After my first day of work in nearly 2 weeks I met up with Rob and Dave at dog park on a beautiful afternoon. The park was pretty chill and had some new obstacles left over from the GB games. The bank to coping was pretty cool and fun to carve on. I was feeling very out of it and jet lagged. Immediately saw Rob pull a nice nose manual. Dave seemed to have a lot of energy and spring and was lining out everything. Boardslides around the c ledge, back 50 around it, front and back slashes on the bank to coping. Rob had halfcab back 50s, nollie front 50 back 180 out, no comply up the pad to front board off. I had a bad noseslide to fakie onto the pad then switch nose jib off. A fun run of noseslide the bench, back slash the bank to coping, little ollie off the grate kicker then front 180 off the new green kicker. Lastly a fun line of slappy crooks then front shove off the new green kicker that took way too long. I had skated an 8.3 with ace lows and didn’t like it. Not really counting it as a setup change though because I had left my board in Germany and didn’t have time to setup what I wanted.

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 sport b/w size 11.5)
(pain level 6/10)

Last day in Berlin. Had kind of a mellow morning and my knees were so swollen I thought there would be no way I could skate. But eventually we headed to Park am Gleisdreieck to hit the Tetris ledge spot. We met up with Gabe at the skatepark. I took a couple runs in the mellow bowl which was actually kind of fun until I hung up on a back 50 and dove to the flat. It actually served as a good warm up. Gabe and I went over to the ledge spot and it ended up being way more fun than the last time I skated there. Gabe was popping into some fast front 50s right away, noseslides, 180 50s, front 50 drop down to 50. Oh but he had a loose axle nut and kept losing a wheel. I was a little slower to get going, but skating alright. Had some fun crooks, noseslide down to noseslide, front 50, almost quick up to nose manual. Ben showed up with a crew. Fria who they had just met in Berlin and Miles who was a dog park local for a while so that was cool. Fria was jumping on front 50s quickly. Miles was really spry popping up all the spots so easily. Ben had a nice up up to manual and some fast back 50 attempts. At some point Ben started filming Fria and Miles. I had done some things I was happy with like finally a halfcab noseslide and noseslide down to noseslide and crooks one of the taller ledge. Then I kicked off a really fun chain of events. I got a slow front 50 shove out, Miles got 180 up to halfcab manual and then Fria got front 50 drop down 50. It was awesome. Before I could leave I made myself do a treflip, but I was really struggling. I would eventually get a 270ish one. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a nice cherry on top to a really fun session. I did film Ben for a while trying to get a back 50 and Gabe used my board to do the front 180 fakie 50 180. He also had a couple really nice treflips. At the end a dude from France joined and had a really cool quick up to a taller pad to nollie 3 shove off. Goodbye Berlin, I hope to see you again some day and still be able to skate.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 4/10)

After a long bus ride and walk through the city I arrived at the long stairway to the granite fortress known as Stalin Plaza.  They were filming a movie on one set of stairs and told me it was closed so I had a pretty good panic attack as I went up the other side.   But it was good and I arrived to an empty plaza and sat to calm down for a while, did some warm ups then cruised around and checked it all out.  It was way larger than I had thought.  The lower level was cool too but some annoying kids and rollerblader had shown so after a couple noseslides and slappies I went back to the main area. For about an hour I felt pretty good on my board.  I had a really fun run on the higher pinkish ledges of noseslide to fakie, halfcab noseslide then crooks.  I had posted up and did a few crooks in a row.  It felt great to get a few.  Like it was the whole reason I bought a new board when my luggage went missing.  I also got a couple slow front 50s that took way too long.  Then skated lines for a bit just having fun.  Switch front nose, halfcab flip, crooks, noseslide, bail a treflip.   I didn’t try many flippers though, wanted to take advantage of the granite.  Tried noseslide 270 shove for a while.  Kind of got one somewhat quickly, but couldn’t get a better one.  Some other people showed up so I stopped selfie filming.  My body had also mostly shut down so everything had become a struggle.  I didn’t do much more, enjoyed watching some dudes play some really good games of SKATE.  Then Liz and India showed up, filmed me do one last crooks and we bounced off to the castle.  Felt pretty amazing to skate this spot and made me want to be much better at ledges if somehow that is possible getting into my 50s.  

