After a very long and frustrating day of work I went to dog park in the 95 degree heat. I started out at the almost empty valmont park on my 8.3 setup with ace lows. I didn’t like it. Didn’t do anything special, but it was a decent little warm up. I went over to the dog park and quickly switched back to my 8.25. I did some whatever warmup then basically spent all my time trying two easy lines. I wanted to do halfcab noseslide the metal bench, then ollie the double parking blocks then a flipper. I settled for crooks then ollie and when I did that I basically manualled the curb, almost got backside flip after. Coming the other way I really wanted to do fakie shove, fakie bigflip, noseslide the cali table. I only got one fakie bigflip, couldn’t do heelflip instead so ended up giving up and doing halfcab flip instead. The noseslide on the table was not good, but it was still fun. I’m probably over venture lows again. Not sure what my next setup will be, but I doubt it will be a low truck of any brand

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 440high b/w white size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

After a drive down from BV and several hours of frustrating calls for work I went to the school to “relax” and try the most difficult aspect of skateboarding – flip tricks. After some warmup I would get kickflip and fakie flip quickly, b/s flip and halfcab flip first try. Then nothing. Absolutely nothing. Luckily it started raining to put me out of my misery.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 green/white size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a hot morning on the way to my moms we stopped at the Leadville park. Liz went for a walk. I swept the part with suck. I had worn my 440 highs in hopes of less pain than vulcs, but more board feel than the 288s. My warm up run took a bit. Ollie to fakie the bank at the entrance of the park, switch front 180 out of the bank, rock ‘n roll the bank to curb, kickflip to fakie the bank. Tried another line starting with a manual on the circle pad, but would never get a clean manual. I was hoping up it easily, but not balancing the manual. I struggled on the little ledge too. I was really upset, but had to remind myself that ledge has always been difficult for me even though it’s so low. At one point I attempted to throw my board into the concrete area near the park. I had told myself if it makes it over the fence I’d just leave it and be done. (Un)fortunately it bounced off the upright and didn’t make it in. After that I mellowed out and just hucked a little on a bank. First try kickflip. Somewhat close to fronstside halfcab heel.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 440 high b/w size 12)
(pain level 4/10 knee pain)

After a busy Friday at work I met Rob on a hot afternoon. My first day skating in shorts this year. I had also wore some cupsole 288s again and completely hated them. Seriously at no point was I happy with anything about skateboarding and I came close to focusing my board multiple times. I saw Rob get a nice nose manual around the C pad, some back 50s, halfcab board the metal bench. Ripping. I would get some fakie flips and halfcab flips, almost a front shove off the c ledge, almost fakie 50 halfcab out the small pad. JJ would show up, rip it. Rob left and I attempted to keep skating, but ended up just chatting with JJ and it was cool.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S green/gum size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knee pain wasn’t as bad but I hated the lack of board feel)

After a tough day at work and then dinner I met Skelly before 7 at Boulder park. Sean had been there a long time so he didn’t skate much. I kind of went through the motion and Sean wanted to film it. So basically everything I did is documented above. I mean I did a few of the lines multiple times and I almost manualed the bench at one point, but that’s about it. Pretty fun session.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 mostly just vulc pain)

Nice day, Rob and I had the dog park mostly to ourselves in the early evening. We played SKATE to get warmed up. Rob won it, we did quite a few no complies and stuff. I would go on to skate alright for me and I tried hard. Got quite a few flippers, but fell short of treflip variations. Came close to a line of manual the taller pad then ollie the cement A things. Had some nose manuals, crooks, typical stuff. Rob got back in the groove after his achilles flare up.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 mostly just vulc pain which i wasn’t expecting)

