After a bad night of sleep due to knee pain and then dealing with plumbing issues for several hours I gave up because I needed to get outside in the nice weather. I met Rob at Douglass around 2:30. The warm up battle didn’t seem overly long for either of us. Today I could land kickflips, but struggled with halfcab flips. We mostly tried lines starting out on the road, going up the curb and hitting the various ledges. I had a decent one early on. Pop shove on flat, ollie up the curb, first try heelflip, noseslide to fakie, switch 180 off the curb. Rob got fakie bigspin, back 180 up the curb, then halfcab boardslide the side of a bench. It was nuts. He also had front boardslides, no complys up the curb, some of his old patented quick foot action – back 180 – fakie bigspin – nollie shove all done super quickly. He got a couple kickflips, but they didn’t come easy. Flippers weren’t really working for me, neither were crooks. I would get a couple halfcab flips, fakie flip, but couldn’t get b/s flip or treflip. I also couldn’t even ollie onto the bench. Argh. There was a pink haired scantily clad woman dancing on her rollerskates while we were there. It was a little distracting. Then I left to meet Skelly and his buddy Mike at Saul’s. They were late, so Saul and I skated. He had his patented fun to watch fast grind lines, close to some proper stand up back 50s. I did some carve grinds and axle stalls, couldn’t get a front slash even in the shallow. Mike and Sean skated it pretty well when they got there shortly before dark. Mike had some smooth style and good slams. Skelly had lots of front smiths and back grinds. It was rad seeing the stoke that everyone gets when they see Saul’s.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After a nice day of chilling with the family and eating Thanksgiving leftovers for breakfast Jake and I rolled to Longmont to meet Dave and Rob at Rocky Mountain Elem. It’s one of those good winter sun spots. Dave and I talked about our rough starts. I figured after a long walk and an earlier work out I would be feeling good. Nope. I think I was 1-5 on kickflips to start. Yikes! Someone has been giving the curbs there some love and they were extra fun. Nollie front lips were had by all, what a fun trick. Jake pretty much stuck to the curb. Good slappies, slappy crooks, his first ever nollie back lips and a second try pop shove lip. Rob had a banger line going. High speed ollie up the curb to beautiful no comply, back 180 up the curb switch boardslide. Had I brought the camera I would have requested to film it. We all tried regular front lipslides too, Rob being the first to land one. I think he got the shove in variation too. Dave was the second to get a front lip. He was charging some high speed ollies up the curbs to tricks on the medians like front 180 nose manual, kickflip onto one, a crazy pop shove with a sideways land that he survived. He almost got a sex change on the bank. Boardslides to fakie, some flippers and ended the session with a front 50 on the ledge second try that was way better than any of the ones I did. I pretty much tried two lines the whole time. Flip trick, front 50 the ledge, lipslide the curb, flip trick. Backside kickflip low on a bank then crooks shove the ledge. I would get quite a few kickflips on the bank with varying degree of cleanliness. A few crooks shove felt really good and close, but I never got my feet on one. The ledge is growing. And it’s not just because I’m getting older. It’s actually lifting for some reason. Anyway flip tricks were a struggle to start lines, but I did get a few halfcab flips. 1/10 on heelflips ugh. Got a halfcab 90 heel, one incredibly slow treflip. I think I only got a couple front 50s, they were so hard for me. I would get the lipslide at the end, but went to fakie. Oh well it was fun sliding some. That spot is hard. I was skating with some good motivation, but I was pretty disappointed in how badly I actually skated. At least the crew was a good one and the sun was nice.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I had about an hour to kill before an old guy curb session I brought LGJ out to a dry asphalt parking lot behind the research center by Foothills Parkway. I wanted to do at least 10 ledge tricks in an hour. It sounds easy, but LGJ is hard. Sorry I forgot to take a photo again. I am not good at quick ledges. Especially when they aren’t short. I started off terribly. Oh yeah, I had a new board. A 303 CLFX deck since I’m out of 8.25s and I want consistency these days. I had new wheels too. Spitfire 52mm F4 classic shape. I am hoping I this wheel flips faster than the radial slim and I like them this time around so I can stick with it. I should find a better parking lot, but this one worked. I got boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie quick. Front board. Almost a couple good front noseslides, but instead I settled for a really bad one. I tried to do a line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, b/s flip. I got all the tricks, but the halfcab noseslide was super hard for some dumb reason. I had put a plastic pad under LGJ and it helped prevent it from sliding away. Got a switch front nose or too, switch backside was hard I kept moving the ledge when I’d get in. I had a good slam trying fakie nosegrind. Got a couple incredibly slow front 50s. Lots of crooks, a crooks to fakie. Couldn’t get close to halfcab crooks. Got halfcab noseslide to fakie. Landed a terrible treflip.

