On a cool day I stopped by the parks after work. Dave was there when I got there, we started at the park. I had made a setup change, basically forged v8 5.6s on an 8.25. I loved it. Early on I had some fun in the top bowl area, then a first try kickflip on the shark fin. Paul and Will showed. Dave had a first t f/s kickflip on the bank and a gorgeous 5-0 over the rainbow. I did a line of f/s kickflip on the bank then kickflip to fakie on the shark fin. Will and Paul had some good ollies over the euro. Will good wallies. I started trying treflips to fakie in the little bank. They were all so close. Then I landed a few! I know they weren’t perfect, but actually landing them and doing more than one felt so great. Paul joined the treflip game and did 8 in a row at one point, then a couple more after. Dave added fakie flip and varial flip to fakie. Then a really nice ollie into the bank.

We went over to the plaza. Will proved us wrong by doing first try front nosegrind on the bench that we said wasn’t lit well enough. He had some nice manuals and nose manuals too. I struggled with front 50s on the lurb, but I think I got a line I was trying of front 50, noseslide to fakie the bench, fakie 50 halfcab out the curb. Dave did a similar line starting with back 50 on the lurb, front nose to fakie, then fakie back 50 halfcab out. He would try more to fakie, but didn’t get one I don’t think. I tried some switch front tails and may have technically met the minimum requirements of one.

(setup 8/10 null abstract 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 53mm bones v1 stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice morning I went to Boulder park to meet up with a fun crew. It was Bratcher, Jesse, their friend Gordon and Cass. I had a setup change. 8.3 with V8 Ventures. I liked them. I’m writing this after several days so I’m spacing out what happened a lot. I know pretty early on Cass did a perfect b/s flip over the hip and would almost do some b/s flip fakie 50s on the hump to ledge. Bratcher with the nollie combos on the hump to ledge. Jesse was doing Jesse things. We had some fun grinds around the corner to start things. My trucks felt great on coping. I tried like a million crooks on the bench followed by treflip on the hump and got very close, but no cigar. Was happy to finally do the front 50 over the bench though. Took a bit, but was super fun when I got it. Had some things that I liked such as the little quick line with the halfcab 50 on the tiny qp, noseslides the hump to ledge. Near the end we did some slappies on the outside wallie ledge that were hard, but fun. There’s so much more here, it was a fun session.

(setup 6/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v8 baseplate titanium hanger royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After going to Northside in Fort Collins to witness the amazing halloween contest that MRKT does I stopped at Rocky Mountain to meet Dave. The sun went behind the mountains around when I got there, but we still had some decent time. Dave was doing nollie back bigspins on the bank when I arrived. Then he did some nollie noseslides on the curb. He played them down, but they were amazing. I had a few slappies like normal, one ultra lame fakie back nosegrind, couldn’t get fakie front nosegrind. At the end I tried slow noseslide to crooks on the ledge. May have gotten a couple up into crook. Dave was doing nollies to fakie on the bank then switch body varials off the curb, back tailslide the curb. Ended it with a fakie crook ride on grind transfer off the curb. Fun, short session.

(setup 2/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

After two days of loading up furniture, boxes, everything of my mom’s into a U-Haul I had some free time. So I went to the park for 30 minutes to say goodbye. I don’t like that park much. Okay, I really dislike it. And it never helps when there are lots of scooter/strider/mountain biker/one wheelers. This would be no exception. At first it was just two scooter kids and there dad was even cool and trying to teach them to take turns and to avoid going right in my path. Did they listen? Nope. My first warm up run was a fly out kickflip, rock ‘n roll, front grind around the very mellow love seat, pop shove fakie on the mellow bank. The kickflips took too long. Later on I would get a front 180 out of the steeper fly out then a fakie bigflip. I did some fun boardslides on an I beam. Some switch front noseslides on another beam and tried to get f/s halfcab heel after which I never landed. Had some really fun longer feeling back 50s on the long qp and fun carves around, but most were interrupted by kids not having any awareness that a 200 pound old man was coming down the qp he went up. Ugh. Anyway, I think that was it. Goodbye to that park.

