skate journal: more finding random dry spots (march 16, 2024)

Posted in New Deck, setup change, Skate Journal on March 18th, 2024 by corpo

On an incredibly nice afternoon I ran a couple errands and then went in search of dry spots. I ended up at the double micro hip. The f/s hip is steeper than it looks on video, but still a glorified crack hip. I had put together a new setup with ventures and loved it at this spot. I think I did my first 5 kickflips so easily. Also had some solid feeling stalls on the curb. Again, it doesn’t look like a slant but I came somewhat close to a front tail to back 270 shove to fakie out. Then I went in on the wallride nollie which took way longer than it should. Then I took a while to fakie bigspin the hip before a few b/s flips that didn’t take too long or look too good. Then the halfcab flip which took like 30 minutes. I couldn’t believe it. The setup was a little weird having to curve around, but still, ridiculous and yet somewhat rewarding. I guess it just feels good to try hard again even if it’s tricks I used to have on lock.

Then I went to Platte middle school. The good flatground on the side of the school was still snowed in, but the manny pads were dry. I forgot how much I hate those pads, the cracks kill me. Initially I could barely ollie onto the pads and I was so angry and hating my setup. Eventually I would get a nose manual and then much later a regular manual or two which may have had some tilts. Pathetic. I went over to the 3 stair which luckily had some runoff preventing me from trying to ollie up it. I really wanted to ollie down it first try, but instead it took like 8 tries and I once again was annoyed with my lack of confidence and how massive my setup felt. I was happy that I skated as hard as I did though.

(setup 4/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, null grip, venture 5.8 v-cast/titanium with bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1, es swift b/s size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsoles)
(pain level 3/10)

skate journal: sunday broomfield with rob, garrett, jack (oct 15, 2023)

Posted in New Deck, setup change, Skate Journal on October 17th, 2023 by corpo

Went to Broomfield on a Sunday around noon after a morning filled with chores. It was quite warm and sunny. Rob and I would get there way before Garrett and way way there before Jack. The scene was a weird mixture of people and mostly annoying. But we skated. Oh yeah David was there, he is rad and was ripping doing switch back 180 nosegrind. I saw Rob manual around, shove lipslide, crooks, steezy front noseslides, halfcab noseslides, front tails the bank to curb. I had a new board that I was super excited about. 8.5 with shorter than normal wheelbase for Null – 14.25. It felt good. I would skate okay. I would get like 5 noseslide 270 shoves, 2 of which were pretty good, the others were garbage. Still felt cool. Couldn’t get a fakie bigflip out of the bank, got pretty sore and didn’t ollie much. Had a fun switch noseslide line of backside on the black ledge then frontside on the bump to ledge. Garrett had some great back tails into the bank, treflips into the bank, back 180 nosegrinds, switch crooks, struggled with nollie heels. Jack showed as I was pretty beat and did his wallie noseslide after some funny brick qp bails then broke his board on the hurricane.

(setup 6/10 null sample 8.5/14.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v-cast/ti royal bushings no big washer flat top washer, spitfire f4 52mm classic shape, es swift 1.5 black/blue/white size 12)
(pain level 6/10)

skate journal: Volkspark in Berlin with a brand new setup (sept 20, 2023)

Posted in New Deck, New Shoes, New Trucks, New Wheels, setup change, Skate Journal on September 29th, 2023 by corpo

Somehow slept really well and after a banging breakfast at our hotel we went out to see some sights. Swiss Air had lost my luggage so one of the first things on the agenda was to get me a new board and shoes because I didn’t want to delay and then not have a board. So we went to the big mall store Titus and I walked out with a an 8.25 of some Flower brand, some hollow ventures and the smallest wheels they had. The family and I were walking nearby at a city park that has a fountain dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales. I did a quick search in maps and it turned out there was a skatepark like 500 feet away so I of course had to go check it out. I had it all to myself so after a couple of laps around and trying to figure out my new setup I kind of just filmed everything. It was quite a fun session surprisingly except how I couldn’t lock into crooks. I thought I’d only have like 5 minutes, but the family ended up being gone for like 40 minutes so I got a decent little session in. Especially considering my complete and shoes were like 1 hour old. The kickflip flyouts were pretty fun as were the back 50s down the steep little escalator qp.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5 (they didn’t have 12s))
(pain level 3/10)

skate journal: feeling better, dog park and a surprise visit from phil (aug 15, 2023)

