On a nice morning I met Sean and then Kevin at Broomfield. This day would not go as well for me. Other than a first try halfcab flip everything else was harder. My legs did not want to jump at all. I hit a boiling point on a bailed front 50 and had to put myself in the penalty box for a while. Sean and Kevin ripped it. We ended up at a spot in Denver after a while. It rained and there was a covered section so we skated some flatground. I didn’t have much energy, but I played Bo in SKATE. About the only trick I landed was varial flip. Watching Noè do like 50 flip tricks in a few minutes was awesome. As was how easily Hayden, Sean and Kevin skated the tall bench off the stairs. I was very bummed on my skating, mostly how little drive I had.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow cast plate royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a warm, but cloudy and humid (for Colorado) day I met Kevin at dog park. I was there first and started kind of slow. We skated about an hour. I did first try manual and nose manual on the small pad which never happens and was quite exciting. Kevin was still dealing with hot pocket issues, but still ripping. I had some better front 50s on the taller pad, a couple fakie nosegrinds on the curb, almost first try kick back 50, remotely close to kick back tail on the curb. Flip tricks didn’t go so well.

Then we went to Berthoud high. I had an idea, but it wouldn’t work. I would one up my Stubborns trick with a shove though which felt cool. Kevin did like 5 tricks while I tried one.

After some food and MRKT we went to Fossil. I was so stiff and sore, not much happened. We both did some crooks and a couple other tricks.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow cast plate royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10 not so bad at the start but by the end of the day it was worse)

After a somewhat chill Friday at work I went to meet Kevin and Sean at Broomfield. They had already been skating a while and were trying harder stuff. Kevin was in kick back tail mode, Sean was trying nollie back nosegrind shove (the hard way) which he would get. I had put cast baseplates back on, and a top washer so my trucks were tighter. And I really liked it. I would get a few tricks first try. B/s flip, varial flip, heelflip, halfcab nosesldie, crooks. I would do one of the better crooks I’ve done there. We played a game of SKATE. I was the first out even though Kevin was dealing with hot pocket issues. I started trying front 50s and Kevin pointed out I take a weird angle into them. So I tried without the weird last second turn and he was totally right. I couldn’t immediately change my habits, but I did get a decent front 50 for once. It’s crazy how avoiding the weird turn before ollieing increased my pop. So it was hard to control. Kevin was doing a bunch of tricks. Chill, but fun Friday.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow cast plate royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really nice night I met Cass at Arvada park. It wasn’t too crowded. I had new shoes, 272s. This time in 11.5. We started our on the little qp/bank and blue chip. It was pretty run even though I took a while to do tricks like front 50 and front tail. We both got kickflips quickly, but couldn’t get treflips and Cass was trying hardflip. Then we kind of spread out. Had some fun axle stalls on the smaller bank to curb, but I couldn’t kickflip the hip to line it out. In fact I bailed an ollie too. Cass front boards the flat bar, I had some fun little noseslide jibs. We skated the pier 7 area briefly. I took a bit to get a switch front nose, Cass may have manualled it. Then he took off and I just kind of wandered around looking for a place to try Dave’s cab no comply challenge. I found the big bowl was totally empty and skated the shallow end and tried it for quite a while. As you can see above I technically did it, but it sucked. I tried to clean it up more, but there was a couple close calls to the chest and my sternum was hurting. So I called it and left. I think I got pretty dizzy trying it. It’s weird for how big that park is, it’s not really very good.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to the side of the school on a cool night and didn’t land much of anything. I had a new deck, it felt pretty good. Also forged plates, eh. Some slappy crooks felt good, kickflips were still harder than they should be. I only also got halfcab flip, fakie flip and backside flip. Hucked quite a few other random tricks, but nothing stuck.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After dinner I went to Longmont and met Dave at Rocky Mountain. I felt better as far as less chest pain, but it was still nagging throughout the session. We both started on the curb. Dave started doing a line of nollie to fakie on the bank and did a million front crooks on the curb. Like really, he just kept doing them. Some fell into noseslide, some stuck, but he got into most of them. I had a couple of those nollie bigspins on the bank, noseslides, couldn’t get crooks on the ledge. Flip tricks didn’t go well for me. Oh yeah, I had started on my 8.3, but then switched back to the 8.25 and was much happier. Tried some front 50s on the ledge and failed. Dave was charging near the end trying a line of slappy crooks to fakie then switch bigspin front nose. He didn’t quite get the sbsfn, but he was really close. I did some slappy crooks and got one slappy front crook. Fun night, rad spot. I had some motivation while skating, but just didn’t land much.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger with royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knees were sore from actually skating again)

Up kind of early I went to the side of the school and skated flatground before breakfast. As expected it did not go well, but I may have gotten a bit of confidence. I think I landed like 3 tricks in an hour. Fakie bigflip first try being the only remote highlight. I did huck a lot though. Maybe one of these years it will pay off.

