Went to Golden park early on my to meet my mom on a road trip through Utah. It was quite cold and windy and mostly miserable. I didn’t like my setup and I had new shoes. My warm up line was noseslide the main ledge, turn around on the wallie thing, kickflip fakie on the mellow bank. Also did crooks the ledge and tried to line out to kickflip the hip and couldn’t commit to the kickflip. Flip tricks went decent on flat which was the one saving grace. I couldn’t front 50 one of the benches in the small section. I did ollie on to one and manual the pad, couldn’t nose manual though. I ended with a fun line of halfcab noseslide one bench, crooks the next, bad front 50 the pad.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Drove through rush hour traffic and pulled in to Rocky Mountain as soon as it started raining. Argh! But it was cool to catch up with Rob. He was on his board for the first time in a while. The rain finally let up shortly before dark and we tried to squeeze in a session. I had all new everything. Well, the trucks aren’t actually new, but I have barely used them. Somehow I’ve never done Thunder hollows on 8.5 before. It felt pretty great. I’m just determined to finally make 8.5 work as it feels so natural to ride.

Rob rolled around on his cruiser at first before getting out his regular board and getting a bunch of axle stall combos. I was all over the place never really sticking with anything. Couldn’t quite get nollie back tail on the ledge, had a fun first try crooks, some back 50s on the curb, slappy front crooks, kickflips felt okay, couldn’t get Dave’s trick, was definitely struggling getting used to the setup change. Dave did his fakie front crooks a few times, boardslides to fakie, nollie to fakie on the bank, halfcab boardslide the curb, ride on front tail shove. It was a fun session even if it was cut short by rain.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 151 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a fun morning doing a boxing photoshoot with Cass and Shad I went to Triple Nipple where I met Nick, Sean and Kevin. My body was hurting and I had two setups that I rotated between but mostly stuck with the 8.3. I really didn’t skate well and it hurt too bad to ollie. I would get a few switch front noses, crooks and close to nollie tres. Kevin was ripping and killed the ledge. Switch crooks, fakie 5-0 halfcab out, back smith, kick back tail. Nick had front nosegrind and nose manual no problem along with some seriously popped fakie flips. Sean was looking really good. Manual to 180 nose manual. Nose manual to tailslide, back nosegrind 180. Shad had shown up and it was so rad to see him shredding. He had some good front 5-0s on the steep bank, tailslides, fast grinds. Chelsy and Jenny ripped it too. Carves over the love seat, front tail the steep bank, some good stuff. I ended really trying to ollie up the ledge, but couldn’t make my knees work. I was so bummed.

(setup 8.3 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440 size 12 white/red half insoles)
(pain level 7/10 and today marks the day I give up alcohol)

I bet Dave on a hot night after dinner at Rocky Mountain. I had new shoes and they felt super weird at first. I slammed dropping in and on a fakie shove during warm ups. Dave arrived right about the time I got the warm up line of drop in on the kink, slappy crook, front 180 up the curb, switch front nose. I felt really off pushing throughout the night and had some moments where I felt very uncoordinated and awkward. I was able to get kickflip, but struggled for anything else even fakie flips. Couldn’t get crooks on the ledge or halfcab noseslide. I did not skate well, but I tried hard and the new shoes seemed to help resist some of the pains I’ve had recently. At the end I got a fakie nose jib on the curb. Dave had some nice boardslides to fakie, nollie fakie on the bank, 50s on the curb, switch slappy crook, slappy crooks, manual the bank median, back 50 nollie front 180 out then ended it with the back 50 to back lip. It was funny I was filming it and seeing the weird reflection and could not figure out where it came from. It took us a good 5 minutes to figure out it was from my phone reflecting off the street lights across the way. Fun night even though my skating was pretty bad.

(setup null 8.25 vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 black 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

So the last couple days I was pretty run down. I thought I felt better, but as soon as I set my board down I could tell I wasn’t feeling good. The crew was rad. Dave, Rob, Jake, Kevin, Nick. We started at dog park. I had nothing and it’s been too long since we skated for me to remember much. It wasn’t too crowded, but a lot more people skating than normal because of GSD. After a while we went over to Valmont park. I did a few random things before settling in on the treflip which I wouldn’t land until Rob,kevin and Nick had already left. But man it felt good. Kevin had some really good lines. Rob got the rainbow. Nick came close to hardflips on the bank. Jake had to chill to avoid pain. Dave’s tail 270 was amazing. He had some good lines too.

