On a snowy and cold Sunday I went out to the garage to finally skate this weekend. This winter is getting very old. I started with a few no pop manuals on the sheet of wood. Then started with some shoves, no complies, etc. Took a few tries to get kickflips, then did fakie flip, not too long to get a heelflip, and even less time to get a terrible fakie heelflip. After that I was doing treflips towards the garage door, random other tricks on the way back. I had a goal of doing 3 treflips in a row or at least a total of 10. I gave up on nollie flips and switch flips. I had gotten a few treflip, I think total I had 3 sets of 2 in a row, but never got a 3rd. The last tre was elusive, but I would eventually get it. I had also kind of done that heelflip body varial again. It’s pretty fun. I ended trying varial heels until I got one with the hands down. I had fun, but man I’m sick of winter and would like to skate outdoors on the weekends at least.

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

On a warm day in the upper 40s I met Dave at Blue Skies. It was Friday, but I was feeling more than just flatground. The stiff breeze contributed to the lack of wanting to just skate flat. I was there for a minute before Dave. Long enough to do a couple ollies and boardslides. Dave started kinda slow. He bailed his first fakie shove. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him bail that before. I was trying a line of boardslide, 360 flip, front 50 the tiny ledge that for some reason scares the crap out of me. Only got one 360 flip, but I committed to most of them and that made me happy. For some random reason I rolled up to Dave and said “new trick Dave” and tried a varial heel revert. Instead I landed a heelflip backside body varial. It felt super awesome. It’s amazing how much satisfaction can come from a 1mph flip trick. Dave was going lines with boardside the end of the dragon rail, front board to fakie the main flatbar, fakie 360 shove on the bank. He got a couple of those I think. Oh and switch body varial hippy jumps over the flat bar to board stall pop over. There should be a better name for “switch body varial hippy jump”. Make up a name for it Dave. He also got a fakie flip on the bank and was going for f/s halfcab flip. I finally got a couple super slow front 50s on the stupid tiny ledge. Dave got them easy and with front 180 out up the kink . I tried a couple halfcab crooks, but didn’t really get in. Dave called out fakie nosegrind on the ends of the escalator ledges. Great idea. I needed motivation to try it so I lined it out. Noseslide to fakie on one of the taller ledges, fakie flip on flat, fakie nosegrind. Dave was lining to it as well. I had a good one, but bailed, a good slam, then finally got the line. It was a tiny jib, but still felt cool. Dave would get a few after I left to go back to work. Oh, I had switched bushings again. This time softer Venoms. They felt perfect.

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

On a cold night I went out because I don’t really know what else to do besides skate. I wasnt that motivated, but I had watched some of the Sour video hoping for inspiration. So I went out in hopes of skating some different and weird stuff. I started on a speedbump, but quickly left and ended up at the bank with the flatbar against the wall. I had forgotten all about it. I dorked around trying some lines and manuals. I had put Bones bushings in the other day and they felt fine on flat, but I hated them out and about. I kept at it though. I was getting into noseslides on the somewhat shorter section before a janitor came and parked and messed up the spot. So I did the end. Well, as you can see it wasn’t really much of a noseslide. I moved on and ended up at Wells Fargo. I took too long to do a rock shuffle to fakie around the hip. Then even longer to do the rock shuffle 270. It was fun to land it. My legs were cold and sore and I realized I wouldn’t be doing much of anything. I skated/walked around looking for inspiration, but never really found anything. I ended up at the poorly lit little ledge in the alley near St Julien. Forced myself to do a front 50 and bounced.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, bones medium bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Went to the dog park after work. It wasn’t so warm out and it took me awhile to start trying tricks. I’m writing this several days later so I don’t remember much. I didn’t have any major hangups on tricks I shouldn’t. Halfcab flips were good. Got a couple treflips, heelflips. Some tricks like fakie treflip felt totally out of reach. I got super close to switch flip. I did a couple stationary flips while holding onto the beams. It felt cool. Tried a few more of those half flip late heelflip tricks, but never got close. Went home after an hour or so.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, bones medium bushings, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Had the day off of work. Dave could only skate early so I was going to meet him around 9am. Kevin took a mental health day and we met Dave shortly after 9. It was way colder than we thought it would be. Like only 20 something. It did warm up quick at least. There were a couple bald eagles flying above us which always makes me smile. Not in a USA kind of way, but what a majestic creature. All three of us mostly start with shoves and stuff in the flatground. Kevin and I had brand new boards, Dave’s was one day old. I stuck with 8.38 as it seems about right. Kevin was struggling as he had his first non-DLX board in forever. He would get past the struggles though. Dave and I were trying no comply tailsides. He challenged me to it. It was funny because I asked him to film it. We’ve never filmed each other in this game yet. I wasn’t doing it anywhere near as well as him, but it was still fun. Around then Dan and Collin showed up. So cool. Then it turns out a lot of 98% would show up. Dar, Scotty, Ladd. We went on to have a fun big ol’ session. Lots of flatground was skated. I didn’t land much of anything for quite some time. Dan and Collin were killing it. Dan’s style is amazing. Collin did regular and fakie inward heels?!?!?! I was pretty blown away by all the tricks they landed. Kevin was in on it too and had a ton of good flippers. When Ladd showed up Dan had said he would do Ladd’s kickflip heelflip cancel (I have no idea what it’s really called). He did it like 3 times! I posed a few and it seems possible. Collin learned nollie bigflip in a few tries. I couldn’t get it. Dave was doing lines with cabs on flat then cabs over the back hip, super long tail slides on the bank, lots of really good stuff. It was a bummer he had to leave. Some ledge action went down. Kevin killed it with most of this tricks real quick. I had front 50 shove and maybe a slow crooks. Collin did crooks shove. I had a fun line of backside flip flyout (to complete halt but how’s counting), switch nose jib to forward into the bank, little scratch grind on the nub, no comply 180 on flat, fakie flip on flat, halfcab flip on the mellow bank. I got a treflip and f/s halfcab heel on flat, both were terrible though. Last thing I did was a flyout treflip and it felt really cool. Ladd was doing back 50s on the bank to ledge. Dan was trying nollie f/s flip out of the bank. Kevin easily did nollie b/s flip then pretty much ended the session with a nollie tre that was super good.

