The sun came out after a rainy morning and it seemed everyone got out of their house at the same time. I was wanting some mellow skatepark qp and hip action so I started at Valmont. There were a lot of parents dropping off or mountain biking through the park with their toddlers on striders or packs of scooter kids. It was brutal. I started in the top little bowl section and did some basic axle stalls. Got a really floppy first try bigflip on the mellow bank, a f/s flip on it, a kickflip on the shark fin. Had to leave when a pack of striders came in with zero awareness of etiquette or awareness of the dangers of a skatepark. Went over to dog park. Skated a wood ledge against the barrier. Did a couple of basics then went in hard on halfcab crooks. Got into several, landed none. Probably tried 100 of them as I had gotten really obsessed. Struggled with flippers in between tries. Then skated the smaller manny pad and got a nose manual pretty quickly and went in hard on nose manual shove out. I was like 100 tries deep when this dude did it first try and came back to me and said it was hard. I asked if he wanted to take a shit on my board too. Luckily I got one a couple tries later. I left after that and chatting with Radley for a bit.

(setup 4/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25 deck, null grip, slappy low profile 8.5 trucks, 53mm bones stf pj 103a wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a bright and somewhat cooler morning met up with quite a few people at Broomfield. Salty, Bratcher, Rob, Sean, Eric, Paul, Will. On top of that quite a few others showed and it was quite busy at times. I had a new setup based on some new trucks I’ve been waiting on a long time – Slappy Lows. I would like them and they skated pretty well out of the gates. Rob bounced first so I’ll start there. He wasn’t feeling too good, but tried to get it going with some manuals and I saw a really long g turn that was pretty amazing. Sean was the next to bounce. He had a good amount of excuses lined up, but still ripped. High speed grinds on the black ledge including a line of crooks followed by fakie back 50 180 out. Sean, Paul and I played a game of SKATE. I was the first out, but it was fun. Salty learned boardslides to fakie on the mini bank to curb and almost got blunts on the “bigger” bank to curb. Bratcher took his multitude of boardslides to various obstacles. Switch front board up to back 50 on the bank to ledge was cool as was nollie back lip on the blue ledge. Eric good tailslides, heelflips over the parking block, crooks, charging. Paul did back 50 to front 180 on the bank to ledge, back 5-0 180s on the black ledge, landed a lot of flippers in the game of SKATE. Pretty early on I had a line I liked of halfcab noseslide, noseslide to fakie the bank to ledge then fakie bigfilp. My board was popping really well, I got several front 50s on the ledge into the bank that felt great. Close to noseslide 270 shove, close to kickflip 50 on the bank to ledge. Was happy to get a crooks on the bank to ledge finally. Will showed around the time we were winding down. He had some really good nollie noseslides on the black ledge.

After chilling and talking to India I picked up Cass and met up with the 98% dudes at York St Skatepark. There are even more little qps now and they are fun. Jack filmed a couple of amazing clips for Scotty with a trefip and a noseblunt. Cass and I messed around with an easy roll in to small qp. I got my first front pivot to fakie in a long time. I might have even grinded a little. Joe came along and made it not so easy by ollieing onto the ledge before the roll in. I struggled a bit and kind of hurt my shoulder trying to ollie up as well. Donnie and Cass had no problem with it.

Then we went to the nearby bank to ledge. My accidental training at Broomfield payed off and I would get noseslide to fakie and crooks. The crooks felt really cool, but I’m sure it only grinded an inch or so. Jack rattled off some tricks that were so fun to watch. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him just skating and it was great. I didn’t know Jason and John very well but they skated a long time and Jason’s front tail kickflip out was so good. Donnie came close to a banger, but had to give up and it started raining. It was really fun being in the streets with a crew.

