Hyped on the Nuggets win I picked up Neil and Rob and we went to meet Big Mike at Greeley.  Except my van had other ideas and broke down just outside of Longmont.  Mike was kind enough to come back and pick us up.  Since we were close to Frederick we skated there.  Needless to say my head wasn’t in the game and I felt very frustrated by the van and it’s continued electrical problems.  The others skated pretty well.  Mikes wallie then front nose to fakie was so good and long boardslides on the bank to curb.  Rob had a few epic manuals to back lip.  Rob and Neil both had boardslide transfers, nose manuals.  Neil with some really casual front shoves off the little kicker, one foots over the hips, kickflips on the hump.  I had gotten pretty upset again trying to get a line of f/s kickflip on the hump then b/s flip over one of the next hips.  I got really close, but ended up giving up.  I just couldn’t focus and was tired and sore.  That park is really fun though.

(setup 4/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollows 149, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After working the morning Neil, Rob and I rolled to Broomfield as rain was threatening.  There were little sprinkles at times, but never enough to fully stop the session.  Jesse and Jack would join us.  Warming up was not easy for anyone.  I had another setup change trying to make 8.5 not feel too large, but it still felt too large.  I won a fun game of SK8 against Rob and Neil which was a decent warm up.  Jesse had lots of front 5-0s.  I had some crooks, noseslides.  Near the end was trying crooks down the end of the escalator ledge then really slow treflips.  I couldn’t get a treflip to save my life and put an end to a very old deck.  Rob had 50s both directions, halfcab noseslide right away, noseslides the bank to ledge, front tail the blue box, shove liplide too!  Neil amazed me again by how quickly he was jumping onto stuff and manualling, nose manualling, 50s, one foots, etc.  He also got on a front tail.  Jack hasn’t been skating much but his first try bigspin pivot and front 5-0’s on qps were hot.  A lot more went down, it was a decent session before I turned into a crybaby about not landing treflips.  

(setup 2/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollows 149, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Off to Colorado Springs with Rob, Neil, Joe, Damon.  We started at Galileo which was just as not fun as I remembered.  Damon rattled off like 20 flippers on the bank and some basic grinds on the steeper steps.  Neil got a couple front lips across the smaller set.  Joe wanted a lip to 50, but couldn’t get it.  I battled kickflips and would eventually get a backside one followed by one to fakie.  Neil went to film it as lightning surrounded us and I ran into him on a roll out.  It was funny.  Then it rained.  We went to a skatepark, but it was wet.

Eventually we ended up at a spot recommended by Ryan that was pretty fun.  It was mostly just curbs and a few small stairs.  We all rolled around for a while figuring things out and skating it differently.  Neil hopped up and down everything, boardslides, wallies, 50s.  Damon didn’t skate it too much, but did talk to some lady who said “there is no way that kid is 50” in reference to me.  I proceeded to slam super hard on a no comply flip attempt.  I would get a few of them and even filmed a couple with a fun ride on grind after.  In the process Rob had ollied over the little curb.  After filming I took 6 tries to get a sketchy ollie over it.  Yikes.  I had a fun run of switch 180 up a 2 stair then front 180 down a 3.  Rob got a cool line back 180 up the 2, slappy crook, bean plant the 3.  Joe had a halfcab boardslide one of the curbs.  

Last spot of the day was the DIY.  It had degraded some since last time Jake and I were there.  I had gotten very tired and sore and besides a hurricane and some slashes on the little parking block qp didn’t do much.  Damon slayed it.  Skated the tall ledge like it was a normal ledge and did b/s flip, cab, treflip and ghetto bird over the lumpy hump.  Joe had some great boardslides, front 50 front boards and a boneless over the hip that may or may not have resembled Grant Taylor.  Rob made the smart choice of chilling with a beer then cruising.  Neil was charging.  Halfcab’s over a little flat bar, front 50 a weird banked spine, front pivot the parking block qp, hip ollies, noseslides, boardslides.  

Weird, but fun day.  Then we went to a nearby restaurant that didn’t serve us in a timely manner so we bounced and had a better meal nearby.  

(setup 4/10 8.5 null, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149s, bones 51mm pj stf v1, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Off to Evergreen on a nice day.  Rob, Neil, Joe, Damon, Jake, Damon, Garrett and then the Emage dudes also showed up.  I didn’t have a good session.  Joe, Cass and I battled b/s flip the hip.  Cass was first of course.  Joe and I both had questionable ones before getting good ones.  Mine felt great and was about the only trick I really liked for the day.  Oh I guess kickflipping from the bump onto the hip was fun too.  We got to see a Rob bean plant over the hip, some manuals and back 50s.  Damon did a million tricks over the hip, often in lines.  Cass hurt his back.  Neil popped up and over things with ease, manuals, 50s, one foots.  Joe had a lot of grinds, also halfcab flip the hip.  Jake was the only one of us that did tricks on the steep qp.  Garrett got over some initial jitters then proceeded to casually kill it.  Fakie tres over the hip, back 50 up the ledge drop down to the curb, nollie back heel, back 360.  Shredding.  Fun session, but I was definitely sore and tired.

