After driving from Grand Junction I chilled for a bit then rushed off to dog park on a nice cool afternoon. Valmont was empty so I started there. I had changed my setup to 8.3 with ace 44 lows. I liked it more than the previous setup, but wasn’t exactly in love with it. I had some fun on the top section. Did a little roll out on a weird little rounded qp, rock ‘n roll the tight qp, back 50 the main qp, curve around then front disaster it. Did a few variations of that which were all fun. Had some good feeling ollies over the euro, kickflip to fakie did not come easy on the bank.

Then I went to the dog park which was mostly empty too. I skated alright, cruised around faster than normal, didn’t land much flippers. Had a fun line of front 50 180 out, halfcab noseslide the bench, back 50 the curb. After a while I went in on fakie 50 creepy spin out. I kind of landed a couple, but not good enough to hand off to Dave. Fun session. I skated the ledges okay, transition pretty well, flatground not good at all.

(null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 af1 lows hard bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a long day of driving and seeing some amazing sights I went out for a quick cruise at the skate friendly Colorado Mesa University. I felt very disoriented and hated my setup beyond believe. The good lower angle iron ledges near the student center were dark so I moved on and found a perfect rail off a drop. I couldn’t make myself commit. I ended up at the spot in the video. It was pretty sick, but I was skating like dookie. The slam hurt way more than it should have. After some more cruising I did a 1 mph kickflip then did the lamest ollie off a 3 stair ever. I need to street skate more.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

While visiting my aunt I had some time in the morning so I went to check out the skatepark. There was a crazy rain storm a couple days prior so the middle of the park was mostly full of sand/mud/water. Which was fine because it was lumpy quarterpipes and steep banks mostly anyway. The outside of the park was smooth and had several ledges. My body was thrown off from all the driving and sitting around, but I made myself jump. Had some okay warm ups doing some slow basics. Could barely ollie onto the lowest ledge shown in the clip and barely got some super slow front 50s. Had one great feeling heelflip, halfcab flip. After a while I went in on fakie 50 shove out and I went nuts trying. I was so angry, hating my setup beyond believe. Never got a clean one. Then I needed to go. I really wanted to keep skating. It was a cool park, the ledges are amazing. There was a fun little flyout zone too that I had some fun kickflips out of.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Golden park early on my to meet my mom on a road trip through Utah. It was quite cold and windy and mostly miserable. I didn’t like my setup and I had new shoes. My warm up line was noseslide the main ledge, turn around on the wallie thing, kickflip fakie on the mellow bank. Also did crooks the ledge and tried to line out to kickflip the hip and couldn’t commit to the kickflip. Flip tricks went decent on flat which was the one saving grace. I couldn’t front 50 one of the benches in the small section. I did ollie on to one and manual the pad, couldn’t nose manual though. I ended with a fun line of halfcab noseslide one bench, crooks the next, bad front 50 the pad.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cool night in the upper 30s I lacked motivation to drive anywhere so I went to the school. I went to the back which has some okay lights. Warm ups weren’t terrible, did a switch shove and a few kickflips. An hour later I had only landed 6 flip tricks. Kickflip, fakie flip, backside flip, heelflip, varial flip, halfcab flip. I came remotely close to treflip, switch flip. Hucked quite a few others. It’s really hard to skate back there, the ground is rough, it’s not lit well, big cracks between each section, but it felt good to skate.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After meeting Nate’s son and pawning him off on Liz to babysit we went to dog park on a cool evening. We were later than anticipated and Rob had already been skating a while. I tried to get warmed up while they chatted. I did not feel too good on my skateboard nor would I at any point. I did get a front smith on the lower ledge though which stoked me out, it even grinded. Also did several “nollie” front 50 180s which is a rare one. Flip tricks were really hard and felt impossible. Rob still killed it for a while cruising and styling his staples. Nate back 50’d the narrow metal bench real quick then slammed on a little boardslide. That’s the Nate I know and love ha ha. He went on to skate really well even though he was on my 8.1/Thunder setup. Nosegrinds, smiths, 5-0s, manuals, nose manual 180s and nollie flips! It was a fun session. Near the end no one else was really skating so we filmed a few clips to document the bro fest. Great skating with you Nate!

