Setup a new 8.38 and put some shorts on for a brief flatground session. I was still feeling arthritic and only did a couple kickflips. It was more shove its, 180s, bigspins, halfcabs.

Had a busy morning of homeowner fun attempting to seal a leaky roof near the stack pipe. It was ok. Then headed to Crisis with Ollie and met up with Rob, Blake and Neil. We went to Safeway ledge first so Ollie sat in the car. He don’t like ledges yet. Ha. I was on an 8.5 board and setup new Null wheels. I was out of 8.3″ boards and didn’t want to go down to 8.25. And since most of the wheels I have skated lately have been 50mm (and worn down) the 52mm Nulls felt big. So my setup felt pretty large and I felt it. I didn’t do much new, but came closer to locking in good smith grinds.

Neil was slaying it. He was happy to be skating again and it showed. Lipslides, boardslide a crazy display rack, front tailslides, fast and poppy. Blake mostly skated the display case and got boardslides too. He got pretty close to crooks as well which would have been gnarly. Rob is the man. He almost did back 180 to fakie smith grind 180 out. Or something, I don’t even know but it was cool. He also had some good front noseslides on the fence ledge and a million other tricks on the regular ledge.

Then we went to this bank spot. People seemed bummed on it at first because there was dirt everywhere, but we stuck with it and it ended up being my favorite part of the day. We mostly skated it to the left of the stairs and dirt. Neil had some nice one foots to fakie and a kickflip fakie. Rob got some rad backside one foots, back kickflip, back big, some type of boneless variation. Blake had a back kickflip, back heeflip and a front 360. Tight. Oh yeah we were skating it in lines. Trick on flat then trick on the bank after awhile too. I had a kickflip to fakie, line of no comply 180 then fakie flip on the bank, heelflip on flat then alley oop back kickflip (I guess like a back 270 kickflip). Had a bunch of great feeling halfcab flip too. Couldn’t get a treflip though. Blake ollied the 4 stair, I bailed. Things started going downhill for me then. Ollie was killing the grassride game. Front 180 into the grassride, fakie ollie into it, and even a fakie shove into it with a sketchy ride out. People were hyped.

Then we went to this spot. I’ve filmed here a lot and barely skated it. I was super sore and it didn’t get much better then that. I couldn’t manual it to save my life. I ended up giving up and settling for a couple ollies onto it then ride onto the middle stair and back 180 off and also front 180 off into the parking lot. Very frustrating session for me. I should listen to my body and not skate. Ollie was hyped on the spot. He didn’t ollie up, but he did lots of back/front 180s and halfcabs onto the lower stair. He also rode onto the lower stair into manual. Rob got manual drop down to the lower stair, and I want to say he manualled the lower stair too. Neil got nose manual and more. Blake killed the game with manual to 5-0, lipslide the 2 stair then pull up and was the last one skating. He better be right, he’s only 17! Ha.

After a lazy snowy saturday I went out to Rampy to break a bunch of new stuff in. I had liked my “test” big board enough that I wanted to keep with it. Which meant I wanted to get off those Ace trucks as quickly as possible. Thanks to Emage for having Venture Wides in stock. Another 8.4 board (I can’t do 8.25 with the big trucks because I hate seeing the wheels past the board), new Venture wides, same 51mm STFs I had with my last setup. I also put in the original thick insoles that come with the Stratfords to try and help soreness. I skated in them, but decided after they are too thick.

Ok eh, enough talking about my setup and on to the show. I mean the bad skating. I was really tired. Probably still from the marathon old man/lady night. Anyways the board felt good on Rampy. I like how Ventures turn so much more the Ace. I didn’t do anything new on trannie, but I had some alright runs. Did a few tiny f/s ollies. Flatground went pretty good. Took a bit for kickflips, but most of the awkwardness I felt was due to the thick insoles, not the setup. I did manage f/s and b/s flips first try which really surprised me. Got a couple 3 flips and hucked a few tricks. Then went in and watched MIB 2 with the kids and ate tons of popcorn. Man I love popcorn.

After a 303 mission Matt and I skated a couple blocks away from the ‘only spot in denver’. We hit the curved ledge mostly. Matt front tailed it real quick. By the end he added back tails, 50s both ways and front 5-0 too. Chadman met up with us pretty much right away. He was more cruising all over the place. I had new shoes and a new board.

