Went to dog park around 11 after it kind of warmed up. Met Gordon and Bratcher, although Jack left pretty quickly. We did our thing for a bit then Gordon and I both went in on tricks/lines. He was trying back 5-0 front 180 out on the green box. I was trying a line of halfcab flip, boardslide, kickflip on the taller wood qp. Except I completely could not halfcab flip. Like to the point Gordon suggested maybe I should skate an 8″ board again. Sheesh. He would get close. I would get like 3 halfcab flips out of a million and never get the kickflip at the end. I changed the line to start with crooks, still didn’t get the kf. Gordon never got the 5-0 180. He changed his line to nosegrind, bluntslide, nollie back 180 on the qp which he did get. Like an hour later (not really) I got a bad kf very low on the qp. Somewhat happy I got it at least. Brian, Kyle, Sean, Mike showed. I was toast at that point though.

So we took the party to the ol’ bikepath snowboard jump. Joe was 3/3 on boosted hardflips and Jack was filming him. It was insane. The crew got rather large. Brian, Ashton, Brandon, Skelly, Mike, Wade, Jack, Dan, Garrett, Chris, Preston, maybe more. No one landed tricks easily. But some highlights. Skelly one foots. Brian almost got back 3 no comply. Ashton front heel. Brandon mega bolts treflip. Mike no comply 180. Wade front 180. Jack was a sweetheart and filmed. Garrett mostly watched traffic as did Dan. Chris with the mega heelflip then back heel. I took a while to get a kickflip and then threw my board when I couldn’t to a b/s flip. But I threw it so hard I injured my shoulder. Luckily it doesn’t seem too serious, but man, insult to injury. Fun crew, fun to witness, wish I could have landed a trick I liked today. Then we ate at Dark Horse an it was fun.

(setup 1/10 null 8.3 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After several days off skating due to intense back pain I drove to Bluecar then Emage before finally ending up at Broomfield park. The crew was 98%, null, square state, so good. We all had a blast the night before at the 98% premiere. It’s really hard to remember what all everyone did. I know watching Jack skate was extra amazing. He was fully shredding, doing so many things first try. Bump to bar blunt to back lip, crooks transfer nose manual, front smiths on the brick qp, everything so good. Garrett too, sheesh, back tail the ledge into the bank then back 180 nosegrind the black ledge then kick back tail. Brian got trick of the day with the skier front rock. Maybe the blunt to fakie from low to high too. Ashton manual kickflip out the mountain pad. Cass and I kind of hid out of sight for a while. Played a game of SKATE in which I landed absolutely nothing. At no point did I do anything noteworthy, but with my back being so tight it was understandable. There were a lot more people, it was hard to keep track of and really fun.

(setup 3/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, thunder t2 149, 53mm bones stf, strike mvmnt street transits with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 but I was happy that skating seemed to loosen up my back)

So I finally got to the Madison skatepark. I was having back spasms the last day so I didn’t really think I’d skate, just cruise and look at it then leave. But we got there and it was nice out and I felt decent for a while. The park is pretty amazing. Pretty tight and compact, but other than that amazing. There were a few beginners and one ripper. I didn’t do anything great and I was really hesitant because of my back. There were some granite ledges that were fun to crook, I didn’t get any 50s. I did a line a couple times of noseslide a mini hubba then front 50 a ledge. But after a couple I could no longer 50. Had some other fun noseslides around, some ollies, bailed a lot of kickflips on banks. It was cool to check out though and I would definitely like to skate there again.

(setup 3/10 null 3.8 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Some notes I took after a pretty mediocre session:

Skated over an hour.   Was not comfortable on my board.  The slant of the park was disorienting even though I’ve been there before.  I struggled with consistency on pop.   Managed to front 50 above the pad and an accidental 5-0 that felt good.  Could not halfcab noseslide to save my life.  Had some bad crooks I blame the ledge.  Took too long to front 50 the taller ledge.  Couldn’t kickflip on the bank.  At the end took too many tries to do a halfcab flip and a couple treflip attempts that bummed me out.  