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 5/10)

The darn rain. Seriously though it had been holding out at our hotel, but on the day we went there it mostly rained. I would get in about an hour of skating total, but didn’t really have time to hit the other nearby spots that seemed almost equally as amazing. I had done a couple of initial noseslides and crooks before the rain picked up. I had a really fun double ride on grinds that were scary slippery. Then I went nearby and skated some curbs for a bit that were fun, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Especially after slamming hard on a nollie back tail attempt. Then the granite dried up and I was able to skate for real for a while. I had a really fun line of noseslide way up top, curve around and ollie a 2.5 stair, ride on grind, noseslide and added backside flip, halfcab flip and almost front 50 on the ledge by the double set. Then I tried kickflip back 50s for a while and was close, but no cigar. I was cut short as it started pouring. Doh! I was pretty unhappy with how bad my setup felt.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 5/10)

Up kind of early with a slight hang over I went to the nearby diy park Dog Shit. And man did I ever suck it up. I could not get into a rhythm and everything was harder or scarier than it should have been. I struggled with basics like front 50s on the lowest ledge, noseslides, crooks, had ghost pop over the hip. Argh. I had some fun little axle stalls on the bank to curb followed by an ollie on a mound, then wallie a corner. Had some fun little scratch grinds on the granite coping. At the end I made myself get a slow little front 50 on the ledge in the upper left of the photo. Oh yeah a German skater had come too and was doing some shredding marathon lines. Like the same stuff every time.

Then I went up to the bench spot that is basically on the opposite corner of an intersection to be humbled even more. I couldn’t do anything. I could barely noseslide. I may have gotten a crook jib. It’s funny because we had watched people skating it the night before and they made it look pretty easy. nope, they are tall and the ground is also pretty rough.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 6/10 knees)

Somehow slept really well and after a banging breakfast at our hotel we went out to see some sights. Swiss Air had lost my luggage so one of the first things on the agenda was to get me a new board and shoes because I didn’t want to delay and then not have a board. So we went to the big mall store Titus and I walked out with a an 8.25 of some Flower brand, some hollow ventures and the smallest wheels they had. The family and I were walking nearby at a city park that has a fountain dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales. I did a quick search in maps and it turned out there was a skatepark like 500 feet away so I of course had to go check it out. I had it all to myself so after a couple of laps around and trying to figure out my new setup I kind of just filmed everything. It was quite a fun session surprisingly except how I couldn’t lock into crooks. I thought I’d only have like 5 minutes, but the family ended up being gone for like 40 minutes so I got a decent little session in. Especially considering my complete and shoes were like 1 hour old. The kickflip flyouts were pretty fun as were the back 50s down the steep little escalator qp.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5 (they didn’t have 12s))
(pain level 3/10)

Wasn’t feeling too great and had very little motivation, but had time to kill and wanted to break in some new shoes. Went to Valmont first and totally sucked it up. The shoes felt so bad. My board felt so bad and had ghost pop over the hip. Over at dog park I continued to suck it up until it was time for me to leave. Things got a little better once I took the insoles out.

