On a warm afternoon I met Cass and Rob at dog park. We had the spot all to ourselves for the first half hour and it was pretty awesome. I had some knee pain at times, but for the most part felt pretty good. Cass had some good back 50s and 5-0s, manuals, . Rob was trying nollie back smith, had good nollie front lip, halfcab 50, crook, manuals, boardslide the tall bench. I got a line that sounds okay on paper. Halfcab flip, noseslide to fakie, fakie 50 b/s halfcab out. The halfcab flip took forever. Also backside flip (to stop), halfcab noseslide, slappy crook. I finally committed to frontside 50 on the bench (even if I did 5-0s). Next step, to do it moving. had a fun crook on the back of the two tier. Was pretty hyped to see Phil randomly show up with his sons. It was fun he did the front 50 in about 5 tries and even had a decent slam. His kids rip, one had a really nice front 50 back 180 out. Paul showed up and shredded for a bit. Pretty fun session. Felt great to really skate again.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, spitfire 51mm classic f4 101a, new balance numeric 288 sport white size12)
(pain 5/10 kinda funny that I felt “good” but compared to how it had felt it did feel good)

On a nice cool afternoon I went to Douglass after bring Ollie to the airport. I was not expecting much. I brought three setups. All 8.25 with different trucks. It was funny set them all down so I could only see the top and did an initial ollie on the setup I thought had the Royals and had no pop whatsoever. Turned out it was the one with Venture lows. Doh! Of the 3 the Ace lows had the best feeling ollie so I went with it for most of the session. I really struggled. My knee was hurting bad at times so I put some gamechangers in some new 288s and my knee started hurting less. I did a couple basic lines like ollie up the curb, kickflip, noseslide. Couldn’t get crooks and my boardslides were really weak as I would hit the front wheels on the way up. I tried front 50s for a bit and maybe about 10% close. Got a couple other flippers, but then left after an hour hoping my knee wouldn’t react negatively to a little skating again.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushing, 53mm spitfire f4 classic 99, new balance numeric 288 sport white/grey size 12 stock / footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10 left knee at times was quite bad)

After some hesitancy I went to meet Rob and Mike and the standard dog park crew. Eric was there which was cool because it’s been a minute. The sun was out for a while, but then we got some good cloud cover that lasted for a couple of hours. I saw Eric get front boards on the taller concrete curbs and almost shove out. Didn’t see him get his patented quick heelflips which we’ll blame on an extended vacation. Rob seemed to rattle off the hits right away. Nollie front lip, nollie front 50 back 180, nose manuals, boardslide the tall bench, crooks, etc. It was good seeing Bratcher again as it’s been a minute. He switch ollied a parking block when I got there which he had never done before. Mike was getting his slappys on. I had a decent session. i think the clouds really helped out. Got a manual or two which has been rare lately, the best crooks I’ve done above the manny pad (which was only a couple of feet long and I have about 10 more to go but its progress) and finally got a Glen 50 on the bench which I’ve been scared of for months. i followed it with a terrible treflip. Mike and I went and played in the pond at the park for a bit. He had some good front slashes and a killer no comply. I did some axle stalls and took too long to do a kickflip fakie on a hump (what do you really call Evergreen skatepark’s “banks”? they aren’t banks, they aren’t quarterpipes they are just like dumb mounds that are sometimes kind of fun).