Lakai Guy XLKs and the board I setup was 8.1 instead of 8.0. It shouldn’t make a difference, but coupled with the new shoes it became apparent on my first noseslide attempt where I ran into the bench that I would be skating like total shit all night. Ugh. I got a crappy front nose to fakie, tiny crooks jib and failed and front 50s. We moved on by bombing a hill that Nate and I used to do all the time. With my new wheels I did a foot drag once to slow down a little. Doh. It was still fun though. We got booted from the world trade tower right away. Booted from First Bank pretty quick. I was skating so bad I didn’t even ollie the little marble gap.

Next we ended up at this weird blue ledge / bank spot. Chad did some cool f/s pivots and stuff on it. Matt noseslid and crooked it. I was unable to jib it like Chad due to lack of any coordination on my board. Matt got a sick front board to fakie into the bank. Chad taught us fakie bonelesses although I don’t think I actually rode away from one. I finally landed a couple tricks with kickflip fakie, b/s and f/s flips on the little bank. We cruised around and after Matt ollied a long five stair while being beamed by security we ended up at Civic. I was pretty exhausted and unmotivated by then. I think we all were. Chad tried to manual the whole thing (photo above) but didn’t make it. That was pretty much it. Good weather, good crew, but man I couldn’t ride my skateboard and it was depressing. Especially because my knees didn’t even hurt much for the first time in awhile.

In the midst of my Mr Mom week I took off to Southern Hills for a quick hour on a gorgeous morning. It was 60 degrees. Or so I thought, right after getting there some wind started. For the most part there was only a few strong gusts that messed with me and it was mostly fine. My arthritis was bad. It took me a long time to even be able to ollie. I ended up sticking with it though and eventually did some things I was hype on. Front 50, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180 out, front 5-0 front shove out (over 50 make), lots of back crooks that felt good, halfcab noseslide and the worst back 50 that could be landed. I wish these ledges were a little lower, but man it feels good to land tricks on them.

Then we went to Denver and dropped India off at the Colorado Ballet which is one block from the Denver Art Museum aka one of the best spots in Denver. Before going there Ollie and I cruised around for awhile and checked stuff out. I showed him Civic park. We hit a couple things. Stayed at this spot for awhile. I was still feeing crazy arthritic and was scared to ollie off this thing initially. So bad. Ollie rode off it. I ollied and took forever to front 180 off it. It was embarrassing.

Then we hit the art museum. The wind had picked up some. It was a consistent wind rather then gusts. Ollie did lots of manuals like above. He set his board up on the ledge and would do that. He seemed rather hyped doing it and it was cool seeing him push mongo all fast around the spot. My legs let me skate somewhat. It’s weird to say, but the little drop before that we skated seemed to warm them up better then anything else. I had a couple ollies up onto ledges then gap to manual like Ollie was doing. I ollied over the narrow ledge that can be boardslid. I also did a really dumb line of ollie onto the wide ledge, drop down them immediately boardslide the narrow ledge. Lastly a really fun first try manual around most of that near the end where it gets taller. India had a good audition and we ate Wahoos after. Fun times with the kids!

What happened to that new Suciu deck you ask? Well now that’s quite embarrassing. Monday morning I was getting ready for work and could not find my work badge and could not find it anywhere. Somehow this pisses me off more then almost anything and I was looking under my dresser when my board (which leans against the side of the dresser) fell on my shoeless foot. Ouch. My reaction was a quick kick to the middle of the board. Snap. That did not help my temper fit. In all honesty though I cannot believe that board broke. I didn’t even have a shoe on and didn’t put much into it. So much for that hemp layer making it strong. Oh well, back to Null! I had also worn a hole threw my previous Stratfords so it was time for some new ones. These were 10.5 instead of 11 as the 11s seem slightly big. I set up an 8″ instead of 8.1 this time. Well, actually my debate this time was to setup a 7.875 because Generator shipped 7.875s instead of 7.75s and I used to love 7.875 (I just managed to say 7.875 three times in one sentence!). Luckily I held off for now and stuck with 8″.

I have become such a recluse. Rather then invite others over to skate I just wanted to go out solo and try a lot of flatground tricks too. I had a couple good warm up runs and great first few kickflips. The 8″ board actually felt quite a bit smaller and I was happy about that. I tried a few crooks and boardslides on the ramp before laying into the flatground for awhile. I got to heelflip and did another accidental 3/4 flip to primo. Only this time I didn’t bail off, but landed it perfect. Ha, that made me laugh quite a bit. I was 4/5 on treflips. Struggled with b/s flips, f/s flips. Felt close to nollie flips, nowhere near switch heels, nowhere near inward heels, front heels. I definitely would have rather been skating outside somewhere with room. Last thing I did was try an alley oop fakie back 50 to fakie which I would eventually get and call it a night. That might be a new one.

