Was about to give up on skating since work drained me so much, but instead I went to New Vista on a beautiful evening shortly before sunset. I ended up gettin in an hour of skating and it was an alright session. I had put an 8.5 deck on since the 8.3 felt small the last few sessions. I think I should just commit to it for life. It felt so good and natural for everything except flip tricks. But even then I kind of blame the Royals for being squirly. I did a few basics on the ledge, was able to get a little front 50 somewhat quickly, came close to front 50 180 out. For flip tricks I struggled, but got halfcab flip, b/s flip, varial flip, fakie flip. Close to nollie and fakie bigflips. At the end was tired, but forced myself to ollie onto the box then front 180 off. Gotta keep trying to jump.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10 achilles was feeling alright, but had some arthritic knee pain)

Went to Denver park because we heard it was partially dry and we didn’t know what else would be dry in Denver. It ended up being pretty fun. It was Joe, Eric, Cass and me and it wasn’t too crowded. We basically skated the front ledge area the whole time. We were subjected to local yocals doing handstands and riding snowboards. I took quite a bit to get going, but would eventually get little front 50s, front 50 shove and the Joe Hamilton aka front 50 front board pop out. Joe would get a lot of his normal lip to 50, front smith, combos as well as boardslide the S rail. Eric managed to not die rolling through a snowy bank. Cass had some good tailslides on the bump to ledge. We played a game of SKATE that didn’t go well for me or Cass and I got super mad losing on a helipop.

Then we went to the Denver Squarehouse. Brian hooked it up! We are all in mega debt to him. It was a difficult place for me to skate though. I think it literally took me the entire session to get warmed up and able to skate it. I would finally get a front disaster then b/s flip on the bank. Got some flyout kickflips that felt good and ended the session with a very slow front 50 that was not easy. Eric was in pain and I didn’t see him skate much other than some jams to fakie. Kevin shredded. Had some kickflip flyouts, a line involving nollie flip on the bank, front disaster low to high, some other stuff. Cass had bigspin over the hip right away then hurt his foot somehow. Joe ripped it, kickflip fakie, fakie flip, halfcab flip on the bank. Fun session.

Then we went to Dinosaur Jr and it ruled! Great day.

(setup 8.3 null esher, jessup ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cold and snowy Friday Eric and Joe got to town so of course we were going to find something to skate. We swept the part of dog park that had been shoveled near the curb and ledge then swept a little part of the skatepark. Then we went to the pump track where the black asphalt had melted away a lot of snow. We pumped around for a bit then focused on the bank shown in the photos above. It was way harder than it looked. It wasn’t steep or anything, it was just narrow and lumpy. Joe and I did some nollie shoves and we all started in on some tricks. Eric got pop shove staple gun and the Sal flip. Joe got kickflip to fakie and fakie flip. I got b/s kickflip and no comply shove to fakie which took way too long. Some other messing around and Eric did a narrow rock to fakie, Joe and I did some little hip ollies.

Then over at the dog park. I did some slappy crooks, front slappies, a line with front 50 180 on the curb then switch noseslide 270 shove, crooks, some bad back 50s on the curb, and could not front 50 the little bench. Joe had some good slappies, his normal 50 combos on the bench and a front smith.

After some dinner went to Square House for a ramp session. The ramp was the highlight and thats pretty much all we skated. It was funny because when we got there the only people skating were Christian and Saul. I asked Christian if he was over 40 and he said 48. I was like stop ruining it for the rest of us. Then Saul made a funny joke about how it was just the two of them for the last 20 minutes. Christian totally charged it and it was crazy watching him destroy it. So many high speed tricks. Saul had some of the best back 50s I’ve seen him do. Kevin was the youngest one there, had some gnarly slams, but also stacked some greatness. Front feeble grinds were my fav. Brian was just testing out his knee, but still did some really cool tricks like the harder way windshield wiper. Eric was in a lot of pain so finished once he did his rock fakies. Other Eric came and tried to catch up quick, had some gnarly slams, but seemed to figure things out pretty well. Ed graced us with some of his steezy rock ‘n rolls and long 50s. Joe did a lot of his 50 to rock variations and even got kickflip rock fakie. I think that’s all of us right? Sorry if I forgot. Kevin and I did some shoves on flat at the end and I ended with a little wallride. I would like to note that I lasted longer than Joe!

(setup 8.3 null esher, jessup ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 cold weather pains)

Went out to the garage on a very cold snowy night. Attempted to start on the putter, but it felt so pathetically dumb. Got my first 4 kickflips. After that it was downhill and only landed a fakie flip and one bad heelflip. Close to several tres, not very close to switch flips. Pretty over my garage.

(setup 8.3 null esher, jessup ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Up early on a surprisingly nice Monday morning I went to SC armed with 3 completes. I was very sore and lacking any motivation, but the point of this session was to see if I liked any of these setups. I really want to like 8.3, but I dislike Venture highs with it. So I had 8.25 with 5.6 venture highs, 8.3 with royal 144, 8.3 with thunder 149s. All the wheels were 51/52. I had only done Royals on 8.25 before and it was too little WB for them. For some reason I really wanted the Thunder option to work. It didn’t. Seriously hate how those trucks turn. It’s like a quick little turn but then nothing deep. I tried to stick with 8.25 venture for awhile and didn’t like that and know from past that I don’t like it. So I went for the 8.3 with Royal and it was the winning combination. I had much better pop and grinds. I didn’t really try flip tricks on any of the setups, but know from past experiences that Royals flip fine. As far as tricks I really didn’t land anything worth noting. I hope the Royals work out long term because I desperately want to be done with madness.

