Feeling pretty good after work I went out to the garage. Things seemed to start alright until flip tricks started. I thought it was the new shoes still not having a good flick, but it was ridiculous. I could not land anything. Anger was boiling over, I was screaming, throwing my board. After several failed kickflips in a row I focused my board (it was pretty beat so don’t hate me too much). I was left with skating my 8″ and 8.3″ completes or stopping skating. I messed around on both before choosing the 8.3 and enjoying it. Would actually get a few stationary 270 flips and at one point a string of tricks in a row kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip almost treflip. Came close to halfcab heel and nollie varial flip.

(setup 8.25 then 8.3 with venture 5.8s and 50mm boardycakes NB# 288s)
(pain level 2/10)

Went out to the garage not feeling overly motivated, but tried to stay focused on trying the tricks I want to learn in 2022. I was met with complete frustration not landing anything. It was so frustrating. I was seriously not landing anything. I did have a new pair of white leather 288S to blame for weird flick. At one point I got a few ultra basics in a row, but nothing cool. Did get remotely close on switch flip and tre.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 some achilles mostly just general soreness)

On a very nice morning I arrived to a very icy and wet dog park. It was too frozen to spread out, but we did some then hit Valmont park for a while. There were a lot of people there which makes writing this mostly impossible. Rob is back so it was great having him in the mix and getting reacquainted on the board. Eric, Cass, Brian, Dave, Ted, Kyle, Kevin, so many more in the mix. At Valmont I got a first try kickflip to fakie on the bank and a couple new things on the hip ledge. I did noseslide then kickflip fakie which I’ve done before but then I also did b/s flip after which was harder for some reason. Also managed to get a crook! Been wanting to do that for a long time. Jake played noseslide with me. Ed had some popped ollies.

Then we went over to dog park and gave it a good squeegee and had some dry stuff to skate. Jake and I played our traditional game of SKATE. I got lucky this time around as it was SKAT-SKAT and I won the treflip battle. And maybe even in less than 10 tries and I think it was at least 300 degrees. Ha. Cass had joined us for some flippers. Kevin showed an did some ledges basics that make me jealous first try. I would have some fun on the little ledge with front 50 180 and Joe H first tries, crooks the benches, a very bad slam trying to switch front nose off the pad that took me out for a while. Collin had sick slappy feebles on the green curb. Jake nollie back tail the narrow bench then bluntslide the flat bar. Brian bluntslides the parking block and trying to back 50 like Rob. Kevin doing his signature trick (switch nosegrind 180) was a thing of beauty. Eric heelflip a parking block all smooth like in a line. Dave was crushing it as I sat with Kevin and Cass chilling and drinking my breakfast smoothie. Front 5-0 180, back 5-0 180, switch 180 50.

Then we went to Saul’s. I thought I would be too sore to skate, but somehow got a second wind. Maybe it was because I felt inspired by how hard Kevin was shredding. Seriously shredding. Just look at the line above! That was his end game. My end game was a line of carve grind, axle stall, kickturn then kickflip. I was hyped to get the kickflip though even if it was only 1/4 up the transition. Dave had some good grinds while adjusting to how weird Thunders turn. Ted had never been there before and was doing switch carves and back ds within a few runs. Saul treated us to his patented firing lines. Fun day, great homies, beautiful weather. Sorry for beating you at SKATE on your bday Jake ( I mean not really since I landed a treflip in like 10 tries).

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 with thin 440 insole)
(pain level 4/10 some achilles mostly just general soreness)

After a cold night with a hard frost I picked up Kevin and we went to the Rhino art park. Cass would show after a bit. Kevin was already shredding. We hit the bench/long rail area. Kevin would get back 180 then switch front nose. I got nose stall fakie then switch front nose. Kevin boardslid the end of the rail and almost manualled the downhill ledge. Cass got fakie ollie into the pad but didn’t ride out the whole way. Then we ended up at the stage ledge. I was not feeling good on my board at all. Cass and Kevin front 50’d easy. Cass had a nice front noseslide shove, front nose 270. Kevin rattled off a bunch like back tail, crooks, nollie front tail and more. I would eventually get a couple accidental 5-0s, front 50, crooks, crooks fakie, switch front nose, switch noseslide 270 shove and almost crooks shove. Then we found the escalator grated ledge. It was really fun to skate. It would slow down quite a bit when you were grinding. Kevin had back 5-0s, front 50 back 180 followed by switch flip. Cass did some 50s and was kind of over it. I was trying to do front 50 shove, but a lady came out and asked us to leave since she was about to do a zoom call. So all I got was the sketchy one. Fun day with the bros.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 with thin 440 insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Went out to the garage after work and a nap. Skating felt super odd for a bit. I experimented with some other completes in my garage but would basically stick to the 8.25. After some warm up I started flippers. Was unable to get a halfcab flip so started trying switch flips and stationary treflips. Got close to both, but never landed either. Then first try bs flip followed by halfcab flip then fakie flip in a row. Couldn’t get a heelflip but did get halfcab heel.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 with thin 440 insole)
(pain level 2/10)

