I had setup a new sample board and was excited to skate. It was warmer out than it’s been, but I wasn’t feeling too good so I opted for a short garage session. Warming up felt alright. I ended up trying nollie flips first. Got close. One of these days I’ll be able to hover a little longer and land them. Got close to switch flips again. Hucked a few more things before taking a song to land a treflip and then another song to land a sketchy varial heelflip. I was hyped on that! Also hyped that the sample board held up to some poorly landed heelflips that could sometimes result in a broken tail.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Went out to the garage on another cold night. I was feeling better about my chances with landing tricks. I did some whatever to warm up then randomly the first trick I tried was rick flip. Ha. Probably hucked it about 10 times then went to nolie flips. Got so close, but didn’t land it. Then I started roughly using songs as a gauge for how long I tried tricks. I had DJR playing and it worked well to try a trick for about a song. Some times though I would just do something like ‘fakie flip tricks’ and did fakie flip, fakie varial flip and almost fakie treflip. Didn’t get nollie heel or nollie flip although both were close. Switch flip was even closer. Tried switch 360 flip because why not. Honestly if I somehow manage to be setup right that trick totally seems possible. I committed to it a few times, but never got remotely close. Managed a few poorly landed regular 360 flips. I got a halfcab heel for the first time in months and followed it with a second try f/s halfcab heel. That was the highlight for me. I ended trying more nollie flips, but couldn’t put one down.

(setup 7.5″ putter, new balance numeric 358 black/white 11 custom orthotics)

Some really cool unique tricks in here and of course Tom Knox rules.

Went out to the garage not feeling particularly great on a cold night. I chose to wear the Suciu ADV shoes instead of a different old pair of shoes. They are not very grippy. Anyway, I started out with some of the shoves and stuff before digging in to nollie flips and heels. I never got close and I don’t know if I even made any progress. It was frustrating. I started hucking pressure flips though. I think I finally grasp the movements needed to do them. After awhile I gave up on nollie flip/heels and added 360 flips to my fail list (WTF!). I did manage heelflips and a terrible fakie heel. I got incredibly close to switch flip out of nowhere. That would have been great. All in all a pretty weak night.

(setup 7.5″ putter, Suicu ADV 10.5 with custom orthotic insole)

Out pretty early on a Sunday I got to Wilville feeling better. I started at the middle manny pad as there was some sun up there. I was trying to do two flip trick lines then nose manuals. It was fun. I got a few of the basic flippers when Saul showed so I moved down to the curb with him. I can’t say the curbs there are very good for slappying. We should wax up a section, but they are still fun enough. Saul had some good long slappies. I was not skating as well as I had hoped. I kept missing flip tricks trying to line things out. Damian showed. Jake a little later. Damian had good slappies as did Jake. I was trying a line of noseslide the end of a flagstone ledge, front 180 off a curb, halfcab flip then some slappies, but I never got the halfcab flip. Jake was ollieing onto the hubba thing and halfcabbing (both ways) off. I couldn’t ollie up it. Saul was doing slappy back 180s to fakie 50s. Pretty sick. Saul was the first to leave. Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It was not Jake’s day. I was up SKAT pretty quickly, but he did manage to get me with a treflip before I eventually got him with either varial flip or f/s halfcab flip. I was pretty much completely hating the bulky 868s by then. Damian was hanging with us still, trying treflips and stuff. Dude is cool.

Then we met Jack and Carleigh at a weird pipe spot that Carleigh shut down so we moved on to this other Jack spot which was way harder to skate than it looks. All I did was a side rock truck tap on the pipe thing. Jake did a scary looking front rock. Jack ollied to axle stall then into the whoop. Him and Jake also did tailblocks. Carleigh did a staple gun and easily the gnarliest trick of the session which was a kickturn on the top. Go there to understand it. Then we started cruising around to a park with a fun looking bank with stones on it, but the bank was that soft stuff they put in playgrounds these days. Jack still noseslid and back tailed a rock though. Carleigh did a cool bean plant over a rock to get his back. Then we all played on this zip line thing for awhile. Jake did a boardslide while holding on. It was so rad.

Then we saw this spot. Well, Jack saw it first and said he wanted to do something. So he started by kickflipping off the wood section then rode onto the ice. It didn’t break so naturally the next move would be to late shove onto it. He handled that quick. I couldn’t leave without trying something too. I eventually settled on a tail drop shove off the back ledge then a street plant onto the ice while holding the ledge on the end. Several tries later I skidded out of it. Man it felt awesome. I know it’s pretty dumb, but man it felt awesome. Oh yeah, Jack had ollied from the flat part onto the wavy dam then rolled into the ice. But he stuck and wasn’t able to slide out. Man how I love random spots. I do not like the bulky 868s though. They will not be skated again.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, custom orthotic insole

Slacking and not feeling too well I went over to the curb across the street to see how I really felt. It was clear quickly that I was more sore than I’ve been in awhile. I got a few 50s, slappy crooks, etc. I skated extra slow and felt terrible.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, custom orthotic insole)

