Feeling a little less sore I went and met Sean and JJ at the dog park after a mellow morning with the family. It was almost 80 degrees! Suns out guns out! Ha ha. I was skating my 8.5 setup. Again I didn’t like how it felt, but it didn’t feel too small or too big at any point. Sean was working on fakie 5-0s the tall bench as well as nollie back 5-0 front 180 out which he would get a couple of. And he grinded them far. JJ is a shredder. He did front board around the kinked flatbar, nollie front lips, back lips, front boards, lots of tricks. I didn’t get too far into my list or skate very hard, but it was a nice chill session. I still managed to get a switch crook jib, switch noseslide 270 shove, front 50s, a couple flippers. Hucked quite a few kickflip crooks which still feel realistic, but I never committed. Oh yeah and I had some new pink 212s.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm f4 101a radial slims, new balance numeric 212 salmon size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Feeling way to sore to skate, but wanting to see everyone I went to curbs. Dave L, Saul, Rob and Ed were there. I did two slappy crooks and one front slappy. I could barely push my hip hurt so bad. Dave L had some nice 50s and a f/s slappy to tail that was sick. Also back 5-0 to manual to back 5-0. Saul had his normal slappies and landed every slappy crook I saw him try. Ed had some good ol’ long slappies and poppy ollies. Rob went pretty hard. Had good manuals and nose manuals, back 50 shove (I think), no comply shoves, bean plants, front tails and a bunch more. Sorry for being that guy that just sat and talked.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

On a warm morning I drove down the Parker and met Rob and Jake at the park. It wasn’t crowded, but there were quite a few more people than expected. Some old guys in pads and kids on big wheels. I was there first and had done a couple laps, but those guys showed quickly. My board was really feeling huge so I got the 8.25 out briefly, but it felt really small and dumb. Rob was manualling and nose manualling the manny pad right away. Quick up to back 50s too. I was kinda just doing basics around the park feeling a little overwhelmed with the options. Pretty quickly I had a fun little line of boardslide the flat bar then cali grind up/across/down the pyramid. I got Jake to boardslide it. I had a run of crooks the ledge then nose manny the low pad. Went through a few frontside ledge basics. Jake and I skated the bank to ledge starting with noseslide to fakie and noseslide. We battled for crooks. I got a little one first. Jake got better ones to fakie then eventually followed it up with f/s halfcab off the tall ledge. I saw rob get back 50s, front 50, halfcab boardslide, halfcab noseslide, nollie lip and probably more on the ledge. Jake and I battled a super long line for awhile. Ollie off the ledge into the kicker, boardslide the flatbar, wallie up the bank to ledge then ollie a 4 stair. There were a few factors working against us like kids playing on the 4 stair area and the fact that the line was basically a lap around the park. I got to the 4 stair and splatted like 3 times hard on my hip before finally getting the line. Jake would get it next try. Rob had done some tricks on the bank like one foots and kickflips. Then I skated the ledge some more and tried to rattle off some tricks. I got front 50 to front rock, nollie front tail, front smith, halfcab noseslide, crooks, crooks shove, crooks to fakie then started trying crooks bigspin. I got pretty close a few times, but ended up getting too tired and chatted with Rob and Jake for awhile.

Then Jake and I went to Greenwood. Upon getting out of the car I was much more sore than anticipated. I would never do anything beyond a noseslide and had a bad slam on a back 180 in which I kind of rolled my ankle and slammed onto my already aching hip. Ugh. That was it for me. It was cool to see the new stuff there, maybe with more energy and less pain I would like it. Jake had some good pole jams, kickflips and nollie back 180 the kicker.

(setup 8.75 null spanbauer night deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 6.1 with stock bushings no big washer, spitfire 53mm conical full f4 99a red/blue, new balance numeric 212 cake size 12, footprint elite mid insoles)
(pain level 3/10 at Parker then 9/10 at Greenwood)