Went to Longmont park on a nice day. Everyone beat me there. I chose the big board from my quiver again. Warming up wasn’t great. Everyone was doing their own thing to get warmed up. Rob manualling the tops of bank, Dave tailslides on the bank, Aki ollies on the big qp (under coping). Rob called our first try kickflip challenge. I don’t think anyone got it. We tried fly out kickflips then. Aki was first after doing in a line with an axle stall on the big qp, Rob was next, I tried to line it out with a wallie up the snowboard jump but ended up just doing it stand alone. It was a fun feeling. That bank is pretty steep for doing tricks out of. Then everyone was doing their own thing again. I saw Dave do the nollie shove to back tail over the hip which is nuts. He was doing long lines, 360 ollies, kickflips to fakie or on flat, bigspins over the hip, all kinds of ‘old school’ tricks on the noping qp. Also a hilarious varial flip to fakie that was spun half way and rode out of the wrong way. Rob did a few kickflip flyouts, did some flatground to line out crailblocks, backside ollies, one foots, powerslides, tailslides. I never really stuck to anything until the end when I tried 360 flip flyouts and never quite one. Had some slow front 50s on ledges, kickflip to fakie on the bank, halfcab flip the mellow bank. Guess I didn’t really do all that much. Aki had some back 180 melon flyouts, kickflip to fakie on the bank, front 50 across and down. Then we all went back to work. Argh, it was so nice out too. Riding the big board was weird. At times it feels perfect, like trying the 360 flip flyout. On ledges it feels weird though, flatground weird, and especially trying to pop it over the hip felt weird. I was missing the quick snaps of low trucks.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, venom 88a bushings, old 52mm bones stf v5 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints 5mm insoles)

Went across the street on a cold night after a windy day. I started out on the curbs. Oh yeah, I was on my 8.5″ setup just because my loyalty to Venture was bugging and I really don’t like how the Thunders turn. The curb was alright, I wasn’t as into it as I had been. Still got a back 50 back 180 out and some slappy crooks though. Then went to the ledge I’ve never really hit before because it’s right by the entrance to the school and there are normally still teachers leaving. I had some bad attempts at crooks, some fun noseslides, switch noseslides and took forever to get the front 50. It’s hard to see from this angle, but the ledge is rounded so you have to come out right away. I felt a little bad about marking up the ledge, but it’s kind of perfect. Then I went behind the school. I ended up trying a very long line. Front axle stall on a taller rock than I would normally do it on, noseslide to fakie a picnic table bench, halfcab flip on flat, manual the longer rock, ollie onto the narrower one. I didn’t think I would get any axle stalls on the rock since it was taller, but I started to really enjoy the pop of the bigger setup and got quite a few. Now if I could have just done the stupid noseslide to fakie I could have gotten the line. I only got to the halfcab flip a couple times and struggled with it. It ended getting too dark to do the rock stall so I gave up on the line and went home. I was tired from being called into work at 4am. Hyped I skated as hard as I did.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, venom 88a bushings, old 52mm bones stf v5 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)