On a nice night I had randomly thought of the McGuckins loading dock bank to curb thing after seeing it over the holidays. There was a truck parked in it initially so I explored a little. Found some weird polished stone benches in a weird corner. Took a bit to get warmed up, but did a fun line or two. Noseslide, ollie up a curb, ride down some long stairs. Noseslide to fakie, sw front 180 up a curb, nollie back 180 into a little bank.

Then I went back to the bank to curb area and the truck was gone so I skated it. initially I tried some quick ollies off the little drop to the curb, but they didn’t really work. On the bank to curb I only did front tail and back axle, couldn’t quite get a no comply to tail. Then I went in on the line above. The b/s flip was hard. The weird angles and going up a slight curb. Never got it clean, but finally had to call it. It was fun trying the line and I skated hard even if it was just the same line over and over.

(setup 2/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, venture titanium 5.8 ace bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj, splay rev s-series green size 12 nike sb insole and curren runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Stopped by dog park after work. Will, Jason, Ace were there. I didn’t get much past the warm up before we started chatting with Jason. I think I skated okay, but didn’t really do anything. Was fun skating a little and chatting though.

(setup 4/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, venture titanium 5.8 ace bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj, splay rev s-series green size 12 nike sb insole and curren runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Pretty sore from yesterday, met up with Jack and Gordon and an extremely nice day. Seriously though this has to be the warmest winter ever. I was sore and started slow, but had some fun. Gordon hadn’t skated in a bit, but did some good manuals, grinds, nollies, etc. Bratcher was back on the slappy tip doing the reverts right away. We didn’t stick around too long. I ended up skating okay, only thing abnormal was a first try front shove off the c lurb.

Then we went to Mikes Camera ledge. Jack had good sw noeslides, ride on 50s, slappy crooks. Gordon amazing noseslides, good 50s. I filmed him do a line that ended with ollie the bush gap. I got pretty frustrated at front 50s, but got a line that made me feel good. Front 50 the low part, kickflip out of the tiny kicker, front 180 the bush gap. Also some crooks.

Off to Casey where we marveled at Jack’s ender in Nothing before skating the lower part. Gordon had to leave quick did some nollies off the kicker and front 50 gap outs. Jack killed the ollie then 180 combo and switch 180s. The kicker is so hard because it gives away before the end. I wanted to do double kickflips, but instead I only got kickflip then 180. The harder slam hurt. Tried to end it with crooks then kickflip up, but also had to settle for 180 up.

Another fun day of skating in the 60 something degree Feb weather.

(setup 7/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, venture titanium 5.8 ace bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj, splay rev s-series green size 12 nike sb insole and curren runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

On a very nice morning I met up with a fun crew at dog park. It would be a fun session. Jake, Jesse, Bratcher, Paul, Eric. I had a setup change that felt good. 8.25/14.25 venture titanium 53s. Jesse was killing some flip tricks out of the gate like heelflip, f/s halfcab heelflip, halfcab heelflip. Paul had his tricks pretty good. Jake had a 2nd try kickflip, some good back 50s, a good crooks on the wood ledge. Saw Eric get heelflip and first try lipslide the green curb. Bratcher had some cool slappy reverts on it. I skated decent for me, but can’t seem to remember much. I know I had a slow fakie 50 on the wood bench which was new and tall for me. At the end Paul, Jake and I played treflip. Paul would get a few after a bit. I would get one after a long bit. A nice way to end the session.

Then I met Bo, Hayden, Noè at Mahaffy. It was super windy so not too fun. Bo killed it though, popping over everything. The wind seriously messed with speed. I got a noseslide to fakie on the bank to curb and a few good feeling crooks on the ledge. Hayden and Bo killed the ledge. We left pretty quickly.

Went to the manny pad/ledge school. It was fun. I was quite sore, not wanting to ollie. But around the time I started to get some crooks I started filming, but it was worth it because Noè got a great line. Hayden a fun one too. After that Whitman and Alex had some cool tricks. Noè went for a manny trick he’s never done. Bo did kickflip manual shove out. I came remotely close to kickflip 50. A line of noseslide then crooks, a no comply 180 after. It was a really fun day.

