On another very warm February Saturday morning I went to dog park and met up with Jack, Jesse, Eric and Paul. It was a fun session. Oh at one point we were treated to seeing Boulder legend Elijah skate for the first time in a few years. And he still looks like a natural doing 50s, front boards, manuals like it was nothing. Eric ripped too with some fast 50s, 5-0s, front tails, lips. Close to 180 nose manuals. Jesse slammed on a pop shove manual attempt, but was the man and front 180d the hydrant off the kicker. Paul lined out the kicker with 180 the grate then halfacb off the kicker. And ollied into it. Bratcher was rattling tricks off the kicker. Fakie ollies every try, halfcab, sw 180, melon, close to nollie back 180. I took a while to get front shove, but it felt great. Then equally as long to get kickflip which also felt good even though it was a weird one. I had some okay crooks again. Paul, Jesse and I played a game of SKATE in which I got letters on front shove, sw shove, fakie flip and fakie heel which was the only one that wasn’t upsetting. Tried a bunch of noseslide 270 shoves which weren’t too close. Good session dudes.

Then drove to Longmont to sell boards to LOCO and ended up skating with Dave at Rocky Mountain. I was so sore it was insane. I definitely should not have been skating. But we did and we tried hard. Dave messed up his toe and was still charging. Crazy. Had some slappies on the curb. Dave did a few lines of course. Some that started with nollie to fakie on the bank. One near the end of the session: noseslide the ledge, manual a median on the bank, slappy crook. I did some ultra basics on the ledge, some 50s on the curb. But everything hurt so bad. I tried a line for a while of the nollie 270 shove on the bank then front shove back 50 on the curb. But I never committed to the curb trick. Would change it to slappy crook. I called it after that.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 sean, jessup pj grip, slace 8.25 trucks, 52mm bones v1 stf 103a, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

After a brutal week of work I got out on a really nice, but breezy at times Friday afternoon. Will was at Valmont kickflipping the euro. I putzed around. Not remembering much just tried to do lots of ollies on banks and stuff.

Then we went over to dog park, Ted had showed up. As well as about 50 college students for a CU skate gathering. Their youthful energy was contagious. I know Will as busting his normal ledge/manual moves. I was somehow 2-2 on manuals on the little pad which is ultra rare for me these days. Somehow the lane with the benches and flat bar remained chill so we seemed to stick around there for a while. I was happy to get the wallie/crooks/bs flip a couple of times. Will had never skated the tall bench before and did like 5 tricks quickly. The nosegrinds were nuts. Ted popped up into 50s easily too. Somehow I’m not remembering much else, but we did skate and have fun.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 sean, jessup pj grip, slace 8.25 trucks, 52mm bones v1 stf 103a, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Totally exhausted. Met up with Bo and Hayden at Fossil shortly before dark. Skated 3 setups, including my 8.25 with ventures which I probably liked the most. I didn’t even get a crooks. I had a good feeling switch front nose, some noseslides. That’s it. Hayden had a stylee back smith, noseslide pop outs a mile, crooks, front tail, etc. Bo had an insane amount of energy just popping up and down everything and it was pretty amazing to witness. Ledge lines going up and down the 3s.

(setups 8.25 8.3 and 8.5 ha ha)
(pain level 6/10)

After dinner went to 30th and Pearl area. Skated my 8.25 with ventures. Other than a easy first try kickflip and one good front 50 I very much disliked it. Ugh. Warm up run that took too long was noseslide to fakie one of the taller ledge, sw 180 on flat, slappy crook. Then I mostly flailed around for a while before getting a line of front tail a banked curb, nollie back 180 flail, sw 180, noseslide the first ledge, sketchy crooks the next one. Then I went over to the brick area with the low escalating ledge. Had a fun and bad line of switch noseslide to forward then nollie tail. Messed around with front 50s, got one good one early on. Then went to suck mode and barely got another one and a few accidental garbage slow front 5-0s. My knee pain was pretty bad, I think that really played into it unfortunately. Left bummed.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null flaherty, jessup pj, venture 5.6 v-cast bones med bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay green rev lts size 11.5 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After a long drive up to Salida and a stop at the awesome Ramps & Alleys shop I was dropped off at the Salida skatepark. I had it mostly to myself, except for a few scooters and their parents walking behind them through the skatepark. After some initial feel out I ended up in the corner by the rec center and had a fun line of axle stall the weird rock coping corner then a noseslide on the tall ledge. After that went into the main area and kind of mostly stunk it up. I had several ghost pop ollies over the hip that bummed me out. Didn’t really do much to be proud of other than the noseslide which was tough battling against the wind. I had one bad manual on the manny pad, couldn’t get nose manual or front 50. Had some fun crooks on it though. Could not get kickflip or bs flip over the hip. My board did not feel poppy or good whatsoever. I really hope someday I feel good while skating this park.

