Finally feeling somewhat good, but not up for a long session I went across the street wanting to do some more slappy front crooks. Man they are fun. I did quite a few both ways. Then some 50s and went back to the street to skate flat for a bit. Got a good feeling halfcab flip, a treflip that was ruined by wheelbite, heelflip, some other tricks going slow. I had put different bushings on and they felt good.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling jittery from too much caffeine on a nice sunny morning the whole family hit the BV park. I hate that park. I haven’t skated in front of my mom in forever. I tried to show her and my brother a bean plant to tail on a qp and slammed so bad with my back on the coping. There was stop rocks all over the park so it was scary rolling then all of a sudden hitting a qp. So that was rather embarrassing. My brother skated a tiny bit. My nephews mostly sat on their boards and raced around. I got a couple kickflips to fakie, some little qp tricks, bailed front 50s on the ledge that turns into a qp and yelled when I repeatedly hit stop rocks. As if the Buena Vista skatepark didn’t already suck enough, the addition of millions of stop rocks and broken pool coping put me over the edge.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Up in the mountains I hit flat near the Salida pool while my brother swam with his kids. It’s a small little basketball court. It’s smooth, but so small it’s hard to do more than one trick in a row. I felt a little better than I had in a few days although for whatever reason my board felt small and my shoes felt big. I got a few of the basics. One slow treflip, one slow heelflip, couple f/s halfcab flips, a couple fakie bigflips. I slammed a bunch trying f/s halfcab heels. Didn’t get anything unusual or hard, but it felt good to skate some.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 88a bushings no boardslide washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really nice day I had some time while my brother was hanging with his kids at the creek. I went over to the curb and started messing around. Slappy crooks were fun. Did some 50s, 5-0s, front 50 back 180, some fakie 50s. Tried a dream trick variation for awhile. Crooks shove the hard way. They felt doable, but not close. Ended by getting a few slappy front crooks which I’ve never done on that curb before. It felt cool.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 88a bushings not boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Heads up, I’m writing this almost a week after the session so my memory of what happened might not be so good. It was my first day in contacts in quite some time, the weather was decent. Kevin and I went to meet Dave downtown. We ended up near the dentist 5 where we saw Will and crew skating. Kevin and I tried some flippers in the street which is when I realized my arthritis was bad and my skating would suffer. I didn’t think it would suffer as bad as it did though. I felt as if I could not skate at all. I debated going home. Dave showed. Kevin had done a few flippers, ollied the 5 super easily. We ended up hitting some nearby parking blocks. Jack, Carleigh and Sean joined. For awhile there was one block by itself and another with two orange cones sideways on top of it. Kevin, Sean and Jack ollied it like it was absolutely nothing. Jack went on to do like 30 tricks over them. It was quite incredible. Switch varial heel was hot. He did fakie tre before fakie flip. Sean agreed it was easier. Okay I’ll take their word for it. Carleigh kickflipped the curb quick then ollied the coned curb. Dave ollied it too. I was the only one to not ollie it. I did try and commit, but couldn’t get over it. I had a no comply flip over the block in a couple tries which was my one saving grace. Dave was doing sprack to manual to almost boardslide. Kevin switch ollied the coned block, kickflpped it, 180s. Sean did the cleanest backside flip I’ve ever seen over the block. It was seriously stunning. At times I was so frustrated that I was whining like a baby. Sorry friends, it was frustrating. At least my friends were ripping.

Then we went to Saul’s minus Sean. Saul and Eric were there. I felt a little better not having to ollie and had fun. Eric was ripping. His grinds keep getting faster and longer, almost lipslides, manual to axle stall to fakie, heelflips. Saul too. He had some long grinds. My favorite is still the crazy quick carve grinds. Carleigh learned to ride on grind transfer in then backed them with some solid runs. Jack was funny at first just doing hurricane grinds from the deck transfer in. He did some crazy stuff like front 5-0 to fakie over the hip, nosepick shove, bigspin pivot. Kevin shreds transition. Switch disasters, sketchy roll ins, lofty back disasters, pivots fakie. Dave is always a treat to watch there. Such long lines, huge bag of tricks. The photo is him doing a front smith with the whole crew in the background. I had some fun carve grinds, a couple front disasters.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 8/10)