(setups above)
(pain level 6/10 jut so sore)

On a nice day after breakfast with Liz Saul and I rolled to Berthoud. We had planned on meeting Mike and Skelly, but were surprised to also see Allan, Garret, Julian, Kyle and more. It was a rad crew. I had switched to Aces and while they were fun and carved good I could not find a good pop with them. Mike and Saul were in the bowl to start mostly. I tried some noseslides. Really wanted to do noseslide to fakie then switch front nose, but never got the two. Couldn’t get treflip flyout either. Mike was doing no comply up the euro. Saul and I got grinds on the weird bank wall. I had some fun grinds around a mellow corner in the bowl. Allan still carves fast. Julian is a ball of energy hopping up and down everything. Garrett is such a treat to watch and was in ATV mode. Skelly had some good one foots and little pops. Yeah not a whole lot to mention but it was a fun session for sure.

(setup null 8.3 smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 af1, spitfire f4 99a tablet, new balance numeric 440H b/w size 12)
(pain level 6/10 achilles arghghghgh)

On a nice Saturday morning Kevin and Cass showed up and we rolled to dog park. It was really wet. So we swept and squeegeed for awhile then went over to the park as it dried. There was a birthday party with like 20 little girls on bikes. It was kind of hilarious, super frustrating and scary watching them slam into each other trying to make it up quarterpipes. I had motivational issues, but would get a fun line of manual the top of the bank then bs flip on the pointy weird bank/qp. Cass had gotten front shove, kickflip and treflip over the hip. Kevin some long lines through the kids.

Sean had shown and didn’t even bother going to the park. He just went right to the dog park and was doing more squeegeeing. I slammed super hard on a nose manual attempt and pretty much never recovered. I was so depressed. I had done a few ultra basics, but that is it. Kevin, Cass and Sean went in on the picnic table. Sean did back 5-0 front 180 and back nosegrind 180. Kevin got super close to nosegrind shove. Cass was close to front nose bigspin. Lots of 303 dudes had shown up which was cool. Devin’s pop is unreal. See their clips below.

(setup 8.25 null jack, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low royal bushings flat top bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape 3 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achilles so sick of it)

On a nice, but cool Friday I was able to leave work early after a brutal week and somehow the tennis court spot was mostly dry. I brushed the snow off the ledge, moved the parking block to a dry spot and started the warm up process. I had a new deck and put lows back on. It felt incredibly dreamy and my warm ups went well. I had a switch front nose on the ledge that felt particularly fun, some good slappy crooks. Dave showed and went through the warm up battle. We would get going and have a good session, especially Dave. Dave had a lot of lines I should have probably filmed. Things like front 180 onto the box, halfcab off the launch ramp, feeble transfer the parking block, front nose the ledge. Or front 50 the ledge then nollie back 180 off the launch ramp, switch crook the ledge. He was seriously shredding. Kickflips, pop shove the a puddle, crooks fakie the ledge. My achilles was still hurting and making pushing awkward. I didn’t get many lines, but had some crooks, noseslides, took too long for halfcab noseslide, fakie 50, switch nose 270 shove, the slowest worst front 50 ever, some halfcab flips and a kickflip over the puddle (maybe). As the sun had set and temperature dropped quickly we tried some mirror lines on the ledge and it was a blast. Dave did front nose/sw front nose, front board/sw front board. I had noseslide/sw noseslide, switch front nose/worst front nose ever. It was a fun ender for a fun session.

(setup 8.25 null jack, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low royal bushings flat top bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape 3 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10 achilles so sick of it)

Was determined to make 8.25 with 5.8 Tis works. After the initial no flip tricks warm up stage I was quickly reminded why I dislike when trucks are wider than a board. It’s so hard to flip. I got a couple kickflips that didn’t come easy then a mega shinner on a b/s flip attempt. So I turned to the putter. I still didn’t land anything, but I did come incredibly close to nollie flip and remotely close to sw fs flip.

(setup 8.25/putter nb# 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achilles pain will not go away argh)

After work I rolled out as it was getting dark and met Skelly at Valmont park. We pumped around. I started to hate the 8.5 when I couldn’t even noseslide the pyramid ledge. We went over to greenblock. My achilles was not feeling well. Due to puddles I skated the curved ledge for the first time. Had some nollie front tails that were ridiculously fun. Other than that I had a few fakie 50s on the curb where I almost got switch front shove out. Skelly and his crew Dylan and Stephan mostly skated the barrier. Dylan had lots of moves like boneless disaster, lipslide over the love seat, 5-0s, smiths. Skelly got some rad lines combining back 50s and frontside grinds. I added a weak little front slash or two. Never again skating > 8.3.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium thunder bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)