Somehow the brutal wind had died down so I raced off to dog park and met Bratcher, Jesse and eventually Cass. I’m writing this too many days after the fact to remember very well. I know at dog park I played a game of SKATE with Ted and Jesse that I did okay on, but lost again on a Jesse fakie tre. I was struggling to motivate and ended up at the park. I had a run of 3 flippers on the bank in a row. B/s kickflip, kickflip fakie, bigflip. Then took too long to get a halfcab flip. Mostly because the approach sucks or kids on striders. Then I got a line I liked of boardslide transfer into the bank then kickflip to fakie on the shark fin. Cass got some bigflips on the bank too and kickflip over the hip. Bratcher had hurt his back. We went back to dog park and the 303 dudes showed up and they are so good we just watched.

Later on in the afternoon I met up with Dave at this little ditch at a church in Longmont. Talk about hard spots to skate! I think I only did the nose stall and a bad kickflip. As you can see Dave was ripping. He didn’t get the trick he wanted, but he did get a front pivot we’re holding onto and a line with a kickflip and back 50 to fakie. Sounds nuts right?!

Then Dave pointed out the crazy bump in the parking lot and I took way too long to do a b/s flip on it. But man it felt amazing! One of my happier moments on a board in quiet some time. Dave added some 360s and we called it a night.

(setup 8.5 null 20 year 14.25 wb, null grip, royal ultralight 149, 52mm bones v1 stf, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 2/10 early, 6/10 later)

Set my alarm early to go skate Boulder park before work. I sat there for a while debating if I should get up, but forced myself to get up. Got to the park shortly after sunrise although it was cloudy. Would go on to skate for about an hour and a half and had the park to myself the whole time and skated pretty hard (but not good) for me. I went the line route for the most part starting very basic and getting a little harder. An early one I was happy with was crooks the bench then kickflip going frontside over the hump. Also fakie ollie the deck hump, slow front 50 the triangle ledge, kickflip the main hip bank, then noseslide the bump to triangle. Noselide the bench, up around to roll in the little qp then ollie onto the triangle. Then one that took way too long, but was pretty rewarding. Kickflip to fakie the deck bank up top, halfcab noseslide the triangle ledge, turn around then a little b/s nollie on the hip and a front 50 on the bench which was so hard. Then I hucked some. Remotely close to cab flip the hump, noseslide 270 shove. Made myself get a few front 50s on the bench at the end. Wanted to do a 180 out but wasn’t close and I was gassed at that point. Fun session, skated hard.

(setup 8.5 null 20 year 14.25 wb, null grip, royal ultralight 149, 52mm bones v1 stf, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Got sick after the weekend so hadn’t skated in a few days. After the last session I had made a couple setup changes to try and dial in a non-woke setup. 8.25 with ace, 8.5 with slappy. I had a much better warm up ollie on the 8.25 so I started with it and went to the oval curb area and went through some basic stalls. Then went over to the curb cut area and tried a line of switch 180 into one then kickflip out of the next. But I couldn’t get the kickflip to work to save my life. So I went home and got the 8.5 with Slappys and would get the line in a few tries. I didn’t go on to really like that setup, but I liked it more. Tried some stalls on the bigger rock in the back, got a couple halfcab flips and noseslides on the table. Then went home. I guess I was still feeling kind of run down.

(setup 8.25/ace and 8.5/14.25/slappy with nb 600 and currex insoles)
(pain level 4/10 but had no energy or drive)

Nice day. Went to dog park and met Garrett and Joe after some slacking. Paul would show after a while too. I was there first and the crowd was kind of a weird mix of beginners and 303 dudes. I had changed setup to 8.5/14.25/aces and it felt big, but okay. I had some success popping up things, crooks. I was skating pretty mid though. Especially after it felt like I hyperextended my toes. Garrett and Joe showed. I switched from vulcs to cups in hope of less pain which worked. Joe wasn’t really feeling it, but still managed some quick bangers as he does. Garrett kickflipped off the kicker over the barrier and flowed around the park really well. Paul showed and eventually some flatground ensued. Garrett and Paul rattled off treflip after treflip and I kind of got one. Then Garrett said he’d get me a marg if I landed one. I kept trying and trying going so slow and eventually got two in a row. They felt so great. Paul also landed a few nollie frontside flips which he’s been working on lately. I would go on to get my first heelflip in forever too which also felt cool. Then we went and celebrated.

(setup 7/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollow, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles after the 272s)
(pain level 5/10 toes from the hyper extension)

Up early on a cool morning met up with Jake, Venture Dave and Cass. There were quite a few other older folks there as well. I think the average age was around 50. Crazy. Dave was already manualling the long pad, shoving and got to impossibles soon. Jake was still in pain so stuck to killing the transition like the crazy qp by the big O replica. Some basics in the ledge area had been had. I took too long to do a halfcab noseslide and even longer to ollie up onto one of the benches. My flip tricks were going alright. I had gotten close to halfcab heel for the first time in forever. Cass had a beautiful front nose down the hubba. Seriously amazing. I tried to get a run going of crooks the ledge, axle stall the qp, fly out treflip. Tried so many, but never got too close to a treflip. It really bummed me out. Cass, Dave and I hit the mellow bank for a while. Well, cass was lining out kickflips over the a-frame as well as some flippers on the bank. I managed quite a few flippers but only the basics. Kickflip fakie, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s fip and couldn’t quite get fakie bigflip. Dave had some nice switch shoves, switch 270, casual impossibles and fakie impossibles. Twas a good session. Hanging after at Rest was fun.

(setup 4/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)