On a very cold night I had arranged a private session at Square House. The crew ended up being Dave, Mike, Jess, Jack B and me. Jack and I got there first. It was cool being able to just slowly skate the middle of the park without being in anyones way. But it was clear right away that my knee did not feel good at all. As others showed and warmed up I was in a very dark place about my knee and skating. Had I not been the one responsible for locking up I would have left and perhaps left my skateboard behind for good. But I’m incredibly stubborn and tried to feed off the fun my friends were having. Dave was shredding quickly and did a wallie from the parking block over the euro. Pretty unreal. Jesse quickly did varial flip, halfcab and then fakie ollie up the euro. The fakie ollie was nuts. The park seemed extra slippery and I think everyone had some odd slams. Dave slammed dropping in once hitting something right as he got to flat and it looked like a pretty bad slam. Jack had some good ollies over the bump, back 50s the bank to curb, pop shoves to fakie on the bank even though I somehow missed most of it filming. Mike with a lot of wallride variations on the china bank. I went in on the kickflip to fakie from “high” to low which took me way too long and I almost lost my mind. When I did finally land it I got a fakie bigflip after which brought a brief smile to my face. I had also kickflipped up the euro and a couple noseslides on the bump to ledge. Dave kickflipped up it too and followed it up with a front board transfer into the china bank that was my fav trick of the session. Mike had back 180s up the euro, no comply up it, lots of back 50s the bank to curb. Jack got a bunch of front tails on the tiny qp and even a crail on it. I took too long to do back 50 to fakie and one front tail. Jesse and Dave were going for back 50 and back feeble the bank to curb (respectively) from high to low. I don’t think Jesse got it, but Dave did as the session came to an end. Pretty amazing crew and thank you Brian for allowing us to skate. I hope I didn’t come off as too much of a whiny baby, but man this knee thing really as me down.

(setup 1/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 8/10)

Was in the office, but took a lunch break and met Dave on a cold and windy day. I got there first and struggled through some warming up. I had a goal of a line of boardslide, kickflip, ollie to fakie on the bank, switch front nose, fakie flip. But I only got to the fakie flip once and didn’t land it. I was really struggling with flippers because of the wind and my confidence. Dave showed and it got more fun. He started in on hippy jump then boardslide to fakie the flatbars. I skated really slow with some other tricks, got a couple noseslides, one really bad crooks, a couple kickflips, remotely close to some random hucks, one nollie shove to fakie on the bank that was scary. Oh yeah, Dave was trying nollie back tail on the flat bar and I was trying switch front nose. A couple of tech rail skaters here. We got them. Dave would go on to get a line of front board to fakie, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, front 50. Pretty sick! I didn’t land much, but it felt like progress and it was fun reliving the Blue Skies era with Dave again.

(setup 6/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a cold and windy night I struggled with motivation to go to square state’s silver session. Much to my delight there were only a few people there. I started out on the little kid area getting used to my dumb setup change then went to the ramp with Nick and Gray. I was somehow rustier than last time with almost no confidence at all. Gray got distracted then Nick and I skated flatground for a bit. I haven’t landed a treflip in months so I went in. My knee was hurting pretty bad and it was hard to do treflip since you have to put a lot of pressure on the front foot. I would kind of get one and didn’t feel like cleaning it up. Nick did some f/s cabs and shove reverts. Then off the the main area that was just a line of people doing tricks up the euro. Jason did nollie tre which was pretty epic. There were also nollie inward heels, nollie front heels, treflips and back heels. I would get a kickflip up it pretty quickly which made me somewhat happy. But not before I decided to dive down the euro bank to flat on my side. It was a crowd silencing slam and I almost left, but in some weird way it was fun to slam again. Although my knee would totally disagree. Then I spent the session trying to do kickflip and b/s flip on the mellow bank and really really struggled. Kind of got them. Kind of hate thunders. was trying to line the kf to fakie out with a fakie nosegrind on the little baby ledge but I couldn’t get the kf so it never worked. Steeze was there doing lots of flippers. Jesse was ripping. Fun night, wish my knee would be happy with me.