(setup 3/10 8.25 pmg, venture v-cast/titanium 5.8 with royal bushings no bottom washer, 51mm bones stf pj v1 washers outside, new balance numeric 288S black/grey size 12 with nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a warm sunny day Rob and I rolled to Fossil and met up with Noè and Hayden. There was another kid there skating really close to us, but he meant well. Just made warming up kind of weird. No surprise, but I had changed things again to a setup I had once happily rocked for a long time. 8.25 with venture 5.8 and 51mm. It felt pretty poppy. We started on the top. Noè doing flippers down the 3, down the 6. It was awesome seeing him jump so much. It’s crazy how casually he can treflip the 3 stair. Hayden makes manuals look so easy. Even fakie ones. Rob was locking into nose manuals and took a pretty good slam on one. I had some front 50s on the curb, some intentional 5-0s, kickflip up the curb and made myself front 50 a tallish (for me) ledge before I could go down to the lower area. Saw Rob get a pretty speedy manual and Hayden get a back tail. Noè was trying switch back nose manuals with a backside curve that seemed impossible. I had a couple crooks, accidental 5-0s and front 50s on the low part of the main ledge, halfcab flip and b/s flip and ended with a sketchy ollie up the ledge.

(setup 7/10 8.25 pmg, venture v-cast/titanium 5.8 with royal bushings no bottom washer, 51mm bones stf pj v1 washers outside, new balance numeric 288 sport size 12 with nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Paul and I rolled to Golden park pretty early on a sunny Saturday. Near the park we honked at Bratcher and it was hilarious. He had no idea it was us. The park was mostly the various old guy crews. Bratcher, Jesse, Paul, Jake, Venture Dave, young Mike, Salty. It was sick. Some of us started in the little plaza area. Jake and I did boardslide the first bench then crooks the second. I was on round 2 of Mindys, this time forged, and hated every minute of it. I couldn’t get a treflip after. Paul rattled off lots of ledge tricks on the curb high ledge. Dave did his casual shoves and maybe a nose manual. Then Dave, Mike and I skated the mellow bank for a while which was really fun. Dave did some impossibles, got a couple switch front 3s, switch shove, fakie impossible. Mike did several heelflip variations while I did kickflips. I was hyped to get a frontside flip and b/s flip first try. I couldn’t get a varial or bigflip to save my life though. Was happy on the kickflip body varial even though it actually took me several tries. Nose slides the qp to ledge was way fun. Jesse did pop shove tail grab and varial flip on the kicker. Jake lived up to his end of the bargain of doing his line quickly by doing it first try. Didn’t see others skating much. Was hyped to get a quick Salty clip.

After a trip to Bluecar I met Sean at Brady. I was incredibly sore and decided I need to give up on the Dunks. I could barely skate. Managed a very slow uphill line of noseslide then boardslide. Also got noseslide to fakie and then on Sean’s woke board I managed a crooks in two tries. Sean rattled off some fun casual lines and 50’d the whole ledge. We filmed something else too, it was cool. Not sure I will ever be back there as the ledge is really tall but who knows.

(setup 2/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, forged mindy 144s, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic, nike sb sad dunks then 272s)
(pain level 5/10 at the park then 8/10 at brady)

After logging off work for two weeks I met up with Dave and he was at Valmont park. It was pretty chaotic over there, but fun for a while. Dave was having some good ollies over the hip, lined out a frontside wallie on the barrier hip that was amazing. I got run into by a kid on a strider bike that had no idea what was going on. There was this dude there who did an absolutely perfect switch treflip over the hip that was super inspiring. So I spent a while posing switch b/s flips over the hip that I swear feel doable. Dave tried some switch tres too and made them look possible.

Over to dog park Sean would show up. Dave was skating at a high level. Jumping, front 50s on the bench, manuals around the corner, front boards to fakie, no comply pole jam. I know I’m missing a lot. We jumped the grate gap pretty easily. Sean did Sean things super casual. It’s cray . It was a pretty crowded and heated session, lots of people skating hard. I was skating absolutely terrible then randomly turned everything around with one silly little noseslide to fakie up onto the manual pad that set me up perfectly for switch front nose off and I did it. Been wanting to do that line for months and it just randomly came first try out of nowhere. Stoked me out. Shortly after I was trying the crooks then kickflip line and needed some kodak courage and Sean was kind enough to film it. Right after that is when Dave did the no comply pole jam. Fun Friday.

(setup 3/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148, 52mm spitfire 99a class f4, nike sb sad dunk nb 440 insoles)
(pain level 5/10)