Took and ‘off’ day. I’ve been liking the bigger setup so much I committed to it with a new deck. While I was at it I put some new wheels on that weren’t worn down under 50mm. The 360 manuals with ollieing really are fun.
(setup 8.38 null control room, venture wides, venom 91a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)
All new everything (except for bushings)! I was feeling extremely lazy, out of it and sore and didn’t get out skating until around 2pm. I was going to meet Jake and Carleigh at Valmont ledge. I got there first and was starting to warm up when a truck backed in so the destination was changed to research ledge.
I actually had some fun there for awhile. Noseslides and crooks worked. It was fun trying to get the crooks groove going on some new trucks. Jake had them too. Carleigh did noseslides and noseslide shoves. She does that trick good and doesn’t come to a halt on the noseslide like most people (me). Carleigh also did a bunch of kickflips and got into front noseslides and battled front 180 nosegrind for awhile. Jake was rattling off tricks. Front 180 up the curb, fakie back tail the ledge. Back 50, front 50, front 5-0 180, front tail, front tail shove! Geez. I never got a clean back 50 or front 50. I managed a front 5-0 on accident instead. Flip tricks were going ok for me. Did some kickflips up the curb. Almost a line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, kick back 50. Never got the kick back 50, haven’t ever done it there. Carleigh left first. Jake next. My stubborn self stayed awhile putting my body through more needless pain. I tried back 50 shove, but when you can’t back 50 it’s hard to do that. I ended trying a few tricks 5 times going slow. Halfcab noseslide, halfcab crook (didn’t get it), switch front nose, fakie 50 (didn’t get it) and for complete science fiction I hucked 360 flip noseslide (not even remotely close). I felt ok earlier on, but I was mostly just bummed when I left.
(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)
Went out to the garage with my new setup without much intent on skating hard or long. I started on the “manual pad” and a few tricks in I slammed, did the splits and hit the back of my head on a bike pedal. Awesome. I did a few more manuals tricks then decided to bring in Ledgy and see if it would be possible to skate it in my garage. I went to move the ‘manual pad’ and noticed how convenient it would work to make a sweet bank to curb. I played with that for awhile, but it needs a sign at the bottom to make it good. The sign I have was in the back yard and covered with snow. Next time. I still messed around for awhile, just lifting up the crack and doing nose stalls and front rocks and stuff. I think it will be quite fun.
Then I put Ledgy out to skate. I only did stalls obviously since there is no room. I’m not sure I could actually do grind tricks, but I did backside nose stall shove and frontside nosestall shove. Both were really fun. Don’t think I’ve ever done the fs version before. Then I made myself do a front tail stall and called it a night. Oh yeah, I hucked a few switch flips without getting close. The new setup is a 8.38 board. Why am I going bigger? Because I’ve been into ledges and I think the extra board room helps me.
(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)
After a long and horrible night (get well soon Riley!) I went to Valmont shortly before sunset. I waxed the ledge up good and did some kickflips and no-ollie noseslide variations to get the blood flowing. I had some new Emerica Westgates and some 50mm OJ wheels. My PJ shoes were getting really bald and my Spitfires had huge flatspots after powersliding the day before. I went through a few basics. I just skated the low part of the ledge as I was super exhausted and unmotivated. I didn’t feel like bailing stock tricks so I hucked hard ones. Front smith, “nollie” front tail, kickflip noseslide (technically got one, but it was horrible) and finally my dream trick of halfcab flip noseslide which I got remotely close to. I hucked some flippers too, got close to varial heel, got a bad bs halfcab heel, a couple of bad 360 flips. The new shoes felt ok. It’s weird because they are softer and more flexible then the PJs, but somehow they seem to have less board feel. They seem good enough to keep skating at least.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows 1/16 riser 50mm ojs emerica westgates grey)
I had new wheels on my old board. I didn’t think it would go so good as it was a big change. My old wheels had worn down to 45mm-48mm depending on the wheel. I got some new 51mms. They felt huge. I know that is pathetic, but it changed the timing of everything. With that said, I started off pretty good. This spot is hard to skate. Wayyy harder to skate then it looks. I was sore for some reason, but started trying lines with ledge, bank, ledge action. First was noseslide, back smith stall, front noseslide 270 out. Second was switch front nose to fakie (coming out forward that’s confusing eh), front tail stall, front board pop out. Then crooks, ollie to fakie, switch noseslide. Next was switch front nose, fakie ollie on the bank, front 50. One of the switch noseslides was the best one I’ve ever done. Things were looking good even though all of these took longer then you would think and were done way worse then you can imagine. I was happy and sad trying to push switch at this spot. Then I wanted to do back 50, frontside ollie, front tail. I got a few back 50s pretty quickly and bailed the ollies. I was still hyped though. I was hucking flip tricks when I bailed and that was ok. Heelflip, treflip, halfcab flip, hucked some ones I can’t land.
Then I got into a rut where I could not do a back 50 to save my life. This spot is so much harder then it looks. You come around a corner on the narrow path (crack kills) and you can’t really see the ledge as you’re approaching because of the bush. Anyways. I mostly bailed, fell back into the grass a lot or would lock in like the photo above and come to a stop. It was very depressing. I would eventually get another back 50, bailed the f/s ollie after. UGH. Then another back 50 attempt that turned into back 5-0. I took it! Got the f/s ollie, but the f/s tail failed me. I didn’t care anymore. I left. Stopped by Valmont manny pads briefly. Got manual first try, nose manual 20th try WTF. Then hucked kickflip manual and manual front shove out briefly before having to go pick up Ollie.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows 51mm spitfire classic f4 nb# pj stratford 533 white/gum)
Went out in front of the house on another nice cool evening. I had some new wheels. Yes, new. I always have new stuff. Well basically the 54s were just way too big for me and I measured the old wheels and they were down to like 48 or 49. Too small to start with. I had scored some of the narrow Bones 52s and plan on sticking with them. Flatground went ok actually. My newish shoes grip really well and it added a bit of comfort. I didn’t get too far into the list. Got close to nollie 3 flips. Got a good feeling heelflip which I’ve struggled with lately.
