On a nice Friday afternoon I got out to dog park later than I had hoped, but in time to see Will before he left. I don’t really remember what he was doing but I think it was nose manual then back tail. He had to leave. I skated for a while, there was a good crew of people. I skated pretty well, but it’s been a couple of days so it’s a blur. I had put ace 44s on my 8.3, mostly liked it. Did front 50 on the bench, crooks, back 50s on the curb, managed to do a manual, I think a few of the ultra basic flippers. Dave showed much later, I was pretty beat but skated for an hour before my calf acted up. I did a fun little line of slappy crook the front shove off the side off the bump to rail. Dave was doing ride on grinds to boardslide on the green curb, lines all the way into the corner which I wasn’t seeing. Ollie nosebonks on the bank to curb. I did a line switch slappy crooks to regs, slappy crooks, ollie the kinked rail and when I landed pain shot through my calf. That pretty much ended my session. Dave was ripping way more than I have documented.

(5/10 setup 8.3 null keyhole, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 ksl af1 hollow, spitfire f4 99a classic shape 52mm orange/black, nike sb sad dunk size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10 until the calf)

Went to blue skies on a lunch break from work. It was windy. I had just done a 30 minute presentation in front of like 30 people and felt very relieved. I had put Thunders on. Hated it. Had no juice anyway. Did a few boardslides, switch nose jibs, ollies to fakie, kickflips and was going to leave but tried to make myself do at least one thing that was somewhat harder. And it’s kind of funny because I forget what it was, I just know it was a line with a slow halfcab noseslide in it.

(setup 1/10 null 8.3 keyhole, jessup ultra grip, thunder 148 hl ace bushings, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, nike sb sad dunks size 12 with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

Went into the garage late in the evening feeling bummed on being so tired from work, but angry enough I wanted to skate a little. I warmed up with some silly fakie front 3 shove attempts after watching Lamont in CFS 2. Then a few kickflips that felt bad, a bs flip in a couple tries, a bad treflip in 12 tries, couldn’t get a halfcab heel in 20 tries. Called it a night. Oh I guess this counts as a setup change as it’s the slightest bit larger setup.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 keyhole, jessup ultra grip, slappy lights 8.5 indy 92 bushings, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold snowy day I went out to the garage in the early afternoon with yet another setup change. Wore cupsoles for a change up. Had a blast. Did typical warm up tricks for a bit. Got to kickflip and bailed one then got 5 in a row. Switch flips were not very close. Fakie flip yes. Quite a few nollie flip attempts, a couple were close. Got a couple good feeling b/s flip and halfcab flips. Took a bit to get a couple treflips. Had a great feeling heelflip. Went in hard on nollie tres, a few were really close. It’s just so hard in the little garage and going that slow. Next up battled front heel which technically I may have landed, but not really. Some were close to feeling good. Took too long to get fakie front heel because of the low speed and terrible setup. At that point I wanted to land a copule more tricks so I did varial flip and fakie bigflip. Then I hucked some switch f/s flip and nollie varial heels. Neither were close, but both felt possible if the stars somehow aligned just right.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, slappy lights 8.25, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10 felt good for a while, but pretty sore near the end)

It was so incredibly nice out so I took an early lunch on a Friday and went to Boulder park. I have completely ruined my new years goal of no setup changes. I had an 8.25 with hollow Thunder 147s and hated it. Mostly, the squeek in the pivot cups was insane, to the point that I think the only other person at the park left. I skated about an hour still. Did a few normal basics there. Kickflips didn’t seem any easier really and so there was no doubt this setup would not last. Did have b/s flip on flat, but halfcab flip still took a few tries. Got one front 50 on the bench. Then tried to do a line of front disaster on the little qp then front 50 shove. Never got another 50. Went in a bit on front 50 back 180 out on the hump to ledge and would eventually get it. Felt pretty cool. Then it was back to work. Oh yeah, I had new 574s. I had no chance to break them in ahead of time, but they still skated alright.