Met Dave on a cool night a little after 7. As we were getting started this random tweaker dude rolled in and boy was I not expecting that in Erie. He was British or something, singing, talking, asking for a new board. So I gave him a used one from my trunk and he was stoked, said he’d go pro now. He stuck around for a bit and entertained, but then Dave and I had the park all to ourselves. We warmed up differently. Dave was going for some rock jibs and bank rides to line out a nollie into the bank as well as some “poor mans front bluntsldies”. I had kind of thrown a few things out there before before settling on trying a line of flip trick up top, into the bank to quick powerslide to noseslide the tallish ledge, then kickflip to fakie from the upper wedge to lower one. Never got it, but did end up getting quite a few flippers in the process. Fakie bigflip being my fav. Dave would string together one heck of a line. Something like nollie into the bank, bigspin on a bank, back 360 the crazy qp to bank, switch back 180 up the bump, switch nose stall the bank to ledge. Amazing! I had a fun ride on grind, front 180 off a drop, switch front nose. Had one crooks, but mostly the ledge seemed so crazy tall. Then I tried to ollie up a ledge, ride on grind, kickflip off the drop but never committed to the kickflip. Would like to do that some time though. Dave got a kickflip on the bank and I got one to fakie “up” to the smaller bank. Then we jibbed the little divider between the low and high. Dave got front pivot which seems impossible. I got a no comply to tail. Lastly we messed around on the double wedge thing. It was fun. I had also done front 50 nollie shove, front 50 to grind down, the beanplant was silly but fun. Dave was flying when doing the switch grinds. Fun night. Wish ledges didn’t feel impossibly high anymore.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer no big washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 with thin 440 insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice morning I went to dog park right as a stiff breeze kicked in. Eric and Peewee were there. Kevin would come a little later. I warmed up in the park for a bit, just did the rainbow grind and a few hip ollies. Eric did the pole jam. Then hit the dog park. Some puddles made it less fun. Kevin showed. It wasn’t the best session for me. I was stiff and sore and lacking motivation until a couple hours in when I finally started going. Kevin had a fakie front tail which I hadn’t seen, lots of back 180 fakie 50s, his normal tricks. Eric said he was at “60%” ha ha. Still ripping though some good back 50s almost a fakie heel. I came close to nose manually around the C ledge, tried front tails on the curb, tried front nosegrind shove on the curb (got remotely close), came very close to switch flip, couldn’t treflip and couldn’t heelflip. Mostly a bummer session.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings flat top washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440H b/w grey size 12)
(pain level 5/10 sore)

Cold morning so we let it warm up for awhile and met at Broomfield park at 11:30. We pretty much had the park to ourselves. There would be a couple other people, but never really felt like it. Kevin was quick to pop onto stuff. After a while we played a game of SKATE. Kevin won of course, but I did get a few of my tricks. Black ledge was the main attraction for a bit. Kevin rattled off nollie nosegrinds, nollie front crooks and a bunch more. Cass had posting up on tailslides and was thinking flip out, solid crooks. I struggled with front 50s, but was getting up onto it more frequently than normal. Had a couple accidental 5-0s. Tried noseslide 270 shove and was not close, had a few crooks. Tried a lot of flippers, but didn’t land much. We played a game of no repeat SKATE which Kevin easily won. Then we finished on the blue box. I tried halfcab crooks and may have gotten some little jibs, but definitely not a legit one. Cass did back 180 nosegrind, fakie back tails. Fun session even if I didn’t really land much. Afterwards Kevin and I went and hung out with Fuzz which was great.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings flat top washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5)
(pain level 4/10)

Wanted to kind of do a side by side comparison between 5.6 hollows and 5.2 lows so I went to Boulder park again before work. I had a fun morning. After a bit of warming up I kind of felt like filming a little to make the blog more enjoyable so I set it up for the bank to ledge. Noseslides are always fun. Was hyped to actually 50 more than a few inches. The 5-0 was an accident. Hyped on the crooks. Then I just skated whatever and did a lot of hucking. I skated the ledges better and would get a fakie nosegrind on the bench as well as first try front 50. Couldn’t get b/s flip over the hip, but did get remotely close to cab flip over the little hump hip. Tried a bunch of varial heels to fakie and didn’t get my feet on any. Ended with a front 50 front 180 out on the bump to ledge. It took awhile. Fun morning, I liked the lows better.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings flat top washer, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5)
(pain level 3/10)

Somewhat warm morning in the upper 30s and my first day without an early meeting. Perfect opportunity to go to Boulder park for the first time in months. Took me awhile to get going and I only had an hour to skate. I did nothing worth mentioning, basically just tried to ollie up things, close to some manuals, had some fun noseslides across the mini bump to ledge, took too long to do a front 50 on the bump to ledge, only did halfcab flip and backside flip on flat, ended with a really slow front 50 shove on the low ledge. There was probably more, I didn’t skate terrible and it felt good skating a park again.

(8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow thunder bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5)
(pain level 3/10)