Then went and met up with Eric, Saul, Ed, Jake at Glenn Close. Miles from Square State would randomly show up as well as a young kid. It was fun. The classic shape wheels definitely slappy easier than a more square shape. Since Jake was the first to leave I’ll start with him. He was going in on slappy shoves for awhile. I tried some too and we were looking for motivation so I jokingly said if we don’t get it in 5 tries were doing 20 pushups. We both did 20 push ups. Jake had bluntslide, may have gotten the slappy shove, frontside slappies, slappy crook shove. Ed has one stylee slappy and was ripping some energetic lines with pops off the curb cuts and manuals. He ended with such a good front slappy. We can all thank Saul for shoveling the spot earlier in the day. He bashed the scary spork deck into the curb for some good slappies both ways, did the hook, I think got slappy crook. Eric was on heelflip tip. Off the curb cut, over the tiny bank. He had a good slam off the curb cut on one. I’m not sure if he even hit the curb, but he did go for a few long manuals. Miles was fun to skate with. He had a mean kickflip and treflip. I had my normal slappy tricks, but couldn’t get slappy front feeble or the slappy shove. I came close to switch front 50. I was inspired to get a better treflip than earlier so I tried a line of front slappy (or slappy front crook) then a slow treflip. I needed to get going after that as did everyone else. Fun crew. Wish I would have taken a photo of all of us together.

(setup 8.25 303 clfx spirt deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, 3 washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a way-busier-than-it-should-be day of work Jake and I rolled to campus. It has snowed and appears to be sticking around longer than we hoped. Uni Hill was snowed out, we went under the tunnel and ended up behind the UMC to a good section of dry concrete and a couple puddles. I had some new shoes, the NB# 212, aka the one shoe that does not hurt my feet at all. It helpsed, I was able to skate. We did some lines over little puddles. Starting with 180s, switch 180s and moving on to really technical tricks like kickflips and fakie bigspins. Ha. It was fun though. Jake did a bunch of front axle stalls on a tall flagstone ledge to start a line, then nollie back 180 then fakie bigspin over the little puddle. I tried a bunch of front axle’s on it too, but only got one. I did have some front and back axle stalls on the 2nd step, darn near died trying to kickflip a little pile of snow. Then we played SKATE. The first game was kind of a wash as Jake got burned by fakie flip and missed a triple or nothing. I added heelflip and halfcab flip and that one ended. We played another game that was really good with a lot of tricks for both of us. I was up with f/s halfcab heel (hyped on that one 3rd ty), first try varial flip, and f/s halfcab flip. I matched Jake’s fakie flip and f/s flip (maybe my fav trick I did), but he came back with switch shove, nollie bigspin and a creepy spin. After that I got a halfcab heel that didn’t count due to heel drag, but I was still hyped. We battled treflip for awhile and I got one first. Jake almost matched it, but then went down swinging. It was a fun session. One of these days we’ll both have our treflips down good again. After the game I took a few tries and got a sketchy fakie bigflip.