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cloudy and cool morning I went to dog park feeling excited to skate. For one, it wasn’t too windy and for another I was woke again. Venture finally came out with hollow cast plates and the timing was too good to not add in a christmas complete. Anyway, warming up wasn’t too bad except I kept seeming to get in everyones way. Rob showed up basically the same time as me, Cass was later, Jack B later. Dennis and crew were there as well as some other older skaters and it was a good vibe. I skated okay and had energy. Personal highlights were front 180 off the grate kicker to really bad switch front board on a parking block, halfcab flip first try, how much pop my board had, boardslides on everything felt good as did crooks. Cass was over at the skatepark for a while. Rob had first try shove lipslide! Also close to nose manual shove. Jack B front 50’d the bench, dude got pop! Cass, Rob and I played a game of SKATE featuring the worst f/s halfcab ever (by me of course, actually I ended up not counting it because it was so bad), a lot of bailed flip tricks by me, no comply back 360 by Rob and he won it on that fakie bigspin no comply.

After that Cass and I kickflipped a parking block a few times, we did it in a train. I was happy to kickflip it, it’s been a while. I couldn’t get a clean no comply flip though.

After a very filling burger Cass and I went to Douglass. We did a lap around the school since Cass hadn’t seen it all. We ended up in the back and have no idea why we haven’t skated there more. The little ledge was fun, but we didn’t have wax. We both imagined noseslides dropping down to noseslide. I posed some switch front noses. Then we went to the front and struggled. I was happy how my setup popped up the curb easily, but I really struggled with kickflips. I posed some other flippers, but landed nothing. In the end I think Cass had done some good back 180s up the curb, halfcabs on flat then couldn’t get a noseslide. I did ollie up the curb, kickflip, some type of noseslide that was supposed to be a crook. I also got switch 180 up the curb, pop shove on flat, noseslide to fakie, almost fakie flip.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Tried to find the motivation to at least skate a parking garage and do some flippers since the wind was so intense. But I got there and wasn’t feeling it and leaves were still blowing around. I did a few stalls on a parking block then left. And the wind seemed to die down so I went to a nearby school I haven’t been to in a few years and was stoked on the amount of fresh asphalt, but the wind was way too insane so I called it a day.

setup who cares

Friday afternoon after a snow storm and that Colorado sun we were able to get out and skate. I was about 15 minutes after Dave and he had already texted that he was over it and going to leave. Ha. The ledges were covered in snow, but Dave had brushed off the launch ramps. The wind was pretty brutal at times and it felt really cold. But we skated and ended up having a fun session. Dave got a frontside ollie from the low to high, I couldn’t get it backside. We both got straight transfers from the high to low. Dave did deck check transfer from low to high. We had some scary boardslides on the tiny sketchy flatbar. Dave would also feeble it and frontboard 270 out. We tried some ollies over a taller flatbar. I tried a million kickflips on the fresh ramp and couldn’t get one. Was so bummed. Flip tricks in general felt terrible. Goodbye Aces. Too bad because everything else about them felt great.

(setup null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55s hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 2/10 !!!)

Nice day, trying to take advantage of the light before the time change this weekend so got to dog park before 5. Dennis was there. He gets the award for nicest dude in the college crowd. He is fun to skate with too. Warm ups seemed to go alright for Rob and I. I randomly made myself do a front board on the little rail which was embarrassingly scary. I had started on my 8.1 then changed to 8.3 with ace lows and mostly loved it. My kickflips got better and I would go on to get some harder stuff for me. Finally got the front shove off the C pad and it was first try this time. Right after a line of front 50 the C ledge, nollie back tail the bench, wallie the cone. Rob got nose manual shove pretty early on. Halfcab 50s with maybe a shove out too, nollie lips, manuals, nose manuals. I had hucked some more tricks and tried harder than normal. Fun session.

(setup null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55s hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)