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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)

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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)

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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)

Running late I met Kevin and Dave L at dog park on a sunny morning after it rained. So there were a lot of puddles. There were a few other people helping spread the puddles and the sun dried it pretty quick. The new ledge and manual pad were the first try to so we hit that. A few other people were there too. I was in need of an easy warm up, but people were already going hard. Like Kevin, gap to back 50, front 50 gap out, manual to boardslide, etc. Dave was also manualling and nose manualling the box easily. He had a rad line of front board the tall part of the tri-box then back 5-0 the ledge. Kevin beat me to kick back 50. I took a long time to get a nose manual, but managed to get back 50 first try which excited me. After awhile we were doing whatever. Kevin and I were mostly on the far side trying lines with new tricks. I had some good crooks on the tall side of the black box, a very rare noseslide 270 shove (although it only went 180 and I tic tac’d it around) and took a long time to get a line of halfcab noseslide the butter/metal ledge then front nosegrind 180 out on the mini cinder block ledge. I’ve been wanting to do that trick for awhile and finally a ledge was low enough. Ha, felt awesome though. Kevin was doing noseblunts on the butter/metal ledge and trying back 180 fakie 5-0 180. He got close, but didn’t quite land it. Then Kevin, Will and I played a game of SKATE. I was out first and got letters on tricks like fakie flip and halfcab flip. Argh. Kevin won it. Then we played flip tricks for awhile. I got caught up on a few basics then struggled with nollie tres for a bit until I landed one! It took a long time to get heelflip though. Argh. Kevin got switch b/s flip and switch tre! I almost got his back with a rick flip. Will was super close to nollie tre. Then Kevin and I played kickflip noseslide posing on the little ledge and I didn’t get close at all. He got into it at least. Fun day. Hyped on back 50, nollie tre, noseslide 270 shove and a new trick – nosegrind 180.

(setup  8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.2 awake low trucks custom hollow cast baseplate, doh dohs 88a boardside bushing minilogo 94a roadside with flat washer, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels with 3 speed washers on the inside, new balance numeric 288s white/gum size 11.5, thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10 left knee wanted to give me the sharp pain, but didn’t)

After some cool sight seeing we ended up at the gnarliest transition spot I’ve probably ever skated. Sheepside. We did a little sweeping, and started with the smallest kickturns every. What seemed impossible initially became obtainable. We had the place to ourselves which really helped. Paul joined us. Josh was the first to get the rock in roll in the window. He was doing some good lines and would get front rock too (video coming at some point). Neil was cruising fast. He had some really high carves on the big mellow wall and came close to front slash on one of the gnar walls. Nate was cruising too, it was rad. He was getting pretty high up the walls too. Paul had a nice ollie to fakie on his first run on the big mellow wall, he would later do a switch ollie to fakie too. I was in quite a bit of pain, but managed to have fun and get a rock ‘n roll that I had to push into. Nate and I started playing with the weird roll in and both did it. Then I took like 20 tries to drop into the roll in and lined it out with the rock ‘n roll. That was a highlight for me for sure. Nate and Paul would get the drop in too, in way less tries than me.

Then we went to Chuck’s (owner of 808). He had a backyard setup that rules. A bigger 5 foot quarterpipe without much deck then a 3-4 foot quarterpipe with a hip. The setup is on a hill so it makes for some crazy lines. Unfortunately Paul had to leave. Chuck wanted no photos/video taken and it kinda made it more fun anyway. It took awhile for us to get some lines. Well, not neil as he had been there before. He was somehow generating speed out of nothing. He had front lips over the hip, front tail, slashes on the 5′, nollie back Neil’s. It’s hard to remember as I’m writing this over a week later. Josh was quick on the proper 50s on the 5′. All the qps were noping and they felt rad to grind. Josh did back lip over the hip, back tail, back 50. A lot more I’m forgetting. He shredded that place. Chuck rules. He’s a super fun dude to skate with and the vibe was super rad the whole time. He had some sick moves like front truck grinds to fakie, crooks, amazing front 5-0s over the hip, halfcab boardslides the 5′, learned layback 5-0s. Awhile into the session he called out ‘someone has to do a non flatground flip trick before you leave’. Nate was the first to take him up on it after getting to close to front 5-0 over the hip. Nate would get a kickflip over the frontside hip. He actually got two of them. I had a ton of fun. I would get a little front feeble then front disaster over the hip in a line. The carve into the hip was so fun. I also got a front 50 over the hip. Josh and I battled the flip tricks for a long time and Chuck was in with us for awhile. Chuck was trying f/s over the hip like Nate, Josh was trying b/s over the hip, I was trying kickflip fakie over the hip. Josh was doing them like a vert skater. Popped up over the lip and sucked up all stylee. I was doing them way under the lip, but as Chuck said “they are in the grey so they count” (the flat was tan, the qps were grey). Josh and I battled for quite awhile, both getting incredibly close, but ultimately we gave up. My knees had both started acting up fierce. What a super fun session though. Actually the whole day was amazing. Thanks for setting it up Neil. Dream crews.