(setup generator 2/10 8.5 14.25 blank, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 hollow with royal bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco orthotic 3/4 insoles)
(pain level 7/10 that f’ing left knee)

Up to Fort Collins on a cold Sunday with the Nullers. Jack, Joe, Garrett, Sean and I met up with Hayden, Peyton and Noè. Jack is smartly not skating yet and letting his body heal. Sean was ripping back nosegrinds and nollie back nosegrinds, manuals, quick footed pop. Noè did switch nose manual fakie flip then turned around and did switch nose manual fakie varial flip, 100 nollie flips, every other flip trick, varial heel to fakie on the weird bank. Hayden nollie lip up a potato chip, smooth manual combos, looked good on the football deck. Joe was popping high out of the gates, showed up Noè with a first try nollie hard, front smith the bench, had some steezy Reeboks. Garrett came in second in the game of SKATE which is basically like winning when you’re playing Noè. Peyton was going for varial mute over the channel and got really close. He pushed full speed for like two hours and didn’t quite get it. Doh. I skated absolutely terribly. I had done a few stationary ollies on various setups and definitely ollied the 8.5 with aces the highest so I brought it. And I hated it. I would get a couple of very slow 50s, halfcab noseslides on the low ledge. Managed a few noseslides on the bench. Couldn’t get flip tricks to save my life and was like 0-50 on super slow treflips.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, null grip, ace 55 af1 hollows, 51mm spitfire 99a classic f4, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco orthotic insoles)
(pain level 4/10 not bad for all of a sudden skating and popping three days in a row)

Was late to meet Sean and Cass at Broomfield on a day that was warmer than expected. Sean had to leave pretty quickly so he was already charging it and did a few bangers near the end like front 180 nose manual 180 then halfcab nose manual in same line. Cass had a new Christmas complete 8.25 with Slappy trucks. He quickly got rid of the square board for a PMG and immediately started landing tricks. Ha ha. We battled treflips unsuccessfully for a while. I could barely ollie onto the low blue ledge. Had some okay noseslides and boardslides, couldn’t crook to save my life though. I was able to get a fly out kickflip, Cass got a fly out treflip. A couple of Colorado’s finest Heroki and Noah showed up and it’s always amazing watching them shred. There was also a Fuller doppelganger there who was a surfer from San Diego so he flowed kind of like Dave too.

(setup 2/10 glenosaur 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.6 royal bushings, 51mm bones v1 stf 103a pj, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Took a lunch break and did some flatground at the school across the street. It was okay in that I skated and tried for real and didn’t hold back and the knee held up. But it was humbling in that I had zero confidence or skill. I landed a few slow kickflips, halfcab flip, b/s flip, but couldn’t get a trefilp. Had some fun slappy crooks, front slappys, front slappy crooks and a couple switch slappy crooks.

(setup 4/10 pmg 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.6 royal bushings, 51mm bones v1 stf 103a pj, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Trying to go into 2024 with less madness. Wasn’t gonna skate but but did cruise around on a few setups to see some pros/cons of each. I had put ace hard bushings in the 8.25/royals setup. I didn’t like the tight bushings. Stationary ollies felt weak. 8.5/aces was indeed super fun to ride, slightly better pop, but still not great. Smaller wheelbase 8.5 with Thunders was terrible. Almost fell pushing, had no pop. Not sure I eliminated anything, but I did like the 8.5/ace the most.

It’s always tough to be hurt on Jan 1, because it’s a great day to try and skate with some motivation and pretend to set the tone for the year. I felt good when I got on my board. In fact my knee felt great, was so tempting to really skate. I did do a kickflip, a couple boardslides and a first try crooks followed by nollie back tail. Then it was mostly just slappies. It felt pretty great to get a few tricks in. Dave, Jesse and Jack B did this crazy ride on grind over a death trap. Dave was shredding, looked in good form after the back pain. Sean and Paul both looked good too. Sean did such a good kickflip nose manual. I did a lot of chatting because I was trying to avoid skating too much. Mike showed, good seeing him. Dave and Sean did nose/tail slides across two parking blocks next to each other. Dave tried switch crooks to crooks which would have been nuts. That’s about all I remember, it was fun and encouraging that I’ll be able to really skate soon. Then I went and sat in a frozen river for the annual polar plunge. Burr.

(setup 4/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, new blance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)