On a Friday after work I was feeling sore and sorry for myself. Liz kind of made me go at least try to skate. So I went to dog park which was totally dead when I got there and pretty wet. I had another setup change – 8.25 again and Thunders again. It felt great. I didn’t do a whole lot at dog park. Some slappies, crooks on the bench, front 50 the lower ledge and front 50 180 out, manual the little pad. Dave showed and the scooter kids had left the park so we went over there and it was pretty chill for a while. That park has so many options and we both seem to skate it differently every time. I had two new lines that were super fun. Ollie the euro, ollie to fakie the steeper mound, fakie flip on the bank (never got a clean one). Ollie the euro, manual the volcano, little grind the high to low qp. The manual was super fun. Dave had manualled it too. He was doing runs starting with flyouts and did a nollie shove on the steep mound. Tailslides over the hip, kickflip on the flat bank and got 5-0 over the rainbow which was so sick. Roth came as I was basically too sore to keep skating and speed lined it around the park. It was a fun session, although I could go without getting so sore.

(setup null 8.25 vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 425 black/gum size 11.5 half 440 insole)
(pain level 6/10)

Josh made me a 10×10 list. I went over to the school, warmed up with some slappies and tried to get the flatground going even though my body wasn’t feeling very good.

Kickflip – first try, but couldn’t get the 5 in a row I like to do to warm up
Halfcab flip was over 10 tries and quite upsetting.
Backside flip got the tic tac version in a few tries.
Fs halfcab flip felt much better than it looks
Fs flip not close
Heelflip the bail really hurt and the make barely got around.
Fs halfcab heelflip not so close which was a bummer.
Treflip man that was tough I was really committing and it just wouldn’t happen
Varial flop
Front heel was too tired and never really committed.

Almost all of these tricks used to be automatic for me. Getting older is really difficult, but it’s probably not even just that. I’m going to blame bigger boards a bit. I mean, why not right?

(setup null vhs 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm bones 103a stf v1, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum 11.5 with half 440 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work and a quick dinner I picked up Dave and we went to the small Stephen Day park. After a brush with fame (ha ha) we got to skating. It’s been a few days, but I think we started off alright without too long of a warm up period. Dave waxed the hip and tailslides were quick on the agenda as were manuals on the decks. Turned into a pretty fun session when we weren’t too interrupted by kids playing scooters. I did a lot of noseslides and kickflips. I thought I was close to the ollie over bar at one point, but then got sore and lost it. The line of noseslide the rounded ledge, kickflip fakie on the bank then switch front nose was fun even if it’s the same tricks I always do. Had a fun halfcab noseslide and crook on the straight part of the C ledge. Had a fun line of noseslide the bigger bump to ledge then b/s flip flyout. As the lightning settled I was trying a line of front 180 fly out, switch nose jib into the bank, front 50 the C. But I could never get the front 50 and I got so mad. Hard to leave on such a bad note after a really fun session. Dave killed it. He had done the halfcab blunt to back tail earlier on too. He had lots of good ollies and nollies over the hip, bluntslides, 50 the bump to ledge, hippy jump the down bar, front noseslides. The halfcab bluntslide to back tail was the hammer of the day for sure.

(setup null vhs 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm bones 103a stf v1, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum 11.5 with half 440 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 been so sore lately and no idea why)

On much cooler day with rain in the forecast I went to campus. Setup was 8.25 with ace 55s. I disliked it. I tried to skate through it at a weird little ledge spot that is rarely vacant enough to skate. I had a fun warm up line of dropin on the little hubba near the 4 stair, some 180s, switch nose jib. Tried to start a line with an ollie off a tall ledge, but got scared. Did kickflip, noseslide to fakie, fakie flip. Then the frustration really set in when I tried halfcab flip then front 50. I barely got a couple halfcab flips and rather than get frustrating I went home and put the 8.3 deck on.

Back to campus I ended up at the ledge near the rec center. Had a really fun line of chinese ollie, back 180 a 2 stair, switch 180, noseslide, kickflip. Then another run that started the same then went noseslide to fakie then fakie flip.

