On a really hot day I went to meet Will at dog park. I arrived first. I avoided Valmont because the shade from the structure was essential and cooled things down a little. I felt very off, not motivated for a while. Will showed and we played a game of SKATE to get warmed up. It was a pretty long one without a ton of flippers and he one on a fakie front 360 which I kind of just gave up on since I needed water. Will shredded the ledges after that then had to leave. I got into a mode of trying really for for a bit. Going south I tried a million kickflip back 50s on the lurb. I got into a couple, rode on top, but never actually did the trick. Going the other way I tried a bunch of nollie tres or other flippers, most of which I did not land. Hated the lows, felt like they had zero pop and were heavy.

(setup 2/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10 hadn’t done a good job of exercising throughout the day)

Finally emerging from a heat comatose shortly before sunset I ended up at Douglass with yet another dumb setup change (ace lows). It felt good at the time though, I hucked around pretty good although it did take me like 8 tries to get a kickflip initially. I couldn’t get a halfcab flip in one of the warm up lines either. But I did end up getting a few flippers including heelflip and treflip which are rare these days. Crooks was tough. Front axle stall even harder. Couldn’t quite get a front 50. Once it got dark I intended to skate more, but ended up just driving around then going home.

(setup 5/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10 I guess sleeping a lot is good for the body)

After a pretty chill drive Rob, Paul and I met up with Venture Dave and Jake. The park was somewhat crowded with a skate school going on as well as quite a few others. I struggled to find any rhythm and never found a groove. I didn’t see a Dave impossible so I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one. He was close to bigspin front nose though. Saw Rob with manuals and a nose manual or two, some boardslides on the long ledge. Jake seemed pretty on it at least. He had nollie back tail before me, front tail, crooks to fakie, blunt variations on the little qp. Paul was shredding the ledge with back 5-0 front 180 out, front 5-0s, close to b/s nosegrind. Also some long grinds on the little qp. I couldn’t do flip tricks, switched between setups disliking both. Had a crook, some accidental front 5-0s, front 50s down the low downhill qp and some cheater axle stalls to fakie (one of which I followed with a halfcab noseslide on the ledge). Not the best Parker session, but whatevs.

(setup 2/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10 left knee is really swollen)

After a chill Friday of working at home I met up with Dave and then Paul at Valmont park. My warm ups were pretty embarrassing, but I got it together. Dave did a halfcab manual out of the bank that was really cool. He would go on to destroy the hip. Kickflip over the f/s hip, varial flip, f/s halfcab flip and FAKIE FLIP! I had attempted to film it all, but it turns out it overheated and missed all the tricks. Paul had done some good switch front 180s and back 180s. My first line was a shove on the bank, no comply on the hump, b/s flip over the hip. I took a while to get the worlds least popped halfcab flip (so glad my phone overheated ha ha!) and then spent like an hour trying to heelflip over the f/s hip which I have never done before. I got incredibly close, had several I thought would be makes, but somehow they weren’t. It was fun though. At the end Dennis showed up who I haven’t seen in a while and it was good catching up with him.

(setup 6/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10 left knee is really swollen)

Thought I had more energy. Went to campus with a bigger setup. Started up near the tunnel to the hill. Tried a line for a while of a flip trick, a stall on the mini bank to curb, noseslide the sandblasted flagstone bench, kickflip a metal grate out of the kicker, ollie up the 3 stair. The line had started after trying most of the tricks during warm up. Flip tricks went alright I got halfcab flip and heelflip but then I started to really struggle with noseslides which I blame on me changing my setup like a moron. Anyway I never quite got the kickflip before a few people came out of the building and sat at a table. And I didn’t feel like stumbling around like a dork in front of them so I moved on. Had a fun downhill roll and ended up at the fitness center. Went into line mode there too. Flip trick, noseslide, front axle stall a bench, 180 a rock. But I got super tired or something and was totally sucking, missing noseslides even. I left feeling ultra depressed, but realized I was exhausted so whatever. Gonna miss these quiet summer nights on campus.

(setup 6/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 left knee is really swollen)

Seattle Will is now Broomfield Will and things finally worked out for us to skate. We went to campus and went to the new ledge/ride on ledge. I quickly established I was super sore and unable to do much of anything. I had a ride on grind to fakie then switch front nose and some slappy crooks. Will took a bit to get used to the ride on grind then did a bunch. Also some really casual front 50s on the regular ledge. Then we went to the Baker ledge but were so tired we didn’t do much. He did get a switch manual though. Other than that it was just some noseslides from us and I lacked all confidence or motivation. We had fun walking around and showing him some other spots.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights with royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 574 blue size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Met up with Carleigh after work at Valmont. Yes, Carleigh! She was there with Zack and Marg. We hung for a bit. Rob showed. We skated Valmont briefly. I think Carleigh kickflipped the hip, I posed a few flippers. Zack did a cool ride on grind into the deep end of the bowl.

