After a way-busier-than-it-should-be day of work Jake and I rolled to campus. It has snowed and appears to be sticking around longer than we hoped. Uni Hill was snowed out, we went under the tunnel and ended up behind the UMC to a good section of dry concrete and a couple puddles. I had some new shoes, the NB# 212, aka the one shoe that does not hurt my feet at all. It helpsed, I was able to skate. We did some lines over little puddles. Starting with 180s, switch 180s and moving on to really technical tricks like kickflips and fakie bigspins. Ha. It was fun though. Jake did a bunch of front axle stalls on a tall flagstone ledge to start a line, then nollie back 180 then fakie bigspin over the little puddle. I tried a bunch of front axle’s on it too, but only got one. I did have some front and back axle stalls on the 2nd step, darn near died trying to kickflip a little pile of snow. Then we played SKATE. The first game was kind of a wash as Jake got burned by fakie flip and missed a triple or nothing. I added heelflip and halfcab flip and that one ended. We played another game that was really good with a lot of tricks for both of us. I was up with f/s halfcab heel (hyped on that one 3rd ty), first try varial flip, and f/s halfcab flip. I matched Jake’s fakie flip and f/s flip (maybe my fav trick I did), but he came back with switch shove, nollie bigspin and a creepy spin. After that I got a halfcab heel that didn’t count due to heel drag, but I was still hyped. We battled treflip for awhile and I got one first. Jake almost matched it, but then went down swinging. It was a fun session. One of these days we’ll both have our treflips down good again. After the game I took a few tries and got a sketchy fakie bigflip.

(null 8.25″ spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm radial slim f4 101a, 3 speed washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 212 blue/gum size 11.5 stock hard rubber insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

it’s funny, because I really tried to just ignore pain and skate a thicker insole on Sunday, but now my toe hurts so bad I couldn’t skate. I tried a couple kickflips and realized I should stop. I also felt sick which seems to happen after every time I hang out in the cold filming someone. I need to stop doing that.

(setup who cares)
(pain level 8/10 right big toe)

Had a great talk with Liz about getting older the night before after my depression session. She rules. Getting older isn’t easy and lately I’ve been feeling quite old (I know I’m not, but it’s hard to deny how you feel). I went to sleep feeling better about myself.

On a cold morning I woke up early determined to not be so unhappy with my skateboarding. I went for a brisk run, stretched for a bit then went to Broomfield park at 9. I had the park all to myself and I told myself I couldn’t look at my phone for 1.5 hours. I skated hard, did some stuff I always do, did some stuff I am too shy to do around people. Once I got somewhat warmed up I tried a long line that kind of morphed over time and I never got the manual to end it, but it was something like: kickturn on the steep bank, front 180 into the mellow bank, halfcab noseslide the black ledge, tiny little frontside ollie on the brick qp, front 50 the blue ledge, axle stall quartapotty, then manual the blue box. I would never get the manual even though I was quite close. When I would bail something in the line I would just keep going, but try other stuff. I got another one of those funny back 50 attempts on the blue ledge that turned into a slow back 5-0 shove. On the black ledge I did okay. Front 50, front 50 180, front 50 shove, multiple accidental 5-0s, several crappy crooks. I did a couple f/s flips on the hump up top which I haven’t done in a long time, ollied onto the brown ledge, 50’d the sad ledge, almost back 50’d the happy ledge, several kickflips to fakie on the little bank, kinda close to nosegrinds on the blue ledge. My hour and a half was up so I went home to eat and then meet up with nullers. I didn’t really do much, but I felt better about it. I had worn my 306s with the stock insole for a bit of added cushion and put the 5.8 trucks on. It seems like a good setup to actually try to stick to.

Then I met up with Sean, Donnie, Bo, Hayden and Jack at Broomfield. We seemed to arrive at the same time pretty much. I was sore and pretty much just posed kick back tails or halfcab heel noseslides. Sean did a bunch of halfcab heels, did one up the blue pad, did heelflip nose manual. jack had a bunch of back 180 fakie manual halfcab out, almost fakie front shove out. Donnie learned nollie shove 5-0. Hayden did front 180 fakie manual combos. Bo missed a treflip! Ha, he shredded.

