My achilles was hurting and the motivation was low so Kevin and I went to the tennis court DIY on a warm and breezy day. I say breezy, but really it was either calm or very windy. Dave would meet up shortly, Sean after awhile. I wore cupsoles, they felt good, I had less pain. I started alright, had some of my basic dork tricks and some harder ones like first try fakie bigflip. Kevin rattled off 50s and nosegrinds like it was nothing. I would go on to not skate very well or consistent. It’s hard to skate when even pushing hurts. I would get up on a slow front 50, some good feeling crooks, halfcab noseslides, remotely close to kick back 50, halfcab flips, still couldn’t get a heelflip and didn’t get a treflip. Kevin had some good nollie nosegrinds, switch nosegrind 180s, close to nollie nosegrind shove, switch flips over the parking block. Dave had slappy crooks transfer, 6 trick line starting on the parking block, some shoves, front nose, nollie 180, halfcab boardslide 270 transfer the parking block. Ended strong with kickflips and switch crooks and nose manual. Sean came and we started a timer waiting to see how long before he would ollie the tennis net. Unfortunately he needed some coaxing to do it so we kinda lost all bets. But man Sean is so fun to watch skate. Nosegrinds right away, the back nosegrind 180 out was so sick. His pop is something else. Front 5-0 shove, steezy flilppers, etc. After Kevin and I went to 303 and I got some high tops for skating. Hoping that helps reduce some achilles pain. Certainly at least when my board hits it sometimes.

(setup null 8″ burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, boardycakes 49.99mm round ups 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5)
(pain level 4/10 achilles)

On a crisp morning I met Cass and Kevin at the newly opened Thornton park. There was almost no one there, a little ice still in the shady areas and lots of sun. Warming up was initially really hard as it felt very cold. Cass and Kevin talked camera while I got going. Had a fun line of a kickflip on a bank then a 180 out of a bank, switch noseslide the little ledge, turn around crooks. Then we all mostly skated the mellow hip. We would line it out. Cass and Kevin were doing tricks on the flat bar, I would hit the ledge. Cass had a nice back bigspin after front board. Kevin went in on crooks the flat bar, nollie front 180 the a-frame, halfcab flip the hip. The halfcab flip took him a long time surprisingly. I had gotten crooks the little ledge then b/s flip quickly. Then halfcab nose, front 180 the a-frame, halfcab flip the hip. Lastly switch front nose the ledge then fakie bigflip the hip. Posed a few others over the hip, but couldn’t get b/s 360 kickflip or bigflip. I couldn’t front 50 the little ledge though, that was a bummer. I hurt my achilles a little pushing to get back up the bank. There was some other stuff, Kevin was shredding for sure. Cass did a primo slide. So awesome. We attempted to skate some street at the nearby Northglenn High, but none of us were feeling it and I was oh so sore. It’s a fun park. Especially when it’s not crowded.

(setup null 8″ burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, boardycakes 49.99mm round ups 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 half fp elite insole)
(pain level 5/10 vulc cold pain)