Feeling anxious early on a winter day I went over to the school armed with a 10 x 10 list. I warmed up a bit, got kickflips and then started on the list.
halfcab flip – made myself do fakie flip first so it was kind of a line. Got a couple.
heelflip – Got one then made myself do another one after a halfcab flip.
fs flip – Got a couple really bad pivoted ones
front heel – Kind of landed one. It could maybe count if it was a game of SKATE between two 60 year olds and it was on defense.
fakie bigflip – Couldn’t get this one. Made me mad.
360 flip – Didn’t get very close. made me mad.
nollie tre – Didn’t get very close. Also made me mad.
rick flip – remotely close, but it would have come to a halt.
switch flip – remotely close.
cab flip – remotely close. There were a couple that I landed on the front wheels and almost got around, but fell off.
I had posed other tricks in between, but didn’t really land anything. Still I was hyped on skating an hour of flat early before eating.

After some food I met up with Jake and Rob on campus as the sun and a breeze came out. Jake and I had arrived first at the new meet up spot and warmed up with some flatground. Around the time Rob arrived Jake and I were trying the warm up line of kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip. I got it in a few tries. Angry Jake started to show when he would land on a bunch of fakie flips, but not get it. Rob and I went up the stairs and started goofing around on the double snow section. It started as ollies, 180s and graduated to manuals and kickflips. Ha ha. I had a fun one of switch front 180 then back 180. Also ollie then kickflip. Was trying kickflip then b/s flip, but never got the kickflip with the added speed. Jake got front 180 then f/s halfcab. Rob shut it down with the gap in/out manual. Jake would get the kickflip/no comply 180/fakie flip line and we moved into campus. We did some jersey barrier wallrides. Then ended up at the little downhill curb/ledge. I think Rob got slappy crooks, back 50 and front tail. I don’t think Jake liked it very much. I had a couple fun line. Halfcab flip then front 50. Heelflip then front 50 shove. Next was the micro bump to hill for a frustrating, but fun session. Jake beat me to kickflip and returned the beam favor from earlier. But then would go on to struggle with frontside flips. I got a few flippers. Kickflip, fakie flip, first try halfcab flip, super slow backside flip, a battle of a treflip but it did feel pretty great, f/s halfcab flip and ended with a fun no comply 180. Rob was struggling with kickflip then tapped into his inner Neil and lined it out with a no comply shove. Jake had tried fakie 3 shove too. I couldn’t get heelflip. We left and on the way back I forced myself into getting a heelflip. It was a fun day. I had more energy than I’ve had in awhile. Maybe it does help to take a day off once in awhile.

(setup 8.25 colfax deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 2/10!!!)

On what seemed like a warm day I went to Red Hawk to meet Rob and Dave.  We all seemed to arrive the same time and a breeze had kicked in making it feel pretty cool.  We warmed up with some ride on grinds, slappies, manuals, a cruise around the school.  Eventually we started getting into the ledge and things.  I was happy to get slappy crooks on it and continue that stoke from last week.  Dave would of course get it too.  Such a fun trick.  Rob had a bunch of wallie nollies then boardslides through the little kink.  I had a few basic flippers at the top going slow, struggled a bit with front 50s, but would go on to have one of my favorite sessions there.  Dave started trying a line that he would eventually get.  Ollie onto the rock, nollie back 180 off, halfcab noseslide shove, then a boardslide up to fakie 50.  Whoa!  Rob added in some halfcab noseslides, noseslides, crooks I think.  I had switched to my 8.25 briefly, but decided once again it just felt like overkill and went back to the 8″.  I would go on to land a ton of tricks.  Sketchy back 50, front 50, front 50 180, accidental front 5-0, nollie front tail, nollie front tail to fakie, halfcab noseslide to fakie, kickflip back 50 (with some feeble but whatever), crooks, my best crooks shove ever, crooks to fakie, switch noseslide 270 shove out.  Also maybe a couple that kind of count like fakie back nosegrind jib, front tail, frontside halfcab noseslide.  I was definitely hyped.  Dave would get a ton too.  Front 50 nollie front 180 out, back 50 nollie shove out, switch front board to forward, boardslides to fakie, close to switch front crook and ended with a really good switch crook to forward.  

Rob had left.  After Dave and I skated Red Hawk a little longer we ended up checking out this little hip Dave had seen.  We did some shovelling and got a few hits in before the home owner in the background came and gave us the boot.  I had gotten kickflip, Dave had done back 180.  We took one last huck before leaving I got remotely close to front heel and Dave had cab, but we left.  Bummer about getting the boot that spot could be fun.

