After another busy day at work, a nap, dinner I went to Broomfield park. Riley and Sean were there when I arrived. We chatted for a bit. Rob and Kevin showed shortly after that. Riley and Sean were attacking the black ledge at speed so it was kind of intimidating. Kevin joined them. I mostly skated below as did Rob. The number of tricks those guys did on that ledge is insane. Some highlights include Kevin kick back tail followed by switch crook. Riley back 180 fakie 5-0, nollie front noseslide, front 5-0 back shove, shove nosegrind. Sean front nosegrind 180 followed by back nosegrind 180, also nosegrind the happy ledge to shove out. Rob was shredding too. Unlike me he seems to get better every time he skates there. There are subtle improvements like first try nose manuals after manualling up the escalated blue ledge, first try nosegrinds, front 50s easy, front 5-0, etc. I was happy to get a 2nd try back 50 even though it was slow. I definitely struggled with the new shoes. They are so beefy. Kevin was trying fakie 5-0 bigspin out. That would be nuts. He had some funny falls. Rob was trying front nosegrind 180 and landed on like 10 of them, but never quite rode out. Next time. I took forever to get a front 50 back 180 out on the lurb, but it was fun when I did. Right at the end I got a fakie front 50 switch 180 out. It felt really awesome and I don’t think I’ve done that one before. It was slow, but it gave me some positive to take away from a night of struggles (couldn’t ollie to 50 on the black ledge once again).

(setup null rabethica 8.5 deck, venture 5.8 black icon trucks, venom 88a bushings bones v1 stf 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 420 black/white size 11, low profile footprint gamechanger insoles)

Shortly before sun down I went to the research ledge on a nice night. I had some new shoes. NB# 420 runner shoes. They are very stiff so I was kinda doubting I’d have much luck on the skateboard. Oh yeah, speaking of skateboard, I had a different setup. You can thanks Max Garson for getting on my case about changing and not sticking with a bigger setup. I like how 8.5s skate more than 8.3s so I put an old Rabethica deck together. My first noseslide felt sketchy as my foot shot right off the nose. Oh great, do these shoes not have any grip? But after that they felt grippy. I got a fun feeling noseslide to fakie when Saul biked by on his way home from yoga. We chatted for a bit, then it was back to me not landing much. This ledge gets rougher and higher each time I skate it. Ha, okay the higher part isn’t accurate, but I get older and it feels taller. I had an alright session. Got a few crooks, got a terrible back 50, a halfcab noseslide that felt good. The sprinklers had come on making the line potential hard with puddles. I hucked a few flippers, the shoes seem to have good flick. I got into a few front 50s, but never grinded and land one. Maybe by the time I’m 50 I’ll just ollie and throw the board at the ledge and count it.

(setup null rabethica 8.5 deck, venture 5.8 black icon trucks, venom 88a bushings, oj 52mm ez edge wheels, new balance numeric 420 black/white size 11, low profile footprint gamechanger insoles)