On a nice night I went out to Frederick for the first time in months to meet Dave and Garrett. I had a new Christmas Complete. And I hated it the entire time. I had mostly enjoyed my last stint on Indy mids, but they were too heavy. I thought maybe the hollow version would help. Nope, they felt no lighter. Add in a new 8.3 deck and 52mm Spitfire classic shapes. Patrick was there too happy to skate after his knee injury. We were in the back mellow bank/curb area for awhile. Dave did amazing front nose to fakie then fakie tail. He also started with some crazy step off trick on the bank that I couldn’t grasp, but Garrett got second try. I took too many tries to get a kickflip fakie then couldn’t quite get a front heel. Garrett did cool fakie tre out of the bank then fakie flip into the next one. Then it was all over for awhile. I was able to push pretty well so that was nice. I couldn’t quite get up the taller ledge, struggled to noseslide anything, flip tricks were impossible. Ugh. Dave and I did the 180 then switch front noses. Garrett did the manual tricks like it was nothing. Dave did switch front shove on the bank after a cool wallride to fakie. I dragged a lot of heel on a b/s flip on the attempt in between posing hardflip variations. Eventually we all got tired and called it a night.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy hollow mids, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape, splay freestyle shoes size 12 custom thin nb# abzorb insole and naboso activation insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

After running some errands on a nice night I went to dog park and mingled with the youth for awhile. Nick would show in half an hour or so relieving me from being the sole “older” skater. I had put smaller wheels on, bones bushings. Didn’t like either. Warmed up with some lame stalls on the small part of the barrier and a few kickflips. I went 0-10 on slappies to start. UGH. I would go on to skate decently for myself even though I didn’t really land any flip tricks. Maybe I just felt better on my board than I have since my achilles injury. I had some fun crooks on the benches also a really funny willy/crook bonk on the quick up to ledge. Lots of front 50s the taller pad, a front smith stall, nollie front tails, halfcab noseslides the bench, switch front noseslides, switch nose 270 shove and finally wallied wallie world for the first time in months. Near the end I was trying a line of front nose to fakie the bench then halfcab crooks. I got super close on a couple. May have technically gotten one but just a quick jib and no lock in. Nick was fun to skate with, lots of boardslides, shoves, 50 shoves. There were a couple other dudes doing manual tricks, but we mostly had the park to ourselves once the kids left. And man it was so nice out. It was hard to leave but I did get super sore.

(setup 8.38 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger two small bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, splay freestyle grey size 12 nike sb zoom air insoles made into wide toe insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knees weren’t too hyped)

Had changed my setup to the 8.25 with new wheels on it and some new 288s. Went to the wood bench research area well after dark. Everything felt off. Smaller board, smooth wheels, thicker shoes. I wanted to land a bunch of flippers, but I only got kickflip and fakie flip. I couldn’t back 180 the little brick gap which was borderline setting me over the edge. I was able to ollie onto the ledge much easier than last time at least. I left after about 30 minutes realizing I just didn’t have the energy to keep skating.

(setup null 8.25 glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow bones medium bushings, 51mm satori atchley 101a washers outside, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

My ankle was still hurting, but it was Go Skate Day and I thought I could handle some slappies.  I had my new setup and was blown away by how sharp the Aces could turn.  There was a big puddle from the sprinklers right in front of the main spot which would get much worse after the sprinklers turned on once again.  UGH!  I did a few front slappies, few slappy crooks and that’s about it.  I didn’t want to pop with my ankle feeling the way it did and the sprinklers kinda ruined it anyway.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, ace af1 55, spitfire f4 53mm classic shape 99a, new balance numeric 212 cream size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

I got to Broomfield park around 11. The crew was already there in the heat of the battle. Kevin was trying nollie noseslides. Rob lining out to no comply boardslides. Dave L casual nose mannies. Eric was charging back 50s. I had a new setup that I pretty much disliked out of the gate. Of course. I think it was the new wheels/bearings combo which is tough at a skatepark. It was so smooth it felt like I was gliding on ice. Anyway, I started slow and never really got going. I had a goal of noseslide back 270 out which I tried, but did not get close to. I also did a PJ inspired crooks to fakie then fakie bigflip on flat (jessup had just posed him do a crooks to fakie then quick fakie crooks bigflip out and I figured I’d do at least 2/3 of the line (which has since been taken down so I couldn’t link to it)). Kevin also got nollie crooks. Rob put in a journeyman effort on pop shove llipslides. Man he was close. He also pounded out tricks like front tail, back 50 back 180 and many more. Eric heelflipped the parking block, crushed lipslides, back 50s. Dave L almost got nose manny nollie back 180 on the brown pad. I’m missing a ton. I tend to do that when I skate bad.

