After lounging on a cold morning the sun had come out and I snuck out for a couple hours of skating. After yesterdays performance not being able to ollie well or even push comfortably I had written off Thunders yet again. I tried my 8.5 Slace setup. It felt good. My goal was to go around the school and selfie film a trick at every one of the close to 10 spots around the school. Well, it got off to a bad start when I couldn’t even ollie onto the narrow pad by the chalk board to start. I did have some warm up flippers that came really easily though. Bs flip, halfcab flips, fakie flip, heelflip. I settled for the dorky manual. Then I had posed an ollie over the two block and almost died bailing it. So I was going to selfie film trying to ollie it, but then a group of kids came to the play equipment which is like 5 feet away. Whew, I probably wouldn’t have done it anyway. Then I ended up at the weird curved area and skated the regular ledge at first. It was crazy, I tried a noseslide and went over the top and fell into the dirt. Not as bad as it sounds, but it was still crazy. May have gotten one little crook jib. Couldn’t get halfcab noseslide. Then I messed with the curved ledge for a while. I couldn’t get the nerve (or enough angle) to 50 it. Settled for the ‘nollie’ tail then quick ollie. It was way harder than I wanted it to be. Then I was on the side of the school. I really struggled to front 50 the low ledge comfortably. It was annoying it faces directly at the road so anytime a car would come I would let it get to my head and stop skating. I would eventually go on to get a run that sounds good on paper, but was really slow. Halfcab flip, front 50, curve around and b/s flip out of the little bank. Finally to the front area aka the main attraction and I was pretty sore. I would get some noseslides, noseslide to fakie, perhaps a crook jib and I think a boardslide. Front 50 didn’t even seem remotely possible ugh. Also tried several treflips and came up empty handed. Another tough session. Made me doubt the larger setup. I flipped it well until treflip time and certainly was no better at ollies with it. Argh.

(setup 4/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, jessup ultragrip, slace 8.5 (ace baseplate and bushings slappy hanger), 51mm bones pj stf v1, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 half insole plus currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10 was pretty sore)

On a cold and snowy day I went to Longmont on a LOCO run. It was flurrying, but let up so I randomly went to Skyline which I haven’t skated in years. It felt even colder than I imagined right around freezing. The ledges seemed infinitely taller than I remembered. I did not feel good on my board nor did I like my board even though it did flip really well. I had an early warm up line of noseslide the downhill one, kickflip, noseslide to fakie the tall one. But it had taken me a while to get to that point. Took a while to do a switch front nose on the downhill one and it was terrible. I got a treflip that might be the biggest stretch of a make to date. I had some alright halfcab flips and b/s flips using the hill. Remotely close to a few cab flips. Couldn’t get a heelflip or a crooked grind on the taller ledge. I tried like a million ollied onto the tall pad and barely got one. I was trying crooks on the downhill when a car pulled up and it was Bernie! Great hearing his voice again and it hyped me up enough to finally get a little crook. I tried a bunch of noseslide to crook and only one attempt was even remotely close. Eventually I left with the intention skating more, but Longmont HS had a bunch of youth roaming around. Tough day at the office.

(setup 4/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow light 148 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 half insole and currex run pro insole)
(pain level 3/10 felt good until the end)