Then we watched Jack roll in the grass and Donnie defy physics at the grass spot before moving on to the crusty bank spot. I was so incredibly sore at this point I couldn’t even push fast enough to pivot the bank to 2″ crack part. Hayden got some manuals quick and put down a sick one to fakie. Jack got a crazy nose manual thread the needle. Donnie did some crazy manuals and rode another big board though the rough. Bo ollied the table the hard way. Sean ollied it and kickflipped over it then amazed us all with his speed generating and pop skills. Wow Sean. Wow.

(null 8.25″ spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks (cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom 88a bushings, spitfire 52mm radial slim f4 101a/bones stf 52mm 103a v1, 3 speed washers on outside of wheels, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 in the morning then 7/10 later ugh)

Got to Broomfield a little later than I had hoped. The crew was rad though. Dave L, Rob, Cass, Ryan, Eric. I started on my 8″. I say this because mid session I switched to 8.25. Ugh. Rob, Cass, Ryan and Dave were already hitting it when I got there. Ryan was ripping, lots of poppy flip tricks, solid bump to bar tricks, even lines to the steep bank. Rob was ripping the back 50s so casually, front boards. Cass and I played a game of SKATE that I would enjoy even though I would once again get letters on a treflip. He did double or nothing on kickflip and missed, so I returned the favor on treflip after getting very close the first try. I had a good feeling heelflip, sketchy halfcab flip and couldn’t get either halfcab heel. Cass got me with hardflip, backside bigspin and ended me on fakie tre. At least I had gotten a fakie bigflip on defense, I would have been mad if I lost on that one. Eric had shown and wasn’t his normal raging ball of energy. It’s nice to know he’s human, he still had some good back 50s, front tails and more. But it was kind of a bummer to see him struggle. Oh well, skateboarding can be like that. Dave had some cool quick manuals, back 50s, boardslides. I’m not sure if anyone had a great session, it seemed we were all kind of out of it. Maybe Ryan did. Everyone took off, I was going to try and do some more before leaving, but I ended up going to Safeway.

I really wanted to do a kick back 5-0 shove after getting a kick back 5-0 recently. After some not so easy 50s both ways I went in on flipping in. I stuck with the 8.25 setup even though I was struggling. For the most part I wasn’t close on most, but I did get into a few and got a couple sketchy kick back 50s. I probably tried for an hour and gave up.

Trying to torture myself even more I went to the nearby ballfields that I haven’t been to in years. I stiffened up quick. This would be some of my worst skating ever. Which really says a lot. It was the kind of session that made me question if I should keep trying. I would go back and forth trying to line things out. Had some terrible halfcab noseslides and the slowest front 50 ever done on the little ledge on the far side. On the tall ledges I was able to get noseslide and a crook jib. Front 50 seemed beyond impossible. I didn’t successfully ollie up the ends of a ledge, but was able to ollie up in the middle where it was lower. I had another one of those halfcab flip bails that I just kind of came to a halt and fell off my board. It was so miserable. I managed to leave without hurting myself or my board, but man it was one of my most depressing sessions ever. I was scared of rolling my ankles in the 440s so had switched back to my 306s which then resulted in knee pain. Gotta love being me.

(setups 8/8.25 ventures new balance 440s no insoles then 306s with nike sb insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a really busy day of work I went across the street in a cool afternoon shortly before sunset. I was on my 8″ board and the 288s. I did some slappies to start that didn’t really go that well. My mind was mush. There was a kid there learning how to skate and he seemed annoyed I barged his session so I went to the side of the school to skate flatground. I sucked it up. Hard to describe how badly I sucked, but I skated for about 30 minutes and only landed kickflip and fakie flip, maybe a heelflip too. I was close to treflips, but could not get one. I hucked a lot of tricks, but just didn’t have the mental capacity to commit to tricks. I left after bailing a treflip and just staring at my board wondering why even bother. I really don’t like the 288S much anymore, they just don’t flick well.

