Around 1pm I met Dave L at dog park. He had been there awhile and was already kickflipping over parking blocks and 50’ing the benches easily. He was going for front 5-0s. He was going fast. He skates fast, it’s rad, inspiring. I would go on to get a 5-0 on accident, but I lost all my speed. I wasn’t skating too great. My board felt really large the whole time. Dave did back 5-0s easily on the benches, tried nose manual, didn’t quite get hurricanes. He had a couple sick backside flips over a parking block. I tried a few tricks. Switch crook, not close, but kinda got into it. Switch front nose back 270 out. Got remotely close to that. Then tried halfcab noseslide 270 shove. Most of them weren’t close, but there was a couple that felt doable. Man that would be a dream trick! These lunch sessions are rad getting out while it’s light out.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 255 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

I’m into this lunch break skate program. There’s just not much chance of skating dog park after work with how early it gets dark. Today there was a group of high school kids there so it made it feel kinda crowded. Sebastian was there, Dave L would show after awhile. Warming up was alright. There were little puddles from the frost still. I ended up kinda skating the tiny pad for awhile. Tried a line of heelflip then back 50 front 180 out. Never got the grind and only got one heelflip. It was frustrating. I got halfcab flips both frontside and backside. Couldn’t backside flip though, didn’t really try treflips. I couldnt’ front 50 the cinder block bench. I’m not sure why. I kind of got frustrated with that and went over to the black ledge and started hucking noseslide 270s shoves. I hadn’t done it there before. I would go on to get about 5 of them. None of them landed very well. I was very excited to get a few though. I was happy I ollied up onto the ledge first try, but so bummed when I saw I clipped the back wheels. Argh. That is the second halfcab noseslide I’ve done on it, but I definitely need to get more up on it. Terrible phone filmer placement eh? Then everyone else left and it was just Dave and I. He was doing some cool lines between the parking block and benches. He 50s it both ways so easily. He had a cool switch boardslide and was trying hurricanes when I left.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 255 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On J Mascis’ birthday I went to the dog park around 12:30 on a cool day. At first it was just Quincy and another dude Sebastian. It was a good vibe, but the cinder block benches had fallen apart which was a bummer. I had new shoes. NB# 255s. They felt great immediately. I couldn’t really find much of a groove with the two main benches in disarray. They were still skateable, but they felt weird as they were not aligned very well. Quincy did a line of kick back lip on the wallie barrier then front board shove the orange barrier. Wow. I never really stuck to much. Almost got a line of wallie, crooks the taller metal bench, 360 flip on flat. Got close to switch front nose, halfcab flip, manual the lower black ledge, ollie the wallie barrier. Had a bunch of slams on the ollie, but got one with the tiniest bonk. Flatground felt good with the extra grippy shoes although I didn’t really get much. I guess I didn’t have a lot of time. I also got up on the taller part of the black ledge again, finally rode the middle of a slanted cinder block ledge. Dave L showed up near the end and quickly did some nollie 180s over parking blocks, back 50s on the busted cinder block ledges, casual ollies.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 255 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Got to the dog park around 10am feeling a bit more motivated and with cupsoles to hopefully reduce the pain. Dave L was there as was Joe. Joe was trying fakie hardflip nosegrind. Whoa! He rips. Warming up went better for the most part. I struggled a bit more with pop, but actually did like 3 flip tricks. Dave L was ripping. He would go on to get front and back hurricanes on the cinder block ledge. So sick. Joe was ripping with a lot of pop over cones, barriers, lots of flippers and lots of hardflips. Never did get the fakie hard nosegrind though. I got up on the black ledge again, this time without running over my hand (ha). I coudn’t get a fakie nosegrind, but I did get a switch front nose shove which I haven’t done on the cinder block bench before. I also had some good feeling crooks on the black ledge, crooks to fakie the cinder block bench, halfcab noseslide to fakie, front 50 shove, couldn’t get front 50 back 180 out through. Sean showed up and quickly did back 5-0s and nosegrinds like they aren’t even tricks. He had some pops over a bunch of things. His style is so smooth and solid. Then we went to the same campus spot and I sat in the freezing wind filming Sean almost get a sick grind to manual combo. I was even more sore than the day before. It was cool though, Daryl and crew showed up. Those guys are so rad. Eventually the wind was too much and the sight of some cops in the distance ended the session.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 533v2 pj grey size 13 stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Feeling unmotivated and maybe slightly hungover I went to the dog park to meet Eric and Dave L. It was just drying up from a hard frost. I was trying some old 212s with the Nike zoom whatever insole. It cost me some flip tricks, but was good for popping. Eric was on his cruiser board for awhile. Dave was making a wallie bump out of snow. He ended up getting a little line to it and Eric filmed it. Pretty cool. Eric had some nice crooks and heels as always. Hayden and Peyton showed up after awhile and immediately began ripping. Some other dudes decked out in Toy Machine gear showed too. One with mega pop, the other not so much. Peyton and the mega pop guy battled the table. Peyton would get a front crook that was so sick, mega pop guy smith kickflip out. Hayden does a lot of tricks so easily. Fakie 5-0, fakie 5-0 halfcab out, switch nosegrind, kick back tail, back smith, it’s kinda endless. I had a decent time on the ledge. Battled fakie nosegrind for a long time before finally getting one. Also finally ollied onto the tall part of the black step ledge. After seeing Dave L manual it I had to finally get up on it. Eric got on it easy too, but not sure if he got out of it. After this we looked at a couple new east campus spots. I didn’t really skate, I was so incredibly sore. Dave had a nice manual. Hayden got a rad line with a switch nose manual halfcab. Then we looked at a new area. I just did a ride on grind, Hayden did 50 to nose manual and something before the cops rolled up and we walked off.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 212 grey size 13, nike sb zoom something insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knee pain)