After work on a cool Friday I stopped at the dog park. I wasn’t feeling very good or motivated, but I tried. It took a bit to get the warm up line (kf, no comply 180 , fakie flip), but when I got the fakie flip it felt extra good. I got a first try halfcab flip and though this session was going to get real good. Nope. I couldn’t do another halfcab flip and I struggled with everything. I got a few heelflips, couple fs hc flips. Hucked nollie inward heel. Landed on treflip, but didn’t ride away. Then just started trying no comply 360 shoves. It took about 20 minutes. On the way back I would switch ollie a tiny puddle. Throughout the session I got wheelbite a lot. It was driving me nuts. I have the lower forged baseplates on so I guess I’ll switch back to the regular ones. I can’t believe how much wheelbite I get with 53s. Never again.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s with forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Still fighting the funk I went out to the garage during the “bomb cyclone”. I kept it mellow always resting a bit between tries. I started out with a nosemanual 360 on a somewhat slanted sheet of wood. Then started trying flip tricks. Mostly started with kickflips and a fakie flip. Then altered between treflip and nollie flip. I was close to both, actually committing to nollie flips and the board wasn’t quite flipping enough. It took me forever to land a treflip and when I finally did it was one of those bad-both-heels-on-the-ground makes, but I count those in the garage. Skating seemed to make me feel much better. Hopefully I kick the sickness for good soon.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s with forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 1/10)

After another day of working from home while being sick/pinkeye I woke up from a long nap then went across the street on a warm day. I was really out of it and skating in glasses is weird. I went through a long stretch of total suck. I finally got a line of front 5-0, manual around the light pole then backside flip up the curb. That felt really cool. Going the other way I was trying f/s halfcab flip, nollie back tail, back 50. But I had new shoes (379s again – black) and something about the new shoe/old grip and I kept sliding off on the nollie back tail. Argh. When I bailed I would try kick back tail. This is around when a crew of high school kid showed up and brought a ledge. They put it in the worst possible place, but it was still cool. I had nearly hit my hour limit (trying not to make myself more sick) so I didn’t get anything more than a terrible crooks and some accidental noseslides. I had also struggled with treflip on flat. Landed on a bunch, but never rode away. I also bailed front 5-0s a lot getting wheelbite on the way out. So annoying. I don’t know how people skate big wheels. I guess I like loose trucks too much.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s with forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Still feeling like garbage with the added bonus of pinkeye I went to Broomfield park on a sunny afternoon to meet Sean and Kevin. When I arrived they were doing flippers. Sean was going fakie, Kevin nollie. Same tricks with the opposite stance. I just kind of played around on whatever. Trying hard tricks like 50 on the blue ledge. Ugh. Then we mostly skated the black ledge area. Well, those dudes “skated”, I struggled. Kevin did a dream line twice. Nollie front 180 into the little bank, switch nosegrind 180, back smith stall the brick qp, nollie nosegrind, nollie tre out of the bank. Full pull! Sean went through all of this tricks. The back lips to front 270 shove were so good. I tried a line of switch 180 into the bank, crooks, turn around, front 50, treflip out of the bank. Landed on the treflip, but never rode away. Got a couple front shoves out of 50. Since Sean and Kevin did halfcab flips out of the bank I did too. Pretty fun. Sean was doing f/s halfcab flip out too. So good. Kevin nearly died trying it because the board shot up and nailed him in the hand luckily saving his face. That was pretty much it. Sean added fakie 5-0 to his list of tricks.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s with forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 sickness aches and some arthritis in my left ankle)

After not skating all week because I was sick (and the weather sucked) I had to get out on a breezy sunny afternoon. I went to meet Dave at the valmont manny pads, but the sunny ones were wet, and the other side was in the shade. So I started dorking around across the street in the sun. I was just kind of dorking around as I felt really out it. I front 180’d up a curb to weird tail stall shove out on the ultra mini bank. Then I was trying to manual to axle stall. Dave showed up. We ended up skating the “Jack gap” for awhile. We did a lot of transfer stuff. Dave thought the back feeble transfer was easier, I thought it was easier frontside. Dave got a no comply from the curb site, I don’t think I did. I got lucky with an ollie from the curb side, but Dave took a hard slam hanging up on the last inch of grass. Ouch. Dave tried some Natas stalls on the pipe in the background. It looked so scary, luckily he got out of them safely. I did the transfer shove thing which was really fun. Dave did a rock shove transfer. Dave’s cab transfer was sick. Both of us bailed our flatground trick after. Then we went across to the shaded manual pad where Dave did manual then nose manual first try. It took me so long that Dave had left before I got it. I did at least get a 360 flip on my first real try. Dave was going for a mega line adding nollie back 180 and switch nose manual to the line. He did a switch nose manual to regular manual which was really sick. It felt good to skate again. I can’t wait to feel better.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s with forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 6/10 sickness aches and some arthritis in my left ankle)