Went into the garage with dinner shortly before dinner. Ollie was on the kickflip program again and got close. He just can’t get both feet to commit yet. One of these days. Can’t wait to see it. I only tried one kickflip and didn’t land it. Tried a few nollie flips that were close, some pop shoves, fakie shoves, etc. We skated about 10 min.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica, indy black titanium 144s, spitfire f4 classic 53mm yellow/orange swirl, 4 washers inside each axle, venom 91a bushings, bones swiss, lakai manchester grey size 11.5, spenco thinsole, adidas majerus insole)

Told Ollie he needed to get some exercise and neither of us wanted to go swimming so we played skateboards in the garage. He has been close to kickflip lately and he tried a bunch. He got really close. He also did some ollies at the end that were pretty poppy. He could definitely get up curbs now. While skating with Ollie I stuck to basics to get warmed up. Basically by the time I was ready to huck more than kickflips he was done. Ha. I took awhile to get a heelflip, got varial flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip and settled in to mostly nollie flip or 360 flip attempts. Got neither. Got closer to treflips, but was committing and rotating nollie flips, just not landing on the board. I think I need some softer bushings in these Indys.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica, indy black titanium 144s, spitfire f4 classic 53mm yellow/orange swirl, 4 washers inside each axle, venom 94a bushings, bones swiss, lakai manchester grey size 11.5, spenco thinsole, adidas majerus insole)

Went to Louisville park after a constructive night of loading footage and helping with dishes. There were a couple scooter kids when I got there. The temperature was slightly above freezing, but it didn’t feel that cold. I had a whole new complete so I expected and had a slow start. My first ride on grind was fun because of how fast my new Indys grinded. Indys? Yeah I’m trying them. I’ve really been liking the 8.5″, but wanted to reduce the wheelbase a little. Indys have a narrower wheelbase then Ventures. Simple solution. I also got the 8.25″ trucks so I would get a tiny bit quicker of a flip. Yes I’m a nerd. Back to skating, it took a bit before I started ollieing and stuff, but once I did it felt good. Got front 50s right away, noseslides, baby ollies. A skater showed up around now that flew around the bowls and wouldn’t say hello to save his life. I tried some lines as always and a bunch of silly tricks I only do when basically no one is around. Like ollies over the hip that I would normally be too embarrassed to do. My fav line was front shove on flat, crook the ledge, roll in to the snake run then a few back 50s and rock ‘n rolls. Had some fun fakie flips, got a halfcab noseslide, switch noseslides, but couldn’t do the over the top back 50. Got front 50, front 50 front 180 out, front 5-0, front 50 shove. Carved the pool a little. Got kickflip to fakie and backside on the bank, somewhat close to treflip fakie, didn’t get treflip on flat either. It was still a fun night though. Another skater had come and gone. At the end it was just me and an owl up on a light pole. It was cool. The indys seemed good, although stiff. It might be because I chose harder bushings or because it below freezing by the end of the night.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica, indy black titanium 144s, spitfire f4 classic 53mm yellow/orange swirl, 4 washers inside each axle, venom 94a bushings, bones swiss, lakai manchester grey size 11.5, spenco thinsole, adidas majerus insole)

Got to Denver park on a chilly morning before Dave. Turns out it was like 45 minutes before Dave. We might have to nickname Dave as Late Dave. Ha. But I was really not feeling D-Park. I don’t know why. It was kind of crowded, I just wasn’t into it. I finally got into a little bit of stoke trying a front 180 off a little kicker then switch noseslide variations. Got a crooks on the taller ledge in the other back corner. Some switch noseslide jibs on the long spine ledge. Other then that I had no motivation which is lame. I don’t know why. Dave started off by rolling in off a ledge into a bank which I’m scared to do, he flowed around the snakerun doing tailslides and stuff. It was rad. I saw a really good switch slappy crook on the mini bank to curb area. As we left he took a couple runs through the toilet bowl that were so sick.

Then we went to this bank to ledge spot. It was so random. We pulled up in our car and as I got out a dude with a skateboard had come and sat right outside the car. So I asked him if he knew where the spot was and he skated us over to it. Good thing because we would never have found it and also because it turns out Lenny is super fun to skate with! It took some getting used to to skate this spot. Dave got front 50 pretty quick though. He would later get a front tail. Actually, maybe a couple of them. Lenny got nose stall revert quick and came close to front 50. I took too long to get into back 50s and when I finally got close we got the boot. Doh.

So next thing we ended up at this manny pad that was perfect. We did manuals, nose manuals. Dave got nollie and fakie shove up. Lenny got close to front 180 up to creepy spin off. I spent a long time to get nose manual shove out. It felt awesome. Even the ones where I didn’t manual so I just did a little shove it off the curb felt cool.

Then we ended up here. I was beat and hungry by then and just did a couple basic slappy crooks and front 50s. Dave had some rad 50, 5-0s, slappys and some really long slappy crooks. Lenny had some 50 and then learned slappy crooks. So sick!