(null 8.25″ spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm radial slim f4 101a, 3 speed washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock hard rubber insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

it’s funny, because I really tried to just ignore pain and skate a thicker insole on Sunday, but now my toe hurts so bad I couldn’t skate. I tried a couple kickflips and realized I should stop. I also felt sick which seems to happen after every time I hang out in the cold filming someone. I need to stop doing that.

(setup who cares)
(pain level 8/10 right big toe)

Had a great talk with Liz about getting older the night before after my depression session. She rules. Getting older isn’t easy and lately I’ve been feeling quite old (I know I’m not, but it’s hard to deny how you feel). I went to sleep feeling better about myself.

On a cold morning I woke up early determined to not be so unhappy with my skateboarding. I went for a brisk run, stretched for a bit then went to Broomfield park at 9. I had the park all to myself and I told myself I couldn’t look at my phone for 1.5 hours. I skated hard, did some stuff I always do, did some stuff I am too shy to do around people. Once I got somewhat warmed up I tried a long line that kind of morphed over time and I never got the manual to end it, but it was something like: kickturn on the steep bank, front 180 into the mellow bank, halfcab noseslide the black ledge, tiny little frontside ollie on the brick qp, front 50 the blue ledge, axle stall quartapotty, then manual the blue box. I would never get the manual even though I was quite close. When I would bail something in the line I would just keep going, but try other stuff. I got another one of those funny back 50 attempts on the blue ledge that turned into a slow back 5-0 shove. On the black ledge I did okay. Front 50, front 50 180, front 50 shove, multiple accidental 5-0s, several crappy crooks. I did a couple f/s flips on the hump up top which I haven’t done in a long time, ollied onto the brown ledge, 50’d the sad ledge, almost back 50’d the happy ledge, several kickflips to fakie on the little bank, kinda close to nosegrinds on the blue ledge. My hour and a half was up so I went home to eat and then meet up with nullers. I didn’t really do much, but I felt better about it. I had worn my 306s with the stock insole for a bit of added cushion and put the 5.8 trucks on. It seems like a good setup to actually try to stick to.

Then I met up with Sean, Donnie, Bo, Hayden and Jack at Broomfield. We seemed to arrive at the same time pretty much. I was sore and pretty much just posed kick back tails or halfcab heel noseslides. Sean did a bunch of halfcab heels, did one up the blue pad, did heelflip nose manual. jack had a bunch of back 180 fakie manual halfcab out, almost fakie front shove out. Donnie learned nollie shove 5-0. Hayden did front 180 fakie manual combos. Bo missed a treflip! Ha, he shredded.

Then we watched Jack roll in the grass and Donnie defy physics at the grass spot before moving on to the crusty bank spot. I was so incredibly sore at this point I couldn’t even push fast enough to pivot the bank to 2″ crack part. Hayden got some manuals quick and put down a sick one to fakie. Jack got a crazy nose manual thread the needle. Donnie did some crazy manuals and rode another big board though the rough. Bo ollied the table the hard way. Sean ollied it and kickflipped over it then amazed us all with his speed generating and pop skills. Wow Sean. Wow.

(null 8.25″ spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm radial slim f4 101a/bones stf 52mm 103a v1, 3 speed washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 in the morning then 7/10 later ugh)

Got to Broomfield a little later than I had hoped. The crew was rad though. Dave L, Rob, Cass, Ryan, Eric. I started on my 8″. I say this because mid session I switched to 8.25. Ugh. Rob, Cass, Ryan and Dave were already hitting it when I got there. Ryan was ripping, lots of poppy flip tricks, solid bump to bar tricks, even lines to the steep bank. Rob was ripping the back 50s so casually, front boards. Cass and I played a game of SKATE that I would enjoy even though I would once again get letters on a treflip. He did double or nothing on kickflip and missed, so I returned the favor on treflip after getting very close the first try. I had a good feeling heelflip, sketchy halfcab flip and couldn’t get either halfcab heel. Cass got me with hardflip, backside bigspin and ended me on fakie tre. At least I had gotten a fakie bigflip on defense, I would have been mad if I lost on that one. Eric had shown and wasn’t his normal raging ball of energy. It’s nice to know he’s human, he still had some good back 50s, front tails and more. But it was kind of a bummer to see him struggle. Oh well, skateboarding can be like that. Dave had some cool quick manuals, back 50s, boardslides. I’m not sure if anyone had a great session, it seemed we were all kind of out of it. Maybe Ryan did. Everyone took off, I was going to try and do some more before leaving, but I ended up going to Safeway.

