First morning below freezing of the season. After a couple meetings I stopped by Boulder park on the way in for a short session. I wore Strike MVMNT shoes because of all the praise Tom Asta has been giving them. This time however, I went with no insoles. And I liked them. I had some motivation and skated pretty hard. After some normal goofing around for warm up I had a good warm up run of noseslide the bench, kickflip to fakie the hump, turn around then a kickflip on the hump then a sketchy ollie onto the bench before bailing a flatground kickflip. Smaller lower setup felt good on the qp, good on the hump to ledge, not good popping onto stuff. Didn’t quite get the line of front 50s although did them all individually. Not remembering much else. It was fun, the park has really grown on me.

After work I stopped at dog park. It was another somewhat heated session. I somehow felt pretty good even though I skated earlier. I got mad when I didn’t immediately start landing kickflips or halfcab flips again. At one point I had a funny experience with a college kid. He saw me get somewhat close to kickflip 50 on the lurb. He was hyped and I said something like “I used to actually land this”. He was like “Well I’ve never landed it” and we laughed trying to figure out which was worse. I struggled with 50s, struggled to pop. Crooks were okay. All in all an alright session.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder 148 team hollow t-ii bushings, spitfire 51mm 99a f4 classic, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After rain and then a cold wind I cleaned out the garage then skated flatground for an hour. I had a smaller setup. 8.25 with Thunders. It felt nice at first, but I took like 8 tries to get a kickflip. Oh yeah, I had new shoes too, Es Accel Slims. They suck. I mean they are grippy at least, but so incredibly thin and the toebox is way too narrow. Got a fakie flip in a couple tries. Halfcab flip took a while and almost drove me crazy. B/s flip wasn’t too bad. Couldn’t get nollie varial flip or heelflip. Then went in on treflip and never landed one. I was quite close though. Oh yeah, before treflips I did a couple varial flip reverts that were not good at all. Man my flatground is so bad now.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, old spitfire f4 99a 51mm classics, es accel slim b/w size 12 with footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Went to meet up with 98% dudes. Thought they would be filming some hammers, but everyone was just in a hockey rink goofing around with flat. I rode a smaller board with aces and big wheels and didn’t really land anything. I came remotely close to rick flip and got a kickflip or two, but that was really about it. Dan and Jason played an epic game of SKATE. Garrett landed a lot too. It was a fun even if I didn’t try hard.

(setup 0/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, ace af1 44 hollow, 53mm bones sft v1 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 things have not been so great lately)

Incredibly nice morning. Cass and I went to Boulder park to get some skating in before the Nightmare at Northside jam up in Fort Collins. I was very sore to get started. Wore some old 440 highs that felt better than the TJ’s, but I didn’t really like them much. I would struggle, take several tries to do tricks I had done a few days ago. Although I was happy to do first try front disaster and do a few of that slid a little. I couldn’t get a kickflip on the mellow bank after though and it was driving me nuts. I wanted to do front 50 shove on the bench, but one time I locked into 5-0 and went for the shove and got it. It was the highlight of the session for me. I got remotely close to b/s flip over the hip like Cass, except without as much pop. Cass ripped it, lots of 50s on the ledges. Front shove to fakie over the hip was rad even if he didn’t land it perfect. B/s flip was sick.

Up in FOCO I didn’t skate much. A noseslide and some nollie tails. Garrett and Noè killed it. Clip soon.

(setup 3/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup pj, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green, 440v2 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 pretty bad at boulder, but even walking hurt later)

Went to dog park after work on a nice Friday afternoon. Will was there. I attempted to start out in my Dunks, but the narrow toebox quickly caused too much pain so I put the TJ’s on again. They are too much. Anyway, I skated. Will was ripping, switch manual the c pad, halfcab manual, close to switch nose manual. He got me jumping up and down it, even if I couldn’t feel the manual pocket in those thick shoes. I did some of my ultra basics, that’s about it. Back 50s felt okay on the low obstacles. Couldn’t kickflip onto the lurb and didn’t try to front 50 anything tall. Was motivated and trying hard for a while, but nothing seemed to work. Played a game of SKATE with Will and I lost on halfcab flip. So depressing. I used to have that trick 99% of the time. Was going to leave but Brian, Kyle, David showed up. Goofed around a little with Brian, but then took off.

