Had some time before dinner to skate. Went to the garage feeling kind of run down and started slow. Grabbed the 8.25 and it felt better and stuck with it. Didn’t really try any treflips, but hucked a few switch tres that were not close at all. Got halfcab heel and close to front heel. Hucked a bunch of flippers 1 try near the end which is always kind of fun.

(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)

Out to the garage after a fun night of dealing with dishwasher problems. Was feeling pretty motivated and started getting through flippers quickly. Even got a couple fakie heels. Then I went for treflip. I really wanted to get one in 10 tries and all of those tries were very close. Instead I went 0-50 and had to focus so hard to not focus my board. Then I went inside and watched the Nuggets blow a 25 point lead. Not the best night.

(setup null burnout stumpy 8″, pj jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 high cast plate hollow hanger venom 91a bushings both washers, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5)
(pain level 2/10)

Great start to 2022!

On a cool day I went out skating around noon still avoiding people in case covid was still contagious. I started at a random curb are on Valmont. I looked for a low curb to try Dave’s latest challenge – switch pivot shove. So I found an area that was dry with good asphalt for flatground too. I didn’t have the same juice as the day before. I started in my 440 Highs which I didn’t like. I did some other stalls and stuff to get warmed up. Couldn’t quite get kickflip axle. Went in on the switch pivot and could not get up onto the curb in pivot to save my life. Had a fun front disaster, but I left after a while with no real plan.

Ended up in a parking lot I had somehow never seen before off Central. I started on a low curb trying the switch pivot again and was once again not close at all. I went over to a 3 stair area and would eventually get a line that sounds alright on paper. Kickflip up a curb, noseslide a tallish bench, ollie the 3 stair (would be so much better if I went faster and ollied past the crack) then a b/s flip on flat. I couldn’t get treflip or halfcab heel on flat. Was going to line out something starting with fakie ollie up the curb, but instead I fizzled out and went looking for something new.

Ended up at the weird little crusty hip. Took too many tries to get a b/s flip. I probably would have tried some more tricks, but there is a homeless camp and I felt bad making noise.

Last I ended up at a manny pad off Pearl and 55th I hadn’t actually skated before. I was pretty dead at this point and probably looked super pathetic to the many cars driving by. I would only get a manual, some kickflips and remotely close to nollie flip. Long day. I probably made covid worse by skating so much.

(setup null burnout stumpy 8″, pj jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 high cast plate hollow hanger venom 91a bushings both washers, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5)
(pain level 3/10 pretty sore)

On a warmish morning I left the house for the first time in a week and felt up to try some mellow flatground. I started with a little warm up line of kickflip, weird nollie disaster revert a parking block then switch 180 a puddle. It was fun. I had reassembled my 8″ setup, but with high trucks this time. It felt great. At one point I was 4/5 on halfcab flips. Made me wonder why the heck I make my fav part of skateboarding so hard with larger boards sometimes. I’m sure I’ll soon be obsessing over a larger setup, but man I enjoyed 8″ today. I would go on to get several flippers. Fakie flip, f/s halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip, varial flip, fakie bigflip and f/s heel. The front heel made me so happy. It was like 3rd try. After a while I tried a line of halfcab flip, heelflip, treflip and did it. I was so hyped. The treflip was a typical Glen 270 flip, but the first two tricks felt good. The heelflips especially. Felt like the first one I actually popped in a long time. I skated more after that, but couldn’t get the other tricks i wanted like halfcab heels, switch flip or nollie tre.

(setup null burnout stumpy 8″, pj jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 high cast plate hollow hanger venom 91a bushings both washers, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5)
(pain level 1/10 I guess not skating a bunch does reduce soreness. who would have thought)

Feeling a little better, but trying to keep it easy I went into the garage. I had no plans other than not skating hard and making myself sick again. I succeeded with a lackluster performance after getting kickflip kind a quick, fakie flip. Then I hucked and once again realized how hard 8.3 is to flip. I switched to my 8.25 setup maybe, but never really landed anything else. I don’t even remember what I hucked.

(setups 8.3 & 8.25 didn’t overly like either)
(pain level 0/10)

Thought I was feeling much better so I went out to the garage armed with a list of tricks that are mostly impossible for me. I figured once I got the first kickflip I would try each trick 5 times, rest a little and move on. The list:

Fakie flip
Bs flip
Halfcab flip
Heelflip
Fakie heelflip
Switch flip
Nollie flip
Halfcab backfoot flip
Halfcab heel
Treflip
Nollie varial flip
Nollie tre
Nollie varial heel
Fakie hardflip
Sw fs flip

As expected the results were terrible, but only trying 5 times was fun in that it would make me quickly. The first kickflip took like 10 tries. Fakie flip was quick, bs flip and halfcab flip were both first try. Then i didn’t land anything after that. Wasn’t close to any of the heelflip tricks, well kinda close to halfcab heel. Nollie flip, nollie tre and treflip were the only other close tricks. I enjoyed hucking and felt pretty good after that. But a day later as I write this boy did I pay dearly. Covid kicked back in fierce. I had only skated about 40 minutes in my warm garage. Ugh.

(setup 8.3 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast plate titanium hanger, royal bushings no big washer flat little washer, 49.99mm boardycakes roundups washers outside, new balance numeric 440H b/w size 12)
(pain level 0/10)

Feeling the funk from covid still I went out for a ultra quick flatground session. I had debated what setup to go into 2022 with the goal of not switching and decided on 8.3. We’ll see how long it lasts. It felt big at first since I’ve been on 8 and 8.25 recently. I also felt super out of it and weird. Did a few 180s, shoves. Would rest between. Then tried a kickflip which took awhile. Took 3 of them before I had a remotely clean one. Then I called it because I could feel myself wanting to ignore the sickness and keep skating.

(setup 8.3 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast plate titanium hanger, royal bushings no big washer flat little washer, 49.99mm boardycakes roundups washers outside, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 thin STI insoles)
(pain level 0/10 because I haven’t done anything in days)