Met Gordon and then Paul after a while at dog park on a warm morning. I went back to 8.3 with thunders. Hated it. I think I hate every setup at this point. Anyway, warming up was mid for me. Gordon was ripping, poppy grinds, shoves and manuals. Paul came and immediately back 50’d the bench. I had a line of crooks the bench then back 50 front 180 out the curb. Tried several halfcab crooks, was not close. Took a bit to ollie the grate then boardslide the taller portable flat bar. I was wearing the Emerica MJ remakes. They felt good as far as pain, but were not very grippy. Gordon got a line of nollie back 5-0, front nosegrind, nollie nose manual. But never linked them all together again when we tried to film it. Paul went in on noseslides over the top tier. He took a while, but he got it. I was trying a line of crooks then kickflip 50 which I got kind of close to, but not that close. Then it started to rain a lot harder and longer than it looked like it would.

(setup 4/10 null time warp 8.3, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 team hollow, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, emerica og-1 black size 12 with footprint gamechanger insoles)

After a couple of naps I ended up at Willville with a different setup. Well, same everything except trucks. Didn’t like it. Imagine that! I mostly skated the shady flatround area. Kickflips were hard, but I did manage some halfcab flips and fakie bigflip. No treflips though argh. Posed a bunch of kf nose stalls which were kind of close. Couldn’t ollie for crap with this setup though and couldn’t even axle stall the upper knobbed ledges. The tree growth made the manuals weird. At the end I made myself do 10 tricks on the lower ledge. I think every trick was a non-ollie trick except for front 50. Still fun. Glad I skated an eliminated another setup from contention.

(setup 4/10 null time warp 8.3, jessup ultragrip, slappy lights 8.25 with indy 92a bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, emerica og-1 black size 12 with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot Thursday afternoon before a 3 day weekend I went to skate campus without knowing there was a big Phish concert. Doh. I had parked and was well into campus before I realized what was happening. I went to warm up at the downhill hallway spot, but there was already a couple people skating. Ended up at the shaded hallway by the student center and skated flatground for a while. I had a setup change, basically the same but with indy titaniums. I hated them and everything about the setup. I struggled to land anything, I think in 30 minutes I had only done kf, fakie flip, halfcab flip and b/s flip. Ugh. I moved on, rolled all over campus, didn’t really skate anything until the flagstone ledge where I proceeded to lay an egg and basically did nothing.

(setup 1/10 8.25 null flaherty, pj grip, indy titanium 144, bones stf v1 53mm 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 wide size 12 navy with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10 in fact after skating I sent Nate a text that said ‘it’s one thing totally sucking at skating and another totally sucking and being in incredible pain while sucking’ ugh)

Stopped by the parks on my way home. It was hot. Valmont was empty so I started there. I didn’t do anything beyond normal warm ups there. Was bummed at ghost pop over the hip. Did a couple kickflips to fakie on the mellow bank, a noseslide or two on the bump to ledge.

Went over to the plaza. Dennis was there which was great. After some cruising Dennis and I settled in on crooks on the metal bench. He has never done one, but was close. I did several and followed one with perhaps my worst excuse for a treflip to date. I actually didn’t count it but Dennis insisted. He’s too positive. Ha. It started to get incredibly windy so I left.

(setup 2/10 null 8.25 timewarp, null grip, thunder hollow lights 148 with bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, last resort cm002 brown size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10 always sucks skating after work)