Up pretty early on a warmish morning Jack and I rolled to Thornton which was snowy in places, but only a couple of other skaters the whole time which was nice. I had changed my setup a bit, royal 149s and 53s. It was the best setup I’ve had yet as far as pairing with the Kelsos, but still lacked pop and I couldn’t flip it. That might be the soreness of skating a few days in a row after such little skating for weeks. My skating was basically garbage. One fun warm up run was a little nollie back 180 on the taco, crooks the little ledge, nollie back 180 the hip. I did a few crooks. Couldn’t get a kickflip to fakie on the taco but I didn’t try much since one of the other guys was trying too. I tried like 50 front 50s on the little baby ledge and couldn’t get up there. ARGH. I skated the little qp for a while with Salty and Jack. Jack was working on good back 50s and getting close to front 50s. I did a bunch of front 50s that were really fun. Salty was trying back 50s around the corner near the taco and then fakie front 50s on the little qp. Getting frustrated like me on both ha ha. I made myself ollie up the ledge over and over until I finally got one with a front 50 on the qp. So again, mostly frustration session but I hadn’t ollied that many times in a day in forever and I was really sore from skating four days in a row.

(setup: 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, bones pj 53mm v1 103a, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 general soreness but the calf felt good)

Feeling lots of anxiety about skating too much on my calf I went to dog park to meet up with a crew of older dudes. We would have the park to ourselves. Rob was there! Great seeing him again. I started on an 8.75 with Aces which felt good until I tried to flip it. But I did feel pretty solid on the board during the warm up process. I went back to the 8.5 with Thunders after a bit and mostly hated it. I skated for close to a couple hours, but was very conservative and didn’t really get beyond boardslide/noseslides/slappy crooks. Paul and Sean were hucking varial heels and I tried a couple. Sean did several that were super good. Jesse had some good manuals and boardslides around the kinked rail. Rob worked out some cobwebs and he hasn’t skated in a couple months. Front board pop out looked cool. Jack had some crooks on the curb, boardslides around the kinked rail. Sean popped over the hydrant to back nosegrind 180. Also nollie back nosegrinds and trying to nollie frontside nosegrind. I was quite depressed after this session even though I shouldn’t be as I am just getting over the calf tear.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow lite, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work on a nice Friday I wasn’t up for a dog park session so I just went to the school across the street. I started on the original square curb in the oval section and had a really good time doing different stalls and even hucking a few flip tricks. Had a couple kickflips, halfcab flip, front smith stall that was fun, front tail, back pivots. Then I went up and did a couple slappies but wasn’t really feeling how hard I had to push to have the speed to do a good slappy. So I went to the side of the school and skated flatground for about half an hour. It did not go well. Had a couple kickflips, fakie flips, halfcab flip, couldn’t get a fakie bigflip.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow lite, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

My calf was feeling better and I wanted to get out and test it a little without anyone around. I went to Scott Carpenter before work which served two purposes. 1, no one would be there and 2, I was on very limited time. I stuck with my theme of changing my setup every day of the year so far. Really though, it’s just trying to find something that works okay with the wide Xero Kelsos. 8.5 with Thunder team hollows and 53mm wheels. It was too much, I couldn’t pop to save my life. Mostly my session consisted of really bad flailing without any confidence. I had one crooks on the bench that felt good, some fun 50s on the qp, little noseslide down the hubba.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 team hollow venom 88a bushings, 53mm bones pj 103a v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 2/10)