After work on a hot afternoon I drove by Southern Hills to skate some flat and benches.  However there were several people there playing basketball so I turned around and moved on.  I ended up at a random nearby school that has a weird flagstone bench with gaps on each side, a sketchy butter bench against a bush with flowers, an alright curb, some decent flatground and a million stop rocks.  I had brought out my old 8.25 with low trucks because I felt desperate to have better flippers.  It worked.  Although I did struggle to ollie up a curb with any confidence.  Anyway I tried a line to get things going.  Back tail a curb, kickflip on flat, ollie up a curb, ollie onto the bench.  I never committed to the bench.  I couldn’t last time I was there either.  I hucked a lot of flippers.  Got kickflip, fakie flip, heelflip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, close to varial heel.  Hucked kick back tails on the curb for a bit and got really close.  Did a bunch of crooks on the bench which was really fun.  I did a few other tricks on it too, but they were even less good than crooks.  I couldn’t get a front 50 on it to save my life.  I was upset about this initially, but really that ledge is something I would normally never touch.  Cracks, stop rocks, a family biking in the parking lot watching me.  Yeah a lot of forces working against me.  I left on peaceful terms even without getting the front 50.  Then I watched Back To The Future with the kids.  That movie rules and was the first skateboarding I ever saw.  I got a skateboard shortly after that.  35 years later here I am still not able to front 50 a bench.  Ha.
(setup 8.25 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 1/16″ riser, 51mm spitfire F4 101a radial slims, new balance numeric foy b/w/y size 12, nike sb zoom air insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Feeling pretty wiped out Sean talked me into dog park as there was some cloud cover.  I had new shoes, NB# Foy 306.  They felt weird.  Partly because I put too thin of an insole in them.  I struggled with everything, even kickflips.  Sean had been doing his typical lines.  I had tried a line of manual, crook, front smith the new black box for awhile.  Sean had ollied the new hydrant and done the pole jam when I shouted out heelflip manual.  This turned into a manual session on the little guy.  Except that I couldn’t kickflip in to save my life.  It was so frustrating.  Sean would go on to learn halfcab noseslide, heelflip manual, heelflip back 50 and fakie back nosegrind.  Four new tricks in one day.  So insane.  My only redeeming trick was a front smith even though I didn’t really grind it.  Oh, and I also did a funny kickflip up the manny pad once where I used my hands to hold myself up.  Actually that’s more depressing than I thought.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, stock bushings no boardside washer, 3 washers inside each axle, bones stf 51mm v1 83b, new balance numeric 306 foy b/w/y size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Kevin, Bo, Hayden, Jack, Joe, Garrent and I arrived at the Cheyenne park around the same time on a hot morning at 11.  There was a stiff Wyoming breeze and it was super bright out.  It was very disorienting at first.  I knew it had been awhile since I had been up there, but it was 8 years!  Yikes.  Anyway I messed around some, but mostly went in on backside flips over the weird metal steep to mellow hip.  Garrett went in with me trying front bigspin.  We got them back to back.  Jack had done a pole jam nollie heel, Joe did pole jam hardflip.  Wowsers.  Everyone was cruising around, it was hard to notice what anyone else did really.  Towards the end I was talking to Rich and most were playing SKATE or just skating flatground.  Jack landed so many tricks.  

Then we went to Johnson middle school as we always do when we’re in Cheyenne.  And somehow it was basically the exact same, except the fun little boardslide wasn’t waxed up.  Bo went right into filming as I had gone across the street looking for other stuff.  There was a fun frontside ledge that started curb height which I did one little 50 on.  And some wavy benches we would come back to later.  I filmed Hayden for a bit.  Matt, Tyreece and Shaun showed up.  Man it was rad seeing them.  Hugging Matt again was so rad.  Those dudes are still ripping.  Shaun was in full tech slaying.  Heelflip manual, heelflip back 50, nollie heel front tail, front 50 back foot flip out.  Matt did back tail, front blunt, nollie flip, still got it.  Jack had a cool line involving two wallie ledge tricks.  Kevin got bummed on his front blunts.  Garrett got a sick fakie nosegrind then switch noseslide shove line.  Hayden came remotely close to the sickest 180 manual.  Bo ruled it filming the whole time.  I had crooks and switch front nose on the ledge.  Joe got a cool line of nosegrind then back tail then heelflip.  

Then we went back to the wavy bench area.  It was harder than expected and not much more than 50s were done.  I didn’t do anything.  Joe tried a gnarly gap.  Kevin did some switch flips off the curbs.  

Next up was the contest.  We arrived in a brief rain shower.  I had done a few crooks and noseslides before the game of SKATE started.  I played Jack so you know how that went.  Rich was hyped on me landing some tricks, but if he only knew how bummed I was on missing treflip yet again.  Still though, it was super fun and playing Jack in SKATE was rad.  I didn’t skate after that really.  Hayden beat Garrett and then Jack, but Joe took Hayden out. Joe made it to the final game and did good, but was two hardflip variations short of a win.  Ha ha.  Gotta learn them hardflip reverts.  Jack won the best trick off the kicker with kickflip late shove.  He also did a first try late 360 shove after sitting for at least 30 minutes.  Then we we went out to eat.  What an awesome day.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, stock bushings no boardside washer, 3 washers inside each axle, bones stf 51mm v1 83b, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)