After a bad day of work I went across the street for a short one. My body was not feeling very well. Flip tricks out of the gate were impossible, even slappies were hard. But I ended up doing some stuff. The normal slappies, although I couldn’t quite get the new switch front slappy. Flip tricks did come, I would get kickflip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, treflip, but seriously couldn’t fakie flip to save my life. I blew a hole in the side of the Lakais. Can’t say I’ll miss them. Saul had some solid slappies as always. Frontside, backside it don’t matter. Also may have gotten slappy crook and did the hook.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.8 ventures titanium axle, venom 91a bushings with both washers, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, lakai carrol xlk grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain 5/10)

Went to dog park after work. It’s been awhile since I’ve been there in the afternoon and it was much more chill than I had imagined. I was there solo for awhile. I felt terrible on my board so I kinda just stuck to the curb high ledges and built up some board feel. I did some slappies, little 50s, nollie tails and started to feel better. Slappy front crooks felt better than ever. Then I kinda cruised all over for awhile before settling in on some lines on the far side. The famous artist Rob showed. Ha, there was this dude that saw my board and asked if it was from the artist in Rooster. He was cool and gave Rob some much deserved props. I got a couple lines that probably sound alright on paper. Halfcab flip, crooks the tall side of the two step, heelflip. Ollie the kinked flat bar, noseslide to fakie the tall part of the weird ledge, fakie flip. Rob was getting firing lines left and right. Posted up boardslides on the tall bench, no comply shoves, back 50, and much more. I didn’t get a whole lot more, but didn’t skate terribly or anything. Just normal dog park stuff. Near the end I tried a f/s halfcab flip and got some hot pocket that hurt and took me out. Still a fun session, was super hyped that Rob came. I really do hate these Lakais though.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.8 ventures titanium axle, venom 91a bushings with both washers, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, lakai carrol xlk grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain 4/10)

I woke up at 5:30am for some dumb reason and decided to take advantage of the situation and go skate.  I arrived shortly before metal rollerblader Brendan.  Warming up was a bit harder than I thought it would be.  Popping felt impossible.  I tried a warm up line for a bit of fakie flip on flat, halfcab noseslide, back 50 the mj ledge.  Never got the back 50.  I really struggled with pop.  Took way too long to do crooks the new bench then terrible front 50 the cinder block ledge.  Didn’t land treflip or heelflip.  The Carrol’s are working, but have such bad board feel.  Often I would just go by whatever I was trying to hit rather than even pose ollies.  I was able to do a nosegrind 180 for the first time in way too long.  I guess this is the advantage of skating by myself, as I allow myself to slowly work up when I would normally be too embarrassed.  I took like 20 tries to do it on the 3″ tall “ledge”.  Next I tried some “faster” 50s on the low ledge and kind of got back 180 out.  Then I got tired and called it a day and went to work.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.8 ventures titanium axle, venom 91a bushings with both washers, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, lakai carrol xlk grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain 4/10)

Met Saul across the street for some slappies.  He was trying feebles on the upper deck.  Then we did some regular ones on the main curb before heading down to the hook.  Saul did several.  I took a bit.  That curve is incredibly fun, it keeps you locked in.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.8 ventures titanium axle, venom 91a bushings with both washers, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, lakai carrol xlk grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain 3/10 but i didn’t really try to ollie)

Had a couple hours free on my anniversary so I went to the dog park. Kevin, Dan and Collin were there. I had thought my body would loosen up after a hike, but it didn’t. I was so much more sore than I thought and could barely slappy or anything. It was rad seeing Dan he was shredding as always. The back nosegrind pop out was great. I didn’t see much of what Collin did unfortunately. Kevin raved about a new trick he had done then demonstrated it – nollie back 180 nosegrind on the top of a cinder block ledge which was on the ground. I was starting to feel maybe a little warmed up though, boardslides, crooks, noseslides when Kevin asked me to film him. It took awhile and I was too sore after. Sean joined and killed it immediately. Front nosegrind followed by nollie back nosegrind shove. I managed a crook on the cinder block ledge then front board the new bench for my only remote satisfaction of the day. If I had known I was actually that sore I wouldn’t have tried to skate.

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.6 ventures hollow axle 3 washers on the inside of each axle, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, new balance numeric 212 size 12 nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain 8/10)

I got to Broomfield park around 11. The crew was already there in the heat of the battle. Kevin was trying nollie noseslides. Rob lining out to no comply boardslides. Dave L casual nose mannies. Eric was charging back 50s. I had a new setup that I pretty much disliked out of the gate. Of course. I think it was the new wheels/bearings combo which is tough at a skatepark. It was so smooth it felt like I was gliding on ice. Anyway, I started slow and never really got going. I had a goal of noseslide back 270 out which I tried, but did not get close to. I also did a PJ inspired crooks to fakie then fakie bigflip on flat (jessup had just posed him do a crooks to fakie then quick fakie crooks bigflip out and I figured I’d do at least 2/3 of the line (which has since been taken down so I couldn’t link to it)). Kevin also got nollie crooks. Rob put in a journeyman effort on pop shove llipslides. Man he was close. He also pounded out tricks like front tail, back 50 back 180 and many more. Eric heelflipped the parking block, crushed lipslides, back 50s. Dave L almost got nose manny nollie back 180 on the brown pad. I’m missing a ton. I tend to do that when I skate bad.