Rain started so I went to the covered hallway at the UMC. I was pretty motivated and started okay getting tricks two times before moving on. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, but could not get a heelflip. Resorted to a line to try and motivate me to treflip. Pop shove, kickflip, treflip. Never committed to the treflip and decided to stop forcing it and walked through the rain to my car and called it a day.

Done with Aces. At least until they have a lighter version.

(setup 8.25 then 8.3 vhs null, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, bones 52mm v1 103a washers outside, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum size 11.5 half 440 insole)
(pain level 3/10 that’s the best it’s been a while. I credit working out more again and wearing cupsoles even if I mostly hate them)

Ha ha, a big “old” crew as in lots of us are pretty old for skateboarding. Dave L was in town and had organized a session pretty early on a hot Saturday morning. I was dealing with the setup madness and had two setups both with Ace trucks. 8.3 with af1 55s and 8.25 with af1 low 44s. I rotated between the two the whole time without really liking or disliking either. I guess overall I liked the 8.3 a lot more, my feet just don’t like trying to maneuver the little 8.25 anymore. I didn’t do anything really of note. Dave L did a manual first try, he had nose manuals too, back 5-0s, 50s, casual kickflips. Man I really miss his casual style and ripping. Kevin was on one again, totally shredding and got the nollie front crooks. Ohio Nick had some manuals and 50s. Dave F did noseslide to tailslide on some parking blocks that were next to each other then went over to the skatepark. Cass always with the good front noseslides, was doing back 180 fakie 50 on the curb, front tails. Jack B on the barrier rides and noseslide/tailside parking blocks before retreating to the shade. Boulder Nick had the long boardslides almost every time and if he didn’t he was mad. Ha. Eric had a Christmas complete and went in on crooks the top tier. Can’t wait for him to get it. He was charging it as always. There were others there too, I’m probably missing someone. Sorry.

After a while Cass, Ohio Nick and I went to play a game of SKATE that Kevin weaseled into. Mainly because the ultimate insult happen when I set the first kickflip and Cass missed it. Then double or nothing missed it, all the way, tripled it and missed, then quad and missed and finally went for SKATE or broke and missed that too. I was impressed he didn’t focus his board because I darn near did when fakie flips were next and I had to quadruple or nothing it. I was really mad and throwing my board like a baby, but it was funny when I got the 4th one I just said “Hey I don’t have any letters”. We went on to have a pretty fun game. The highlight for me was when we all did heelflips in a row. Kevin won on switch tre. I had played that game on the 8.3, I played the next game with only Ohio Nick on the 8.25. I didn’t like it as much, but I did get a halfcab heel. Neither of us could get a treflip, but Nick got a fakie tre. I somehow ended up winning with f/s halfcab flip. Then we went to brunch.

(setups 8.3 / 8.25 nulls, ace af1 55 and 44 low, some smallish wheels, 288sport no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a nice night I went to tennis court which I thought was empty, but it turns out there was a family roller skating/scooting/baby strolling around it. It was fine with the exception all their stuff was sitting on a couple of the ledges. I was not feeling good and warm up was brutal, kickflips seemed impossible. The family left and I started with the old line game to get warmed up. First one was switch front nose, fakie flip, switch back nose. Then noseslide, kickflip on flat, ollie onto the wider ledge. The ollie up was so sketchy and bad, really can’t even fathom how I actually made it up there. Then crooks, b/s flip, halfcab noseslide which I would land, but the b/s flip flopped over and the halfcab noseslide was basically a fakie kickturn. I wanted to push myself to try and ollie over a ledge so I went at it with the goal of just popping over and kicking out. Except I couldn’t even get over it and the board shot into my knee super bad. I left after sitting in pain for a while.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm stf 103a, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Went to meet Dave after work at tennis court, but the rain settled in as I arrived. So we went towards Valmont and ended up at the parking garage that used to have a good parking block. There was a dude posted up on one end of the garage so it made skating near him kind of weird. We ended up just skating one little area anyway and it was super fun. We did a bunch of tricks early on. Pivots with shoves. Dave did a nollie crook. I did a front pivot back shove to rock. Dave also did a crazy ollie over the taller section to kind of a quick footed manual. Dave did switch pivot shove, switch feeble shove. Then we tried some 180 crook options that came pretty quick for us both. I did the shove out and it was honestly one of the funnest tricks I’ve done in a while. Now I dream of grinding it. Then Dave did the backside one. I posed smith kickflips out and got remotely close.