(setup old 8″ null logo deck, jessup grip, venture 5.2 v-hollow high, bones medium bushings, old bones stf v2 51mm, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, es energy foam insoles)
(pain level 4/10 wind leads to arthritis)

On a super nice day I went out to Mike’s Camera area to meet Dave. I was on call for work so couldn’t go far. I was there first and cruised around the area to check it out. A Jeep was parked and took off when they saw me driving right over a median. It was weird. Ha. I tried to start with a warm up line starting in the narrow walkway, down the 2 then over to the ledge. I had slammed really hard on a nollie shove where I hit a rock. I had moved on to kickflip and then heelflip before getting to the ledge. So the line was heelflip, front 180 the two, turn around, boardslide pop out the ledge then I bailed a front heel. It was a fun feeling line. Dave had shown around then and was warming up with nollie/fakie/switch/regular shoves, nollie 180s, etc. He would go on to get a rad line. Kickflip, nollie back 180, switch ollie off the two stair, turn around, ride on grind, then front noseslide. I then tried another line for a while. Halfcab flip, front shove off the 2 stair, crooks the ledge. I got the line twice, the first time the front shove was great, but the crooks was the tiniest little jib. The second time the front shove was sketchy, but the crooks was good. I was happy to get several halfcab flips though, that trick used to be automatic for me. Then rather then just hitting the ledge I became obsessed with another line. 360 flip, kickflip off the 2 stair, noseslide or something the ledge. It took me awhile to get a 360 flip. The first one was bad and I missed the kickflip. Got the next one and landed on the kickflip, but stepped off. Then a security guy came and told us to leave. Doh, I really wanted to get that line. We had fun on the ledge though. We did a lot of ride on grinds and didn’t skate the tall part so much. Dave did ride on back 50 to nollie shove out followed by back 50 down the end. Ride on back 50 180 out then fakie nosegrind down the end. Switch slappy crook, slappy crook, crooks, front noseslide so many more I’m forgetting now. I had noseslide, noseslide fakie, halfcab noseslide, crooks, front 50 on the low part, switch ride on back 50 and I tried a bunch of switch ride on back 50 to fakie bigspin out. I got pretty close, had a couple fakie shoves that I pivoted to bigspin. But I hit my ankle a couple times and it really hurt.

Then we went to a nearby bank to curb. Well, we pulled the curb up. The rebar was still there and scary. It took me awhile to land anything. I never even got front rock or pivot and went in on hurricane. The clip above is basically in order of tricks we did. Dave did alleyoop pivot first try, then did it to disaster and even a revert out. I had sat for awhile and was super sore and thought I might not skate anymore. So I just started trying the rock to feeble and ended up getting some. That might be a new one. Dave’s nollie back neil was cool. The no comply to tail took me too long. It’s such a small bank so it made it hard. Dave had the front hurricane, but the asphalt was chipping away and he couldn’t get it. I tried kick back axle for a bit and Dave was filming it, but had to leave. He said ‘5 more tries’. About 20 tries later I landed it. Ha ha. It was a fun session. There was a weird tweaker dude that came in and asked for a pen. He disappeared behind some bushes for awhile then came out having drawn all over his face looking like a black eye. It was weird. He almost forgot ‘his bike’ when he left too. Some weird stuff going on back there.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Waking up early I went to Broomfield before work. With the exception of when I first got there and when I was leaving I had the park to myself. Warming up was alright. I was all over the place for awhile. I tried a few front feebles to fakie on the quartapotty, but never quite got one. I had a few front 50s on the black ledge, bad back 50 stalls on the blue ledge. I was doing alright with flippers, got a halfcab flip followed by backside flip then kickflip and missed a treflip. Then I settled in to trying front nosegrind 180. I would try a flip trick between each try. Got a few heelflips, fakie flips. Failed at treflips. But then out of nowhere got a nollie bigflip! It really cheered me up. It’s scary for me to commit to nosegrinds, it took a long time and I was getting late for work. Luckily I got one. It wasn’t pretty, but it had to do as I needed to leave. I had fun on my skateboard!

