On a hot morning I had limited time so I went to dog park again. Bratcher, Paul, Dave, Eric, Ferg, Raul and a lot more showed. It was a pretty heated session both temperature and skating. Ferg rules, so fun to be around and a really good skater. He front smithed over the pad, did back 180 nosegrind, halfcab crook. Bratcher is always charging, lots of slappy tricks. I was really struggling to get going so played a game of SKATE with Paul. We got to SKAT-SKAT so it was an alright game for me other than getting a letter on treflip and I think front shove. I lost on a nollie heel which I’ve never landed so to be expected. Shortly after that I put together two lines I really liked. Heelflip, boardslide the tall round bar, no comply flip a parking block. Then one that sounds good on paper. F/s halfcab heel, kickflip over a parking block, no comply flip a parking block, 270 flip. I was hyped! Dave would get a no comply flip too and front boarded the tall round rail. I struggled to front 50 the bench again, didn’t lock into crooks over the pad, couldn’t kickflip up the lurb. Saw Dave get a nosegrind on the lurb again. At the end Eric, Dave, Paul and I hucked some flippers. Dave was super close to heelflips. I was not close to switch tre, nollie tre or switch f/s flip. Paul was really close to switch back heel. Surprisingly Eric was struggling with heelflips. Then I had to go pick up my mom. Fun session even if it started really slow.

Then I did a solo mission to MRKT to sell boards. I had intended to skate with the FOCO Nullers, but they were doing other stuff. I was really sore, but wanted to skate and thought a solo campus session with no expectations could be fun. It was cloudy with a few rain drops at first, but it cleared up and was real hot, like almost 100. The first spot I skated the little ledge along the bikepath and wasn’t feeling it. Then walking into campus found that super random bank to ledge and two stair that was super rough and way harder than it looks. I loved it. I also did a few nose stalls to start, but I did get a better no comply to tail before selfie filming. Would love to go back and do it better with a kickflip or something after. I went to the two stair area and wasn’t really feeling it much. Wanted to crook the granite bench after the two stair but couldn’t and just did a noseslide instead. Then ended up in the hallway between the math/music and engineering buildings that I had so many classes at in college. Kind of a trip to skate there actually. Anyway the spot was great, good curb, an alright ledge and this weird ride on ledge that was way weirder than it looks. I had some really fun intentional 5-0s on the curb and some not so intentional ones. The uphill grind killed me though, I could not do it well. Some little kids came and one of them did it really easy and ollied out like it was nothing. At least they liked my slappies on the curb. I never really did the uphill grind well enough to ollie out, but it was still fun. Last thing was the little quick up to gap. The ollie up was way too hard for me and may result in some setup madness. The little axle stall thing was 100% not planned and I just kind of did it instead of trying to ollie the gap. The front 180 felt really cool even if it was just a tiny gap. It was really fun to skate CSU, it’s been too long. I must admit I felt pretty old considering my level of skating and I went to school there 30 years ago. Yikes.

(setup 5/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Jake’s last weekend before knee surgery so he called for a dog park session. Rob, Paul, Cass and Ed, yes Ed showed. We skated for a few hours and then the next day I skated a few hours too so I might confuse some things between the sessions. Aki was there at first and shredding. Cass was killing it. He had kick back 50, kickflip off the grate kicker and almost kickflip front 50s on the curb. Paul had his Sean tricks, back 5-0 front 180 out, slappy crook 180, a lot. I had some flippers working early and some rare pop. Had a fun line of noseslide, ollie the tiny rail, b/s flip on flat. Had a nose manual and good feeling crooks. Front 50s were not easy. Saw Rob boardslide the tall bench, nollie front lip, manual the c pad, maybe nose manny too, back 50 back 180. Was really hyped when Ed showed, he was charging some ollies and manuals. Jake had some good front tails, crooks shove I think, skated the barrier so who knows what he was doing ha ha. At the end Cass, Paul and I went to play SKATE. It was funny Paul missed double or nothing on front shove, then triple, four and five and he was out. Cass and I went on, but Cass had to quit because it was getting so hot. We had gotten to the point of trying treflips which I then continued for like 30 more tries before giving up and leaving. Paul had done one and a couple other tricks. Fun session.

(setup 6/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)