Posted in New Deck, setup change, Skate Journal on August 16th, 2023 by corpo

On a warm afternoon I met Cass and Rob at dog park. We had the spot all to ourselves for the first half hour and it was pretty awesome. I had some knee pain at times, but for the most part felt pretty good. Cass had some good back 50s and 5-0s, manuals, . Rob was trying nollie back smith, had good nollie front lip, halfcab 50, crook, manuals, boardslide the tall bench. I got a line that sounds okay on paper. Halfcab flip, noseslide to fakie, fakie 50 b/s halfcab out. The halfcab flip took forever. Also backside flip (to stop), halfcab noseslide, slappy crook. I finally committed to frontside 50 on the bench (even if I did 5-0s). Next step, to do it moving. had a fun crook on the back of the two tier. Was pretty hyped to see Phil randomly show up with his sons. It was fun he did the front 50 in about 5 tries and even had a decent slam. His kids rip, one had a really nice front 50 back 180 out. Paul showed up and shredded for a bit. Pretty fun session. Felt great to really skate again.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, spitfire 51mm classic f4 101a, new balance numeric 288 sport white size12)
(pain 5/10 kinda funny that I felt “good” but compared to how it had felt it did feel good)

skate journal: early boulder park (march 31, 2023)

Posted in New Deck, Skate Journal on March 31st, 2023 by corpo

Had a couple glasses of wine the night before and stayed up late. Woke up extra early and was feeling good somehow so I went to the park for about an hour. I had it all to myself until the last few minutes. I had a new deck, a Spanbauer Dead Spots and man it’s pretty! I did not skate well, but also, not terrible. I tried kind of hard and for 7-8am skated decently I suppose. It’s amazing how difficult front 50’s on even the lowest ledges have become for me. I would get a couple. Also a first try ollie onto the little bench. A few noseslides. Not much for flippers. Oh well, it was nice out and I got to skate before the wind kicked in.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain 4/10)

skate journal: dog park and douglass on a cool day with a christmas complete (nov 6, 2022)

Posted in New Deck, New Trucks, New Wheels, setup change, Skate Journal on November 6th, 2022 by corpo
null

On a cloudy and cool morning I went to dog park feeling excited to skate. For one, it wasn’t too windy and for another I was woke again. Venture finally came out with hollow cast plates and the timing was too good to not add in a christmas complete. Anyway, warming up wasn’t too bad except I kept seeming to get in everyones way. Rob showed up basically the same time as me, Cass was later, Jack B later. Dennis and crew were there as well as some other older skaters and it was a good vibe. I skated okay and had energy. Personal highlights were front 180 off the grate kicker to really bad switch front board on a parking block, halfcab flip first try, how much pop my board had, boardslides on everything felt good as did crooks. Cass was over at the skatepark for a while. Rob had first try shove lipslide! Also close to nose manual shove. Jack B front 50’d the bench, dude got pop! Cass, Rob and I played a game of SKATE featuring the worst f/s halfcab ever (by me of course, actually I ended up not counting it because it was so bad), a lot of bailed flip tricks by me, no comply back 360 by Rob and he won it on that fakie bigspin no comply.

After that Cass and I kickflipped a parking block a few times, we did it in a train. I was happy to kickflip it, it’s been a while. I couldn’t get a clean no comply flip though.

After a very filling burger Cass and I went to Douglass. We did a lap around the school since Cass hadn’t seen it all. We ended up in the back and have no idea why we haven’t skated there more. The little ledge was fun, but we didn’t have wax. We both imagined noseslides dropping down to noseslide. I posed some switch front noses. Then we went to the front and struggled. I was happy how my setup popped up the curb easily, but I really struggled with kickflips. I posed some other flippers, but landed nothing. In the end I think Cass had done some good back 180s up the curb, halfcabs on flat then couldn’t get a noseslide. I did ollie up the curb, kickflip, some type of noseslide that was supposed to be a crook. I also got switch 180 up the curb, pop shove on flat, noseslide to fakie, almost fakie flip.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

skate journal: broomfield evening session with carleigh and more (oct 18, 2022)

Posted in New Deck, New Trucks, New Wheels, setup change, Skate Journal on October 21st, 2022 by corpo