(setup 6/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup pj, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green, es tj rogers b/w size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10 getting sick of being in so much pain)

After work on a perfect cloudy afternoon I met up with Paul, Ted and several others were there. It was a rad crew. Sold Ted a new Hayden board and people were digging the graphic. My arthritis was finally not fully raging and I felt somewhat comfortable on my board. Robbie, tall guy and sketchy fast guy were ripping through the block like it was nothing. Paul was ripping the new ledges. I really liked the quick line in the clip above. I didn’t really do anything well, but was finally moving okay and it felt nice. Mostly just tricks I’ve done before although I did try some nollie front tail bigspins out that felt possible. Paul learned slappy sw crooks to tail. I liked my crooks then front shove line even if neither trick was done very well. That ledge is really tall.

(setup 5/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup pj, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 with custom insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling very arthritic I stubbornly went to Blue Skies for a lunch break session. Kind of the main point was to see if the supportive TJ shoes would help. They did. I skated terribly. Went through some motions and a lot of tricks were closest on first try then I would lose confidence. Like front 50 on the low ledge that always gives me trouble, got into it the first few tries, then lost it. Boardslides and noseslides on the flatbar was about the only thing that felt good. Some ollies and nollie 180s on the bank were okay.

(setup 7/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup pj, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green, es tj rogers b/w size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 8/10 arthritis everywhere)

Feeling tired and arthritic I met Cass at Broomfield mostly because I needed to pick up the Hayden boards from him. We warmed up on the bank to curb which is quickly disintegrating into a weird qp, still a fun warm up though. Mixed in some of the easier black ledge tricks. Laughed because Cass took like 5 tries to do a noseslide. I had a setup change, 8.3 with venture v8s. It was fine. On the blue lurb Cass smoked me to front 50 shove. We tried to mirror them out with back 50 shove but neither of us got them. Both failing in totally different ways. He would go fast and miss the shove off the end. I would go slow and come to a halt. Justin and Jameson were there, as were some other rippers. I took too long to do a slow halfcab noseslide. At the end Cass did a really good hardflip flyout, then treflip and a good flatground treflip. I did a terrible flyout kickflip and took a few tries to do boardslide on the bump to bar.

(setup 7/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup pj, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 with custom insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

Feeling tired after a late night at the CSU game I rolled towards Longmont and stopped in Niwot. Said I would warm up at the mellow bank spot to begin. Did some manuals across it, some ollies out/in, was feeling fun. Struggled a bit with shove it, then took a long time to do kickflip fakie and started to lose my mind. Like what the heck I could not kickflip that board to save my life. Would eventually get a couple and fakie flip, one b/s flip. Could not get varial flip, fakie tre, back heel.

Decided to leave for the nearby ledge spot, but it had a dumpster in front of it so drove around a little and found the new flyout bank spot that looked so incredible. And it was. But I SUCKED. Couldn’t get a front shove out to start, took a while to get kickflip. Went in front heels, never flipped enough. Went in on treflips and never got bot feet on and lost my mind. There was no one around, except of course the one freak out I had where I threw my board and screamed. Dude came out of nowhere. It was funny. Unlike my skating.

(setup 0/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, indy titanium 144, 52mm spitfire pink/green 99a class, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 custom insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a very windy morning in Boulder I drove to Longmont and met Dave at a very nice and calm Indian Peaks. 10 minutes later, it wasn’t so calm and the wind would get much worse, but we still skated. I hadn’t skated the front in decades so it was fun. The manny pad is better than it looks, the waxed up curb was fun, the flatground is good too. I hucked a lot, landed very little other than manual, a couple kickflips, halfcab flip and a nollie front crook (no grind) which I believe is a GleNBD. I liked how my board popped, but I was like 1/20 on kickflips up a curb which did not sit well. Dave had nollie crooks, fakie crooks, spracks to manual, cabs, 5-0 180s, crooks, he was ripping. After I left he did a switch manual on the pad!

(setup 5/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, indy titanium 144, 52mm spitfire pink/green 99a class, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 custom insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)