Had some time in the morning back in Boulder to skate. Went to dog park and Jack, Jesse and Eric were skating. I felt pretty odd out of the gates, my shoe had a hole in it which didn’t help because I couldn’t really do kickflips. There was yet another new flat bar, but it was tiny so it’s kinda fun. I skated pretty mid and mostly did dork tricks. Tried some heelflip variations because of my shoes, but didn’t land any. Was over the Aces and the heft required to maneuver them. My attempt at switch front board makes me laugh seeing it in Jack’s video and my back wheels never even left the ground. Jack ripped. The crooks tail grab is funny, but awesome. He’s always learning. Eric with the speedy lipslide, manuals, heelflip or two. Jesse always popping high and laughing. Glad to get in a little session and see the dudes.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null purple archway, pepper g5, ace af1 hollow 44, 52mm bones x99 v1, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Another nice day up in BV. I had no desire to skate the park again, but I had time to skate. So I went to look at the high school I had never seen before. To my surprise there was a decent tall ledge and then a couple drops. The ledge had a couple of forensics on it, but didn’t really look skated. Was able to get into noseslides pretty quickly. Thought that might be my end game, but crooks came in a few tries too. What a great view. Then I had fun messing around with the silly line. Half cab flip, board stall transfer up, ride on back 50. I’m sure it doesn’t look like much, but I really love skating new spots and finding ways to line things out. Then I went to a more visible area that had teachers walking by. They didn’t seem to mind me. I took a while to ride off the first ledge because of a weird expansion crack. Got front 180 off then went for front shove. Front shove took a while and I was about to give up, but I ended up getting one. And it was fun and a great way to end the session.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null purple archway, pepper g5, ace af1 hollow 44, 52mm bones x99 v1, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Brought my mom up to see friends in BV. So after a long and frustrating drive, a huge hamburger and more sight seeing I had some time to kill. Skated almost an hour. The park had snow in spots and puddles/runoff throughout the main area. It was hard to get in a groove. There was another “older” (20 years younger than me yikes I’m old) who was pretty cool other than he seemed to copy whatever I tried. I took a while before I even really did anything. When I was done I had done a few things at least though. Wallie up the ledge. Blunt to back disaster the tiny qp. Kickflip on the mellower bank since the main one had water running down it. Axle stall the tight little steep qp. That might be it. When school got out the bikes appeared. I do not miss this skatepark in any way.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null purple archway, pepper g5, ace af1 hollow 44, 52mm bones x99 v1, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Getting out to skate around 8. Dog park lights not working. Ended up at the newer building with the roof Jack and Garrett skated. I had changed to Ace trucks. Cruising around didn’t feel good to get warmed up. I had some very lame warm up lines riding on the the mini bank by the stairs, sw 180 off a curb, etc. Messed around trying to manual a sidewalk section, could barely ollie up. may have done it once. Landed no flip tricks, but I tried quite a few. Did some stalls on the first step with a slight bank to it. Front smith back 180 felt cool, back 180 nose pick, bennett stall, sw crook jib. Then I decided to try and ollie up the two from a weird steeper section and never did it. Well I kind of did it with axle stall, but never good. I left feeling pretty blah. Wondering if I’ll ever charge like I used to.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null purple archway, pepper g5, ace af1 hollow 44, 52mm bones x99 v1, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After work I met up with Hayden, Lakin and Garrett. Donnie and Dave would come later. As the sun was setting we skated. Lakin was jumping on ledges and rails right away. Hayden and Garrett seemed to quick it into gear pretty quickly. I had done some cruising around and a few warm up tricks then filmed Hayden get a really sick line. Garrett was filming Lakin. Hayden’s halfcab flips were so good as was the back 180 fakie manual. Hayden and Lakin left. Donnie and Dave showed. I had to get warmed up all over again. I had hit my first kickflips easy, then they completely disappeared. We were in the ledge area. I saw Dave do some manuals, quick up to 50. Then he battled no comply pole jam while I battled kickflip off the little kicker. We really battled though. We kept slamming. New grip and old shoes were causing me problems. I would get two kickflips. And on the second one I followed it up with a noseslide on the bump to ledge then first try b/s flip the hip. After all that struggling that line was quite rewarding. Dave had gotten the pole jam way before. Donnie did the pole jam too at 100mph. Garrett was doing pop shove nose manuals so easy. In the bank to curb area I couldn’t land halfcab flip. Dave did his amazing crooks to back lip transfer. Donnie did a hundred cool combos. Garrett did a sick line with a nollie front heel over the hip. There was a lot of skating, it was fun. Well, maybe not the part about taking 50 tries to do a kickflip.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null purple archway, pepper g5, venture 5.6 v8 redrilled hollow, 52mm bones x99 v1, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Met up with the 98 crew at dog park on a really nice and cool day. Dan gave me a brief warm up before pink slipping me in no-comply SKATE. Oh wait, I actually got a couple of letters on him this time. I had a setup change. 8.25 and slappy lights. Meh. I skated okay, not great. Things were not easy. Bratcher and Jesse were there. Garrett came out ripping when he finally arrived. Donnie, Ian and Kyle skated the metal barrier like it was nothing doing weird grinds and stalls. Eric was there and almost wallied over it which was gnarly. Dan almost no comply. I think he did it before the camera came out. Eric had a heelflip. I didn’t land much for flippers.