After lunch and some basketball with Ollie I went and skated flatground at the school.  I was feeling sore so started with nollie shoves, fakie shoves.  Then kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip took way too long.  Started trying the thing where the end of one 2 trick line is the start of the next 2 trick line.  So next was fakie flip then halfcab flip.  Halfcab flip then b/s flip.  B/s flip then fakie bigflip.  Fakie bigflip then varial flip.  Varial flip then heelflip.  At this point I was so dead from skating earlier and then basketball with Ollie.  But I went for heelflip then treflip.  I got so tired on heelflips that I would only even try like 1/5 of them and I missed the few treflips I tried.  I gave up, but was happy I skated.  I’ve come to realize that a lot of my sucking lately is because I’m too embarrassed to skate around people.  I wont try basics that I’m not good at and therefore I can’t expand upon them.  Argh.  I guess I need to just deal with it. 

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.6 ventures hollow axle 3 washers on the inside of each axle, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, new balance numeric 212 size 12 nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain 5/10)

On a very nice morning I arrived to an empty NorthGLENn park. Then Dave and a bus full of Square State kids arrived. It was fun though. Simon and Jake would show too. Then Brian with another bus of kids! I had a new setup:

8.75 Null Jack Night Skate deck, big Ventures and big colorful 53mm conical fulls (yikes!). Why a change after so long on 8.25? Because I haven’t been landing anything on 8.25 anyway so might as well ride a board that actually fits me and enjoy the ride more. It was funny how mad Dave got at the crowds. But it really wasn’t bad and getting to skate with Brian was awesome. My warm ups went decent considering my huge setup change. I did the kickflip on the bank and then noseslide pretty quickly, had some fun 50s both ways on the noping bank, enjoyed some hip ollies. Everyone seemed to be up in the handrail area so I joined. Jake did some solid no comply 180s into the first bank, front rock and pivot on the barrier. Simon boardslid the rail, to manual, to fakie, noseslide too. I think he did stuff on the barrier as well. Dave boardslid it then front boarded it, boardslide and feeble transferred into the bank and probably did tricks on the barrier too. Jake got going with bluntslide and noseblunt. I got stuck filming for awhile. Brian almost got some ride on bluntslides then the crazy dropin. Simon and Dave did all kinds of tricks on the noping bank. Daves crook fakie and Simon’s bluntslide rock fakie were so good. Dave also got switch front crook fakie (I think). Earlier on Dave had done one of the best lines I’ve ever seen him do. Feeble transfer into the bank, ollie the kicker gap, lipslide the top qp, back 180 up the euro, switch crook the bank. I tried a bunch of front feebles and only got one which didn’t really grind. Near the end I wanted to relive the blunt to back d on the little noping qp. Much to my delight I followed it up with a fakie hurricane. Dave did the 180 switch crooks and we bounced to Ambulance ditch where Dave did a quick hammer for Stubborns 2. I hucked nollie tres. Some of which felt totally doable. But Dave had to leave so we left after about 15 min.

