After a tough day of work I napped, had a couple ciders and was about to get ready for bed when I decided I should at least do a kickflip. I had disassembled my 8.5 and tried some on the 8.3 and 8.25. Neither felt great. I actually slammed pretty bad landing primo at one point. I didn’t have socks on and I hadn’t even tied my shoes. Ha. Still felt good to “skate” a little though.

Was able to get out of work with some daylight left and met Will at Valmont. He was already in huck mode trying backside flips over the euro hip. I warmed up for a while, didn’t feel great on my board. Then I started hucking over it too, first treflip which didn’t feel close at all, then pop shove. Will got his b/s flip and chilled. I was committing to a lot of the pop shoves and kept coming up empty. It was crazy, full commits, just not riding away. Then it was too dark and I left for home. Gotta be honest, the bigger board really seemed to hurt my chances of flipping correctly.

(setup 2/10 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 and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Up kind of early on a cool morning went to Lafayette for the morning session, but no one was skating. Saw there was quite a bit of snow so I almost left, but Dave was on the way so I stuck it out and played around a little. Grey was there after all, had a nice blunt to fakie on the spine. I did a non-decked rock ‘n roll on the mini saber tooth. Dave showed, wasn’t feeling it either. But of course we skated for a while. The lines above are basically the extent of the session.

Dave and I met Ryan and Cass at the DIY with the two qps and amazing curb. I never skated the qps. They were already filming as Cass was trying a slappy back 5-0 back 180 out which he would eventually get. Ryan had dome some bluntside combos and rattled off several of his first frontside slappies. I did a lot of different tricks that covered less than 2 feet of curb. Dave did a lot of tricks that covered at least 8 feet of curb. All things considered I was happy to get slappy front feeble, slappy front 180, kind of slappy to board stall, switch front slappy and several little switch slappy crooks. Dave playing on the hip part of it was cool.

After a while the clouds came out and the weak went for food. Ha. Dave and I went to the warehouse. It was really cold inside. We started at the little manny pads where I didn’t think I’d be able to get things going and Dave did his boardslides. I did a couple of crooks on the ledge. Then we did our lines. The little qp is so fun. Took me a bit to get the back 50 to cheater fakie, but they were fun. Also took a few tries to get a fakie flip, but that’s okay.

Lastly we ended up at York St skatepark with very little juice left. We did some cruising around. Dave did a line of slappy switch crook 180 (with a bit of 5-0 for good measure) then back 50 the qp gap. I did a line of ollie onto the ledge, roll in then the little front 5-0 jib to fakie which was a really fun ender. We did look at the nearby benches and bank to ledge, but didn’t really skate. Awesome day. Lots of skating.

(setup 7/10 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 and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Out somewhat early on a winter Saturday because it was supposed to get windy. The crew was Bratcher, Gordon, Jesse, Tim, Eric and some old man named Glen. I wore vulcs which had a lot less pain, but less confidence with flippers. I would go on to have a decent session with the exception of flippers. Gordon was popping right away, doing lines similar to Paul and Sean. Jack and Jesse warmed up mostly with non-pop tricks. Eric’s front tail on the curb that didn’t lock in was actually super awesome. As were his fast mannies. Jesse and Gordon back 180’d over the grate. Oh, for a while we had a flat bar on the grate so when you ollied it was kind of like you popped over a rail. Felt pretty cool. I only did it once. Jesse made it look really easy. I did a lot of popping, most of which was slow and not confident, but oh well. Had a line of front 180 a tiny snow pile, switch front board jib the last inch of the tiny flat bar, fakie flip on flat. Almost got front 50 the main bench then kickflip 50 the lurb. Got a nose manual, although the one in the edit is clearly not a make. Tried for a bit to finally get even the tiniest front 50 above the pad and managed one. It felt pretty awesome. Eric basically did it too. Had a couple sloppy back 50 shoves. We skated almost 3 hours. I’m missing a lot. Everyone seemed to skate decent. Still wish dog park would have a better ledge.

(setup 7/10 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 547 vulc half 272 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Out in the garage after work on a Friday. Didn’t feel too good, warmed up a bit, got a kickflip then started hucking nollie flips. Hucked 25 of them, none were very close. I hucked more tricks I haven’t done before. Switch f/s flip (not very close), switch front heel (not remotely close), nollie varial heel (not very close), switch tre (not remotely close). Tried 5 heelflips nope, 5 treflips nope. Got fakie flip first try, a bit for b/s flip and ended on varial flip.

