Had a pretty chill Friday at work for once. I went to dog park around 3:30 and it was super nice out. Warm, but with a hint of autumn cool air. I took off my shirt and enjoyed the sun. I did some of the ol’ dynamic stretching then started in with the nollie / fakie shoves, 180s. My new “I’m ready to skate” line is kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip. I was trying it pretty quick, the fakie flip took a few tries though. Then I went for it, the Ironman line. Kickflip, heelflip, treflip. Much to my surprise the first few heelflips worked so I had to commit to treflip before I was ready. I got the line in under 10 tries. Although the heelflop was terrible, it landed primo and rolled over. After getting that line so quick I lost a little motivation. I went for halfcab flip then nollie tre. I got a first try halfcab flip which hasn’t happened in awhile, but could never get a nollie tre. I actually ended up struggling with the halfcab flip too. I mixed in some other flippers when I bailed the halfcab flip like nollie/switch flip/nollie varial flip. Never got them, but the nollie flip was super close. Also had tried to start with fakie bigspin then pop shove. Tried another line of fakie flip then halfcab heel. Never put my feet on the halfcab heel. I noticed how scared I was to commit after awhile and my knees started hurting. Oh yeah, that’s why I don’t normally skate vulcs.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, nb# 212 tan, 3/4 spenco orthotic thinsoles and old lakai insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

As I said recently, I’ve been trying to avoid post-work naps for awhile. Today my body really wanted one and I denied it. After dinner and some soccer with Ollie I went to Broomfield park on a gorgeous night. As I pulled in I noticed a lot of bikers and then Rob came back to his car and said he was out after a warm up slam. Doh. He ended up sticking around for a bit, but after a fall ollieing over the parking block it was over. Luckily there were a few other skaters there to mingle with. Justin, Kyler, Chase. Justin was ripping as he always does. Both 180s to fakie manuals. I’ve never talked to Kyler before, but he has a mean front nosegrind. I got hung up on a switch front 180 into the mellow bank. I don’t know why that’s recently been a struggle. I was wearing the thin 212s again and noticed I have very little confidence in them. I also noticed that after a night in the garage on the putter my 8.25″ deck felt huge.
I went on to do nothing new or out of the ordinary. Actually it was probably a setback overall. Eh I did almost get a line of front 50 back 180 out the blue ledge, fakie axle fakie the quartapotty, then fakie 50 switch 180 out. Just didn’t get the 180 out. I left when another group of bikers came and posted up near the quartapotty.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, nb# 212 tan, 3/4 spenco orthotic thinsoles and old lakai insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

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@miafest learning switch front heels on the quarter. 🎥 @danwieland @carampworks

A post shared by Tom Asta (@tomasta) on Sep 1, 2018 at 3:39pm PDT

All it took is one trick. On a qp even. Dude rules.

Love this so much. The kid in green never even aimed once. He just lined them up. Oh man so funny.

On a rainy night I cleaned out the garage then busted the putter out. I started trying nollie flips, than switch flips. Got incredibly close to switch flip. Literally landed on it and stepped off. Doh! Oh yeah, I was wearing some NB# 212s. Since I’ve been forced to use the stiffer insole again it makes the boardfeel with cupsoles almost non-existent. They felt good. I also tried a few nollie inward heels. Then I gave myself about 10 tries to do a treflip on my regular board and got one.

(setup 7.5″ putter & normal 8.25″ setup)

Feeling like a Monday I went to Saul’s after dinner. Saul, Tyler and Ian were there. Ian went in on back lips over the hip and got a few as well as some other crazy tricks first try. Saul was shredding like he does. Tons of grinds in every run, more standing up on back 50s, less carve grinds. Some frontside carves, layback front rocks on the parking block qp. Tyler goes for it. He had some sketchy makes, some sketchy falls and totally shredded. I was kind of all over the place. I was struggling at first since I was on my Saul setup, but had a few okay runs getting some of my normal runs. I tried to do a few front disaster to sugarcane. Got kind of close. I haven’t done that in awhile. Eric showed up and circled the bowl a few times before diving into it. Ha ha. He tried to cali grind into it and it didn’t go so well. He would get it though (see photo). He was grinding longer and faster than I’ve seen in the past. We ended trying some front rocks on the qp. Fun mellow night.

(setup Saul setup 8.5 null indys 52mm ojs bones bushings)

Kevin and I rolled in at the same time to this spot. Jack and Carleigh were already there. They were still shoveling and sweeping though. We pitched in a bit too and then skating started. I had new shoes. I couldn’t stand those 288s so I had some new Swifts I’ve been wearing to work to break in. I warmed up with kickflips on the flat bank. Jack was going right to front smith. He did a lot of accidental lipslides, but man he stomped a few so good. Carleigh did a couple ollies over the hip before going in on back heels. She tried the whole session, had a few close ones. Kevin started by trying to front tail the rail, but never committed. I had moved on to 270 kickflips which felt doable at first, but got further and further away. Sean and Dave joined us. Sean had some steezy ollies, then kickflip, then b/s flip, then nollie back heel. Kevin had moved on to nollie b/s flip. He wasn’t committing for awhile and then did one of the most perfect nollie b/s flips. Dave warmed up with ollie, back 180s. Jack was still trying to get more comfy with front smith to maybe get something out. He did such a sick front smith to front tail. Dave did a fakie bigspin. Sean couldn’t commit to front tail. Kevin couldn’t put down switch f/s flip. I couldn’t do a cab. Dave got a creepy spin as I maybe stood in front of Hosercam. I couldn’t treflip the hip. Dave ended it with front shove and then back big over the hip.

