Had a long day of work filled with some bad news and didn’t have the motivation to do a real session. But I did get out shortly before sunset to the school for about 30 minutes. I had some new Tiago 1010s to try and reduce knee pain. Last time I tried them I hated them, but this time around I had arch support in them and they seemed better for now. I started on the side doing some slappys and trying kickflips. Oh, speaking of Slappy’s, I had put Slappy trucks back on. Ha. They felt surprisingly good this time around. Well, for ollies at least, not for flippers, but that might be the new shoes. I had some fun ollies over the manhole and posed a couple treflips over it. Then I went to the side and did several axle stalls. It was surprising how easy they were compared to normal. The shove out took a bit, but it was pretty rewarding. I went home after that.

(setup 6/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, jessup ultragrip, slappy lights 8.5, 51mm bones stf v1 pj 103a, new balance numeric tiago 1010 phantom size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10 really enjoyed that midsole)

Got stuck working later than expected and missed Will. Paul did show though. Upon my initial pushes I knew I was in a lot of pain and did not have any juice. I think I did a couple crooks, almost a fakie nosegrind the bench, a bad kickflip that took way too much effort. Paul on the other hand was shredding way more than normal. He was doing flippers, grinds and manuals I don’t normally see him bang out. Eric N was there and was trying nollie back overcrooks on the little flat bar and they looked really cool. But I left after about 15 minutes of “skating”.

(setup 2/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null grip, thunder team hollow 149 with bones medium bushings, bones 51mm stf v1 pj 103a wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 wide white size 11.5 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 8/10)

Before work I went by Howard Hueston for a 10 minute roll. It was kind of whatever, but fun and I did a few axle stalls and rock ‘n rolls.

After work on a warm sunny day I went to dog park. Rob, Ed, Paul would show after a while. I had around 30 minutes before they showed. It was a tough warm up coming right from work being so tired. Kind of early on I made myself jump on the bench. I thought of a new combo for me and would somehow get it kind of quickly. Front 50 front 180 out the bench then fakie nosegrind the lurb. The front 50 180 out was incredibly slow and garbage, but I haven’t done that trick there in a long time. I also haven’t done a fake nosegrind in forever and got it first try so that was cool. I had a good slam on a halfcab noseslide on the bench. Rob showed with his christmas complete and seemed to like it. He had manuals, boardslides, noseslides and a poppy first try kickflip. Paul was a little less poppy and a bit more slappy than normal. Ed came! We were all kind of playing with no comply flips and couldn’t seem to get one. Paul and Rob played with switch no complies. They all talked bikes for a while and I flailed around trying nollie tres unsuccessfully, got the smallest crooks on the medium flat bar, boardslid it a few times. I couldn’t commit to kickflip over the parking block until Paul said if I didn’t do it I owed him a board. And of course I’m cheap so I landed it, and it felt really good and I left on a good note.

(setup 6/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null grip, thunder team hollow 149 with bones medium bushings, bones 51mm stf v1 pj 103a wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 wide white size 11.5 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Not feeling very motivated I hoped being around some friends would get me skating a little. I kind of hid in the “impact section” (joke by one of Squeek’s friend) where I saw Dan do a manual to front rock back to manual and then a first try switch front board. The switch front board inspired me to try one there. It took me so long, but I got it and followed it with a first switch front nose. There was a dude (Dave?) that was rattling off really cool pivot variations on the little qp which was inspiring. I did a couple tricks then joined Garrett, Donnie and Dan on the miniramp. I would go on to skate it okay considering it’s been a long time since I’ve really skated transition. Only got one front 50, a few non-decked front rocks, fakie smiths to fakie, but it was fun. Dan almost had amazing front bigspins. Donnie destroyed. Garrett was trying not to fall on his wrist and still looked really good and the kickflip pivot was rad. After that I chilled. Squeeks’ 40 bday part is rad.

(setup 5/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null grip, thunder team hollow 149 with bones medium bushings, bones 51mm stf v1 pj 103a wheels, strike mvmnt transit street trainer shoes size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

Up kind of early. Paul, Bratcher and I rolled to Broomfield park. It was pretty warm. We would meet Tim, Darin, Eric and eventually Dave. I had a good start, was getting through the warmups pretty quickly. But I would really fizzle out and not have a very good session. Honestly don’t remember much from me other than some good feeling crooks, first try the bump to bar boardslide, a hurricane on the bank to curb. Flippers started okay for me, I got Paul to SKAT but he would win on switch front 360. I got a letter on treflip doh. Paul had some full pulls and was able to get nosegrinds this session. Also a million crooks shove on the blue ledge which are new for him. Tim front 50s and lots of slappys. Jack’s slappy the bank to ledge was really good as were his boardslides on everything. Darin was ripping, front crook the blue ledge and back tail to fakie. Also treflip pretty quickly. Dave was destroying. He would get a run of ollie to tail drop the bank to curb, kickflip into the bank (yes kickglip into the bank!), backside boneless the brick qp, front 50 nollie back 180 out the bank to ledge. Seriously insane. He also had nose manuals, nose grind I think, really slappy crooks and switch slappy crooks on the little bank to curb. Eric was ripping too, he got like 50 heelflips over the parking block. Three in a row at one point. First try front 50 the ledge into the bank, axle stall to fakie the quartapotty and a lot more. Sorry if I was a downer dudes, I was struggling but it was fun.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null is all you need, jessup ultragrip, 825 slace lows with ace hard bushings, 52mm 99a f4 yellow classic, strike mvmnt transit street trainers black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 quite a bit of knee pain even though the shoes seem to lower it at times – maybe I’ll get used to them)

