On a somewhat cool morning I went to dog park before work. I am so floored by this spot. I want to skate there so much and hopefully progress a little on ledges again. Warming up seemed hard at first. I was wearing some gamechanger insoles in hopes that I would have less knee pain. They helped. I had the place to myself. I cruised around doing lots of basics and lines for awhile. It’s so fun. I got a few slow front 50s on the ledge, front 5-0 the narrow ledge, got a front 50 shove, a bunch of crooks on the table bench, ollies over the kinked rail. Couldn’t get 50 on the picnic bench or ollie the wallie thing.

After work I was eating/chilling/doing laundry when Dave texted to go to Glenn Close. He was there with Saul and Jake. Turns out it was Dave’s birthday! Happy Birthday Dave! It was a really fun session. Saul had done his first ever slappy crook and I saw him get another (unfortunately not on film though). Jake did slappy blunt to fakie (twice). Dave was doing incredibly long slappy crooks and noseslides. I got a slappy feeble first try then slappy front feeble a few tries later. I was so hyped! Hadn’t done the frontside one there before. Saul of course also did regular slappies on the raw curb. Dave had some good 180 lines. Back 180 into the curb cut, switch back 180 out, back 180 fakie 50. Slappy front crook to fakie, switch slappy crook shove!!!! We messed around with a few more things near the end like slappy back smiths, etc. Fun times, HBD D!

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work I went to the new Dog Park on Steroids. I pulled into the parking lot and saw ~30 people skating. WHOA! The secret it out! It’s hard to describe the initial feelings I had rolling into the crowded spot that used to be our little secret. But the obstacles are awesome and everyone was pretty cool and it ended up being awesome. Nate was coming so everyone in the crew wanted to see him so our crew grew huge. Saul, Eric, Rob, Fuzz (very briefly), Matt, Kevin, Jake, Jack, Carleigh, Ed and of course Nate! Wow. I’m sure you can imagine how hard it would be to remember what everyone did. Especially since I’ve skated there 2 more times since. I started off super slow and cautious. Eric was ripping out of the gates. Rob went through a similar initial bum out, but ended up shredding and loving it. Street Ed was rad to see. He has a clean ollie and 50s. Saul was on the slappys. I didn’t see much and he was the first to go. Matt went off! All the stock tricks on ledges done with such good style. Kickflip and nollie shove over the little wallie, also front noseblunt the butter bench! Dude. Kevin them stock ledge moves too. Front blunt the butter bench, switch ollie the wallie thing, nollie flips galore. Rob snapped over the wallie thing and got wallie over it too, front board the tall bench, boardslides, halfcab boardslides, halfcab flips. I didn’t skate well, but was happy with some of the things I did. Front 50 the ledge, wallie the wallie thing, crooks the low part of the picnic table, halfcab noseslides, crooks the metal bench. Jake went off too. A million ollies onto the picnic table, a bunch of tricks on the ledge. Jack did a back 270 to front tail on the butter bench. Unreal. He also did nollie 180 crooks, bluntslide to front board the kinked rail and ended things with a totally f’d up kickflip hot dog that I’ll post soon. I didn’t see much of Carleigh, but she told me she tried and did a manual! Ha ha. Eric also told me he did a wallie front 180 over the wallie thing. And I believe him because he was doing regular wallies like it was nothing. Lots of heelflips too, crooks the butter bench. This place totally rules. Nate and I ended with no comply flips over the parking block. What a fun crew to roll with. Sorry if I forgot someone or any tricks you did. Love you all.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 5/10 in the knees)

On another overcast day with rain threatening I went to Douglass feeling okay and with a smaller board again. I started just kind of putzing around with non popped flatground tricks. Then did a few flip tricks and then mixed in some lines. I really didn’t land a whole lot, but man I was trying. At one point I tried a nollie tre and it made me a little sad realizing I haven’t even tried one for weeks. I got a heelflip, bad treflip, halfcab flips, first try fakie varial flip. I hucked a lot of flip tricks I’ve never done, didn’t really get close to anything, but it was fun. I had some boardslides, noseslides, crooks on the ledge that felt good. I didn’t try frontside stuff really, only tried to ollie onto it which I got on, but never quite got on it. I tried noseslide back 270 for awhile. Maybe made some progress to learning it. It started to sprinkle and I was running out of time so I tried a few front 50s. Didn’t get close at all. I wasn’t upset as it’s been awhile since I tried to ollie that high.

Then I filmed Jack slay it.

Then we skated Saul’s for a bit. I really sucked it up and bailed too many axle stalls and the run outs killed my knees. Eric was ripping though. Back d the deep, manual to feeble fakie, front 5-0 to tail. Saul locked into some back 50s, tried a front 50, had sme of his great long runs. Jack didn’t really skate.

Fun day.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After some heavy rain super early in the morning it kind of cleared out. Enough to skate. I was hoping for anywhere but Glenn Close, but that’s where we ended up. Saul and Jake were there first. There was still a puddle near the main curb, but it was mostly skateable. Jake was using it to ollie over and setup for slappy crook. Saul was slappying everything. I came out unmotivated and lost the little motivation I had quickly. Partly due to being at that spot again, partly because I immediately hated the huge board. Rob was next, Fuzz after that. I don’t remember a whole lot. I tried a line for awhile of slappy, front 180 the puddle, fakie nosegrind. Never got the fakie nosegrind. Rob was shredding. Kickflips off the curb cut and to the street. Jake had a long line or two with fakie f/s bigspin off the curb cut, slappy crooks, bluntslide, etc. Fuzz and I tried slappy back 50 back 180 out. Fuzz nailed it, but it didn’t come easy. A lot more happened. We ended trying to manual the parking lot. Rob got all of it first try. Fuzz shortly got it all and then some (to the street). I took a lot of tries to get a sketchy through all of the parking lines. It was really fun. Then we tried nose manuals and Rob got the whole section too. So sick. I think I got about 5 parking spots, Fuzz about 8. Jake had been doing 360 flips instead of manuals, he got one. Then we played football which was way more fun. Ha ha.

