On a limited time frame I went to dog park to meet Rob, Cass, Sean and Paul. We started in the park. I was adjusting to a couple changes. Vulc 212s and a smaller deck. The shoes were too big and with the smaller board felt super odd. I tried to do 5 flippers on the bank. But I only got kickflip fakie, b/s flip and kind of a big flip. I couldn’t make the board to a varial flip. Oh and Sean and I both got no comply pole jams 2nd try.

At the dog park it was a decent session. Rob was in demo mode when I got there. Back 50 no comply back shove out, halfcab back 50 back 180 out (trusting him on this one hee hee), manuals, nose manuals, halfcab board the tall bench, front board it. I filmed Cass do a front board on old piece of junk flat bar so I remember him doing that, but can’t think of other tricks right now. He was doing some filming with his super 8 which was cool. Sean was doing Sean things. Basically everything looking perfect at high speeds. The back 5-0 front 180 was my favorite. Paul had a bunch of cool slappies in all directions. Oh Cass and Paul were learning fakie back 50s then Paul learned fakie crooks like it was nothing. I skated pretty average. Did a new trick on the little ledge. Nollie front tail front shove out. Totally perfect ha. Near the end I the little Natas stall on the cone and got two shoves on it.

After lunch with my mom and some lounging I went up to Lyons to meet Dave and Billy on the Rampitheater. I had a new christmas complete. 8.3/5.8/51. It felt alright, but my shoes still felt too large. The ramp was crazy. There was a super small section then a taller section with different heights. I took forever to do a f/s halfcab rock. Then lined it out with front tail which I haven’t done in forever. Couldn’t get a kickflip on the transition. Dave beat Billy’s son Brook in a game of SKATE. It was pretty funny. Brook is young and super motivated and was trying hard and isn’t afraid to ask a lot of questions. It’s cool. It’s funny actually both his kids were into old school skating like Billy. And all decked out in full safety gear. Billy ripped it. He would throw in some tricks out of nowhere like a little invert, blunt fakie yank in, front d, 5-0s. Dave had lots of fakie/nollie/switch pops and almost got a nollie bigspin. Good times and a fun adventure seeing some elk and deer on the way home.

(setups UGH 8.25/8.3 5.8 cast/titanium 51mm, new balance numeric 212 size 12 272 insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On an absolutely gorgeous cloudy 70 degree afternoon I went to meet Rob at dog park.  I had put the 8.3 deck back on.  The valmont park was completely empty so I started there and it was quite fun.  Tried a couple lines.  Barrier ride, carve around then kickflip fakie.  Other way I tried ollie the hip euro, back 180 the next hip then posed halfcab flips on the little bank.  Was getting into it when a bunch of kids on bikes went through mud and right into the park.  

The valmont warmup was nice as I started out pretty good in the dog park.  Rob was already linking lines with halfcab boardslides or noseslides, back 50 back 180s, manuals, and close to nollie front lips.  I tried a line for a bit of switch front nose the metal bench, fakie flip, halfcab boardslide the little flat bar, but I couldn’t get the halfcab board.  I don’t think I really did anything else of note really, but I was skating alright and having fun.  Rob and I played another game of SKATE.  I couldn’t get a halfcab flip to save my life, but was hyped to get a halfcab one foot.  Rob won it on a no comply back 360.  I skated a little more after that, a fakie 50 or two then my wheel fell off again trying a slappy so I was over it.  And possibly over Aces.

(setup 8.38 smoke valley null, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55, 52mm bones stf 99a v3 slims, new balance numeric 288S green/gum no insoles)
(pain level 5/10 super achy)

Had thought that maybe with how much shorter Aces are that I’d want a wider board.  Nope.  As soon as I set the 8.5 down I disliked it.  My wheel fell off twice in the early stages which bummed me out.  Turns out Ace axle nots pop off on front slappies.  I was a little late and Rob had already fizzled out.  We played a game of SKATE.  I think Rob one it on a cab.  We did some fun one foot and no comply variations.  I came close to 360 shoves, but couldn’t get one.  