After work and a nap I went over to the side of the school with sore knees, thick shoes and a smaller setup. 8.25, slace lows, strike mvmnt shoes. I didn’t have a 10×10 list and after some slappys I just kinda winged it and would end up getting 11 flippers in an hour. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. It was a long time before I landed anything else, but then they started to flow as I calibrated to the smaller setup/ bigger shoes. F/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip, a frontside flip that felt really cool, heelflip, halfcab heel, varial flip. Was very close to treflip, fakie heel and nollie varial flip. Not as close to nollie bigflip and front heel.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null is all you need, jessup ultragrip, 825 slace lows with ace hard bushings, 52mm 99a f4 tablet, strike mvmnt transit street trainers black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Didn’t sleep well, long day in the office, but it was nice out so stopped by dog park. Paul and Rob joined. As did some youth that were flying around the park. One dude in particular with some incredibly fast lipslides on the low bar, heelflips and treflips going mach 10. He was chill, but man it was crazy being around that type of energy. I spent some time on a nollie tail 270 shove on the curb that I tried to do while sliding but probably came to a half first. Had some okay crooks and kickflips. Couldn’t halfcab flip again though. My knee was hurting. Rob was in a bit of a funk and his trucks that were half way through the axle were not helping the grinds. Paul had some of his normals. Paul and I played a game of SKATE when Rob left. I think kickflip was the only flipper, I lost. Then I left.

(setup 4/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollow knox royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide white size 11.5 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 7/10 left knee killing me)

After work, chill time and dinner I made myself get up and go to Broomfield park. My reward for hurrying to the park was rain as soon as I pulled in. Ha. Darin was still there as was Jameson. We dorked around a little in the covered area on the bike rack. Jameson brought out one of those 14″ egg boards and we goofed around on it. I couldn’t commit to kickflip, but he treflipped it first try. The park dried super quickly though. Those guys warmed up on flat near the tables, I warmed up on the bank to curb. I was wearing some vulcs and yet felt very off initially. I was able to get a hurricane pretty quickly, but not a blunt to pivot. Jameson was rattling off tricks. Darin went in on treflips so I did as well. We both took a while to get over-50 makes, but left them at that. Both got first try heelflips after that. He would add kickflip, which I surprisingly took like 5 tries to get one. Then Will and I hit the ledges for a while. He rattled off tricks. Front 50 then front tail then front smith into the bank. Back nosegrind and back tail on the black ledge after. I would finally get a front 50 into the bank after more struggle than normal. Bailed several crooks. Justin had shown and was shredding. I’m not sure I had anything else. It sounds like nothing and I definitely don’t have much to show for it, but it was a fun session.

(setup 4/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollow knox royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue/white size 11.5 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

It was really nice out. I didn’t feel much like skating, but decided on a little slappy session across the street. Mainly because I wanted to see if some old 868s I had felt better than the 440s. I did some slappy crooks, a front slappy, a front crooks slappy, one really bad regular slappy and a few questionable switch slappy crooks. Also a few kickflips. Things hurt less. I think I just need midsole these days. Ugh.

(setup 7/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollow knox royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 868 grey size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Up early on a Sunday I got swooped up by Bratcher and picked up Salty on the way to the little York St park. Much to our delight quite a few of the 98% dudes were there too. Cass would join too. I was pretty sore, lacking motivation. Most started with a few basic qp tricks before it seemed everyone could easily grind across the gap like it was nothing. Jack’s boardslide to fakie was sick. Cass almost did front 50 nollie shove across it. Kyle’s ollie across it was amazing. I kind of hit on the side for a while skating the sidewalk and ledges. Had some fakie flips and halfcab flips to start lines, was hyped to ollie up onto the ledge pretty well. Salty was ripping grinds on the little bank to curbs. A bunch of us skated the long double curb for a while. Jack boardslid the drop down a few times, Donnie got it, Dan switch front board the taller part, Cass front blunt the lower part. I really struggled with the boardslide drop down boardslide and needed a line to get it. It was fun though, I thought I was going to break my board when I went down the drop, but it was fine.

Then Cass, Salty, Jack and I went to the warehouse. It was a little hectic initially, but ended up being pretty mellow for the most part. Everyone was kind of all over the place. Salty went in on the fakie grind halfcab out of the tiny qp which he would get super good. Jack doing ride on grinds to back lip and skating the really good qp. Cass was all over too, popping some good kickflips, making the front 50 ride off the tiny qp seem absurdly easy. I had fun once I finally settled on a few things, the line was fun even if I did almost break the wood wallie thing and not land the front noseslide. The 5-0s off the end of the tiny qp were fun. Then I mostly skated the metal ledge, struggled with crooks and front 50s. Spent some time on the good qp doing a few basics then ended trying to do the switch noseslide kickflip out. I was close to a lunch break’d one. Not sure I will ever get it while moving. Fun day of skating, was nice to be in the shade of the warehouse on such a hot day.

(setup 6/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollow knox royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 was pretty sore and the left knee is not happy either)