Went into the garage after work since it was already dark. Messed around for a bit, tried some other shoes, then settled on the PJs. Made a goal of 10 different flip tricks before I could have a cider. Took about 40 minutes. Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, heelflip, backside flip, halfcab flip, treflip, frontside flip, fakie varial flip, fakie heelflip. They weren’t pretty, but then again it’s my tiny garage with no room.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 533v2 pj grey size 13 stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Curbside with Carleigh. We got there around 7:30 and it was less crowded than the one other time I’ve been there. But still crowded and still felt crazy to try and warm up. We started on the mini. I felt alright, but pretty rusty as I haven’t skated a ramp in a super long time. I got some fakie smiths to fakie, front 50, kinda front smith, axle to fakie, but I was really inconsistent. Carleigh almost got back d on the first run. She ended up getting 3 or 4 of them along with front disasters and close to back blunt. Then we did our noseslides on the a-frame. They came pretty easy for both of us. Carleigh also quickly got pop shove over the a-frame. Then we hit the euro for a bit. Well, I hit it for a bit, Carleigh was there for longer. I got kickflip up pretty quickly, gave b/s flip a few tries before I moved on to the ledge area. Carleigh was trying kickflip up, but couldn’t get it. She was also trying kickflips over the hip and got one or two, but I missed them. So they didn’t happen. Ha. I was inconsistent with crooks, but man that ledge rules. You can really lock in to it. To my surprise front 50s came pretty easy too. I didn’t have them as fast as I’d like, but I only missed getting onto it a couple times. I got crooks, switch front nose, halfcab noseslide, front 50, front 50 shove, accidental front 5-0, close to switch nose 270 shove. My flatground game wasn’t all that. My bank game not so great either, I missed several kickflips to fakie before getting the one Carleigh filmed. In the end I took about 15 tries to get a backside flip over the hip. It was a fun way to end it, wish I would have got the treflip too.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 533v2 pj grey size 13 stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 sharp knee pain by the end)

Went out to the garage on a warmer night, but snow is still everywhere. At first I had no motivation. I played around with shoes/insoles for a bit and ended up with the PJs without orthotic insoles. Oh yeah, I had put the 8.5″ Curby back on too. So many changes, so little time to decide on a size to stick with for 2020. 8.5 felt great. My warmup was basically to huck switch heels for awhile. Some felt really close, others not even remotely close. I did commit on some. I was like 8/10 on kickflips which was nice. Got fakie flip too. Then settled in on a 3 way rotation of halfcab flip, nollie varial flip, treflip. Got the halfcab flip pretty quick. Came incredibly close to nollie varial flip, got a few under rotated treflips. I was also doing ollies really trying to level it out and use the front foot to get the back of the board up in the air. It seems to be kind of working which is exciting. For how little motivation I had when I went out to the garage I was happy with how hard I skated. Listening to Dinosaur Jr Glimpse helped.

