Went out to Rampy a little before midnight after having one of the busiest evenings ever unloading boards and getting ready for NYC. I chose to setup an 8.1. It seemed really small and that’s cool. I skated for about 10 minutes and didn’t get too far into the list of basics.
(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb+ pj stratford 533 cream)
After the noseslide marathon I needed new bushings. Rather then buy some I put some old stock Thunder ones. And while I was at it I setup a new 8.5″ null deck and even put some tiny risers on there. It’s kind of an experiment to see if it helps me ollie. I went to Blue Skies for my ‘gym break’ at work. Rather then skate the park I decided what better way to get used to the bigger setup then skate flat? So I skated flat for about 45 minutes. Not too well either. I don’t think I would have skated well regardless, but I did end up landing a large collection of my basics. Couldn’t do halfcab flip though. Got a bad 360 flip. Everything required more effort. Front shoves felt great. I did an absolutely horrible heelflip. Fakie flips were sketch as they board barely got around. Got insanely close to switch flips again. Couldn’t do a b/s flip. Not quite a nollie tre either. With all that said the board felt great.
(setup 8.5 null venture wide lights thunder bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s)
After a day of laying around and trying to recover from whatever illness hit me I started to finally eat and feel better. Around 6 I went to the research center on a gorgeous and warm evening. There was a cop lurking so I started skating the hill. I had a new board after cracking my other one the night before. My ollies felt beyond horrible to start. I did a lot of really bad 180s then hit the ledge. Noseslides felt good at least. Took awhile to get crooks. Didn’t really get a back 50. Had a fun line of b/s flip, fakie ollie, switch front noseslide. Came close to varial heel. As soon as I started to feel worn down I left because I didn’t want to push it.
(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s)
Woke up at 5:30 am and felt like skating. So I left early for work and stopped at Boulder park on the way. Another oldish guy was there getting some carves on in the bowl. I had a blast doing a few things, but I mostly skated the hip. Started with ollies and 180s both ways. Then went through a long spell of trying halfcabs going one way (so bad) then f/s cab the other way. I would eventually land the f/s cab, but man it was horrible. Then I tried a line where I started by the mini bowl and pumped over the pyramid, b/s ollie on the weird hump, f/s ollie the hip above, turn around, kickflip the hip above, turn around, b/s flip over the hip. Never got the b/s flip. Slammed pretty good once. Bailed out quite a few times. Then I went to work. This is the only way I can skate Boulder park, with no one around so I can skate slow in the middle of the park.
Then I met Dave at Blue Skies for lunch. Well, I got there first and arrived to two scooter kids and parents standing on the stairs near the bank watching. It was really annoying. I pumped around on the little banks before deciding I just had to go for the big bank. Did my ollie to fakie warm ups and had gone through a couple flippers when Dave showed up. We kinda did whatevs for a bit. I was hucking noseslide 270 shoves, front 50 shove, couldn’t fakie flip on the bank. Dave did his fakie shove on the bank first try like he does and other tricks I’m forgetting now. Except for the no comply over the flat bar above. Well, he got close, but not quite. Then we got into a shove challenge on the bank. He did switch front shove and I did front shove first. Then we traded. Then we did regular pop shoves to fakie and lastly switch pop shove. I couldn’t stay long at work so I felt bad having to leave so quickly after Dave got there.
(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)
Felt decent when I got home from work. Kinda wanted to just skate Rampy briefly, but I became appointed the one that would bring India to ballet and run some errands. After dropping her off I went to Blank Curbs, aka Valmont garage. As soon as I set my new board down I could tell I wasn’t feeling it. On my second attempt to wallie over a parking block something weird happened resulting in me doing the splits really bad and almost hurting my knee. So sketchy. I got up, did a few slappy stalls then left for Red Curbs. I felt horrible there too. Partly because everything was kind of damp, not puddles, just slippery and damp. I got a “nollie” front slip that felt cool and some slappy crooks, but other then that everything sucked. I tried a line of back 50, varial flip and there was supposed to be more, but I never got there. Instead I left.
Feeling pretty lazy with the weather I setup my new Amigos board. I got it because meeting the people behind Amigos was awesome. They were all good dudes. I also put some new wheels on. Bones STF because those soft Spitfires were driving me nuts (and flatspotted). I went out to Rampy and warmed the legs up for a few minutes. I had fixed Ledgy so it could be grinded without sticking in a screw anymore. But it didn’t last and the screws fell out of the side. Doh. So I basically had to put the angle iron back after after trick. My setup felt good with pop though. I got noseslides, noseslides fakie, boardslides, back crooks, front 50, back 50, front 5-0 and a lucky front tail to fakie. Had a line of no comply 180, halfcab noseslide then b/s flip. Tried back 5-0s without success and front nosegrinds. Flatground was alright. I stayed away from heelflips and treflips as I had a brand new board and was scared to crack it.