(setup 8″ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 (cast baseplate v-hollow hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Another beautiful day so I skipped out for a very short lunch break to get some slappies in.  I hadn’t done a lot of exercises so I was kind of stiff.  Slamming into the curbs helped to get the legs moving.  I was on the 8.25 setup.  It wasn’t the best slappy session, but still fun.  Had some fun front and back slappies, took a bit to get front crook.  Tried switch front 50s and got into a few, but didn’t land it.  Got on switch slappy crook.  Ended with a front slappy.

Then after dinner I met up with Mike and Skelly then Garrett at Broomfield park.  It was pretty nice out and the park wasn’t very crowded.  Warming up was tougher than I thought it would be.  I had done lots of exercises.  Skating earlier I had worn the 288s and for this I went back to the 306s.  They hurt as the shoes and Nike insoles have gotten really thin.  Anyway, Mike and Skelly were mostly hitting the blue wedge area.  Skelly had a pretty good slam right away hanging up on the edge.  Ouch.  He would go on to get front shove to fakie also a quick ollie on then ollie off the side.  Mike was slappying the bottom curb somehow even though it’s oververt.  I was kind of all over.  I 180’d up the black ledge which made me kind of happy.  That was about the time Garrett showed up.  He had a line pretty quickly that was amazing.  Front 50 up the escalator ledge, back tail black ledge,front tail 270 shove the black ledge.  Also treflip into the bank.  I struggled with front 50s and it made me mad.  I switched to my 8″ setup because I couldn’t get the halfcab flip on the bank.  I still struggled with it, but would end up landing it.  I did several of the switch noseslide shoves.  I had some alright crooks on the 8″ setup, but not so much the 8.25.  Mike had some good front noseslides on the black ledge.  Skelly did some little front slashes on the brick qp, but they were really rad.  I slammed boardsliding the little rail, but would go on to get it a few times.  I got really close to a halfcab heel noseslide.  Flip tricks weren’t going very well.  I think mostly because my shoes were so thin I was afraid to commit.  Which of course just hurts more.  Justin was there ripping.  As Garrett tried the manual combo I hucked flip tricks.  Couldn’t get a treflip.  Decent night, I tried hard. Fun crew.  

(setup 8.25/8 nulls / ventures 288s/306s blah not worth all the details since I switch all the time)
(pain level 4/10)

Snuck out for some lunch break fun on a gorgeous day to meet Dave across the street. It was a fun one. Since I was so sore I wore my 288s. It may have helped. I didn’t really try many flippers, but slappies went well. Dave got some really good slappy front crooks to fakie. I got some to regs. We tried to switch it up, but he couldn’t go to forward and I couldn’t go to fakie. Dave had an amazing slappy crooks or two. I got a few little switch slappy crooks to forward and followed one with a kickflip off the curb cut to the parking lot. I was doing some good regular slappies for me and trying to follow them with kick back tails, but never got it. Dave was working on switch slappy front crooks and getting into them so good and grinding them. I didn’t see him land one, but he was there for awhile after me. He drove by me “working” on the front stoop shirtless soaking up the sun. Ha. That was a fun session.