(setup 8.75″ null event horizon deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels with 3 speed washers on the inside axle, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a nice morning for GSD I went to Dog Park in a hurry after finally having a full night of sleep. Dave had texted saying he’d be there early. He was front boarding through the kinked rail (left of photo). Everything about the park was better than I imagined. Especially that parking block in the foreground. It is so good for slappy crooks. At first I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to skate that early in the morning, but ended up getting a run that was really fun. Something like back 5-0 the tiny manny pad ledge, slappy front crook the parking block, ollie the kinked rail, boardslide the wedge block, crooks the ledge, front 180 the little ledge. It was so fun. Dave had a long line too, but I forget most of what it was. He left after feebling the low square bar. I had it all to myself for a bit. I tried boardslide 270 shoves on the low square bar for awhile. Felt doable, but hard like the noseslide 270 shove. Another dude showed up after awhile, Joel. He was cool. I kept at my thing. Came close to back nosegrind the tiny ledge, got a couple super slow front 50s the ledge, crooks the tall bench, ollies over the kinked rail, couldn’t get fakie nosegrind the little ledge. I left for work after slamming on a crooks on the ledge after a long line that was super fun. So hyped to skate here more if it ever stops raining.

(setup 8.75″ null event horizon deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels with 3 speed washers on the inside axle, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a long day of work I got out to the curbs with about 10 minutes of sunlight left. I had put that 8.75″ deck back on. The reasoning is that I really did like it before, but I blamed it for my sucking rather than the arthritis flare up. I still felt sore. I did a few slappies, slappy crooks, enjoyed how much easier switch 180 was off the curb cut, one front 5-0, that was about it. Oh yeah, I had a new pair of 212s. This time in size 12. They felt pretty large, but comfy.

(setup 8.75″ null event horizon deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels with 3 speed washers on the inside axle, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knees)

Right after work on a beautiful night I met Rob, Garrett and Hayden at Indian Peaks. I got in a few warm ups before turning into Filmer Glen. No comply shove fakie, no comply bigspin after slamming hard on one, nollie bigspin, that was about it. Rob had done some similar warm ups, but several b/s flips until getting a good one, one foots, then went in on the wallride game with the kids. He almost got warllride crail grab. So sick. Garrett and Hayden’s warm up wallrides were nuts. Garrett had a very steezy kickflip too. Neither of them got their tricks the way they wanted. Doh.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knees)

Was eating dinner after work when I got a text from Dave saying “look out your window” and low and behold Dave, Saul and Eric were at the curb. I finished up dinner, did a bit of warming up then skated over feeling much more sore than the night before. Everyone was grinding, I got a first try slappy to feel good. These sessions all blur into each other. But this was Eric’s first time and he had some good slappies, almost with back 180 out, some ollies up the curb into the curb cut, then settled in on heelflip into the tiny bank. Took him a minute, but he got one. It’s cool seeing other people skate there and hit it different. I never thought of that being a gap. Saul was doing his slappy runs and got the crazy frontside one at the top. He also had some regular front 50s and hucked some kickflips that were close. Dave was lining out those amazing back 180 fakie 50s. He was back 180’ing into the curb cut then halfcab out of the next one then the back 180 50. Also the long slappy crooks, crooks fakie, crooks shove. I struggled. Only thing I remember is the end when I got a slappy front crook then front shove from the curb cut to parking lot. It wasn’t pretty though.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knees)

After work and a run to Satellite I ended up at Glenn Close where Jake and Saul had been for an hour or so. Ben was there too learning slappies. So rad. He had a couple really good ollies too. Saul had some really long slappies, slappy the non-painted section and almost front slappy the upper section. He did the hands on the hip slappy, the hat behind the back slappy, and even dabbed while doing it. Jake looked hilarious trying hands on the hip slappy crook. He also did some slappy blunts, to grind or pop out. My legs worked again! I still lacked some confidence, but I kickflipped into the curb cut again, tried 3 flips out of it, had a few front 5-0s, 50s, 180s into/out of curb cut and had some fun slappy front crooks. Then Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It lasted a long time as neither of us had any consistency. Jake got me on a 3 flip while cracking his board. I got him with b/s flip, maybe halfcab flip. I forget what else, but I couldn’t get a f/s halfcab flip or fakie varial flip for the win. He got me with fakie 3 shove. Fun game.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10 knees)

Met up with Nolan, Collin, Raul, Saul, Donnie, Dale at Saul’s on a nice night. I was so tired from a busy weekend and having quite a few drinks at Sean’s wedding. So I didn’t really do anything. Nolan was also beat so we didn’t get the treat of watching him shred there. Saul didn’t take many runs either, but we got to see a few of the quick grinds at least. Dale looks like he’s pretty good at skateboarding too. Raul has good style, put down a couple back ds and some fakie smiths. Collin had some moves. Fast front 50s to back tail the gnar wall. Donnie was in full shred mode. Flyout to rock fakie on the qp, Barley grind, long back smith. Ripper.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)