On a warm, but breezy night I went to Will’s in Frederic to skate his ramp for the first time. Dave would join after awhile. It’s mellow. Very mellow compared to Rampy, smaller coping. Took me awhile to get used to it. I would get some basics when my king pin didn’t hang me up. Will quickly showed it’s his ramp. Dave warms up so cool. Below coping kickturns and fakie kickturns. As we got going Will instituted a ‘mandatory flatground’ when you ended up in the middle of the ramp. Will quickly got stationary varial flip, treflip, switch flip, front heel. Dang! Dave would get a few varial flips. I would get kickflip and whatever weird varial flip body varial treflip attempt I randomly do sometimes. I was mad I couldn’t get a treflip. Dave would manual the deck, fakie front pivots, lots of Dave ripping. I got a few front disasters, maybe one or two that slid, front 50s, axle stalls to fakie, fakie pivots, etc. Will had some blunt to rock fakie, fakie front smith to fakie, pivot and feeble fakies, etc. It was a really fun session.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, 5.2 venture lows bpmes med bushings, 1/16 riser, 51mm f4 101a spitfire classic shape 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 half fp elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a surprisingly nice night I went to dog park after dinner and it was vacant for the whole time I skated. I had switched to 272 shoes, with an insole only in the front and I really liked it. It’s been too long since I skated to remember much about this session. I just know that I started with some of the basics then tried to take advantage of no one else being there. I haven’t 50’d the cement benches since my achilles injury. And that would remain true unfortunately but I had some fun lines trying to ollie a parking block going fast to set me up for it. I posed other taller ollies, got a sketchy nose manual, posed nosegrinds, got a back 50 back 180 out on the curb, a couple flippers. Skated hard, enjoyed having the place to myself, looking forward to not totally sucking again some day in my life

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, 5.2 venture lows bpmes med bushings, 1/16 riser, 51mm f4 101a spitfire classic shape 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 272 black size 12 half fp elite insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a sketchy drive down from the mountains I went to go skate before it got dark. It was breezy and 65 degrees when I left my house. I wanted to skate some street and something I haven’t in awhile or even a new spot. First I went to Southern Hills, but there was a school event. Then I went to Bear Creek which also had an event. I was randomly going to park in a different place so drove up Baseline and randomly saw a kid skating in a tennis court and noticed it had a ledge. Whoa! So I pulled in to check it out and skate. It turns out I had seen this spot on the gram, but didn’t think it was in Boulder. There was a young kid skating. I tried a slappy crook on a really good parking block and bailed, then he skated across the court to try slappy crooks. It was funny, but turns out he was just learning them. He never quite got it and I never quite got my truck pinched into slappy front crooks. I was wearing skate shoes for the first time in awhile. NB# 288S. They felt clumsy, but did flick better. The tennis court finish is weird and slows your roll quickly. I did not skate very well, but at the same time did get a few basics. Part of this was because the clouds moved in and the temperature was dropping like crazy, but most of it is me. I took a few tries to get a nose manual, ollie onto the taller ledge, really bad and slow front 50. Got a few halfcab flip, fakie flips, I felt better on my board even though I didn’t land much. The 288s didn’t seem as shock absorbing as the Splays. I had a few crooks, noseslides, switch noseslides, halfcab noseslide. Remotely close to noseslide 270 shove. Hucked manual shove out which was remotely close too. When I finished skating it was 31 degrees. That’s a 34 degree drop in less than two hours. Insane. Stoked to find this spot. Hope i start skating better soon.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, 5.2 venture lows venom 91a bushings, 1/16 riser, 51mm f4 101a spitfire classic shape 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288s size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Up pretty early and needing to go to my moms in Buena Vista I setup a skate date at Golden. Jake, Kevin, Cass. Jake brought a new Dave. Ted was randomly there. Jaixon from Bluecar met up, but didn’t skate. Out of the gates I felt very off on my board, mostly because I had hit the wall with the Splay shoes as skate shoes. Jake on the other hand was shredding right away as was Kevin. In different ways, but still shredding. Jake got a run of front rock a steep little qp, ollie up the kicker, f/s flip the bank. Kevin did something then ollie up then nollie f/s flip. Dave had impossibles to fakie on the banks every time. Cass did a perfect hardflip on flat after saying he had lost them. I had some crooks on the tall ledge, but couldn’t get the noseslide after. I had to go pretty quickly to get up to the mountains in time.

