On a hot morning I had limited time so I went to dog park again. Bratcher, Paul, Dave, Eric, Ferg, Raul and a lot more showed. It was a pretty heated session both temperature and skating. Ferg rules, so fun to be around and a really good skater. He front smithed over the pad, did back 180 nosegrind, halfcab crook. Bratcher is always charging, lots of slappy tricks. I was really struggling to get going so played a game of SKATE with Paul. We got to SKAT-SKAT so it was an alright game for me other than getting a letter on treflip and I think front shove. I lost on a nollie heel which I’ve never landed so to be expected. Shortly after that I put together two lines I really liked. Heelflip, boardslide the tall round bar, no comply flip a parking block. Then one that sounds good on paper. F/s halfcab heel, kickflip over a parking block, no comply flip a parking block, 270 flip. I was hyped! Dave would get a no comply flip too and front boarded the tall round rail. I struggled to front 50 the bench again, didn’t lock into crooks over the pad, couldn’t kickflip up the lurb. Saw Dave get a nosegrind on the lurb again. At the end Eric, Dave, Paul and I hucked some flippers. Dave was super close to heelflips. I was not close to switch tre, nollie tre or switch f/s flip. Paul was really close to switch back heel. Surprisingly Eric was struggling with heelflips. Then I had to go pick up my mom. Fun session even if it started really slow.

Then I did a solo mission to MRKT to sell boards. I had intended to skate with the FOCO Nullers, but they were doing other stuff. I was really sore, but wanted to skate and thought a solo campus session with no expectations could be fun. It was cloudy with a few rain drops at first, but it cleared up and was real hot, like almost 100. The first spot I skated the little ledge along the bikepath and wasn’t feeling it. Then walking into campus found that super random bank to ledge and two stair that was super rough and way harder than it looks. I loved it. I also did a few nose stalls to start, but I did get a better no comply to tail before selfie filming. Would love to go back and do it better with a kickflip or something after. I went to the two stair area and wasn’t really feeling it much. Wanted to crook the granite bench after the two stair but couldn’t and just did a noseslide instead. Then ended up in the hallway between the math/music and engineering buildings that I had so many classes at in college. Kind of a trip to skate there actually. Anyway the spot was great, good curb, an alright ledge and this weird ride on ledge that was way weirder than it looks. I had some really fun intentional 5-0s on the curb and some not so intentional ones. The uphill grind killed me though, I could not do it well. Some little kids came and one of them did it really easy and ollied out like it was nothing. At least they liked my slappies on the curb. I never really did the uphill grind well enough to ollie out, but it was still fun. Last thing was the little quick up to gap. The ollie up was way too hard for me and may result in some setup madness. The little axle stall thing was 100% not planned and I just kind of did it instead of trying to ollie the gap. The front 180 felt really cool even if it was just a tiny gap. It was really fun to skate CSU, it’s been too long. I must admit I felt pretty old considering my level of skating and I went to school there 30 years ago. Yikes.

(setup 5/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Jake’s last weekend before knee surgery so he called for a dog park session. Rob, Paul, Cass and Ed, yes Ed showed. We skated for a few hours and then the next day I skated a few hours too so I might confuse some things between the sessions. Aki was there at first and shredding. Cass was killing it. He had kick back 50, kickflip off the grate kicker and almost kickflip front 50s on the curb. Paul had his Sean tricks, back 5-0 front 180 out, slappy crook 180, a lot. I had some flippers working early and some rare pop. Had a fun line of noseslide, ollie the tiny rail, b/s flip on flat. Had a nose manual and good feeling crooks. Front 50s were not easy. Saw Rob boardslide the tall bench, nollie front lip, manual the c pad, maybe nose manny too, back 50 back 180. Was really hyped when Ed showed, he was charging some ollies and manuals. Jake had some good front tails, crooks shove I think, skated the barrier so who knows what he was doing ha ha. At the end Cass, Paul and I went to play SKATE. It was funny Paul missed double or nothing on front shove, then triple, four and five and he was out. Cass and I went on, but Cass had to quit because it was getting so hot. We had gotten to the point of trying treflips which I then continued for like 30 more tries before giving up and leaving. Paul had done one and a couple other tricks. Fun session.

(setup 6/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Later in the evening I went to campus wanting to skate the bank to curb. It was still 93 degrees. Yikes. I putzed around on flatground a little before then went to it. I had a setup change. 3 days in a row. This one is supposed to stop that. I sure hope it does. 8.5 with 14.25 and royal 149s. I liked it a lot. First thing that made me happy was some noseslide 270s. Then a front shove to fakie. Then I randomly started hucking nollie shove noseslides. I never got one to slide, but I did get a couple little tap ones like in the video. I did quite a bit of flatground in between tries. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip and two (bad) treflips in a row! I tried some front shove back 50s too, but wasn’t as close. Eventually moved on. Ended up under the Engineering building. Did a few basics on a poorly lit bench then spent way too long trying to do a line. Slappy crooks, kickflip into the second bank, b/s flip up the angled curb. Took me forever to commit to the kickflip and I would only do so if I took a massive speed check. I did come close to getting all 3, but would never actually get the b/s flip. Decent night, skated hard.