Then I went to Valmont to meet a lot of people. Donnie and I started on a parking block propped onto the banked curb which was fun. I got slappy crooks, he did a bunch of front slappies. Then we hit dog park briefly until Nolan showed up and we went over to Valmont. It was fun cruising around, I got a little courage back. I hucked a lot of front halfcab heels on the bank and didn’t get any, but Sean did. Then I mostly filmed the dudes get buck. Nolan was shredding it so quickly. Donnie proved he’s skated the park the most. Hayden picked some ultra cool lines. Sean ollied the park. Joe’s ghetto bird on the hump was epic. Garrett was slamming a lot but that feeble then kickflip was hot.

Then we went to HH. Donnie slammed really hard on a back 50 to start and it got me scared of falling on my ribs so I just went over to the ledge area with most others. It looked like the dudes were having a good time in the park. Joe did like a million front crooks through the corner. Hayden almost got a cool noseslide shove the hard way through the corner. I did one tiny noseslide through it and bailed a bunch of flip tricks. Garrett had some amazing crooks. Then we went and had a couple drinks and celebrated radness.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger with royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 just a lot of pain)

On a snowy morning I went out to the always dry big research center parking lot to skate some flatground and see how my ribs/sternum felt. I had brought an 8.5 redrilled to 14.125 wheelbase and my 8.25. I started on the 8.5 and it felt good until I tried kickflips and one snapped up real hard into my knee and hurt so bad. That was a sign to skate the 8.25 which I could kickflip. I was very hesitant to try much and skated extremely slow. Tricks like 360 flip were impossible because of how you open up which hurt my chest. I would get a very slow line of fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip which gave me some hope.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger with royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 with 1/2 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Up early on a gorgeous Saturday with Matt, Zoey, Joe and Eric we went to Frederick. We met Cass, Dave, Will, Rob, Kevin, Nick. The park was never too crowded. I was in pain from the slam the day before, but not as bad as I had anticipated (until later). I’m writing this four days after the session so it’s going to be impossible to remember everything. I’ll start by saying Matt was shredding right out of the gate. The feeble fakie on the bank to curb was sick. We definitely were posted up on the mellow bank/bank to curb for a while. Will had a nice front heel. Rob with the style beanplant/boneless variations. Joe beat me to fakie flip, but I may have beat him to halfcab flip. Eric had the boardslide on the bank to curb. I was trying lots of nollie tres over the hump and got really close. Also close to nollie varial flip to fakie on the mellow bank. Kevin rattled off a bunch of bank flippers and killed the ledge even doing kick back tail. Cass couldn’t get the front nose bigspin, but did get lots of f/s halfcab boardslides to fakie on the flatbar. Near the end I tried a few of those hang on loops which are fun, but after my chest/ribs would really start hurting.

We went to lunch then hit Thornton. There was a kids large birthday party in the nearby park which lead to lots of kicks looping the pump track around the edges. It made for a weird dynamic of feeling way busier than it was. My chest was killing me, I never did anything and after a while I sat down. Joe hit his head slamming on a front 50 on the weird ledge, got up and smithed it. Matt ollied the hydrant. Kevin slayed the way he does. There was this lady there totally shredding. The treflip down the little drop was amazing. Cass got inspired and shut down the session with a textbook hardflip down the drop. Fun day, but that slam yesterday really messed me up.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger with royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 425 black/gum 11.5 with half splay insole)
(pain level 6/10 ribs/chest)

On a warm and breezy Friday afternoon Dave persuaded me to see if my back would let me skate. When I arrived Valmont was totally empty so I started there. I was having upper back pain the last couple days and somehow it didn’t really effect my skating. I skated about 30 minutes before Dave came over and a brief visit from Eric. I started really slow feeling disoriented and wearing cupsoles to reduce knee pain. I would try Dave’s cab no comply challenge here and there, then some other stuff. Got kickflip and kickflip fakie on the bank pretty quick. Had a fun line doing the hip ollie, back 180 skid around the next hip then the cab no comply. Never got too close there, but was closer in the top bowly thing. Dave showed and we lined some stuff out having the park mostly to ourselves still. Hucked some tricks on the flat bank for a bit, I felt like f/s halfcab heel was doable, but never got one to flip under me. Then we mostly lined things out like above and it was fun skating it that way. I landed quite a few kickflips to fakie on the hump, Dave got a lot of switch front shoves. Dave did his line the first try I started to film. I took a few tries especially after some freak slam where I came really close to smacking my dome. It was scary and would take a bit out of me, but I would get up and get the line. I knew I should have just tried fakie bigflip as I was close to that as well. Dave got a bigflip on the bank and we went over to dog park. But I was toast at that point and Eric was winding down too. I saw some Dave nose manuals. I don’t remember doing anything myself, maybe just a couple basics. Eric landed on back heels, but didn’t quite get them around enough to ride away. TGIF.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger with royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 425 black/gum 11.5 with half splay insole)
(pain level 3/10 but that slam did some damage)