(setup 8.38 null curby deck, venture 5.8 cast baseplate with titanium hanger, 51mm bones stf v1 with all speed washers on the outside of the axle, bones medium bushings, jessup ultra grip, adidas city cup burgundy/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knee pain then 8/10 by the end)

On a cold and snowy day I met Dave at the dungeon known as the Steelyards garage. He was already warming up with noseslides and waxing up the other part for board slides. I had changed my setup. Again, yup. This time up to 8.3 with 5.8 trucks. It felt great and would feel great the whole time. The whole setup change thing gets out of control I know. But I think the smaller board with biggish wheels was the nail in the coffin that I dislike any setup with large wheels. Anyway, I got into 50s pretty quick and was reminded how fun that little curb is. Lines were fun, we both got going pretty good I think. I was hyped on trying Kevin’s trick (fakie back nosegrind), but man when I saw what it looked like I was bummed. Ha. I should have tried more f/s halfcabs off because the one was first try. Dave had a cool back 50 nollie shove, kickflips, front 50, front 5-0, back 5-0, His switch ollies over the trash can lid were so good. I started having fun with fastish ollies over the trash can lid to back 50 shove on the curb. Got one and it was really fun. I had tried a back nosegrind at one point and it really seemed to help me do back 50s better. Or maybe it’s the wall helping since I can’t seem to back 50 without one. We both tried switch crooks for awhile. We both got backside ones. Then switch frontside was fun. Dave had never tried them, but was getting up on them really well. I wasn’t as posted up, but did get a few to grind.

Then things had dried up and we went to this really hard bank to bar spot. Dave did the fakie tail every try. The nose stall to fakie didn’t come as easy, but he got a few. I tried some crook jibs. I never really got it. I posed some front smiths, but never got in.

Then I went to Saul’s for what turned into a quickie. I was so sore when I started, but watching Saul do the quick carve grinds so good brought the hype. I had a couple fun runs with carve grinds, a rock ‘n roll, axle stalls and a little front slash in the shallow. Then Saul had to go. Super fun day.

(setup 8.38 null collage deck, venture 5.8 cast baseplate with titanium hanger, 51mm bones stf v1 with all speed washers on the outside of the axle, bones medium bushings, jessup ultra grip, new balance numeric 306 foy white/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10 least in awhile!)

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On a warm day Joe picked me up and we decided to go explore rather than go to the skatepark. We started at Creighton which we haven’t really skated before. First thing we found was the super crusty fountain. It had a lot of potential, but it was super hard. We both did the side rocks, both posed bonelesses over the hip. But we got the boot before we could really get comfy with it. As we were walking off we found an amazing wallride spot. Doh. Then we had a fun mellow hill bomb to a nice 3 stair that we 180’d. My back 180 took too many tries. Then we did a weird little line of ollie a manhole and kickflip into a mini bank with some fun ollies after. I got it first try. We got the boot again and Joe got it on the way out. We hit this huge bank next that Joe does the ollie on. It was way steeper than it looks. I didn’t even try. Next we ended up at Central HS where we spotted a prefect virgin granite ledge! We decided to hit the stairs first. Joe did his real quick. I did mine not so quick and I was definitely still feeling the arthritis pain. It was still fun though. Then we went over to the perfect granite ledge and got fresh tracks. Joe got front 50 pretty quick and I got crooks. We kept playing around, that ledge was not short and the runway was a little downhill and awkward. We each did a few things. Joe looked good getting on them front 50s easily. He also got 180 out. Near the end I forced myself to try front 50. I got closer and closer until I finally landed a super slow one. I was super excited about it and hugged Joe after. Considering how bad my arthritis was it felt pretty epic to get up on one of the taller ledges I’ve done in awhile. And it was granite! We moved on, basically just skating/ walking and eventually ended up back at the car. What a fun day.

(Setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 v-lights, 1/16” riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire tablet f4 99a, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy black/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 6/10 arthritis sucks)

After being called for work and the snow mostly melting Dave L and Will showed up at my house. I had scoped some new spots on a walk to the new Wilville area in the morning. We skated down the bike path to get there which was a fun cruise. We ended up at the rock spot which made for some fun wallrides I thought. Will thought it was really cool and got his camera out right away. I wasn’t really ready to film, but we went to it quickly and I was soon trying a line. Drop in on a kinda sketchy rock, rock ride another rock, varial flip down a two stair. I was feeling pretty good and when I got the varial flip I was extra excited. We moved on to another area that had a round curb high manny pad, 3 stair, flagstone ledges. Dave L was going for a manual around the pad. He got remotely close, but it was hard to do without a heel drag. I was playing on the 3 stair/ledge area. I tried a line of pop shove, front 180 down the 3, switch 180 on flat, noseslide. I think i got that. Will and Dave joined in that area. Will had some steezy noseslides then did a really sick halfcab noseslide. Then he filmed Dave L for awhile get a super good line. Back 180, switch front 3, switch boardslide. I was playing with back 180s down the 3, but couldn’t do it. After Dave did his line he filmed me go for a pretty basic line. Front 180 the 3, halfcab flip on flat, noseslide the ledge (it was pretty tall and it wouldn’t crook), wallie nollie a pillar after. It felt really neat to link those tricks and I liked how it covered the spot. Then I filmed Dave get his line a couple more times and Will line out the halfcab noseslide with a switch flip and nollie heel. Dang tech! The we walked home. I was so sore, but man it was a fun afternoon of skating!

(setup 8.5″ null nolan deck, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, 3 washers inside each axle, 53mm sml og wide wheels, bones medium bushings, new balance numeric foy 306 black/gum size 12, footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10 might be time for cupsoles again)

Started at a crazy ditch with ledge on top and a wide spine. I walked up the ditch for awhile to look at it. Then played SKATE with Hayden, Monico and Nolan on a super mellow bank on top of the ditch while Sean, Garrett and Jack warmed up on the ledge. It was a super fun game. There were a bunch of silly tricks, some standard tricks. I was happy to get a first try sex change, a front 540 kickturn and much more I can’t remember right now. I got taken out by a flamingo. Hayden had it too. I’m not sure who won, I went on to film. Jack and Monico got good tricks pretty quickly. Garrett on the other hand took a long time, but it was well worth it. Then we looked at a hip/over guardrail spot in the same ditch. It had gotten super windy though. Hayden got a couple cool tricks and Sean almost died trying a huge 180. Glad he survived.

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Then we went to campus. We all did wallrides on this. Jack’s was so good. Monico somehow wallied over this in the past?!?!?! Hayden had some incredibly good wallride nollies. I had some fun ones. Then we filmed Nolan rock fakie it. So nuts!

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After that it was the mini hubba area where the pressure was on my to noseslide it. I had a nervous feeling in me, but somehow this visit to the spot made it seem doable. The six stair is longer than it looks. Monico put down a few basics. Jack did a few other side slides. Like over to noseblunt, then over to front blunt. He was slamming but man the one he got was insane. Hayden tried front 180 fakie 5-0 180 for a long time. I was in the mix, trying noseslides every so slowly taking baby steps towards really trying it. I’m going to write a lot about it, because it was one of my favorite things I’ve done on my skateboard. I was getting no confidence from flatground tricks as I bailed one after the other. I was would go so painfully slow and just barely get my board up on it. But all of the Nullers were being encouraging and kept wanting me to try. At one point I started talking trash about how easy noseslides are and finally went fast and fully tried. I didn’t land it that try, but the feeling of finally committing and standing on it was incredible. I would do a few more that I really thought I would land, but I kept coming up short. I lost some momentum and couldn’t commit again for awhile. I thought I was gonna be defeated. I knew this would haunt me for a long time if I didn’t get it. Somehow I convinced myself to really try it and I landed it. It’s kind of funny because it didn’t feel right, but it was the one I landed. Like I wasn’t really on top or something. But wow, yeah I landed it. Jack got a rad photo, Nolan filmed it great. A huge thank you to Sean, Nolan, Monico, Jack and Garrett for motivating me and sticking with me. I didn’t skate a ton on the trip, but this noseslide made it worth it.

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After that was the icing on the cake. We spotted a curved curb by the van. Hayden and I started messing around with slappy crooks. It was fun to commit to it. Hayden got one first. Then I got one and he got my back with the 180 out. It was a super rad feeling and such a great way to end the day. Some more slappies were had after this, but I stopped because my stoke was so high. Amazing day.

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, Venture 5.6 trucks, venom 88a bushings , spitfire F4 52mm 99a green swirl wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 306 Foy b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 2/10)