On a hot night I was about to not skate again, but Dave and I rallied for a meeting point in the middle at the old Case Logic bank. There was a SUV parked in front, but we were able to avoid it. I started on an 8″ setup and realized after a bit that I didn’t really like it much and went back to the slightly modified 8.25. I had done kickflips and kickflips to fakie. Dave hadn’t skated in a while due to covid and brushed off the rust with some nollies into the bank, switch shoves, back 360s, switch front ollies. Then we kind of battled for a while. I was close to front heel so I setup the camera thinking I’d get it quickly. Nope. I was close, but nope. Dave went for switch back tail like Tiago. Then pop shove body varial. Then we did some other stuff. I couldn’t get a varial flip to fakie. Dave’s kickflip was nice. We ended up getting the boot as it was getting dark. Fun little session, surprised we lasted that long.

Oh yeah I was wearing some Adidas Puig’s. Trying to skate some of the shoes that have been sitting in my closet collecting dust. I don’t really like them much, but they aren’t too bad and they fit pretty well.

(setup 8.25 null stumpy burnout, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow, bones 51mm stf 101a v2, adidas puig b/w size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

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On a hot morning Jack, Garrett and I rolled up to Laramie where we met up with Mike, Eric, Joe, Kevin, Rob and Neil at the skatepark. It had been 14 years since I skated there and there has been some new additions. They had painted some of it blue and the reflection was insane. I have no idea how others skated without sunglasses. Jack showed up and immediately went in on kickflip on the extension. Eric shot photos. Joe and I mostly played in the newest area figuring out the slappies. The others showed up. The newest area was pretty crowded at times as everything good was in one area. I got a line of nollie back tail a curb, crooks a bench, slappy the curved bank to curb, carve around kickflip to fakie. Kevin and I played off the little drop near the front for a bit. He switch flipped it. I kickflipped up it which hyped me up. Eric and I skated the bowl for a bit which was pretty weird and hard to skate and we didn’t carve the full pipe very well. Garrett got to 9 first try. Later on Jack would get to 10 on the top of it ha ha. The wallride was sick. Back in the newest area I witnessed boardslides from Eric (can’t believe he was able to skate after yesterdays slam), nollie front lips from Rob, boardslides on the bench lined out with fakie flips on the bank from Joe, Kevin had halfcab bluntslide transfer to back tail then back smith the qp, I managed to boardslide the bench and get a little crook jib on it as well as some front slappies on the bank to curb, Mike was front nose to fakie and a bunch of good slappies.

After some lunch we hit campus. Garrett, Jack and I hit an old area near some dorms I skated a very long time ago. I didn’t really do anything. Jack tried some front nose 270 shoves and some manuals down a 5 stair.

Then we met everyone at a really fun bank to curb where I proceeded to slam on my first axle stall, but then go on to have a lot of fun. Mike had great back 50s. Jack’s acid drops into the bank as setups were highlights on their own as was the grind to grind. Garrett smoothly did slashes, hurricanes, blunts, kickflip fakie, etc. Rob had steezy front tails and slappies. Neil with the fire beanplants, no complies. Joe kickflip rock ‘n roll. Kevin kickflip willies and kickflip axle stall. I got a couple front slashes, hurricane and a rock up to feeble to axle that was surprisingly fun.

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Then we went over to this crazy loading dock with wide round flatbars. Pretty epic spot. Epic stuff went down. Fun was had. Highlights were of course Jack’s epic grind to boardslide, but Kevin’s crooks was incredible too as was Garrett’s back 180 nosegrind. Joe got boardslide pop out and off the end. Neil’s knee didn’t let him land the noseslide even though he got into it perfectly. I had some little noseslide jibs and maybe something that resembles switch front nose. Jack also did some crazy hippy jumps and bluntslides. Garrett wallied up the darn loading dock too. What a great day.

(setup 8.25 null stumpy burnout, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast plate titanium hanger, bones 52mm stf 99a v3, new balance numeric 440h b/w size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a hot day Eric, Joe and I picked up Rob and Neil and we headed to the Greeley plaza park first. Garrett met us there. We had the park to ourselves for the most part and two other rippers for a bit. Everyone else seemed to be ripping. Garrett obviously needed the least warmup and was backside flipping the hip, 50ing the upper level, manualling the bench right away. I’m not sure if he got his full line, but he did all the tricks. Nollie back heel up the euro, halfcab noseslide the long hubba, front smith the qp, back 360 the hip, front tail f/s flip out. So sick. Rob was getting up on the pad right away with manuals, 50s, boardslide the upper level, no comply up the 2, maybe even halfcab 50. Neil was looking good. Manuals, nose manuals, 50s, one foot up the euro, quick up 50 the top then one foot off, front shove off the manny pad. Joe front 50 shove and the Joe H on the upper level, crooks, front smith the ledge, kickflip fakie. I skated like dookie. Only things I liked were a couple crooks on the ledge and a b/s 90 flip flyout.

After some lunch we ended up at Peak View. It was super hot, there were ~20 rollerblader kids there playing bad rap music and a mixture of a few skaters and a little motorcross bike. Not the ideal environment to flame the stoke, but we did it. Eckert had the horrendous rock fakie slam. I was stoked to see him going so gnar, but he obviously didn’t skate more after that slam. I skated like dookie again, couldn’t do a kickflip on the bank and could barely ollie up the ledge. I did however get a noseslide 270 shove which put a smile on my face for a solid 30 minutes. Joe of course did his tricks on the ledge and maybe even did the Hoe Jamilton. He was pretty easily skating the ledge doing his tricks. Neil’s knee had had enough, but he still managed to cruise around and do a few things. Rob had some good manuals and I think nose manuals, front boards, kickflip the bank, one foots on the bank, some crail slides or something on the bank. Garrett had kickflip nose manual, switch crooks, halfcab crooks, all kinds of stuff. Pretty fun day we skated hard in the heat and earned our margs.

(setup 8.3 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast base titanium hanger, bones 52mm 99a stf v3, new balance numeric 440highs b/w size 12 half insole)
(pain 4/10)