Got to Omaha on a sunny day with a little breeze. It felt pretty good out actually. For about 20 minutes. Then the wind kicked in and the clouds rolled in and it was brutal. We met Joe and Doni there, others would come eventually. Jack didn’t have the best session, was feeling off because of the wind. Garrett had some good back tails, I think smiths on the qp, tails on the bank to ledge, halfcab crooks to fakie the ledge, a lot more greatness. It was great seeing Joe skate and he treated us with an abundance of front 50 shoves. In fact, he did two in a row to start a line to front shove the hip. Kind of amazing. “I figured the two shoves would set me up to land the shove over the hip better”. He also had some 50s to front board, back 50s, fakie front 50s, kickflips on the bank, he was ripping. Cass was ripping too, he had some good 50s on the ledges, ollies over the hip, bluntslide the curb. I skated pretty bad, but had brief spurts of landing okay stuff for me. Crooks on the tall ledge, rock ‘n roll the tight qp on the mound, noseslide to fakie the bank to ledge (but I couldn’t crook it). I hucked some kickflip noseslides, but couldn’t get myself to committ.

Then we went to this bank spot with a couple little transitions that is infinitely harder to skate than it looks. Mainly because the ground is super rough around it. Jack did the 4 down. Joe and I took too long to just do little bank rides. Doni and Coby got close to tricks. Garrett did an amazing crooks to fakie.

Next we went to a crazy ditch spot out by the airport. At this point it was soooooo freakin’ cold and the wind was brutal. My board was a useless noodle so I didn’t skate. Joe got a shove over the hip. Jack went gnar with a varial heel into the bank and rode away in the ice.

(setup 2/10 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 4/10)

On the way to Nebraska for the fiftyfifty premiere we stopped at the Brush park because it looked kind of interesting in the photos. There was a lot of snow, but we still had fun. Jack hadn’t skated in a while and said “I’m not going to do this” as he treflipped out of the snowboard jump 3rd try. Man he good. He did the manual and steep ride in grind right away too. Garrett was ripping everything with style. He did a bunch of the nollie back tails, first try kickflip to fakie then through the snow, a lot of good looking skateboarding. Cass was able to hang with the snowboard jump and got back 180s. I couldn’t make myself ride off it. My board was having serious issues though as the bushings had broken. My board was a wobbly mess. I had a couple of kickflips, flat bar boardslides and did the noseslide a couple of times. It was quite scary when I’d bail into the snow. Jack skated the flat bar, almost got bigspin front blunt shove out. Would love to go back to that park again. It was so fun being there, being on a road trip again, exploring something new.

(setup 2/10 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 3/10)

Another evening where I chilled and rested then decided at the last minute to at least do a kickflip. So I tried some on my foam pad and it wasn’t working then got two in a row on the rug.

This winter blows. After a long day of work I went into the garage with only a small desire to try and do little nosebonk jibs on the SWAB plastic. So after some brief shove warm ups that’s what I did. Did some regular manuals and 180s out. Then nose bonk and nosebonk 180s without ollies. Then I set it upright and ollied over it which wasn’t easy in such little space. Okay, it wouldn’t be easy for me with ample space. Then I went on to flippers. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip all real quick. Halfcab flip and heelflip took an annoyingly long time. Got a few sloppy treflips. Hucked nollie flips after that, a few of which I committed to, but none were close.

(setup 6/10 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 3/10)

In the garage yet again. Didn’t feel like trying flippers so pulled out the old SWAB plastic. Started with some 50s on it, some 5-0s, front nosegrind 180, tried front nosegrind shove. Failed at fakie 5-0. Went in on kickflip 50 which took a long time. Got a couple sloppy ones. Went back inside.

(setup 4/10 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 4/10)

Another snow day with temps way below freezing I went to the garage. This time I took all the bikes out and put a space heater in for a while before I skated. So it was pretty nice in there. I got kind of upset about my back 180s and took a while to get an alright one. Then to flippers I started with switch flip because hucking seemed better, none were close. Then I got my first 5 kickflip, first 3 fakie flips, first 2 b/s flips then 2/3 on halfcab flips. Was feeling pretty happy at that point, but heelflips ended the good streak and I took over 10 tries to get a couple. Then to treflip where I took around 20 tries to land one, but got two in a row and went on to get 3 more. The 4th one felt really great. I forced myself to move on even though I kind of just wanted to keep trying treflips. Could not get nollie flip, sw fs flip, nollie tre. Took a while to get fakie heel and fakie varial flip. Got pretty tired and called it a night.

(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 3/10)

After 10″ of snow the day before the sun was out, but it was only 17 degrees so nothing was melting. I went out to the garage before lunch and skated for a little over an hour. I had worked out pretty hard and my legs were sore from that and the session the day before. I wore vulcs, which somehow didn’t seem good this time. Anyway, went through random warmups before board flippage. Kickflips didn’t come as easy as yesterday, but I still managed 5 in a row once I got going. Sw flips were not close. Fakie flip quick, nollie flips were remotely close. Went for heelflip and for whatever reason I couldn’t do one. Rather than freak out I moved on. Got treflip 2nd try! And then another really bad one on try 10 so 2/10 is my best in a while. Managed to get a heelflip in a few tries after that. First try halfcab flip. B/s flip in a few tries. Randomly tried sex change which didn’t come as easy as I hoped. Added fakie bigflip, varial flip, really bad f/s halfcab flip. Couldn’t get nollie varial heel or switch varial flip. Tried halfcab heels at the end and was very close, but didn’t get one.

(setup 8/10 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 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)