(setup 7/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25 deck, null grip, slappy low profile 8.5 trucks, 53mm bones stf pj 103a wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After work went to dog park around 5. It was kind of hot out. I started with Will at the skatepark, but wasn’t really into it and went over to the plaza. But it turns out I wasn’t really feeling that either. Partly because I hadn’t had a chance to put together a new setup I really liked, partly because I was exhausted from a busy day at work, also from sitting so much and not getting exercises done at work. Rob was ripping though, he did a really good front nosegrind on the curb. Paul, Rob and I played a game of SKATE that was pretty fun and had some weird tricks in it like Flamingo. I couldn’t get a no comply finger flip. Ha. Paul ultimately won the game. I think that was about it.

(setup 2/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 team hollow with royal bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 pj 103a, new balance numeric 1010 black size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Wasn’t feeling to motivated to skate but needed to bring boards to Square State. Brian had already left and there was no Silver Session so I had it all to myself. As soon as I started skating I felt off and hated my setup. I had a couple of warm up lines I liked though with some axle stalls the bank to curb followed by nollie tails on the little ledge. Then I went for a second warm up line which wasn’t supposed to take long, but it did. The one above. The kickflip took forever for reasons I do not understand. I would get about 4-5 kickflips before completing the line. I had done a couple flippers in between tries, but no where near as many as I had hoped. I struggled with halfcab flips which really bothered me. After that I tried to front 50 the upper part of a new little ledge. It took me a while to even get into it, then I got really close to grinding over the lower one before not being able to do it again. I had also gotten a cut on my shin from my razor/chipped tail so I put an end to that board and left frurstrated.

(setup 1/10 null 8.25 beatles, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 148 royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I lounged away the hot part of the day and when the clouds rolled in I headed out to Louisville intending to go do the metal curb spot. But when I arrived there was a family playing basketball and sitting on the curbs and I didn’t feel like rolling into that. After some driving around looking for a school I ended up at Louisville park since there were only a couple of scooter kids there. I was skating a smaller board in hopes of easier flip tricks. It seemed to help but I didn’t do much. I had done a few basics around the park and settled in on the line of crooks the ledge then noseslide to fakie the bump to ledge. But it started pouring.

It dried up before I got all the way back to Boulder so I went to Platte with no real intentions but ended up going in on crooks shove. Took a while, but I got two and I was hyped. Although I wanted to do shove off the curb after and missed it both times. Doh. Hucked a little more, but crooks were basically it. Considering how tired I was it felt good to go in on one trick.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 beatles, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 148 royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Around noon Paul, Rob, Dave and me rolled up to Estes Skatepark. We arrived to a park filled with a toddler birthday party. Ugh! We saw Bratcher, Jesse and Tyler (I think?) over at the old park so some of us started over there. There was a little ride on grind bar across some dirt where we ruined our bearings. Brian had joined us. Him and Rob had gone over to the new park. Dave was trying to manual the deck of the middle extended qp which was nuts. I had done a few basics and on the ledge and was trying a line to switch front board the mangled flatbar when we decided we should just go to the new park.

Over at the new park. I really struggled. Didn’t sleep well the night before after such a rad night so I didn’t have much energy. But I had fun with the dudes, laughed a lot and had a couple of things I liked. Gapping to front 50 the tiny euro to curb was fun. Rob had them backside too. I missed a lot of flip tricks. At the end at least I had one line I liked with the noseslide to fakie then halfcab flip. The noseslides were really fun. Dave was doing lines with manuals in to the bank and ending with manuals out of the bank with a lot in between. Paul was killing the bank to ledge. Rob was easily doing back 50s on the curbs and got Brian hyped to do some. We skated the minramp section a bit. The highlight being Brian falling backwards having a conversation as he slammed. Well, maybe it was more his blunt to fakie or crazy blindside pivots. Rob handled axle stalls as did Brian. Dave went in on the bank crooks. Eric showed up, had some good lines in the mini, good front 50 the bump to ledge, high speed manual attempts. Brian’s boardslide around the kink on the bank to ledge was great. I’m not remembering much more even though I know a lot happened. The Dave f/s flip attempt was funny. The bs flip was perfect. All session we had to deal with an abundance of kids on scooters or bikes with zero awareness of the dangers of a skatepark. Two times in a row kids rolled under Dave as he was doing tricks on the quarterpipe. The overly positive kid was tough to take after a while. But all in all we had a fun session. That park is fun and it would be way more fun if the youth would have some sense of skatepark etiquette.

