Woke up early and the kids were still sleeping so I went skating. I arrived at a park I’ve never skated before on a crisp morning that would warm quickly. My bushings seemed frozen from being in the car overnight and never really loosened up. There were two people skating. One quiet girl mostly chilling in the bowl. And this younger dude fully charging like it was his last day to skate on earth. It was kinda awesome and inspiring. He was piling up cones, popping over 4 at a time from flat, ollieing out to manual on the bump to ledge (a typical feature by Team Pain that is way bigger than it should be). The park felt way smaller than I thought it would. Especially with hyper young guy in effect. He was pretty nice and left after about 30 minutes. I had the park to myself for awhile and kinda stuck in a rut of axle stall the parking block then flyout treflip fail. I tried so many times, I couldn’t do it. I did a few front tails on the short elevator ledge that felt cool even if I didn’t slide to start the line. I eventually gave up, tried several on flat, still couldn’t do one, couldn’t nollie tre either. I guess the bigger wheels were taking their toll, but I could not do one to save my life. I started to get really mad. I was able to ollie onto the tall ledge from flat as the one saving grace of the session. I couldn’t even do a front tail on the parking block. The little 3 foot qp would normally be pretty fun I suppose, but in the early sun it had a nasty shadow/glare that messed with me. After awhile a kid and has dad showed up. They were chill. The kid really liked how the park was basically just a flyout park. I continued to try treflip after treflip not really enjoying myself until I finally landed one. It was a relief, but not fun. Oh well, only another week of ‘a tre a day’.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, bones stf 83b 54mm v5, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot morning I met up with Sean and then Fuller around 10:30. I was way more sore than I thought I’d be and even slightly burnt out from so much skating the day before. I had put some old 54mm bones on since I was disappointed in not being able to ollie up the ledge in Manitou. It did seem to make things seem shorter, but I was so tired it was a bad time to gauge it. Sean was ripping. Fakie/nollie nosegrinds flying, back 180 the jersey barrier, 5-0s the two step ledge. I basically did nothing other then some slow front 50s and try treflip or nollie treflip until I finally landed a bad treflip. Dave was crushing fast slappy feebles on the metal beam, no complies over a parking block, boardslides to fakie the line of parking blocks. Also back 50s, front 50s and maybe a front nosegrind or two. We played a game of SKATE at the end that was pretty fun and was over pretty quickly. Sean won with fakie 3 shove and Dave and I tried a few until we both got them.

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, bones stf 83b 54mm v5, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 soreness and arthritis pain)

Bernie and I headed to Woodland via 285 on a long drive that neither of us had done before. We arrived at the park about 20 minutes or so before Dave L would show up. There would be waves of little kids treating the skatepark as a playground, but for the most part we had it all to ourselves. Warming up went okay, I felt a little rusty from a day off (ha ha). We had some warm ups of mostly 50s on the various little perfect ledges. Seriously, why is Team Pain incapable of such simple ledges? This park was even better in person. Although I had a terrible slam on a front nosegrind 180 attempt where I came very close to rolling my ankle badly. Luckily I was okay (until the next day when I would realize my neck was super messed up). Bernie was quickly on the manual tip. Dave L also casually manualled and nose manualled. I got a b/s flip over the hip in a few tries. Bernie took a bit to get one and he said it was the first time he’s been frustrated while skating again. Dave took a bit to get kickflip over the f/s hip, those are so hard. I took way too long to get a bad treflip flyout. I got the line in the vid pretty quick. Actually, I did several b/s flips, but with too much toe drag. I had hucked some 270 heels over the hip too and wasn’t close. Dave had some nice lines throughout the park when the kids weren’t around. Bernie did both of the manuals in the clip pretty quick. He couldn’t quite get halfcab nose manual back 180 out though.

After hitting up Mountainside skateshop we ended up at the Manitou Springs skatepark. Wow, what a weird and mostly terrible skatepark. The coping is nonexistent in places, you can’t tell if there are banks or quarterpipes. It was super hot, but we skated for about an hour. I did one kickflip on one of the big main banks. That’s about the only trick I did even though it seems like I tried more. Bernie didn’t quite get hardflip on the same bank. Dave chilled a bit and cruised his stylee ollies around. The scene there was something out of a movie. Kids on vacation, old school young dude playing Blink 182, mountain man with trial shoes. It was fun.

