On lunch break I went across the street for some flatground and it was not good. The new 440s felt like absolute garbage, I couldn’t flick or feel my board well. Kickflips worked and somehow I was 2/2 on halfcab flips. Other than one line where I did 4 tricks in a row it was terrible. I got fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip, bs flip. All done slow and bad. I made myself do a lot of kickflips to try and break in the shoes. Couldn’t commit to treflip or nollie flip. New shoes are the worst. 2024 Glen would be changing my setup after this session.

(setup 2/10 null keyhole2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, slappy 8.5 low profile, spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro)
(pain level 4/10)

Before sunset went over to the school not wanting to pop much. Was able to get quite a few backside slappies which I haven’t been able to do lately so that was nice. Slappy crooks both ways, some tiny switch crook jibs. May have hucked a little, but nothing really. Oh yeah, I had new brown 440s.

(setup 5/10 null keyhole2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, slappy 8.5 low profile, spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro)
(pain level 7/10)

After some chilling and football with Ollie I eventually ended up on campus. It was nice in the sun when the wind wasn’t kicking, which was rare. I felt like I wouldn’t have much drive as I started cruising around looking for a spot inspiring of a warm up. I ended up at the two stair with a slight bank into it and it served me well. After some initial no pop nose stalls, tail stall, pivots I started hucking. Was hyped to get front crook to fakie and kickflip axle stall pretty quick. Then I started hucking kickflip nose stall which I’ve never really done. I’ve had some that flop off, but never posted up. They were hard, but man when I got one I was so hyped. After this went around the corner to the tall engineering ledge and did a line of slow heelflip then barely a noseslide. Can’t believe I 50’d it back in my 20s. Then down to the narrow bank where I took way too long to do a kickflip to fakie. Then I did a fun line of ollie to fakie, switch 180 up the curb across the street and b/s flip on a micro hip. Up to the little hill spot I made myself do 5 tricks “into the hill”. Nollie front 180, pop shove, halfcab flip took too long, a really bad treflip that still made me happy, fakie shove. Did a front axle on a nearby banked ledge and the wind kicked in fierce and the temp dropped so I left. Fun first session of the year.

(setup 7/10 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)

Last day of 2024! The sun was out, but somehow it felt way colder than 34 degrees. I struggled pretty bad this session. Was able to front 50 the black ledge first try, but struggled with a slow one on the ledge into the bank. Also took too many tries to do a noseslide to fakie on the bank to ledge. Darin rattled off quartapotty tricks. Cass had nice front noseslides on the black ledge. Before the sun set it was quite cold and just Cass and I remaining. We skated the bank to curb. Cass learned blunt to fakie and blunt to pivot. I took forever to do a line of hurricane then front 50 the ledge into the bank. Followed it up with a crooks on the black ledge at least. I also got an axle stall to rock ‘n roll which felt cool.

(setup 4/10 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 5/10)

On a cold night I went out to the garage still feeling kind of sore, but wanting to huck some flippers. I avoided any form of regular kickflip because my knee was extra sore. I had done some shoves as warmups then tried several switch flips. Very few of which were even remotely close. Then went in on halfcab heel which took a long time to get one. I would go on to get 3 of them, the second one being the only decent one. Hucked nollie varial heel after that, some of which felt quite close, but never got both feet on it. Might have hucked more, but I don’t remember. Felt good to get the hc heels.

(setup 7/10 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 5/10)

Pretty nice day out, but I was quite sore from the kickflip beating the day before. I got out because I heard John Brandow was gonna skate. And when I arrived I got to see him do a back blunt on the parking block qp. It was so sick! Lots of chatting before I skated, so many amazing people. Donnie was straight killing it. Filmed like 5 clips in 10 minutes. I took a long time to get anything going besides some slappies. Did have one fun line of wallie the taller blue parking block, front board the angle iron ledge, kickflip up the curb. The front boards were extra fun, some of them might have even been leveled out. After some more chatting I made myself do 5 ledge tricks just to feel slightly accomplished. Crooks weren’t working too well, but I did one okay. Switch noseslide 270 shove was my fav trick. Halfcab noseslide felt cool too. As far as other people skating there were so many so here’s some randomness:
Jack – has a broken rib but managed a first try dolphin flip on the sk8 mafia board
Garrett – Nose manny to nose manny to nose manny
Dan – switch tre the skate mafia board
Ladd – Got denied on feebles
Preston – New guy from WA was shredding
Collin – halfcab flips were sick
Scotty – The man, cool manuals down the weird pad
Wade – Some really cool boardslid variations
Donnie – The ollie to boardslide the spine was so gnar
Joe – hardflip fastplants were rad
A lotta rippers!

