After work stopped by the parks to test out my foot and man it was not good. So on Monday I was playing tennis with Liz trying to break in some new Foy cupsoles and my foot started hurting. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but man it did not go away. Even pushing hurt as it’s my back foot. So I went over to the skatepark right as Dave was rolling up. I had no confidence and didn’t do much. Dave revealed the Gat Air which he did several time. I wanted to do it too, but it was too much for my back foot. Did some fun bean plants. Dave had done some lines in the pond avoiding the kids. The lipslide was so good. Hope my foot gets better soon!

(setup 7/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 9/10 right foot pain from tennis)

On a warm afternoon I met up with Will at his namesake spot. We hit the main manny pad area for a while. I had a christmas complete – 8.3 thunders 53s. Meh. We skated the low part of the ledge for a while. Will doing real tricks with pop like 50s and tailslides both ways. I did a lot of no pop tricks. And my setup felt like it had no pop so that wasn’t helping my lack of pop. Then we went up to start working on manuals. I got a first try manual then couldn’t do anything. Will had manualed down pretty far, but not til the end. I CU cop came and was super nice, but told us not to grind basically. So we played a game of SKATE that I lost really badly on. I think I did get a few flippers though. I started to get crazy knee pain. We went and looked at other spots, but didn’t skate anything. My knees hurt so bad walking home that I almost took off the Foy Cups and threw them in the creek.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null keyhole 2, pepper grip, thunder team hollow 149, snot franky 53mm pink, new balance numeric 306 cup grey size 12 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

After a very hot day I went to Douglass around 7pm. Warmed up on the side of the school. Was really struggling again, these 600s are hard to break in. I would get a line of kickflip, accidental 5-0, front 180 my water bottle out of the bump. Went to the front of the school. Hucked some flippers, but never landed anything. On the ledge got some noseslides and crooks. My August goals were to front 50 Douglass and to do a new flip trick. I have also added not to change my setup after this. Anyway, my pop was okay. I started committing to front 50s. I was going slow but one of them got up on there. I was kind of so shocked I freaked out and almost came off. So it was mostly an axle stall to feeble to hand on the ledge. But I was hyped. I would like to clean it and do it legit, but it felt cool regardless.

(setup 7/10 null 8.25 time warp, jessup ultra, thunder 149 team hollows t2 bushings, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green new balance numeric 600 size 12 black/gum currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

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 work on a breezy afternoon I met up with Dave at the old TF stomping ground Honey’s Hole. To our surprise there was a lot of water there, like a lot a lot. Dave would prove this pretty quickly when doing a pivot early on and he took a dip, feet first! I can’t believe we didn’t film that! I asked him to recreate it, but for some reason he refused haha. Luckily he had a different pair of shoes in his car and it didn’t slow him down. Pretty early on I did a kickflip on the narrow strip up top which started Dave’s ‘My War’. The questionable b/s flip was fun. Dave’s pivots on the qp were nuts. I did make myself drop in on at least which was a lot scarier than I had thought it would be. My calf was hurting, so pushing lines was not all that fun, especially after hanging up on a tree root. I would halfpipe it quite a bit. Was happy to get some front slashes, front disaster and a hurricane. Dave lined out front pivots, front tails, nollies, wallies, he was shredding. Fun session.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null dead spots, jessup ultragrip, slace 8.25, spitfire 52mm classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 wide with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 darn calf pain)

Somehow slept really well and after a banging breakfast at our hotel we went out to see some sights. Swiss Air had lost my luggage so one of the first things on the agenda was to get me a new board and shoes because I didn’t want to delay and then not have a board. So we went to the big mall store Titus and I walked out with a an 8.25 of some Flower brand, some hollow ventures and the smallest wheels they had. The family and I were walking nearby at a city park that has a fountain dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales. I did a quick search in maps and it turned out there was a skatepark like 500 feet away so I of course had to go check it out. I had it all to myself so after a couple of laps around and trying to figure out my new setup I kind of just filmed everything. It was quite a fun session surprisingly except how I couldn’t lock into crooks. I thought I’d only have like 5 minutes, but the family ended up being gone for like 40 minutes so I got a decent little session in. Especially considering my complete and shoes were like 1 hour old. The kickflip flyouts were pretty fun as were the back 50s down the steep little escalator qp.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5 (they didn’t have 12s))
(pain level 3/10)