On the way home I stopped at Safeway ledge for a brief one. I wanted to change insoles and see if it reduced soreness in my feet. They did. With the added bonus of reduced board feel. Ha. I did a few switch noseslide jibs, then front and back 50s, front 50 180 out, front 5-0, a terrible excuse for a front tailslide and a very sloppy and slow kick back 50. I was hyped though.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, es swift 1.5 navy/clear size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles and then stock insoles with 3/4 spenco thinsoles under them)
(pain level 5/10 my feet were killing me at the ditch spot)

Had to run boards to Skate Ratz. There wasn’t many takers on the trip, but Kevin was down. I showed him the HS spot and then we went to the skatepark to get warmed up. When we arrived there was several toddlers learning how to bike, even a kid on a tricycle. But the parents were cool for once and pulled their kids out of there. I was wearing the 288s again and wow they felt weird out of the gates. I hit a stop rock right away too and had a good slam managing to avoid diving into a ledge. Kevin was ripping out of the gates. He is so good. First try back 50 the tall bench. I was really sucking it up, it was embarrassing. I also slammed on a stop rock after ollieing the lowest flat bar and before the next flat bar. When I finally got the 2nd flat bar my board cracked something fierce. From then on I had a noodle for a deck. That didn’t stop me from sucking though. The only other tricks I got were an ollie barely over the corner of the ledge and b/s flip over the hip. Kevin got a b/s flip over the hip too, but his didn’t have any tic tacs. He had one amazing attempt to ollie up the 3 stair to manual. He was horizontal in the air for that one. So funny. I’m forgetting a lot, we left when he did a little switch front 50 on the flat bar in the photo above.

Then we went to the high school. Kevin front 50’d the out ledge right away. Then we messed around with the various ride on grinds for a bit. Kevin did the one above. Then we filmed him try front 5-0 and front nosegrind off the out ledge. He got one of them. I was messing around with back noseslide to back tail in the corner. I thought it was just a dork trick, but Kevin was into it so he filmed me do the dork trick. Ha. It was fun though, noseslide a bit then turn into a back tail on the down ledge. But I never slid it. I went to fakie though. I pushed off the ledge to give the illusion that I had speed. Then Kevin went for a two piece. And oh he went in. Ride on front 50 180 out switch flip off the dock. Such a sick line, and it didn’t come easy. When he got it we bailed to Skate Ratz feeling worked.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric 288s tan size 11, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knees were good but feet were killing me)

Had the day off work and the weather was pretty warm, but nice. We decided to meet at Louisville park. I decided to try some old NB# 288s I had in the closet. As I pulled in I saw Rob was already there and skating flat. I was kind of wanting to just skate the park, but it was Friday and all so I went in there too. It ended up being pretty awesome. Rob was popping his front shoves extra high already and lining out the smooth flatground. My legs felt better than normal and the high heeled 288s didn’t annoy me too much. Kickflips happened quick, halfcab flips didn’t. Dave arrived a little after me. Rob did a 3 trick line of kickflip, b/s flip, halfcab flip. And I think he did it twice, the second one being better. He went on to do another even longer line that I can’t remember all of the tricks. Dave was skating pretty good too. He had fakie varial flip, varial flip, halfcab flip and was trying lines starting with kickflip then varial flip. I tried a lot of tricks, but I had some struggles. Especially with halfcab flips. I kind of landed a treflip, couldn’t get nollie tre or nollie/switch flips. Then we played a game of SKATE. It was a pretty good one, lots of tricks. I managed a defensive cab which is probably the thing that made me the most happy. I hadn’t been able to do a heelfip before the game, but landed one that felt great. I forget all of the tricks that went down, but I think we all had SKAT and I did fakie bigflip for the win. The cool thing was both Dave and Rob trying it after and getting super close. I hucked Rick flips and got pretty close.

Then we went into the skatepark. Rob had some cool lines to feeble grinds on the bank to curb before bouncing. I had done a couple kickflips to fakie on the bank and front 50s on the ledge. Dave was going through tricks on the bank to ledge. Then Dave called out ‘5 trick lines!’. Oh man. I think we both got our first lines about the same time. Mine was front 50 front 180 out, switch 180 on flat, boardslide the flatbar, nose jib 270 the little ledge, kickflip to fakie on the bank. I can’t remember Dave’s first line right now. Something like boardslide to fakie the ledge, halfcab boardslide the flatbar, front shove fakie the bank, cab kickturn the qp, cab the hip. Dave would go on to do a few more lines. He started with hippy jump, then noseslide the ledge, then roll in, front pivot the bank to ledge, nollie shove on the bank, creepy spin the hip. He was shredding. Also switch hippy jump 180s, back 50s on the ledge. I got suck on my next line for awhile. Ollie onto the ledge, kickflip off, back 50 the tiny ledge, noseslide down the hubba then somethinng. I only got to the noseslide twice, but man I had fun trying. I hadn’t kickflipped off anything in awhile, It felt awesome. Then the rain came and we used it as an excuse to leave.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, stock white bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric 288s tan size 11, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)
(pain level 1/10)