I stopped by Broomfield park on the way home, but it was super windy and crowded. I went to the nearby Safeway ledge and it was somewhat protected from the wind so I skated. I thought I would be too tired, but I kept going and skated for a good hour. I made myself do 10 back 50s which took awhile considering how bad I’ve gotten at that trick. I also did front 50, front 5-0 (accidental of course), front 50 180, front smith stall, front tail stall, got into a few switch crooks, took too long to do nollie back tail and couldn’t get very close to kick back 50 with the big board. Long, fun day of skating.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After hitting 303 Kevin and I met up with Rob and hit Redder curbs. Kevin and I hit 303 because we had recent struggles and it’s never our fault, but instead our setup’s fault. Ha. I went back to 8.5 with 8.5 Ventures, but traded in some large 51mm wheels for some narrow 50mm wheels. I’ve never really done the big setup with tiny wheels before. Well, not that I know of. Kevin was also switching back from Thunder to Venture. We woke. We had intended to meet Rob on campus, but the snow was starting to pick up so Redder curbs it was. Warming up didn’t seem too bad for anyone. Rob was on the back 50s and no complies right away. Kevin was figuring out his setup with switch flips. My trucks were way too loose, but I was having fun. Slappies worked well and kickflips felt great. Almost had some fun b/s flips out of the little kicker. Kevin and Rob had nice back 180s. Rob and I had some wallie nollies, Rob had front tails too. Jack showed and quickly did impossibles, treflips, popped kickflips. He is so freaking good. Then he went on to learn f/s halfcab back 50 in a few tries, did like 10 of them in a row and casually added the no comply flip over the mega gap in a few tries. He also learned slappy crooks (of course doing shove out second try), did the most popped no comply 180s and fakie tre’d over the little median. Rob learned slappy front crooks! I ended up doing my first slappy crooks shove (i’ve only shoved out of regular crooks before). I also did a b/s flip over the little hip. I got kind of close to kick back tail on the curb. Near the end I started trying nollie back tail shoves. Most of them weren’t close and were embarrassingly slow and awkward. But out of nowhere I did one and it felt quite amazing. I may have even slid it a little. Kevin joined the learn slappy crooks party. He also took top honors in the slam department. He tried a no comply 180 and went down soooo hard. It was brutal. He also ollied the parking block gap, back lipped the parking block, halfcab bonk the median like it was nothing. Dave showed near the end still riding his putter. He went into noseslides, tails, quickly. I had kind of tuned out at that point and was ready to go. Dave apparently skated for like 2 more hours ha. So awesome.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (red cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom bushings (88a big one no washer, 91a small one flat washer), spitfire f4 classic shape 99a 50mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10 mostly the cold causing the problems)

I had about an hour to kill before an old guy curb session I brought LGJ out to a dry asphalt parking lot behind the research center by Foothills Parkway. I wanted to do at least 10 ledge tricks in an hour. It sounds easy, but LGJ is hard. Sorry I forgot to take a photo again. I am not good at quick ledges. Especially when they aren’t short. I started off terribly. Oh yeah, I had a new board. A 303 CLFX deck since I’m out of 8.25s and I want consistency these days. I had new wheels too. Spitfire 52mm F4 classic shape. I am hoping I this wheel flips faster than the radial slim and I like them this time around so I can stick with it. I should find a better parking lot, but this one worked. I got boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie quick. Front board. Almost a couple good front noseslides, but instead I settled for a really bad one. I tried to do a line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, b/s flip. I got all the tricks, but the halfcab noseslide was super hard for some dumb reason. I had put a plastic pad under LGJ and it helped prevent it from sliding away. Got a switch front nose or too, switch backside was hard I kept moving the ledge when I’d get in. I had a good slam trying fakie nosegrind. Got a couple incredibly slow front 50s. Lots of crooks, a crooks to fakie. Couldn’t get close to halfcab crooks. Got halfcab noseslide to fakie. Landed a terrible treflip.

Then went and met up with Eric, Saul, Ed, Jake at Glenn Close. Miles from Square State would randomly show up as well as a young kid. It was fun. The classic shape wheels definitely slappy easier than a more square shape. Since Jake was the first to leave I’ll start with him. He was going in on slappy shoves for awhile. I tried some too and we were looking for motivation so I jokingly said if we don’t get it in 5 tries were doing 20 pushups. We both did 20 push ups. Jake had bluntslide, may have gotten the slappy shove, frontside slappies, slappy crook shove. Ed has one stylee slappy and was ripping some energetic lines with pops off the curb cuts and manuals. He ended with such a good front slappy. We can all thank Saul for shoveling the spot earlier in the day. He bashed the scary spork deck into the curb for some good slappies both ways, did the hook, I think got slappy crook. Eric was on heelflip tip. Off the curb cut, over the tiny bank. He had a good slam off the curb cut on one. I’m not sure if he even hit the curb, but he did go for a few long manuals. Miles was fun to skate with. He had a mean kickflip and treflip. I had my normal slappy tricks, but couldn’t get slappy front feeble or the slappy shove. I came close to switch front 50. I was inspired to get a better treflip than earlier so I tried a line of front slappy (or slappy front crook) then a slow treflip. I needed to get going after that as did everyone else. Fun crew. Wish I would have taken a photo of all of us together.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Snuck out for some lunch break fun on a gorgeous day to meet Dave across the street. It was a fun one. Since I was so sore I wore my 288s. It may have helped. I didn’t really try many flippers, but slappies went well. Dave got some really good slappy front crooks to fakie. I got some to regs. We tried to switch it up, but he couldn’t go to forward and I couldn’t go to fakie. Dave had an amazing slappy crooks or two. I got a few little switch slappy crooks to forward and followed one with a kickflip off the curb cut to the parking lot. I was doing some good regular slappies for me and trying to follow them with kick back tails, but never got it. Dave was working on switch slappy front crooks and getting into them so good and grinding them. I didn’t see him land one, but he was there for awhile after me. He drove by me “working” on the front stoop shirtless soaking up the sun. Ha. That was a fun session.