After spending way too long at AT&T helping my mom buy a new phone I went to the Salida park in the remaining sunlight. There was a couple people that could ride skateboards, but mostly kids playing with scooters with no idea that skaters were trying tricks. Argh. I posed some tricks, slid out fierce on the slippery concrete after a boardslide, landed my silly switch front nose first try. It took me way too many tries to get a kickflip over the perfect hip and the one I got felt like a miracle. Totally over the Splays. I got a noseslide on the tall bump to ledge. Ended with a fun line of boneless over the a-frame rail then kickflip to fakie the mellow bank. Man that park is slippery. Not the best park, not the worst. Didn’t hit the bowls at all.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, 5.2 venture lows venom 91a bushings, 1/16 riser, 51mm f4 101a spitfire classic shape 2 washers inside, splay freestyle grey size 12 nb# custom insoles)
(pain level 6/10 these barefoot shoes are not meant for skating)

After work I went behind the school since it was already dark and there is a section that’s lit okay. I had put together an 8.25 with venture 5.2 lows again because, well, I hate how heavy even the hollow Indy mids are. I attempted a couple slappies, but they didn’t really work so I just went back to the school. I did some warm ups then went into sucking. I definitely hit a wall with skating in the Splay shoes. The flick is just so inconsistent. I did some kickflips and stuff, took forever to get a fakie flip. Could not for the life of me do a heelflip. It was miserable. At one point I had a fakie flip followed by a halfcab flip as my only bright spot. Which is such a bummer considering how those tricks didn’t used to feel like highlights, just warm ups. I landed on a few heelflips, but never rolled away. I hucked some fakie and switch varial flips. Got a b/s flip and fakie bigflip. Close to a few others, but yeah, that’s it. 1 hour and only 4 flip tricks. Somehow I left not wanting so shoot myself, but rather was motivated to try skate flatground more.

(setup 8.25 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, 5.2 venture lows venom 91a bushings, 1/16 riser, 52mm f4 99a spitfire classic shape 2 washers inside, splay freestyle grey size 12 nb# custom insoles)
(pain level 4/10 these barefoot shoes are not meant for skating)

On a nice night I went out to Frederick for the first time in months to meet Dave and Garrett. I had a new Christmas Complete. And I hated it the entire time. I had mostly enjoyed my last stint on Indy mids, but they were too heavy. I thought maybe the hollow version would help. Nope, they felt no lighter. Add in a new 8.3 deck and 52mm Spitfire classic shapes. Patrick was there too happy to skate after his knee injury. We were in the back mellow bank/curb area for awhile. Dave did amazing front nose to fakie then fakie tail. He also started with some crazy step off trick on the bank that I couldn’t grasp, but Garrett got second try. I took too many tries to get a kickflip fakie then couldn’t quite get a front heel. Garrett did cool fakie tre out of the bank then fakie flip into the next one. Then it was all over for awhile. I was able to push pretty well so that was nice. I couldn’t quite get up the taller ledge, struggled to noseslide anything, flip tricks were impossible. Ugh. Dave and I did the 180 then switch front noses. Garrett did the manual tricks like it was nothing. Dave did switch front shove on the bank after a cool wallride to fakie. I dragged a lot of heel on a b/s flip on the attempt in between posing hardflip variations. Eventually we all got tired and called it a night.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy hollow mids, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape, splay freestyle shoes size 12 custom thin nb# abzorb insole and naboso activation insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a nice night I went to dog park and met Rob and Nick. There was only a few other people there. After my lack of pop and flip in Berlin I put Thunders on. Hated them. Rob was either there early or warmed up incredibly fast. He lined out a boardslide on the picnic table. Took him a few tries, but he did it. Nick had a lot of boardslides on the curb and flat bars. I had gotten really tired right before skating, I guess jet lag had caught up with me. I skated with less pop than normal. I had a couple halfcab flips. The best I had was a fakie bigflip followed by a quick little nose slide the end of the picnic table. Then I cleaned it up by doing the same line again next try. Fakie bigflip felt cool, noseslide felt weird. That pretty much the end of my energy and I went home.

