On a cold morning with drizzle I was up early and feeling alright. I wanted to skate some flatground so I went into the garage. I listened to Psychic Flowers then Fluung on the old boombox. I took a bit before I would even consider a flip trick. And once I did it took like 10 tries to land a kickflip. Ugh. Although after that I did get my 5 in a row. Fakie flip first try. B/s flip took a bit. Heelflip even longer. Then I hucked back heel for and had a couple close one. Hucked switch heel and switch flip for awhile without being close. Nollie flips were the lat huck and they were close. I didn’t get my feet on one, but they were right there on a few.

Later on I went to the same school as the day before with and obsession of linking the new ledge to the flagstone bench. It took some effort and was a mental challenge to overcome the pain I was in to try the front 50. But I would eventually get a few of them, but my legs were shot and I would splat the 4 stair landing. Argh. I mixed in a few crooks here and there, but mostly did front 50s to start the line. The ledge is much harder to hit than it looks. The approach is uphill both sides and it’s a narrow sidewalk. I would eventually get the line though. I was gonna leave, but decided to document the pieces of it for my adoring journal fans. I would love to get more comfortable ollieing onto that bench and nose manual it. But for now just ollieing onto it was very scary to me. I have a fear of hanging up on ledges that aren’t long. Oh well, it was a fun day. I look forward to skating in less pain. Hopefully soon.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with cast baseplate, stock bushings no big washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

After a slow morning with some naps and not feeling great I ended up meeting Dave up on the hill. The brand new #calwoodfire was raging and it felt like we were skating in the apocalypse. I was very disoriented and sore for the start of the session and well, most of the day. Arthritis aint fun. It’s funny we basically did stalls on the curb for an hour or so. Dave did a bunch of 50 shove variations. I did a front tail shove. Dave did a first try switch nosepick. Doesn’t seem so crazy, but it is. I did the rock shove, fakie bigspin, ollie the 4 stair then went for the flagstone bench, but my legs weren’t up for it. Dave did the switch nosepick 270 (he can just learn tricks like this in a matter of a few tries), front shove, ollie the 4, front board the bench. The 4 stair is a weird one to ollie and took both of us a few tries. It felt cool though.

After that we went down to the school below. We messed around with some cali grinds, tricks into the grass. Dave did a much better shove into the grass that I missed. He also kickflipped in. I messed around on the double benches for a while. Boardslides and crooks weren’t working and I felt so sore and awkward on my skateboard. Then I started hucking backside flips off one of the ledges. It was fun, I had to swerve around a crack to get on it. It took a long time, but I did get one and it put a smile on my face.

Next up we went to the ol’ hip into grass hill spot. I was so ridiculously sore at this point I just watched Dave rule it with a line riding down the stairs, avoid the rail and bluntslide the hip into the grass hill bomb. After that we skated flatground in the basketball court. I didn’t think I would be able to after my first nollie shove attempt, but I stuck with it and would actually land some decent flippers for me. Kickflip, fakie flip, heelflip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, 360 flip, fakie bigflip. Dave had a sick line of kickflip, nollie back bigspin, fakie sex change. Unreal. He also had fakie varial flip, halfcab flip, regular sex change, a super popped nollie front 180 and much more. He also came incredibly close to switch heels. Seriously so close!

Last we checked out the plastic pool cover on the hill for a quick one. Dave front 50’d it and I crooked it. I’m glad I ended up skating.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with cast baseplate, stock bushings no big washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 7/10 almost unbearable at times. good thing i’m stubborn)