Went to Square State in the evening hyped to see Brian and skate some. I had a new board which felt good with the mostly new kicks. Brian and I played on the china bank for a bit. I had some axle stalls and maybe a front slash onto the other bank, a kickflip on the bank. Brian did rock to feeble to fakie, front slash, blunt fakie which kind of ruined his back. After that Alex and Nick were playing SKATE in the middle and I tried a bunch of treflips near the china bank. Landed on a couple bad ones, but never got a clean one. At the end I posed some halfcab flip noseslides on the little ledge, but was not close.

(setup 4/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, converse fastbreaks white size 12 half 574v insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling overwhelmed with setup madness I ended up just grabbing an old 8.3 with some thunders on it and completely hated it. I had gone to Southern Hills. Haven’t been there in a long time and I remember why. I mean it’s okay, but them ledges are TALL. I did some noseslides and noseslides to fakie and that was really about it.

After some lunch and setting up a new board I went looking for dry spots. I didn’t come up with much, but I ended up at dog park as I was very surprised to see it was dry and almost empty. I had put Royals on and they are pretty good. Not great as they lack pop, but I did prove a couple of things to myself. Mainly, wearing these Splay shoes I need lighter setups. I had regular manuals better than normal. Other tricks were okay. Back 50s on the curb were better than normal. Slappy crooks worked well. Had a line that was really poorly done, but sounds okay on paper. Front 50 180 the lurb, sw front nose the bench, fakie nosegrind the curb. Did halfcab flip then b/s flip first try, but regular kickflips were terrible. Did another line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide the bench, back 50 the curb. Did more whatever stuff. Ended on a line of sw front nose the narrower metal bench then fakie front nose jib the green ledge. Oh yeah, I couldn’t front 50 it to save my life which I imagine will be a quick death to the Royals. Since I had that problem before too. I should also mention it was quite windy and cold.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, royal ultralight 149, spitfire f4 99a 52mm pink/green classic, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After Kevin flew in early, took the bus and got a new job we rolled out to Idaho Springs picking up Garrett on the way. To our surprise Mike was there too. It was mostly chill for quite a while. Joe would show about an hour into the session. Garrett didn’t have many issues getting used to the park. Wallie manual kickflip out, b/s flip the hip, back big, nollie big, nollie back heel the hip, everything so good. On the ledge halfcab crooks, sw crooks, back tails, whatever he wanted. Kevin was struggling a bit understandably considering he had been up for like 8 hours already at this point. But still crooks, back tail the ledges, manuals on the big ledge, long grinds on the diamond cut, back blunt on the bank to curb. I was getting used to a setup change of new 8.25 deck and Thunders. Meh. But I did get a first try manual on the little pad and a line I forget that involved a kickflip to fakie then a sw front nose. Took me forever to ollie up onto the main ledge. Had a fun line of ollie the 3 then b/s flip the mini hip. Also got a crooks on the ledge off the manny pad. Joe was funny. Did a trick on the ledge and said “this ledge is perfect” then proceeded to slam super hard on it next try. He ollied the big gap, back tails, front crooks, fakie hardflip the mini hip followed by a hilarious slam on a fakie shove.

After a long enough drive for soreness to really settle in we arrived at Breckenridge skatepark. I’ll just start by saying the new stuff is amazing. Kevin and I started mostly on the old though with tricks into the bank. His sw f/s flip was so good. It’s crazy how ugly my fakie bigflips have gotten. It was fun to roll in after a trick though. Had some fun doing some front 50s on the small noping in the old section and lining it with noseslide to fakie on the new bank to ledge. That bank to ledge is so awesome. Kevin and I did crooks doubles. His were actually good. I took a long time to get a front 50 on it. Joe had front crooks and back tail on the a frame ledge. Garrett put together the line in a few tries at the end after sitting. It was a fun session, fun day. Even a fun meal after that Zach joined us at after some random person came out of nowhere and insisted we eat at Albertos.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null timewarp, jessup ultra, thunder hollow 148, spitfire f4 99a 52mm pink/green classic, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

After work then a couple naps I made my unenergetic self go to Valmont to meet Will and Dave. I arrived after Will had b/s flipped the euro hip and Dave f/s flipped it. Wow! They kept at it a bit to get cleaner ones, but I didn’t get to see them go down. I cruised around, had some fun, got warmed up. Was happy to do kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank, kickflip on a hump to b/s flip toe drag the hip. Some switch front noses on the back of the bank. Will learned pole jam. Dave almost did them to manual. Dave did crazy nollie shove tail reverts over the hip. A lot more happened, it was a fun session. Then we went to Picas and had a nice dinner.