(setup 8.25 null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 custom hollow AWAKE lows, bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire 101a F4 classic shape, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 212 b/w/yellow size 12, new balance abzorb insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Got to dog park a little before 10. Jake was already there and we did some squeegeeing for a bit and got it mostly dry. Then we played a game of SKATE. I had a new deck, 8.25, 5.6 v-hollows. It felt great. The game of SKATE went decent for me. I avoided heelflips since I’ve been known to break new boards with bad heelflips. It was looking like I was going to pink slip Jake, but he strung together a few tricks that I got letters on. One was 360 shove which I tried twice and got it the second try (not a double or nothing). We both had SKAT and were going for 360 flips. I got a couple super bad ones that didn’t count before getting a decent one to win it. Then we skated the goods. Oh, Sean had shown up and was quickly 50/5-0/nosegrinding everything with ease. I skated mostly pretty bad, but had one line that was okay for me. Fakie 50 the weird pad, halfcab noseslide the tall side of the 2 step ledge, front 50 the new black one. I would go on to not land any more flip tricks even though I hucked a lot. It was frustrating. Hayden, Bo, Peyton and Noe showed up. We basically had the park all to us. Jake did some bluntslides on the elevated parking block. I ollied them. Noe did a million flip tricks and some mannies. Sean and Hayden ollied the fire hydrant and did a million cool tricks. Bo ripped it too, such a good treflip and maybe even feeble on the tall bar.

Then we went to Willville. I didn’t skate much there because I was filming Jack and Sean get buck. I don’t know how they can go so fast and ollie up that curb, but man they rip. Hayden got a cool line with Bo. Noe did some cool manuals.

Then we went to the 6-6. I had gotten kind of lost and looked at some new stuff that looked fun. Upon arriving to the 6-6 I saw Jack looked ready so I went to film him. He bailed one nollie tre, then second try he gets the nollie tre then treflip. WTF! Wow Jack. What a surreal moment. Noe did a line too while the rest of us kind of messed around. I got close to a couple switch flips in cracks. Peyton did some cool wall plants. Jack grinded a sharp metal landscaping divider.

Then we went to the ol’ bank to gap spot in the tech center. I started posing rock kickflips to fakie. Hayden nose manualled down it which is so gnarly. Sean nose manualled up it! Joe was trying to ollie up then ollie out over the cone which would be so sick. Noe did a super good fakie bigflip down the gap. Peyton almost got a cool line of ollie up, rock fakie, switch treflip down. All of this while I was still trying rock kickflip fakie. Bo was kind enough to film. Those dudes were all done and chilling so it was just me skating and I felt pretty dumb. Luckily they all rule and I was able to keep trying. I would get about 5 of them, but struggled with the switch 180 down the gap. I kind of got one. The 180 really sucked, but it’s a funny line. Super fun day. I can’t thank Bo enough for helping with filming.

(setup 8.25 null archway deck, jessup, venture 5.6 v-hollows, bones hard bushings, 51mm spitfire F4 101a radial slims, new balance numeric 288s grey/blue size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Kevin, Bo, Hayden, Jack, Joe, Garrent and I arrived at the Cheyenne park around the same time on a hot morning at 11.  There was a stiff Wyoming breeze and it was super bright out.  It was very disorienting at first.  I knew it had been awhile since I had been up there, but it was 8 years!  Yikes.  Anyway I messed around some, but mostly went in on backside flips over the weird metal steep to mellow hip.  Garrett went in with me trying front bigspin.  We got them back to back.  Jack had done a pole jam nollie heel, Joe did pole jam hardflip.  Wowsers.  Everyone was cruising around, it was hard to notice what anyone else did really.  Towards the end I was talking to Rich and most were playing SKATE or just skating flatground.  Jack landed so many tricks.  

Then we went to Johnson middle school as we always do when we’re in Cheyenne.  And somehow it was basically the exact same, except the fun little boardslide wasn’t waxed up.  Bo went right into filming as I had gone across the street looking for other stuff.  There was a fun frontside ledge that started curb height which I did one little 50 on.  And some wavy benches we would come back to later.  I filmed Hayden for a bit.  Matt, Tyreece and Shaun showed up.  Man it was rad seeing them.  Hugging Matt again was so rad.  Those dudes are still ripping.  Shaun was in full tech slaying.  Heelflip manual, heelflip back 50, nollie heel front tail, front 50 back foot flip out.  Matt did back tail, front blunt, nollie flip, still got it.  Jack had a cool line involving two wallie ledge tricks.  Kevin got bummed on his front blunts.  Garrett got a sick fakie nosegrind then switch noseslide shove line.  Hayden came remotely close to the sickest 180 manual.  Bo ruled it filming the whole time.  I had crooks and switch front nose on the ledge.  Joe got a cool line of nosegrind then back tail then heelflip.  

Then we went back to the wavy bench area.  It was harder than expected and not much more than 50s were done.  I didn’t do anything.  Joe tried a gnarly gap.  Kevin did some switch flips off the curbs.  