(setup null monico 8.38″ deck, venture 5.8, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v5, lakai manchester grey size 11.5, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, lakai insole)

After some morning mountain biking with Ollie I jumped in with NASCARleigh and Jack and we went to the Lville industrial area without a certain spot in mind. We ended up at this spot. At first there was not much energy and we all seemed king of bummed. It started to get better though and Positive Fuzz showed up and it was on. Carleigh was bumming on a backside 50 on a tall curb, but man, that’s why she rules. She kept trying and she got it. I get hyped when people aren’t too afraid to struggle with a basics. Probably because I feel like I struggle with the basics all of the time too. She also has some front tailslides on the waxed part of the bank, 2nd try kickflip and more of them. Jack did bluntslides, some to 5-0, manuals to pivot fakie or to nosepick, ollieing onto narrow ledges, ollieing up the loading dock easy, and encouraging me to slam. Ha, I basically got into a rut of trying front shoves off the shorter loading dock, but to get hyped for it I had to kickflip off the bump first. It was super fun. I was trying hard, it felt great and I was landing on a bunch of front shoves going slow. I broke my tail around the time Rob showed, but it was still mostly skateable backwards until it totally snapped on a kickflip making for a really funny clip. Fuzz was motivated to try a new trick he saw in Hockey III. Backside axle stall to front 5-0. He did a few super good. Rob was taking it easy because of a gnarly shinner that’s still healing up. It was rad seeing him cruise around on his christmas complete though.

(setup null machine 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v5, lakai manchester grey size 11.5, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, lakai insole)

Jake and I skated in the street for a bit as we waited for Dave. I was 0-5 on kickflips and Jake had already landed treflip. Ugh.

Then we went to Kings Mill park. That park is rad. We thought the kids had the day off and we would have the park to ourselves. We did for quite awhile. Everyone was trying lines and I will never remember it all. Dave and I started slow. Jake was shredding out of the gates. He’s young, we’re not. Ha. Anyway, I remember Jake doing back 50 on the ledge, fakie 50 on it, front tail, crooks. He would normally hit a qp and or the bank in the line. He had some grind transfers on the hip, but didn’t do his normal blunt or nosesblunt tricks. I tried a few ollies to fakie on a qp then turn around and bail back 50s on the ledge over and over. Argh. Some of the ollies to fakie felt fun even though I know none of them were anywhere near the coping. I tried a line of front 50 the ledge then 360 flip off the little bump (by the scooter kids). I landed on a bunch of them and eventually got a 360 flip. It felt rad even though I tic tac’d like crazy. I tried to back it up with a front rock on the qp then ollie onto the taller part of the ledge which I had done earlier. Didn’t get the ollie up though. After that I couldn’t even commit to crooking the ledge. All the scooter kids that had shown really wore on me. Dave had a bad slam tring a 180 nosepick over the A frame, but other then that he ripped. Boardslide transfer the A frame, back tail the bank (inches away from scooter kids heads), 5-0 the ledge, front lip the hip qp, front tail the reg qp. When we were ready to go he kept skating and skating. He didn’t get the front nosegrind though. Doh.

The scooter kids got really bad so we left for Winona ditch. The river was running heavy which made it even scarier than normal. We started in the grindable bank area. Jake got back 5-0, but couldn’t quite get back 5-0 to fakie. I just did some little backside slashes. Dave slid some bluntslides, but never pulled in. We took turns watching for boards shooting out, because that river is gnar.

Then Dave and I dropped into the hip section. It’s so scary. I had to work my way up one foot and a time. Dave did the whole dropin I think. Neither of us put any tricks down though, we were too scared. There was water in the landing which made it worse too. So the photo of Dave’s boneless is prime for poser of the month. Fun day with these dudes.

(setup null machine 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v5, new balance numeric 212 navy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

Went to Saul’s/Saulside/Chicken Coup/Chicken Bowl after work. It was just a quick one. Got a first wall carve grind, had some runs with more coping touches then normal. Posed a little. Saul came close to layback backside grinds, back disaster, keeps getting faster.

Then I went into campus. I rolled around briefly looking for something, found nothing and then went to the basketball court to skate flat. It’s hard to describe how beautiful the view of the flatirons was. My phone surely didn’t capture it. Flatground went terrible. Almost board focus terrible. I was trying lines and never got past halfcab flip. In an hour of skating the only flip trick I landed was kickflip. The two redeeming things that happened were ollieing that cone a couple times which felt really great and then a switch crook on the curb. Oh yeah, I was skating the 598 cupsoles since I thought it would help with flat. It didn’t. After awhile some younger skaters showed up that I’ve seen there the one other time I’ve skated there. They could barely land kickflips, now they were doing varial flips, heelflips and more. That was a little depressing for me. I probably looked so depressed while I bailed trick after trick. Tough night.

(setup null machine 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v5, new balance numeric 212 navy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, lakai insole)

Went over to the school on a chilly night and start playing on the curb. Just did various nose/tail stalls and 270s out at first. Then pivots, then nosepicks. After awhile I got bored and headed up towards the school. I passed my son and his friends biking which was funny. I hit the ledge right by the entrance for a couple nose jibs. The switch front nose was the most fun. Then I went behind the school and took several tries to ollie onto this little rock. Then I tried a line of front 180, halfcab flip, ollie onto the rock. The halfcab flip took forever. Literally like 40 tries. I got the rock ollie that try luckily. Then I went home. That rock is small, I look forward to skating it more and hopefully becoming more able to easily hop onto it.

(setup null machine 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8, venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v5, new balance numeric 212 navy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, standard NB# insole)