On a lazy day after a rain storm I went over to the side of the school to skate flatground. I was pretty unmotivated, but I thought it would kick in once I started moving around. I slammed on a no comply 180 right away and thought about going home then. But unfortunately I am too stubborn. I struggled to land a kickflip. And when I did I was really inconsistent with them. Too the point where I almost focused my very last board. The warm up run of kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip took awhile. I survived the madness only to hit it again on halfcab flip. Just the day before I was 2/3 and they felt great. Nothing about my setup had changed. I was so angry. I can’t say I went on to land much. One horrible heelflip, halfcab flip followed by backside flip. Yikes, that’s it. I got somewhat close to treflip and nollie treflip. Hucked some front heels and switch front heel. But it was miserable not landing much. I had some fun doing back 180 over the manhole into the downhill section and doing switch front 180 after at least. This session really makes me question 8.5.

(setup 8.5 curby deck, ultra grip, venture 5.8 custom hollow cast baseplate titanium hangers, stock purple bushing bones top washer, 53mm spitfire classics blue/orange, new balance numeric 913 westgates b/w size 12, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a very hot day and a slow start after some trouble sleeping Dave, Simon and I ended up at Harrison High in Co Springs. There were a few cars and people around, but they didn’t mind as we started skating. Simon appeared to be shot out of a canon and was blasting backside ollies over the hips and front tailslides. Dave and I were doing front tails over the hips. I had a fun warm up run of front tail over the hip, noseslide the ledge then back 180 the two stair. I started trying the same thing but with a noseslide 270 shove and 3 tries later I landed one. Dave was hyped and knew I was feeling it and offered to film it. I rotated with Simon who was doing switch bluntslide. I would get the noseslide 270 shove 3 times. They felt pretty good, but I never landed the shove down the two stair after to complete the line. I was still happy about finally getting a noseslide 270 shove on film though. That ledge was perfect for it. After that I filmed. Simon did a line with front 360 on the bank, halfcab noseslide then backside flip. He also did tailslide shove. He was destroying. Dave did a super sick line of back tail, front board to fakie then switch 180 (he also did it with halfcab) the two stair. He ended it with a quick up to manual.

Then we went off to Galileo. We finally got some cloud cover around then, but the start of the session was still hot and it was a rough start. Simon front 50’d both sets quick, but slammed super hard on a noseslide and coupled with the heat he chilled after that. Dave and I started slow on the bank and did some warm up tricks to get going. Then I joined Dave in trying to line out the top steeper step. He was doing steezy front shoves then trying back 50. I was trying kickflip to fakie, halfcab flip then front 50. Neither of us got the 50s. I wasn’t happy about the kickflips to fakie taking so long, but they were fun when I landed them. Then we skated the mellow set. Dave front 50’d and front 50 back 180 out really quick. I filmed the 180 out, he did it so good. He then front 5-0’d it really well. I was struggling to get back 50. I’ve always sucked at bank to ledges. It took me forever, but all of a sudden I kind of figured it out and did a couple back 50s and 180 out. I hucked a few kickflip 50s which Dave started filming. I think mostly because he felt sympathy for me not landing anything. Ha. I got kinda close, but knew it wasn’t going to happen. I got really angry and went for a back nosegrind and it was kinda close. An hour later and it was still just kinda close. Maybe a little closer, but yeah, I never got it. It was fun trying hard and getting close, but a bummer I didn’t get it. After I finally gave up Dave went back in on nose manual and got a few good ones. Then he tried front nosegrind for a bit, but gave up tired. Fun, exhausting day.

(setup 8.5 curby deck, ultra grip, venture 5.8 custom hollow cast baseplate titanium hangers, stock purple bushing bones top washer, 53mm spitfire classics blue/orange, new balance numeric 913 westgates b/w size 12, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a mellow day I went to the school around 4 for an hour of flatground.  I had new bright orange/blue spitfires.  I started slow with no real plans.  I got my original warm up line first try.  Kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip.  Then a pop shove revert followed by switch shove revert.  Also got halfcab flip then backside flip pretty quick.  After that things took awhile, but I would get a few tricks here and there.  Frontside halfcab flip and heel.  Going uphill I was trying harder stuff, a lot of nollie treflip attempts that weren’t too close.  Going downhill i stuck with the Irongman for quite awhile and was really struggling with heelflips.  i finally got a couple and landed a treflip too.  That made me happy.  I got a fakie varial flip and almost followed it with nollie varial flip.  I got a couple fakie bigflips.  That was an hour, it was fun.

