After a chill Friday at work I went to dog park on a cold afternoon. Luckily the sun came out for most of the hour I skated. Isaac, Robbie were there along with several rippers. I was determined to flip my board a lot, but the cold and my tired legs weren’t having it. They weren’t on ollies either. But I managed to skate somewhat hard and battle through things to get a couple things I was happy with. First, I finally got the Reynolds line I’ve been trying for months. Backside flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. The b/s flip was total trash, but I was still happy. The other thing was a line of switch front nose the bench then fakie front 50 b/s halfcab out the curb. I had a few mediocre crooks and some better boardslides than normal. Couldn’t get a treflip or heelflip. Didn’t like how large my setup felt. Argh. Trying so hard not to let madness take over.

(setup 6/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 288S w/w size 12)
(pain level 5/10 right knee ain’t great)

Went to the dog park on a warm cloudy afternoon directly after work without a nap. It was popping. Lots of people. Paul and Robbie were there and a bunch of college kids I had never seen before. And then tall blond guy I haven’t seen in forever. Paul was shredding. I had worn vulcs for less foot pain. It worked for less foot pain, but it didn’t work for skating or preventing knee pain. I slammed on my first attempt to front 50 the curb and it was so embarrassing. F’ing vulcs man. They have no pop. I would go on to lose my front wheels several times trying slappy tricks on the metal curb which apparently puts way too much pressure on the wheels. Argh. I left super defeated. Paul had been ripping. He got the back 5-0 front 180 he’s been trying for a while.

(setup 6/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11/5 half insole)
(pain level 6/10)

After a chill day I went to Douglass in the afternoon on a cool day with snow threatening. I didn’t feel too good when I got on my board and would struggle for the most part. I started on the side with some ultra basic warm ups and progressed to a decent warm up line for me. Got halfcab flip on flat, nollie back tail the lurb, b/s flip the micro hip then a fakie flip on flat before bailing a fakie bigflip. That would be the highlight for me. I went on to take a million tries to get some ultra slow front 50s on the downhill part of the lurb. I partially blame all the salt, but wow I really have lost all confidence on that trick. After that I went behind the school and went in on the double noseslide Cass and I had tried months ago. I would get close, but not that close. It was fun trying hard, but a bummer not having the confidence to go into the noseslide faster to make it easier. Went out front to maybe skate more, but was tired so I went home.

(setup 8/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 53mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a nice morning I went to dog park to meet the Saturday morning crew. Rob, Cass and Jake were the only ones I knew would be there, but Will, Nick and many more joined. I was sore to start and wore some vulcs hoping for less of the ‘cupsole knee pain’ I get. They felt good for most of the session, but by the end I was too sore to continue. After some cruising around a big game of SKATE started. Jake, Cass, Will, Rob and me. Lots of 180 variations, shoves, etc to start the game. It would eventually come to Will and I and I managed to pull off a sketchy halfcab flip then fakie bigflip to end it. On the main course Cass was charging. Seriously skating harder than I’ve seen him skate. 5-0s, front noses and several back 180 nosegrinds that were super solid. Rob is still kicking off the rust but I saw a back smith, halfcab noseslide, back 50 no comply shove. Jake and Will were doing front tails on the little ledge. Jake almost getting nollie back tails after. I skated okay, had a few slow front smiths on the little ledge, crooks the bench. Was still happy with my setup, but not so much vulcs that suck a lot of the pop away. I need to unlearn that I can’t ollie high enough to get on the ledges there.

(setup 10/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11/5 half insole)
(pain level 5/10)

After a follow up with Mitchell (best sports doc in Denver) about my calf I met up with Jake at Cushing park. It’s my first time being there since the redo. I’m not sure if I even went before the redo or not. It was 60 degrees out and beautiful, the park wasn’t too crowded. Took me a bit to get a feel of things. That may have been made worse after a setup change and wearing 440s again. But I really liked the setup. I played fakie flip with Jake and his friend Max in the parking lot. Jake tried some fakie bigspins over the hip. I got a little ollie on the a-frame then back around to a cruddy noseslide. We did a few basics on the ledge then Jake skated the miniramp for a while and kept skating the ledge. I was kind of blown away by a really slow front 50 3rd try. I haven’t popped onto a “taller” one in a while and that setup snapped right to it. Like I thought I was bailing and went right into it. Then Jake and I played a game of SKATE in the parking lot. I had a streak of 3 flippers in a row that made me happy. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I would go on to win with a very slow, but rewarding treflip. Back to the park we lined out ollies up the euro, qp trick, ollie the little set. Jake did it quicker with a back blunt on the qp. I flailed on the qp for reasons I don’t understand so gave up and just did a back 50. Ollieing the little gap was painful, but fun. Was also hyped to see Ft Collins Jake there. No, not Creepy Jake, but Airbud Jake.

