Since I can’t skate for awhile here’s some good skating for once! Ha ha. Anyway, I am soooo stoked to see David get some shine. Dude rules. This part is amazing. You know I like tech a lot, so the frontside flip fakie 5-0 on the picnic table is probably my fav trick. But the whole part is great.

And then this part! Kaue has been on my radar for awhile, but wow this part might end up being my favorite part of the year. The nostalgic Habitat editing to Mr Dibbs is of course incredible, but so is the skating. Dude lands his tricks so clean, has great trick selection, fits, everything. And that ender, wow!

Was stoked to pick up Will since it’s been over a year since I’ve seen him. We went to dog park and said hi to the crew and checked out the progress. It was very exciting. Most of the park was covered in debris from the construction so after a brief warm up Will and I played a game of SKATE. I had been wearing NB 440s this time trying to prevent achilles pain. They may have been doing that, but they are the most uncomfortable shoe ever and I didn’t land anything. Literally 0-10 on kickflips and was out of the game basically after 5 tricks. Then we went to campus. We started at the mellow stadium bank and my achilles was not doing well. I wore my 212s here and they didn’t help me. I was trying to get Will’s back on a kickflip to fakie when shooting pain went through my achilles. I was done, toast, scared. But I did film Will do a nice nollie heel fakie then bomb the hill with him to the bank to curb. Then I just filmed him do some back tails and we walked back to the car. So bummed on being hurt, but looking forward to a break and coming back stronger.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger venture bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm 99a f4 classic shape, NB 440/212s)
(pain level 10/10 achilles)

Went to the dog park right after work to see if Skelly and crew needed any help with the ledge build. I helped move some forms with Sean then he had some other stuff to do so I skated. I wore some Nike Shane Oneil shoes I had gotten awhile ago for the insoles. They kinda sucked. I tried to do a lot of flip tricks, but it wasn’t working. I got a few fakie flips, some halfcab flips, b/s flip, but nothing beyond that. I hated my setup, my shoes, my achilles pain. There was a crew of skaters from the bay area on a skate vacation. It was cool they were all super nice and having fun. I had done a few of my more basic non-pop ledge tricks. I called it a day after an hour or so.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger venture bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm 99a f4 classic shape, nike sb shane b/w size 12 footprint 3mm insoles)
(pain level 5/10 achilles)

Completely exhausted with a super sore achilles I stubbornly met Bryan and Marcus at the Loveland park around 9am. The park was mostly empty except for us save a few scooter kids who weren’t too annoying. I felt real bad out of the gates and didn’t really do much of anything except a couple noseslides and nollie shoves. It was cool seeing Marcus again. He came close to some kickflips, snapped some ollies and cruised around. We tried some switch flips too, he was closer. Bryan did his fakie bigspin on the bank and on the bank to ledge. Oh yeah, I tried nollie tre to fakie on the bank for awhile and got remotely close. Bryan tried front big heel and got close too. Marcus left. Bryan and I played a game of SKATE. It was another slow one. I think I won it, but I know it was close and neither of us landed a whole lot. My achilles pain had really settled in and so I was about to leave after chatting with Bryan when Riley showed up. So we watched him for awhile which is always a treat. The fakie nosebluntslide was so good.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger venture bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm 99a f4 classic shape, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 footprint 3mm insoles)
(pain level 7/10 achilles)

Went to dog park on a very smoky day. The Evergreen dudes were having a private session on their new park. I was bumming watching them. Dave was running late. Luckily Dennis and some of the other younger CU crowd showed up and brought some hype. I gave Dennis some kickflip tips and he landed one. He gave me some nollie heel tips and I didn’t land one. Situation normal. I had tried my old 212s for a bit to see if they reduce achilles pain. They did. But they were also so thin I couldn’t commit to anything with them. So I went back to the Swifts and they were fine for awhile. Dog park sessions are the hardest to blog as they all blend in together. I had no confidence, skated mostly terrible. One line that was okay was boardslide the new bench, crooks the tall bench, slappy crooks to fakie a curb, halfcab flip (then bail a front 50). Also did switch front nose then halfcab nose/crooks (I think there was a brief crooks and that’s what I was trying but I definitely didn’t lock in like I want to). I was almost getting a crooks then treflip line when Skelly showed up and we chatted. After that I was dead tired and too sore to skate. Dave had some good stuff. I forget one line, but it was a long one. Front 50, front nose, boardslide around the beam then something else. He is getting switch front noses down too, they are so fun. We hucked a few flippers, switch tres, switch heels, all kinds of stuff. Not much was landed. I got close to a nollie varial flip.

Eventually we left for a new spot. It’s a weird bank and the curb/flat/bank is so much harder to ollie up than it looks. When we first got there we were both so stiff and sore it’s amazing we didn’t get hurt. I just remember thinking “oh great this is probably the only time this is skateable and we can’t do anything”. My achilles was very painful. Luckily we’re called The Stubborns for a reason and we stuck to it and got a few things. Dave nollied into it and front tailslid into it. I took a few tries to do a little ride on back tail to fakie on it. Riding down the bank switch was fun except the one time my foot came off and I slammed. I tried front shove to fakie, but got a weird front shove 180. Dave had front pivot to fakie. I got no comply shove and no comply bigspin. But I was dying and couldn’t ollie up the curb anymore. Dave was hurting too. We were bummed, no one was kicking us out and the spot will probably be changed or no longer skateable. Oh well, we tried, it was fun.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger venture bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm 99a f4 classic shape, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 footprint 3mm insoles)
(pain level 6/10 achilles)

