After work and shortly before sunset I met up with Dave who was at Willville waxing the little ledge under the manny pads. Which would be our spot for the next hour or so. Dave had done boardslide to fakie then was going in on halfcab boardslide to fakie which took a bit. I rattled off some low effort warm up tricks like slappy crooks, nollie tails, switch front nose before trying a million fakie nosegrinds. It was so annoying, it would not grind for me. Finally got one that was more just a fakie bonk. Oh well. Dave got the halfcab board, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide shove, front 50, front 50 180, back 50, back 180 fakie 50 and an amazing front crook after my phone had ran out of space. I went in on halfcab crooks and was getting into quite a few and we think I did one or maybe two. Since my phone had run out of space we’ll just say they were makes. Ha. The one in the clip is just to show it was close. After it got dark we went up top and messed around on the 3 block area. Dave tried some drop downs to manual and got pretty close. I did a couple ollies onto the low level. Dave did the cool switch deck check to nose bonk and would go on to get a Mangoesque manual you will see in Stubborns 2 coming in 2050. Fun night, got pretty cold quick though.

(setup 6/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow lights 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric with currex runpro insoles and half 574 vulc insoles in the front)
(pain level 5/10)

On a crisp morning that warmed up quickly I went to dog park and had about 90 minutes before family festivities would begin. I had a setup change. 8.5 with Slace (ace baseplate and bushings with slappy hanger because they are lighter). I liked it. I was sore from bad holiday eating and drinking, but had some motivation. I didn’t stick totally do it, but got a warm up line that sounds good on paper. Front 50 180 out the lurb, halfcab noseslide the bench, back 50 180 out the curb. My back 50s on the curb felt really good on this setup. My front 50s felt good on the lower stuff, but I still struggled to 50 the bench. I would get a couple accidental 5-0s. The ledges felt incredibly sticky for slides for some reason I don’t understand. I guess the overnight freeze? I don’t know but slides were really weird. My ollies onto the pads felt good, never quite got manuals but I only tried a couple. Had a line of crooks the bench, back 50 the curb, ollie the kinked bar. Last line was to ollie the little flat bar, front board the metal bench, front nosegrind 180 the curb. The ollies in that line were so fun, front boards were bad, nosegrind 180 was not so good but it was like 3rd try. I had done a few other things, flippers didn’t work well as one would expect when changing to a larger board. Anyway, fun session.

(setup 6/10 nullosaur 8.5, jessup ultragrip, slace 8.5, 52mm spitfire f4 classic shape orange/black swirl 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain 5/10)

Met Dave as the cold darkness settled in at dog park. There were some youth charging it and filming. Dave was already there trying a switch nose jib revert on the bank to curb. This became a trick we tried for a while with various lines. I’ve skated dog park since so it’s confusing what went down this day. But I know Dave had some good 50’s and 5-0s on his parking block, kickflips and a fakie flip on flat, manuals the weird pad and nose picks to fakie on the bank to curb both ways I think. I had done a few little front boards on the concrete wallie bar things and changed a line around until finally getting slappy front crook, ugly b/s flip, switch nose jib revert. Also a front smith stall then front 50 the green ledge. Dave left as had everyone else. I skated the main ledge area for a bit, really struggled with front 50s on the main bench and got depressed about it. Had several manuals on the little pad though which is rare for me.

(setup 2/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, venture v8 5.6 with hollow axle and bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc 11.5 gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a windy sunny day I went to the garage in the late afternoon. I had put Venture V8s on my new 8.25 and man it felt better. After a warmup I started flipping and kickflips took a bit. I wanted to try all the straight 8, but didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it. So I tried 5 tries on the ones I can’t do, but heelflip and especially fakie heelflip took forever. Treflip took me quite a while too but I did land on one and slam in the first couple tries. I rotated in a lot of hucking but still managed to land 10 flippers.

kickflip
Fakie flip
heelflip
fakie heelflip
b/s flip
treflip
halfcab flip
halfcab heelflip
f/s halfcab flip
varial flip

I was happy I was 3/5 on backside flips, got a couple halfcab flips in a row, f/s halfcab flip was really hard with the weird angle I have in my garage (well I guess all tricks are hard in that little space) and ended with 3 varial flops in a row.

(setup 7/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide blue size 12 half old 440 insole and gamechanger light insole)
(pain level 2/10 seriously no idea how I felt fine but I did and it’s even weirder because I had a few drinks the night before)

On a cold night I went out to the garage on a new setup. I’ve done a bunch of journal researching and this really seems like a good setup for me to stick with. I’m sure I wont, but I hope I do. The Spanky Ace’s are slightly lighter. I hope that helps. Anyway, my body wasn’t feeling too good. I did some warming up with 180s and stuff, took a bit to get a shove I was happy with then did a few kickflips which felt good. Switch flips after were not close. Halfcab heels were somewhat close. I took about 35 tries to get a treflip, but I had landed on several of them. Hucked nollie varial heel unsuccessfully then ended on some really bad frontside flip attempts with a could kickflips I skirted around 180.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a nice morning with the wife I went out with very little motivation to find something different. And I did, I found this “little” gap that I thought would be fun to ollie. I skated an 8.3 with Indys. It had great pop, that is it. I had a warm up line of kickflip, ollie up a curb, ollie a very tiny gap. Then I tried this gap and didn’t have the guts to commit.