(setup 8.3 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollows, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic shape, splay freestyle shoes grey size 12 custom nb# abzorb insole)
(pain level 2/10 achilles didn’t hurt at all!)

Up early on my last day in Berlin I had made plans to skate this spot across from the hotel if the rain held out. It did. Initially it was way harder than I imagined. We rolled down the stairs a few times to get warmed up. Ben was getting on 50s right away. I would take forever to get some super slow ones and accidental 5-0s. We would get some lines too. I had boardslide then turn around and crooks. Switch front nose then switch 180 a 2 stair. Ben commits to everything. Makes me jealous. Almost learned crooks first try. I took a while to do front 50 then front shove down the 2 stair. After some more skating and selfie filming I asked Ben if he could film the front shove. I did it with nollie tail instead but it was first try filming which is ultra rare to me. Then I messed around with various lines to try and motivate to ollie over the curb drop at then. I had done a few opening tricks like nollie back tail or front 50. Then I settled on the nose jib 270, kickflip, ollie. To my delight I landed the kickflip first try (didn’t care about the toe drag) then got a sketchy ollie where I dragged my tail across the curb. I didn’t care. It was cold, my arthritis was raging and I needed to get back to hang with the family. It was an incredibly fun session. Ben took some good slams getting that line of boardslide then back 180. Skateboarding rules. It’s fun skating new spots and meeting new people.

(setup 8.38 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hangers, bones medium bushings, 53mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, splay freestyle grey size 12 with custom nb# abzorb and naboso activation insoles)
(Pain level 4/10 arthritis)

On a cold but dry day I had some time to kill and went to a nearby park called Böcklerpark. I arrived to it mostly covered in leaves so had to brush them aside.  Then had some fun axle stalls.  The ledges didn’t slide or grind very well.  Had noseslides and some mediocre crooks in some mediocre lines. Couldn’t get front tail on the bank to curb.   Spent some time on flippers since I really wanted to get a treflip in Germany . Got bs flip and halfcab flip. Really struggled with treflip.  I would get one that rotated around really well but I put my hands down.  Oh well.  After that I was beat and sore.  

(setup 8.38 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hangers, bones medium bushings, 53mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, splay freestyle grey size 12 with custom nb# abzorb insole)
(Pain level 5/10 road trip soreness)

On a cold and rainy day we did some sight seeing along the east wall gallery.  I snuck in a slippery wallie nollie.  Then an hour later met India’s classmate and Boulderite Ben at Skatahalle.  Initially the park was pretty chill both crowded and temperature wise.  Then it was mostly chaos for a few hours.  I didn’t really skate with Ben a whole lot because the place was madness all around and it was hard to pay attention.  Did see him get some initial slappies too. It’s a good park with lots of variety so I would often get sidetracked on the way to a trick. Had some fun noseslides and crooks in the main ledge.  Ben and I did wallies up a ledge. I almost dropped down to 50 but it was weird.  Got a few kickflips on a bank, a bigflip or two as well.  There was a dude doing lines with 360 flips, Merlin flips and nollie lazers.   It was awesome.  Another dude doing 3’ tall kickflips and lots of solid style.  Another dude going 100mph for everything.  Also a lady learning how to skate and constantly standing in front of the brick bank making it annoyingly impossible to skate at times. I had a couple fun qp tricks on the little qp up top.  Front d and fakie smith fakie and back 50 to fakie.  Near the end we were able to skate the bank to curb. Ben learned nosestall to fakie after taking beginner lady out.  I did some fun back 50s on the china bank followed by kickflip to fakie. I snuck in a no comply to tail at the buzzer and we finished with slappies on our way out. Super fun time. It was surprising how nice everyone was.   

(setup 8.38 null mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hangers, bones medium bushings, 53mm spitfire f4 classic shape 99a, splay freestyle grey size 12 with custom nb# abzorb insole)
(Pain level 3/10 achilles)