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)

After a long drive down from the mountains with my brother I got away for about an hour of skating at valmont/dog park. I started in the park at first. I was on my 8.5 setup. It felt big and also better. I had a couple kickflips to fakie that took more effort, but felt really good. Also a few grinds, but the pump trackers showed up and made it not worth it. Went over to dog park where I still did not skate very well, but somehow had more success with flippers. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flips both ways. Halfcab noseslides felt better, pop was okay, hucking was kinda fun. Achilles didn’t feel very good.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 custom split insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achilles and soreness everywhere probably from drinking and eating like crap)

After a busy day at work I went to Valmont/dog park. Tried to avoid getting hit by pumpers for awhile. Took several tries to get a kickflip fakie on the mellow bank which was the start of my frustrations. Had troubles popping ollies over the little pumps. Went over to dog park and with the exception of one switch front noseslide and a halfcab flip I sucked so incredibly bad. Couldn’t hardly ollie or anything.

(setup null 8.25 glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows with 3 washers inside each axle, venom 91a bushings both washers, 1/16 riser, spitfire f4 99a 53mm classic shape, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 with custom split insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Woke up early after a good night of sleep and went right to getting ready to skate. I got there just as the sun was starting to peak out. I had the parks all to myself basically except for a mountain biker, tweaker and a fully padded skater just riding on the sidewalk. I did a few pumps, grinded the rainbow, carved the barrier. Then hit the bank for a bit. First try kickflip to fakie, kickflip took a few tries, couldn’t get a bigflip or treflip in 5 tries. Then I tried the noseslide followed by kickflip fakie. At first it seemed so impossible and I couldn’t get my feet setup for kickflip. After about 10 tries it started to feel possible though and I got it. Made me happy. I went over to the dog park after that. Everything felt harder there. I skated around for a bit then didn’t really feel like pushing and risking my achilles so I just did single tricks I could throw down instead of pushing. The manual took at least 10 tries, the nose manual about 5. Did halfcab flip and b/s flip. Then mostly skated the little ledge. Front 50 came easy, front 5-0 was hard, front 50 shove was hard, back 50 was hard. The fakie 50 felt cool. I tried kickflip 50 took like 10 minutes straight and as you can see I didn’t really lock in. It still felt cool. I was skating hard, trying hard, that’s all I can ask.

(setup null 8.25 glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows with 3 washers inside each axle, venom 91a bushings both washers, 1/16 riser, spitfire f4 99a 53mm classic shape, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 with custom split insoles)
(pain level 1/10! didn’t push much though to risk the achilles pain)

After working 12+ hours on a Saturday I slept in, did some chores, nursed a bit of a hangover. Mid afternoon I met Joe and Garrett at dog park. It was a nice afternoon. I didn’t feel too good on my board initially or ever, but I mostly skated hard. Joe started out with hardflips and front 50s the tallest bar in the park. So gnarly. Garrett flowed around like he do. He went in on front tail kickflip out over the manny pad and would never quite get it. He did get crooks to fakie over it though, followed by switch manual. I skated alright, definitely the most regular pushing I’ve done and it kinda hurt after a while. Had some crooks, halfcab noseslides, front 50s on the taller manny pad, 3/50 on nose manuals, close to kick back 50s, almost landed a nollie bigflip in front of Garrett, did some weird f/s halfcab noseslide things (I say things because they were more like kickturns with my nose scraping the ledge), came remotely close to crooks shove, some slow back 50s, didn’t get far in the flip trick bag, had lots of fun fs slappies. Garrett filmed me at the end as shown above. I had gotten really tired.

(setup null 8.25 glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows with 3 washers inside each axle, venom 91a bushings both washers, 1/16 riser, spitfire f4 99a 53mm classic shape, new balance numeric 212 cream size 12 with 272 insoles)
(pain level 3/10 achilles/heel pain right foot)

Stuck helping a coworker all day. Had a 15 minute break at one point so hit the curbs. The low trucks and big wheels were weird for slappies, but whatevs. There were some old dudes skating the upper part over the death box. I stuck to myself since I was on super limited time. I could tell work was wearing on me and my motivation. I had some slappies, slappy crooks, couldn’t get slappy front crooks. Did one fakie flip that barely made it around. Last run was a front 180 off the curb cut which felt really good.

(setup null 8.25 glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows with 3 washers inside each axle, venom 91a bushings both washers, 1/16 riser, spitfire f4 99a 53mm classic shape, new balance numeric 212 cream size 12 with 272 insoles)
(pain level 1/10)

Woke up super early because I was stressed out about work. Rather than login and work another 10+ hour day I went skating. I started at Valmont park. Oh, and I had changed my setup. Considering my unhappiness with my skating I wanted something that makes me happy. 8.25 with Venture lows. That’s my jam. However this time I put some larger wheels on – 53mm Spits. It made for a good ride, didn’t feel as low as normal without tiny wheels. And somehow with both washers the wheelbite wasn’t bad. I pumped around, laughed at some of the stupidity of the Evergreen park, struggled with b/s flips on the bank, did a lot of ollies to fakie on the triangle wedge. Last run was pretty fun something like a little front slash the tiny qp up top, somewhat wallie the barrier corner, kickflip to fakie the bank.

As I rolled over to the park there was a tweaker dude smoking weed and he said “Are you a bitch ass cop?” Cracked me up. I was like ‘Do I look like a cop?’ and he said ‘You’d be surprised at how many times I’ve had the cops called on me.” No, actually I wouldn’t. But he played some good Dr Dre and kept his distance so it was cool. There was a big puddle near taller manny pad which prevented skating it like a ledge which was a big bummer. I didn’t skate great, but probably the best since hurting the achilles. I would get a few slow flippers like kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, fakie bigfip, heelflip, almost nollie tre, but couldn’t get close to treflip. I had a nose manual on the small pad, manuals on the taller pad and tried front shove out of a few. No real ledge stand out tricks. I ended it with a fun line of switch front 180 a parking block, back 180 the parking block mound, fakie flip on flat, fakie 50 halfcab out the tiny curb.

(setup null 8.25 glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows with 3 washers inside each axle, venom 91a bushings both washers, 1/16 riser, spitfire f4 99a 53mm classic shape, new balance numeric 212 cream size 12 with 272 insoles)
(pain level 1/10)