skate journal: epic crew at an epic spot. hip spot in denver (march 3, 2018)

On another gorgeous day Jack and Carleigh picked me up, we met up with Fuzz and Kevin and we went to this spot in Denver. Apparently it’s normally covered in dirt and the city just came through and cleaned it out. Jack’s board went into the water first try. That would happen to everyone’s board at some point. It took some getting used to. My ollies were so pathetic, they were just like little tail scrapes, but I did get a kickflip pretty quick. Jack too. It was surprising to see flip trick master Kevin struggle with kickflips. Fuzz got front 360 quick. After I took too long to do a front shove I filmed Fuzz and everyone else for awhile. Carleigh put down a few pop shoves. Chelsea almost put down some crazy popped kickflips. Kevin had a sick hardflips. Jack did a bunch of tricks like 360 flip, varial flip, impossible and the coveted kickflip late shove. Then I started skating again and eventually I started trying varial flips which seemed like it would be easy. I’ve never done it over a backside hip before. It wasn’t easy. Carleigh was throwing backside flips. It was crazy because she didn’t look close for awhile and then put her feet on it once or twice and then she did it a few tries later. So sick. She did another one too. Both were perfect. Kevin was going in on nollie f/s flips and it took awhile. It was just Carleigh, Kevin and I still trying tricks. Oh yeah, Billy was there earlier. He was mostly chilling, but would take his cruiser for some casual crushing and almost did f/s flip over the hip. Carleigh tried straight kickflips for awhile. Kevin and I were so close so many times. He got a perfect one. Then it was just me skating feeling lame for taking so long and wanting to quit, but thankfully Jack kept encouraging me to try so I did. I finally landed it and it felt really cool. Lots of times when you finally land a newish trick (done plenty of varial flips, but not ever a backside hip and definitely not over a somewhat gnarly street hip) the first make feels weird, but this one just felt great. I was hyped. Kevin had started skating again and worked on switch backside flip for a minute before doing such a good one. Then we went on a journey around the corner to a mexican restaurant and enjoyed some good food and margs. Awesome day. I was incredibly sore after which is the only negative. Not sure I should be without orthotics while skating.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)