skate journal: trinidad with jack, garrett, hayden AND MONICO! (sept 17, 2017)

A little sample of the fun had yesterday. @hayden.don.miller @garrettswheelers @monico_dan_can #yesmonicowasplayingbillyjoel

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@monico_dan_can !!!

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Jack and Hayden met at my house at 7am and after swooping Garrett up in Denver we were off to Trinidad to meet up with Monico. We met there because it’s halfway for both of us. We arrived at the park to Monico with his camera pointed at us and Elton John playing. Cracked us up. Hugs and board exchanges later we hit the park. We started in the lower part. Man that park is wild. Weird lumpy transitions with cracks and holes in spots. I didn’t skate down there much, mostly just posed and watched the ripping. Jack did some cool nose stalls going up the bank to hubba, kickflip nose stall first try. A couple broken decks later he was chilling. Ha. Garrett flowed, but wasn’t feeling it too much either. Monico was jumping on the rails/hubba right away and doing flippers all over the place. Man he’s good. Hayden popped some lofty b/s ollies on the oval lump, airs over snowboard jump, grinds and apparently jumped over Monico when they were trying to film lines.

Then we skated the ‘street’ section. It would have been more fun for me had the first step not been mostly wet. I had some fun 50s and came somewhat close to a slow switch front crook. Hayden’s nose manual is ridiculous. Garrett never quite got the line, but the Powell Magic is funny either way. Monico was shredding so hard. The 180s up and switch/fakie tricks off came quick. The front 50 up the weird corner ledge took a minute, but wow.

We left the park looking for some street spots. I joked how we should find a 15 stair for Monico. Well to my surprise a few minutes later we did. And he skated it! It was surreal to there filming Monico get buck. Well, I didn’t really film because my daughter had taken the memory card out of the camera and forget to put it back. Argh. Luckily Jack got a killer angle. Thanks Jack.

After a stop at Zumiez so Jack could be an Independent shirt (ha) we hit Pueblo CSU. Jack setup a new board, Garrett and Hayden played on the ledge area and I went to go skated this little bank spot. They all came and joined me. That thing is so fun. I was doing lots of back 5-0s, took awhile to get some front 5-0s, posed some front nosegrinds and back hurricanes. Hayden did some crazy bluntslide combos. The bluntslide body varial was crazy. He also did no comply tailslide easily too. Garrett had some blunts too, tailslides, and posed the photo above. Jack was struggling then did a b/s flip nosegrind like it was nothing. Amazing. I think he got a noseblunt too. We skated this bench to bank area. Jack got a sick manual popped into the bank, Hayden with a crazy fastplant then hardflip. Garrett got a nose manual, but cheated the landing a little. I posed some 360 no complys out. Man I felt bad.

Then we hit the newer Pueblo park. It’s pretty neat, but most of the stuff we all wanted to skate is right in the same area. Jack and I were really struggling. I came super close to focusing my board. It took me 20 tries to get a front 50 on the tiny bank to curb. Garrett was ripping. Solid basics that look good. Front tail, front noseslides. Hayden did some really crazy stuff. The front noseslide bonk thing, wallie 50s, 5-0 t fakie the China bank. Last thing I tried was a back 50 on it that took too long. I guess I at least went over the hip thing. Jack shut it down with manual up, manual down kickflip out then later ollie up kickflip to switch manual down. So sick. Fun day with the Nullers. We got a good thing going.

(setup null spanbauer 8.38″ deck, venture v-light 5.8, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, old 51mm spitfire f4 classics, new balance numeric 212 sand 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)