After some napping, cleaning and dinner I went to the side of the school with no real plan and did some flatground. It was a mellow little session with some dorking. I got 10 flippers total in an hour. Argh. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, heelflip, f/s halfcab heel, varial flip, fakie bigflip, sex change. Was hyped to have skated.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast low royal bushings, spitfire f4 51or52mm wheels 99a classic shape 4 washers inside, es melange black size 12 footprint gamechanger lite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a really hot day I drove through rain almost all the way to the school where Rob and Dave were sweeping the construction debris away. I attempted to start skating in some 868s, but they felt like moon boots and I switched to 440s. Also, even though I had fun on the 8.25/lows I tried my 8.3/thunders and stuck with it. We had a good session. Seemed like everyone was doing different stuff pretty quickly. Rob was doing fakie back nosegrind reverts on the curb over and over. Not sure I’ve ever seen him do that before. It encouraged me to try the regular fakie nosegrind revert which I definitely got close to, maybe even an over 50 make. It felt cool. Dave had kickflip to fakie on the bank, ride on grinds/slides on the curb, switch back 180s up the curb. I couldn’t do a halfcab flip to save my life and kept getting weird wheel bite almost turning me into doing a cab flip. I had some slappy hurricanes which I recently remembered to try again. Rob was going for slappy crooks to fakie, casually did boardslides to fakie, manuals, more that I’m forgetting. Dave became obsessed with switch shove front nose. Then we both tried to 50 the ledge that has grown incredibly tall over the years. Dave was going for back 50 after switch back 180 up and got denied. I was going backside after kickflip up the curb or frontside after pop shove up the curb and I got denied on both even when committing a lot. Argh. The pop shoves up the curb were fun though. After Rob had left Dave and I were messing around on the curb. I got a better slappy hurricane, some switch boardslide 180s out and then randomly posed a nollie front shove backside nose stall. I would get it in a few tries. Dave had been doing slappy front crook and sw slappy front crook then he joined in the nollie shove noseslide game. We would both get little slides with it. Such a cool feeling. I also got one or two to fakie. Then the darkness started weirding us out and we bounced. I think I may have broke my max number of setup changes this week. Yikes.

(setup 5/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 hollow no bottom washer, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape washers outside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half/no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After dinner I went to dog park to meet Jesse and Mike and possibly Dave. Mike couldn’t make it but Paul rolled in. Jesse was there and we went right in to a game of SKATE which he would win again. I just can’t beat him. Not even after he slammed and hit his chin on a fakie bigspin. It was crazy. It was decent though. I wore some Es Melange shoes and thought they were great at the time, but now my calf is acting up again. Argh. Anyway Jesse won on treflip and I wasn’t even remotely close. Dave showed and did a lot of parking block transfers to get warmed up before he went on to 5-0 over the arc. After playing SKATE I got a different setup out of my car and mostly enjoyed it more. 8.25 with venture lows. I would get a second try f/s halfcab heel, but struggled with kickflips. I had some fun crooks on the back of the two tier, a few manuals on the pad. Dave was all over the place and settled in on some fakie 50 halfcabs for a while. He also almost did a kickflip off the c pad. I had started committing to crooks on the ledge over the manny pad, but never locked in. I was hyped to feel more posted up and committed. I also tried some kickflips over the green curb and some other random stuff. I couldn’t nose manual the pad to save my life. Argh. By the end there was just one younger skater who was trying to learn nose manuals and I’m sure will have them way better than me next time we see him.

(setup 1 3/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 52mm bones v1, es melange black size 12
setup 2 4/10 8.25 null esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows v-cast, 52mm pink snot wheels)
(pain level 4/10)

This is one of those days I should get docked or red flagged or something because I had two setup changes. I had pulled out my 8.25/5.6v-hollow but put on 53mm wheels. I wasn’t planning on skating early, but I woke up really early so I went to Boulder park. I very much disliked my setup. I didn’t skate well. Took a while to get a warm up run of olllie into a bank, noseslide down part of the hubba, rock fakie a qp, fakie bigspin the hump. I had the park to myself for the first 30 minutes or so until a couple of characters showed up. First guy was short shorts stoney dude with funny sunglasses almost getting me high with the second hand smoke. He ended up being really good of course. Other guy probably orders everything from Zumies, had a good ollie and some scary grinds down the hubba. I didn’t go on to do much, but did make myself get some front disasters which took longer than they should have. Oh and I had slowly and sketchily ollied onto the bench a few times.

