Sean and I ended up on campus after driving around looking for some dry. We started at the old meetup curb that has gotten much crustier thanks to some snowplow destruction. Sean easily did some manuals and popped over the median. I took too long to get a slappy crooks. Then we went into campus when my wheel locked up skating the little downhill curb. Then on the way back to the car to get a skate tool my wheel fell off. Argh. Aces I love you, but you quality control sucks. Anyway we went back and ended up at the downhill alley ledge spot. It was a really slow start for me. The pop of the low Aces wasn’t working to get into noseslide very well. I would go on to get a couple lines I really liked though. Halfcab flip into the “bank”, noseslide to fakie. Also backside flip, switch front 180 then noseslide. It’s not much, but it did make me quite happy. Sean struggled with front 5-0s but would get one perfectly when it came time to film it. He had front shoves, heelflips and f/s halfcab flips into the downhill. Also ollied up on to the ledge and off at the end.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 53mm bones pj stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12 half 440 insole)
(pain level 5/10 was dying by the end)

After a bad night of sleep I met up with some mostly older folks at dog park. It was supposed to be super nice, but instead it was pretty windy which sucked the warmth out. Bratcher and Jesse were there shredding, working on crooked grinds when I first showed. Jesse was popping over flat bars like it was nothing. Jack apparently switch 50d the curb and had some nice back 5-0s that I saw. Paul was there shredding like he does. Back 5-0s easy, switch slappy crooks, nollie 180 switch crooks on the curb. Will showed up and casually front 50’d everything. Sean worked up to a line of ollie the hydrant, nose manual up the table, back nosegrind the bench, front 180 nose manual, fakie flip on flat. Wow! I had new skate shoes. I had given up on the Xeros. I had the one shoe closest resembling the fit I want. The New Balance 288 Sport. They felt decent. I wasn’t sure how they would feel after six weeks of Xeros so I paired it with an 8.5 with venture 5.8s that I immediately hated. I have no recollection of anything noteworthy that I did.

(setup 1/10 null vhs 8.5, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v-cast/titanium, 51mm bones stf pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 288S size 12 w/b 425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10 body still adjusting to skating again)

Out in the garage on a snowy day lunch break. Skated for about 45 minutes. Mostly just stationary since there is so little room in my cluttered garage. Took a bit to get kickflips. Took even longer to get a treflip, but the key is that I did land on one. I put my feet on a few of them. Still amazed at how small 8.5 feels with the Kelsos. Ugh.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 low, 53mm bones v1 pj, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb and xero insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Up pretty early on a warmish morning Jack and I rolled to Thornton which was snowy in places, but only a couple of other skaters the whole time which was nice. I had changed my setup a bit, royal 149s and 53s. It was the best setup I’ve had yet as far as pairing with the Kelsos, but still lacked pop and I couldn’t flip it. That might be the soreness of skating a few days in a row after such little skating for weeks. My skating was basically garbage. One fun warm up run was a little nollie back 180 on the taco, crooks the little ledge, nollie back 180 the hip. I did a few crooks. Couldn’t get a kickflip to fakie on the taco but I didn’t try much since one of the other guys was trying too. I tried like 50 front 50s on the little baby ledge and couldn’t get up there. ARGH. I skated the little qp for a while with Salty and Jack. Jack was working on good back 50s and getting close to front 50s. I did a bunch of front 50s that were really fun. Salty was trying back 50s around the corner near the taco and then fakie front 50s on the little qp. Getting frustrated like me on both ha ha. I made myself ollie up the ledge over and over until I finally got one with a front 50 on the qp. So again, mostly frustration session but I hadn’t ollied that many times in a day in forever and I was really sore from skating four days in a row.

(setup: 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, bones pj 53mm v1 103a, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 general soreness but the calf felt good)

After work on a nice Friday I wasn’t up for a dog park session so I just went to the school across the street. I started on the original square curb in the oval section and had a really good time doing different stalls and even hucking a few flip tricks. Had a couple kickflips, halfcab flip, front smith stall that was fun, front tail, back pivots. Then I went up and did a couple slappies but wasn’t really feeling how hard I had to push to have the speed to do a good slappy. So I went to the side of the school and skated flatground for about half an hour. It did not go well. Had a couple kickflips, fakie flips, halfcab flip, couldn’t get a fakie bigflip.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow lite, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Decided to try and skate after all, but only the ramp. There were a lot of 20 somethings there on over-30 night. All are nice. Jack B was there and he eventually gave up skating the street area just not digging the vibe. I was wearing the Xero’s and they felt weird as I skated a “smaller” board this time 8.5. The extra width of the shoes makes all boards feel so small. I didn’t skate the ramp well at all although I did get a couple hurricanes in a row. Brian took such a gnarly slam to start on a front feeble fakie. But he would get up and go on to skate and entertain the way we love. Salty skated the ramp the whole time too. The fakie 270 feeble fakie was sick. Jack B came and skated it for a bit. Christian destroyed as he does. I’m writing this way too many days after the session to remember who did what. I do remember laughing that Christian tries back noseblunts as his exit trick often. It was a fun session, although I was pretty unhappy with how I skated and how bad my setup/shoes felt. I did enjoy being around skateboarding though.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, bones pj 51mm stf v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 3/10 my calf doesn’t really hurt too bad but the gross swollen knot weirds me out)