Then we went to the high school since Ryan suggested there was something the dudes wax up. We were really surprised to find such an absolutely perfect ledge. I was really sore/tired at that time and even nosesliding it seemed impossible at the start. I would only go on to get noseslide, noseslide to fakie and crooks. Bernie would do front 50 and front tail I think. Dave had some good front 50s, front noseslides and a killer line. Ollie up the lower bench, boardslide to fakie, switch 180 off. He also back 50’d the 2nd level. Bernie manualled it. I posed some gap to noseslides. I needed the motivation of ollieing up the ledge to commit and unfortunately that was a little too hard for me. I only got up it once. I committed and proved to myself that I could do it, but I didn’t land it. I had done a few flippers in between tries. Super fun day even if I didn’t get one of the gnarliest tricks I’ve tried (ha).

(setup 8.3 null spanbauer pro deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 some arthritis pain)

On a hot morning I got to dog park around 9:30. I had the park all to myself for awhile. Kevin and Dave L would show up shortly after 10. I had worked out my legs pretty hard already in the morning so they were working, but sore. I was happy to get a warm up run of front 50 a cinder block ledge, noseslide to fakie the next one, fakie flip. Was also trying a line of back 50 the weird black pad, crooks the top of the two step, manual the regular black box. Never quite got it. I managed a bad 270 flip to make the minimum. Kevin showed and was going through his tricks so quickly. Dave L showed and was popping over things like it was nothing. At one point I randomly saw a line to ollie the cinder block ledge and went for it first try. I had never cleanly ollied one before. I snapped right over it, put a hand down, but man it felt rad. I kind of wanted to leave after that since I was so happy for the moment. But of course we kept skating. Kevin was rattling off so many ledge tricks. I got close a line of halfcab noseslide to fakie then fakie nosegrind. Cass finally showed right when we played a game of SKATE. Since he wasn’t warmed up at all he was the first one out. I was the second. I did get a few tricks at least. I missed the switch flip/nollie flip Kevin combo. Luzius didn’t though, he killed it, also a first try 360 flip. I got really close on mine. There was more skating after that, but I don’t remember much. Kevin was denied on the switch 5-0 shove again. I didn’t get the Joe Hamilton, but wallies over the little barrier are so fun. I really need a new board, I hope those Jack pro boards show up in 8.3 soon!

