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)

After work stopped by dog park as it was getting dark. Will had already been skating and was grinding ledges already. I felt super off. Clipped on an ollie up the curb. Will did some casual manuals, 50s, 5-0s and maybe a nosegrind. I got a few ultra basics, but nothing beyond a normal first lap around the park. Until Will made us do halfcab noseslides on the bench. He did his after a switch ollie onto the c pad. I had tried to do mine in a line with boardslide, no comply 180 and fakie flip. But instead it was by itself. At the end we tried some flatground. I forget what we started with, but it turned into Will trying f/s flip and me trying fakie tre. He would get a f/s flip in about 15 minutes. I would not get a fakie tre in about 30 minutes. Was impressed I managed not to focus my board.

(setup 1/10 null 8.3 keyhole, jessup ultra grip, slappy lights 8.5 indy 92 bushings, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, nike sb sad dunks with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10 right calf)

Went out to the garage pretty tired after a Monday of work. I only wanted to try 20 nollie flips and 20 varial heels and that’s what I did. I didn’t land on either, but did commit to some of each.

(setup 5/10 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 size 12 brown with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Up on a nice morning before the family was ready for breakfast I went to Valmont for a short session. There was snow in all the bowl and pump track area, but the main area was dry. Dog park was completely snowed/iced in. I was feeling really out of it as I hadn’t had any coffee. Then a family came with two toddlers, one of which was basically learning to walk. I don’t know about you, but when I think of places to learn to walk, skateparks seem like the safest place. I struggled to stay positive for a while, but I did a few things. Some ultra basics on the weird rainbow rail by the shark fin, kickflip to fakie the mellow bank then switch 180 the hip, noseslides the back of the bank, some little ollies on the hip. Nothing fancy, but for an early session dodging toddlers it was alright.

(setup 5/10 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 size 12 brown with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

On a nice Saturday morning I picked up Bratcher and Eric and we met Dave at Frederick. Several other older dudes showed up which was cool, all were fun to skate with. I was still pretty sore and have lowered my coffee intake so I was slow to start and didn’t have much drive initially. But that changed once I got going. Especially after some dinking around the park and I popped up onto the taller pad with ease. Got me hyped. So I went in on a line before my legs got too tired. Manual the long low pad (couldn’t seem to nose manual it), ollie onto the tall pad, kickflip off. The kickflip off was garbage, but I counted it and added a crooks after. I was hyped to get multiple manuals. Eric was the only other one in the area, took a bit to get some manuals and boardslides, but he got some good ones. Jack did halfcab manual on the pyramid. I lined out noseslide then b/s flip the hip. Dave was doing fakie front shoves on the hump. Most people were skating the bank to curb. Dave did some Dave magic. Jack did some boardslides on it. I went for another line, what do you know. Crooks the bank to curb, kickflip out of the bank, front slash the qp, absolutely horrid ollie up the euro, front shove off (which felt really good and only took 3 tries). Jameson had shown up and it’s a treat to watch him shred. I spent a while by myself trying to front 50 over the corner above the pad. All I got was a very short accidental 5-0. After some smoothie I joined Dave in a quest to line out a flipper into the monstrous (incredibly mellow) bank near the scuplture. He would do ollie nosebash on the bank to curb then f/s halfcab flip in. I got shove to fakie on the bank then fakie bigflip into the bank. Also a kickflip on the bank then a very bad b/s flip into it. Dave was trying switch shove body varial on the bank then fakie flip into the bank which I think he got as we were driving off. I was sore, but was hyped on how I skated for the most part.

(setup 8/10 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 5/10)

After an incredibly stressful day of work I ate food quickly and went to Square State for an open session. The parking looked full so I debated going in. Will told me it was chill so I went in and it ended up being pretty chill and fun. For some reason I started in the big kids section and did a couple basic slides and crooks. Will did back nosegrind all good like. I played in the little kid section and couldn’t seem to land anything. This would continue as we skated the ramp. Darin, Tom, Clayton, Justin and some others. I couldn’t get a back 50 to fakie or front disaster. Tom ripped it though looking like a mix of Allan and Gish. Darin rattled off his tricks like he’s still running version 3.2. Justin rips. After a while I just gave up and went back to the main section. Jameson was there shredding doing like 20 tricks up the euro. Will was going for kickflip back 5-0 and would get one. I had gotten kickflip and b/s flip up the euro then went in on treflip. Then kept trying treflips. Treflip treflip treflip. Never landed a darn treflip. Got close, committed, just didn’t ride away. Par for this week. Glad I went though.

(setup 3/10 null 8.3 keyhole, jessup ultra grip, slappy lights 8.5 indy 92 bushings, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc 11.5 grey/orange half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

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)

Went into the garage and did some ride on grinds of various sorts on the plastic ledge. Some ollies, some shoves, but not much.

After a late night of partying for the fiftyfifty release we were on our way home and stopped in sunny and warm Sterling to check out some flatbars. It ended up being pretty cool. Cass almost died on a front blunt. I did a bunch of no pop or slide noseslides and a bad boardslide or two. Garrett managed to sack it somehow which was epic. Jack boardslid through a corner and then bluntslid pop out through snow.

(setup 4/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, slappy lights 8.25 hard top bushings, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc grey/orange size 11.5 with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

On a bit of a warmer day we went to Lincoln, hit Precision, then off to The Bay. But it was super crowded so we bounced to a nearby bike path bank spot in which half of the people at the Bay came to anyway. Ha. At the Bay I saw Joe do a boardslide 270 on the bank to ledge and Cass back big the hip. I had done a couple little qp tricks and then a nollie tail on a tiny ledge.

The bikepath spot was a crazy steep hip that I didn’t even bother to skate. Joe would front shove it and slam trying to kickflip it. Jack came close to a crazy rock wallride. Garrett did the sickest nollie back heel. Damon did a hardflip. I had a silly tail stall shove and nollie wallie on a pillar on the mellow section that no one skated. We were there for quite some time even though it doesn’t sound like it. Everything on the hip took a long time. Boards went down into the water. It was nice while the sun was out, but when it went down it got so cold. It was cool seeing this spot and seeing Garrett’s trick.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 keyhole, null grip, slappy lights 8.25, spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 574 vulc grey/orange size 11.5 with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)