Meeting up sooner than I wanted I got to the dog park around the same time as Sean and Garrett. Hayden, Bo and Peyton were already there. Jack would come about an hour later. My first kickflip attempt hurt so bad I didn’t think I’d be able to skate much. I mostly stuck to the little area on the easy side of the black two level ledge. The nullers were mostly doing ledge tricks or tricks over the orange barrier. They make it all look so easy. I ended up having fun as my legs began working. Had a fun line of noseslide to fakie the tall side, fakie flip. Fakie 50 then halfcab flip. Almost crooks the tall side then treflip. Highlights from the Nullers are Hayden’s full pull around the whole park, Jack back 180 switch crook, Garrett nollie front nose and fast casual smiths, Sean learning back smiths and doing 100 of them fast, Peyton front crooks shove and his patented sketchy landings (not a diss and he does land tricks clean often, but I love how he can land tricks most people wouldn’t), Bo has clean pop and solid tricks. I got front 50 and accidental 5-0 on the bench, crooks, halfcab noseslide, fakie nosejib. I hucked a dream trick – treflip noseslide while Jack landed (I think) fakie flip b/s nosegrind. Wowsers. Super fun session, it was hard to leave. I didn’t skate anymore after that. Jack got a good hammer. Sean ollied a monster flat gap. It was good times until it got cold again.

(setup 8.25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate/v-hollow axles, stock bushings, old 53mm pj bones stf v1, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy white/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 6/10)

On a cool morning we chose a spot that gets a lot of sun. I arrived at Platt first. I did a manual or two then was messing around the 3 stair area and saw that you could switch noseslide down it while holding onto the rail. What a perfect warm up. Ha. Dave L showed up around then. We both kinda just looked at things and checked out the spot. I had brought out the 8.25 again, this time with stock bushings. I had realized that I like the stability of larger setups, but the flippability of smaller setups. So why not just make the smaller board more stable with stiffer barrel bushings? It was a little weird at first, but it seemed to prove the point. Jack and Carleigh were next. Kevin and Eric awhile after that. Everyone was feeling things out, skating it pretty differently. Jack did back tail and kick back tail up the 3 stair. Dave was trying to grind down it and bonk a tree stump. Carleigh was ollieing the kicker and kickflipping down the 3 stair. Eric was on that heelflip tip right away and landed a couple I think. Kevin manny bonked the stump and did some funny kickflips down the 3. I had started trying to motivate myself to b/s flip down the 3 stair. I had done this several years ago. It took a boardslide and no comply shove as well as Kevin filming to get me to really commit. But I struggled so much on the no comply shove that I lost the trigger on the backside flip. Doh. It was cool trying hard and getting remotely close at least. After that I filmed everyone else. Kevin came up empty handed on nollie b/s flip. Eric didn’t land the heelflip again. Dave got a sick line though. Manual, nosebonk 180, switch 180 down the 3 then pivot shove on the bank to curbish side of the 3 stair. Carleigh threw down too and got the ollie and kickflip combo. Then I tried a dork line for awhile while Carleigh did no comply down the 3. Switch noseslide the 3 stair then go around the handicap ramp and wallride nollie off the 3 stair. Took awhile and I felt super dumb, but the wallride nollie did indeed feel awesome when I got it. We hit the manny pads briefly as it got colder. I took a long time to nose manual it. Dave switch manualled it and came close to nollie front 180 nose manual. Jack did the back 180 fakie manual 180 out. Then we went out for dinner. Yum.

(setup 8.25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate/v-hollow axles, stock bushings, old 53mm pj bones stf v1, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy white/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 4/10)