(setup 6/10 null keyhole2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, slappy 8.5 low profile, spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic shape, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue size 11.5 gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a cloudy morning with high winds in the forecast I went to dog park to meet up with Paul, Bratcher and Dave.  Ted was there, as was a couple others.  The wind never really came until the very end some 3.5 hours later.  I had a new setup.  Brand new 8.3 board, slappy lows 8.5 and luckily it felt pretty great for almost everything.  But an early game of SKATE with Paul was kind of tough, I abused the ‘double are nothing’ card and somehow won on a halfcab flip that took a lot of tries. Somewhat soon after that I got a line that made me pretty happy even though it started off kind of weak.  Accidental front 5-0 on the bench, heelflip on flat, ollie the weird wider aluminum flatbar.  I would also get a line of crooks the back of the two step then kickflip onto the C pad.  I would get 3 or 4 kickflips onto it.  Had a first try cruddy fakie fs halfcab heel.  Bratcher had some some cool tricks on the C ledge.  Paul was mostly chilling after not diving into his bag too far.  Dave was doing some cool axle stalls to fakie on the bank to curb, then would go on to have some banger lines including tricks like ollie over the grate, back feebles on the low flat bar, front 50s around the C, back 5-0 the curb, nose manual the C pad and then he just casually learns front 50 body varial (the hard way!) like it was nothing. I went in on kickflip over the flat bar and it was a battle.  Ollie the grate, kickflip the flat bar.  Committed a lot, landed on a couple, bonked the one I landed.  Dave was able to kickflip it too in like 10 tries.  

Then we went over to the park.  I just kind of dorked around for a bit, but Dave went in on switch front 180 nose manual on the volcano.  Yeah, insane.  He had some good manuals and kickflips to fakie as setups.  Great day.

(setup 8/10 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)

After work went across the street and messed around for a while as work had really annoyed me. I ended up skating kind of hard, but didn’t land much. I had some good feeling slappies of all my variations. Adding in some regular backside slappies which I haven’t been good at for a while, also front crooks felt good. Attempted some front pivot kickflips out, but never got close. Hucked some tres over the bump to manhole after switch slappy crooks, but wasn’t very close. Managed to finally get a kickflip over it at least, but it was way harder than it should be. Went to the front and did a few kickflips into a curb cut, but couldn’t commit to treflip out of the next one. Glad I skated.

(setup 5/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow lights 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric with currex runpro insoles and half 574 vulc insoles in the front)
(pain level 5/10)

After work and shortly before sunset I met up with Dave who was at Willville waxing the little ledge under the manny pads. Which would be our spot for the next hour or so. Dave had done boardslide to fakie then was going in on halfcab boardslide to fakie which took a bit. I rattled off some low effort warm up tricks like slappy crooks, nollie tails, switch front nose before trying a million fakie nosegrinds. It was so annoying, it would not grind for me. Finally got one that was more just a fakie bonk. Oh well. Dave got the halfcab board, halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide shove, front 50, front 50 180, back 50, back 180 fakie 50 and an amazing front crook after my phone had ran out of space. I went in on halfcab crooks and was getting into quite a few and we think I did one or maybe two. Since my phone had run out of space we’ll just say they were makes. Ha. The one in the clip is just to show it was close. After it got dark we went up top and messed around on the 3 block area. Dave tried some drop downs to manual and got pretty close. I did a couple ollies onto the low level. Dave did the cool switch deck check to nose bonk and would go on to get a Mangoesque manual you will see in Stubborns 2 coming in 2050. Fun night, got pretty cold quick though.

(setup 6/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, null grip, thunder hollow lights 149 bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric with currex runpro insoles and half 574 vulc insoles in the front)
(pain level 5/10)

On a really nice morning I went skating kind of early since I had the day off work and family festivities weren’t until later. I started at Valmont park which was alright for a while, only a couple toddler bikers. Didn’t do a whole lot, but had one fun warm up line of grind over the rainbow, kickflip on the shark fin, front 180 a hip. Had a kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank. Then the families rolled in and it became too much so I went to the ledges.

Dave showed, Paul showed shortly, Matt was walking Teddy. We did our things for a while. I tried to pop more, had some success on the smaller flat bar, but not larger ones. Dave slammed on a pivot on the bank to curb, then went back and lined one out next try. Paul was working on his Sean moves and the nollie front 50 on the bench was pretty rad. Paul and I ollied the grate, so much easier than anticipated. I struggled to front 50 the bench, but would get quite a few slow ones. Tried to line them out with heelflip or treflip before ollieing a flat bar, but never got the flippers. Argh. I had to leave, it was a fun session.

(setup 3/10 nullosaur 8.5, jessup ultragrip, slace 8.5, 52mm spitfire f4 classic shape orange/black swirl 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half 574vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain 6/10)