on my wrist and got mad.  Oh yeah, I had switched from the 212s to 440s to avoid pain (it worked) but was taking some adjusting to.  Then we skated flat at the basketball court.  Initially we each had little section between puddles, but it would dry out and become mostly skateable.  Dave started by hucking flippers like switch varial heel, nollie varial flip, then settled into kickflips and fakie flips.  I tried to work my way through some “basics” in the new shoes.  I got kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip.  Couldn’t get fakie bigflip.  Tried the Iron Man challenge starting with heelflip.  I kind of got a treflip,  It was bizarre though.  The board only rotated as far as varial flip and somehow I stood on it and turned it forward.  Then we skated the school as it had dried up.  I was dead at this point.  I had a fun run though of switch ollie up the curb then switch front nose the ledge.  Dave was going for his back pivot switch crook down the median.  I took a long time to get a line of nollie shove spin on the bank, manual a brick median, crook the ledge.  I think i only did noseslide, but Dave said it was crooks so it counts.  He did first try back 50 the ledge then struggled through getting another one.  He almost had switch flip on the bump.  He ollied the medians casually and was still skating when I left – trying switch back 180 50 on the curb.  Maybe he’s still skating now, he’s the energizer bunny.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.8 ventures titanium axle, venom 91a bushings with both washers, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, nb# 212 then nb# 440)
(pain 5/10)

Feeling sore in the morning I went across the street to skate flat for a bit and see if my legs would work. They didn’t. I had some new 440s to try and help with pain. While they may have helped I was so frustrated I would give up pretty quickly. I think I did kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip. But they were all extremely slow and uncomfortable.

Then after some food I went to the pipe bank spot to meet Luzius, Rob, Will and Eric. What an awesome crew and it would really help cheer me up to be around friends. Will was trying a crazy trick when we got there. No comply disaster, but he never got it. We were talking about how Dave doesn’t need setup time and Eric made me laugh saying ‘normally you need to establish a cruising speed’. Eric had some slams on the awkward ledge, some good heelflips. Rob had somehow never skated there before. He was pretty quick to front boards, front nose 270, no comply beanplant (I think that’s what it’s called?) and crails. I had some warm up switch noses, a couple kickflips, a lot of boardslides and one tail stall. Also some fun carves over the pipes. Dave L did a lot of filming but then would casually kill some front 50, front tails, front 180 the pipe and back tail the curb. These dudes rule.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.8 ventures titanium axle, venom 91a bushings with both washers, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, new balance 440s for flatground then 212s with run 619 insoles at bank)
(pain 6/10)