Went to dog park on a very smoky day. The Evergreen dudes were having a private session on their new park. I was bumming watching them. Dave was running late. Luckily Dennis and some of the other younger CU crowd showed up and brought some hype. I gave Dennis some kickflip tips and he landed one. He gave me some nollie heel tips and I didn’t land one. Situation normal. I had tried my old 212s for a bit to see if they reduce achilles pain. They did. But they were also so thin I couldn’t commit to anything with them. So I went back to the Swifts and they were fine for awhile. Dog park sessions are the hardest to blog as they all blend in together. I had no confidence, skated mostly terrible. One line that was okay was boardslide the new bench, crooks the tall bench, slappy crooks to fakie a curb, halfcab flip (then bail a front 50). Also did switch front nose then halfcab nose/crooks (I think there was a brief crooks and that’s what I was trying but I definitely didn’t lock in like I want to). I was almost getting a crooks then treflip line when Skelly showed up and we chatted. After that I was dead tired and too sore to skate. Dave had some good stuff. I forget one line, but it was a long one. Front 50, front nose, boardslide around the beam then something else. He is getting switch front noses down too, they are so fun. We hucked a few flippers, switch tres, switch heels, all kinds of stuff. Not much was landed. I got close to a nollie varial flip.

Eventually we left for a new spot. It’s a weird bank and the curb/flat/bank is so much harder to ollie up than it looks. When we first got there we were both so stiff and sore it’s amazing we didn’t get hurt. I just remember thinking “oh great this is probably the only time this is skateable and we can’t do anything”. My achilles was very painful. Luckily we’re called The Stubborns for a reason and we stuck to it and got a few things. Dave nollied into it and front tailslid into it. I took a few tries to do a little ride on back tail to fakie on it. Riding down the bank switch was fun except the one time my foot came off and I slammed. I tried front shove to fakie, but got a weird front shove 180. Dave had front pivot to fakie. I got no comply shove and no comply bigspin. But I was dying and couldn’t ollie up the curb anymore. Dave was hurting too. We were bummed, no one was kicking us out and the spot will probably be changed or no longer skateable. Oh well, we tried, it was fun.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger venture bushings no big washer, spitfire 52mm 99a f4 classic shape, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 footprint 3mm insoles)
(pain level 6/10 achilles)

Met up with Rob and then eventually Dave at dog park. We had the briefest of warmups before Skelly invited us over to look at the new park. So we chatted with him and Emi and Andrew awhile before getting back to skating. Long hair Jake was there too, he’s rad. I tried to get through my achilles pain and did an alright job at ignoring it, but it was bad on a couple kickflip landings. I really don’t remember much about this session and it’s too many days since the session. I did get the switch front nose then fakie 50 line again. Also the boardslide, crooks, bad treflip line. Rob hadn’t skated in a bit, but after a warm up was shredding like normal. Dave was in charge mode as always. Almost got a line of front 50 then nosegrind to end it. Sorry I don’t remember more.

(setup null spanbauer night skate deck 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88/91a bushings, spitfire 50mm 99a f4 classic shape, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10 achilles)

Feeling somewhat unmotivated on my last day of working lates I ended up biking to Boulder park on a nice cool smokey morning.  There were a couple kids already there learning how to skate.  They were nice.  I carved around the old section a couple times then went into the warmup line of back 50, rock fakie, fakie front 50.  It didn’t take too long.  Then I mostly stuck to the new stuff sucking.  My achilles was acting up fierce again.  Ugh, I tried to push without lowering my heel at all and it kind of seemed to help.  I took 4 tries, 4 TRIES! to land a switch front nose on the little bench.  I tried Dave’s latest challenge to me over the micro hip – nollie bigspin revert.  I got one in a few tries that was mostly a miracle.  So then I set the phone up to document and of course couldn’t get the same results.  I did have some fun crooks on the bench to start the run out.  After that I attempted a few things, but was feeling so bad I ended up just leaving.

(setup null 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 red cast baseplate v-hollow hangers, stock bushings no big washer, 50mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 7/10 achilles)

My achilles was not hurting too bad and I had a new pair of Swifts.  There were some puddles around that I spread out and started the warm up process.  It went alright.  I had done a few none pop things before making myself do a few flippers.  Kickflip then fakie flip.  B/s flip then halfcab flip.  This put me in a good mood and the new shoes were feeling good.  Then I had to try and skate the ledges and ruined the mood.  I would get a line of front 180 into the bank, halfcab noseslide, front 50 the black ledge.  But the front 50 did not come easy.  I also tried a line of crooks the end of the up ledge, heelflip, ollie to fakie the wedge.  The heelflip took forever.  I don’t remember how the session ended, I think I just got tired and called it a session.  

(setup null 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 red cast baseplate v-hollow hangers, bones hard bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, es swift 1.5 cream size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)