Had the day off of work. Dave could only skate early so I was going to meet him around 9am. Kevin took a mental health day and we met Dave shortly after 9. It was way colder than we thought it would be. Like only 20 something. It did warm up quick at least. There were a couple bald eagles flying above us which always makes me smile. Not in a USA kind of way, but what a majestic creature. All three of us mostly start with shoves and stuff in the flatground. Kevin and I had brand new boards, Dave’s was one day old. I stuck with 8.38 as it seems about right. Kevin was struggling as he had his first non-DLX board in forever. He would get past the struggles though. Dave and I were trying no comply tailsides. He challenged me to it. It was funny because I asked him to film it. We’ve never filmed each other in this game yet. I wasn’t doing it anywhere near as well as him, but it was still fun. Around then Dan and Collin showed up. So cool. Then it turns out a lot of 98% would show up. Dar, Scotty, Ladd. We went on to have a fun big ol’ session. Lots of flatground was skated. I didn’t land much of anything for quite some time. Dan and Collin were killing it. Dan’s style is amazing. Collin did regular and fakie inward heels?!?!?! I was pretty blown away by all the tricks they landed. Kevin was in on it too and had a ton of good flippers. When Ladd showed up Dan had said he would do Ladd’s kickflip heelflip cancel (I have no idea what it’s really called). He did it like 3 times! I posed a few and it seems possible. Collin learned nollie bigflip in a few tries. I couldn’t get it. Dave was doing lines with cabs on flat then cabs over the back hip, super long tail slides on the bank, lots of really good stuff. It was a bummer he had to leave. Some ledge action went down. Kevin killed it with most of this tricks real quick. I had front 50 shove and maybe a slow crooks. Collin did crooks shove. I had a fun line of backside flip flyout (to complete halt but how’s counting), switch nose jib to forward into the bank, little scratch grind on the nub, no comply 180 on flat, fakie flip on flat, halfcab flip on the mellow bank. I got a treflip and f/s halfcab heel on flat, both were terrible though. Last thing I did was a flyout treflip and it felt really cool. Ladd was doing back 50s on the bank to ledge. Dan was trying nollie f/s flip out of the bank. Kevin easily did nollie b/s flip then pretty much ended the session with a nollie tre that was super good.

Then Kevin and I ate and later met up with the dudes at a little curb high manny pad. I was so sore that I couldn’t ollie up it the first few tries. Dan quickly manual, nose manual, switch manual. Dar was trying switch nose manual. Ladd was trying this weird pressure cancel flip to manual which he would eventually land. TWICE! At one point I pissed behind a dumpster and it kind of ran into the runway of the manny pad. Oh man. How embarrassing. It ended up being pretty funny though as Kevin was coming back and dodged Collin and rolled right through it. That was probably the angriest look he’s ever given me, but man it was funny. Collin was close to fs halfcab manual. Dan was trying front 180 fakie manual, then moved on to nollie fs 180 nose manual which he would also get after some struggles. Kevin locked into a kickflip nose manual and then the next try took the most amazing slam ever. He literally did a kickflip nose manual primo. It “rolled” about a foot before he Wilson’d as high as anyone has Wilson’d before. Ouch. He did try again, but eventually call it and chilled. I got a nose manual, somewhat close to kickflip manual, but gave up. I got a no comply flip up and some weird no comply boneless off. Dar was still going strong on his trick when Kevin and I left. Man what a fun day. It was great running into the 98%ers and skating with them. They are such good dudes.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a decent Sunday Kevin came over then we met Sean and Dave at this weird new spot I saw while driving around after skating yesterday. I felt like I had never skated before when I first got there and couldn’t do anything. I landed one flatground kickflip and one ollie to nose stall to fakie before turning into Filmer Glen. Dave got a cool line with a rock to fakie on a pallet then a boardslide transfer on the downhill curb. He had also done some nice fakie bigspins, kickflips, gap front noses. Sean had done some super solid flatground, tailslide to back 50, ollied onto the narrow ledge and 180’d onto the bank, etc. Kevin started out ripping. He had some easy back 180s, 50-50 transfers, blunt transfers, lipslide transfer I think. I started filming him do a quick footed line of halfcab down the curb to quick front blunt shove transfer. Two hours later his board was focused. He did get it without the shove at least. Then I took awhile to do the no comply 270 to tail and we bounced. At least that trick felt cool.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 i felt terrible on my board)