(setup 2/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a Tuesday afternoon I went out to dog park knowing I wouldn’t be able to skate much the next several days. But I’m writing this several days after the session, almost remembering nothing about it. I know Paul showed, then Ladd, Mike, Wade did later. I don’t remember any tricks other than a heelflip in a game of SKATE and that every other trick was hard. I was still slightly sick feeling so kept it mellow. It was cool seeing Ladd.

(setup 3/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling a little better I went over to the school on such an incredibly gorgeous day. I would skate for about 30 minutes and actually did some tricks. I mean I didn’t go in that hard, but I would get a few flippers like kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, heelflip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. Did the basic slappies, couldn’t get a switch front slappy. Ended on a line of slappy crook, b/s flip, fakie flip.

(setup 5/10 null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 2/10)

So yeah, once again I had no idea at the time why I was skating with so little motivation until after the fact. Turns out I was getting sick. On an absolutely beautiful fall day I had went over the school just seeing if I felt up to it. nope. Maybe did 2 kickflips, a few slappy crooks, fs slappies.

After a long day of sitting at work I stopped by the parks on the way home. I started at the skatepark and was having fun in the little bowl area until some clueless kid in headphones dropped in the middle of my run and we barely avoided colliding. “Sorry I didn’t see you coming back”. It’s like 8 feet away dude. And maybe if you didn’t have earphones in you would have heard my board rolling towards you. Argh. There was a period when I had the park all to myself, but it was very short lived. I don’t remember much else before heading over to the plaza. Did a couple basics. Went in on pop shove nose stall to fakie on the bank to curb, but never got one. I blame work for leaving me with no motivation. And I rode my big board because I was annoyed how badly the 8.25 with aces wouldn’t flip.

(setup 8.5/14.25 venture 5.8 hollows 51s new balance 440v2 highs 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a beautiful warm fall day I went to meet Rob and Dave. I arrived first and started at the dog park and was kind of in a groove. Rob showed and went to do some warm up carves when Dave showed too so I went over to the park. Rob was smart to avoid it as there was a million bikers and toddlers on striders or scooters. It was maddening at times. Dangerous too. I was trying a line of kickflip to fakie then halfcab flip on the shark fin, then changed to 180 off the kicker to start. Came kind of close, but never got the halfcab. I had tried some other random stuff, before sticking with no comply pole jam then kickflip on the weird lumpy hip. Took a while to get the pole jam and the timing with all the randoms looping around the kickflip timing was weird too. Oh well, it was really fun when I landed it. Dave had tried a bunch of shove tail bashes over the hip, but never quite got it, some good ollies on the lumpy hip, switch back 180 the hip, kickflips on the bank, no comply pole jam, casual tricks that he does. Then we went over to the dog park as it got dark. I got a couple bad boardslides up the angled bar to manny pad, but started to chill since my achilles started hurting. It had felt really good for a while so I had no problems stopping. Although my knee pain is still pretty severe. Dave however would get it to manual really quick and then also to fakie with a f/s halfcab off.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null abstract, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 44, spitfire f4 99a classic yellow 52mm, new balance numeric 440v2 wide high black size 12 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10 left knee)

My achilles was feeling better after the skating so that is a good sign. Went to meet Rob at dog park and was hyped to see Eric there too. It was super nice out. I’m not remembering much about this session other than Rob and I playing on the propped up bank, but that was later in the session. Early on I took a few tries to get a ride to fakie and watched Rob casually carve it like it was nothing. I couldn’t commit to a noseslide across the tall flatbar that had the kickers up to it. Hucked some random tricks I have no shot at, but it was fun like inward heel tail ha ha. Rob had a bunch of the halfcab bank rides, tossed around shove out and 180 out. I took a long time to get that kickflip and decided to sit after that as the achilles was hurting a little.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null abstract, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 44, spitfire f4 99a classic yellow 52mm, new balance numeric 440v2 wide high black size 12 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)