After a while we went to Howard Hueston so Ladd could try a gnarly flyout. He got close. The rest of us did a million slappies as we tried to coordinate most of us doing slappy variations in a row. It was pretty crazy, some bad slams, some hilarious moments. Joe did a hardflip front nose in a line. Insanity. Donnie got a crazy curb trick. Collin did like 4 no comply flips in a row. Wade with some cool slappies. Ted, Collin and Ian did so many front slappies. Garrett had some good back 50s and crooks on the ledge. I only mustered some noseslides and the ledges felt so tall. Filmed Garrett try a really hard line that he got super close to. Good times with the dudes even if my skating was dook.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null abstract 43, pepper g5, slappy lights 8.25 95a bushings, 52mm bones x99 v1, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a very nice Friday afternoon I picked up Dave and hit his alley spot before picking up Rob and seeing DJR in FTC. This spot is quite difficult to skate, way harder than Dave makes it look. Watching him warm up was cool, little boardslides, ride on grinds galore. I took a long time to get anything at all. Even just navigating the narrow space to roll up onto it is hard. It’s hard to describe tricks done here. Besides the long boardslide Dave also did crooks, crooks to fakie and crooks to shove over the grate. So amazing. Also some frontside stuff. We both struggled with flatground. I had fun trying to manual and would get one manual that I didn’t scrape along with some attempts to manual into grind. Funnest thing for me was doing a little ride on grind up then ride on grind the next side. Dave had some solid slams on halfcab flip attempts. Some really good kickflips though. We went to leave and saw the little wallride and we both had to do it before leaving. Dave of course beat me. It was a fun way to end the session. Then Rob and I had a blast at Dinosaur Jr.

(setup 6/10 8.3 null abstract 43, pepper g5, ace af1 lows 55, snot 53mm pink franky, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind cush impact insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Before Dinosaur Jr I went to dog park and met Dan, Garrett and Joe. I played a game of no comply SKATE with Dan and once again landed nothing and got pink slipped. Joe did an incredible no push line of ollie the grate, ollie the hydrant, hardflip off the grate kicker. Wowsers. Garrett kick 50’d the top rope then did the ledge trick combos. I hucked a lot, but didn’t land much. Got one first try front 50 shove on the lurb that felt good though.

(setup 6/10 8.3 null abstract 43, pepper g5, ace af1 lows 55, snot 53mm pink franky, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind cush impact insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a bad night of sleep and long day at work I stopped at dog park because it was so incredibly nice out. I had a setup change of 8.3 and ace lows. It’s one of the better setups I’ve had for pop. Somehow not the best for flippers though. Collin had shown, that was cool. Turns out he lives right near me. He rips, lots of fast grinds and manuals. I was trying to pop more, try flippers more. I didn’t really land much although I was close. I got one line I really liked. Switch crook jib to forward then front 50 on the wood ledge. I came to a halt on the wood ledge, but whatever, I had only 50’d it once before. Another line was crook the wood ledge (felt really good) then b/s flip, but I messed up the halfcab noseslide after. I was close to heelflips, but never put one down. Doh.

(setup 6/10 8.3 null abstract 43, pepper g5, ace af1 lows 55, snot 53mm pink franky, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 remind cush impact insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cool morning I went to Arvada to meet up with 98, Cass and eventually Green Boi. I had slept great, but could not wake up to save my life. Doesn’t help wearing glasses, but man I was in a fog to say the least. After some messing around Cass and I played SKATE on the circle bank, but we never even finished it since we kept not landing anything. I mean we did get some tricks early on like kickflips and shoves at least. Went to the pier 7 area. Collin and Ladd were doing manuals all casual then kickflips up the big euro. I was struggling with 2mph front 50s. Landed a bs flip on flat, but couldn’t get a halfcab flip. Ladd did some cancel flips. Then near the hip area I did not get Cass’ back on b/s flip. I had a noseslide on the pyramid, but didn’t go all the way on it.

Then we went to the hip spot. We started on the far side looking at the wallride potential. The roll out is so scary with the death crack. I had to drop in from a couple of feet up multiple times just to get confidence to try the wallie nollie. I would get it with a deck check so not that great, but still fun. Collin got a crazy b/s no comply wallride. Ladd and Joe tried tricks into the bank. Then back to the hip area. Joe came close multiple time to sw ghetto bird. Collin would battle and get sw bs flip. Preston is so dang good. Front 3 and almost kf nose manual. Ladd got a kickflip right away, then slammed sooo hard on cancel flip. Wade had some cool boardslide 270s on the curb. I hucked 270 front heels which never got that close even though they did feel possible. I would get a few no comply 270s that were to tail. Fun time skating street even if my tricks were questionable.

(setup 5/10 null abstract 43 8.5/14.25, pepper g5, ace af1 hollow 55, snot 53mm pink franky, vans half cab wafflecup grey size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)