Then I grabbed Ollie and we went to Red Curbs. I was supposed to learn back lipslides and figured it was a good spot for them. It didn’t go so great for me. I got kind of close, this clip is the closest, but yeah, not so close. Ollie was ripping. He did several manuals across the little manual pad. I’ve never seen him ollie into a manual before. He also did his first real boardslides. He was hauling ass and staying on the ledge. He did land one perfect that was like 6 feet long, but here’s the best we captured. He also did a boardslide to fakie, like 20 nollie shoves which he claimed are new, fakie shoves going fast, 180s everywhere, halfcab, etc. He’s one trick away from being better then me (kickflips). At the end I gave up on the back lip and had fun doing some 50s, slappy crooks, almost kickflip manual, almost 3 flips.
(setup 8.5 null venture wide lights thunder bushings 52mm bones v3 nb+ stratford 533 pj cream)
Totally obsessed over bigger wheels for the last day. I got home from work, took a nap and then setup some Null 54s. They look huge. I rolled down the bikepath to Wilville. I wanted to just skated the bottom metal curb as my side was pretty sore, but they were roped off for construction. Doh. A couple bikers were trying to grind the double set rail. I saw a couple bad falls. As much as I hate sharing a skatepark with a biker due to the collision factor I have a lot of respect for how gnarly they get. So I went to the middle area and tried to remember how to ollie. Ha. It took a couple tries for me to manual into one and I realized manualling is probably the worst thing I could do for my painful side. Luckily I’m really stubborn. I tried a line of no comply 180, halfcab flip, nose manual. The hc flip was hard because of how slow the bigger wheels rotate and how crappy I felt on a board. But I never got the nose manual or even really the confidence to ollie onto the curb in nose manual. Argh. At the end I just did some of those mute grab bomb drops off the brick wall. It could be a fun line to do one off the brick to manual then nose manual the next one into the bank. As the session went on I felt worse and realized my frail body just can’t handle vulcs anymore. Doh. I pushed/walked home. Saw the remains of a bike collision on the bikepath. Yikes.
(setup 8.5 null venture wide lights thunder bushings 54mm nulls lakai fura white)
Up early on a sunny Saturday. I love it. Met Fuzz and Dave at the newly redone Wells Fargo bank spot. There was a security guard in the parking lot so we just chatted for awhile. It was rad. The dude never left, so we ended up just trying to skate and he never hassled us. Rad. We started with a game of SKATE on the qp to get warmed up. Dave won it. A lot of tricks were done. It was a good warm up. Dave killed it. Then we did our own things. It’s hard to remember everything that went down, but I know Fuzz did front noseblunt over the hip with a slide. Front lips, front tails, ollies. Dave did the switch rock transfer first try, backside ollies, switch blunts, and a thousand more tricks I’m not remembering right now. I did a silly rock to slide around the corner to fakie and front rock, front lipslides and took 1000 tries to do my first blunt to fakie ever. Yes, first one ever. Pretty rad.
After some food and chillin’ at Crisis I went over to Safeway ledge feeling pretty motivated with some new 51mm STFs. I skated hard. I got a bunch of back 50s, one back 50 front 180 out. Really wanted to do kick back 50 shove out and got oh so close. I’ve only done that on a tiny metal edged curb. I also hucked a lot of flip tricks. Seems like lately I’ve been trying tricks I can’t do more then ones I can. Got super close to nollie f/s flip, kind of close to switch heel, almost fakie tre, a couple tres. Tried to slide tailslides, but didn’t. Crook’d the fence ledge a bunch. Never got a decent front crooks to wall push off.
Then I went to Southern Hills. I need to stop going there. The concrete is getting so bad, there are rocks everywhere and the benches only grind if you are good. I struggled. And I started to resent putting the smaller trucks on my board. They just aren’t as stable and I don’t feel as confident on them. Sure they do flip a bit easier, but not much. Since I was struggling so much I started hucking. Did a switch crooks on the curb, came somewhat close to switch tre since I really focused on pretending it was a nollie tre. Tried some lines with kickflip or halfcab flip into the handicap bank. On the ledge I got noseslide, boardslide, front board pop out, the worst front noseslide ever, one slow front 50, argh.
(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushing 51mm stfs quincy 254s)
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)
After a busy morning then doing bidness at Crisis, Rob, Carleigh and I went to this bank spot. I had new bigger wheels. Spitfire F4 99 52mms. They felt huge since my last pair of 50s had shrunken into the mid 40s. I felt sore warming up which I don’t really understand why it’s happening lately. Anyways we all did some stuff. I had a fun run of boneless, front tail (no slide), then kickflip on the low part of the bank. Carleigh did front tails, bluntslide and back tail. Rob pops a mean b/s ollie, the bean plant of course, kickflip and tailslide. Carleigh had to leave. I tried kickflips to fakie for a long time before finally getting one. I filmed Rob get a rad line of manual, bean plant, b/s ollie and then a tailslide. I did a fun run of halfcab flip on flat then roll into a bank and kickflip to fakie the other side. And then took a long time to get a sketchy fakie flip. Rolling into the bank switch was a little scary, but kind of fun. Fun session.
(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire 52mm F4 99 wheels NB+ 479s)