On a super nice day I managed to leave work at a decent time and get to dog park. It wasn’t too crowded surprisingly and there were even a couple older dudes at the start. I did a couple rock ‘n rolls on the low part of the barrier then some slappies to get the legs going. I didn’t skate great or bad, just kinda in the middle. Couldn’t get nose manual again, made myself finally try some nosegrinds on the medium pad, but was never too close. I hucked for awhile and it was fun. Got close to kickflip back 50 and remotely close to kickflip crooks. Got the most basic of flippers and stalled out when it came to fakie bigflip and treflip. I think I’m over the big hefty setup. Time to lighten the pop a little, but still stick with the big board.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 ti axle royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10 some knee and achilles pain but man the achilles is finally doing somewhat better again!)

After debating a lazy night I picked up Saul and we rolled to Frederick where we met Mike and Garrett. There was almost no one when we arrived. We started in the little bowl which I had only skated once before and this time it was actually fun. I would have some fun carve lines then ended with a run that had axle stall and rock ‘n roll in the shallow. I was hyped on that. Mike had some good lines with front slashes and lots of backside carve grinds. Saul hit coping on basically every wall. Then we went down to the main area. We mostly skated the curb area for awhile or did laps around. Kinda hard seeing what others did. Saul got a couple slappies, had a good bail, went back up to the bowls for most of the night. Mike had some good slappies, wallrides, wallies. Garrett was doing super fast switch manuals, tricks over the pyramid ledge, super good slappies, b/s flips the big hip every try. I skated okay, but nothing special. Was happy to get a 2nd try ollie up the tall pad, halfcab noseslide, crooks, but couldn’t get nose manual or backside flip over the hip. The whole time we were there this dude was trying a long run ending with kickflip boardslide. he never got it, but he did end up getting all the tricks. The kf boardslide was sick.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 ti axle royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Broomfield shortly before dark after a rough day at work. I had put ventures on my 8.5, left everything else the same. This is my last round of comparing venture vs royal. I didn’t really like the ventures much, they are so hefty. Skating was alright though since the lights never turned on we only had about 15 minutes of skating which means I never got to the frustrating tricks. Sean did some basics for him which I would have freaked out over.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 ti axle royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)