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)

On the way to work I stopped for a brief mostly-flatground session.  I had 8.25 with slappy lows and mostly hated it. Especially the incredibly noisy pivot cups.  I struggled to kickflip or halfcab flip.  Did some basics around the park briefly after flailing at flatground.  Then remembered Monico was in a Rick flip challenge so I went in on them.  And I got one!  And it made me very happy.  

After work then a long traffic jam I ended up at a mostly empty Frederick park with Dave.  Warming up wasn’t as bad as I thought and for some random reason I thought of Donnie inspiration and we hucked some fs ollies up the bank.  And it was super fun.  We stuck to the bank area most of the night.  We tried lines for quite a while.  Dave did his line of fakie flip then bigspin, but of course I got a spam call which messed up the recording.  I tried kf to fakie then rick flip for a while but was not close to the rick flip, was also not close to f/s halfcab flip or even f/s flip.  I tried some sw front bluntslides and gave up after a slam.  Dave had sw blunt slide and front shove over the hip.  I had some alley oop fakie frontside grinds down the qp that were fun.  This seems like very little, but it was actually a long session and quite fun.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, slappy low profile 8.25, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic pink/green, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Snowy night. Went to Square State thinking I’d be unlocking it, but it was open with a bunch of youth hanging around. They would skate, but they kept to themselves mostly in the corner. I had done some warming up before the others showed. Man, the new layout is soooo congested. It’s fun, but it takes some getting used to. Not so much for the others, but for me it was. Will did 50s on all the ledge, nosegrind the tiny hubba, kickflips out of the kicker, lots of stuff. Jameson and I started with wallrides on the pryamid. His was all 4, mine was a sketchy wallie nollie. Jameson would do like 500 tricks. His bag is huge. Hardflip the kicker, treflip the 3, backside boneless, late back shove, nose pick, 50 the hubba to the long ledge, so much stuff. This dude Kyle was working and skated with us. He ripped the ledges. The halfcab noseslide was crazy. I did some whatever stuff. I didn’t think the euro to ledge would work for me, but noseslide was first try and I would get a lot of crooks. I did the kickflip better in a line earlier and did slappy crooks on the back to ledge after then almost front pivot to fakie on the little qp after. Justin shredded as one would expect and then some. Front tail to fakie the whole ledge was my fav. Front blunt, nosegrind, 5-0s to fakie then fakie grind up the kid qp, front tail the big qp to nose manual around the slippery deck. At the end I did a nosegrind or two on the curb. Justin and Jameson did a bunch of flip tricks. It was a fun session, there was a lot more. Jameson had played great music, it added to the fun.

(setup 7/10 null hayden 8.25, jessup ultra, venture 5.6 v8 ace bushings hollow hangers, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, splay rev lt b/w size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a sunny nice day I met Dave around noon at the old mellow bank spot in Niwot. I was there slightly before and was just warming up trying some manuals and stuff. Dave would show and beat me to the nollie bonk manual. I had kind of a fun manual to back 180 pivot in. Dave did f/s halfcab into the bank. I did a kickflip or two on the bank. Then we did flippers into it. I had a couple fakie bigflips that were garbage, but would get a b/s flip which felt pretty awesome. Dave hammered out a f/s halfcab flip. Yes, we’re saving some of these clips for Stubborns 2. Then we put a beam on the bank. I treated like a bank to curb for a while and did a few basics, also a halfcab flip on the bank. Dave did a crazy back 5-0 halfcab out then nosegrind 180. I did 180 sw crook stall shove out. Dave back 180 pivot to rock was awesome, but not as amazing as the back 180 sw crook transfer. I got his back with a no comply to tail. We ended on a Dave kickflip into the bank and attempted to hit another spot, but there was cars everywhere.

(setup 6/10 null time warp 8.25, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classic, splay rev lt b/w size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cool and rainy morning Kevin and I barged the Square House. I was finally feeling better and had some energy. And it seemed like right away the session was popping. We captured most of the highlights on video, but we skated hard for almost 4 hours. Kevin did the nollie flip right away and I somehow got his back with a first try kickflip. Kevin’s noseblunt was crazy. I was unhappy that I couldn’t ollie onto the stage. The wallie up the brick section is so fun. It took me a while to get the sw 180 into the bank. I was just trying for that part of the line, but it set me up for kickflip so I posed a couple before realizing I could actually do it. Getting that line was my highlight and made me quite happy. At the end we played treflip. Kevin and I got regular ones (mine was crap) then he got a good switch one and I never quite got a nollie tre. Oh well, really fun session.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null timewarp, jessup ultra, thunder hollow 148, spitfire f4 99a 52mm pink/green classic, new balance numeric 272 army size 12 with half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a warm morning I met up with Cass, Kyle, Joe and eventually Garrett at Dayton skatepark. I remember thinking it was fun, but I also don’t remember much. Kyle, Cass and I had first try kickflips. Cass had nice front noses. I was happy to get a little line of back 50 to fakie on the qp then halfcab noseslide the ledge under the qp. Had some okay front 50s, couldn’t back 50. Kyle with the 5-0 kickflip out. There was a dude there doing long crooks on the qp and impossibles every time which was cool.

