skate journal: little denver park than west high for hours (oct 24, 2020)
On a cool morning I picked up Kevin and then we headed off to the new little Paco Sanchez park. After being confused by parking because of the covid testing we walked up to a somewhat crowded park. I was feeling very out of it. I had tried some rubbery Lakai insoles in hopes of there being less pain. It’s possible, but I also sucked so it wasn’t worth it. There were a few dudes there ripping. One dude TJ in particular. Super fast grinds and slides. Kevin hadn’t been to that park before. He didn’t take long to rip. Nosegrinds, lipslides on the flatbar, smiths, back 5-0s, basics, but done so well. I took a bit to even be able to front 50. I really didn’t do much of anything. Kevin suggested I do a halfcab noseslide on the flat bar since it was so wide. Having never done one on a flat bar before I agreed. And several tries later I did the shortest one imaginable. Jack had shown. He was being pretty low key. But of course did a manual up fakie manual down the MJ ledge like it was nothing then a few minutes later casually did a bigspin front blunt on the flat bar. He may have also done back 270 lip. We left and went to West High where we all basically tried the same few tricks over and over for hours. Kevin probably did the most tricks feeling out what he wanted to get for a line. Jack was pretty much right in for noseslide nollie heel out the top tier right away. He would get one quickly. But then not another one. Kevin and Jack suggested I try slappy crooks the ledge. I have never done it on a ledge before, but it worked! I mean it took a few tries, but eventually I was doing them pretty consistently and they felt magical. I tried to back it up with a kick back 50 which I would only get into a couple of times, but never land. I was really hating how slow the wider board was flipping. Kevin was trying bluntslide, but that didn’t work so started trying fakie nosegrind 180 to begin the line. He would get a bunch of those, but then rolled his ankle on a back 5-0 front shove out attempt. Ouch. And yet, somehow he kept going! He defied all odds and skated for quite a while, but just couldn’t get the line. I had moved on to fakie nosegrind which I didn’t like anyway then switch front nose 270 out. I got the line. I was happy with it. Wished it had been the kick back 50 though. Oh well, I’m not perfect. Chad had met up with us briefly with a friend Jake. They were cool. All in all it was a fun day taking turns filming each other and everyone skating hard. Bummed Kevin came up short. But man slappy crooks on a ledge is a magical feeling. Oh I forgot before leaving I also did the little granite window sill crook which was pretty fun.
(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings flat boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, rubbery lakai insoles at the park then nike sb zoom air insoles at the school)
(pain level 3/10)