Been wanting to do this for awhile. After Nothing came out I figured I should treat myself with a new complete. So after a little delay here it is. Suciu board, PJ trucks (Highs), Vincent Alvarez wheels (50mm stoked!!), Venom soft bushings, Bones Swiss bearings. After an intense game of indoor basketball with Ollie I went out to Rampy for a bit. I definitely had some awkward turns due to trucks that aren’t broken in, but I had fun. I avoided revert tricks so I wouldn’t flatspot my new wheels. I struggled with front tail. I was supposed to avoid flatground too, but that board flipped good. It’s supposed to be an 8.1 which are the same size I skate with Null, but it’s clearly samller then the Null 8.1. Anyways I liked it and landed every kickflip I tried, got a 3 flip and came super close to nollie flip. I ended with a couple longer Rampy runs for me and ended with a f/s ollie that was near coping.

Went to this skatepark on a pretty nice day for the midwest:

Above is the Precision team skating this park as an overview of the park and below are the Motive dudes skating it.

I rode with Drew from Omaha to Lincoln which was rad. That dude rules. So nice. We met up with Joe, Matt, Dan, Cory and Cody from Fremont. Joe, Matt, Dan and I started in the corner on a 3 foot qp that was super fun. The park was really crowded. Quite a few basics were landed. Then we moved on to the long concrete ledge area. I struggled for awhile and didn’t land much other then crooks. Joe, Matt and Dan though landed all kinds of tricks. Dan had manual to front board, front nose grind to front board and so many other cool tricks. Joe was kinda run down, but still killing it with all his front 50 variations. Matt is too good. I think I saw a nollie shove crooks? So good. Cory had kick back tails and more. Drew would fly by in the middle of a 50 trick line. Then we skated the bank to ledge mostly for awhile. I took a long time to get kick back 50. Joe did boardslide 270 in and almost boardslide shove to fakie. Dan had ollie oop fakie front smith. Matt did nollie flip front noseslide fakie. Serious. Cory did bs flip fakie 50 halfcab out. Geez. Drew was busy front blunting the bump to bar in the middle of the park. The park had started thinning out a little so we kinda split up and did whatever for awhile. I bailed no comply pole jams while Dan almost got no comply pole jam late flips. Back in the long concrete ledge area I managed manuals up and down the slanted bank. Kickflip on the bump into the bank. Such a fun park. Matt, Joe, Dan and I skated the angled manny pad from the bottom for awhile. I did a manual up to rock kickflip to fakie. Dan was hyped on it! Matt manualled around it easy. Dan tried manual up to fakie manual down. Then I did a few transfers over the little spine that felt fun. Near the end Matt made me try to carve the weird tight corner. Pretty easy. Matt and Dan were trying to front 60 the lower part of it above the manhole which just isn’t possible. I managed the grind around the corner and then we left. Super fun session. I wish that park were near here, it’s amazing. There was a lot more I would have liked to have done, but that was a pretty good first time at a new park. The Fremont crew rules. Those dudes are the funnest most positive people. And Drew rules too. I could talk for quite awhile about how rad it was meeting Phil from Precision, Mike Smith, seeing the skateshop, etc. One of those epic days for skateboarding.

On a really cold night Ollie and I headed out to Rampy. What’s this, Ollie skating 3 times in a weekish? Awesome. We skated the tranny for awhile. He had some moves, I did a few basics, then he was done and I felt like doing flip tricks. The goal was 10 flip tricks and they came kinda (except heelflips). Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, fakie varial flip, heelflip, 360 flip, b/s flip, f/s flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, first try double flip. Tried switch flips for a long time and got super close. Tried inward heels for awhile and actually made it flip good. Flatground is fun.

neilsoffire’s video on Instagram

Red curbs on a cold and snowy Saturday afternoon. It was barely 30. Neil and Blake picked me up. Neil put in about 20 minutes before getting on a marathon call with his lady. Blake did a sick quick Ollie on this weird loading dock that somehow didn’t have snow on it. He also put a sign in front of the rock to wallie it and got a cool line to it. I didn’t skate great. I had new shoes and a new board. Went 8.1 this time for whatever reason. I got a smith grind at one point on the taller curb that hyped me up. I’ve done what I thought were smiths before, but this one felt legit. Other then that I had a couple front lips, struggled with kickflips, had a bunch of ride on grinds like above then started bucking some new ones. Did ride on front 50 no comply shove out. Stoked! New one. Then started hucking no comply finger flip out. Got really close, but didn’t get it. Gonna put that one on my list. Dave ripped it. Boardslide 270 out, front 180 nose manual, almost front 5-0 to nose manual, wallie the rock with help from the sign, a lot more. Decent session even though it was so cold.