I really wanted to do a kick back 5-0 shove after getting a kick back 5-0 recently. After some not so easy 50s both ways I went in on flipping in. I stuck with the 8.25 setup even though I was struggling. For the most part I wasn’t close on most, but I did get into a few and got a couple sketchy kick back 50s. I probably tried for an hour and gave up.

Trying to torture myself even more I went to the nearby ballfields that I haven’t been to in years. I stiffened up quick. This would be some of my worst skating ever. Which really says a lot. It was the kind of session that made me question if I should keep trying. I would go back and forth trying to line things out. Had some terrible halfcab noseslides and the slowest front 50 ever done on the little ledge on the far side. On the tall ledges I was able to get noseslide and a crook jib. Front 50 seemed beyond impossible. I didn’t successfully ollie up the ends of a ledge, but was able to ollie up in the middle where it was lower. I had another one of those halfcab flip bails that I just kind of came to a halt and fell off my board. It was so miserable. I managed to leave without hurting myself or my board, but man it was one of my most depressing sessions ever. I was scared of rolling my ankles in the 440s so had switched back to my 306s which then resulted in knee pain. Gotta love being me.

(setups 8/8.25 ventures new balance 440s no insoles then 306s with nike sb insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a really busy day of work I went across the street in a cool afternoon shortly before sunset. I was on my 8″ board and the 288s. I did some slappies to start that didn’t really go that well. My mind was mush. There was a kid there learning how to skate and he seemed annoyed I barged his session so I went to the side of the school to skate flatground. I sucked it up. Hard to describe how badly I sucked, but I skated for about 30 minutes and only landed kickflip and fakie flip, maybe a heelflip too. I was close to treflips, but could not get one. I hucked a lot of tricks, but just didn’t have the mental capacity to commit to tricks. I left after bailing a treflip and just staring at my board wondering why even bother. I really don’t like the 288S much anymore, they just don’t flick well.

(setup 8″ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 (cast baseplate v-hollow hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Another beautiful day so I skipped out for a very short lunch break to get some slappies in.  I hadn’t done a lot of exercises so I was kind of stiff.  Slamming into the curbs helped to get the legs moving.  I was on the 8.25 setup.  It wasn’t the best slappy session, but still fun.  Had some fun front and back slappies, took a bit to get front crook.  Tried switch front 50s and got into a few, but didn’t land it.  Got on switch slappy crook.  Ended with a front slappy.

Then after dinner I met up with Mike and Skelly then Garrett at Broomfield park.  It was pretty nice out and the park wasn’t very crowded.  Warming up was tougher than I thought it would be.  I had done lots of exercises.  Skating earlier I had worn the 288s and for this I went back to the 306s.  They hurt as the shoes and Nike insoles have gotten really thin.  Anyway, Mike and Skelly were mostly hitting the blue wedge area.  Skelly had a pretty good slam right away hanging up on the edge.  Ouch.  He would go on to get front shove to fakie also a quick ollie on then ollie off the side.  Mike was slappying the bottom curb somehow even though it’s oververt.  I was kind of all over.  I 180’d up the black ledge which made me kind of happy.  That was about the time Garrett showed up.  He had a line pretty quickly that was amazing.  Front 50 up the escalator ledge, back tail black ledge,front tail 270 shove the black ledge.  Also treflip into the bank.  I struggled with front 50s and it made me mad.  I switched to my 8″ setup because I couldn’t get the halfcab flip on the bank.  I still struggled with it, but would end up landing it.  I did several of the switch noseslide shoves.  I had some alright crooks on the 8″ setup, but not so much the 8.25.  Mike had some good front noseslides on the black ledge.  Skelly did some little front slashes on the brick qp, but they were really rad.  I slammed boardsliding the little rail, but would go on to get it a few times.  I got really close to a halfcab heel noseslide.  Flip tricks weren’t going very well.  I think mostly because my shoes were so thin I was afraid to commit.  Which of course just hurts more.  Justin was there ripping.  As Garrett tried the manual combo I hucked flip tricks.  Couldn’t get a treflip.  Decent night, I tried hard. Fun crew.  

