After a weird rainy night with not much sleep I eventually got picked up by Jack B and Jesse and we went to Broomfield park. We would be meeting Sean then Garret. Stefan randomly showed up too. I had gone for a long run the day before and my left achilles was kind of hurting. I thought since it’s my front foot it would be fine, but nope, it didn’t feel good. I didn’t really do much popping and stuck to the no-pop noseslides and stuff. Also took too long to get a grind in the bowl. Everyone else was ripping. Well, maybe not Garrett so much because he said his back was hurting. Doh. Bratcher is always full steam ahead. Oh yeah, I had skated my ace low setup most of the session and really disliked it. I rode the 8.1/thunder too and disliked it more though. So probably an actual setup change coming when I can finally skate again.

(setup 8.25 ace lows / 8.1 thunders vans wayvee white size 12 nb# 272 insoles)
(pain level 8/10)

After work rolled up into a heated dog park session. I kind of just played on the barrier for a bit and did a few lame basics to get the legs flowing. Luckily things died down pretty quickly and we had a pretty normal session. Paul was getting Verso on us with lines including nollie nosegrind 180s and ending in fakie 5-0 180s. He’s been working on skating faster and it showed. He even did a back nosegrind which I haven’t seen him do before. Rob was shredding nose manuals, manuals, back 50 no comply shove, crooks, front boards, did his lightwork demo, a lot more I’m probably confusing with the previous session. I went on to have an above average session for me and did a few things I was hyped on like first try kickflip up the c pad, front 50 and accidental 5-0 the bench, a really fun ollie the metal grate a-frame, crooks, front halfcab heel. Struggled to do intentional 5-0s and treflips though. I left feeling really good even though it doesn’t seem like it on paper.

(setup 6/10 8.1 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 147, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 101a, vans wayve white size 12 nb# 272 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot afternoon I went to dog park to meet the crew. We started out at Valmont. I didn’t really do anything there, maybe a kickflip. Completely whiffed an ollie over the hip. Patrick had a sick back tail on the volcano. Went over to the grown up section pretty quickly. It’s hard to remember this session since I’ve skated there again since this one. I know I lost a best to Cass as he got a kickflip off the side of the kicker way quicker than me. Carleigh got one too so I had to get her back. It was really fun feeling. Cass continued his back 50 and 5-0 grinds. Rob was skating well. Poppy ollies off the kicker, crooks, nose manuals, back 50 no comply shove, front 50s. Cass and I played treflip for a while and I won with a sketchy one. I would get quite a few things that are good for me like kickflip onto the c pad, sketchy little crook on above the pad (but only a few inches), super slow front 50 the main bench, joe hamilton the c pad as well as front 50 back 180 out and front 50 shove. At the end Carleigh did another kickflip and Cass did back bigspin. It was a fun session and good times chilling at Picas after.

(setup 7/10 8.1 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 147, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 101a, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a sunny and hot summer afternoon we gathered at Broomfield park. It was Sean, Rob and I for most of the session. Carleigh and Patrick were pretty late and tired anyway after traveling. Things started slow, never really got firing, but it was still fun. Sean rattled off his ledge basics like he does and seemed to have more spring in his flippers. Rob had some crooks, mannies, noseslides the bank to ledge, patented fakie bigspin to quick nollie shove to quick no comply shove. I continued to enjoy my smaller setup even if I was still struggling to treflip. Had some okay crooks and several fly out kickflips in a row. Sean and I played a game of SKATE. I hung in there okay for me and got him on fakie bigflip and treflip. The treflip felt amazing actually. I had done a couple 270 flips that didn’t count before that, but getting a clean one felt amazing. I was pretty much spent after that. Carleigh and Patrick mostly cruised and chilled as they were tired. I made sure Carleigh knew that back disaster was a requirement. Fun session, thankful for the shade the trees provide there.

(setup 8/10 8.1 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 147, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 101a, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10 less pain when wearing vulcs vs cups makes no sense but I’ll take it)

Super weird day. Went on a hike up at Caribou with Liz to cool down. We got more than we bargained for and get stuck in a crazy thunderstorm getting totally soaked and hailed on. But it was still quite hot down here. Around sunset I drove towards a thunderstorm and met Mike, Rob and Dave at the quickly drying Frederick skatepark. It was fun skating with lightning in the distance. Seemed like all of us were skating decent somewhat quickly. Saw Rob do a bigspin on the steeper ban right away, Mike a front shove to fakie on the mellow bank, Dave manly feeble transfer into the double bank. There wasn’t really a main group session, we seemed mostly cruising doing our things. The park is really fun, hard to focus on one thing. I saw Rob to back smith, front tail, pivot the bank to curb, manuals, boardslides, front boards, and shredded the shred graffiti with a front board. Mike had some killer long slappies and boardslides, deck check up the euro, maybe no comply 180 over the a-frame, way more than I remember. I couldn’t get a treflip to fakie and was lucky not to roll my ankle. I did have some easy kickflips trying to line out noseslide and ollie up the euro but the darn youth in the pink shirt kept getting in my way. Only new thing I did was a front 180 up the bigger ledge which felt cool, got one regular ollie up and then bailed the kickflip off. Dave got me to ollie up the euro. Dave was ripping. He had some cool combos on the double bank to curb and a special front tail to accidental revert. He was getting up the euro pretty often, dropped down to manual, front bluntslide the mellow bank, dump truck 180 into the bank. It was a fun night with a rad crew, my body was really hurting though. Could have gone for less pain.

