Another day, another setup change. This one seemed to work. NB 212s, 8.25, Thunder 148 Team Hollows and Bones 52mm. I started at the Valmont park to pump the legs and get them working. I tried to skate the little pond area with the fun noping all. I just did a couple basics and managed to avoid not getting hit by bmxers. I heard a young scooter kid ask his rollerblading dad “Is this another pump track?” Yeah, that’s how much it resembles a pump track. I tried to skate the bank for a bit, but the flyouts were too much. So I went over to the ledges. It wasn’t crowded, but the two sets of people were filming everything. I would skate my best since hurting my achilles. Which isn’t saying much, but I did a few thing that made me happy. Finally nose mannied the little pad, my first front 50 shove on the little ledge, halfcab noseslides and crooks the benches. Kinda close to a no push line of boardslide a bench, crooks the next one, kick back 50 the little pad. Had several frontside slappies and slappy crooks, a slow back 50 the little ledge, a few fakie flips and halfcab flips. I had pushed kind of normally for awhile, but then my achilles started to hurt and I got tired so I called it a day even though I hadn’t done a treflip.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 team hollows, bones 52mm 103a v1, new balance numeric 212 white size 12 with nb# 272 insoles)

On a warm day Kevin and I got a late start and got to Fossil around 2. We skated for a couple hours starting at the top area. I really struggled to pop, do flippers, everything. My board felt like a tank. I had a fun run done very slowly: noseslide to fakie then switch front nose shove. Kevin did back tail then close to kick back 50. I managed a new trick on the curb inspired by Joe. Front smith to front 50. Kinda fun. Then we went down to the main ledge. There were a few others skating and they were fun to skate with. There was a Puig guy, really slow tech trick guy and sit down guy who could get up and do a trick then sit more. Kevin shredded. Lines of back 50 then back smith, front smith then nollie nosegrind attempt. He would get kick back tail too! I stunk it up. Barely got a couple crooks, switch front noses, noseslides to fakie, took forever to get a front 50 and a Glen 50. Then at the end I could barely ollie up the ledge and when I finally did I couldn’t get kickflip off. Argh.

We went to Northside and met up with Hayden, Noe along with several others there shredding. I tried several bigflips on the bank and never came close, did a few little hump ollies up top and an axle stall. Kevin did some switch flips on the bank, crooks the flat bar. Seeing Noe and Hayden skate there was awesome. Noe landed a million flippers. Hayden put together some fun creative lines. The fakie hard! Dang. Then we had a fun time at the Launch event. Whew.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer night skate deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger bones medium bushings, 51mm green radial slag f4 99a wheels, new balance numeric 272 black size 12, custom high/low insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After another stressful day I went to dog park to meet Dave and Eric. We started at a crowded Greenblock. Warming up was kind of whatever for me, I definitely did not have pop and the achilles hurt a little more than the day before. I don’t remember doing much of anything before realizing Dave had gone over to the skatepark so I joined him. It wasn’t too mobbed with people. Dave was doing some little grinds in the pump track area managing to time it so he didn’t get hit. I finally grinded over the rainbow. Dave did too. Eric would come and do it first try. Dave had some good nollies over the hip, nollie 180s and even nollie cabs! So sick. Also no comply pole jams regular and switch. Eric got the pole jam, ollied the hip to the upper deck, back disasters on the volcano. I continued my streak of being almost undefeated with bigflips on the bank, kickflip to fakie, posed some kickflips elsewhere and basically spent two hours trying backside flip onto the upper deck. It was cool seeing Brendan there. There was also another dude trying tricks on the hip too. He started with b/s 180, nollie back 180, kickflip, back heel. So sick. He was cool and had one of the best quotes in a while. When I told him “you should just do the backside flip first try and put me out of my misery” he responded with “I’m 37 and I’ve got manners”. Ha. Dave and I had a good laugh. Dave and Eric left and Mr Manners decided to film me as I was close to the b/s flip. I would eventually get it, albeit very badly, but I was still hyped. I left on a good note.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer night skate deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger bones medium bushings, 53mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a wheels, new balance numeric 272 black size 12, custom high/low insole)
(pain level 3/10 achilles and knees from being in skate shoes again)