(setup 8.5 smoke valley null, jessup pj ultragrip, ace af1 low 55, 52mm bones stf 99a v3 slims, new balance numeric 288S green/gum no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achy)

After some OCD obsessing over the new Ace AF1 lows I went to 303, got them, set them up, then went to the empty tennis court spot and gave them a whirl.  And my first impression was excellent.  Even though they are lows they seemed to turn similar to AF1s, but a much lighter pop.  I went on to have a decent session even though I started hating the new 425s and all the heel lift I was getting.  Flip tricks worked well and heelflips felt surprisingly good.  I skated the ledge alright for me.  Crooks and slow front 50s, noseslides, switch noseslides.  Slappies felt good.  Decent first session on new trucks, shoes , wheels.

(setup 8.38 smoke valley null, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55, 52mm bones stf 99a v3 slims, new balance numeric 425 black/gum size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

For once a later session was planned. Noon at dog park. And it was quite cold out in the morning so that worked out well. I arrived early and was surprised to see Sean, Jack and Riley already skating dog park. It was Rob’s birthday, he’s pretty low key about it but I think everyone still at least said happy bday. Kevin, Jake, Dave were also there. Hayden, Bo would come too. It was a long session. Dave, Riley and I started with a few laps around the concrete pump track then went to the official pump track. It’s quite rough and we did a couple laps. I didn’t last long at Valmont park before heading over to dog park. I had two goals for the day. Kickflip up the C ledge finally and a couple halfcab heels. Warming up was going alright for me doing normal tricks and I was getting close to the kickflip up when Jake suggested a game of SKATE. Got it next try. Was quite happy. Game of SKATE was Dave, Jake, Bo, Riley and me. No surprise Riley won. And I think he only had S. It was fun though a good warm up and I didn’t get letters on too many tricks I can normally land. It was pretty crowded in there. Riley, Jack, Sean all killing it. Jack fakie tre wallie world. Riley fakie shove manual anything. Sean was trying to front nose the upper deck. Man there really was so much going on I can’t even begin to remember all of it. I never got any halfcab heels, but was close. Near the end I tried a bunch of halfcab crooks again. Was close. Saw Jake do some nollie back tails. Dave killing full metal jacket. Rob lining out his moves. I somehow didn’t see Kevin skate much and he had hurt his wrist.

We went to a nearby spot where I rolled down a weird wood bank a few times then filmed the Nullers do a million tricks into/out of it. Fun day!

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer night skate deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows no big washer, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape 3 rings inside, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Heard about how Mesa Univ remodeled and made all of their ledges skateable so went there on Liz and I’s mini trip. I had heard they were all tall and that was accurate. I cruised around and didn’t see anything I wanted to so we left. Went to the old skatepark there that I haven’t skated in 20 years. Last time was with JP and Jason! Or maybe even the NE dudes and Jeff, but wow it’s been a long time. I was excited, but the wind and my sucking drained me quick. The curbs on the banks looked fun, but they were all super crusty and didn’t grind well. I tried a line of kickflip on a bank then kickflip to fakie the next bank. But I took way too long to land one kickflip. I skated the ledge for a bit. Had some okay crooks, noseslides and one bad front nose that was in Jason’s honor. Couldn’t get a front 50. There was a dude there that could hardly ride his skateboard, but he could pop super high onto tall flatbars and stuff. It was a weird scene. The wind kicked in ultra fierce so I called it good.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, venture 5.8 titatnium, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling a little better after a couple days of feeling run down I went out to do a couple slappies. But the main old section is junk now. So I went down to the hook and did a few front slappies then made myself kickflip and then slappy. Grinding that thing is fun. I was bummed on how many tries a decent kickflip took. Oh yeah, I had changed back to 8.25 with Ventures.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire 51m 101a f4 classic shape, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5 with 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Woke up early on a Friday and I like skating early on Fridays so I’m less sore on Saturday.  I had another setup change and I liked it.  But man the first couple pushes I thought my knee may give out.  Ugh.  I would go on to skate pretty well for a bit and felt agile.  Had some fun warm ups and little pops over the hips.  Had a couple warm up lines going.  West I did noseslide to fakie then fakie big the hump.  Then crooks followed by kickflip over the front hump which I did not do well.  East I tried a line of front disaster, kickflip the back hump, front 50 shove.  Never got the kickflip.  I had put tablets on, I blame them and their dumb square non-flipping shape.  Pain started to kick in pretty fierce.  Argh.  I was trying front 50 back 180 the bank to ledge and front 50 shove the bench.  Was close, but got neither.  After a while I slammed on a noseslide on the bank to ledge and slammed way harder than I should and decided to call it.  Argh.  Skated terrible again.  I did mostly like my setup though.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 52mm spitfire f4 99a tablets, 288s grey 11.5 no insoles)
(pain 6/10)

