Feeling really run down I met Sean, Jack and Kevin at Broomfield. Kevin and Jack were skating, but we left quickly after having to beg Jack to leave the skatepark (ha). We went to Galileo first. Aka stop rock central. It’s one of those spots I should love, but I don’t. Everyone else does though. We were there for a long time. People were doing their thing. Our crew was huge. Donnie, Garrett, Hayden, Bo, Laroy, Sean, Jack, JJ, Kevin and I. Hayden almost got nollie front 180 fakie 5-0 180 on the little one, but slammed super hard. A few bluntslides when across both by Kevin, Hayden, JJ and Garrett. Jack’s first try was front noseblunt. Wow. Him and JJ added back noseblunts. Donnie did switch front 5-0. Garrett never got the Nolan. Hayden came up short. Kevin was ripping. I heard JJ say the spot is hard. Bo was filming right away so I never did. Unfortunately my arthritis was kicking and I was very sore and lacking confidence. I spent about an hour trying to back 50 the low ledge and felt like quitting skateboarding. I started messing around on the bank with a couple basics and Kevin challenged me to bank SKATE. I had to triple or nothing a kickflip to fakie and was borderline losing it. After that it was fun though. I got b/s flip, f/s flip, fakie flip, shoves to fakie and a great feeling halfcab flip. I think Kevin got to SKA. He won and got me on tricks like switch flip, nollie flip, switch front shove (almost had it) and ended me with switch frontside flip.

We eventually ended up at the flat rail where I felt so incredibly sore. Kevin, Sean and I started messing around on the steep bank. It is super fun. Back 50s, pivots were the firsts, then front 5-0s and more. Then we started lining it out even more. As you can see above Sean and Kevin had some long lines. We were fully dorking. It was awesome. I did get a line of a little fakie side rock, kickflip then back 50. I was so sore the kickflip barely possible. I attempted a couple boardslides on the rail, but could not squat because of pain and gave up. Its funny the trick Jack was accidentally doing on the rail. Feeble to 5-0 to shove. Feeble front 180, blunt pop out 5 feet etc. Him and Hayden were feeling out tricks and then started getting oh so close to bangers. I feel bad for Hayden, he got straight up robbed. Joe had joined us and was trying back tails on the rail, but never locked in. After we had a nice dinner. Skateboarding with friends is awesome. Arthritis, not so awesome.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 7/10 arthritis flare up)

On a warm day I headed up to MRKT and stopped at Fossil on the way. I had run a bunch of errands in the morning and was feeling productive, but not so much motivation in the skate department. I had hit up Bo and he was down to skate at Fossil for awhile. He showed up at the same time and so did front 5-0 first trick. I spent awhile doing basically nothing to try and get warmed up. It was apparent I would be struggling. I almost never feel good on my board when I’m at Fossil. Ugh. Bo rattled off lots of ledge maneuvers like back lip shove, front lip, front 5-0 shove, back 5-0 shove, back 50 treflip! And of course lots of good treflips. I took awhile to get crooks, barely 50d the lower part, halfcab noseslide, had a good feeling switch front nose, struggled with all flip tricks. I tried to kickflip up the low part of the ledge, got a bad one in a few tries. Then I tried another because I wanted to treflip off the ledge. Bo tried b/s flips. There was another dude visiting from Florida that did pop shove up and heelflip up, he was cool. Bot and I tried forever. I was getting so frustrated. Like questioning if I can even skate the way I want to anymore. I would never get it again. Bo got the b/s flip then bounced. I chilled for a bit, then decided I just couldn’t leave feeling this bummed on skating. I was really sore, struggling. Got another crooks that felt alright, switch front nose. Got a line where I ollied up onto the ledge near the Carroll gap, heelflip on flat, kickflip off second try. I left on that note. I was still bummed, but not totally bummed.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Went to dog park after work. Rob was there when I got there. It wasn’t too crowded, but not dead either. After some cruising around to warm up Rob and I stuck to the little long ledge area for awhile. Flip tricks weren’t working for me again. Rob had some nice back 50s, back 50 back 180 out and a back 50 one foot out. Also manual and nose manual. I took too long to get a manual and nose manual. Had some back 50s, fakie 50s. Couldn’t kickflip the little PVC thing. Jack and Max showed. Jack was in a post schoolwork daze, but still managed some great flippers right out of the gate. Kickflip, heelflip, switch heel, fakie tre. Max had tried to get me to switch heel again and they do feel doable. Max was ripping, he skates so unique. Lots of big pop and flow. At one point he fakie shoved into the mountain ramp kicker so casually. He also ollied into it to manual and curved all the way back to a nose stall transfer into it. He ollied the Jersey barrier in a couple tries. I didn’t see Jack land a whole lot, but he was trying some crazy tech tricks like treflip crook and some feeble to something on the tall round bar. I got remotely close to noseslide 270 shove, had some okay crooks, couldn’t land a treflip. Since Huf had passed I wanted to ollie something taller than normal for me. Somehow I front 50’d the tall side of the two step. I was going super slow and only grinded a little, but it still felt cool. Max was hyped. Glad Rob stayed and skated, great seeing Max skate again and always a pleasure watching Jack rip.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Finally got on my Ledgy Jr aka LGJ (coined by Ollie) after dark feeling quite tired. I had a tough time finding a parking lot lit enough and ended up at lower valmont.  I tried to take a photo of LGJ, but apparently took a photo of my foot instead.  But it’s a foot tall, 18″ wide and 4′ long.  Square State built it and did a decent job.  But it needs some more work.  I need to add some rubber to the bottom so it doesn’t slide around and Ollie is going to paint it to look all cool.  It took a little rubbing and waxing to get the new angle iron going.  I skated about 30 minutes total and quit since I was so tired.  I had a few crooks, front 50s, good feeling halfcab noseslides.  Had a line of switch 180 up a curb (was supposed to manual), heelflip on flat, front 50 shove.  I had tried a bunch of other flippers without landing any.  I left after I got that line.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 4/10)