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)

After a million texts I met up with Rob, Dave L, Eric and Garrett at the new manny pad spot I found the other night. The pad itself was even better than I thought it would be, the gap however was way harder. Garrett was way later than us. We all did our warming up. I felt surprisingly good out of the gate, but I did feel a tweak to the glute/hamstring tendon I seemed to have injured. I was able to skate fine though. Manuals were had, nose manuals, kickflips, heelflips. I was the only one hitting the little gap, I found it so cool to line out. Front 180s over it were really fun. I may have gotten a switch 180 manual back 180 after, but probably touched or something. Rob went in on kickflip manuals. He was committing every try, but getting toe drag or touching normally. He would get a clean one and it was solid. Eric had some nice heeflips up onto the curb. Dave was manualling up and around all over everything. We did a little filming. I completely lost the ability to switch 180 manual once the camera came out. It was a bummer. Dave L got a cool line. Rob got that kickflip manual, one foot manual and a back 360. Eric got those heelflips, but I don’t think he got one to manual. Garrett had shown. He did some treflips on flat and some nollie nose manuals. We looked at a weird bank/ledge thing on the other side. Garrett almost tried a cool ollie up to something, but never really got the ollie up. I had nothing more than some rides down the slanted ledge.

Then we went across the street to this other spot i had looked at. The dream was a noseslide on the little two stair rail. Somehow it looked totally possible. Garrett tried some front 5-0s, I tried noseslides. We would slowly get closer. Rob suggested I go for crook which I thought I was doing, but I got it in a couple tries. It was one of the coolest feeling tricks I’ve done. Then Dave filmed me try it in a line and magically I got it with a fakie bigflip in just a few tries. I was on cloud 9. After that I filmed Garrett keep battling the 5-0 which he would get. Rob and Dave messed around on the bank. I saw Dave pop an ollie over the hip that looked fun. Rob had some cool 540 spins on his front wheels. That was the end of the day. Pretty much one of my fav days in awhile. Street skating is the best.

(setup 8.38 null dream machine deck, Venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular stock baseplate, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic wheels, 3 washers inside each axle, bones medium bushings, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger low profile insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a hot morning I went to the dog park before work since I have the late shift.  I had the place to myself for an hour with the exception of a quick 5 minute session from another older skater.  I started better than normal even though I had put the 8.75″ deck back on.  Tried a line of switch noseslide a concrete bench, wallie the smaller barrier, noseslide to fakie the back of the step ledge, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, crook.  I only got to the halfcab noseslide once and bailed it.  Tried a line of front 50 a concrete bench, front 5-0 the end of the little narrow ledge, back 50 the low step, didn’t get the back 50. At one point I did a little hippy jump over the tiny kinked rail. It was nothing. That’s what I liked about it so much. That trick was scary to me, but because of how awesome the dog park is for my skating I just did it without thinking. Then I went in on the ollie over a concrete bench.  It took 12 minutes.  Ha, I know this because I filmed it.  In between tries I was doing some of the best feeling kickflips I’ve done in awhile.  After ‘getting’ the ollie I putzed around some more.  Got a couple good feeling halfcab noseslides.  I ended the session with the best treflip I’ve done on flat in awhile.

(setup 8.75 null event horizon deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , bones medium bushings, sml 53mm og wide wheels, 2 speed washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 533v2 gray stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice night I rolled across the street and met Rob, Jake, Saul.  My first couple random slappies worked out fine.  Front slappy, front crook, crook.  But then I couldn’t do a regular slappy.  Jake was already trying bluntslides.  Saul was already on the 20 foot slappy tip.  Jake would get the bluntslide, slappy crook shove, front slappy, front slappy 5-0.  Saul has the best lines.  Front slappy, long way around to a slappy, to another slappy on the rough part.  Rob was killing it.  First try slappy to no comply out, slappy crooks up to back 50, front slappy, front tail.  Also lines with the curb cuts like no comply shove, bean plant.  I was on the line tip too. I was happy to get first try kickflips off the curb cut both straight and to the parking lot.  Front slappies were working well, I love that trick now.  Managed to get a treflip straight off the curb cut after a front slappy.  I tried backside flip out of the curb cut to parking lot for awhile.  Kinda got a couple.  Couldn’t get fakie flip straight out.  Rob came close to back 50 no comply back 180 out.  He also went hard with kick back 50.  He got a sloppy one and came close to locking into several other ones.  Rob was charging.  We all seemed to be.  Super fun session.

(setup 8.38 null event horizon deck, venture 5.6 trucks, doh doh bushings (88a boardside, 92a roadside), 53mm sml og wide wheels, 3 bearings inside each axle, mob grip, new balance numeric 533v2 pj grey size 13, currex run pro insoles)

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On a nice night I finally collected on my rain check to skate campus with Ollie. When I skate with Ollie I try to just skate fun stuff and not get focused on trying hard tricks. I had some new shoes, NB# 212, they felt thin after the 868s, but still good. We pushed a bit and ended up the flag stone bank spot. Right out of the gate Ollie was ollieing onto it then worked up some speed into rock ‘n roll. I filmed him do the tricks for a bit. The rock ‘n roll to manual has a tilt. Oh well. He could have cleaned it up, but we were having too much fun. I got the halfcab board transfer pretty quick and tried to do a back 180 out, but we moved on. We did the drop in a couple times. I tried to kickflip off the curb, but wasn’t ready for that. Next up was the gap to manny pad. I thought Ollie was going to slam super hard trying to gap to manual, so he just did the ollie. I’ve never seen him ollie a flat gap so that was cool. I took like 15 tries to get the manual which was a bit of a bummer, but still fun. We hit the tiny manny pad around the corner. I got manual and nose manual. Ollie couldn’t get the manual so we moved on. I ollied down a big part of the knobbed Baker ledge which was fun. Ollie did the drop down 180 pretty quick and dropped in on the top part of the ledge too. I bailed a couple noseslides on the dried out ledge around the corner. I posed some front boards on the loading dock to low rail. Ollie came close to doing a good boardslide 270. I took too long to back 50 it. The drop in to stair ride was way too fun of an ender. The shove version took me a bit, but was so fun. I had to give up on riding the correct way off each step. Ollie did it way before me. Then we had a fun push back to the car and I ended on a great feeling slappy crook. Super fun night.

(setup 8.5 Null Lazer deck, venture trucks 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger , venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones 52mm stf sidecuts wheels, new balance numeric 212 grey/orange size 12, currex runpro medium arch insole )
(pain level 3/10)