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)
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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.
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)
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