3rd day in a row at dog park, normally spells disaster for me, but it was okay. I didn’t have a ton of energy. The park was surprisingly dead, only a few people skating. One of them was young Ace whipping his 60mm wheels around. I skated pretty mid. Continued to have success with crooks and had a great feeling halfcab flip. But man I struggled with pop and I didn’t like that. Seriously could barely front 50 the main bench. Was close to kf back 50s going slow on the lurb. All in all a pretty lackluster session even though I attempted to skate hard.

(setup 5/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium redrilled to v8 with bones bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Worked later than I thought I would. Managed to catch a bit of daylight and saw Will. He was working on back smiths on the bank to curb. I did some various warmup non-pop tricks then got a front smith and a really bad front board on the concrete bar thing. I got a crooks on the back of the two step. Somehow a first try manual on the lurb. That was about it. Will had quickly done some 50s on benches, but had to go. I left too as I was extra sore from so much sitting at work.

(setup 7/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium redrilled to v8 with bones bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

On the way to work I stopped by dog park for about 20 minutes on a different setup and new shoes. Oh and it was incredibly windy, unskateable. I really just wanted to do a noseslide and crooks. I had 8.3 with forged redrilled v8 ventures and it seemed okay. Well, it noseslid really well and crooked even better. But when it came to front 50, not so good.

(setup 6/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium redrilled to v8 with bones bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Pretty sore. Sean showed up and we met Garrett then stopped by a tall ledge in Gunbarrel on the way. Well, Sean nosegrinded it, Garret front nosed it, I just did a b/s flip out of the bump.

Then to Rocky Mountain where we crewed up hard! First time seeing Rob in a long time, he cruised around getting his skate feet back. Garrett was going pretty hard, Hayden too. Noe was kind of hiding skating flatground. I didn’t do much of anything, had some slappys, a couple flippers. There was so many people it was kind of crazy. Dan, Chad, Dave, Joe, Bo, Jack. It was almost too many people to organize, but we did and we went to West View school. Most didn’t skate. Garrett, Sean and Noè got some baller tricks. Bo almost ollied in.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null keyhole, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

Finally some warm weather! Still lots of snow about, but I know the stashes. I was wanting to skate flatground and knew Platte would be dry on the south side. I would go on to have an okay session, a bit frustrating at times. Especially heelflips, they just didn’t want to flip. I skated a little over an hour and managed 11 flippers, a few of which were absolute garbage.

kickflips – felt good
fakie flips – felt good
halfcab flip – Had a few, they felt alright
fakie bigflip – one bad one
backside flip – okay
heelflip – seriously took forever and barely came around when I got it
f/s halfcab heel – total slop tail on the gound came to a halt
nollie varial flip – directly after the f/s hc heel with both heels on the ground, but I was still hyped. Haven’t done it in a while
horrible fakie varial flip
f/s halfcab flip
terrible treflip

After a break and some refueling I ended up at Douglass which had snow around the good side of the main ledge. I started on the side. Warm up runs felt good and I tried to skate fast. Switch 180, nollie tail, pop shove out of the bump. Would get some front 50s that had a tiny bit of speed, accidental 5-0s, front 50 180 and front 50 shove. Also a couple flippers. Then I went to the front of the school and skated a different bench that was already waxed beyond belief. It didn’t go well, even noseslides were hard. I would get a few crooks and tried to line them out by curving around and doing front 50. But never got the front 50 and had to stop as I was getting too depressed. Kind of a bummer end to a pretty good day.

(setup 4/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After a couple days of not skating or working out much I went skating after work. And wow did I feel off. I had drove around looking for a dry spot and found that the safeway ledge was dry. I used to love it so much almost 30 years ago when I first started skating with Jason. It’s not waxed up anymore, but it should be. It was tough skating a ledge right away, especially on rough concrete without much room around it. I did front and back axle stalls, pivots, back crooks stall, a sketchy front tail. First kickflip felt amazing. Taking forever to get a halfcab flip did not feel amazing. Was close on treflip too, but never got both feet on it.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Changed out the Slaces for Thunder 148 team hollows. Liked it more. Skated better. Got a 3rd try treflip. Battled some heelflips and got a few. Hucked some other stuff, but didn’t put much down. B/s flip and halfcab flip were fun.

(setup 7/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Went out to the garage on a new setup and hated it, skated like garbage. I had never done 8.3 with Slace and I probably never will again. It felt off as soon as I set it down. Took a while to get a kickflip. I think I was able to get a heelflip and then a treflip too.

(setup 1/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, ace baseplate slappy 8.5 hanger, spitfire 51mm 99a classic shape f4, emerica og-1 b/w size 12 footprints gamechangers)
(pain level 3/10)

The sun had come out and melted some snow. Later in the afternoon I drove around and ended up finding a lot out on valmont I’ve hit before. I was quite sore and probably shouldn’t have kept skating, but I’m stubborn. Eventually I would get a little manual on a little median, a couple basic flippers. Tried to line out a flipper with an ollie over a snow pile. Eventually got a f/s halfcab flip then landed on the ollie but fell forward. Took a million tries to get a heelflip and then bailed the ollie. Couldn’t get treflip or fakie bigflip, settled for starting with fakie flip. Except I couldn’t get a fakie flip and it drove me over the edge. Also the squeeking pivot cups were annoying me to no end. I had worn different shoes, but they weren’t the cause of the sucking.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lite royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, emerica og-1 black size 12 currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

On a very snow Saturday I met Nate at square house. Most everyone bailed as the snow as pretty intense. I had arrived first and did some basic warming up before Nate showed. He was feeling rotten and couldn’t really get things going. We stuck to the manny pad for a while. Dave showed, it was on. Nate had done some 50s, 5-0s, nollie front 5-0s, manuals, nose manuals. I had some manuals, nose manuals, front 50s, some really slow back 50s, a front 50 over the the pad on the upper ledge that felt great, some crooks too, couldn’t do a heelflip, but managed a bad treflip. Dave had some moves too. 50s, 5-0s, manuals, fakie nosegrinds, fakie nosegrind to 180 out the hard way. We eventually skated more than just the pad although it’s a blur for some reason. Dave was killing it. He got a backside flip up the euro! He had some crazy good lines linking tricks like front smith the tall qp, boardslide the bump to bar, fakie crooks down the escalator qp, kickflips up the euro, kickflips to fakie the bank, so much it was crazy. Nate had to chill after a while, he was hurting. I had tried the slappy crook, axle stall, kickflip to fakie quick line, but never got the kf to fakie. I went in on noseslide 270 shove out for so long, got so close, but never landed on it. I was so sore by the end. Dave was still going strong and probably could have skated even longer. Fun session.

(setup 5/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lite royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)