(setup 3/10 null 3.8 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12)
(pain level 5/10)

On a nice day we played various sports from my brothers garage. Basketball, baseball and some skateboards. Ollie manualled the whole driveway. Liz slammed trying to do a nollie. I did some 180s and manuals.

Went to dog park on the way home before leaving for my mom’s in Wisconsin. Skated about 45 minutes. It was beautiful out. Had the place mostly to myself. Had changed to 8.3 and venture v8s. It felt better, but I was super tired. I didn’t get beyond the norms. Harder tricks were some front 50s on the bench and a first try fakie bigflip.

(setup 6/10 null 3.8 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12)
(pain level 5/10)

First morning below freezing of the season. After a couple meetings I stopped by Boulder park on the way in for a short session. I wore Strike MVMNT shoes because of all the praise Tom Asta has been giving them. This time however, I went with no insoles. And I liked them. I had some motivation and skated pretty hard. After some normal goofing around for warm up I had a good warm up run of noseslide the bench, kickflip to fakie the hump, turn around then a kickflip on the hump then a sketchy ollie onto the bench before bailing a flatground kickflip. Smaller lower setup felt good on the qp, good on the hump to ledge, not good popping onto stuff. Didn’t quite get the line of front 50s although did them all individually. Not remembering much else. It was fun, the park has really grown on me.

After work I stopped at dog park. It was another somewhat heated session. I somehow felt pretty good even though I skated earlier. I got mad when I didn’t immediately start landing kickflips or halfcab flips again. At one point I had a funny experience with a college kid. He saw me get somewhat close to kickflip 50 on the lurb. He was hyped and I said something like “I used to actually land this”. He was like “Well I’ve never landed it” and we laughed trying to figure out which was worse. I struggled with 50s, struggled to pop. Crooks were okay. All in all an alright session.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder 148 team hollow t-ii bushings, spitfire 51mm 99a f4 classic, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After rain and then a cold wind I cleaned out the garage then skated flatground for an hour. I had a smaller setup. 8.25 with Thunders. It felt nice at first, but I took like 8 tries to get a kickflip. Oh yeah, I had new shoes too, Es Accel Slims. They suck. I mean they are grippy at least, but so incredibly thin and the toebox is way too narrow. Got a fakie flip in a couple tries. Halfcab flip took a while and almost drove me crazy. B/s flip wasn’t too bad. Couldn’t get nollie varial flip or heelflip. Then went in on treflip and never landed one. I was quite close though. Oh yeah, before treflips I did a couple varial flip reverts that were not good at all. Man my flatground is so bad now.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, old spitfire f4 99a 51mm classics, es accel slim b/w size 12 with footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Went to meet up with 98% dudes. Thought they would be filming some hammers, but everyone was just in a hockey rink goofing around with flat. I rode a smaller board with aces and big wheels and didn’t really land anything. I came remotely close to rick flip and got a kickflip or two, but that was really about it. Dan and Jason played an epic game of SKATE. Garrett landed a lot too. It was a fun even if I didn’t try hard.

(setup 0/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, ace af1 44 hollow, 53mm bones sft v1 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 things have not been so great lately)

Incredibly nice morning. Cass and I went to Boulder park to get some skating in before the Nightmare at Northside jam up in Fort Collins. I was very sore to get started. Wore some old 440 highs that felt better than the TJ’s, but I didn’t really like them much. I would struggle, take several tries to do tricks I had done a few days ago. Although I was happy to do first try front disaster and do a few of that slid a little. I couldn’t get a kickflip on the mellow bank after though and it was driving me nuts. I wanted to do front 50 shove on the bench, but one time I locked into 5-0 and went for the shove and got it. It was the highlight of the session for me. I got remotely close to b/s flip over the hip like Cass, except without as much pop. Cass ripped it, lots of 50s on the ledges. Front shove to fakie over the hip was rad even if he didn’t land it perfect. B/s flip was sick.

Up in FOCO I didn’t skate much. A noseslide and some nollie tails. Garrett and Noè killed it. Clip soon.

(setup 3/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup pj, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic pink/green, 440v2 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 pretty bad at boulder, but even walking hurt later)