skate journal: johns ramp in lakewood for neil’s birthday (july 7, 2021)
Directly after a stressful day of work I bolted to meet up with Rob, Neil, Dave and we drove to Lakewood. It was hot. The ramp had been done since last time we were there. It was crazy how fast the coping was and how smooth the ramp was. It took some getting used to. Jake was there as was John the owner who only skated switch on his daughters 7.5″ board. Ha ha. He had some good switch carves, axle stall, switch back smith. Dave had been there recently and it showed. Grinds over the hips, around the bowl corner like it was nothing. He would get up to back tail over the hip, switch crook the mellow corner, back d, backside ollies over the hip. It’s really hard to describe how hard he ripped. Jake was quick on the grind over the hip too, he would get a few. He had some nice grinds around the bowl corner too, lots of front 5-0s and the only one to successfully get the ollie transfer. I battled the transfer with him and landed something, but I never got enough transition. It was fun hucking though. I also had some fun back 50s, a few other rampy tricks and a couple back disasters on the tiny qp (couldn’t get the treflip after though doh). Rob’s carves through the corner are incredible, fast slash grinds, back 50s. Neil got some rampnesia again, even on the little 3′ wall. But man he flowed around that bowl slashing grinds and ollies when he got in there.
(setup 8.25 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate with riptides v-hollow hanger, 3 washers inside each axle, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing, spitfire f4 99a 50mm classic shape, es switch b/w size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)