(setup 8.5 curby deck, ultra grip, venture 5.8 custom hollow cast baseplate titanium hangers, stock purple bushing bones top washer, 53mm spitfire classics blue/orange, new balance numeric 913 westgates b/w size 12, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a slightly cooler day I met Luzius at the Arapahoe bank/ledge spot around 11.  I was equipped with pants and vulcs for a better flick on the fakie flip.  We started with a game of SKATE that took awhile, but was a good warmup.  Dave was ready to go and got me with like 3 tricks before I was ready to pop.  Kickflip, pop shove and something else.  We would bail a lot of tricks, I would eventually get fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip and something else so it was SKAT-SKAT.  He won it on switch front 360 which on my second try felt much closer than I would have ever imagined.  Then it was right to work after a couple warm up lines.  It took me another hour and I was getting super depressed, not really enjoying skating.  But then I started getting close to the fakie flip and out of nowhere landed a really bad one.  Dave insisted I keep trying and a few tries later I got another one which felt worse, but was actually somehow was a little better.  I chilled after that.  Dave didn’t really feel like skating so we split.  

A few hours later I met Jack and then Fuller at the yellow bank to curb frontage road spot again.  I was not really feeling like skating. I got kinda close to lipsliding it again, had some funny nose jibs on the taller part.   It was fun watching Jack destroy it with wallie 180, wallie boardslide transfer, wallie to switch crook, boardslide pop out, and a line of wallie, ollie into the bank, impossible off the curb.  Dave had showed and was piecing together some rad lines so I filmed him and Jack.  Dave did a Chico line line.  Nollie back 180, switch front 180, lipslide, ollie onto the two stair then quick back 180 off.  Then I filmed him back lip the two stair as jack did a million no comply flips over the 2 stair and then put down one to manual that was so perfect.  What an amazing trick.  Stoked those guys stacked some clips.  Then we had a fun Null meeting later that night.  I love those dudes.

(setup 8.5 curby deck, ultra grip, venture 5.8 custom hollow cast baseplate titanium hangers, stock purple bushing bones top washer, 52mm spitfire green/yellow swirl classic 99a F4, new balance numeric 306 foys blue with thin adidas insoles then 913 westgates b/w size 12, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot day I met Luzius at the yellow frontage road bank to curb/ledge spot near my house.  I skated my 8.75 because I hadn’t put bigger wheels on my 8.5, but I regretted it.  I never really made it past the warm up phase.  I couldn’t lipslide even though the bigger setup definitely kept it’s speed better.  Dave went on to do a sick front board pop out.  

Then we met Jack at the Arapahoe pipe bank spot with the ledge.  Jack and Dave setup new boards.  Dave had some good front 50s, but didn’t get the smith he wanted.  Jack did hurricanes super casual, super good back tails.  I had a line in mind and started in on the warm ups.  First was boardslide flop out then ollie to fakie.  Second was switch front nose then fakie ollie.  Then switch front nose 270 out followed by fakie flip.  It red for about an hour and a half, Jack was kind enough to film it, but I never got it.  I went through a stretch where I bailed the first trick like 20 times in a row.   It was so frustrating.  That bank is so hard for flip tricks.  I had a really god slam on one of the switch front noseslide 270 attempts.  After Jack left I was pretty over it, but Dave started playing around again and would do a line of front hurricane then ollie to fakie over a pipe.  It was really sick.  I went home and realized my legs were so scraped up and bloody from the day.  Argh, so much for skating in shorts.

(setup 8.5 curby deck, ultra grip, venture 5.8 custom hollow cast baseplate titanium hangers, stock purple bushing bones top washer, 52mm spitfire green/yellow swirl classic 99a F4, new balance numeric 913 westgates b/w size 12, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 my legs got so bloody from so many scrapes skating the rough streets in shorts)