(setup null 8.25 stumpy burnout, jessup pj ultragrip, thunder hollow 148 venom 88a bushings, spitfire 51mm classic shape f4 99a, new balance numeric 272 burgundy size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really nice night I met Cass at Arvada park. It wasn’t too crowded. I had new shoes, 272s. This time in 11.5. We started our on the little qp/bank and blue chip. It was pretty run even though I took a while to do tricks like front 50 and front tail. We both got kickflips quickly, but couldn’t get treflips and Cass was trying hardflip. Then we kind of spread out. Had some fun axle stalls on the smaller bank to curb, but I couldn’t kickflip the hip to line it out. In fact I bailed an ollie too. Cass front boards the flat bar, I had some fun little noseslide jibs. We skated the pier 7 area briefly. I took a bit to get a switch front nose, Cass may have manualled it. Then he took off and I just kind of wandered around looking for a place to try Dave’s cab no comply challenge. I found the big bowl was totally empty and skated the shallow end and tried it for quite a while. As you can see above I technically did it, but it sucked. I tried to clean it up more, but there was a couple close calls to the chest and my sternum was hurting. So I called it and left. I think I got pretty dizzy trying it. It’s weird for how big that park is, it’s not really very good.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a rainy night I arrived to Square House. I had been feeling a little under the weather but the session would get me feeling better. I never ended up doing a run on the ramp as Dave was getting going on the street and I joined him. There was a new bank to curb and little qp that was interesting. Both Dave and Saul fell on the kink at the bottom of the bank. We wouldn’t get a whole lot on it although the young kids that were there were able to line out a bunch of tricks. Bryan showed and we mostly lined out the new little ledge for a while which was fun. I think at one point I had a line of kickflip to fakie, halfcab noseslide, switch noseslide 270 shove. I would also get really close to noseslide 270 shove and somewhat close to halfcab noseslide 270. Bryan struggled to get his patented fakie bigspin tailslide, but when he did he added 270 shove out. Eventually the ledge session came to an end and we were lining things out. Dave had joined back, Tom was there as was Kyle. Tom had good back tails and switch back 50s. I tried a line of crooks the bump to ledge then noseslide 270 shove and still couldn’t get it. Dave was shredding did shove up the euro like 2nd try, lining out the bank to curb to bigger qp and the bank. At the end Brian watched as I could not land a slow treflip and Dave could learn noseblunt slides across the pyramid. Fun session. I’m missing a lot of the action but it feels like an eternity since I wrote it.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights with venom 88a bushings, spitfire 51mm classic shape f4 101a, vans half cab maroon size 11.5 nb# 272 insole)
(pain level 4/10 lots of skating recently)

Feeling run down I rested most of the day then mustered the strength to skate some flatground. I was armed with a new pair of 288s, my current fav shoe. I mean I say that because they work the best, but I wouldn’t say they are a favorite. Anyway, I did a few little front slappies on the hook then went to the side of the school. To my surprise I got my first 5 kickflips in a row. I was skating extra slow, resting between each try. I had obsessed about halfcab flips and they did not come easy. I got a few, most of which didn’t feel great. Tried a bunch of f/s halfcab heels that were close, a couple Rick flips were close, switch/nollie flips were not close. Eventually got a very slow 270 flip then went home.

(setup 8.38 smoke valley null, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55, 52mm bones stf 99a v3 slims, new balance numeric 288S green/gum no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achy)

After dinner I went over to the side of the school on a really warm and nice night.  I had new NB# 425s.  They had a great flick and felt good on day one.  I had the goal of doing a rick flip and a treflip and that was it.  I would get neither, but was close to both.  Did a few basics and came close to switch and nollie flips as well. 

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer night skate deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows no big washer, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape 3 rings inside, new balance numeric 425 black/gum size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

A little crisp in the morning, but really nice once we got going. Cass and I were there first and there was only a few people skating. We had a solid couple hours before it got crowded. Now that doesn’t mean we warmed up quickly. Ha ha. I was still sore from playing ball a couple days ago. I had new shoes and was struggling to find the flick with them. I basically spent the whole time trying two lines, which I would get. The “warm up” line that took way too long. B/s kickflip on the little chip, crooks the little ledge, backside flip the hip. Then the next one which wasn’t supposed to be the only other line I got, but soreness got to me. Kickflip to fakie the little chip, switch front nose the ledge, fakie bigflip the hip. I had done some boardslides on the little rail and failed to 50 the bump to ledge, also failed to ollie the hydrant mostly because I can’t push that hard with my achilles yet and I kind of hurt it. Argh. Cass had some good front boards on the flat bar and then fakie front boards. He had some poppy ollies over the a-frame and kickflips over the hip. He came close to bigflip over the hip. Sean came and did some ollies and 50s. But oh man they were sick! The long front 50 was sketchier than he made it look, the uphill 50 gap to the bank was NUTS. We then got some tacos and checked out a nearby school, that had nothing more than a weird bank to curb that I did a pivot on.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 still sore from basketball/bad diet)