Directly after a stressful day of work I bolted to meet up with Rob, Neil, Dave and we drove to Lakewood.  It was hot.  The ramp had been done since last time we were there. It was crazy how fast the coping was and how smooth the ramp was.  It took some getting used to.  Jake was there as was John the owner who only skated switch on his daughters 7.5″ board.  Ha ha.  He had some good switch carves, axle stall, switch back smith.  Dave had been there recently and it showed.  Grinds over the hips, around the bowl corner like it was nothing.  He would get up to back tail over the hip, switch crook the mellow corner, back d, backside ollies over the hip.  It’s really hard to describe how hard he ripped.  Jake was quick on the grind over the hip too, he would get a few.  He had some nice grinds around the bowl corner too, lots of front 5-0s and the only one to successfully get the ollie transfer.  I battled the transfer with him and landed something, but I never got enough transition.  It was fun hucking though.  I also had some fun back 50s, a few other rampy tricks and a couple back disasters on the tiny qp (couldn’t get the treflip after though doh).  Rob’s carves through the corner are incredible, fast slash grinds, back 50s.  Neil got some rampnesia again, even on the little 3′ wall.  But man he flowed around that bowl slashing grinds and ollies when he got in there.  

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate with riptides v-hollow hanger, 3 washers inside each axle, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing, spitfire f4 99a 50mm classic shape, es switch b/w size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a nice afternoon I went to Dog Park after work to meet a bunch of old dudes.  My adductor pain was pretty intense so I tried some other shoes – this time Es Accel Slim Plus.  They lack board feel, but it seems like they helped with pain.  For a good 30 minutes I just kinda pushed switch and tries switch stuff to even out my hips.  It may have helped, I may have even done a couple slappy switch crooks.  Neil was popping over wallie world, boardsliding, 50s, pop shoves, shredding.  Jake was popping over wallie world too, lining out tailslides, trying nollie back lip, front boards on the little bar.  Rob looked like he was shredding too, saw some back 50s, halfcab boards, ollies over wallie world.  Skelly joined after work and was manualling, halfcab boardslides, one foots, etc.  Saul showed too!  I saw some slappies.  Mike was there but I didn’t really see him skate.  Fuller was shredding of course.  Him and Neil ollied onto the table.  This was before some younger dude changed the kicker to ollie over the table and put down some horrendous slams and then landed a few.  I don’t remember many Dave tricks in particular, but he was shredding.  I tried to crooks the new metal bench, tall metal bench and little flat bar in one line.  I got the first two, then kinda did the flatabar, but it was more a hilariously bad little willy bonk.  Got a laugh out of Rob at least.  I hucked a bunch of flippers and didn’t land much, especially when it came down to a game of SKATE with Jake and Rob at the end.  I mean I wasn’t as bad as Jake who almost didn’t land anything (hee hee he told me to say that).  It was good having Rob back in the SKATE mix and showed how rusty I am on my no complies.  What a fun crew, hope I didn’t miss anyone.  Oh yeah, near the end a whole lot of scooter dudes came and it was super annoying.  Those things are loud when they constantly drop them or throw them when bailing tricks.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate with riptides v-hollow hanger, 3 washers inside each axle, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing, spitfire f4 99a 50mm classic shape, es accel slim plus grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 7/10 hip flexor)