Later on I went to Frederick to meet Skelly, Mike, Sean, Hayden and more. Donnie ended showing after awhile. The park wasn’t very crowded initially, but would get kind of crowded, and then totally clear out while we were there. I sucked it up. Like I can’t even describe how depressing this session was for me. There was only two things I did okay. I noseslid the bump to ledge easily and I did the pull up loop second try. Honestly the loop was the most fun thing I did all night. The 8.5 killed me all night. I couldn’t kickflip the hump and I couldn’t b/s flip the hip. I think it was less than a month ago I said to my friend Josh “I would rather skate a 7.75 than 8.5”. So how did I end up on 8.5 again? Well, blame the pandemic and the board shortage and my idiot self. I never got a nose manual, did some of the worst crooks of my life on the ledge, couldn’t halfcab noseslide. On top of that I was finally getting the slightest bit of confidence to back 50 the lowest ledge in the park and my wheel fell off. That was a sign I should have left, but did I leave? No. I did manage a slappy front crook on the bank to curb when Donnie showed. He was hyped on that. Sean was funny. He said “I don’t know if I can 50 this bump to ledge” then did it perfectly with the most casual style ever. He would go on to 50, ollie, 5-0 a lot. But he couldn’t f/s flip the Glen hip. Ha ha. It was great seeing Hayden skate a park again. It’s been too long. He rips everything. The alley oop fakie 50 down the corner qp was so good. Back smith, 5-0s, tailslides and blunt the bump to ledge, f/s flip the bigger hip, fakie 5-0 halfcab out the little ledge. Mike was charging. He always does. It’s been awesome skating with him again lately. Slappies, wallrides, wallies. Skelly popped some good ollies over the big hips, back 180s and almost bigspin the smaller ones. Donnie charges. Front 5-0 the steep wall, unreal slappy survival tricks on the yellow curb I can’t describe, showed up the BMXers transferring from bank to bank and so much more. Oh, near the end of the session after hucking a front heel over the little hip ( I had no business hucking, but that’s what I do when I don’t want to commit to tricks) I was going towards the manny pad and things felt really weird. I carved a little and knew exactly what happened. Yup. Broke my kingpin. A dude there said “It is not your night” and he was right. I had fun skating with people. I was hyped to see everyone ripping. But my god I did not skate how I want to in any way and it really depressed me.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with custom hollow cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire F4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 306 foy navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Kevin and I rolled to Loveland hitting LOCO and Sk8 Ratz on the way before first hitting the awkard vectors of Loveland High. Kevin hadn’t been there before. I was wearing cupsoles to help the pain, old PJ 533s. They felt good until later on. Loveland high was kind of whatever. We tried some stuff, but nothing really stuck. I got remotely close to a frontside cab over the hip, slappy crooks from the driveway onto the pad, beanplant into the bank and the lucky first try 5-0 on the round bar we found. Kevin had some fast ollies up the curb to noseslide the curb, switch back 180 the hip, a bunch of ollies and then tried that line for a while with the pop shove. He got robbed.

We went to the nearby skatepark next. Kevin destroyed the ledges. Him and my skating were night and day different. I kept doing 5-0s instead of 50s. I had some okay crooks, the terrible front 5-0 shove, kickflip over the hip and close to b/s flip over the hip. I was quite unhappy with my ledge skating. Another skater showed and asked to play SKATE. I said yes and another dude joined and we played a couple fun games of SKATE that Kevin won. I was out quick in the first game on Kevin’s round of switch/nollie flips. The second game I did pretty well and matched a few tricks like heelflip, varial flip, halfcab flip and was only at SK with everyone at SKAT. I should have ended with fakie bigflip, but instead I took two turns trying 360 flip (landed on both at least) and by then it was over. I was hyped to do a front 360 even though it turned out I was supposed to do it switch. Those games were fun. Then we headed to Sean’s.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 custom hollow baseplate v-hollow axles, stock bushings, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 533v2 PJ grey size 13, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 5/10)