(setup 8.38 amigos venture wides bones med bushings bones stf 51mm NB+ stratford 479)
Feeling old and arthritic. Stopped at Valmont after work. The east side of the building is closed, has good ground and a couple manny pads. I had a new 8.38 Null deck. Nothing came easy. I got a few of my staples. Added a rare and bad bs halfcab heel. Put my hands down on treflips. Almost did manual back 180 out. Tried a line of fs hc flip, nollie tre, fs flip and came close. Tried a lot of nollie heels and flips. Even hucked switch bs flips for awhile. Not my fav flatground Friday.
(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)
Went to the Longmont park with no plans of actually meeting anyone or skating too long. I arrived to a park completely filled with daycare kids. I thought it was an elaborate joke. There were literally dozens of parents standing in the park watching their little helmet-clad-scooter-riding kids learn how to stand up at the skatepark. I have no idea how I actually had the will to get out of the car and enter the gates. But I kind of just stayed on the little hump and long ledge and avoided the masses. Actually finally back 50’d it without going over the top at the start. I was skating really slow. Oh yeah, I had a new sample board. It’s shape is really different. I didn’t like it. But it’s more just the fact that I’ve skated Generator boards for 12 years straight and it felt really weird. To my surprise Riley showed up! And right when I had a good run. Front tail the hump, crooks the ledge, turn around front 50 shove out. Then Riley suggested I do crooks to fakie which I got 2nd try. Whoa! Riley was doing switch nose manual, nose manual nollie flip, etc before I made him do the line above which he did while I was on the phone before I phone filmed it. Then Riley cruised the park owning it for awhile while I repeatedly tried to front 50 the smaller hubba. But I couldn’t even just do the downhill I had to make it harder on myself and get on the flat part first. I technically did it once. But I put my hand on the ledge, stuck my butt out in the air, landed like I just ollied a 20 stair, etc. I would get on it cleaner, but never rode out again. I don’t know why that ledge feels so tall to me. In the meantime Riley was doing every trick imaginable over the hip. I managed another weird looking beanplant on the noping. And then I did my line of cali grind, boardslide, boneless, back tail, kickflip again which felt great. Bernie showed up and we played a couple games of SKATE. The first one I landed a treflip and a few other basics. Riley won. The second was Bernie’s game and I landed on a few of the tricks like fakie tre, fakie heel, hc heel, but I was out right away. Bernie went on to beat Riley I think.
(setup 8.25 quincy sample board venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 50mm 101s)
Had a busy day at work then busy when I got home until Rob, Lazer and Fuzz showed up. We went to research center and met Matt there. Hyped to see these dudes! Another nice evening. Fuzz and I started out riding down the stairs. Then he did it switch first try! I’ve only done that once. Matt and Lazer did back 50s first try on the ledge. The main difference being that Matt’s was locked in and perfect. Lazers was the best one ever. He was all over the place. Feet moving on the board, the trucks not even locked in. And he landed it. It was amazing. I had a new board so I didn’t join in on the manual fun on the double pad. I had a couple slow, but fun lines down the hill and was kind of surprised how well flipping the board was working. Got a crooks kinda quick. Was gonna do more, but have a new rule for myself where I have to do at least one back 50 before I do more crooks. It was funny because I locked into back 5-0 on the first one and people thought I was actually trying 5-0. Ha. Even better was that a couple tries later I landed a back 5-0. It was really bad, but still, kinda funny because I was just trying 50. I would end up getting a back 50 as well. Matt is too good. Back 5-0, back tail, front tail, front 50, front 5-0, fakie front 50, fakie nosegrind to foward steezed out like Smolik. Rob focused his board pretty early on. That always makes for a weird session because you know it can’t last much longer. If only Fuzz wouldn’t have lubed up his bearings. Ha. Lazer got into some back tails and crooks. Fuzz a sketchy back 50, then a perfect back 50, then a really funny back 50 back 180 out fall. He also went on to land a crooks popout which he’s never done before. So rad. And that was it. Darn good to see all these dudes and skate together. Lets do it more often!
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101)
My brother was off site seeing bso I got some stuff done then went skating. I had a new board. Ollie art on the top and bottom, so awesome. It didn’t help me much though as I started off skating horribly. I tried a line of boardslide, front tailslide the one stair, kickflip on flat, crook. Never got it. Almost lost my shit. Got a front 50 that was slow. Going faster was supposed to help, but I just stuck. I finally had one ok line of noseslide to fakie, halfcab flip, crooks. Other then that I had a squatty treflip, front board pop out, and that was really about it.
Later on in the day after some football I met Dave at Steelyards which was too crowded to skate. So we roamed around the new train depot area over to Folsom. We didn’t really do much or find anything great. It was nice out and fun though.
(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)