(setup null 8.5 vhs, jessup ultragrip, venture v8 5.8, 52mm spifire f4 classic 99a orange/black, splay rev lt 272 insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a snowy Friday I went to the garage. I had been kind of sick the last couple days, but wanted to get the legs moving. I had a new deck, different setup. Basically after chatting with Lord Degros he recommended this setup. 8.3, Indys, 51mms. Warming up felt great just doing ollies and shoves. Kickflips were okay. Took forever to get a b/s flip, but I blame my legs from not exercises for 3 days. At the end I hucked varial heel and nollie flip, varial heel was remotely close.

(setup 6/10 null keyhole 2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollow knox 149 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 felt so uncoordinated)

On a cloudy morning with high winds in the forecast I went to dog park to meet up with Paul, Bratcher and Dave.  Ted was there, as was a couple others.  The wind never really came until the very end some 3.5 hours later.  I had a new setup.  Brand new 8.3 board, slappy lows 8.5 and luckily it felt pretty great for almost everything.  But an early game of SKATE with Paul was kind of tough, I abused the ‘double are nothing’ card and somehow won on a halfcab flip that took a lot of tries. Somewhat soon after that I got a line that made me pretty happy even though it started off kind of weak.  Accidental front 5-0 on the bench, heelflip on flat, ollie the weird wider aluminum flatbar.  I would also get a line of crooks the back of the two step then kickflip onto the C pad.  I would get 3 or 4 kickflips onto it.  Had a first try cruddy fakie fs halfcab heel.  Bratcher had some some cool tricks on the C ledge.  Paul was mostly chilling after not diving into his bag too far.  Dave was doing some cool axle stalls to fakie on the bank to curb, then would go on to have some banger lines including tricks like ollie over the grate, back feebles on the low flat bar, front 50s around the C, back 5-0 the curb, nose manual the C pad and then he just casually learns front 50 body varial (the hard way!) like it was nothing. I went in on kickflip over the flat bar and it was a battle.  Ollie the grate, kickflip the flat bar.  Committed a lot, landed on a couple, bonked the one I landed.  Dave was able to kickflip it too in like 10 tries.  

Then we went over to the park.  I just kind of dorked around for a bit, but Dave went in on switch front 180 nose manual on the volcano.  Yeah, insane.  He had some good manuals and kickflips to fakie as setups.  Great day.

(setup 8/10 null keyhole2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, slappy 8.5 low profile, spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cold night I went out to the garage on a new setup. I’ve done a bunch of journal researching and this really seems like a good setup for me to stick with. I’m sure I wont, but I hope I do. The Spanky Ace’s are slightly lighter. I hope that helps. Anyway, my body wasn’t feeling too good. I did some warming up with 180s and stuff, took a bit to get a shove I was happy with then did a few kickflips which felt good. Switch flips after were not close. Halfcab heels were somewhat close. I took about 35 tries to get a treflip, but I had landed on several of them. Hucked nollie varial heel unsuccessfully then ended on some really bad frontside flip attempts with a could kickflips I skirted around 180.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 keyhole 2, null grip, ace 44 af1 hollow spanky, 52mm spitfire f4 99a, new balance numeric 574 vulc blue 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After Cass did me a solid and picked up some boards from 303 we bolted to dog park on the last Friday of daylight savings time. When we arrived the park was dead. Within minutes it started to fill up. Turns out the CU skate club was having a party. We had started out on the jersey barrier/bank to curb area. I thought things would go for me when I did a front slash on the barrier, boardslide the cement chunks then no comply to tail. Cass slammed really hard on a back 50 down the barrier. He went straight to shins. Doh. He skated some after that, but was pretty much toast. I would go on to get super frustrated and angry at times. I had a new board so I think the steeper new tail was tough to get used to after skating such an old board. I took too long to do a crook stall to fakie on the bank to curb. The main ledge area was popping so I kind of randomly just skated the metal bench and flatground. I would get some crooks, one really bad treflip and one less bad nollie treflip.