(setup 3/10 8.5 smoke valley redrilled to 14.125 wheelbase, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v-cast, bones 52mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After feeling sick and resting most of the day I went to the side of the school for some flatground. I was on a bigger board again with Thunders. My calf was hurting pretty good and my dumbass was determined to skate through it. I would get a few flippers. Kickflips, fakie flips, halfcab flips, b/s flips, fake bigflip, varial flip, but that was about it. Close on some on other ones. Liked my setup. But when I was done my calf hated me.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 149 no big washer, 53mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 calf/general pains from 306 which hurt me and I don’t know why I tried skating them again)

Feeling grouchy I went to meet friends at dog park right as a stiff breeze kicked in. It would be quite frustrating and seemed to effect everyone. I almost left after taking almost 10 tries to get a kickflip. I blame the wind, but really it was another setup change that is to blame (8.25 with 8″ venture highs). I don’t remember much about this session other than a game of SKATE with Jake in the corner that was somewhat protected by the wind. The reason it was memorable was because I got a few sketchy treflips before the judges finally just had sympathy and counted one.

After that Sean, Paul and I went to the ledge near Steelyards. As Sean warmed up I did some noseslides. had a noseslide to fakie followed by a halfcab flip that would be the highlight of my day. Then we went and filmed at a nearby construction site which was completely draining and appeared to hurt my calf again.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.2 high with royal bushings no big washer, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 nike sb insoles)
(pain 4/10)

Nice warm morning, lots of older people at dog park. Crew was Jake, Cass, Rob, Sean then eventually Garrett and Joe. I had changed to 8.25 deck. I really liked it. The key word being “liked”. I don’t remember much about this session prior to a game of SKATE with Cass, Sean, Jake. I got a letter on Sean with a treflip which made me happy. But that was the only letter I got on Sean and he would win. I outlasted the older 30 somethings though. I would also get several front 50s on the black ledge and an ultra rare manual the blue pad. Saw Rob do shove lipslide, nollie lipslide, front 50, nose manual, back 50 back 180 blue ledge. Cass front noseslides, front tails, chilling. Jake had front tails and mostly skated the bowl. Sean did Sean things. The long 5-0 down the new bank to ledge so casual blew me away. Garrett and Cass looked good on their boards too. AFter that we drove all over Lakewood and didn’t skate anything.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149s, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10 vulcs)

After letting it warm up a collection of us met at Broomfield park to check out the new additions to the park. I arrived first and got called for work immediately upon exiting my car. Argh! But I jut needed to make some calls so it wasn’t too bad. I had rolled around a little and was getting used to my setup when others showed up. Rob, Dave then a bit later Bratcher, Jesse, Tim. Also the Daryl and Justin which are always good to see. David, Max H was there. Darin showed up. So yeah, as you can see a lot of people were there and the park was quite crowded and chaotic at times. I had yet another setup change, 8.3 with Thunder 149s. It was good except for the big wheels I put on it. There were too many people for me to notice everything that was done, but I’ll start with Rob. He had some really good front tails on the new bank to curb, shove lipslide on the blue ledge, crooks, front boards and laid his board to rest when he couldn’t get a kickflip. Dave was on a mission as always. He had a really good run of boardslide to fakie the brick qp, switch crooks to forward the new smaller bank to curb, ollie up back 180 from the banks on the pier 7 replica but couldn’t get the pressure flip garnish ha ha. Him and Darin skated the quartapotty for a while which is way hard to skate now with the massive coping. I had a lot of fun crooks and had a couple noseslides to fakie on the bank to ledge, some fun front slashes on the bank to curb. Mostly I bailed tricks though and took way too long to boardslide the bump to bar. At the end Darin and I did some flippers. Well, Darin did a bunch in a try or two making me jealous of his little 8″ board. I may or may not have gotten a treflip as I’m not sure if my back foot was really on it initially or not. Jesse was shredding, Bratcher too. Great seeing Daryl and Justin rattling off tricks and the rest of the Emage crew was ripping. Pretty fun session.

(setup 5/10 8.3 PMG, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 149s, spitfire 53mm orange swirl classic shape F4, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After watching it snow most of the day the sun kind of came out and the ground was dry so I went to Platte to skate flat. I had tried 8.25/5.6 and hated every second of it. I did have a couple of kickflips that flipped faster than normal, but everything else was miserable. After flailing around for ~20 minutes I went to the ledge that had snow falling on it off the tree and did a few tricks. Noseslides, crooks and made myself do 3 little back 50 jibs in a row.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 with royal bushings, 51mm bones stf pj, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to dog park after work having changed trucks to Ventures. They did not feel good for ollies, but flippers did feel better. I would have a pretty blah session, but managed two things I hadn’t done before. A front tail shove on the curb and a front smith to fakie on the c lurb. Neither one grind/sliding. Still felt cool.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.8, 51mm bones pj, new balance numeric 306 blue/white nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)