I would really like to skate flatground 1 hour a day. I got out of work pretty early and went to the dog park. I hate skating right after work as my legs get sore, but sometimes that’s just what works. I was doing the warm up process and the wind kicked in fierce. Ugh. That kind of killed my motivation. So I just tried non flip tricks like cab for awhile. I think I may have gotten the closest to a legit cab for me. It definitely felt like I made some progress. So I guess I can thank the wind for reminding me to try cabs. It calmed down and I tried more flippers. For some reason nollie heels felt possible and I tried a bunch. I never got close, but a few did flip right. Got a sketchy line of halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip. Wanted to try a line of 360 flip, no comply 180, fakie 360 flip. But then a bunch of bikers came and there was some class on learning bunny hops and so I just stuck to the painted area and tried fakie tres until I got one. I had gotten a sketchy 360 flip earlier to try the line, but bailed the no comply (argh). The fakie tre took away a lot of the frustrations I had earlier, although they didn’t erase the big chip on the tail I got from throwing my board (what a crybaby).

Then I went to Saul’s for a bit. It was a rad crew. Ed makes rock ‘n rolls look amazing, heck even his back 50s look stylee. Saul had some back 5-0s, back 50s, front slashes. He keeps getting a little better every time and it’s awesome to see. Chris only took a few runs that I saw, but dang he put a licking on the coping. His first few walls were all frontside. Whoa. I didn’t skate it too well, but that’s okay. The little setup isn’t so good in there, but carve grinds are still fun.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insoles)

Feeling better somehow I went out for an hour in front of the house to skate flat. It started really slow and rather than bail tricks I can do I bailed tricks I’ve never done. Like switch tre, nollie front/back heels, etc. I took like 10 tries to get a halfcab flip. It was maddening. But I would go on to get a lot of flip tricks. Fakie flip, fakie varial flip, both halfcab flips, both halfcab heelflips, 360 flip, heelflip. I tried to end it by filming a heelflip to challenge Dave, but I couldn’t land one so I went inside angry.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, pinnacle powerstep orthotic insoles)

Joe and Eric were about to hit the road back to Nebraska. But we drove down and hit Wheatridge for about 30 minutes. It was hot and it was tough to get the mind into skating, but we did it. We mostly started with a tiny qp session. Kevin was trying to learn peter blunts. Joe was doing his namesake. I did my second ever front smith to front rock. Kevin also had a funny fall trying to ollie the pyramid first thing. Eric and I skated the bowl briefly. Then we all hit the mellow bank above for awhile as I remembered I needed to do a switch no comply 180 on a bank. I got one. Kevin got one shortly after. Eric did a cool sal frontside flip and Joe did fakie flips to setup a line with front 50 down the hubba. (sorry I didn’t load the other clips, but I just did this one for my Dave challenge. I ended with a boardslide transfer into the hubba. Kevin tried to ollie the double set and slammed. Ha. Fun little session considering how hungover I was and sore we all were.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, gamechanger insoles)

Happy 💥! It was so great seeing #nullumni member #hulslegend a few days ago. Nollie hard filmed by @idrawmazes

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jul 4, 2018 at 7:48am PDT

We didn't film much in Leadville because we were having too much fun – A couple clips with Jeff @baffoos @joerhamilton and @corpoglenny

A post shared by Eric J. Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jul 1, 2018 at 6:57pm PDT

We were up pretty early at a cold campsite and headed into town to get some grub and use toilets. It was a bit of a rough go for awhile, but before long we ended up at the Leadville park. Joel met up with us and cruised around. A few of us played SKATE to get warmed up and although Kevin got everyone with the nollie/switch flips it was still a good warm up. It’s hard to remember the difference between the morning and evening session, but I’ll try. It was cool that Chris Albright showed up and ripped. There was another mountain dude ripping so hard. He did a fakie flip up the euro! I managed a 3rd try kickflip up the euro which really surprised me. Chris got my back with heelflip I think. Then we both did early grabs up which was kinda scary. Rob had back 180 up. Joe was scared of it, but when he finally ollied it he did it super easy. I tried a few noseslide 270 shoves on the bump to ledge, but never got me feet on it. Rob did some cool front board pop outs. I got a treflip out of the bank opposite of the euro which felt great. Jeff and a few of his friends showed up. I was pretty beat at this point. Eric was sitting it out as his knee was too sore. Rob was chilling. Joe was still going of course. Front pivot on the bank to curb then front 50 down the hubba. Kevin was doing tricks up the euro too. Nollie flip and nollie b/s flip! Jeff went buck with the switch tre up and nollie hardflip up.

PMG wins the rock throwing championship! @43shifty @baffoos @corpoglenny

A post shared by Eric J. Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jul 2, 2018 at 8:45am PDT

@corpoglenny @baffoos and I taking a dip in what was probably snow not too long before we shot this

A post shared by Eric J. Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jul 2, 2018 at 5:06am PDT

Then we took a much needed break in the frigid Turquoise. Kevin, Eric, Jeff and I were the only ones that went all the way in. It was cold. We thought we were so cool and then we look out and there were people water skiing without wetsuits. Ha. The cold water really seemed to reduce soreness for us though.

So then we were back at the skatepark. Eric was finally able to skate and it was great to see. Again it’s going to be tough to remember what went down as it’s been a few days. Rob and I were skating the round manny pad area. I struggled to get a manual. Rob however did manual drop down to manual into the curb cut. And then he does back 50 to manual. So crazy. I struggled with nose manuals for awhile then out of nowhere locked in and lined it out with a kickflip up the curb then a b/s flip on the humpy hip. That line made my day. Kevin was shredding the bump to bar. Front board super easy, a few more tricks and I’m not sure if he got the front feeble. Joe was lining out the hubba. Jeff was doing back tails on one gnar bank and back heels on the other. He also did a crazy front big heel. Joe, Kevin and I had a race to b/s flip on the bank that Jeff did the back heel. Kevin got it first. I got a sketchy one second. Joe got a super solid one third. I figured the only trick left for me to get was the noseslide 270 shove so I battled that for quite a while. I would try to ride down the ledge then ollie back up on the way back and it hurt so bad. Argh. But as you can see above I kind of got the ns 270 shove. It felt awesome. I chilled after that. Keggen1 showed up and wrecked it. That was fun to watch. Eric and Kevin skated the elevated pool corner for awhile. The session ended with Joe doing front 5-0 down the hubba and Kevin not quite front nosegrinding down it. He was locked in so good though. Then we went back to the camp site and drank way too much whiskey. What a fun day.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, gamechanger low profile insoles)