skate journal: struggling at york street with a fun crew of friends ripping (nov 16, 2018)
Joe came out a day early for the J Mascis show and we had the whole day to skate. It was a little breezy in Boulder, but since we’d be in Denver later we decided to head to there early on. We were out at a decent time and went to York St stop rock DIY spot. It was just Joe and I at this point. Almost right away I did a first try nose manual across the long pad that locked in so good. I kinda knew at that point it would be downhill for me. Cass met up with us. We were mostly skating the ledges at that point. I called out a 5 trick line challenge and managed to get mine quick. Kickflip on flat, front board the taller ledge, crooks up the granite ledge, boardslide the flatbar, polejam the tiny pole jam. I don’t think Cass was really going for the challenge, but he learned front boards on the taller ledge. Joe took awhile, but got front shove, front board, front 50, kickflip, pole jam the tiny one. Carleigh showed with Ella shortly before Rob and Fuzz joined. Cass, Joe and I were skating the bank on the backside of the ledge. Cass did a bigspin. I had fun with the chinese nollie then 5-0 fakie thing. Then a manny pad session ensued. I had fun with a front 180 up switch front nose off the little ledge. Joe did front 50 to manual. Rob and Fuzz were working on boardslide to manual. It took Fuzz a minute, but Rob man, he did boardslide manual body varial out so good. Carleigh would get in some boardslides in between Ella not listening to her. Ha. I started trying nose manual shoves, but was struggling with the manual part and my knee was hurting. Rob got in on it and did it in like 3 tries. I was happy for him, but it definitely made me reminded me how bad I suck at skateboarding. So I moved on and tried to ollie the low part of the banged up flat bar. I got close for awhile, committed, but could never get over it. Cass ollied it first try. Another reminder of how hard skateboarding is for me. Then we hit the ledges for awhile. Well, Carleigh and Fuzz tried pivots fakie on the bank thing. Carleigh would end up getting some really good ones without cheating at all like I do. On the ledges I was getting incredibly frustrating. Cass, Rob and Joe were rattling off tricks. I wasn’t. Rob had back 50 back shove out, back 50 body varial out on the low ledge. Also close to front nosegrind. Joe did front smith on the tall one, 50 front boards, lipslide to 50 up the granite, back 50 up, crooks the low ledge and a bunch more stuff. I was at least enjoying doing crooks down the granite. So at least something was working, but when I would bail trying crooks up it I would almost lose it every time. I took a long time to get a front 50 shove up the granite, but I landed with no speed so it doesn’t count anyway. Joe lipslid up it and I got his back with my favorite crook of the day. Then I saw the footage and saw my crooks looked more like a willy grind. Argh. As fun as the crew was I was quite depressed and angry about my skating.
(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10 weird sharp left knee pain at tiems)