On a really nice and warm day Cass and I rolled through LOCO then met Rob and Hayden at Berthoud park. We looked at the pump track, carved around the bowl a bit then decided a game of SKATE to warm up was a good idea. Cass was first out quickly again. Ha, he just can’t land tricks in SKATE. Hayden would go on to win as expected. I was happy to get close to a fakie tre though. I mostly flailed around on the ledges going slow and doing noseslides. In between filming Hayden I had been trying to line out all 3 ledge and came up with a few noseslide variations. I had done a few crooks on the second ledge. Hayden wanted to film me and in some miracle I did my line first try. Noseslide to fakie, halfcab noseslide, noseslide, kickflip fakie. I was so hyped. Cass had some noseslides too, front tails going up the middle ledge. Rob had taken off pretty quick. Hayden got a couple banging lines and managed not to collide with scooter kids that were not aware of skatepark flow at all. The bluntslide was so fast, the crooks were every try, the treflip into the bank so good and the first try nollie b/s flip ha ha.

Then we met Noé and Bo at Fossil. I was really sore. I mostly filmed. Noé said he hadn’t really halfcab flipped any stairs before then would do like 10 in a row. Hayden did some cool manuals. Cass almost did some cool manuals. Bo had a bunch of energy and back 50d the rail, 5-0 kickflip out the ledge. Then we went down below and I was starting to get more into my groove trying some crooks variations and trying to nose manual when I got called for work. Ugh. Took care of that then hit MRKT and hung with Eric.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 50mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 272 black size 12 half insoles then 288S later)
(pain 5/10)

Woke up early on a Friday and I like skating early on Fridays so I’m less sore on Saturday.  I had another setup change and I liked it.  But man the first couple pushes I thought my knee may give out.  Ugh.  I would go on to skate pretty well for a bit and felt agile.  Had some fun warm ups and little pops over the hips.  Had a couple warm up lines going.  West I did noseslide to fakie then fakie big the hump.  Then crooks followed by kickflip over the front hump which I did not do well.  East I tried a line of front disaster, kickflip the back hump, front 50 shove.  Never got the kickflip.  I had put tablets on, I blame them and their dumb square non-flipping shape.  Pain started to kick in pretty fierce.  Argh.  I was trying front 50 back 180 the bank to ledge and front 50 shove the bench.  Was close, but got neither.  After a while I slammed on a noseslide on the bank to ledge and slammed way harder than I should and decided to call it.  Argh.  Skated terrible again.  I did mostly like my setup though.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 52mm spitfire f4 99a tablets, 288s grey 11.5 no insoles)
(pain 6/10)

I hyped up the tennis courts to Rob as a chill alternative to the dog park.  And luckily when we arrived there was no one else, but it would soon get quite crowded.  Argh.  Guess it has been empty for me since it’s been winter.  Cass showed pretty quickly too.  I was wearing different shoes and had a major setup change so nothing felt good to me.  I would have some okay crooks, switch front noseslides, a slow fakie front 50, slappy crooks and a couple slow kickflips.  Rob had manuals, nose manuals, almost no comply shove manual, halfcab nose and halfcab boards.  Cass manualled the ledge, back 50, can’t slappy crook, switch board the parking block, a good heelflip.  We started a game of SKATE.  Somehow within a couple minutes Cass was out and neither Rob or I had any letters.  Donnie showed and we got to chatting/skating so the game never continued.  Donnie did a few basics, but mostly skated fast and didn’t launch over the fence or anything ha.  I didn’t skate very well and was kinda bumming that the warmer weather means other people will be skating there.  Oh well, luckily there are like 4 parks now.

(setup null smoke valley 8.5, jessup pj ultragrip, royal inverted 144, spitfire f4 99a classic 52, 272 black 12 half insole)
(pain 5/10)

Arrived to a mostly empty Square House as I was pretty early.  Took a couple runs on the ramp, then Dave showed and went to the park section so I did too.  After a while Bryan from Sk8 Ratz joined and we mostly skated the park side just the three of us for a couple of hours.  Warming up was difficult!  I’ve been in a lot of pain lately and I don’t know why.  It’s been a few days so I don’t remember the sequence of things very well.  The first thing I remember was a nollie bigspin on the bank, maybe a few slappies.  It was nice being able to start slow in the middle of the park.  Dave and I had started to get things going when Bryan showed.  Had some fun noseslides and eventually crooks on the bump to ledge and took too many tries to get kickflip to fakie on the bank.  Dave would get some solid 50s and almost back 180 out.  Bryan had front 50 shove and front tail, close to fakie big tail.  We spent a lot of time on the euro.  I took wayyyy to long to get a couple kickflips then could not get the hip b/s flip after.  Bryan got a Glennish looking treflip (IE 270 flip and not clean) and kickflip.  Dave would line out pop shove further and further until he got it.  He was the only one grinding the diamond cut coping, some fun frontside grinds across/down the new feature.  I was trying to back 50 across down and totally hung up with the kingpin which immediately ended all hope of me sticking with my setup on venture lows.  We eventually went over to the ramp.  Eric, Brian, Tom, Billy were there.  Seemed like those guys were having fun.  I don’t remember a whole lot other than me bailing axle stalls and the knee pain being too much to keep skating.  Dave was funny and did a bunch of front 50s right after Eric made fun of them.  I get the diss, even if I think that trick is fun.  It was a fun night, I need to figure out why I’m hurting so bad these days.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S grey 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)