(setup 11/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After work went to dog park for about an hour. Didn’t skate great, didn’t skate terrible, but didn’t have much drive. In fact I’m not really remembering anything about the session other than a dude Eric tried to show me nollie heels and they felt closer than normal. Oh, I had taken Noè’s advice on a setup change and very much disliked it.

(setup 2/10 null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast royal bushings, bones 53mm pj, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

Not feeling very motivated on a cool night I ended up at Square House for the “Silver Session”. To my surprise only a few people were there and they had moved things around a little making things seem new and exciting. I hid in the back area for awhile and took a bit to get a 5-0 from the little qp to the bank. I was hyped Nick was there and he was hitting that area too doing little shoves on the banks. After a while some dudes had put a parking block on the bank and it looked really enticing. I would go on to get a run of slappy crook, then come back to the bank and kickflip. Felt really cool. I couldn’t get a bigflip on the bank though. The only person there I hadn’t met before was “Steezy” who made me jealous with his tiny setup and flip tricks. At one point he did a fakie flip front tail on the little ledge going ultra slow. Dennis is still one of my favs to skate with, he got a heelflip up the euro. Damian, Pat and Aiten ripped it. Jesse didn’t have his best session but was still in good spirits. I went in on kickflip axle stall on the parking block. It took a good 35 minutes, but was ultra rewarding. Thanks to everyone for the sympathy cheers! It really did make me happy.

(setup 3/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow with royal bushings no big washer flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 3/10)

Somehow the wind had held off. I wasn’t feeling like the skatepark again so went to Douglass, but a bunch of people I didn’t know were filming so ended up at Platt. Tried to do a “warm up” line of of pop shove a micro hip, manual, nose manual. Also mixed in a couple halfcab flips and a first try fakie bigflip. But never got the manual and was about to lose my mind so I went over to the 3 stair area. I wanted to ollie up it, but I was never even close. I committed once but fell in deck check. It was actually scary for me to ollie down it. I would eventually get a line of ollie the 3 stair then a b/s flip on flat. Then a varial flip on flat, front 180 down the 3, halfcab flip on flat. All 3 of these tricks were beyond terrible and I was really bummed on how scary the front 180 was. Oh well, at least I street skated.

Later on I went to Saul’s and Jesse and Bratcher joined. Saul had some of his amazing carve grind lines and a few stand up 50s. I took forever to get some axle stalls, but had a couple fun lines. Got the old carve around to axle stall to front rock. Some carve grinds in the deep, axle stall and a micro front slash on the brick section. Jesse laughed, got some good axle stalls in the deep, the bean plant to tail, grinds, nose stall to fakie. Jack had some good slashes and rock ‘n rolls. It was a really fun session. Hope to be back there soonish.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow with royal bushings no big washer flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 5/10)

Got to dog park a little after 10 on a crisp Saturday morning. It was in the upper 20s which felt incredibly cold compared to the upper 70s of Hawaii. The colder weather surprised me how hard it made warming up. But things did get going and it was fun. There was a pretty epic crew of mostly Saturday morning peeps. Cass and I played a warm up game of SKATE that took a while. Not one of our best, but certainly not our worst. I would win it on halfcab flip or backside flip. Did some normal skating around then got in on the table session with Bratcher, Cass, Fergs and Sean. Cass got up onto it pretty quick as did Jack. Mine was questionable, but really fun and rewarding. Fergs front nose shove was sick, I was hyped to get his back with a little nose jib down. Sean front nosegrind up it was sick. I had to bounce to bring my mom to the dr. Fun short session.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with royal bushings flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 4/10)

Lots of rain on the last day in Honolulu. Neil picked us up and we bolted to the east side. After a cool visit to a Buddhist temple Neil and I ended up at the Kailua park. What a cool little park. I was feeling the sorest I had all trip and kind of not really wanting to skate much. But we did and Neil inspired as always. So did the others that were there. Another older dude warming up with ollie after ollie and working up to flippers and ledge tricks. Also a female skater popping front shoves really high as well as varial heels which were so sick. Neil’s front shoves to fakie were so good. Cab over the bump and then kickflip were tight. I had some noseslides and crooks when Neil wasn’t filming but was really struggling with flippers. I couldn’t do a kickflip to fakie on the bank. Neil’s nose manual to quick 50 was so good. Rain started so we bounced. Thanks for showing Liz and I so many amazing sights Neil!

(setup 1/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 53mm bones pj v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 4/10)