On a hot afternoon I went to Dayton park and met up with Stefan. Had a pretty fun session. I had some great feeling crooks, back and front 50 over the ledge on the quarterpipe, had a new audience for switch front noses, a couple slow accidental front 5-0s and a lot of bails throughout. Stefan is a positive dude, fun to skate with. He was shredding. 5-0 to fakie over the ledge, nollie front nosegrind, nollie tails, 50s easy. After a while we started trying nollie tres. Well, I tried, he landed. He got like 8 of them and I could not get one even though I landed on several of them. Doh! It was a fun session.

(setup 6/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot and breezy day Cass, Rob and I pulled into a mostly empty Spring Canyon. Hayden would join, but couldn’t skate because of foot pain. Cass put on DJR radio to begin and it did hype me up and got me going a little faster than normal even though I couldn’t manual to save my life. Rob had done manuals and nose manuals while the rest of us multiple decade skaters couldn’t do one. Okay, well Cass did get a manual and then a back 50 or two before hurting his back again and chilling. Jake had done some fun hips to tail on the little mount that were fun and Cass and I played copycat. I may have recorded the slowest back 50 on record. I took a while to get the ollie up then boardslide the little rail. It’s a bummer it’s not as easy as it once way, but I am happy I didn’t give up. Jake had a few tricks on the steep qp like feeble to fakie, pivot to fakie and a meaty front d. Rob may have gotten his manual around the potato chip, some noeslides on the bench, steezy barrier rides. I had some accidental 5-0s, front 50 180, front 50 shove on the lurb. As everyone was sitting I battled a line of crooks the bench then kickflip on the lumpy qp (it was like 1/3 up the transition). Oh yeah, I had gotten really close to a Rick flip or two.

After MRKT and a snack we ended up at Northside. It was pretty chill. Rob joined Cass in the shade having an adult beverage after a few laps around the park. Jake was shredding the mini. I was dorking around trying to overcome my new fear of rolling into the bank which Jake did first try. I called out 3 tricks on the barrier, but we ended up doing more. I slammed on a rock ‘n roll and my board hit my arm and it hurt way more than it should. I would get rock ‘n roll, way too many tries for axle stall, front rock, front slash. Jake would add back pivot and feeble fakie. Then we played down below. Jake was trying no comply pole jams. I did a few noseslides on the ledge and some of the better feeling crooks I’ve done. I couldn’t get a f/s halfcab flip. Ended by trying slappy crook the china bank ledge followed by an ultra slow treflip. I would get the line but the treflip was quite questionable.

(setup 6/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After work I met Rob, Paul, Sean at dog park.  Alton would show too as did Roth briefly.  The warm up took longer than normal as there was some good socializing to be had.  Sean was fully charging though getting through routine quickly.  I had made the slightest setup change – forged baseplate instead of cast.  But it did reduce the hefty feel a lot.  My first few kickflips felt great.  I had a decent session until the end.  Came close to kick back 50, kind of did a switch crooks, had some fun crooks, flip tricks felt okay although I didn’t commit to much.  At the end I couldn’t do a fakie front 50 on the bench to save my life and it bummed me out.  Paul ripped, played the hits with 5-0s, fakie 5-0s, etc.  Sean did a new line of back 5-0 front 180 out the bench followed by a quick fakie back nosegrind.  Also kickflip nose manual, several tricks over the upper deck, ollies over the hydrant, etc.  Rob had good back 50 back 180, halfcab boardslide and front board the bench, manuals, nose manuals.  Alton is fun to skate with, almost had some tall switch crooks and looked good in some 808s.

(setup 5/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After a run to 303 I went to redder curbs.  I was armed with the same setup except Ventures.  It was way better, but pretty hefty.  I took forever to get a warm up line of parking block ollie, front slappy, ride on grind, front tail stall a curb, kickflip.  The ollies over the parking block were so bad, so weird.  Also had some slow front 50s on the curbs which felt good, slappy crooks obviously.  Tried a line for a bit of kick back tail a curb then bs flip the hump.  Never got either trick, but was somewhat close to both.  After a while I had changed from 272s to 868s and felt less pain (until my bunion would swell up later).  But they did feel good to kickflip in.  

(setup 4/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.8 royal bushings no big washer flat top washer, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles then some 868s)
(pain level 4/10)

Had a late meeting so took off in the afternoon and had an hour and a half to skate.  I went to Wilville as rain was threatening.  And holy smokes I felt off.  I had new shoes, but they were the same as my previous shoes 272s so I don’t think that was it.  I literally almost hung up on a one foot flat gap in a warm up line.  I skated the top part for a bit because there was a police truck parked down under the pad.  After my pathetic showing I went down below realizing the truck was just parked there.  I skated the ledge.  Took way too many tries for some slow front 50s.  Kind of did one little switch crook jib as the only remote highlight for the session.  Oh some slappy crooks.  Could barely ollie onto the ledge and I couldn’t kickflip.  Luckily it started to rain.

