Got out of work and what do you know, my car wont start. Had that problem in the morning too and had to jump it so it looks like it needs a new battery. Rather then taking care of that I did a few things and watched the Nuggets somehow destroy OKC for their 13 win. So awesome and so nothing to do with a skate journal. But its the reason I didn’t get out until 9pm. It was way colder then it should be. In the mid 40s, but with a cold wind. I had setup some new wheels. Some little Pig 50mm wheels. They had been taunting me at Crisis for a long time so I got some. My first non-Null wheels in years. Out of the gate they seemed great. And I warmed up pretty quick and had the drive to push a little faster then normal (not saying much). I had some boardslide pop outs and noseslide pop outs to get warmed up. Then came kickflips and some stalls on the curb. The box in the photo wasn’t there initially. I got some crooked grinds on the middle section. They felt super good. So good I kept doing them. I guess the narrower wheels let me lock in a little better. I got a couple treflips after, but both were super bad. Looking back I hardly landed anything frontside. Did I even try? Man, I landed like two front 50s and a really bad front tail. Oh and a couple front noseslides to fakie. I tried a bunch of flip tricks. After bailing a frontside trick I would do a nollie heel or nollie flip attempt. Those weren’t close. Well, the first one was close, but it must have been luck. I tried a bunch of fakie big flips going fast. That trick isn’t working lately. I got one. Coming back I would try the fastest nollie tres I’ve ever tried. I got one. I landed on almost every one of them though. That trick rules. Later on I put this box after it and ollied it in a couple tries. It felt neat. I put it upright too which was way taller and didn’t have the cajones to commit. I got tired quick around then and the wind kicked in overdrive so I went home. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a bad day skating when I land a nollie tre. Love that trick.

Ollie totally wanted me to sit and watch the Nuggets game with me. I was so tempted. My legs were still really sore. But with the threat of snow a day away Liz made me go skate. Ok, well she told me I should. Good woman. I had finally setup some new wheels. As you can see those little 50mm wheels had worn out quite a bit. I’d say they were 48, maybe even down to 47. So bad! So I went back to the good ol’ supernullethane. When I got to the park there was about 5 people total there. For such a huge park that is almost nothing. I just cruised around for awhile not doing much of anything. It was a blast. I pumped the vert wall of the snake run a few times and probably got about 3 feet from the top. That thing is gnarly. Did some tricks on the tiny qp above it for awhile and ended up with a really fun run. Front feeble on the tiny qp, front 50 the ledge into the bank, ollie into the next bank, ollie into the next bank over the mini step up, ollie up the euro (missed the manual), backside flip on the blue bank. Good times. For the most part I didn’t really skate anything for longer then a few minutes. It was fun cruising around and hitting stuff. In the mini ramp it took a few tries, but I got a run with a front rock, front d and a fakie back smith to fakie. Doing flip tricks was a bit harder getting used to how the bigger wheels rotate. I didn’t land many of them. Then again it was in the low 30s and I was wearing long johns and a jacket. At the end of the session I battled back 50s on the little granite Pier 7 replica thing. It basically took until 30 second left of light to get it. Whew. I’m not sure what’s up with me enjoying skating parks so much, but I’ve never really done it solo before and it’s fun working on stuff I would never do in front of people.

Of course now that I have to take some time off for my shoulder injury it’s super nice out. I haven’t set up a new board in a long time and needed something to do. If you know anything about me, you know that I obsess over really dumb stuff. Well lately I’ve been watching a lot of Westgate footage and read something where he said low trucks have better pop. When I had cleaned my garage last weekend I found an old pair of Venture Lows (8″) and I felt like giving them a try. They are probably at least 8 years old. Pretty funny. I put the Venom bushing in there for the heck of it. I also had some really old 50mm Null wheels that wouldn’t sell so I threw those on there too. I am now almost a 40 year old with Venture Lows and 50mm wheels. Aka I’m a dork. I went on a hike with Liz and got back kinda early in the afternoon and just couldn’t avoid skating anymore. I figured the safest thing to do was some slow flippers in front of the house so that’s what I did. I’m not sure if the lower trucks really help or not, but the new board felt awesome. I did some of the best feeling kickflips I’ve done in awhile. They board sure flipped around quick. I suppose the lighter wheels help too. I did a few more flippers too. Everything felt good with the exception of treflip which seemed a little harder since the trucks don’t turn the same. I got one kind of though and put my arm down and felt a tingle in the shoulder that reminded me I should probably stop while I’m ahead. I’m hyped my shoulder didn’t hurt at all while skating, but still gonna rest it so I don’t hurt it again next time I fall. Hyped on my new setup!