After work I picked up the van then met Rob and then Dave at dog park. It was weird because only a couple blocks away it was hailing, but dog park would remain dry. My setup change was less drastic this session, just different trucks (Royals instead of ventures). A casual 180 up the manny pad to get started made me like it. In trying to made dog park more interesting to me I tried to skate it differently. I was trying a line of ollie the kinked rail then boardslide the taller rail. But I would never land the first ollie, although did land on it once at least. Some 303 dudes showed up and I got kind of self conscious about not being able to ollie a little flatbar so I moved back to the normal routine. Only other thing I remember was finally getting a lame little nose manual with a love tap at the end. Rob had done noseslide and frontr board I think on the tall bench, fakie nosegrind revert on the curb, casual mannies, back 50s. Dave did some front blunts on a parking block, a bunch of grinds over the rounded arc ledge, front board fakie a flatbar and 5-0 shove on the curb.

(setup #1 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings, 53mm bones v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles)
setup #2 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 53mm bones v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Met up with Joe, Eric, Lee and Rob on a warm evening at dog park. It was crowded with youth, most of which were annoying. Lee had immediately done a front shove that was too high and Rob commented on how it was over maximum height. Ha ha. Lee warmed up skating the tall flat bars. The annoying youth got to Rob and he bounced. I don’t remember doing much of anything myself. I was adjusting to a setup change of 8.3 and aces. Felt decent. I lost in a game of SKATE to Joe, but had a great feeling b/s flip. I struggled with crooks. Aces pinch so differently than Ventures. Didn’t see Eric skate much. Joe was popping onto the tall ledges casually. Lee’s pop shove nose grind was bonkers.

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, new balance numeric 272 size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a run to 303 I went to redder curbs.  I was armed with the same setup except Ventures.  It was way better, but pretty hefty.  I took forever to get a warm up line of parking block ollie, front slappy, ride on grind, front tail stall a curb, kickflip.  The ollies over the parking block were so bad, so weird.  Also had some slow front 50s on the curbs which felt good, slappy crooks obviously.  Tried a line for a bit of kick back tail a curb then bs flip the hump.  Never got either trick, but was somewhat close to both.  After a while I had changed from 272s to 868s and felt less pain (until my bunion would swell up later).  But they did feel good to kickflip in.  

(setup 4/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.8 royal bushings no big washer flat top washer, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles then some 868s)
(pain level 4/10)

With no real plan I went to the mall after dinner to get my new glasses fitted. It only took a minute and I started to get excited to skate after thinking about the research ledge. This used to be my favorite spot. It’s pretty chunky and dry now, but i still had fun. During the warm up line process I felt an urgency I hadn’t in a while. Maybe it was how bad I felt compared to the better days I’ve had here. I would get a couple lines that sound alright on paper for me. Halfcab flip, on flat, 180 up the curb, fakie flip, switch front nose. B/s flip, halfcab flip, ollie up the curb, noseslide. Was close on uphill switch flips, got a couple bad crooks when they didn’t stick right away. Couldn’t fathom 50s either way. Halfcab flip on the sidewalk part was scary for me. Ended by making myself line out the little manny pad gap and man it was hard. Noseslide to fakie, switch 180 up the curb then ollie onto the little pad and ollie the tiny gap. It was really hard for me to make myself ollie onto the pad and once I finally did I was going slow and did the worst ollie ever. But I tried and that made me feel good.

(setup 4/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288sport green/gum size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After working in the office I went to dog park on the way home.  Sean, Paul, Jesse, Tim were there.  I had made a setup change.  No surprise there.  8.3 with ace lows.  I liked it.  Everyone was doing their thing for a while.  Sean and Paul suggested a game of SKATE so I got eliminated pretty quickly from that one.  I finally managed to ollie the little weird cement wallie thing although I bonked a wheel.  It was a rare decent ollie for me though as it was just a narrow strip which made it scarier to me.  It was fun though and I was hyped.  Sean was on a terror.  Not really any new tricks necessarily, but really charging it and getting deep into his bag.  

(setup 6/10 null abstract33 8.3, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm pink snot, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)