Went by dog park after work. Valmont was overrun with toddlers. Will and Ted were at dog park. Things started off alright actually. I would get a fun line of boardslide through the crack the cement things, no comply to tail the bank to curb, a weird f/s grind up the edge of the barrier. Had an okay slow line of nollie front tail the lurb, crook jib to fakie the bench, fakie nosegrind the curb. Other than that though, things really fell apart when I slammed trying to front 50 the curb. I would go on to make it much worse by trying to front 50 the bench again and never getting it. I somehow stayed positive on the outside, but on the inside I was dying. Will had some casual bangers and tried to switch manual the pad. Oh yeah, there was some rollerskating girls there that kept getting in the way. Like they would never look where anyone else was and would just post up in the worst spots. That didn’t help me. Will and Ted seemed to survive fine though.

(setups 0/10 tried 8.5/14.25 thunder and 8.25/indy and disliked both, last resort cm002 black size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work, no one met up. Jason, Damien and crew were there. I had tried to get going, maybe got a manual or two, don’t remember anything other than I couldn’t front 50 the bench and I left so depressed.

(setup 2/10 8.25 pmg (that’s so old it’s been to Germany and back), jessup ultragrip, 5.6 venture v-hollow redrilled to v8, bones stf 103a pj 53mm v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling very sore and not so motivated I attempted to skate some new/rare spots for motivation. Went to the school up on Lehigh and found nothing. All I did was a carve on the little bank. Lots more driving, crowded schools that I avoided .. ended up at Arapahoe Ridge. Got ollie up the 3 curbs, turn around double down manual which was fun. Next thing was ollie onto the longer pad and front 180 off. The drop felt rather large unfortunately. Then tried to just manual the lower section and struggled so bad, kind of got one. More cruising around, ended up at the new area on central, but just wanted to ollie off a weird two stair into a bank. Took a line to do it. Terrible fakie bigflip, nollie shove, ollie a two, front 180 up a 2, ollie the 2 into the bank. Did some more spot lurking, but ended up at home.

(setup 7/10 8.25 pmg (that’s so old it’s been to Germany and back), jessup ultragrip, 5.6 venture v-hollow redrilled to v8, bones stf 103a pj 53mm v1, new balance numeric 440v2 wide half 574 insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10 feet and knees were so sore)

The sun came out and the wet concrete dried quickly. Went to Platte because it normally dries quickly. In fact no part of the south side even had run off. I started at the manny pad. Normally I hate this manny pad due to the cracks, but today I liked it. Warming up was tough. I took some getting used to my setup change and 440s again. Felt good though. Got manual and nose manual pretty quick. May have gotten a line of halfcab flip then nose manual. Started going for nose manual shove and kick back tail. Never got the nose manual shove although was very close. Got a kick back tail which made me happy. Went over to the 3 stair. Ollied up, down and 180 down. The ollie up was not clean though. Then I skated the good flatground area for a while. Didn’t land much. Really struggled with heelflips and could not get one. Was really close to halfcab heel.