(setup 1/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder team hollows 149 bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a radials green, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

The relief of finishing the work week was great. Was heading to dog park after work, but then randomly remembered this spot and went there instead. I had brought my 8.3 with thunders instead and like anytime skating thunders the first time, I liked them. It was pretty cool out. Didn’t try many flippers, but I did pop more than expected. After some jibbing I did ollie more than expected. Didn’t really land much. Did get one line of ollie up, briefest noseslide a bench up top, ollie down the 2. It was not easy or graceful. Did the fun front nose stall to pivot. Tried to front tail tall to something on the lower curb, but couldn’t get the tail stall. Had some little grinds on the step. I wish I had brought wax because I still want to grind it to something on the ledge. Did some stalls on the ledge. All in all, pretty fun for a quick session after a long exhausting work week.

(setup 6/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder team hollows 149 bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a radials green, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

I hadn’t put a new board together after the bad treflip night before so I grabbed an 8.5 with slappy lights. Ugh. Showed up at Square State after a long day of work not feeling very motivated. There were a few dudes there, not a lot. It was cool. I started in the corner just kind of feeling things out. Then to the main area did some normal axle stalls, wallies and noseslides. Then managed to do the “gap” to noseslide. It was actually pretty fun. Ted had done it frontside with a 270 out. Skated the ramp for a while. Will had some great frontside ollies. This dude Brian was in there with a really cool surfy style and was fun to skate with. I did a few basics, had fun. Then Ted, Will and I went in on pivots to fakie on the little qp. Will did pivot to rock fakie. I did my cheater pivot fakie. But I did also get a great feeling fakie pivot fakie. That was about it. Oh, Jason was there killing it. Nollie tres down the 3 stair, kickflip the hubba, etc. Nick killed the stairs too. Damien tore up everything.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, jessup ultra, slappy lights 8.5, spitfire f4 99a classic 52mm pink/purple, splay rev lts green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went out to the garage on another cool and windy night. Started off decent. Got several kickflips. Went right to treflips. Roughly 80 failed attempts later I focused my board. Worst part is none of them even felt good and I never got both feet on any of them.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, venture 5.6 v-cast bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev lts green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cool and windy night I went out to the garage to skate flat for an hour. It ended up being pretty fun. I did some warm ups then started the flippers. Kickflips went alright, fakie flip. B/s flip took surprisingly long which was a bit frustrating and I don’t think I even got a clean one. Halfcab flip first try. Got a sloppy fakie bigflip which is pretty hard in that little space. Then went in on heelflips which took quite a while, but felt good to get one. Hucked nollie tres for a while after. Some were close, most were not.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, venture 5.6 v-cast bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev lts green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a cruddy day at work I went across the street to the school. It was very nice out. I had intended to attempt flatground even though I was sore, but then I saw that someone had put in some extra work on the curb. I was skating my 8.3 with thunders and hated every squeeky-bad-turning-hard-to-flip minute of it. Tried a line for a bit of sw 180 the manhole into the little hill, slappy, b/s flip on flat. Had a few fun ones, but the b/s flip kept not working. Then I slammed extra hard on a slappy attempt and dove awkwardly barely avoiding the pole so I called it a day.

(setup 1/10 8.3 null, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 149 bones bushings, spitfire f4 99a green radial 51mm, splay rev lts green size 12 with remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 6/10)