Feeling tired and sore Dave was pushing for the bank to ledge and timing wise it worked for me so we did it. We met Cass at Dayton, it was cool out, but would warm up quickly. There was one other dude there nollieing into everything. There was a brief warm up before we played a game of SKATE that ended up taking forever. And not because we landed a lot of tricks. Cass was first out, Dave would win it, I couldn’t get a fakie bigflip or heelflip. Skating the park Dave had some cool front 5-0s on the qp to down on the ledge. Cass had some good back 180 grinds. I stuck on some noseslides (strike 1 against Thunder), enjoyed halfcab noseslides, kind of ollied onto the ledge and took a while to get a front 50 on it at the end.

Off to the bank to ledge I was feeling sore. Stefan would meet us then eventually Garrett and Joe. I struggled. Really struggled. Like even noseslides to fakie I couldn’t get into. The only thing I was happy with was the nose jib to fakie then halfcab flip. Oh I did a fakie bigspin on the bank too which was really fun and some boardslide flop outs that looked nothing as good as Dave’s. Cass added front nose to fakie, front 50s. I forgot how much Dave rips bank to ledges. Front 50s in a few minutes, back pivot, nose pick, axle stall lunchbreak tail stall, seems like much more. Stefan battled switch front tail and then nollie 180 crooks. He would get both. Garrett came and quickly did crooks, crooks fakie, crooks bigspin, shove noseslides, shove noseslide 180, kick back tail, kick back tail fakie, but couldn’t get the flip out. Joe couldn’t get tail or front 50 so instead did a first try front crooks to fakie. So amazing. He tried some Joe tricks, but came up short.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollows venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 51mm 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Nice day out. I rolled down to Dayton to meet Cass and Jake. There were some other older guys there, solid session, great vibe. Jake was quick to shred the “spine” and quarterpipe. Cass was dealing with some back issues. We all seemed to skate alright. My flippers weren’t working as easy as hoped. Oh, it’s actually funny I had 3 setups in the car and chose an older deck with Thunders on it. At first I didn’t like it, but ended up liking it. Got a few of the ledge basics. Jake did front 50 on the tallish ledge and I made myself get one too before we left for the bank to ledge. Except that I did a Glen 50 which is a 5-0.

Then to the nearby bank to ledge Cass had Stefan to join us so we had a good crew of 4 of us. It took most of us a bit to get used to it. Maybe not Stefan or Cass so much. Cass was doing video part tricks quickly. Aka front nose shove. Stefan front 50s and tails quick. I would get some questionable slappy crooks, noseslides, first try noseslide to fakie and a front pivot/smith stall, super close to kickflip back 50. Jake would get close to crooks, front 50, front 3. Cass got some front 50s and front nose variations before he had to leave. Stefan did the most buttery nollie front crooks. At the end I became obsessed with a 3 trick line. Crooks, kickflip, kickflip fakie. As you can see the crooks where terrible, but it was a fun way to end a really fun day.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 spanbauer night spots, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollows venom 88a bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic shape, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After picking up some new boards from 303 Cass and I went to Broomfield park where we would meet Rob and eventually Sean. Cass and I started with a no warm up game of SKATE. It wasn’t our best, but I did pink slip him so I liked it. Ha ha. Rob showed up near the end of our game of SKATE. I got a first try line of noseslide to fakie, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide the blue ledge. Cass and I made ourselves do 10 halfcab noseslides. It started as a goal of doing 10 in a row, but we quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. Rob probably could have though since he was 3/3. Sean showed up and rattled off some of his basics which would be enders for the rest of us. Will came much later when we had all started to sit down. I saw him do some nice ledge tricks. So yeah, not much of a session and I don’t really know why. It was so nice out. Oh well.

(setup rating 3/10: null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings no big washer, 51mm pj bones v1 103a stf, new balance numeric 306 foy blue size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Went over behind the school feeling like doing a few flippers. I had put 5.6 v-hollow on and wore my Tiago shoes. Those shoes are so sturdy it’s crazy, but not great feel. Anyway I only did a few kickflips, fakie flip, halfcab flip and backside flip. Posed a few others, but not really.

(setup 4/10: null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings no big washer, 51mm pj bones v1 103a stf, new balance numeric 1010 white size 11.5 with half 272 insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a windy day before the holiday I got out of work early and headed over to Valmont. Dog park was still pretty wet and Jack B was skating it but we quickly moved over to Valmont. Will would join shortly. The wind was intense at first, but the clouds came in and the wind went away. Before he left he had some patented steezy barrier carves, drop down manuals off the bank, maybe a crail on the bank or two. Jack B worked on bigspins on the bank, one foot out of the shark fin. Will had such a good back 180 over the euro. We tried noseslide transfers for a while, both making it look doable without feeling close at all. I had some pop issues up the euro, took a long time to get a halfcab flip on the bank, had a fun line up top in the bowl area. Will had a cool wallie. Evergreen “Billy” showed up again and ran into a kid on an electric motorbike before getting stoked on my hoodie and buying a dvd. That was cool. Decent little session.

