On a totally gorgeous day I went to Dog Park in the middle of the day after a nice birthday breakfast for Ollie. Jake and Dave were saying flip tricks weren’t working as I rolled up. So I did a first try kickflip to create some hype. Then I went on to barely be able to ollie. Ha ha. Dave and Jake were hopping over the cone pretty easily. Dave said it was hard for him, but it looked casual. Dave did a bunch of varial flips, easier than kickflips. I struggled with heelflips, but got a second try nollie tre. Jake was struggling, but got a solid 3 flip then a line with ollie over the cone, kickflip and maybe halfcab over? I kind of lined out halfcab flip then ollie over the cone (I’m not sure I made it over though). Then we played a game of SKATE. It was a pretty awesome game with quite a bit of variety and everyone with a similar amount of letters. I was happy to get a 360 filp before Jake for the first time in like a year and it even gave Jake a letter. Dave went on to win it with a sex change. Jake took off and Dave and I hucked for awhile. I tried fakie hardflips. Never came too close, but did commit a couple times. Dave tried those and f/s halfcab flips. Then heelflips and switch heelflips which he got closer to. I took awhile to get a b/s hc heelflip. It felt good at least. I got a f/s halfcab flip, but couldn’t get fs hc heelflip. We both tried switch tres for awhile. I wasn’t remotely close. Dave was putting one foot on them, but also one foot on the ground. He really should try that trick more often. Then we just kind of ended feeling tired and humbled by how hard skateboarding is.

(setup 8.38 null monico deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)

Went to campus on another beautiful night. I did a few slappy crooks at the spot then pushed a different way looking for something different. Didn’t really find anything and I ended up at the super fun tiny metal ledge. I love that there are no cars parked in that lot anymore. The frontside run up is still short though. I went through a few basics, got 50s first try. Took a bit to get front 5-0 since it’s so quick, couldn’t get a back 5-0. Got a slow fakie nosegrind which I hadn’t done there before. Remembered to try halfcab crook and got one second try. And it was a good one that grinded even. I kind of fell out of it, but that’s the first one I’ve ever actually grinded and it felt awesome and put me in a good mood. However after that I really couldn’t land much of anything. Front nosegrind nope, switch crook nope. Came close to kickflip noseslide. Eventually got a line of front 50, heelflip on flat, ollie the 3 stair and pushed on to another spot. Ended up at the tall engineering ledge and did a couple noseslide jibs before moving on. I had wanted to at least try front 50, but there were so many students walking by it weirded me out.

I went to the ol’ bank to curb that I hadn’t been to in forever and oh man was it frustrating. At first I couldn’t ollie up the first curb. It was so frustrating. I don’t know why bigger setups make ollies harder for me. I just had to lean forward a bit more. So then I couldn’t back 50 the upper curb to save my life. I had a couple failed board focuses. Guess I wasn’t fully committed to breaking the board. I tried some switch flips with my wheels in a crack as Nate suggested. Got a sketchy back axle stall and felt relieved. Then did a front 180 fakie 50 in a couple tries and called it a night.

(setup 8.38 null monico deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)

Feeling pretty sore after work I stopped by Saul’s a little early for the session. It was just Saul and I for awhile. My first couple runs were terrible and kind of scary. I felt so off for some reason. Not the case for Saul though. He would end up laying into some back smiths (can’t wait until he starts riding away from those), back 5-0s, back 50s on the gnar coping. For whatever reason I started going frontside on the wall after the carve grind and it was fun. I would end up getting maybe my best feeling run there yet. Carve grind, front slash the shallow, axle stall the deep then almost front disaster the shallow. Wow, sounds like nothing, but it was fun. I had to go celebrate 20 years of marriage with Liz, but quite a fun crew of dudes showed up. Will, Ed, Jake, Josh and someone I’ve never met before doing the grind in the photo. Fun little session.

(setup 8.38 null monico deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)