Shortly after the Dr told me not to skate I picked up Kevin in Denver and we went to Broomfield park. For those not in the know, Kevin moved to WI. But yeah the doc wasn’t happy with my calf progress and said not to skate for a long time. Well, he said to avoid jumping which I mostly did. But going to Broomfield isn’t very good for that. Especially when only the street section is dry and even the quartapotty had a puddle in front of it. I rode my 8.75 setup because why not, it should prevent me from trying flip tricks and ollies. I did do a kickflip though which felt surprisingly good. Also a few basic non-pop nose stall related tricks on the ledges. Kevin took requests like a first try signature switch nosegrind 180. There were a few people there with multiple phones in the way pointing at tricks they were trying. It ended up getting pretty cold and windy so we left.

In Boulder we went to Valmont which was 10 degrees colder, but the sun had come out and there was no wind so it felt great. I kept with trying not to really jump. Had some fun doing ultra basic front 5-0 to fakie on the top of the bank and a couple fun runs on the little transition area in the top. Cass, Jack B, Paul also showed. Kevin did a switch backside flip, alley oop nollie b/s flip, some good long runs. Paul gets his back leg up on ollies and they look rad. Cass back big over the euro like it’s nothing. Jack B went over to the small section of dog park that was dry and worked on crooks. I did a couple slappies there eventually. Kevin had nollie nosegrind on the bench. Cass was almost doing back 180 nosegrinds on the curb.

(setup null 8.75 spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 hollow, bones 51mm pj v1 103a, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 3/10 not much pain because I didn’t really do anything)

On a sunny but cool morning I gave India a ride to work then went to the skatepark. I was armed with the same crappy Xero’s, but a couple smaller boards. After some carving around I did some flatground ollies with both and basically nothing happened. It was so depressing. Like I totally attempted to ollie and the board did not leave the ground. It was almost kind of amazing in a way, like wow, it’s amazing how much the body can degrade after 3 weeks of not skating when you’re almost 50. I would stick with an 8.25 with venture lows and it was okay, but I still had ghost pop over the hip. Cass would show after a while. He hasn’t skated in a long time, but he’s only 30 something (okay almost 40) so he was good. Covid got him good. He would get kickflip over the hip, almost a sick line of back bigspin the hip, fakie fail then front big on the bank. I got some kickflips. As in plural this time. I got around 5 kickflips to fakie, but they took a long time to get the first one. Never got two in a row. Jack B showed while I was trying to backside flip and was about to lost my mind. Luckily I finally landed one. Cass called out a fun game of best dork trick on the bank. He would almost get a fakie casper, but kind of rolled his ankle. That wasn’t a dork trick anyway Cass! I did some bean plants which I haven’t done in a long time, but they sucked and would not make Rob proud.

(setup null 8.25 hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic, xero kelso bw size 12 NB insole from some 306s)
(pain level 5/10 not worth it)

On a cool winter Saturday I heard that Valmont was shoveled. I hadn’t got the okay to skate yet, but I was feeling good and went skating. I had told Dave I’d maybe skate 20 minutes. He knows better. Two hours later I finally decided to call it. Maybe because that’s how long it took me to land a kickflip. Ha ha. Honestly though, I tried to wear some Xero Kelso shoes that shouldn’t injure me. They didn’t, my legs felt better, but man they SUCKED for skateboarding. Dave hasn’t been able to skate much lately either due to a hurt back. I was happy to be able to push without pain. I did have some fun when I wasn’t trying a kickflip to fakie which literally took like 50 tries. I thought it was mostly the board being so big, but really it was the shoes with toe spacers. Dave had some rad switch tails over the hip, fakie flip on the bank, boardslide to fakie on the rainbow, nollie back 180s over the hip. Jesse had shown and did a few amazing pop shove tail grabs over the hip. Dave wanted to learn one. As you can see he kind of got it. Then he hurt his back on the invert. Doh.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, 54mm bones stf 99a slims, xero kelso b/w size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

It’s been a few days since this session so it’s really tough to remember what happened. Luckily I had filmed some clips. I know I really sucked it up with the exception of a few crooks on the bump to ledge that felt good. I had worn 212s to try and limit the calf pain, they did, but everything else was super sore and I had to sit by the end of the session. Jack and Salty were there first. We spent like 15 minutes trying to get the heavy parking block onto the bank above the euro as bank to curb, but it didn’t fit. So it ended up as a fun boardslide off the bump. Or if you’re Dave, a fun grind. He did 50s and 50’s, even switch boardslide up, slappy crooks in and almost switch slappy crook halfcab transfer over which would have been nutso. Salty had some feebles to fakie on the upper qp which were crazy because he went down switch between the rail and hubba which may not look close, but it is. Also front slashes on the big qp and almost no comply shove up the euro. Jack had bump to board and then boardslide down the rail. Also nice ollies over the hip, shoves up the euro, no comply on the bank. Dave was shredding. Don’t remember all his lines, but there were some amazing long ones. Last thing he did was a few kickflips up the euro.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 esher, thunder hollow light 148 with venom 88a bushings, bones pj stf v1 51mm, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 right calf and both legs)