I hyped up the tennis courts to Rob as a chill alternative to the dog park.  And luckily when we arrived there was no one else, but it would soon get quite crowded.  Argh.  Guess it has been empty for me since it’s been winter.  Cass showed pretty quickly too.  I was wearing different shoes and had a major setup change so nothing felt good to me.  I would have some okay crooks, switch front noseslides, a slow fakie front 50, slappy crooks and a couple slow kickflips.  Rob had manuals, nose manuals, almost no comply shove manual, halfcab nose and halfcab boards.  Cass manualled the ledge, back 50, can’t slappy crook, switch board the parking block, a good heelflip.  We started a game of SKATE.  Somehow within a couple minutes Cass was out and neither Rob or I had any letters.  Donnie showed and we got to chatting/skating so the game never continued.  Donnie did a few basics, but mostly skated fast and didn’t launch over the fence or anything ha.  I didn’t skate very well and was kinda bumming that the warmer weather means other people will be skating there.  Oh well, luckily there are like 4 parks now.

(setup null smoke valley 8.5, jessup pj ultragrip, royal inverted 144, spitfire f4 99a classic 52, 272 black 12 half insole)
(pain 5/10)

Out pretty early on a very nice Saturday I met Cass, Kevin, Venture Dave and Jake at Golden park. There was still quite a bit of snow and we shoveled and squeegeed the little ledge section. Which is kind of funny because we never actually skated it, we just hit the main park as it was mostly dry and it was super fun. I had switched back to lows and would love it when I hucked a b/s flip early on and mostly landed it. We were up top doing some ride on grinds, qp and flatground up to start with. Kevin was rattling off trick after trick. Then we settled in on the east side of the park having some fun lines with the ledges and banks. Dave was manualling the west side deck, shoves and impossibles on the bank. Jake and Kevin did rock fakies on one of the steep qps. Jake almost got a back blunt on another steep qp. Cass had some good noseslides, crooks. Kevin was landing everything. 50s up the ledge, crooks down, nollie varial flips, nollie treflips. Cass never quite got the front board shove. Jake said our physical challenge should be boardsliding down the ledge. I baby stepped to it and would get it. His knee started hurting so he forfeited the win to me. I was hyped to get first try kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip and fakie varial flip on the bank. I was working on fakie tre when the wind kicked in fierce. We skated a while longer, but it was tough so we took off.

Jake and Dave were done. Kevin, Cass and I went to triple nipple. The park itself had no snow in it, but snow runoff made the ledge unskateable. Doh. It took me a bit to find a fun way to skate it considering half the park was wet. But it ended up being a pretty good time. The little transfers over the spine are so fun. I had some front 50s, first front feeble in a long time and took a bit to get the disaster to sugarcane. Kevin had lines for days and worked for the switch flip. Cass on the other hand gets off the bench, does the front shove second try then goes back to chilling. My kickflip felt about as bad as it looked, but it was still fun. Pretty awesome day really.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)