Then we went to Valmont park and had the park mostly to ourselves. After the long 4 minute drive we of course had to warm up again. I took way too many tries to kickflip on the hip that Dave varial flips. Dave actually did the varial flip like 5 times, but I think the last one shown above had the longest line. It was so good. I took too long to kickflip the b/s hip which I had never done there before. It was fun using the little qp above it as setup which I also hadn’t really done before. Dave also had some great lines using the volcanoes at the top even getting into back tail. At the end my knees had seized up in pain pretty bad. Argh.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm stf 103a, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Went to dog park a little later in the evening than normal and the weather was pretty nice by then. Robbie was there and on one doing loops trying to get switch front shove fakie 5-0 so it felt kinda weird to skate the normal area. I didn’t skate well, I had that exhausted feeling and lack of pop I sometimes get. Flip tricks and ollies were hard. I managed a few my basics, nothing really worth noting. I did get a fakie bigflip, but treflips felt impossible. Ollieing up stuff still felt good on my setup, but flippers did not feel good at all. I also really dislike the 288 sports, but trying to skate through my last pair. Near the end I had a pretty bad slam on a back 50 attempt that slid out. Argh. Hurt my knee again.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm stf 103a, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Up early on a hot Sunday I went to Frederick to meet up with some old dudes and Cass. Ha ha, Cass really was the youngest one there until Garrett and Joe showed up later. I would go on to have a decent session even though I was once again denied on the front heels on the mellow bank. Cass and I did some lines between the curb/bank and the flyout bank. His hardflip out was so good. We did a lot of cruising around for a while I don’t remember anything in particular. We played a game of SKATE to get going after a short break and it was a decent game for me although I lost getting letters on treflip and losing on hardflip. Then I battled treflip flyout for quite some time. Well I guess according to my phone it was 15 minutes which really isn’t long, but for a trick I used to land much easier it is. After that I was beat and tried to skate the ledge without much success. Cass had a really nice fakie front board. We sat in the shade of the full pipe loop and watched Sean, Garrett and Joe destroy the little benches (see, we found a use for the full pipe!). Joe and Sean’s back nosegrinds were so good.

Then we went up to FOCO and hit MRKT. Then off to a covered 3 up 6 down where we got booted and finally a parking lot with some manual pads. Watching Noè rattle off flip tricks is always incredible. Everyone except Cass and I were skating hard in a hot asphalt parking lot. I pointed my phone at Noè and I don’t think he even knew I was filming and he rattled off a 3 trick line first try. Then would go on to rattle off a 8 trick line a few tries later for the Null video. Then we chilled and avoided heat stroke.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm stf 103a, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 frederick 8/10 later on ugh)

On a hot morning I went to dog park and missed Jack B and crew. I had been sick/run down most of the week. I setup a new board and wheels and things felt dreamy as I skated for close to an hour by mostly myself. It’s crazy taking a few days off without an injury being a cause. I felt so excited and energetic skating. I would get a few basic flippers. Committed to most things way quicker than normal and did a couple lines I hadn’t done there before. Ollie onto the taller pad front 180 off then halfcab noseslide the new long bench, b/s flip, halfcab flip. I also finally started committing to front 50s on the long bench and was lining it out with manuals on the lower pad and it felt so great.

Then I went to the library spot and met up with Jack B, Kevin and Nick. We basically had the park to ourselves. Jack had front board up to fakie 50, deck check nose manny. Nick had an incredible frontside flip, nosegrind, several 50s, but couldn’t quite get a front 5-0. I skated okay, not as good as dog park though. I managed some tricks that were harder for me like front 50, halfcab noseslide, crooks are hard there but I got a few, came close to kick back 50 on the low one. Kevin was shredding some of the best I’ve seen him skate. He did everything except the Gish trick switch nosegrind 180 due to cracks making him grind it longer. The fakie 5-0 halfcab out was my favorite as was the kick back tail. Fun times.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm stf 103a, adidas puig b/w size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10 none initially but it got worse quickly)