Running later than anticipated I met up with Rob, Sean and Kevin at dog park on a bright and sunny Sunday. I was sore from so much skating the day before and would not skate as well, but still had a couple highlights for me. Kickflip to fakie a wedge followed by fakie bigflip. Also a line of front smith stall the little ledge, crooks a bench, nollie back tail the manny pad ledge. Not much else for me, I ended trying the nollie front tail 270 shove for awhile and would get a few before getting a clean one. It hyped me up. Rob was shredding. Back 50s, nollie lip transfer the green block, boardslide transfers, manuals, much more. Kevin was trying a board with a smaller wheelbase and ended up hating it. He tried to skate through it and still did some amazing stuff, but ended up sitting after awhile. He still did nollie front nosegrind, back 180 nosegrind, back tails, nollie flips, all kinds of tricks I’m jealous of. Sean is just getting back on his feet after a rolled ankle, but man he was looking good. Lines of nollie back nosgrind, front nosegrind the upper deck, front tail the tall bench, front tail the C ledge. Nollie back nosgrind back 180, halfcab nose manual 180. Some good flippers too. I did a kickflip on his board and it felt so good. Maybe I’ll try that same setup next time ..

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer night skate, jessup ultra grip, venture 5.8 titaniums, venom 91a bushings no big washer, 50mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After some work that put me in a foul mood I went to Longmont to meet Rob and Dave at Rocky Mountain. It’s the first time I’ve been there since they paved it an it’s oh so good. It was sunny and beautiful and a perfect temperature. Dave and I arrived at the same time. Rob was there already along with another dude. It was Rob’s first time on the board after a trip to Ireland. He looked great. Things seemed to start pretty good. I had some nervous work energy to burn and it felt great to push on some fresh asphalt. Flip tricks started working and would keep working. I had more energy than normal and wearing cupsoles gave me a bit more confidence. Rob had manuals, back 50s, back 180 fakie 50, boardslides to fakie, boardslide 270 I think, them famous back 180s, much more. He looked great for not being on the board for a couple months. I skated the best I have since hurting my achilles. Well, actually even before considering how long it was hurting. I had a lot of flippers, sometimes even doing them several times in a row like heelflip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, some bad b/s flips, f/s halfcab flips, one terrible treflip. I hucked a lot more. Got on front pivot on the ledge, an accidental back 5-0 that was supposed to be 50, crooks, noseslides, halfcab noseslide. Got a sketchy kick back 50 on the curb, switch front 50, slappies. At one point got a sketchy f/s halfcab noseslide on the ledge. Dave is the energizer bunny. He took awhile to get going, but really put some stuff down once he did. Lots of switch front noses on the ledge and curb, nollie 50, nollie 5-0, switch back 50, front 180 nose manual 180 the median on the bank. I was beat so sat and filmed him almost get a nollie front 180 switch 50, but he gave up and settled for the long noseslide through the grate and the back 180 fakie 50 shove. He got a cleaner one too. At that point I got up and skated too, mostly just slappies. We did the run up to switch ride down the median, Dave got the halfcab out. Then we was beat. Such a fun day. I needed it so bad after a tough week of work.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer night skate, jessup ultra grip, venture 5.8 titaniums, venom 91a bushings no big washer, 50mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 1/10)

After another terrible day of work I went to Broomfield park shortly after dinner on a cool night. There was just a few other people there besides Kevin. I had changed my setup once again. 8.3, venture titaniums, 50mm wheels. It felt mostly dreamy. After a brief stint in the blue pad / quarterpotty area I followed Kevin over to the black ledge where he was trying to do his age in tricks (36). I hadn’t skated a tall ledge like that in months. Kevin was rattling off tricks and verbally counting. I had some fun noseslides, crooks. Took a long time to get halfcab noseslide, couldn’t get crooks shove, struggled to ollie up onto the pad but front 180’d up first try. Didn’t get many flippers even though they felt alright. Took a long time to get a super slow front 50. Kevin had finished his 36 tricks with a banger two in a row – kick back tail then front blunt. Wow. All in all I’m happy I skated even if it was terrible. Pushing felt fine at least and I was starting to pop again.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer night skate, jessup ultra grip, venture 5.8 titaniums, venom 91a bushings no big washer, 50mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 custom split insole)
(pain level 2/10)

Made a tiny bit of space in the garage on a colder windy night. I was feeling a little run down so didn’t want to go out in the cold. I rotated between my 8.25 and 8.5 setups while warming up with some ultra basics. Work has me down. When it came to kickflips I took several tries. I got one on the 8.25 and a few on the 8.5. Went inside very bummed on my work/life/skate situation.

(setups 8.25/8.5 and new balance 272s)