Met up with Rob and then eventually Dave at dog park. We had the briefest of warmups before Skelly invited us over to look at the new park. So we chatted with him and Emi and Andrew awhile before getting back to skating. Long hair Jake was there too, he’s rad. I tried to get through my achilles pain and did an alright job at ignoring it, but it was bad on a couple kickflip landings. I really don’t remember much about this session and it’s too many days since the session. I did get the switch front nose then fakie 50 line again. Also the boardslide, crooks, bad treflip line. Rob hadn’t skated in a bit, but after a warm up was shredding like normal. Dave was in charge mode as always. Almost got a line of front 50 then nosegrind to end it. Sorry I don’t remember more.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88/91a bushings, spitfire 50mm 99a f4 classic shape, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10 achilles)

Feeling somewhat unmotivated on my last day of working lates I ended up biking to Boulder park on a nice cool smokey morning.  There were a couple kids already there learning how to skate.  They were nice.  I carved around the old section a couple times then went into the warmup line of back 50, rock fakie, fakie front 50.  It didn’t take too long.  Then I mostly stuck to the new stuff sucking.  My achilles was acting up fierce again.  Ugh, I tried to push without lowering my heel at all and it kind of seemed to help.  I took 4 tries, 4 TRIES! to land a switch front nose on the little bench.  I tried Dave’s latest challenge to me over the micro hip – nollie bigspin revert.  I got one in a few tries that was mostly a miracle.  So then I set the phone up to document and of course couldn’t get the same results.  I did have some fun crooks on the bench to start the run out.  After that I attempted a few things, but was feeling so bad I ended up just leaving.

(setup null 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 red cast baseplate v-hollow hangers, stock bushings no big washer, 50mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 7/10 achilles)

My achilles was not hurting too bad and I had a new pair of Swifts.  There were some puddles around that I spread out and started the warm up process.  It went alright.  I had done a few none pop things before making myself do a few flippers.  Kickflip then fakie flip.  B/s flip then halfcab flip.  This put me in a good mood and the new shoes were feeling good.  Then I had to try and skate the ledges and ruined the mood.  I would get a line of front 180 into the bank, halfcab noseslide, front 50 the black ledge.  But the front 50 did not come easy.  I also tried a line of crooks the end of the up ledge, heelflip, ollie to fakie the wedge.  The heelflip took forever.  I don’t remember how the session ended, I think I just got tired and called it a session.  

(setup null 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 red cast baseplate v-hollow hangers, bones hard bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Still on call for work so I like to skate before work since I can actually leave town safely. I felt sore, especially in the achilles but I still went to Broomfield. I kind of got going pretty good for awhile though. Had some fun runs around to warm up. One I liked was noseslide to fakie the black ledge, switch noseslide 270 the blue ledge, fakie flip on flat. Also a new dork combo. Ollie deck check to front disaster to manual down the brown ledge. Flip tricks felt impossible. I had some alright front 50s. My achilles started to really act up. I tried to do a treflip, but it wasn’t happening so I left.

(setup null 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 red cast baseplate v-hollow hangers, bones hard bushings, 51mm bones stf 103a v2, es swift 1.5 b/w size 11.5 footprint 3mm flat insoles)
(pain level 6/10 achilles)

After getting stuck working all of Friday night and Saturday I went to campus around noon after lounging/sleeping in. I started at the meetup slappy curb where slappy crooks didn’t feel as good as a couple days ago. But when I went down to the flagstone ledge my flip tricks felt better. I would get my first several tricks in a row. Noseslide, kickflip, fakie flip, switch noseslide, boardslides, etc. It got tough quick though when I got to halfcab flips. I couldn’t believe it was happening again. That used to be my trick. I did get one in a few tries and would eventually get a few in a row at one point. Heelflips killed me though as did front 50s. My first goal of the day was front 50 it. I would finally get one of each. I was hucking lots of switch flips and got so close. I tried for another front 50 and would eventually get one that didn’t grind, but I didn’t care I was over it. That ledge is so tall for me. I had also gotten crooks, crooks fakie, front nose fakie, close to f/s halfcab heel.

Then I went to the nearby 3 stair/weird metal ledge. I had the goal of ollieing the 3 stair then doing front 50. At first I took an embarrassing amount of time to back 50 front 180 out the little ledge. The gap in is about one foot. Then I tried to ollie the 3 and do something on the ledge. It was way harder than I thought. First there is no setup on the 3 stair and a big crack right in the middle so you have to choose a side. I would get the ollie then a nollie tail. The ollie then front 50 was so much harder thought. I had to basically land in a speed check to be able to do it. But I did and it felt cool.

Then I went to the little manny pad across from the stadium. I had randomly thought of halfcab nose manual which I’ve never done before. I never got it, but I did get into a couple and would like to try again. I also did manual, nose manual and close to switch 180 manual. Couldn’t get a treflip.

Then I went to the covered downhill ledge area. I was happy to hide out and be by myself. While I was stretching though and entire crew showed up and started working out doing lunges and yoga and stuff. I was confused what they were doing until they started doing parkour. Turns out they were filming and everything. It was cool. I didn’t get to treflip into the bank then crooks like I wanted mostly because of them. But I did get fakie bigspin then noseslide to fakie and then a crooks or two.

I tried to end it with some flatground, but I was totally dead.

(setup null 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 red cast baseplate v-hollow hangers, bones hard bushings, 51mm bones stf 103a v2, es swift 1.5 b/w size 11.5 footprint 3mm flat insoles)
(pain level 3/10)