On a warm and breezy afternoon I went to Saul’s right after work.  I had my new dedicated Saulside setup.  Basically my 8.5 that I never want to try and ride in the streets again.  It was a really fun session.  Everyone skated hard and we had some good laughs jabbing at each other and denying complements.  Ha ha.  Jake can do a ton of tricks there and link long lines.  Front 5-0s, front disaster revert, flies over the hip like it’s nothing, long back 50s on the big coping, I’m probably forgetting a lot.  He couldn’t quite get pivot to fakie.  I had one of the worst slams I’ve taken there missing on a back 50 and barely missing my tailbone on the coping.  I got my wrists really good though.  I had tried to get kickflip, but couldn’t quite get it.  Had some fun carve grinds, front slashes and a front smith that was supposed to be a disaster.  Jake and I encouraged Saul to do his patented fast carve grind lines that are always a treat to see.   Saul had some close long back 50s.  Gotta stay a little more inside on those!  After some chatting we went over to the school where Saul hit the curbs and Jake and I played SKATE.  Well, mostly.  I was at SKAT and Jake was at SKA.  I was happy to get first try halfcab flip, but struggled with fakie bigflip or heelflip.  I was on the 8” setup.  Jake started to go in on treflips, but started to feel dizzy from hunger and sat down.  I went on to get a treflip in about 10-15 tries that was a nice way to end the day.

(setups saulside 8.5, normal 8”, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Knowing more snow is coming and the wind had died down a little I headed to campus after dinner and some wine. I was on a different setup altogether. 8” with 8.25” trucks and small wheels again. Why not right? I started with a couple curb stalls at the new meetup spot then rolled down to the yellow lurb. There was some snow near the fence, but it was mostly fine. I didn’t do much of anything. Actually, now that I think about it I probably only landed crooks to fakie and front tail without any slide. I was kind of close to front nosegrind 180 and back 50s. But was bummed how much I struggled with back 50. I had a kickflip that felt so incredibly easy though. I also hucked some halfcab heels as it’s a trick I’d like to do in a line there. Then I rolled down to the new area hoping to try and ollie onto some taller ledge. But almost everything was unskateable because of snow or ice. I did some rock ’n rolls on the bank, but that was about it. I hit a wood bench in the covered area and did noseslide and noseslide to fakie, a fakie flip and good feeling halfcab flip. I looked at some other spots, but they were all snowy or covered in gravel so I just went home.

(setup 8’ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire 50mm classic shape f4 99a, new balance. numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)(pain level 2/10 felt surprisingly loose just didn’t have much mental drive)

On a crisp morning after some snow I went to Longmont to meet Rob and the Dave’s at Rocky Mountain. The hope was that since it gets so much snow it would be dry. It was, except for some run off at the ledge. I rode my 8.5 again for some dumb reason and went on to completely suck. In 2 hours I landed one crook with an unintentional manual out that almost went the distance to the curb, some kickflips and one sloppy heelflip. I was 0-20ish on front 50s and posed some front crooks. There was a young kid there skating hard. He was rad. He had some 5-0s on the ledge, treflips on flat and heelflipped over a median on the bank. Dave L treated us to his casual style. Lots of manuals, ollied onto the bank medians, did some cool Cali grind nollie shoves (you just have to see it), back tails and almost back tail shove. Rob had manuals, back 180s up to cab kickturn on the bank, switch boardslide the ledge, nollie lipslides on the curb. Fuller, aka the energizer bunny skated great. He was mostly hitting the banks initially. Ollies up to feeble the side curb, boardslide fakies, halfcab noseslide. He did a crazy line I don’t quite remember right now. I think it was nollie to fakie on a bank, switch crook ride off the curb, ollie up front 50 the ledge. There was a trick before that I’m missing. The Dave’s did wallies off a rock at the end. One of them even did it to manual, can you guess which one?

(setup null 8.5 spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, new balance numeric 212 size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)(pain level 5/10)

On an incredibly nice morning I rolled to Denver, picked up Kevin then went to the Rhino plaza. Kevin and I warmed up with some flat ground and nose slide variations on some benches. Nothing too special. Noseslides, nose slides to fakie, crooks, etc. Kickflips for me, nollie flips for Kevin. It was so warm out. 55 degrees felt like 80 after how cold it’s been. Cass showed up and slammed super hard on a puddle at the start. It was brutal. He recovered and shortly after we went to the “flatbar” which was now about 6” off the ground. Kevin was able to front and back 50 it. Cass may have gotten front 50. I posed some front smiths that turned into little jjbs. Then we skated the orange double ledges. Kevin had some good front 50s hop the gap back to 50. Cass had front nose. I had some crooks and felt out noseslide through the gap.

Then we went to the nearby escalator ledge, gave it some rub brick love and started skating it. It had started getting cloudy and cooling off a little bit, but still quite nice out. The ledge was harder to skate than it looks. After not skating outside for so long it felt cool to just flow around and do slappies, flip tricks, ollie over manholes, etc. Cass had done a better noseslide shove. Kevin and I did some crooks. Mine felt good and then I saw the footage. Doh. Cass had a nice treflip. Kevin and Cass did 3 shove late flips. Wow. I couldn’t even treflip.

Then we went real close to a bar that had a crappy quarterpipe outside of it. Cass got food while Kevin and I skated it. It was about 4 feet tall, soggy, slippery and falling a part. it was kind of funny because the asphalt was pretty good, but it took awhile to adjust to slowing down that quickly. Kevin of course ripped it. Nollie flips, switch flips, back d, switch front d, pivot fakie. Then he went to eat. I mostly just skated flatground very badly. Oh yeah I was skating my 8.25 at the first spot, but had switched to the 8.5 for the second for reason’s I do not really know. I tried to get a line of halfcab flip on flat, b/s flip low on the qp, treflip on flat. Never got the kickflip, but got a couple treflips in a row and several halfcab flips.

(setups 8.25/8.5 ventures/ 52mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)