(setup 7/10 8.25 pmg (that’s so old it’s been to Germany and back), jessup ultragrip, 5.6 venture v-hollow redrilled to v8, bones stf 103a pj 53mm v1, new balance numeric 440v2 wide half 574 insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Wasn’t feeling overly motivated, but tried to get out and skate some before the weather would turn to snow. Went to the side of the school. Did some slappies. Struggled with flip tricks. Like really struggled. The amount of effort I had to put into a halfcab flip was maddening. Almost got a treflip, but I didn’t.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null flaherty, forged titanium indy 144 with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, emerica og-1 black size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Left from the office with rain threatening and took the parking lot known as 287 to Broomfield. The park was popping. My legs were toast. I quickly joined a game of treflip with Kevin and Sean. I beat Sean, but Kevin did all 4 treflip variations before I had landed mine. Pretty amazing. Also marks one of the rare times I did a treflip priot to a kickflip. Mainly because I had gone 0-3 on kickflips before that. Sean and Kevin killed the black ledge. Kevin doing his first fakie back tail since hurting his knee. Sean nollie back nosegrind was so casual. Will did some grinds into the bank. I had some good crooks, noseslides to fakie the bank to ledge, couldn’t halfcab noseslide though and had very little pop into front 50s. Those dudes were chilling and I just wanted to do another slappy crook on the parking block, but I lined it out with a kickflip flyout. Then it turned into treflip flyout madness in which I never quite got one. The fall was funny enough though.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null flaherty, forged titanium indy 144 with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Dog park after work. I waited a little too long to write this and don’t remember much. Rob had some solid back 50s and manuals, back 50 back 180. I had a second try nose manual. Kevin was ripping. Back tail the bench, Gish the bench, nollie and switch flips so easily, crooks, nollie 5-0s. At the end Kevin and I did some ride on grinds off the grate. The nollie bonk off the corner of the top circle was scary and my fav. The switch grinds were fun too.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null flaherty, forged titanium indy 144 with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, last resort grey cm002 size 12 (way too big) with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a really nice day Kevin and I chilled at 303 for a bit then rolled into campus. I got some titanium 144s to hopefully finally have a perfect setup (no chance whatsoever). First spot was the little flower pot triangle ledge. I had tried a line of kickflip up the curb then curve around and crooks, but the kickflip wasn’t happening. Then we went to the downhill ledge. I took a while just to be able to noseslide it from the top of the “hill”. We got to the point where we did tricks into the “hill” and then ledge tricks. Kevin halfcab flip and then crooks was sick. He also tried switch flip then switch front nose, but the speed was too much. We wanted to get a student to walk up halfway so he could have the excuse of having to slow down around a student, but we didn’t. Would have been funny. I took a while to get varial flop in and halfcab flip. But once I calibrated the huge floppy shoes and new smallerish setup I had a few in a row that felt very good. Then to the slope to steps spot. I took too long to do front tail shove then front shove. Kevin took less long to do the blunt then kickflip. Last spot was the tiny bank that I didn’t really skate. Kevin did nollie and switch flip easily. Fun session.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null flaherty, forged titanium indy 144 with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, last resort grey cm002 size 12 (way too big) with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a very warm Saturday Rob, Dave, Paul and I rolled up to Evergreen for a birthday tradition. We met up with Salty, Bratcher, Miller and Jake (still unable to skate). Great crew. We filmed almost nothing which was kind of nice. Bratcher had a migraine and didn’t really skate. Salty had some cool grind reverts on the qp and went for some fast boardslides on the ledge. Paul was the youngest and it showed popping onto the ledges with ease. Front 50 down the slight hubba looked fun, back 5-0s, front nosegrind the fence ledge, windshield wiper on the qp. Rob manuals, crails, front board pop out, back 50s, front slash the qp. I was skating decent and starting a line with kickflip over the hip but totally broke my board. Doh. Luckily I had a used one in the car that was somehow actually in better shape. I don’t know if I quite got back into the groove after that. But I would get a bad b/s flip over the hip, first t fakie bigspin over it. I had a bunch of crooks, noseslides on the fence ledge, a few slow front 50s. One thing I actually liked the most was kickflip up the curb then noseslide the out ledge. Had some fun 180 nose manuals from the wedge to the hip deck. I ended trying slow treflips and eventually got a very sorry excuse of a treflip. Dave lasted the longest of course and was shredding. Lots of kickflips over the f/s hip, b/s flips over it, pivot the steep qp, bump to nose manual the wedge to hip deck, front 50s the bump to ledge, showed up Paul with a layback grind to tail, back 3 over the hip, ended on a varial flip that took a bit. Fun session, great crew, fun park, great weather, good margs after.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null keyhole, forged hollow indy 149 with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, last resort grey cm002 size 12 (way too big) with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I took a half day and on a warm afternoon picked up Bratcher and rolled to Windsor park. We met Hayden and Will and we basically had the park to ourselves until the end save for an e-motorbike. Ended up being a pretty fun session. Bratcher lots of tricks on the curb height ledge, ollied up the euro, front 50 the taller ledge. Hayden is so fun to watch. Such casual manuals, back tails, crooks, nosegrinds. Filmed an amazing line of him 50’ing the double set curb, crooks off the bank to ledge then a super lofty b/s ollie the qp hip. Will skated the tall ledge with ease. Front smith on the bank to ledge was amazing. First try pop shove up the euro. I had a couple of lines I liked, but I struggled in my oversized shoes. Warm up line above was about as good as I did all day. Crooks, noseslide to fakie, halfcab noseslide. Later on I would get a crooks on the lower ledge, flatground heelflip, front 180 the euro. Other than those nothing really stands out as noteworthy from me. Fun session, good crew.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null keyhole, cast hollow 144 mindys, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, last resort grey cm002 size 12 (way too big) with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)