(setup 3/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10 some weird knee pain)

With no real plan I went to the mall after dinner to get my new glasses fitted. It only took a minute and I started to get excited to skate after thinking about the research ledge. This used to be my favorite spot. It’s pretty chunky and dry now, but i still had fun. During the warm up line process I felt an urgency I hadn’t in a while. Maybe it was how bad I felt compared to the better days I’ve had here. I would get a couple lines that sound alright on paper for me. Halfcab flip, on flat, 180 up the curb, fakie flip, switch front nose. B/s flip, halfcab flip, ollie up the curb, noseslide. Was close on uphill switch flips, got a couple bad crooks when they didn’t stick right away. Couldn’t fathom 50s either way. Halfcab flip on the sidewalk part was scary for me. Ended by making myself line out the little manny pad gap and man it was hard. Noseslide to fakie, switch 180 up the curb then ollie onto the little pad and ollie the tiny gap. It was really hard for me to make myself ollie onto the pad and once I finally did I was going slow and did the worst ollie ever. But I tried and that made me feel good.

(setup 4/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling lazy I went to dog park to meet Scotty P and 98% at dog park since they wanted me to get a trick for their upcoming video. July 7 at the 303 Annex! I hadn’t changed my setup and hated it still. But I did rattle off the few flippers I can as I warmed up with some noseslides and stuff. Then we filmed a joke clip where Joe and Garrett ollied a trash can off the kicker and I ollied Squeeks (laying down). I didn’t even really ollie but it was funny. Then I settled in on a line of slappy crooks then no comply flip. It took a long time, but it felt great when I got it. After that we bounced to go film at the yellow bar drop spot, but we got the boot. I bounced. Right before dinner I had a few minutes and had finally setup a new board so I went and did some slappies on the side of the school. Added in a few flippers too. It was fun.

(setup null 8.5/8.3 pmg, ace low 55s/royal 149 ultralights, 52/51 wheels, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Super nice day. I rolled to Longmont and met Dave and Rob at Rocky Mountain. We skated for a solid couple hours. The recent rains had brought a lot of little pebbles to the parking lot which was kind of annoying. Although lately it doesn’t bum me out as much lately since it reminds me I’m not skating a skatepark. The curb was the main warm up medium. Rob did back 50 to back lip then went on to do nollie front lips to nose manual including one with a shove out. I was starting to get in a groove but broke my board on a heelflip. Argh! I was able to skate it backwards, but I definitely lost some motivation. I took a long time to get a kickflip up the curb. Dave on the other hand was lofting kickflips up the curb and lining it out with stalls on the bank to side curb and front 50 on the ledge. After a while I just sat and filmed Dave/Rob skate the curb. Dave’s switch crooks shoves make me jealous.

After heading home, some food and a nap, I went to Platte. I had put my trucks on an old 8.5 setup which I very much did not like. I struggled to ollie up the curb, couldn’t crook the ledge. Yeah, really didn’t do much.

(setup PMG 8.3/ null 8.5, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm pink snot, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After work and some food I went over to the school. The recent heavy rain had left branches everywhere and the smoother area had a dumpster plopped in the middle of it. I have an eye infection and can’t wear contacts for a couple of weeks. All this and I made a list of tricks half of which I cannot do. Anyway, here’s the list and the results:

Halfcab flip – kind of flopped one in a couple tries and got a couple more not great ones
Heelflip – got one and it felt good
Bs flip – phone turned off at this point, got a couple bs flips
Fakie bigflip – barely got one 4/4 so far
Nollie bigflip – only got close on one try
Treflip – got one terrible heels on the ground one which I am grateful the phone died so no one sees it
Sw treflip – not close, going to keep trying
Halfcab heel – struggled more than I hoped and didn’t get close
Varial heel – somewhat close to a couple
Sw bs flip – not even close and there was an annoying family with two scooter kids watching me

After that I went behind the school and tried to line out some ollies and stalls onto the big rocks, but I was tired, sore and arthritic feeling and ollies were not working at all so I left. Then it poured again.

(setup 3/10 PMG 8.3, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm pink snot, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Rob and I pulled up at the same time then rolled into campus and started at the two stair with the slight bank up to it. It’s a good warm up spot and we would get some tricks. Rob back pivot to back tail, then back 180 out and front nosepick to fakie. I had some crook stalls to fakie, front tail shove, kind of a kickflip axle stall and kind of a front smith front 180 out. Next up Baker ledge that continues to get taller each time I go there ha ha. Rob had first try halfcab noseslide, front board pop out, boardslide pop out, halfcab boardslide. I would get some little crooks, noseslides, couldn’t get a slow front 50 but did get a slow fakie front 50 flop out. Next we hit the little manny pad which I haven’t skate in a long time. Rob manualled it right away, nose manual, first try halfcab manual back 180, no comply manual, manual followed by flatground kickflip. I took like 10 tries to get a manual and then ended with one of my fav lines in a while. Heelflip, nose manual, treflip. All done slow, but I was still hyped. Fun day!

(setup 6/10 null abstract33 8.3, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm pink snot, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half nsoles)
(pain level 3/10)