(setup 7/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Arrived to a busy and weird scene. There were these older teens skating that were so incredibly clueless. Like no spacial awareness whatsoever. Before I had set my water bottle down one had run into me and gotten run into when cutting someone off mid tailslide. It didn’t really get better for me. I had one flyout kickflip and some fun noseslides. Dennis, Garrett, Joe and Darin was there. Garrett had some amazing back tails into the bank, Joe some amazing front crooks to fakie. Joe had a really long line and some solid f/s flips. A treflip session kicked off. Everyone but Dennis and I landed them. I went like 0-50. Some were close, most were not. Jameson did a line of all 4 treflips, double treflip, lazer flip, geez.

(setup 2/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 af1 hollows, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really hot day I went to meet Will at dog park. I arrived first. I avoided Valmont because the shade from the structure was essential and cooled things down a little. I felt very off, not motivated for a while. Will showed and we played a game of SKATE to get warmed up. It was a pretty long one without a ton of flippers and he one on a fakie front 360 which I kind of just gave up on since I needed water. Will shredded the ledges after that then had to leave. I got into a mode of trying really for for a bit. Going south I tried a million kickflip back 50s on the lurb. I got into a couple, rode on top, but never actually did the trick. Going the other way I tried a bunch of nollie tres or other flippers, most of which I did not land. Hated the lows, felt like they had zero pop and were heavy.

(setup 2/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10 hadn’t done a good job of exercising throughout the day)

Finally emerging from a heat comatose shortly before sunset I ended up at Douglass with yet another dumb setup change (ace lows). It felt good at the time though, I hucked around pretty good although it did take me like 8 tries to get a kickflip initially. I couldn’t get a halfcab flip in one of the warm up lines either. But I did end up getting a few flippers including heelflip and treflip which are rare these days. Crooks was tough. Front axle stall even harder. Couldn’t quite get a front 50. Once it got dark I intended to skate more, but ended up just driving around then going home.

(setup 5/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10 I guess sleeping a lot is good for the body)

After a pretty chill drive Rob, Paul and I met up with Venture Dave and Jake. The park was somewhat crowded with a skate school going on as well as quite a few others. I struggled to find any rhythm and never found a groove. I didn’t see a Dave impossible so I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one. He was close to bigspin front nose though. Saw Rob with manuals and a nose manual or two, some boardslides on the long ledge. Jake seemed pretty on it at least. He had nollie back tail before me, front tail, crooks to fakie, blunt variations on the little qp. Paul was shredding the ledge with back 5-0 front 180 out, front 5-0s, close to b/s nosegrind. Also some long grinds on the little qp. I couldn’t do flip tricks, switched between setups disliking both. Had a crook, some accidental front 5-0s, front 50s down the low downhill qp and some cheater axle stalls to fakie (one of which I followed with a halfcab noseslide on the ledge). Not the best Parker session, but whatevs.

(setup 2/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10 left knee is really swollen)

After a chill Friday of working at home I met up with Dave and then Paul at Valmont park. My warm ups were pretty embarrassing, but I got it together. Dave did a halfcab manual out of the bank that was really cool. He would go on to destroy the hip. Kickflip over the f/s hip, varial flip, f/s halfcab flip and FAKIE FLIP! I had attempted to film it all, but it turns out it overheated and missed all the tricks. Paul had done some good switch front 180s and back 180s. My first line was a shove on the bank, no comply on the hump, b/s flip over the hip. I took a while to get the worlds least popped halfcab flip (so glad my phone overheated ha ha!) and then spent like an hour trying to heelflip over the f/s hip which I have never done before. I got incredibly close, had several I thought would be makes, but somehow they weren’t. It was fun though. At the end Dennis showed up who I haven’t seen in a while and it was good catching up with him.

(setup 6/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10 left knee is really swollen)

Thought I had more energy. Went to campus with a bigger setup. Started up near the tunnel to the hill. Tried a line for a while of a flip trick, a stall on the mini bank to curb, noseslide the sandblasted flagstone bench, kickflip a metal grate out of the kicker, ollie up the 3 stair. The line had started after trying most of the tricks during warm up. Flip tricks went alright I got halfcab flip and heelflip but then I started to really struggle with noseslides which I blame on me changing my setup like a moron. Anyway I never quite got the kickflip before a few people came out of the building and sat at a table. And I didn’t feel like stumbling around like a dork in front of them so I moved on. Had a fun downhill roll and ended up at the fitness center. Went into line mode there too. Flip trick, noseslide, front axle stall a bench, 180 a rock. But I got super tired or something and was totally sucking, missing noseslides even. I left feeling ultra depressed, but realized I was exhausted so whatever. Gonna miss these quiet summer nights on campus.

(setup 6/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 left knee is really swollen)

Seattle Will is now Broomfield Will and things finally worked out for us to skate. We went to campus and went to the new ledge/ride on ledge. I quickly established I was super sore and unable to do much of anything. I had a ride on grind to fakie then switch front nose and some slappy crooks. Will took a bit to get used to the ride on grind then did a bunch. Also some really casual front 50s on the regular ledge. Then we went to the Baker ledge but were so tired we didn’t do much. He did get a switch manual though. Other than that it was just some noseslides from us and I lacked all confidence or motivation. We had fun walking around and showing him some other spots.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights with royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 574 blue size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)