(setup 7/10 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 440v2 wide brown half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 8/10 new 440s suck)

Another cold winter night, went to the open session at square state. I was kind of late. Joe and Garrett were already there as were several others. And it would get more and more crowded. I hid in the tiny section almost the whole night. And I basically tried kickflip 50s the entire time and only got close to landing it a couple times. I did get a few hurricanes on the little qp and several blunt to axle stalls which are rare for me. At the end of the session I kickflipped up the euro and did a crook on the bump to ledge. I had seen Garrett do his smooth ripping, Joe hardflipped the sk8 mafia board up the euro. Was going seeing Denver ripper Daryl. Darin and Justin were there. Will showed and did some tails on the bank to curb. All in all a weird session. I wish I didn’t get overwhelmed by crowds so easily.

(setup 7/10 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 440v2 wide brown half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

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)

Went out to the garage on a cold night, skated flat for about 45 minutes. Basically started with nollie flip attempts since I have a bet going with Joe. A couple were close, but not both feet on close. I kind of switched around boards since I had another in the garage. 8.5/14.25 with thunders and I could kickflip infinitely better so I mostly stuck to it. I did a few other basics. Randomly tried 3 shove which I haven’t done in forever and got one in a few tries.

(setups 8.3 with slappy lows, 8.5 with thunders and 440s)
(pain level 6/10)

On a cold night I stared at the combo for Square State through my phone magnifier and still couldn’t get it right. Man my close vision is gone. We eventually got in and a solid crew accumulated and skated for a few hours. Bratcher, Dave, Cass, Jesse and me. It’s nice warming up without the youth because we can just dork around in the middle at a slow speed. Hard to remember what others were doing to warm up. I was happy to get a couple of manuals on the little pad, even a nose manual. Crooks on the upper part never worked though. Other things I remember early on. Jesse pop shove and varial flip up the euro, slappy noseslide the upper part of the ledge. He would go on to eventually ollie over the table top. Cass was skating my older setup (that I am not at all tempted by I swear) and had some switch and first ever nollie front 50 on the curb, back 180 up the euro, front nose the upper part of the ledge. At some point Bratcher started filming the little downhill qp session. jack was doing alley oop grinds and cool ollies/180s out of it. Dave fakie crooked the whole thing, front 5-0’d it, back 50 up it after back 50 the qp with speed. I did a alley oop fakie frontside grind that took too long. Oh yeah I had back 50’d it too then came back and ollied up the 3 stair off a kicker which Cass had done 2nd try. Dave had all kinds of amazing lines going. Kickflips up the euro, boardslides the big qp, front 50 the bump to ledge, switch ollie up the euro, sw 180 up it, ollie the pyramid, etc. I don’t even know, it was endless, he was shredding. I had done some kickflips on the bank under the curb, a very bad slow treflip, I guess some stuff that was okay for me. Not the best session, not the worst. At the end a session on the curb ensued. Jack got back 5-0s, shove 50, he looked good. I got nollie tail 270 shove and nosegrind 180. Couldn’t get a kick 50 to save my life. Dave had a couple really good back tails, switch crooks, quick up to 50 the upper part. Hit his knee on a ledge as he was trying to manual across the stairs from bank to bank. This is mostly what I remember, it was a fun session.

(setup 3/10 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)

Left my house after breakfast thinking it was in the mid 30s for some reason, but it was actually in the lower 20s. I started at the old meet up curb and did a couple slappy crooks which felt good. Then I went down to the flagstone ledge and started pretty well there too. Flatground started okay as did ledge tricks until I got to the dreaded front 50. I think I got heelflip first try then could not do another to save my life. Backside I got pretty far into my short list of tricks. Frontside I randomly tried some regular front noseslides which I technically landed, but Jason or Cass would not be proud. Front 50s I really really tried and could not even get into it. It was so frustrating. Even after some hopefully good karma when calling out a homeless guy attempting to steal a bike. Somehow I allowed myself to move on. Ended up at the business building. Had some fun boardslides on the long curb after shoves. Then randomly tried to front 50 the downhill ledge which I had never 50’d before because of the weird downhill approach. Only this time time I managed to front 50 it a few times. Makes zero sense. Granted they were very slow, oh well. I couldn’t noseslide the taller ledge after though. Some cops had parked nearby so I moved on. Ended up at Baker ledge which had a car next to the manny pad, but the ledge was clear. I was tired and just wanted to do 5 ledge tricks and go home. But somehow my legs worked and I skated it better than expected. I got noseslide, noseslide to fakie, switch front nose, halfcab nose, front nose to fakie, front board flop out, super slow front 50, super slow accidental front 5-0, switch noseslide, switch nose to fakie. Had tried a bunch of nollie flips, which weren’t close. Kind of a weird session, some real lows, some okay highs. I guess all of which should be considered a win considering it was 23 degrees.

(setup 3/10 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)