Next up was the contest.  We arrived in a brief rain shower.  I had done a few crooks and noseslides before the game of SKATE started.  I played Jack so you know how that went.  Rich was hyped on me landing some tricks, but if he only knew how bummed I was on missing treflip yet again.  Still though, it was super fun and playing Jack in SKATE was rad.  I didn’t skate after that really.  Hayden beat Garrett and then Jack, but Joe took Hayden out. Joe made it to the final game and did good, but was two hardflip variations short of a win.  Ha ha.  Gotta learn them hardflip reverts.  Jack won the best trick off the kicker with kickflip late shove.  He also did a first try late 360 shove after sitting for at least 30 minutes.  Then we we went out to eat.  What an awesome day.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, stock bushings no boardside washer, 3 washers inside each axle, bones stf 51mm v1 83b, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a busy day at work I headed up to Estes Park to meet Nebraska Dan at the skatepark. I got there first and rolled around for a bit. I was super sore and didn’t really feel like ollieing much so I would pretty much avoid it all night. Dan showed and after a brief warm up he was dedicated to getting some group lines where we did two trick lines and handed the phone off to each other. The tricks were supposed to end/start with the same trick. We started with a line of me doing grind up and over the box, kickflip on flat followed by Dan doing kickflip on flat then front 50 body varial out. We tried this for awhile. I ended up doing a lot of kickflips. Ha. Dan ended up changing to front 50 to front board – aka the Joe Hamilton. Then after that we kept going. He did a heelflip, I did a heelflip then a boardslide, he did a boardslide then a no comply, I did a no comply then a switch front nose, then he finally bailed. It was awesome. After that I captured him get his front board 270 / shove line. Then he got me get my switch noseslide shoves. The frontside one didn’t take all that long even, and man it felt awesome. Then we went and did the pump track for a bit which was pretty fun. We cracked some little ollies on a couple bumps. Then I drove home behind the worlds slowest driver. Argh. Heck of a fun night, beautiful sunset too.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, stock bushings no boardside washer, 3 washers inside each axle, bones stf 51mm v1 83b, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 5/10 sore from so much last night)

After work on a nice cool day I got a text from Dave to look out my window meaning he was at the school. So I went over there still feeling sore and worn out from all the filming two days before.  But I would actually start to feel pretty good quickly.  Dave was already skating well.  Back 180 fakie 50s, long slappy crooks, fakie ride off crook transfers, etc.  I had a few slappies and warm up tricks and would get some flip tricks at the start of lines.  Fakie flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heel.  No nollie tre or rick flip though.  Also hucked sone backside bigspins for a bit, but never put the feet on it. Had a kickflip from the curb cut to parking lot where I think I closed my eyes before I landed.  Because I was quite surprised when I was rolling away.  I tried a line for a long time of front shove off the curb, front 5-0 or frontside slappy then treflip out of the curb cut.  I would never get the treflip.  Dave had some flippers too and left after a fast slappy crook shove.  Ollie’s friend Alex had arrived and I’ve never really skated the same spot before.  So that was cool.  He was ripping.  Kickflips, heelflips, close to treflips, front 50s, slappy.  But it started raining pretty heavily so we bounced.

After dinner I just had to get back out there and enjoy the cool weather.  I went to the knobbed research area.  I didn’t know how tight the knobs were and was hoping for some little quick grinds, but they did a pretty good job of shutting that down.  I was quite sore initially from the earlier session, but would get going and feel fine.  Warm up line was switch 180 the little flat gap, ollie onto the long ledge, back 180 off, halfcab flip.  Next was ollie a longer flat gap, ollie onto the long ledge from the side again (which is way harder for me than going straight on) then kickflip off.  The kickflip took way too long, but it was fun when I got it.  Then for whatever reason I wanted to treflip off it.  I didn’t line out to it because I was getting tired.  But I would try flip tricks between tries.  Mostly heelflips.  I didn’t commit to many of the treflips initially.  This is actually probably the tallest thing I’ve tried them off.  By the end I was committing to 1/3 or so.  The last one tweaked my knee pretty good so I stopped after that.  It was a little scary.  I was bummed I didn’t land it, but happy I tried so hard.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, stock bushings no boardside washer, 3 washers inside each axle, bones stf 51mm v1 83b, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Bernie and I headed to Woodland via 285 on a long drive that neither of us had done before. We arrived at the park about 20 minutes or so before Dave L would show up. There would be waves of little kids treating the skatepark as a playground, but for the most part we had it all to ourselves. Warming up went okay, I felt a little rusty from a day off (ha ha). We had some warm ups of mostly 50s on the various little perfect ledges. Seriously, why is Team Pain incapable of such simple ledges? This park was even better in person. Although I had a terrible slam on a front nosegrind 180 attempt where I came very close to rolling my ankle badly. Luckily I was okay (until the next day when I would realize my neck was super messed up). Bernie was quickly on the manual tip. Dave L also casually manualled and nose manualled. I got a b/s flip over the hip in a few tries. Bernie took a bit to get one and he said it was the first time he’s been frustrated while skating again. Dave took a bit to get kickflip over the f/s hip, those are so hard. I took way too long to get a bad treflip flyout. I got the line in the vid pretty quick. Actually, I did several b/s flips, but with too much toe drag. I had hucked some 270 heels over the hip too and wasn’t close. Dave had some nice lines throughout the park when the kids weren’t around. Bernie did both of the manuals in the clip pretty quick. He couldn’t quite get halfcab nose manual back 180 out though.