(setup 8.25/8 nulls / ventures 288s/306s blah not worth all the details since I switch all the time)
(pain level 4/10)

Snuck out for some lunch break fun on a gorgeous day to meet Dave across the street. It was a fun one. Since I was so sore I wore my 288s. It may have helped. I didn’t really try many flippers, but slappies went well. Dave got some really good slappy front crooks to fakie. I got some to regs. We tried to switch it up, but he couldn’t go to forward and I couldn’t go to fakie. Dave had an amazing slappy crooks or two. I got a few little switch slappy crooks to forward and followed one with a kickflip off the curb cut to the parking lot. I was doing some good regular slappies for me and trying to follow them with kick back tails, but never got it. Dave was working on switch slappy front crooks and getting into them so good and grinding them. I didn’t see him land one, but he was there for awhile after me. He drove by me “working” on the front stoop shirtless soaking up the sun. Ha. That was a fun session.

Later on I went to Frederick to meet Skelly, Mike, Sean, Hayden and more. Donnie ended showing after awhile. The park wasn’t very crowded initially, but would get kind of crowded, and then totally clear out while we were there. I sucked it up. Like I can’t even describe how depressing this session was for me. There was only two things I did okay. I noseslid the bump to ledge easily and I did the pull up loop second try. Honestly the loop was the most fun thing I did all night. The 8.5 killed me all night. I couldn’t kickflip the hump and I couldn’t b/s flip the hip. I think it was less than a month ago I said to my friend Josh “I would rather skate a 7.75 than 8.5”. So how did I end up on 8.5 again? Well, blame the pandemic and the board shortage and my idiot self. I never got a nose manual, did some of the worst crooks of my life on the ledge, couldn’t halfcab noseslide. On top of that I was finally getting the slightest bit of confidence to back 50 the lowest ledge in the park and my wheel fell off. That was a sign I should have left, but did I leave? No. I did manage a slappy front crook on the bank to curb when Donnie showed. He was hyped on that. Sean was funny. He said “I don’t know if I can 50 this bump to ledge” then did it perfectly with the most casual style ever. He would go on to 50, ollie, 5-0 a lot. But he couldn’t f/s flip the Glen hip. Ha ha. It was great seeing Hayden skate a park again. It’s been too long. He rips everything. The alley oop fakie 50 down the corner qp was so good. Back smith, 5-0s, tailslides and blunt the bump to ledge, f/s flip the bigger hip, fakie 5-0 halfcab out the little ledge. Mike was charging. He always does. It’s been awesome skating with him again lately. Slappies, wallrides, wallies. Skelly popped some good ollies over the big hips, back 180s and almost bigspin the smaller ones. Donnie charges. Front 5-0 the steep wall, unreal slappy survival tricks on the yellow curb I can’t describe, showed up the BMXers transferring from bank to bank and so much more. Oh, near the end of the session after hucking a front heel over the little hip ( I had no business hucking, but that’s what I do when I don’t want to commit to tricks) I was going towards the manny pad and things felt really weird. I carved a little and knew exactly what happened. Yup. Broke my kingpin. A dude there said “It is not your night” and he was right. I had fun skating with people. I was hyped to see everyone ripping. But my god I did not skate how I want to in any way and it really depressed me.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with custom hollow cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire F4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 306 foy navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)