(setup 7/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, venture titanium 5.8 ace bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj, splay rev s-series green size 12 renind impact cush insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Probably should have just sat home, but instead I went out to check out some recent spots some friends have skated. It’s funny because it’s an area I used to skate often when I lived over there, but it’s totally different now. Except for the old DMV hubba which looked way bigger than I remembered. After some roaming around I started on the ledge first. It’s really good, pretty tall. I got some dinky noeslides to start with, a couple crook jibs, boardslide the end, sw noeslide jibs. Then I went over to the gap area which was not lit well. Took a few tries to ollie it. Then lost my mind trying a line of fakie flip, sw 180, ollie. I was unable to land a fakie flip. Unbelievable. A lady came out to walk her dog and it’s so funny. Here I am making all this noise maybe right outside her window and she apologizes for disrupting me. Awesome. Still couldn’t land the fakie flip though. Settled for a little nose jib 270 on the brick then an ollie. Looked around some more, but didn’t really skate.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 time warp, jessup ultra, thunder 148 team hollow bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Wanting to be lazy I forced myself to meet Dave at dog park. It was colder out than anticipated. There were some others there initially, but they left. Dave was doing amazing crooks/sw crooks transfers on the angled blob curb. I took too long to do a warm up line of ride on grind off the wedge then front shove to fakie on the green kicker. I think Dave did sw slappy crooks transfer so butter it was amazing. I tried to do a line of crooks the wood ledge then manny the little pad, but my legs were not working and I could not ollie comfortably. Dave did ollie onto the manny pad then boardslide the upper part, noseslide the bench, manual the c pad, shove off the c pad, nollie front tail front shove the curb. So sick. I had a really bad ollie up the manny pad to front board the upper part. Left pretty bummed on how I skated.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 time warp, jessup ultra, thunder 148 team hollow bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Had time for a quick morning session. It was cloudy and cool, but quite nice. I had assembled an even larger setup overnight, but laughed when I saw it this morning and reassembled my 8.25 with Thunders. It felt great the second I set it down and I liked it throughout the session. I started very slow, had the park all to myself and enjoyed a slow warm up. First warm up line was wallie the metal thing, ollie onto a wood pad, slappy noeslide the lurb. My board felt poppy. I ollied the cement wallie things. I almost ollied the little kinked bar. I even tried to ollie the taller flat bar, but didn’t commit. Had good feeling fakie flip, halfcab flip, backside flip, was so close to heelflip. Had a slow back 50 shove on the curb. Front 50s on lower stuff worked well. The funny thing is crooks were about the only trick that didn’t feel good. I tried a line at the end that started on the metal bench and ended trying b/s flip off the lurb, but never got it. Was kind of close. It was a fun session.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 time warp, jessup ultra, thunder 148 team hollow bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Quite sore from so much skating yesterday I went to Frederick to meet up with one of the funnest crews around – 98 Percent. The park was hoppin’. As expected I didn’t skate too hard or well after yesterday. On the little bank I did kickflip to fakie, no comply shove and close to fakie treflip. Garrett and Donnie killed the bank to curb area. Dan was bumming on skating, but totally shredding at the same time. Joe got wrecked saving Donnie’s board because of the dumb pea gravel surrounding the skatepark. Seriously city of Frederick, dumb move. Preston was on one, ripping as he has been lately.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null hayden, jessup ultra, indy titanium 144, sptifire f4 99a radial green, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

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Bratcher and I rolled to Zuni park to meet some old dudes. Cass, Mike, Salty were there, Dave would join. The wind was cold, making a decent temp not feel great. Seemed like everyone was on their own for a while. Cass slammed so hard on a b/s flip attempt over the gnar hip. I got a front tail stall over the hip, could not commit to ollie up the euro 5. Dave had some cool lines, but also could not commit to ollie up the euro 5. Salty had some rad tricks on the qp going fast. Mike had some good boardslides. I spent forever getting a b/s flip over the dork hip. Dave got f/s flip over it quickly. Cass had rad ollies but couldn’t get the front shove. Dave had long grind transfers from the qp to mound. We all played with the hubba area, but I think only Dave landed some transfers. Oh yeah, Jack did the carve into noseslide and boardslide. My flip tricks were not working.

Cass and I looked at the area below which was kind of cool actually. Some two stairs, some okay ledges. I kind of wish we had skated it more.

After a while Bratcher, Dave and I went to the new Westminster spot with the ledges to bank. It was windy and cold when we got there. Those guys went on to kill it. Dave front board to fakie, front 50 back 180, back bigspin into it. Jack front board, sw nose, sw boardslide. I was quite unhappy with my consistency although did a few lines that I liked. Noseslide the bench up top, ollie down, boardslide into the bank, nollie bigspin on the bank. No comply bigspin on the bank, nollie front tail. I was taking forever to kickflip into the bank, then did it in a line. Noseslide, ollie down, kickflip. And the kickflip felt great. There was this first grader that hung around us for a while. He was funny. I liked how he told me to practice more. But when I finally did the line with the kickflip he was super encouraging.

I was toast at that point, but I went and looked at what the school had to offer. The 3 of us rode down some long stairs. Then I tried some weird stalls on the silly curb into downhill path. Dave did a stall to grind into it too. The hurricane felt pretty awesome really. I want to go back and do it with the actual path bomb and somehow make the corner. Last thing was Dave’s cool little boardslide 270. Pretty rad day. I wish I wasn’t so negative at times, but it was a super struggle at times for me.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, indy 144 titanium, 51mm spitfire green radials 99a f4, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)