Went to this nearby ‘sorry excuse for a bank to curb’. Not shown are the ruts and worse asphalt you get to ride through. Anyway, I took a little bit to get a front tail. Talked to a snow bro that works at the cannibas place about snowboarding a nearby rail. Then went hucked a couple kickflip axle stalls I thought would work. A million tries later I focused my board like a baby. I was in disbelief I couldn’t land it. Guess it shows why I won Stubborn Of The Year a few years back.

(setup 2/10 8.3 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollows with bones medium bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 103a pj, new balance numeric 574 vulc 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really nice day I rolled to Denver and met up with Cass, Kyle and Ryan at a newish DIY spot. It’s got some qps and a curb that are pretty fantastic. Well, the qps are a little gnar for me, but I’m a wuss. Kyle had just done his trick and hurt his back so he was out. Cass was on the slappies right away. Says he just learned them because of this spot. Took me a bit to get the confidence to skate it like a qp like Cass was, but they were really fun. Had an early line of slappy front crook then rock ‘n roll the qp. The glorified f/s kickturn then regular slappy was really fun. I had a b/s flip after too. Ryan had really good slappy feebles and almost got bluntslide to fakie 50. Then we went to York St. It was a pretty fun session although I took too long to do a front slash on the tiny bank to pool coping section followed by front 50 the little slappy curb. I ended up mostly trying to skate the ledge on the outside. Never quite got a front 50, my pop was lacking. A first try crooks made up for it. Ryan had a nice nollie noseblunt on the parking block. I think Cass did halfcab blunt. Fun session.

(setup 3/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue size 11.5 with half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After work I met Dave at Frederick after the sun had set and temps had dropped. We somehow ended up on the weird lump of a qp that neither of us liked and skated it for a while. I think Dave had started with the alley up 50 and then did it 5-0 as I tried to learn 50. It was fun though we did a bunch of different variations. The alley oop fakie back 50 was my fav feeling of them. But Dave had done it switch too which I got as well, but he added 5-0 to every variation, also had crooks. I liked the frontside versions too. Then we moved 20 feet away to the bank to curb area. Dave did some 5-0 transfers down into the bank that were gnar. Also some Tiago lines with nollies and switch ollies on the banks and hips and back tails on the bank to curb. I spent a really long time doing a line of fakie flip on the bank, noseslide a hubba, alley oop fakie back 50. Slammed hard on a crooks after that, but the line hyped me up. I spent an hour trying axle stall then treflip flyout and finally got one about 50 tries in. After that I was basically too sore to do anything other than putz around and do some basics. Dave was doing nose stall on the bank to curb then switch 180 slide around to nose manual over the pyramid and getting really close. I tried to skate the ledge to end the session. It didn’t go very well, I could barely ollie as my soreness had taken over.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lites with bones medium bushings, 53mm bones v1 stf 103a pj, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

On a cold and snowy Thanksgiving morning I met up with Jack B and Seattle Will. It was a bit disorienting skating indoors so early in the day, but we ended up having a good session. We all kind of did our own thing to get going. I had some fun slappies on the bank to curb. Jack had a sick no comply 180 up the euro. Will and I played on the bump to ledge a bit. He would do back 50, back 5-0 then worked for back tail. I did noseslide and crooks, but started doing the crooks in a line with axle stall on the taller qp and a 180 off the kicker onto the pad. It was a really fun line. I joined Jack on the tiny bank to curb section for a while. He was doing 5-0 and switch 5-0 ride on grinds off the little curb. I was trying to line out smith stalls with ride on nosegrind, but never got the nosegrind. Will managed front 50 across and down the main ledge. I did a tiny little front 50 on it, but I was actually hyped as I’ve never popped onto it before. I tried the kickflip then bump to 50 line a while. The front 50 against the wall was so weird. It took quite a few tries so it helped me dial in some kickflips up the euro. Lastly Jack was trying slappy noseslide the top part of the ledge and I was trying crooks on it. But it became time to go so I never got it all the way, would like to do that. Oh yeah, I had gotten little front 50s on it too. Will had done front 50 over it super easy, I think back 50 too.

(setup 8/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, xero kelso b/w size 12 with remind cush impact insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Managed to get out of work in time to enjoy daylight. It was cloudy though with rain or snow threatening. I kind of love that kind of weather. I skated in Xero shoes because I’m sick of all the pain from skate shoes. It went well actually. I started in the front at the curb cuts. Did a line of fakie flip, sw 180 into a curb cut, kickflip out of the next one. Then I went to the side. Did a few slappies, not really heavy on the flippers. Tried a line of b/s flip into the little hill, fakie bigflip. But never got the fakie bigflip. Nollie flips whipped around but I never got both feet on. Extended the line to start with a front axle stall on a rock, noseslide jib a bench that whiggles, nollie 180, switch 180, b/s flop into the hill. Ended trying switch slappy crooks and got a couple that felt good.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, xero kelso b/w size 12 with remind cush impact insoles)
(pain level 3/10)