(setup 3/10 null beatles 8.1, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast plate v-hollow hanger 4 washers inside each axle bones medium bushings, 51mm pj bones v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a really nice afternoon I was able to coordinate a session with Dave. We started at Valmont and basically skated there until dark. It was a bizarre session. I think Dave and I both skated well, but there was an Evergreen Billy twin hogging the park and charging right at people, drunk dude trying head stand tricks and fingerflips, super hype dude that would yell so loud anytime anyone got remotely close to landing a trick, little snake kid and some dude doing wallie grinds on the barrier so good. Dave started on the hip, some really good nollies, back 180s and switch back 180s. I was kind of all over the place. Did a line of slow crooks on the edge of the euro bank then kickflip on the shark fin. Also a barrier ride linked with a lucky backside flip with toe drag over the hip. I had also done first try kickflip and kickflip fakie on the mellow bank. Dave got the barrier axle stall. It was funny because he had to do 3 pivots in a row on the west side steep qps before he would try it. I randomly decided to film it and he did it that try. I was failing treflips to fakie on the mellow bank although getting both feet on a lot of them. I was trying noseslides then kickflips and changed to crooks while Dave randomly filmed me. It’s funny that we didn’t even know we were being filmed yet. But after that I intentionally filmed Dave do the nose stall Hale transfer which was so sick. Then over to dog park for a bit. Tried some ride on nosegrinds on the metal cover, Dave almost did it switch. I did some slappys and a few other things, but we bounced pretty quick. Fun session.

(setup null beatles 8.1, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast plate v-hollow hanger 4 washers inside each axle royal bushings, 51mm pj bones v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(setup satisfaction level 5/10 ha ha felt like starting this. i liked how easily it flipped, but i felt dumb tic tacing around)
(pain level 2/10)

On a warm afternoon I drove out to see if the little manny pad at Platt was dry. It was! And I had somehow forgotten there were two of them surrounded by perfect flatground. Never went to the 3 stair at all which I kind of regret. I had the place to myself for about 20 minutes. Warming up was slow as I was pretty sore. It took me like 20 tries to get a regular manual, but halfcab flips were working. I had a dream of a “warm up” line of halfcab flip, manual, nose manual, backside flip. Came remotely close, but never got it and it certainly wouldn’t just be a warm up for me. I had gotten remotely close to a nollie back tail front 270 out on the curb. I mean I did it, but not smooth with some tic tacs. It felt cool though. Had a couple heelflips, a sketchy wallie/nollie off the curb, a few tic tac’d fakie bigflips and somewhat close to front tail shove. I feel like my style was even worse than normal for some reason. Will and Rob had no problems manualling the little pads. For me the crack rights messed it up. Rob was shredding. Lots of good wallie/nollies, manuals, a line with manual, nollie tail body varial and no comply front shove “over the hip!” ha ha. Will had some poppy fakie ollies/nolllies/switch ollies, manual drop down manual, almost halfcab manual back 180, kickflips.

(setup null beatles 8.1, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast plate v-hollow hanger 4 washers inside each axle royal bushings, 51mm pj bones v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a sunny Saturday I let things dry up some then went in search of rad. It took a while, but I ended up at a newly redone parking lot off Valmont. I had brought two setups. The 8.25 with ace lows and my 8.1 with venture lows. The aces felt much better to just cruise on, but my first try magical feeling kickflip on the venture setup sold me. I would go on to skate really hard and land a few things. I skated about an hour before trying to film anything and it was fun. I would try some lines with little ollies over parking blocks and stuff that were harder than they should be. And this one little gap over a curb down a little grass gap felt absolutely huge, but it was less than a 3 stair and I couldn’t get myself to commit at all. I came the closest I’ve come to the Reynolds line I’ve been trying for a while. Backside flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I got to the halfcab flip 3 or 4 times and couldn’t get it even though I had several outside of the line. Got one bad treflip, heelflip, almost first try nollie varial flip. After a while I saw the sun would be setting soon and wanted to get the nollie varial flip on tape so I could give it to Dave. Nope. I tried for like 30 minutes along with halfcab heels and couldn’t get either. I gave up and went over and tried back heels on the ‘almost a bank’ bank and got denied there too. Kind of a bummer ending to a session where I was really skating hard.

(setup null beatles 8.1, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast plate v-hollow hanger 4 washers inside each axle royal bushings, 51mm pj bones v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Cold and snowy night. My garage is full of stuff, but I was able to clear enough space to stationary skate on some cardboard. I basically tried the 4 straight flippers over and over. I only landed kickflip and eventually one heelflip, but I was surprisingly close to switch/nollie heel. I was wearing my Tiago’s because why not at least try to wear through them when I’m just stationary in the garage. They are so comfy.

(setup null 8.25 mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 44 lows hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 1010 tiago white 11.5 half 272 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a cool night I had some juice. I drove around for a bit and ended up at a new parking garage in north Boulder that was super well lit. I did a few basic tricks before realizing I just couldn’t do flatground only in a parking garage. On I went and I ended up at a newish building with a few tall ledges and a normal sized one that had snow around it. I had a setup change once again – 8.25 ace lows and I really liked it. This new spot had some decent flatground, some okay manny pads and then a few smooth and tall ledges in weird locations. Initially I tried to quick up to crooks, but wasn’t ready for that. Then I lined out a flip trick, noseslide to fakie, flip trick. But noseslide to fakie got hard. Had a few varial flips, couldn’t put down a heelflip or crooks. I was trying lots of flippers, hucking away, not landing much. After a while of trying to line out the taller benches I saw the shorter one with the snow. It’s hard to see but the gap in was a little scary (to me) because of the snow and it took a while for me to commit. In between tries I got backside flips, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip and close to a lot more. The noseslide was hard, I was hyped that i did it. Hyped on the session in general, I skated really hard and felt good.

(setup null 8.25 mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 44 lows hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 2/10 really some of the best i’ve felt in a while)