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really hot day Kevin and I hit 303 and Emage then met Cass at a new park near his place. I wanted to like it because of the shade and banks, but it’s so poorly constructed it’s insane. The finish on the concrete is super rough and has jagged fiberglass pieces sticking out, the ledges have the largest bevels ever, there are huge cracks before all banks, the flat bars go into a wall, ugh. Great concept, but terrible implementation. We met up with Kevin, Ryan and Greg. I had some fun front tails over the super steep hip and well, that’s about it. I tried some other stuff, but it didn’t work out. Greg was ripping. Treflips, fakie bigspin boardslides. Cass did a few noseslides. Kevin had a couple lines with crooks, manual the pyramid and managed to noseslide the bank to ledge from flat. Dave L showed, but we left for a nearby school. This school is fun, but it was super hot out and it killed us. There was a manny pad to long 4 stair, parking blocks, and these crazy plastic benches that were about a foot from each other. Dave L was ollieing up the long 4 and took a couple slams. He may have manualled down all of them. Kevin ollied the nearby gap, 50d the benches. I was kinda all over, dreaming of lining out the whole place. Luckily I got a 270 flip pretty quick so that pressure was off me. I only got a manual into the 4 once, couldn’t kickflip up a curb, couldn’t no comply flip a parking block and couldn’t front 50 a bench. But I did have some fun noseslides and tried to line out noseslide to fakie to halfcab noseslide. I also got crooks. Kevin challenged me to a game of SKATE in the shade which was fun. I landed quite a bit, but not a cleaner 360 flip. I was happy with first try fakie varial flip and 2nd try f/s halfcab heel. Then we got some food and chilled for a bit. These hot days are rough.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Sean and I rolled up to Loveland on a nice morning. We arrived to a crew of mostly old dudes and it was awesome. Andy, Marcus, Joe, Jay, Bryan, Jake, Luzius. It was awesome. Fuller was already on fire when we arrived. He did that line with the nollie shove hippy jump pretty quick. Somehow I had already done my required treflip for the day too. I was feeling good actually. Got the boneless plant over the big rail first try then went in on the flyout treflips. Got a bad one in a few tries, then a better one in about 10 tries that felt great. It’s really hard to remember what everyone was doing. I haven’t seen Jay in years that was awesome. Andy still has amazing style. Marcus still rides a small board and that hypes me up. Bryan has some tech moves that come out of nowhere. He almost got a fakie shove tail on the bank to curb. Joe was crushing the ‘how many 360s can you do’ challenge and cruising around having fun. Sean was doing a good job of not showing off as the young guy. But he had some solid grinds on everything. Jake was ripping the bank to barrier. I’m not sure if he got all he wanted, but the front 5-0 was hot. I got the ollie up to kickflip fakie on the bank pretty quick, noseslide to fakie over the hip. I started playing on the spine and Fuller joined me to work on his ‘spinemenship’ ha ha. I was feeling really rusty on transition initially and took a few tries to even blunt transfer and regular transfer. But it started to come. The line of transfer, front feeble, smith transfer was really fun. Dave took a bit to get the back disaster transfer, but man when he did it was so sick. Riley had joined us for a bit and cruised the park a little making sure not to bend his knee. The stoke on his face was incredible at one point when he pushed fast to catch up to Fuller. I got a fun line of noseslide the mellow downhil ledge, slappy the bank to curb, short front 50 on the bump to up ledge. Luzius joined around then and was popping smooth olllies and manuals around the bank to ledge area. Sean was nose manualling the picnic table as a setup to learn cabs over the a-frame bump. Fuller was shredding the front 50s over the hip, tailslides on the bank, nollie cabs over the hip. When he did one I yelled ‘that was nollie kids’ to a few kids that did not care whatsoever. Ha. I took awhile to get an okay crooks on the hip to ledge. Then Sean shut down the bump to mini hubba (post soon). What a seriously fun session.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling pretty lazy and totally surprised that a few of the new Null boards showed up I went and met Jack and Joe at the hill ledge. I brought Jack’s board and had Joe shoot a few photos of me handing it to him. It was an awesome experience and feeling to say the least. Jack was filming Joe try back nosegrind to switch front crook. It was nuts. He got into a few of them. After several hugs with Jack I joined Joe. I don’t know why I haven’t skated there recently, it’s an amazing spot and the college kids didn’t seem to mind we were there. I did boardslide, noseslide, noseslide fakie, crooks, took a long time to get halfcab noseslide, failed at halfcab crook, then started trying kick back 50. I got into one and came to a complete halt. So I hucked a varial flip out that was kinda close. Joe kept trying his trick and would go through waves of getting close. He did a really easy flatground tre and it made me think they should be easy, I got one in about 8 tries. Joe also had some monstrous hardflips and heelflips. Joe eventually took a slam to his wrist and sat down, I did too. Jack started messing around and of course ended up doing a new trick. Feeble front shove to back 5-0. Wow. What a fun little session.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a very hot day Kevin, Eric and I rolled to 3rd St park in Greeley. Dave L would join after awhile. I had changed my setup to 8.3 with 5.8s. It felt a little weird, but not too weird. This was because I could barely ollie up to nose manual at Golden the day before. I didn’t have much juice and was having troubles committing to stuff. That seemed to be going around. Eric however went right for the hammer and did rock to fakie, back rock and front rock on the big bank there. He also rode up the bank then down into front 50 which was nuts. I fell into a zone of trying treflips up the bank. I was close so many times, but it took forever to land one and by then the sprinklers had turned on and we were gonna move on. Kevin had gotten a nollie tre up it, nosegrinds, 50 the long hubba. Dave L with super lofty ollies, casual manuals and switch manuals, pop shove and varial flip up the euro.

