After work and a run to Satellite I ended up at Glenn Close where Jake and Saul had been for an hour or so. Ben was there too learning slappies. So rad. He had a couple really good ollies too. Saul had some really long slappies, slappy the non-painted section and almost front slappy the upper section. He did the hands on the hip slappy, the hat behind the back slappy, and even dabbed while doing it. Jake looked hilarious trying hands on the hip slappy crook. He also did some slappy blunts, to grind or pop out. My legs worked again! I still lacked some confidence, but I kickflipped into the curb cut again, tried 3 flips out of it, had a few front 5-0s, 50s, 180s into/out of curb cut and had some fun slappy front crooks. Then Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It lasted a long time as neither of us had any consistency. Jake got me on a 3 flip while cracking his board. I got him with b/s flip, maybe halfcab flip. I forget what else, but I couldn’t get a f/s halfcab flip or fakie varial flip for the win. He got me with fakie 3 shove. Fun game.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knees)

Met up with Nolan, Collin, Raul, Saul, Donnie, Dale at Saul’s on a nice night. I was so tired from a busy weekend and having quite a few drinks at Sean’s wedding. So I didn’t really do anything. Nolan was also beat so we didn’t get the treat of watching him shred there. Saul didn’t take many runs either, but we got to see a few of the quick grinds at least. Dale looks like he’s pretty good at skateboarding too. Raul has good style, put down a couple back ds and some fakie smiths. Collin had some moves. Fast front 50s to back tail the gnar wall. Donnie was in full shred mode. Flyout to rock fakie on the qp, Barley grind, long back smith. Ripper.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a fun late night for Jack’s video premiere I went to Jack/Carleigh’s and we rolled to the new barrier spot in Denver. We got there around 12:30 or so. Kevin was there, Garrett met us after a bit. I immediately felt some of the best I’ve felt in weeks. It doesn’t make much sense as it followed two nights of drinking, but I’ll take it. Jack quickly front boarded down the slanted barrier. You know a spot is hard if Nolan bails pivot fakie several times in a row. Kevin was doing backside grinds quickly, flip tricks. I took a few tries to get rock ‘n roll. Jack went to work on crooks nollie flip out on the flat bar. He got one early on, but couldn’t get another. Carleigh got a feeble on the barrier and lined it out with a hippy jump over the flat bar. I got the tiniest scratch grind on the barrier and it was super rewarding. Then I started trying a dorky line with front board stall to fakie on the little loading dock ramp thing, halfcab flip on flat then frontside slash, never got the f/s slash. It felt so good to be really skating, trying again. Garrett had some moves. Front feebs on the barrier, boardslide to fakie, maybe a hurricane. Nolan couldn’t put down the bluntslide, but did get a mean feeble to fakie. Kevin had some nice back smiths, crooks on the barrier. I got close to some Rick flips and landed a super slow 360 flip that pretty much made my month. It’s been awhile. Hooray to my knees for kind of working again! Then we had to go for Sean’s wedding.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10 it’s a miracle the knees were working!)

On a nice Friday off work I got to Broomfield around 11. Warming up felt better than things have in awhile. I wore super thin vulcs (212s) with the Nike zoom air insoles and it felt way better than orthotics. I kept it pretty mellow during the warm up process, but did through in some ollies. It felt weird to ollie, like I hadn’t done it in so long I was losing it. I don’t really remember doing anything noteworthy, but it felt nice to comfortably ollie into 50s on the low blue ledge. Mike KP showed up shortly before Jack and Nolan. I got kind of tired after that and mostly just chilled or filmed as the rest of them ripped. Then we went to a new plaza spot and Jack got 4 clips. I was filming like mad. We both almost passed out.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 6/10 still in the knees)