Later on I went to Frederick to meet Skelly, Mike, Sean, Hayden and more. Donnie ended showing after awhile. The park wasn’t very crowded initially, but would get kind of crowded, and then totally clear out while we were there. I sucked it up. Like I can’t even describe how depressing this session was for me. There was only two things I did okay. I noseslid the bump to ledge easily and I did the pull up loop second try. Honestly the loop was the most fun thing I did all night. The 8.5 killed me all night. I couldn’t kickflip the hump and I couldn’t b/s flip the hip. I think it was less than a month ago I said to my friend Josh “I would rather skate a 7.75 than 8.5”. So how did I end up on 8.5 again? Well, blame the pandemic and the board shortage and my idiot self. I never got a nose manual, did some of the worst crooks of my life on the ledge, couldn’t halfcab noseslide. On top of that I was finally getting the slightest bit of confidence to back 50 the lowest ledge in the park and my wheel fell off. That was a sign I should have left, but did I leave? No. I did manage a slappy front crook on the bank to curb when Donnie showed. He was hyped on that. Sean was funny. He said “I don’t know if I can 50 this bump to ledge” then did it perfectly with the most casual style ever. He would go on to 50, ollie, 5-0 a lot. But he couldn’t f/s flip the Glen hip. Ha ha. It was great seeing Hayden skate a park again. It’s been too long. He rips everything. The alley oop fakie 50 down the corner qp was so good. Back smith, 5-0s, tailslides and blunt the bump to ledge, f/s flip the bigger hip, fakie 5-0 halfcab out the little ledge. Mike was charging. He always does. It’s been awesome skating with him again lately. Slappies, wallrides, wallies. Skelly popped some good ollies over the big hips, back 180s and almost bigspin the smaller ones. Donnie charges. Front 5-0 the steep wall, unreal slappy survival tricks on the yellow curb I can’t describe, showed up the BMXers transferring from bank to bank and so much more. Oh, near the end of the session after hucking a front heel over the little hip ( I had no business hucking, but that’s what I do when I don’t want to commit to tricks) I was going towards the manny pad and things felt really weird. I carved a little and knew exactly what happened. Yup. Broke my kingpin. A dude there said “It is not your night” and he was right. I had fun skating with people. I was hyped to see everyone ripping. But my god I did not skate how I want to in any way and it really depressed me.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with custom hollow cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire F4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 306 foy navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a breezy morning I met Rob and Kevin early at the dog park. I was annoyed with the wind before I even got there and had very little motivation. I had a new board. This time 8.5. Maybe since that’s all I have in stock I will eventually be grateful that being out of other sized boards forced me to stick with 8.5. Or maybe I’ll go buy a 7.75. Who knows with me. I put larger wheels on it too, some 54mm Bones I had. My setup felt pretty weird. I liked the board, the wheels were probably too much though. Kevin hadn’t skated in a few weeks after rolling his ankle so he had some serious energy. Nollie nosegrinds, 5-0s, back 180 nosegrinds, nollie flips, switch flips, a bunch of ripping. Rob was looking good too. We were on the far side for awhile with the two step and weird contraption. Rob did a nollie shove boardslide! He also had runs with halfcab noseslide and front board the tall part of the weird contraption. I felt better on front 50s on the low ledges, noseslides, halfcab noseslide. Then we ended up back at the little new ledge. Kevin manualled it and then all the way to the parking block. I slammed super hard on an attempt to wallie manual off the parking block. We were all messing around with new tricks. Kevin did fakie back 50 halfcab out. Whoa. He couldn’t quite do it out of fakie back nosegrind. Dave had challenged me to switch front 50 b/s halfcab out so I started trying slow switch front 50s and got a couple. I was already happy about that then started trying the halfcab out. As you can see I got a lame one with a flop out, but with how quick my phone dies sometimes that’s how it goes. Rob had been trying fakie 50 b/s halfcab out at the same time. He got his right before me. Back to back new tricks for old dudes! That was pretty cool. After that the wind was just so insane and we were all good to go.