After hitting up Mountainside skateshop we ended up at the Manitou Springs skatepark. Wow, what a weird and mostly terrible skatepark. The coping is nonexistent in places, you can’t tell if there are banks or quarterpipes. It was super hot, but we skated for about an hour. I did one kickflip on one of the big main banks. That’s about the only trick I did even though it seems like I tried more. Bernie didn’t quite get hardflip on the same bank. Dave chilled a bit and cruised his stylee ollies around. The scene there was something out of a movie. Kids on vacation, old school young dude playing Blink 182, mountain man with trial shoes. It was fun.

Then we went to the high school since Ryan suggested there was something the dudes wax up. We were really surprised to find such an absolutely perfect ledge. I was really sore/tired at that time and even nosesliding it seemed impossible at the start. I would only go on to get noseslide, noseslide to fakie and crooks. Bernie would do front 50 and front tail I think. Dave had some good front 50s, front noseslides and a killer line. Ollie up the lower bench, boardslide to fakie, switch 180 off. He also back 50’d the 2nd level. Bernie manualled it. I posed some gap to noseslides. I needed the motivation of ollieing up the ledge to commit and unfortunately that was a little too hard for me. I only got up it once. I committed and proved to myself that I could do it, but I didn’t land it. I had done a few flippers in between tries. Super fun day even if I didn’t get one of the gnarliest tricks I’ve tried (ha).

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 some arthritis pain)

Sean and I rolled up to Loveland on a nice morning. We arrived to a crew of mostly old dudes and it was awesome. Andy, Marcus, Joe, Jay, Bryan, Jake, Luzius. It was awesome. Fuller was already on fire when we arrived. He did that line with the nollie shove hippy jump pretty quick. Somehow I had already done my required treflip for the day too. I was feeling good actually. Got the boneless plant over the big rail first try then went in on the flyout treflips. Got a bad one in a few tries, then a better one in about 10 tries that felt great. It’s really hard to remember what everyone was doing. I haven’t seen Jay in years that was awesome. Andy still has amazing style. Marcus still rides a small board and that hypes me up. Bryan has some tech moves that come out of nowhere. He almost got a fakie shove tail on the bank to curb. Joe was crushing the ‘how many 360s can you do’ challenge and cruising around having fun. Sean was doing a good job of not showing off as the young guy. But he had some solid grinds on everything. Jake was ripping the bank to barrier. I’m not sure if he got all he wanted, but the front 5-0 was hot. I got the ollie up to kickflip fakie on the bank pretty quick, noseslide to fakie over the hip. I started playing on the spine and Fuller joined me to work on his ‘spinemenship’ ha ha. I was feeling really rusty on transition initially and took a few tries to even blunt transfer and regular transfer. But it started to come. The line of transfer, front feeble, smith transfer was really fun. Dave took a bit to get the back disaster transfer, but man when he did it was so sick. Riley had joined us for a bit and cruised the park a little making sure not to bend his knee. The stoke on his face was incredible at one point when he pushed fast to catch up to Fuller. I got a fun line of noseslide the mellow downhil ledge, slappy the bank to curb, short front 50 on the bump to up ledge. Luzius joined around then and was popping smooth olllies and manuals around the bank to ledge area. Sean was nose manualling the picnic table as a setup to learn cabs over the a-frame bump. Fuller was shredding the front 50s over the hip, tailslides on the bank, nollie cabs over the hip. When he did one I yelled ‘that was nollie kids’ to a few kids that did not care whatsoever. Ha. I took awhile to get an okay crooks on the hip to ledge. Then Sean shut down the bump to mini hubba (post soon). What a seriously fun session.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)