Went to the dog park on a nice day after an insanely busy day of work. I had about 30 minutes before my PT appointment. I am so desperate for less pain I bought some Busenitz shoes thinking they would help. They have a flexible toe area, but stiff mid/heel which is what most plantar fasciitis tips say to get. They also have a tall heel lift and as soon as I set my board down I knew I would hate the shoes. I didn’t think I would hate them quite as much as I did though. I mixed between game changers and superfeet to see if either helped. Nope. It felt like trying to skate on an escalator. I have a huge fear of rolling my ankle and I forgot how much an elevated heel adds to the fear. I only got pop shoves, kickflips and no complys. I was not hyped. Oh well, at least the Busentiz shoe makes for a steezy chill shoe.

(setup 8.5 Null Ollie deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, Adidas Busenitz Pro 11.5 superfeet insoles)

Met Dave and Simon at Twin Peaks Elem Saturday afternoon. The weather was warm when the sun was out, cold when the sun went behind clouds). I was feeling good. I had stretched a lot earlier. Simon was already doing wallrides, Dave was already doing all variations of shoves. I took a few tries to get a backside kickflip, but a second try kickflip to fakie felt awesome and put me in a good mood. Also got a fun no comply bigspin. Dave filmed Simon kill it for awhile. He did huge front 180s the hard way over the hip and followed them by a halfcab to manual down the brick median. He also did some wallride footplant and a backside 360 flip super steezy. I got a bean plant first try which also felt really cool. Posed backside flip over the hip, but didn’t really commit. Also couldn’t do the wallie nollie. Dave did pop shove body varial, fakie wallrides, switch shoves, some beautiful kickflips (ha sorry dave, but he did get some good ones). Dave and I hucked 360 flip variations for awhile. He went switch, i went nollie. I had never done nollie 360 flip on a bank before and got super close. It pops different. I ran out of juice. So did the others. Fun day. I finally skated for real!

But oh man did I pay. I was really sore later that night, but the next morning was the worst. I couldn’t even get out of bed my plantar fasciitis was so bad in my pushing foot. Ugh.

(setup 8.5 Null Ollie deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, NB# PJ 533 black/white 12 superfeet insoles)

Wanted to skate last night, but I was too sore. It was depressing. But rather than only complain (which I did plenty of) I did a bunch of yoga, ming method stretches, enzymes, cold shower, the whole nine yards. I woke up feeling better. Good enough to skate. Since I work later this week it’s hard to get out at night so I went to Lafayette around 8am. Plus this way no one can see me struggle this bad. And it was bad indeed. I bailed a lot of stuff. That park is fun to cruise around at least. I missed the tail on a lot of tiny ollies on little bumps. The rock wallie to get warmed up is so fun. I tried little frontside to tail over the weird steep rock hip for while. Got one, but it didn’t slide. Tried to do a long line starting at the black ledge and ending back on the bank under it. But didn’t really land much. Especially because I couldn’t ollie onto the ledge. Did do that little slash 180 out. Not sure if I’ve done that before. Ended with a fun bean plant that took a few tries. Going back I was getting front tail stalls on the manhole hump which is weird for me to skate. All in all I skated terrible, but that park is fun to dork around on when no one is there.

(setup 8.5 Null Ollie deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, NB# PJ 533 black/white 12 superfeet insoles)

Did these silly little ride on grinds for awhile. Some turned into 50s. Some were longer nosegrinds and I would stick. Some I just ran into it. Oh well, it was fun.

(setup 8.5 Null Ollie deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, NB# PJ 533 black/white 12 superfeet insoles)

I did so much to be able to skate this day. Yoga, PT exercises, Ming Chew exercises, foam roller, etc. I even changed my board to an 8.5. Ha. It was the board I started out 2017 on. With the bigger shoes again the wheelbase of the 8.25 feel small and I’ve kind of given up on tech tricks at this point. I just want to relearn the basics on a nice big board. I went to campus on a beautiful afternoon with very little expectations. I started with slappy crook. Got a few then rolled across campus to the stadium bank. Took awhile to get a kickflip that I was happy with, but it felt good. Did a few other tricks like fakie flip and boneless and then tried like a million treflips to fakie. I got close a few times, but eventually called it good. I ended up at the ledge spot. I took a long time to get a 50 even though I wasn’t having too much trouble popping in. Actually I was really liking the bigger board for that, but I kept sticking. The couple I landed felt rad though. I was gonna go try some frontside noseslides on a taller ledge, but decided I should not push it.

(setup 8.5 Null Ollie deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, NB# PJ 533 black/gum 11.5 superfeet insoles)

Feeling incredibly sore all day at work I met up with Dave at the Blue Skies rink. I had switched back to bulky PJs with Superfeet insoles to try and help the pain. But it was too late. I couldn’t even bend really. If Dave would have been later I would have just left, but he showed up and my stubborn self skated with him. I managed a few terrible kickflips, some incredibly slow fakie flips, a few shoves and bailed a bunch of treflips and nollie treflips. I was in so much pain, I never should have skated. Dave skated pretty good. He had some funny kickflips (photo) and then some good ones. Lots of solid front shoves and a bunch of treflip attempts. Some of which were very close. He’s gonna be legit some day! Ha ha.

(setup 8.25 Null future deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, NB# PJ 533 black/gum 11.5 superfeet insoles)

Went to Saul’s after work. I’m writing this almost a week later so my recollection of what happened wont be good. It was a fun session. All of us rolled in on the easy side. I had to do kickflips on flat to get myself hyped enough to do the roll in. Eric also rolled in on the gnar coping. Saul’s got back 50s on the gnar coping often now. I had some runs with more than one axle stall so that was exciting. Eric was trying to ride on grind around the corner, but never quite committed. I never quite got a frontside scratch grind in the deep end. Saul and Eric had a couple near death experiences. Maybe I should be trying harder stuff so I can get scared too.

I was trying vulcs with FP Gamechanger insoles. As I learned later in pain, that is not going to help my knee pain.

(setup 8.25 Null future deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, Lakai manchesters b/w 11 FP geamechanger insoles)

After Dave bailed on me I went to the Dog Park on a cool day with a cold wind. I wanted to try some vulcs because the PJs with orthotics were just too much. I went for some old Lakai Manchesters with the Superfeet insoles and it seemed good. I skated for about 30 minutes. Took a bit to get kickflips. I had no confidence, but my knees were not hurting. It was kind of wonderful. I literally did not land much of anything other then kickflip. Some no complies, a bunch of 180s, one terribly slow backside flip. But it felt like the start of me being able to skate for real again and for that it felt awesome.

(setup 8.25 Null future deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, Lakai manchesters b/w 11 superfeet insoles)