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)