Had the day off work and after honing in on a dry park I left the warm feeling sun of Boulder for the frigid cold at Frederick. Dave had been there for a bit. Rob and I got there at basically the same time. Garrett and Jake a little later. There were clouds and a little breeze making the park feel super cold so warming up was not easy. Dave was doing lots of little nollies, fakie ollies, shoves on the banks and hips. Rob was doing full pulls around with some manuals. I was pretty random although pretty early on I had a pretty long line that made me happy. Back 180 off a little wedge, switch 180 over the a-frame, back 50 down the corner qp, slappy the bank to curb, kickflip the hump hip. We were in the manny pad area for awhile. Rob did back 180 up halfcab boardslide, ollied up the euro. Jake was going for fakie flip then halfcab noseslide, ollied up /down the euros. Dave did some quick up 50s, ollied up and down the euros. Garrett was flying around. B/s flip the steep hip, back big the steep hip, switch manual the little pad, manual kickflip the big pad, almost nose manual nollie flip. I got frustrated getting one ollie up the tall ledge and missing a bunch of other ones. Eventually Dave did a bunch of fakie flips on the steep bank then ollied up/down the euro, maybe a 180 too. I couldn’t get the fakie flip. I was having a lot of trouble flipping my board. I ended up trying b/s flip on the steep bank then treflip off the little wedge. I committed, but never rode away. Rob and Dave left. Jake, Garrett and I played SKATE. Well, I got 3 letters on fakie flip and managed to not focus my board! After I lost on another trick I should land I took a few tries to get a cruddy 270 flip. Jake and Garrett finished up and I went over and started trying the line above. I struggled with the kickflips initially then pretty much would get to the front shove every try. Garrett was kind enough to suggest filming it so we did. It didn’t take too many tries and I wasn’t even bummed when I saw the footage. Then I filmed Garrett for a bit and some scooter kids showed up so we called it a day. Skating in the cold is hard!

(setup 8.25 colfax deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Felt like trying tighter trucks on my 8.25 setup so I put some stock venture bushings in with both washers.  I met Jake at the dark and dreary Steelyards garage.  There was an older dude drinking beers, smoking up and riding a bmx bike around the garage all fast.  It was awesome.  The darkness of the garage quickly got to Jake and I.  Also, I quickly remembered how much I hate tight trucks.  We struggled to do a few things we can normally do right away then decided to leave and check out something else.  We ended up at redder curbs which wasn’t much colder even though it’s open.  Jake had a little line ollieing the median then slappy the curb.  I flailed around hating tight trucks and did some front 50s, slappy crooks, 180s over the parking block.  I couldn’t get b/s flip over the micro hip.  Jake learned dump truck transfers over the parking block.  I would get one too that took way too long.  Then we played a really fun game of SKATE transfers over the parking block.  It started with me doing a terrible ollie over it.  Ha.  We went quite a long time before any letters were handed out.  I can’t remember all that we did.  Some fun ones I did were front axle to fakie, front feeble nollie shove, blunt shove, we both got first try dump trucks, nosepick transfer was a battle for both of us but I got it.  Jake did nollie shove rock transfer, f/s cab rock transfer which I somehow got too, a beanplant 360 hand shove which was incredibly fun, he almost got fakie shove rock transfer.  Somehow he accumulated SKAT while I had SK and I one it with a back 50 to fakie transfer.  Fun game, I needed a “dork” session.  I tried to kickflip it after the game, but didn’t have the commitment.  Oh well, fun night.  Tight trucks suck!

(setup 8.25 colfax deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger stock insoles, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold and snowy night I went into the garage.  The goal was to rotate between 6 different types of tricks.  Kickflips, heelflips, nollie, switch, 360 flip, random trick.  It made for a lot of failing, but at the same time made for some good motivation.  I had a new pair of 212s and they felt a little slippery and stiff.  Good shoes take a minute to break in.  Also my trucks were making so much noise they were driving me nuts.  Maybe it’s time to order better pivot cups.  Basically I was not close to anything other than kickflip tricks and a couple terrible heelflips.  I was not close to treflip at all which was oh so frustrating.  I had gotten halfcab flip kinda quick which was maybe the only joy I had on the 8.5.  At some point I grabbed my 8.25 sitting there and said “8.5 never again”.  I didn’t land a treflip on it, but I actually committed finally.  I got a f/s flip that felt alright.  Some nollie and switch flips were close.  Was not close to casper flips.  I went in after about an hour and a half of flailing around feeling quite depressed.  I guess the one positive is I think I finally found some insoles I really like.

(setup 8.5 then 8.25 both with ventures and 52mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 black/pink size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 2/10!)