After lunch and some basketball with Ollie I went and skated flatground at the school.  I was feeling sore so started with nollie shoves, fakie shoves.  Then kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip took way too long.  Started trying the thing where the end of one 2 trick line is the start of the next 2 trick line.  So next was fakie flip then halfcab flip.  Halfcab flip then b/s flip.  B/s flip then fakie bigflip.  Fakie bigflip then varial flip.  Varial flip then heelflip.  At this point I was so dead from skating earlier and then basketball with Ollie.  But I went for heelflip then treflip.  I got so tired on heelflips that I would only even try like 1/5 of them and I missed the few treflips I tried.  I gave up, but was happy I skated.  I’ve come to realize that a lot of my sucking lately is because I’m too embarrassed to skate around people.  I wont try basics that I’m not good at and therefore I can’t expand upon them.  Argh.  I guess I need to just deal with it. 

(setup 8.38 null smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, 5.6 ventures hollow axle 3 washers on the inside of each axle, spitfire 51mm green slag radial 99a f4, new balance numeric 212 size 12 nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain 5/10)

Had the day off work. I met Hayden, Bo, Joe and Riley at Sping Canyon. Yes, Riley! I was wearing my 212s in hopes of better board feel, less knee pain, less frustration. They may have helped, I didn’t hate myself at least. But I was starting to try, starting to feel a little better when a kickflip primo’d and took out my elbow taking me down a few levels. Ugh. Hayden was shredding, lipslides down the pringle, mannies, tricks that may not sound that hard, but when you see the way he does them they are. Riley was doing lots of switch nose manual, fakie shove switch manual, smith and back tail the bench easy. Bo had his cruiser so wasn’t trying as hard as normal, but had some really nice ollies. Joe was skating an 8″ and trying hardflip manuals. And he was close. I came close to switch 180 manual and had a crooks on the bench first try, but other than that didn’t really do anything. I left unsatisfied once again, but at least not in a ton of pain.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm classic shape 99a f4, new balance. numeric 212 salmon size 12 nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Made a wet drive to a somehow dry Frederick park after dinner to meet the Dave’s and Will. We started on the bank to curb area. Dave L and Will were going for slappies. I was trying kickflips to fakie. The key word there is “trying” because it took like 7 freakin’ tries to get a kickflip to fakie. i was about to lose it. Dave F showed and immediately did some long boardslides around the curb. The manny pad area was the only thing that was kind of crowded. Kids sitting on the rounded one was annoying. I never found any rhythm and the only thing of note was getting remotely close to a nollie inward heel over the hump. Dave F was doing amazing back tails on the curb. He would either land it or slam incredibly hard. It was brutal. He had front tails too. Dave L had front tail, slappy, kickflip the hump. Will had slappy feeble, 50’d the long narrow hubba. Dave L had to leave soon so he said “let’s play a quick game of SKATE”. Ha ha “quick”. Will joined us. It was a struggle for all of us. Will had rolled his ankle so can’t really kickflip which eliminated a lot of my tricks, but he subbed in heelflips. Dave was somehow the first one out. He stuck around to try and see Will and I finish, but we went so long he had to leave. Ha. I had gotten halfcab flip and heelflip, but didn’t really try much else. I somehow won with a f/s cab. I was hating the Lakai’s. After that I didn’t really skate, my legs had shut down and refused to ollie. Dave F had been ripping the whole time. Nose manuals, fakie ollies on the steep bank, kickflip on it, quick up to noseslide fakie, front 180 up the kicker. Dude is the best. Garrett showed at the end and did some pretty amazing stuff first try like smith the bump to ledge, bigflip the big hip, manual the tall pad, etc. I left feeling very depressed about skating.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 52mm classic shape 99a f4, lakai carrol xlk grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After another snowstorm dropped 9″ of snow the sun came out. It wasn’t very warm though so not as much had melted as I hoped. Liz had the car so I just walked over to the school after work. The area by the curbs was mostly dry, but the curbs had snow on them. I had some new shoes. Some Lakai Carrol XLKs. They seem potentially good, but were very weird on day one. Even though the sole isn’t physically thick, they felt really thick skating. I struggled to jump and flick in them. I started off really basic, struggled with the beginning of flip tricks. I did have a couple decent lines though. Halfcab flip (which took way too long), b/s flip, fakie flip in one line. Actually, that’s probably the only decent line ha ha. I would eventually get a rocketed heelflip followed by a terrible treflip, but everything was a struggle. Fakie flip then f/s halfcab flip. I would get a few more tricks, but couldn’t get nollie varial flip or tre, no front heel. I ended forcing myself to do fakie bigflip and f/s halfcab heel. I shouldn’t get too upset as I was on super rough uneven asphalt in the cold, but I was. Not a good first session in the Lakais.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 53mm spitfire f4 99a conical full red/blue swirl, lakai carrol xlk grey size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a nice day I woke up from a nap and decided on campus. I was really wanting to hit the hallway ledge and do halfcab flip then noseslide. I kind of lapped around campus before ending up at the little two stair to warm up. There’s a little bank up to the steps, so it feels like a bank to curb. A very mellow bank to curb yes, but I still like it. I haven’t really skated it that way before. I really want to rub brick/wax it up. I was hurting pretty bad still, started with nosestall 270s, nollie tails, eventually some pivots and front tails. Then trick kickflip pivot and front tail 270 shove for a bit. I went across the street to the hallway spot where I absolutely made a fool of myself. I was trying to fakie flip with the tiniest bit of speed and slammed in front of a window with a student sitting there. So I gave up on the 3 trick line and just tried the halfcab flip into the bank. It didn’t come easy this time, but I would get the line twice. I wanted to try treflip into the “bank” too, but I wasn’t feeling it. I did a really slow crooks then lurked some other spots. Most of which either had snow or sand and I ended up just going home feeling pretty defeated. I had tried some thinner insoles which did reduce some knee pain, but then seemed to make everything else worse. Argh.

(setup 8.5 null jack pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger no big washer, 53mm spitfire f4 99a conical full red/blue swirl, new balance numeric 22 maroon size 12, footprint 3.5mm insoles)
(pain level 6/10)