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)

After a fun late night for Jack’s video premiere I went to Jack/Carleigh’s and we rolled to the new barrier spot in Denver. We got there around 12:30 or so. Kevin was there, Garrett met us after a bit. I immediately felt some of the best I’ve felt in weeks. It doesn’t make much sense as it followed two nights of drinking, but I’ll take it. Jack quickly front boarded down the slanted barrier. You know a spot is hard if Nolan bails pivot fakie several times in a row. Kevin was doing backside grinds quickly, flip tricks. I took a few tries to get rock ‘n roll. Jack went to work on crooks nollie flip out on the flat bar. He got one early on, but couldn’t get another. Carleigh got a feeble on the barrier and lined it out with a hippy jump over the flat bar. I got the tiniest scratch grind on the barrier and it was super rewarding. Then I started trying a dorky line with front board stall to fakie on the little loading dock ramp thing, halfcab flip on flat then frontside slash, never got the f/s slash. It felt so good to be really skating, trying again. Garrett had some moves. Front feebs on the barrier, boardslide to fakie, maybe a hurricane. Nolan couldn’t put down the bluntslide, but did get a mean feeble to fakie. Kevin had some nice back smiths, crooks on the barrier. I got close to some Rick flips and landed a super slow 360 flip that pretty much made my month. It’s been awhile. Hooray to my knees for kind of working again! Then we had to go for Sean’s wedding.

(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 3/10 it’s a miracle the knees were working!)

On a nice Friday off work I got to Broomfield around 11. Warming up felt better than things have in awhile. I wore super thin vulcs (212s) with the Nike zoom air insoles and it felt way better than orthotics. I kept it pretty mellow during the warm up process, but did through in some ollies. It felt weird to ollie, like I hadn’t done it in so long I was losing it. I don’t really remember doing anything noteworthy, but it felt nice to comfortably ollie into 50s on the low blue ledge. Mike KP showed up shortly before Jack and Nolan. I got kind of tired after that and mostly just chilled or filmed as the rest of them ripped. Then we went to a new plaza spot and Jack got 4 clips. I was filming like mad. We both almost passed out.

(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 still in the knees)

Got home from work on a stormy afternoon and planned on chilling/napping for awhile. But Dave called and said he got off work and was going to skate Glenn Close. So I rallied and went over there. I was in a lot of pain so tried some cupsoles initially. Some PJs, but they were too tight. I was in a lot of pain and everything was a total struggle. I slammed on a slappy crook to start out. Ugh. Dave was doing some long noseslides to fakie. The wind made the spot feel more exhausting than normal. I got a couple slappy front crooks, nollie front tails, regular slappies, a couple slow slappy hurricanes, gave up on slappy front feeble, a few front 50s and a nollie shove (no pop) to manual out of the curb cut. I had a slam on something that really hurt my knee. Ugh. Dave had a good front slappy, had to give up on slappy crooks shove and ended with a really good nollie back tail. Another dude joined us for awhile. Ben. Turned out he went to school there with my daughter. Ha. He is rad.

(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 379 b/w size 12, spenco 3/4 orthotics under thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 8/10 right knee. might be time to go to a doctor)

Met Jack and then Hayden at Southern Hills on a nice night. I got there first. I was feeling very sore once again and just kind of did a few warm up dorky things, a couple 50s on the step, boardslide a bench and then started filming. Jack and Hayden got some great stuff. Good 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 379 b/w size 12, footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knees)