skate journal: valmont/dog park/howard hueston/ filming marathon (oct 24, 2021)
On a nice morning that was breezy at times I went to meet Bryan, Jake, Will, Rob at dog park. I’m alway late of course, although this time only a few minutes and everyone was at Valmont. I was hyped on the idea of warming up there and there wasn’t many people. I was riding my 8.25 setup this time. It was okay. Had fun pumping around a bit then getting the rainbow grind, kickflip to fakie on the bank, no comply bigspin on the bank, some fun axle stall on tight quarterpipes in the pump zone and would eventually get the noseslide then kickflip to fakie line again. But man I did it so bad. Bryan had some cool powerslides, almost pressure flips, quick turn arounds to cab bigspin on the bank. Jake did grinds in the deep end of the bowl, maybe a front blunt on the volcano. Rob had steezy carves on the barrier and almost got the rainbow grind.
Then we went to the ledges. Saul joined, did some slappies and more that I didn’t see. Rob continued his killing spree with nose manuals, back 50 nollies, nollie front 50 back 180. I didn’t really do anything I was proud of in any way except a 2nd try 3 shove and a halfcab flip in SKATE against Jake. Jake was ripping. Saw Will get some nose manuals. Bryan did his patented fakie bigspin tailslides.
Saul and Jake were calling for HH so we did it. Sean joined. There were a few people initially, but they would leave. One of them had a cool old Null message in the bottle deck. It’s a weird park. I can’t say I like it, can’t say I hate it. The transition makes more sense than Valmont, but at the same time it’s really hard to get speed for a lot of it. Saul had some good lines though lots of his quick grinds and almost back 50 over the hump. Jake killed it front 5-0s, disasters, roll in, fly out nose grabs. I had fun, a dorky little kickflip over a mound, a few back 50s. Rob cruised it well as did Sean. Then I went back to dog park and just filmed then filmed at street spots. Garrett came up big. Good day.
(setup 8.25/8.3 null 5.8s with forged baseplates, 52-53 wheels, new balance 212s size 12 272 insole)
(pain level 5/10 ugh)