(setup 3/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

So yeah, this really happened. I don’t really know how to write this entry. Everyone hear knows he’s been my fav skater since WHL. I have been DM’ing a little with PJ for years. He’s always been super nice and when I saw he was in Omaha I reached out and asked if he was coming through CO. He said yes and I told him about dog park, but it didn’t seem he’d be coming through Boulder. I had plans to meet up with Rob, Paul, Ed on what initially seemed like would be a normal mellow Friday session. But pretty quick into the session PJ said he’d be coming by. After an initial excitement freak out I was able to settle down and we skated.

PJ and Paul showed up around the same time. It was actually kind of funny because PJ slammed on his first kickflip. Like just a little look around at the park, stand on the board, slam on a kickflip. He then did some warm up flatground just going slow in a little section in the back of the park. Then we were all skating just doing our things. Rob had a nice manual around the lurb, back smith the curb (got a cheer from PJ). I’m sure this comes as a surprise to know one, but this session is a blur for me and I don’t remember much. Paul had some nice switch slappy crooks, back 5-0s. PJ had some really casual kickflip manual, 50’d everything, first try front shove back 50. We thought he left, but turns out he was just chilling a bit. Ed had shown and was cruising around getting manuals and ollies and everything. I had some crooks, slow 50s, switch front noseslides.

After a while we noticed PJ skating the actual skatepark so Paul and I went over there. I may have gotten a little line of boardslide transfer into the bank followed by b/s flip the hip but I honestly can’t remember if I did the bs flip. PJ was mostly skating the bump to ledge. PJ did front shove back 50, back tail, nollie crooks, kickflip noseslide pretty quickly. He also took a few tries to ollie the pyramid, but then did 180 and kickflip first try. Varial heel the euro hip first try. A funny kickflip over the hip where he readjusted and landed where most mortals would have bailed. I knew it was now or never to get a clip of him showing me up and he thought the idea was funny. Thanks Paul for filming. PJ had initially tried to show me up with treflip noseslide, but settled for kickflip noseslide. At this point things were pretty normal and it was super fun. I did noseslide then kickflip to fakie on the bank after and PJ did nollie crook (I think) followed by such a casual treflip to fakie. After this I offered to film his his treflip noseslide which took him several tries. It was cool to see his process and that he doesn’t in fact always land everything. When trying the frontside flips Paul was trying the noseblunts. It was cool and both dudes got their tricks. Paul and I chatted with PJ for a bit after skating and it was awesome. I really can’t believe it happened and how normal and fun it felt once it was done. Epic day for me. Thanks for coming to Boulder PJ!

(setup 5/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj (ha) wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Still feeling run down I went over to the school with a bigger setup and proceeded to not land anything. Well, I guess a fluke switch front shove, fakie flip that took too long, halfcab flip and some slappys.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 thunder team hollow)
(pain level 6/10 so sore and arthritic from being sick)

Feeling a little better I went over to Basemar around the time it got dark. I was on a tiny setup and would mostly dislike it. But I hadn’t put mini logos on my truck tier list so kind of needed another session on them. I started out in the kicker area just kind of dorking and really struggling still feeling arthritic from being sick. The cracks at that spot are so bad now. I literally did nothing. Went over to the alley door spot and did a warm up line of ollie to fakie then fakie nosepick the curb. The fakie nosepick felt really cool. Then tried no comply followed by back pivot 270 shove on the curb. But gave up on the pivot shove and spent too long trying kickflip. I would get a few, but kept touching the rail and wanted a clean one. Weird night, I hope to have energy soon.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null beatles, jessup ultragrip, mini logo 8.3 trucks with royal bushings (and they still wouldn’t turn), 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 wide size 11.5 white with half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Went over to the school shortly before dark and did a few slappies. I couldn’t believe how tired and unmotivated I felt. Turns out I was getting sick.