Over to the ledges I saw Carleigh piece together a quick up onto the manny pad then boardslide off followed by a front 50 on the lurb. Rob didn’t get a first try kickflip for the first time in a while, but I think got it second try. Also some nice manuals some of which he dropped down and kept manualling. Back 50 back 180 out followed by halfcab noseslide. Paul had shown and was quickly rattling off Sean tricks like back 5-0 front 180 out and nosegrinds. But he also had some mean switch slappy crooks. I tried like a million kickflip back 50s and didn’t get a single one. I also tried several front nosegrind 180s and dragged my back wheels along the ledge on the 180 every time. Argh. Other than that I had some okay crooks on the back of the two step and one slow treflip that felt decent. Dave had shown up after Carleigh had left. He was flipping his board more than normal, somewhat close on several treflips. He took a long time to get a nose manual, was kind of losing his mind, but once he did he got a nosegrind in a few tries. Eric showed up as we were leaving and they had a little barrier session. I was too sore to keep skating. They both did boardslides to fakie which they hadn’t done before. They also did barrier firsts of feeble to fakie and lien to tail. Rippers! Also ripping were Austin, Eric and Jason. Eric’s nollie flip over the parking block then treflip was so good.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights with royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 574 blue size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a day with rain forecasted all day I met Cass at a very bright, sunny and warm Broomfield park. I was really sore and didn’t feel like wearing the same shoes so I switched them up for some 574 vulcs. I did feel less sore in them, but they made my setup feel huge and heavy. For some reason I had very little juice. After a while Cass was doing such good fakie back tails on the lurb that I setup the camera. I couldn’t get a back 50 to save my life. I did get another fakie 50 switch front shove though and it felt cool. Cass went on to do kickflip 50 and front shove 50. So sick. We played a game of SKATE that had some good tricks .. by Cass. He got me on fakie flip, halfcab flip, treflip, hardflip and won with backside bigspin. I did at least get him on heelflip and f/s halfcab flip though. Darin showed after this and we skated a little, but mostly just watched and listened to him. Not sure why I had so little energy.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 team hollows with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue size 11.5 with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Up earlyish because we’d be celebrating Liz’s birthday later on. Met up with Bratcher, Tim, Salty and even Fuller at the library spot. I haven’t been there in like a year. It was pretty hectic at first with the homeless cleaning up their spots from the night before. I would get kind of frustrated at first by the cracks and craziness of the spot, but calmed down and had fun. I skated whatever, would do okay as far as getting most tricks I wanted, but didn’t get as far into the bag as I would have liked. Got a few front 50s on the taller ledge, struggled with crooks, took a long time to get a sketchy fakie front 50 switch front shove out, couldn’t get kick back 50 or front nosegrind 180 or many flippers. Bratcher did a few tricks down the ledge. I liked the switch boardslide to 50 the most. He almost got a nosegrind on the little ledge. Tim got from noseslides and 50s on the low ledge. Salty wasn’t too into the spot but still skated and worked on some things like switch crooks and fakie bigspins. Dave was the last one there, but he packed in some good tricks. Front 50s the tall ledge, back 50 and back 50 back 180 the low one, almost switch slappy crooks transfer. At the Dave and I started trying ollie up then trick down the ledge. It was so hard to get the ollie up and setup in time. No surprise, but Dave did his way quicker (and better). When I finally got the noseslide though it felt really cool. Fun session, weird and fun spot, crazy environment. Then I went on to play tennis and go for a long walk with Liz and was so tired.

(setup 4/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 team hollows with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 wide 11.5 white with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Was slacking after work, but decided a 10×10 list would be good motivation to skate a little. My list:

kickflip
bs flip
fakie bigflip
heelflip
bs halfcab heel
treflip
nollie treflip
fakie treflip
switch flip
nollie back heel

Rain was threatening and I tried to warm up quickly even though I had yet another setup change. 8.5/14.25/thunders. I thought I would do real bad, but was happy I was able to get 6/6 before the rain hit at nollie tre. I was happy to get a first try fakie bigflip and my first halfcab heel in forever. Other tricks were whatever. Treflip was a little over 10 tries.

(setup 5/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 team hollows with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 wide 11.5 white with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)