After a long day off work hanging with Liz I finally stopped slacking and went skating. Saul was skating and that sounded good and I decided to skate there. I took my normal 8″ setup. I only did a few ollies along the bike path, but it seemed to warm me up pretty good. I was surprised how good my setup and shoes felt at Sauls. Low trucks rule. Will and Saul were already ripping. Carve grinds are the funnest thing ever. Will can do them frontside and backside, switch and regs. He was also working on bag ladies, flash and rolls, front and back rocks. He got them all. His front 5-0’s are so good. Saul might not have as long of a trick list, but he gets better every time I go there. More standing up on grinds, more control and looking more natural. He tried some tricks like front 50, tailblocks, slash grind while grabbing, etc. I felt better than I thought I would. Carve grinds, a few slight back 50s, got my first couple front axle stalls on the brick section, kind of a little jib slash to fakie, almost a kickflip way under coping, front rocks the opposite of how Will did them. I spend a lot of time mini ramping it and the front axles took too long, but it was a fun session for sure.

Since I skated there I went by Wilville on the way home and after bailing a couple nose manuals into the bank I decided to try and do a kickflip to fakie. I was kind of surprised how good I was ollieing up the curb and equally surprised how I could not get setup for kickflips to save my life. Then a crew of young’uns came and it was weird. Like I was trying a kcifklip to fakie, bailed and a dude manuals right under me. No one said hello until later on. Freakin’ kids. Ha. I was so pissed by that time anyway because I was like 0-20 on kickflips. I just couldn’t get my foot setup to flip. I tried going faster and having more time on the bank. Nope. I tried going slower to feel more comfortable landing with my front foot back a little. Nope. I eventually snapped and focused my board as it was rolling down the bank. Ugh.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, custom orthotic insole)

Went out to the garage wanting to try some new shoes that hurt my feet less. Well, not new shoes, but shoes that have been in my closet wanting to be skated. I started with some Adidas Suciu shoes. They felt alright. I literally just tried nollie flip then nollie heelflip over and over on the putter. I got close to both, but never both feet on close. My heel kept hurting and that shoe is super thin so I grabbed my NB 868s. It was kind of crazy how much better they felt. Way gripper and just plain felt better. But it didn’t result in a make on either trick. I hucked a few nollie inward heels and got close right away, but then it drifted away. I ended up riding my normal 8″ board and getting just as close. I added in a few treflip attempts. I landed quite a few of them with a hand down. I was out there for awhile. I had a few heelflips too. I like skating the garage like that.

(setup putter/8″ adidas suciu/nb 868s)

I left work and everything was wet. Dave said he had a covered spot so I met him at the fairgrounds. It wasn’t too wet in Longmont, but enough to justify seeking dry ground. Things started really slow for me again with my arthritis being kinda bad. I didn’t think I’d be able to do anything when I started. Dave started with fakie shoves and nollie shoves. Me too, but my arthritis made me even scared to do some. But it was funny because it turns out Dave struggled with nollie back shove. Maybe it was just this session, but it was still kind of funny. We both missed our first few kickflips, but Dave beat me and went on to do a bunch of good kickflips and in lines with front shoves and was trying back bigspins. He got a few. It’s funny getting better at a trick and getting to the point where you get mad when you don’t land it. I was starting to skate alright. Fakie flips, heelflips, b/s flips, fakie varial flip and then my bearing blew out. I tried to not let it get to me, but my wheel moving around drove me nuts. And then the bolt got looser and the wheel would fall off. It kind of killed my motivation, plus it was getting really dark in there. Dave had a few varial flips, but couldn’t quite put down the fakie varial flip. We went out near our cars at the end. Dave tried more fakie varial flips. We did little 3 trick lines. Front 180 a little gap, switch 180 (Dave may have done a different trick), noseslide the picnic bench (Dave’s was frontside).

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

On a warm, but a little breezy afternoon I went to Blue Skies after work to meet up with Dave. I got there first and no one was there. I probably should have gone in the rink and just skated flat, but for whatever reason I went to the skatepark. I was feeling pretty out of it and not motivated. I wouldn’t realize until later that it was because arthritis had gotten me pretty good. I thought I was just sore from the 3 up 3 down session, but it turns out it was more than that. Argh. Arthritis is really hard to skate with. It just kills the confidence and mobility. Anyway, I just kind of dorked around skating slow. I did a bunch of ollies to fakie on various banks, some boardslides on the flat bar, noseslides and then tried a bunch of nollie front heels. Since trying it in a game of SKATE against Hayden it seems like a trick I could land. There were some that flipped perfect. Dave showed up around then. We both hucked it for a bit then started skating the park. Dave was quick on the front 50s on the low ledge. Going fast enough to front 180 out of the bump. Both of us were unable to get halfcab noseslide because that ledge is so darn weird. I got a line of boardslide, sketchy heelflip, front 50. Man I was scared to do the front 50. I got a crook on the taller part. Dave had front noseslide on the tall side ledge, tried feebles on the low part of the snake rail, easy hippy jumps the flat bars, a solid back tail on the weird qp, lots of kickflips. He started trying f/s halfcab flips on the main bank and got really close. I had been sitting, but he motivated me to skate the bank some at least. I did a few weak halfcabs, but it felt cool. Dave started doing varial flips and I ended with some sweepers. All things considered with how bad my arthritis was it was an alright session.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)