(setup 7/10 8.1 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 147, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 101a, new balance numeric 288 sport white size 12)
(pain level 7/10 knees and feet)

After a really bad day of work I needed to get out. With only a few more days of campus being empty I pushed down the bikepath to Wilville on a hot evening. I started near the little round curb and did a little line of front smith stall, kickflip, nollie 180, switch 180, noseslide the flagstone. Oh yeah, I had assembled a totally different complete. 8.1 with Thunder hollow 147s. And I really liked it. Especially after what felt like the easiest halfcab flip of my life. I ended up at the main manny pad area although I didn’t really do much into it, just a nose manual or two. I skated the ledge a bit even though it’s crusty managed a couple really slow front 50s, nollie tails, halfcab noseslide and worked up to a f/s halfcab noseslide that felt awesome. I guess I did to a line of nose manual into the bank, curve around ollie up front shove which was supposed to go to fakie but I reverted and my feet were barely on the board and I managed to still make it off the curb and it made me laugh. I went to leave, but got motivated to try a line at the ledge area. Fakie varial flip, switch noseslide 270 shove, ollie onto a taller ledge which I’ve only ollied onto a few times. I couldn’t get the fakie varial flip though or even fakie flip. Lots of cracks messing up my flow. But I think I did get something like halfcab flip, switch nose jib, ollie on and I was hyped. My knee was hurting so I left. But I was happy to have skated and goofed around trying lines at a street spot.

(setup 6/10 8.1 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 147, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 101a, new balance numeric 288 sport white size 12)
(pain level 5/10)

After work on a nice warm evening I was searching for some motivation and thought of a line I had wanted to do at Basemar on a recent walk. Things started slow, ollies felt bad. I had thought a warm up line of kickflip the bump, ollie into the mini bank of the bike path, then nollie bigspin on the same bank further down. I had kind of done it, but super sloppy and had cracked my board pretty bad. A few more tries I snapped the board. Doh. I went to my car and took out the other complete and went to do the same thing and had a bit more luck. The desired line was backside flip the bump, switch 180 into the bank, kickflip the bank. But after I did the first b/s flip I realized there was no chance I could switch 180 in. So i just took a while to do the b/s flip. I didn’t like either setups and felt somewhat excited that I’d be forced to change.

(setups 8.25s royals/mini logos/52s, new balance numeric 288sport white size 12)
(pain level 3/10!)

On a warm afternoon I met Cass and Rob at dog park. We had the spot all to ourselves for the first half hour and it was pretty awesome. I had some knee pain at times, but for the most part felt pretty good. Cass had some good back 50s and 5-0s, manuals, . Rob was trying nollie back smith, had good nollie front lip, halfcab 50, crook, manuals, boardslide the tall bench. I got a line that sounds okay on paper. Halfcab flip, noseslide to fakie, fakie 50 b/s halfcab out. The halfcab flip took forever. Also backside flip (to stop), halfcab noseslide, slappy crook. I finally committed to frontside 50 on the bench (even if I did 5-0s). Next step, to do it moving. had a fun crook on the back of the two tier. Was pretty hyped to see Phil randomly show up with his sons. It was fun he did the front 50 in about 5 tries and even had a decent slam. His kids rip, one had a really nice front 50 back 180 out. Paul showed up and shredded for a bit. Pretty fun session. Felt great to really skate again.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, spitfire 51mm classic f4 101a, new balance numeric 288 sport white size12)
(pain 5/10 kinda funny that I felt “good” but compared to how it had felt it did feel good)

After some yoga went to dog park later than I should have, but it was right when the clouds rolled in and it was oh so nice and cool out. There was a cool crew. I didn’t feel good on my skateboard at all, quickly switched back to my ventures but didn’t like it either. Had one incredibly embarrassing crook attempt. Ended up taking out the game changers out and lots of my lower leg pain went away. After a while I was filming Sean and Noè and did a few flip tricks in between. Like really slow barely moving but did get varial flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip and b/s filp in one line. Everyone else there was killing it. Sean and Noè got some cool stuff. Then we went to research wood manny pad area. I did a switch front nose and noseslide while they warmed up which didn’t take Noè long as he banged out 3 clips for the next vid. Sean got close to a banger. After a nap and some chilling I ended up at Douglass again for my final vetting process of seeing if Thunder worked. I was totally determined and excited to try them, but wow they are the worst. Had more problems ollieing up the curb, kickflips were okay, still couldn’t crook. I was pretty quickly over it and went home defeated.

(setups 8.25s ace lows venture lows and stuff, nb# 288 sportz)
(pain level 7/10 with game changers 4/10 without)

On a nice cool afternoon I went to Douglass after bring Ollie to the airport. I was not expecting much. I brought three setups. All 8.25 with different trucks. It was funny set them all down so I could only see the top and did an initial ollie on the setup I thought had the Royals and had no pop whatsoever. Turned out it was the one with Venture lows. Doh! Of the 3 the Ace lows had the best feeling ollie so I went with it for most of the session. I really struggled. My knee was hurting bad at times so I put some gamechangers in some new 288s and my knee started hurting less. I did a couple basic lines like ollie up the curb, kickflip, noseslide. Couldn’t get crooks and my boardslides were really weak as I would hit the front wheels on the way up. I tried front 50s for a bit and maybe about 10% close. Got a couple other flippers, but then left after an hour hoping my knee wouldn’t react negatively to a little skating again.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushing, 53mm spitfire f4 classic 99, new balance numeric 288 sport white/grey size 12 stock / footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10 left knee at times was quite bad)