Sunday afternoon I rolled down to Willville to meet Rob and Dave. I had kind of hurt my left calf running again, but skating seemed okay. Rob and I got there at basically the same time, as did several youngsters who posted up on the manny pad to bank. Rob has some achilles pain so he was hyped to be able to push again. And it reminded me how happy I was that I could push again too. We would go on to have a pretty fun session. We rolled around on the bricks a bit then went to the narrow bank area. Dave had a near death experience just doing roll up then back down. We would get some front 180s out of it which was pretty scary and unrewarding. Then we were up at the brick area. I would get a few lines that sound alright, but were really slow and sketchy. Fakie flip, halfcab flip, noseslide to fakie, ride down the narrow bank against the wall and my heel dragged against the wall which was so scary. Going the other way I did a little front nose stall 270 out then ollied onto a ledge (which helped prove to me that I can ollie better on lows since I couldn’t get up that flagstone ledge a few days ago). Then I did backside flip, pop shove the little flat gap, noseslide to fakie. Then boardslide flop out the narrow ledge followed by the worst kickflip over the little flat gap. My left calf had really started hurting at this point. Dave would get some good lines too. Kickflip, back 180 the little gap, switch front nose. Switch back 180, nollie shove to quick pop shove, boardslide pop out. He had some more too. We ended at the manny pad since the kids had moved on, but my calf was hurting way too much to keep skating. Dave manualled into the bank then did a ran line of varial flip then switch back 180 up onto the pad and ride down. Fun session, wish my calf didn’t hurt so bad.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 6/10 left calf pain from running got way worse by the end of the session)

On a very bright Saturday Cass and I went to a newish park in Commerce City. Kevin and Nick would meet us shortly after we finished up a game of SKATE. I would get 3 letters on kickflip and knew immediately that my setup change was not good. I had put ace lows on and I hated them. After bailing some more kickflips I went to my car and swapped them out for Venture lows. Life was better. Kevin was shredding the park. Lots of tricks on the little rail, various 180 tricks over the hip. Cass beat me in SKATE then almost learned back tails on the micro ledge before getting too hot and sitting in the shade. I felt some stuff out before going in on the nosegrind 180 which took me forever. I mean I landed a few really bad ones. I did various lines to get there. Mostly kickflip on the bank, frontside ollie the qp hip, then the nosegrind. But it wasn’t until later when I resorted to front tail on the qp then the nosegrind 180 that I got it. Kevin had ben working on fakie b/s nosegrind 180 out and got my back. It was a rad ending. Nick had floated some beautiful flippers and nose manuals.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to campus on a gorgeous evening after work. I started on the slappy curb and did a few crooks. Then I lined out nollie front lip a parking block, manual the little median, slappy crooks before going down to that evil flagstone ledge. Flip tricks were going somewhat alright. I had 3 halfcab flips in a row and landed on a nollie varial flip. But mostly I didn’t land anything. I had the goal of ollieing onto the ledge then dropping into cali grind on the edge of the sidewalk. I thought it would happen pretty quick, but instead I would never successfully ollie up the ledge. It was maddening and threw me directly into setup madness. I left before getting too upset. Took way too long to do one little accidental 5-0 on the ledge off the step. Then struggled to kickflip into the long mellow downhill across from the stadium. Then I went home bummed.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow cast plate royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work Dave said to meet at dog park, but he was at Valmont with Roth. They were shredding with some good uphill lines and speed. Roth had back 50 on the low to high steep qp. Dave did front 5-0. Then later on had a long line to front lip low to high. I think it was nollie into the bank, switch back 180 the hip, go around into the front lip. I was kind of struggling around, but then went in on treflips fakie on the bank and would get a 270 version somewhat quick, then another one not so quick. Dave backside flipped the hip a bunch of times with varying degrees of cleanliness. Ha. Love that he was committing and did several. They left and I went over to dog park where I don’t remember doing much of anything. I was hyped to try 360 flips and kind of get a couple.

(setup 8.25 null burnout stumpy, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow cast plate royal bushings, bones 52mm slims 99a stf, new balance numeric 272 green 11.5 half 272/425 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)