(setup 8.5″ null curby deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium trucks with regular cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 52mm spitfire classic green swirl f4 99a, new balance numeric 533v2 pj grey size 13 stock insoles)

Got the heck out of Boulder which is buried in snow. Left pretty early and Kevin was the only taker so I picked him up and we were on campus by 11am. I wanted to warm up on the waxed bank thing, but there was dudes hanging christmas lights in the trees there. So we started at this weird rough hip nearby. I slammed on a couple nollie back bigs in a row and the dudes working heckled me. It was funny. Kevin was hurting. He had separated his shoulder a week ago and it wasn’t healed. But he hung in there and skated. He could still kickflip and nollie flip. Then we found a newly redone student center area that had a 3 stair then ledge that was pretty sick. Warm up lines for both of us were ollies down the 3, boardslide the ledge, nollie shove. Kevin went on to do some really good front 50s and some basics down the 3 stair like halfcab, back 180 going fast enough to hit the ledge. It had a big bevel so crooks weren’t good. I was trying front 180 then halfcab noseslide and couldn’t get the noseslide. It was bumming me out. I had made two changes. The cast baseplates (good) and non-orthotic insoles (not good). They were messing with me. Eventually we moved on. Posed some boardslides down a long short hubba. If only the crack and gap wasn’t at the top. Argh. Then more investigating and we ended up at the same place to get booted.

So we went to the skatepark. It wasn’t crowded and was pretty fun for awhile. Kevin was really hurting, wincing in pain at almost every trick. I had some fun noseslides to fakie on the mellow bank to ledge. Kevin was back 50’ing down the tiny hubba. Then we went for crooks on the bank to ledge. Kevin had good posted up crooks to fakie and had nice switch flips after. I had some kinky crooks, but they were fun. I also had a backside flip over the tiny hip that was really fun.

Then we went to the brick qp. It was so much harder to skate than we thought it would be. Took awhile for Kevin to get an axle stall and for me to get the front slash. We played around with the other angle. The nollie bonk into the sidewalk was really fun. After the sketchy axle stall I got a few hurricanes which were fun. Kevin was mostly chilling since he was in so much pain. The roll ins were steezy though. He got a back smith stall too. We ended with me trying some crooks. I kinda got one, it was surprisingly sticky when you got up on it.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, venture 5.8 titaniums with cast baseplate, bones medium bushings, spitfire 52mm green swirl classics f4 99a, new balance numeric 306 black/gum size 12, nike sb zoom insole)
(pain level 3/10)

The wind was nowhere near as bad as they had been saying so I went in search of a dry patch to skate. I really just couldn’t handle another day in the garage. I didn’t have to go far, Wilville had a section about 100 feet long that would work. After some initial warmups I went for my first line. Front 180 a tiny snow pile, fakie flip on flat, halfab flip. It took a bit to get a fakie flip, but once I did the halfcab flip was first try. It put me in a good mood and maybe I should have just called it a day right there. Next line was wallie nollie, heelflip, bs flip. The heelflip took me FOREVER. And they both were terrible. By the time I landed the 2nd one I was over skating and luckily landed the bs flip crappy enough I could call it a line. Then I hucked a couple lines for awhile. Ollie a puddle, back 180 a tiny snow pile to quick fakie bigflip. Never got that. Next one was nollie tre then fakie tre. Never got either. I couldn’t treflip to save my life. It was very frustrating. I tried to ollie this tiny snow pile for awhile too and it was just super frustrating and I left angrily somehow managing not to focus my board. I was hating my setup.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, venture 5.8 titaniums, bones medium bushings, spitfire 52mm green swirl classics f4 99a, new balance numeric 306 black/gum size 12, currex runpro insole with footprint heelpad)
(pain level 4/10)