My calf was feeling better and I wanted to get out and test it a little without anyone around. I went to Scott Carpenter before work which served two purposes. 1, no one would be there and 2, I was on very limited time. I stuck with my theme of changing my setup every day of the year so far. Really though, it’s just trying to find something that works okay with the wide Xero Kelsos. 8.5 with Thunder team hollows and 53mm wheels. It was too much, I couldn’t pop to save my life. Mostly my session consisted of really bad flailing without any confidence. I had one crooks on the bench that felt good, some fun 50s on the qp, little noseslide down the hubba.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 team hollow venom 88a bushings, 53mm bones pj 103a v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a cloudy and cool morning I went to dog park feeling excited to skate. For one, it wasn’t too windy and for another I was woke again. Venture finally came out with hollow cast plates and the timing was too good to not add in a christmas complete. Anyway, warming up wasn’t too bad except I kept seeming to get in everyones way. Rob showed up basically the same time as me, Cass was later, Jack B later. Dennis and crew were there as well as some other older skaters and it was a good vibe. I skated okay and had energy. Personal highlights were front 180 off the grate kicker to really bad switch front board on a parking block, halfcab flip first try, how much pop my board had, boardslides on everything felt good as did crooks. Cass was over at the skatepark for a while. Rob had first try shove lipslide! Also close to nose manual shove. Jack B front 50’d the bench, dude got pop! Cass, Rob and I played a game of SKATE featuring the worst f/s halfcab ever (by me of course, actually I ended up not counting it because it was so bad), a lot of bailed flip tricks by me, no comply back 360 by Rob and he won it on that fakie bigspin no comply.

After that Cass and I kickflipped a parking block a few times, we did it in a train. I was happy to kickflip it, it’s been a while. I couldn’t get a clean no comply flip though.

After a very filling burger Cass and I went to Douglass. We did a lap around the school since Cass hadn’t seen it all. We ended up in the back and have no idea why we haven’t skated there more. The little ledge was fun, but we didn’t have wax. We both imagined noseslides dropping down to noseslide. I posed some switch front noses. Then we went to the front and struggled. I was happy how my setup popped up the curb easily, but I really struggled with kickflips. I posed some other flippers, but landed nothing. In the end I think Cass had done some good back 180s up the curb, halfcabs on flat then couldn’t get a noseslide. I did ollie up the curb, kickflip, some type of noseslide that was supposed to be a crook. I also got switch 180 up the curb, pop shove on flat, noseslide to fakie, almost fakie flip.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Feeling pretty exhausted still but wanting to skate with Carleigh before she left Paul picked me up and we met up with Dave, Darin and others. I had a Christmas complete. My reward for finishing Something. It was an 8.5 with 51mm PJ wheels and hollow Ace 55s. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Popping was hard. I got close to noseslide 270 shoves and did a sloppy fakie bigflip out of the bank, but other than that was pretty lackluster for me. Carleigh was lofting ollies into the bank and doing front and back disasters on the brick qp, boardslides, kickflips. Ripping. Paul is really good, was back 50’ing the black ledge before I had even pushed. He went on to do a lot more tricks like back 50 front 180, fakie tails both ways. Dave had some poppy nollies into the bank, nollie front 180s out of it, almost nose manual the black box, there’s a lot more, but I’m forgetting. Darin, Justin, Kyler, other Tuesday night locals were there charging it. Pretty fun session.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 51mm pj bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10 some good ol’ cupsole knee sharp pain)

Drove through rush hour traffic and pulled in to Rocky Mountain as soon as it started raining. Argh! But it was cool to catch up with Rob. He was on his board for the first time in a while. The rain finally let up shortly before dark and we tried to squeeze in a session. I had all new everything. Well, the trucks aren’t actually new, but I have barely used them. Somehow I’ve never done Thunder hollows on 8.5 before. It felt pretty great. I’m just determined to finally make 8.5 work as it feels so natural to ride.

Rob rolled around on his cruiser at first before getting out his regular board and getting a bunch of axle stall combos. I was all over the place never really sticking with anything. Couldn’t quite get nollie back tail on the ledge, had a fun first try crooks, some back 50s on the curb, slappy front crooks, kickflips felt okay, couldn’t get Dave’s trick, was definitely struggling getting used to the setup change. Dave did his fakie front crooks a few times, boardslides to fakie, nollie to fakie on the bank, halfcab boardslide the curb, ride on front tail shove. It was a fun session even if it was cut short by rain.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 151 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)