Then we went to a weird nearby ledge/loading dock spot. Most hucked over a trash can. I dorked around on a little bump and eventually found a fun line of kickflip on the bump to front 180 off the loading dock. It was really fun. Kyle had done a really nice kickflip over the trash can. Donnie tested his endurance trying a sw 180 crooks.

Lastly we ended up at a place I have only skated a couple of times that I love (last spot in this clip). And it did not let me down. They had redone it a little so the spot is slightly different. Garrett did a cool 180 into a bank then fakie tre the 2. I had pretty quickly landed crooks then kickflip down the 3. I got up the 3 a couple times, but it was a struggle. Joe and Dan had some great lines. I managed another line of sw front 180 a 2 stair then front shove the 3. Made me pretty happy. What a fun day!

(setup 5/10 8.3 null time warp, thunder hollow 149 with t2 bushings, spitfire f4 99a 52mm tablets, new balance numeric 430 b/w size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 2/10 !!!)

On a Monday off of work we headed to Estes. It was awesome cloud cover most of the time, not a single scooter kid, it was epic.  After warming up some the rain hit a bit and we played SKATE which Dave won.  

Rob: ripped.  front 50s, back 50s, manuals, gap to back 50, noseslide the bump to ledge, poppy backside ollies on the steep bank
Neil: hurting, mostly sat this one out
Joe: front 50 front board then kickflip to fakie to show us he arrived.  Gnarly line of a grind then full speed boardslide the flat bar.  Front 50 180 the bank to ledge.  
Dave: Demo Dave in effect.  Fakie tail the hip gap to curb, manuals, nollie shove tail the hip then pole jam, I don’t even know so many tricks and lines, ended with kick back tail the hip
Glen: Warm up line got me hyped of back 50 the curb up top, ollie the little a-frame, crook the ledge.  Noseslide the bump to ledge then kickflip, kickflip fakie and bigflip.  Backside flip the small hip after the a fun grind on the china bank, treflip flyout, fun line of kickflip then noseslide down to end it.

A lot more skating happened, it was a fun day. Hard to write about it all.

(setup: 8/10 8.3 aces 52mm orange spits, last resort cm002s currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Mid day on the first full day of vacation I had some time to get out and skate. A quick drive got me to this weird park in Central City Nebraska. I have skated there once before. It is still weird, but last time I hadn’t really hit the mellow hips it seemed. After some warming up and cruising around I wanted to do a b/s flip first since it seemed like it could rain any minute. It only took a few tries and it felt awesome. After that I probably did a bunch of crooks because they were so fun on the little ledge. I would go on to get a lot of my ledge tricks, but nothing rare. The regular kickflip over the hip took me a while. Last thing I did was some axle stalls on the bigger qp then some ollies over the steep hip which were kind of scary. Then it was back to swimming in the lake before a lot of rain.

(setup 5/10 8.3 null time warp, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights with ace hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a class orange/black, last resort cm002 brown size 11.5 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10 felt kind of run down)

Went to campus with Bratcher on a super nice cloudy morning with rain in the forecast. We started at the bank to two stair to get warmed up. I got a lot of my normal stall tricks there. Crooks to fakie was fun, front smith, front crook to fakie took too long and was more of a front nosepick to fakie. Bratcher did some nollie back tails and worked up to front axles.

Next we went to Baker ledge which we posted up at for a long time. We both skated pretty well it seemed. Jack got some good manuals, noseslides, front 50s, some other stuff. I got manuals and a lucky nose manual quickly. Got pretty close to kickflip manual. Flip tricks went alright. Got halfcab flips, f/s halfcab heelflip, heelflips, b/s flip, fakie flips, no treflip though but I didn’t try too much. Ledge tricks were fun the crooks felt good on the taller part before Jack was filming. Managed a couple horrid front 50s, Jacks were so good.

Then to the white ledges. Mostly did the same stuff there although I added halfcab noseslide and a kind of smith stall. Jack’s noseslides were better “because I don’t have to ollie here” ha ha. I tried to ollie off the tall ledge and splatted. That was about it. Really fun session. I got so incredibly sore after though. I had worn some Nike SB insoles and I don’t think they offered enough protection.

(setup 7/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 hollow lite no bottom washer, spitfire f4 99a radial slim 51mm green, splay rev b/w size 12 with nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10 not bad while skating, but so bad after)

Had some time between meetings on my way to work so made a quick trip to dog park. I wore some NB vulcs. As soon as I put my board on the ground I felt good. I went on to have a great session for me. After a quick warmup of slappies and boardslides I tried to skate a little different than normal. Things I did that stood out. Crooks the tall bench and above the curb. Manual the curb followed by kickflip up the lurb. Went in on nosegrind 180 and think I got one. In between tries I did some flippers. Had a f/s halfcab flip that felt amazing. Also an alright heelflip. Didn’t get a treflip, but didn’t try too many. Had a run of a Joe Hamilton on the lurb followed by an over the top back 50 on the curb. Ollie onto the pad, first try front shove off. Had more than this. At the end I ollied one of the smaller flat bars, wallied the cone and then a slappy crook and I bounced. Really fun session, finally didn’t hate how my shoes felt so that was nice.

(setup 8/10 null 8.3 keyhole, jessup ultra, thunder team hollows 149, old spitfire f4 99a green radial slim, new balance numeric 574 vulc grey/orange size 11.5 half insole currex runpro insole)
(pain level 2/10)