(setup 1/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, thunder hollow 147 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc grey/orange size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

A warm evening with a big storm and cool down coming so I really wanted to skate outside. Will and I had been talking and decided on Arvada. Cass, Garrett and Donnie were down too. As always, I was amazed at how crowded it was upon arrival. It’s so hard to get in the groove when 50 other people are skating. I mean it wasn’t that crowded for Arvada standards, but there are so many ways to skate it, so many different lines. Felt like I just kept getting in everyones way. I had a setup change which felt okay initially, but once I failed at front 50s on the tiny granite pad I about lost my mind. But before that, things were okay. Early on I saw Cass front nose the flat bar really well. We boardslid down the little parking block over the gap which was quite fun. Will had never been there before. Garrett popped ollies over the pyrmaid with mad style. He had manuals, nose manual, but not kickflip manuals. Ha, he actually focused his board on a failed nose manual. But still did some skating and then skated his Sk8 mafia mini. We skated like 3 hours. A lot happened. Donnie destroyed the little qp above the snake run. Sugarcanes both ways. Inspired me to commit to a measly front feeble. Will got close to manualling the big pad into the hill. I had a fun run of back 50 the qp, noseslide the pad into the hill, ollie up the tiny euro. Oh yeah, Donnie, Will and I played part of a game of SKATE. I think I was somehow in the lead when a young kid slammed very hard and required some attention. I had fun trying treflips on the sk8 mafia mini, landed on it. Donnie and Garrett did really good ones. My shoe is bigger than that board. Cass had a nice kickflip on one. Near the end I made made myself do 5 tricks on the mellow circle pad since people were finally not standing on it. I got kf to fakie, b/s flip, bad f/s flip, halfcab flip and a few bigflips. Donnie did an amazing back 360 kickflip and no comply to tail the little nearby qp. Will added some kickflips to fakie. Garrett was doing some crazy tricks on the mini, like tailslides on the little qp. What the heck. Anyway, that was the end, I was starving. Fun session, I might even go there again soon.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null keyhole, null grip, venture 5.6 v8 with bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a stf, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue size 11.5 half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Another winter night out in the garage. I made it over 10 days on my 8.3 slappy low setup before a switch. I stuck with my 8.5 thunder setup tonight and loved it. Got a few kickflips in a row, a lot of not close nollie flips, took too long to halfcab flip, quick b/s flip, a couple heelflips in a row that felt so great, a couple meh treflips, remotely close to a GleNBD back heel.

(setup null 20 years 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow light 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl, new balance numeric 574 vulc half 272 insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cloudy morning with high winds in the forecast I went to dog park to meet up with Paul, Bratcher and Dave.  Ted was there, as was a couple others.  The wind never really came until the very end some 3.5 hours later.  I had a new setup.  Brand new 8.3 board, slappy lows 8.5 and luckily it felt pretty great for almost everything.  But an early game of SKATE with Paul was kind of tough, I abused the ‘double are nothing’ card and somehow won on a halfcab flip that took a lot of tries. Somewhat soon after that I got a line that made me pretty happy even though it started off kind of weak.  Accidental front 5-0 on the bench, heelflip on flat, ollie the weird wider aluminum flatbar.  I would also get a line of crooks the back of the two step then kickflip onto the C pad.  I would get 3 or 4 kickflips onto it.  Had a first try cruddy fakie fs halfcab heel.  Bratcher had some some cool tricks on the C ledge.  Paul was mostly chilling after not diving into his bag too far.  Dave was doing some cool axle stalls to fakie on the bank to curb, then would go on to have some banger lines including tricks like ollie over the grate, back feebles on the low flat bar, front 50s around the C, back 5-0 the curb, nose manual the C pad and then he just casually learns front 50 body varial (the hard way!) like it was nothing. I went in on kickflip over the flat bar and it was a battle.  Ollie the grate, kickflip the flat bar.  Committed a lot, landed on a couple, bonked the one I landed.  Dave was able to kickflip it too in like 10 tries.  

Then we went over to the park.  I just kind of dorked around for a bit, but Dave went in on switch front 180 nose manual on the volcano.  Yeah, insane.  He had some good manuals and kickflips to fakie as setups.  Great day.

(setup 8/10 null keyhole2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, slappy 8.5 low profile, spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro)
(pain level 4/10)

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)