Pretty much right after work I met up with Dave at the new meetup spot on campus. There was gravel everywhere from the recent snow so we moved on right away after Dave shoed me up with a nollie back tail on the curb. Ha. Actually he had been doing it for awhile waiting for me and it was the first thing I tried. We moved on to the little yellow “ledge”. It must be a “ledge” if it has angle iron right? I had new shoes, some Es Accel Slim Plus shoes. I was trying anything to reduce knee pain. They were a big odd, but felt good and my knee pain was less severe so maybe they did the trick. Anyway, we did some tricks. We mostly started with nose jib 270s and stuff. I managed a nollie back tail first try, take that Dave! Ha. We would go on to get a lot. I had crooks, crooks fakie, front 50, nollie front tail 270 shove (maybe a gleNBD?), kind of a nosegrind 180 with the back wheels dragging around, front 5-0 to front board (not much grind if any), remotely close to kick back 50 and front 5-0 kickflip. I couldn’t do a back 50 to save my life though. Dave had nollie back tail, front 50 back 180, switch crooks fakie, switch front crooks fakie, crooks, crooks fakie, back 50, back 50 back 180 (one with a super bad slam to elbow that I can’t believe he kept skating), and super close to halfcab crook to fakie. Way too close. Dave was getting frustrated. We moved on. To the new business building area. The lights were alright, not great, but it was fun. We started with some kickturns on the bank and checked out the spot. We put the table after the bench. It was so much harder and scarier than we thought it would be. I did a million rocks before I finally ollied onto it. Dave had beat me with his amazing cab kickturns then ollie on. I played around with some side rocks and axle stalls with lines too. Almost ollied onto a lower ledge then off a tall drop over a rail, but chickened out. Dave’s front tail was unreal. We played around at the bottom of the new area too. Dave did a cool ride on to ollie on to drop down. I tried to ollie the six stair gap thing (height of 6, distance of 3), but chickened out and just caused pain for myself. That spot is like a skatepark. Fun times with Dave, we skated for a really long time.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus gray size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a day of rest and trying basically everything to reduce my knee pain I felt a little better. Warming up went alright. The intense knee pain wasn’t there. Eric showed, he heelflipped a parking block second try. I was still timid of pain, but I got a lot of my normal basics there. I had put the Nike SB insoles in again and had a bigger right shoe, new left shoe (yes I hope this confuses you). I was happy that I got on the cinder block ledges pretty easily, front 50 and front 50 shove. Eric had front and back 50s, front 5-0, front tail. We both got crooks. My flip tricks went alright. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, f/s halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. Tried a few tres, but not really. Eric had a back heel. Another dude was there charging and slamming really hard. He f/s flipped off the kicker over the barrier so good and I tried to get his back with an ollie. I almost had it, but couldn’t really handle the impact and it hurt my knee some. I took too long to get a line of heelflip, slappy front crook, back 50 over the corner of the little guy. I hucked some at the end with some slow kick back 50s, switch front nose shove, but didn’t get either. I wasn’t in as much pain, but it was there and keeping me timid and unable to progress so I ended up leaving. It sucks hurting so much, makes it really hard to enjoy and try hard.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5 L size 12 R, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Kevin and I met Jake at the 38th ledge spot. Jake had just finished shoveling and it was drying off. There was another dude Max I think, he was nice. Those guys were quickly ollieing and stuff, I was more on the slappy tip. Did some slappy crooks quickly which made me happy. Kevin rattled off all kinds of tricks. Jake too. Front 50s, front tails, back 50s, crooks, etc. Jake had thought of a line he wanted to do and I started to feel out one myself. Jake was going for front tail to fakie then f/s halfcab noseslide. I was doing alright at slappy crook then kick back 50. I got into my first kick back 50 so I thought it would work. Jake did his line before Kevin was kind enough to offer filming. Then he did it again. I tried my line a bunch of times, got real close, but never rode away from the kick 50. Argh. Some slappy crooks were really fun feeling at least. We left for a spot that Kevin had found nearby. Getting out of the car I was in so much pain I knew I was done for the day. I was toast. Ugh. Jake and Kevin ollied up a loading dock and off before we got a pretty funny boot by a security guard that I think was just on a smoke break. Jake left. Kevin and I went lurking. We hit a weird double bank spot, but all I could do was ride down them. Kevin did a crazy line riding on some weird mound, back 180, halfcab into banks, quick ollie and he did a rare b/s flip! Then we found another cool bank spot nearby where you could wallie nollie and maybe crook a bit. We both tried. I wasn’t able to move well enough to get my front truck up there. Kevin did it really really good though. I might have to sub him in on more tricks when I’m in pain. I need to figure something out because the pain was unreal. Even when I woke up the next day it was beyond terrible. Ugh.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm bones stf 103a v1 with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 5/10 initially then 9/10 after the ledge session)