I was planning on avoiding skating the rest of the day, but Skelly and Mike hit me up to go to Lyons. Somehow I felt like going. I arrived to a crowded park and was in disbelief at how bad of a park it was when crowded. Once people are up skating the quarterpipes the whole middle of the park becomes pretty useless. And that’s the stuff I wanted to skate. There were bikers, roller skate girls, rollerbladers and a bunch of skaters. Some of which I knew and was hyped to see them. Dustin, Moses, Veronica. Skelly, Mike and Dave of course. I started with Skelly skating the little qp at the top getting in peoples way. He would have some nice front disasters and ollies on it. I didn’t get more than front slash, but it was a good setup to noseslide down the hubba going slow. Mike had some rad wallie flyouts into the bank. Eventually the park emptied out and we had more fun. Fuller put together some amazing lines with some frontside airs over the hip, axle stall transfers, boardslide transfers, 180s up the euro, fakie shoves on transition. He had a fakie sex change on the little bank too! I had some fun back 50s in the mini ramp section. That’s the tallest I’ve done in awhile, but the transition is really good so it didn’t seem so scary. I settled into a line of noseslide the hubba, front 5-0 or 50 the ledge, treflip flyout. Never got the treflip flyout although I was quite close a few times. Dave did some cool ollies onto the pier 7 ledge then back 180 into the bank. Mike got a front nose on the bump to ledge. Dave got boardslide to fakie on the bump to ledge and bump to rail. I took too many tries to get the boardslide on the bump to rail. In the end we messed around with the little ride on ledge area. Dave did back 50 up to manual. I ended with back 50 up to nose manual 180 into the bank. Sounds way harder than it really is, but it was a fun end of the session. Fun crew, not so sure about that park though. It’s definitely one of those parks that gets crowded way to easily.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with custom hollow cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 54mm bones stf 103a v5, new balance numeric 306 foy navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cold and windy Saturday I packed up LGJ and was planning on a solo parking garage session. But instead I ended up on campus as the wind didn’t seem bad on the drive. I found myself at the tiny yellow lurb. I was not feeling very good. Blame the weather, my attitude, I don’t know. I tried a warm up line of back 50, nollie front 180, fakie thruster on the stupid flatirons wanna be bank architecture. The back 50 took forever and I don’t think I ever even got a clean one as most started in back 5-0. I was trying to keep to myself as I started to notice that every student had a mask on. Even outside in the wind. Oh well, I felt like I should be wearing one. I never got the line as I kept hanging up on the reentry on the bank. I was very upset with how much I was struggling with the back 50 and even front 5-0s on the little lurb. After a bit I started hucking. Kickflip crooks and front smith kickflips out. I was close to both. I had setup my phone to film in case I got either. Looking back it died in 7 minutes. 7 minutes! I need a new phone. I did commit to the kickflip crooks, but never locked in. I think it would have been more of a kickflip back nosegrind, but that would have been totally fine with me! I tried some front tails too, but they mostly depressed me. I made myself do a line before moving onto another spot. Front 5-0, heelflip, ollie the 3 stair. I almost got it second try, but slid out on the 3 stair ollie (it has cracks before and after making it kind of weird). Then the front 5-0 eluded me for quite some time and I was getting so angry. I was seriously struggling to ollie the 8″ to 5-0 it and I was furious. I would get the line though and it did feel rad. I went to the Roser Atlas area. The wind had picked up again. I went for what I thought would be a very basic warm up line. Back 180 off a ledge, halfcab flip on flat, crooks the ledge. But the back 180 was elusive and making me so mad. I had a couple bad shinner slams from back 180 attempts. Finally got one and was setting up for the halfcab flip and got wheelbite and fell. I lost it. Focused my board. Sat in the cold wind contemplating skateboarding and how disappointed I am in my level of skating. Then I walked to my car as the wind raged and seemed to poke fun at me.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work I went to Broomfield park to meet Sean. It was windy in Boulder, but Broomfield wasn’t bad. Darin was there when I arrived and so I joined him on the quartapotty/blue box. I started with the 8.25 from my quiver. Got a few of the basic quartapotty tricks, but couldn’t back 50 the ledge to save my life. It was so annoying. Darin rattled off qp tricks like blunt to rock fakie, back tail and back noseblunt! At one point I did a fakie 50 on the ledge and randomly just fakie front shoved out. It was one of my few highlights for the night. After some bailed front 50s I switched back to the 8.3 setup and liked it more. I tried to 5-0 off the edge of the blue ledge, but struggled. Darin rattled off his tricks. Sean was rattling off some tricks on the blue ledge and did a cool line of front 180 the double set then halfcab nose manual the blue box. Darin had taken off. I had gotten quite angry with myself for how bad I was skating. Also the 15 some scooter kids that were there. At one point Sean and I were the only skaters there. I tried nosegrind 180 for awhile and got kinda close, but gave up mostly because of too many scooter kids in the area. I wasn’t doing too good at front 50s on the black ledge, but I was happy to get the little rail boardslide most tries again and some decent feeling crooks. Sean worked on back tail shoves as he had somehow never done that trick. And of course it’s Sean and he’s good, so he landed it some 20ish tries later. I had tried noseslide and switch noseslide 270 and wasn’t close to either. Then we bounced.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 90a bushings no boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)