Got home from work on a stormy afternoon and planned on chilling/napping for awhile. But Dave called and said he got off work and was going to skate Glenn Close. So I rallied and went over there. I was in a lot of pain so tried some cupsoles initially. Some PJs, but they were too tight. I was in a lot of pain and everything was a total struggle. I slammed on a slappy crook to start out. Ugh. Dave was doing some long noseslides to fakie. The wind made the spot feel more exhausting than normal. I got a couple slappy front crooks, nollie front tails, regular slappies, a couple slow slappy hurricanes, gave up on slappy front feeble, a few front 50s and a nollie shove (no pop) to manual out of the curb cut. I had a slam on something that really hurt my knee. Ugh. Dave had a good front slappy, had to give up on slappy crooks shove and ended with a really good nollie back tail. Another dude joined us for awhile. Ben. Turned out he went to school there with my daughter. Ha. He is rad.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotics under thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 8/10 right knee. might be time to go to a doctor)

Met Jack and then Hayden at Southern Hills on a nice night. I got there first. I was feeling very sore once again and just kind of did a few warm up dorky things, a couple 50s on the step, boardslide a bench and then started filming. Jack and Hayden got some great stuff. Good day.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knees)

On a super nice night Mike picked me up and we went to Broomfield park. We arrived to very few people and it was super nice out. The crew was Kevin, Mike, Matt, Rob and me. Justin was there shredding super hard too. Actually, Chase was there initially and he’s always a treat to watch as well. Kevin started things off with a full horizontal slam trying to 5-0 the parking block. I talked with Liz on the phone for awhile as the Honda was having car problems. Rob was still fighting a sickness and ended up breaking out pretty quick. You could tell he wasn’t feeling well. He had a good slam on a manual that probably was the final straw. Mike and Kevin switch manualled the blue pad before I even ollied. Matt showed up and did basic grinds that I dream of immediately too. Then we mostly hit the blue pad are for awhile. Mike did nose manual nollie flip out. Kevin hit nollie shove manaual, switch nose manual. I did my first nollie back tail on it. It actually slid a little which hyped me up. I was able to ollie onto the blue box without much pain which I was excited about. I was wearing the stiff spenco orthotics under my insoles and it felt really weird on the coping. I got a fakie nosegrind. Matt got a fakie nosegrind and fakie 5-0. I think he might have given up on back tail on the brown ledge. I had a couple scary ollies onto the downhill ledge. Really I’m just hyped I was actually trying to really ollie again. Mike and Kevin had been going on the black ledge doing a bunch of tricks. I sat down and watched Kevin take awhile to get kick back tail and Mike ended up giving up on back nosegrind shove.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotics under thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knees)

On a super nice day after work I went to the dog park (avoiding a nap which is so hard). I wore the 379s again with orthotics. It felt okay. I struggled like crazy. I had no confidence, skated super slow and landed almost nothing. But somehow it felt like I was kicking the pain a little. I only got kickflips, fakie flips, a couple halfcab flips and that’s it. I hucked a few nollie back heel, switch front heels and treflips.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 379 b/w size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knees)

After driving down from BV and some food/chill time I brought India downtown and hit the streets. Pushing immediately felt worse than I had hoped. The shoes too, wasn’t feeling them. I started at Wells Fargo. After a bit I did a new trick, front axle to fakie. But it wasn’t good enough to post on the gram. Then I went around a bit and ended up at St Julien. I can’t believe how hard it was to ollie the 3″ tall median. Ugh. I tried a line of ollie down the median, manual the median, crooks the other ledge down by the dumpsters. The ollies started hurting so I stopped. Then basically I just stopped altogether and walked back to my car.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 868 black/gum, westgate insoles)
(pain level 6/10 right knee mang)

Still feeling incredibly arthritic I went across the street around 7 not expecting much of anything. I wore my beefiest shoes (868). My first couple of slappies were painful enough I almost turned around, but man I’m stubborn. I ended up having some fun. I worked into a line going north of slappy, no comply 180, fakie nosegrind. Got into some fakie nosegrinds better, but never landed all 3 at once. Going the other way I tried switch crook, but never landed it so I would huck switch front heel and nollie back heel. Both seemed doable. I committed to the nollie back heel, but didn’t make if flip enough. Then things hurt again and I went back home.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 868 black/gum, westgate insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knees still bad)