(setup 3/10 null flaherty 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture redrilled v8 5.6 v-hollows with royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide black size 11.5 half 574 vulc insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a bright and somewhat cooler morning met up with quite a few people at Broomfield. Salty, Bratcher, Rob, Sean, Eric, Paul, Will. On top of that quite a few others showed and it was quite busy at times. I had a new setup based on some new trucks I’ve been waiting on a long time – Slappy Lows. I would like them and they skated pretty well out of the gates. Rob bounced first so I’ll start there. He wasn’t feeling too good, but tried to get it going with some manuals and I saw a really long g turn that was pretty amazing. Sean was the next to bounce. He had a good amount of excuses lined up, but still ripped. High speed grinds on the black ledge including a line of crooks followed by fakie back 50 180 out. Sean, Paul and I played a game of SKATE. I was the first out, but it was fun. Salty learned boardslides to fakie on the mini bank to curb and almost got blunts on the “bigger” bank to curb. Bratcher took his multitude of boardslides to various obstacles. Switch front board up to back 50 on the bank to ledge was cool as was nollie back lip on the blue ledge. Eric good tailslides, heelflips over the parking block, crooks, charging. Paul did back 50 to front 180 on the bank to ledge, back 5-0 180s on the black ledge, landed a lot of flippers in the game of SKATE. Pretty early on I had a line I liked of halfcab noseslide, noseslide to fakie the bank to ledge then fakie bigfilp. My board was popping really well, I got several front 50s on the ledge into the bank that felt great. Close to noseslide 270 shove, close to kickflip 50 on the bank to ledge. Was happy to get a crooks on the bank to ledge finally. Will showed around the time we were winding down. He had some really good nollie noseslides on the black ledge.

After chilling and talking to India I picked up Cass and met up with the 98% dudes at York St Skatepark. There are even more little qps now and they are fun. Jack filmed a couple of amazing clips for Scotty with a trefip and a noseblunt. Cass and I messed around with an easy roll in to small qp. I got my first front pivot to fakie in a long time. I might have even grinded a little. Joe came along and made it not so easy by ollieing onto the ledge before the roll in. I struggled a bit and kind of hurt my shoulder trying to ollie up as well. Donnie and Cass had no problem with it.

Then we went to the nearby bank to ledge. My accidental training at Broomfield payed off and I would get noseslide to fakie and crooks. The crooks felt really cool, but I’m sure it only grinded an inch or so. Jack rattled off some tricks that were so fun to watch. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him just skating and it was great. I didn’t know Jason and John very well but they skated a long time and Jason’s front tail kickflip out was so good. Donnie came close to a banger, but had to give up and it started raining. It was really fun being in the streets with a crew.

(setup 7/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25 deck, null grip, slappy low profile 8.5 trucks, 53mm bones stf pj 103a wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really nice night I had thought of slacking, but decided to take advantage of students still being gone and went to campus. I had no intention of ending up at the flagstone ledge to warm up, but the way traffic and bikes were I just stuck on the fun downhill bike path and it spit me out at the ledge. I had a new board/ setup change that I hope to stick to. 8.5 with the bigger 14.5 wheelbase and aces. Anyone reading this knows the chances of me sticking with a setup are zero. But I did have a fun first session at least. I mostly skated the ledge and didn’t try a lot of flippers. I couldn’t get crooks. Front axle took a while to get. I was happy to get a front 50 and an accidental 5-0. Seemed like I gained a little confidence and could maybe do them moving next time. Then I went nearby and did a line of ollie up a 2 stair, kickflip, front 180 down the two stair. Then over to the business building as it was getting dark. Got a couple lines I liked. Boardslide the tall ledge, kickflip, noseslide to fakie the wood bench, fakie flip. Then noseslide the tall ledge followed by a crooks on the wood ledge, then a bailed backside flip. Lastly I tried to ollie up the 3 stair. I got myself to commit mentally, but my back leg wasn’t having it and I hung up. Then I walked back to the car. Fun session, tried hard.

(setup 5/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 hollow 55, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)