Jack and Jesse picked me up pretty early and we were off to 112th park in Thornton. I had made a slight setup change now that I had access to all my goods again. 8.25, but still 5.8 ventures and 51s. It felt pretty good and I started off quicker than normal. Maybe it was having 3 days off skating. I did the bank ride over the long 2 stair pretty quickly, had some basic flippers that felt good, was popping my tail and having fun. Most of the other old dudes were at the bowl area. Jack was doing the wallies real quick. Jesse was popping hit tricks high like he does. I had a fun first try b/s flip over one of the micro hips, also first try kickflip out of a little bank, some crooks, but couldn’t front 50. Salty had a rad line of powerslide to fakie the volcano then fakie carve over the bench. Those dudes arranged a session at a miniramp but I wasn’t really ready I was having too much fun. Luckily I got a line I had been trying. Bank ride down the 2, ollie down the tiny euro, axle stall the incredibly weird no deck qp, kickflip out of a micro bank, crooks the tall ledge. Lastly I ollied the weird snowboard euro while they were figuring things out.

The miniramp was much taller than we had thought, but it was mellow. We started slow and eventually put down some tricks in the not sun. Me and Jesse raced to front 50s and got them back to back. I couldn’t get a front disaster, but did get kind of a slow beanplant to tail which I haven’t done in forever. Jack had some nice ollies to fakie. Salty did feeble to fakie, 50 to fakie, cab feeble and a banger of a cab pivot. The ramp was Scott’s. He ripped and had some unique moves like some weird disaster the side of the extension, cab pivot 270 out. Jesse shut the session down with his first ever lien to tail and it was sick!

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium/v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 3/10 way less knee pain in the zero lift shoes!)

Feeling lazy on a hot morning I went to the waunakee park.  After some weak attempts to get things going I settled in on noseslide 270 shove.  It felt better to huck a trick that’s hard for me than just putzing around.   I was hyped to get one.  I also did a few slow and low front 50s and basic flippers before making myself do several halfcab noseslides.  My knee buckled near the end.  Argh.  I guess these 272s aren’t good for me.  I wore some 868s and skated for a bit longer.  I hated them but my knee felt more stable.  

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272s then 868s)
(pain level 6/10)

Drove to Milwaukee to skate with Kevin.   We met at a DIY that looked extra fun to me.  It was.  Initially I was like a kid in a candy store and couldn’t figure out what I wanted to skate.   After a bit we started with some warm ups on the hip.  I had obviously put backside flip on my list after seeing the hip.  Kevin was going for nollie bs flip.  Both of us took longer than we wanted to but would get them.  The halfcab flip was fun.  Kevin got my back with janoski flip.   Then we hit the ledges for a bit.  I was quickly reminded how hard Kevin destroys ledges.  He did more than what’s in the clip.  Back smith, back tail, nosegrind, but the switch crook was my fav.  Oh and obviously the Gish.  I got a couple slow accidental 5-0s and 50s.  My pop was super off in the 288s which I wore to avoid knee pain with some success. We ended with a game of SKATE that Kevin smoked me in and won on a treflip.  I would force myself to do a slow crappy one before we settled in for a post session drink and cruise to the lake.  

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5 green/gum thin insole)
(pain level 5/10)