Feeling pretty exhausted still but wanting to skate with Carleigh before she left Paul picked me up and we met up with Dave, Darin and others. I had a Christmas complete. My reward for finishing Something. It was an 8.5 with 51mm PJ wheels and hollow Ace 55s. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Popping was hard. I got close to noseslide 270 shoves and did a sloppy fakie bigflip out of the bank, but other than that was pretty lackluster for me. Carleigh was lofting ollies into the bank and doing front and back disasters on the brick qp, boardslides, kickflips. Ripping. Paul is really good, was back 50’ing the black ledge before I had even pushed. He went on to do a lot more tricks like back 50 front 180, fakie tails both ways. Dave had some poppy nollies into the bank, nollie front 180s out of it, almost nose manual the black box, there’s a lot more, but I’m forgetting. Darin, Justin, Kyler, other Tuesday night locals were there charging it. Pretty fun session.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 51mm pj bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10 some good ol’ cupsole knee sharp pain)

skate journal: some rain and rocky mountain with rob and dave with new everything (sept 15, 2022)

Posted in New Deck, New Shoes, New Wheels, setup change, Skate Journal on September 16th, 2022 by corpo

Drove through rush hour traffic and pulled in to Rocky Mountain as soon as it started raining. Argh! But it was cool to catch up with Rob. He was on his board for the first time in a while. The rain finally let up shortly before dark and we tried to squeeze in a session. I had all new everything. Well, the trucks aren’t actually new, but I have barely used them. Somehow I’ve never done Thunder hollows on 8.5 before. It felt pretty great. I’m just determined to finally make 8.5 work as it feels so natural to ride.

Rob rolled around on his cruiser at first before getting out his regular board and getting a bunch of axle stall combos. I was all over the place never really sticking with anything. Couldn’t quite get nollie back tail on the ledge, had a fun first try crooks, some back 50s on the curb, slappy front crooks, kickflips felt okay, couldn’t get Dave’s trick, was definitely struggling getting used to the setup change. Dave did his fakie front crooks a few times, boardslides to fakie, nollie to fakie on the bank, halfcab boardslide the curb, ride on front tail shove. It was a fun session even if it was cut short by rain.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 151 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

skate journal: a few slappies and flippers after being sick (sept 3, 2022)

Posted in New Deck, New Trucks, Skate Journal on September 6th, 2022 by corpo

After being sick for the better part of a week I went across the street to the school on a hot afternoon to reacquaint myself with my skateboard. Well, my new skateboard that is. Ha ha, had a new deck and hollow axles, but it skated basically the same. I had very little energy but it felt good to ride my skateboard. I would get a few kickflips and lined out a slappy crooks with a b/s flip. Then I sat in the heat and enjoyed being outside for a while before cruising home.

(setup null 8.1 all you need deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows hollow hanger royal bushings flat top washer, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, 440 white/red size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

skate journal: dog park then library spot excited to skate after mostly a week off (july 16, 2022)

Posted in New Deck, New Wheels, Skate Journal on July 18th, 2022 by corpo

On a hot morning I went to dog park and missed Jack B and crew. I had been sick/run down most of the week. I setup a new board and wheels and things felt dreamy as I skated for close to an hour by mostly myself. It’s crazy taking a few days off without an injury being a cause. I felt so excited and energetic skating. I would get a few basic flippers. Committed to most things way quicker than normal and did a couple lines I hadn’t done there before. Ollie onto the taller pad front 180 off then halfcab noseslide the new long bench, b/s flip, halfcab flip. I also finally started committing to front 50s on the long bench and was lining it out with manuals on the lower pad and it felt so great.

Then I went to the library spot and met up with Jack B, Kevin and Nick. We basically had the park to ourselves. Jack had front board up to fakie 50, deck check nose manny. Nick had an incredible frontside flip, nosegrind, several 50s, but couldn’t quite get a front 5-0. I skated okay, not as good as dog park though. I managed some tricks that were harder for me like front 50, halfcab noseslide, crooks are hard there but I got a few, came close to kick back 50 on the low one. Kevin was shredding some of the best I’ve seen him skate. He did everything except the Gish trick switch nosegrind 180 due to cracks making him grind it longer. The fakie 5-0 halfcab out was my favorite as was the kick back tail. Fun times.

(setup 8.25 null vhs, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows royal bushings flat top washer, bones 52mm stf 103a, adidas puig b/w size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10 none initially but it got worse quickly)