Next we went to Peak View park which was super fun even though the sun was so hot on us. I managed a backside flip over the hip in a few tries and did another one. Back 50s on the diamond cut coping were really fun too. I hucked treflip for a bit and got kinda close before overheating. Kevin got nollie b/s flip over the hip, pole jams, some nice grinds on the qp. Eric was trying boardslides on the spine, but was beat and it didn’t really work out. Dave had manuals, switch manuals, nice ollies, manual the china bank.

Then we went to the school. We warmed up with a game of SKATE. Dave was the first one out, Kevin got me out on heelflip. It was fun though, it definitely got us warmed up and I did a few flippers. Kevin went in right away on front 50s and was trying to come up with other stuff like back 180 out. But he slammed and overheated. Dave couldn’t quite get into boardslides on it. He had some cool drop down / up shoves and manuals on the long 3 stair though. I tried to drop down and kickflip up and struggled. Dave and I hit the 4 stair area for awhile. He had a sick ollie then front board pop out. I had ollies then back board or noseslide. Then spent a long time trying front 180 then switch front nose. I would get several, but none were very good. Got a couple flippers in between tries like heelflip and varial flip. Man it was hot. Looking forward to a break.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm radial slims, new balance numeric 288s navy, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10 some soreness and mental fatigue from skating in the sun so much0

On a hot day after driving down from a fun night of camping (and bad sleeping) Kevin, Ollie, Eric and I met Sean and Dave L at Golden park. It was hard to get going for me. Ollie was cruising around doing his thing. That was all I really noticed since I hid in the corner manny pad spot for awhile. Ollie tried to manual it with me, but never quite got it. I might not have either. I took a long time to get nose manuals and was very frustrated. I was trying 360 flips too and not getting close. Just bumming overall. I joined Sean and Kevin in the ledge section for awhile and did nothing. Sean is so solid and awesome to watch. Kevin was shredding too. I hucked back 360 flip over the little hip for awhile and got kinda close. Then looked like a total tool going slow and did a treflip out of a mellow bank to relieve the stress of needing to do a treflip. It was another bad 270 flip. Eric had some good boardslide transfers on the spine. Dave L had rad manuals and nose manual on the bank to ledge thing.

Next we went to Superior which I’ve never been to before. We started in the snake run and man that thing is way more fun than I ever anticipated. The asphalt is a good surface for it, way faster then the brushed finish at the Estes Park one. Then I basically did nothing except pump around a tiny bit and do the worlds smallest flyout. Ollie cruised a little. Sean went up and down. Eric almost died trying to manual the volcano. Kevin had some nice back 5-0s out of the bowl onto the 3′ qp. JJ had the best noseslides. Can you tell I was super tired and not really paying attention?

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture awake 5.2 lows, 1/16″ riser, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 51mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a morning of stressing whether boards are coming or not Eric showed up and ended up bolting for Winter Park. We looked for a camp site briefly before going to the skatepark. At first it was pretty dead, but it quickly filled up with the 2-3 flyout kids and a couple snow bros it takes to ruin the vibe. We started out in the tiny qp section. Eric rock fakied the steep part. I did some simple tricks on the little parts. Ollie cruised around doing some 180s, f/s halfcabs, shoves. Eric went to work on the rock fakie. He took a couple slams and got shown up by snow bro #1 doing a pivot, but he got it. And it was sick. I tried and failed to nose manual a box for awhile. I tried kickflips on the steep bank for awhile. Got on that was about 1/4 of the way up. Ha ha. Also tried a line of backside ollie on it, kickflip to fakie, halfcab noseslide, but I just didn’t have the ability to pull the trigger for some reason. Ollie had a nice drop down manual. I started trying the line of back 50 then treflip to fakie. It took awhile, dodging lots of people and the weird layout of the park, but I got a really sketchy one and it was very relieving. Eric and I skated the ditch area of the park. He did the Sal flip and the Sal f/s flip. I took awhile to get a Sal f/s flip, but the one I got felt great. Kevin had shown up, tried that for a bit and did a couple slashes before we went on to have a great night of camping.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture awake 5.2 lows, 1/16″ riser, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 51mm spitfire f4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)