Another nice day. I met Rob and Eric at dog park shortly after 11. My achilles was feeling much better and I had some new wide toe shoes to try out. Some Splay Freestyle shoes. They are so wide I even wore my toe spreaders which was pretty odd, but kind of amazing. Although they are so wide they made my board feel tiny. I didn’t do much and struggled to land anything. One little line I liked was nollie front tail to fakie the taller pad then switch front nose 270 out a bench. Also had a bunch of fun front slappies the low pad. Rob did some front nose 270s, manuals both pads, back 50s, boardslide transfers and got hyped for a vert ramp. Heelflipping Eric almost got up onto the pad, helped a dude learning boardslides, got denied by the sticky bench on crooks, fast front 50s.

Then after a run to 303, some lunch and chilling with Liz I ended up on the side of the school to skate flatground. I was armed with a 10×10 list from Nate and my 8.5″ setup since the wide shoes made my board feel so small earlier. I was reminded that 8.5 is just a little too big. But overall I think these shoes have potential. After a brief warmup I went into the list.

Kickflip – got one first try then a better one in a few tries
fakie flip – barely got one
Halfcab flip – got a couple but they weren’t easy
Fakie bigflip – first try and got another bad one
Varial flip – took 11 tries, don’t tell the judges
Heelflip – barely held onto one
360 flip – got close a couple times
Nollie back big – I mean maybe it counts on defense?
Nollie f/s flip – not close
switch varial flip – not close
7/10 Not terrible for me. 8.5 is definitely too big

(setup 8.25 early, 8.5 later, ventures, bones wheels, splay freestyle gray size 12 with naboso activation insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On an absolutely gorgeous day I drove to Longmont to meet an epic crew at Rocky Mountain. Luzius was in town and he had called the session. Rob, Dave L and I were there first and kinda got going, but it was fun talking and catching up with people as everyone filtered in. Kevin, Fuller, Eric and Ivan, Saul. My achilles was still pretty bad and I would manage to only push regular a couple time over 3 hours at a street spot. I managed to mostly push switch, throw down or just drop in for speed. Since I’m already talking about me I’ll keep at it. For the most part I didn’t do anything even though I hucked a lot. Had some fun crooks, noseslides after dropping in. Somehow beat Kevin to a warm up line of drop in, slappy crooks to fakie, fakie ollie up the curb, switch front nose. Also a fun line of switch front 50 the curb, switch ollie up the curb, switch front nose. A rare nollie front lip the curb as well as a few really fun slappy front crooks. It’s crazy after three hours of skating and some flippers that hurt my achilles the next day I felt infinitely better. Just proves how much skate shoes suck when I can use non-skate shoes to get better. Next I’ll go with Dave L since he was visiting. I liked his quote saying the ledge got taller. Some nice manuals on the medians and almost manualling down the bank too. Still the easiest looking pops up curbs that I am super jealous of. He doesn’t even seem to need to think about it. Rob killed it. Nollie lip body varial out! Slappy crooks, manual, halfcab nose the ledge, back 50 back 180, maybe a back lip, back smith, a lot I’m forgetting. Ivan learned a slappy, also front pivot on the bank to curb. Eric put a rad line together. I forget the the start, but it had a nice heelflip on the speed bump, pop up the curb and wallride a rock. Front lip the curb, crooks the ledge I think, and always a rad hype man. Kevin took a long time to get the warm up run, then mostly stuck to the curb doing back 180 fakie 50 variations. Fakie ollie out, halfcab out, fakie bigspin out. Saul was doing the most casual slappies over and over in a loop. I want to see him do 50 in a row come his birthday. Fuller skated some of the best I’ve seen in awhile. Boardlides to fakie the ledge, manuals on the median, switch front nose the ledge and was the last man standing. Fun day with a fun crew.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 awake lows with 1/16″ riser and bones medium bushings washers on top and bottom, 52mm bones v1 stf 103a with 3 washers inside axles, xero prio b/w size 12 nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 5/10 achilles)