Then Kevin and I ate and later met up with the dudes at a little curb high manny pad. I was so sore that I couldn’t ollie up it the first few tries. Dan quickly manual, nose manual, switch manual. Dar was trying switch nose manual. Ladd was trying this weird pressure cancel flip to manual which he would eventually land. TWICE! At one point I pissed behind a dumpster and it kind of ran into the runway of the manny pad. Oh man. How embarrassing. It ended up being pretty funny though as Kevin was coming back and dodged Collin and rolled right through it. That was probably the angriest look he’s ever given me, but man it was funny. Collin was close to fs halfcab manual. Dan was trying front 180 fakie manual, then moved on to nollie fs 180 nose manual which he would also get after some struggles. Kevin locked into a kickflip nose manual and then the next try took the most amazing slam ever. He literally did a kickflip nose manual primo. It “rolled” about a foot before he Wilson’d as high as anyone has Wilson’d before. Ouch. He did try again, but eventually call it and chilled. I got a nose manual, somewhat close to kickflip manual, but gave up. I got a no comply flip up and some weird no comply boneless off. Dar was still going strong on his trick when Kevin and I left. Man what a fun day. It was great running into the 98%ers and skating with them. They are such good dudes.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a decent Sunday Kevin came over then we met Sean and Dave at this weird new spot I saw while driving around after skating yesterday. I felt like I had never skated before when I first got there and couldn’t do anything. I landed one flatground kickflip and one ollie to nose stall to fakie before turning into Filmer Glen. Dave got a cool line with a rock to fakie on a pallet then a boardslide transfer on the downhill curb. He had also done some nice fakie bigspins, kickflips, gap front noses. Sean had done some super solid flatground, tailslide to back 50, ollied onto the narrow ledge and 180’d onto the bank, etc. Kevin started out ripping. He had some easy back 180s, 50-50 transfers, blunt transfers, lipslide transfer I think. I started filming him do a quick footed line of halfcab down the curb to quick front blunt shove transfer. Two hours later his board was focused. He did get it without the shove at least. Then I took awhile to do the no comply 270 to tail and we bounced. At least that trick felt cool.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, 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 i felt terrible on my board)

On a cold and windy afternoon I went to the Valmont area and was surprised at how dry the area was. I guess the wind is good for something. I started with a couple basics on the mellow bank then started trying a line. First one was pop shove, ollie a curb (that for some reason always messes with me), ollie one foot to fakie on the bank, switch front 180 on flat, ollie the tall curb. The pop shove proved the most difficult. Ugh. Well, actually the tall curb ollie did because I never got it. It didn’t help that there was snow in front of it. I moved on to the next line. Front 180 the gap onto the sidewalk, switch front 180 off, frontside flip on the bank, ollie the tall curb. Kind of did it. Then I went to go skate flatground, but didn’t. Instead I rub bricked and waxed this two stair up. It proved harder than I thought as I had hoped to get out to manual. Just need to go faster.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a Thursday night we motivated to go somewhere new and different. I picked up Carleigh then met Kevin and Dave at Curbside Skatepark. It was crazy crowded when we got there. Or at least we thought it was super crowded. We kinda started in the corner with the two weird humps and steep tall qp. Oh I had already tried to wallie a parking block, bailed and knocked someones filming phone down. Doh. For about the first 15 minutes I thought there was no chance I’d be able to get warmed up and have fun. Kevin had already kickflipped up the euro, Carleigh ollied up it, Dave did a back tail on the steep bank. Then we migrated to the miniramp which was way more fun than I imagined. It’s perfect, mellow, small. That doesn’t mean I didn’t struggle with back 50s and other basics though. Kevin had the pivots to fakie. Carleigh did a first try back disaster and that’s when I knew this would be a special session. Dave was skating on the other side of the park. I got a couple basics on the mini for me. Was happy to do front 50s pretty easily. Then me and Carleigh started trying noseslides on the A-frame ledge. It took us about the same amount of tries. It was so fun once you committed to it, the kick threw you right into the noseslide. Carleigh lined it out with pop shove over the bump too. I lined it out with kickflip to fakie. I did the first kickflip to fakie I tried which was also a sign that this was a better than average session. Kevin front 50 and 5-0’d down it, then front 50’d up. He was doing nollies and fakie ollies over the bump too. Kevin was also killing the ledge. I started trying crooks while he was trying kick back tails. That ledge is so slick it was insane. On crooks you gain speed. 303 Luke was there destroying 360 flips over the bump and crooks to almost nollie flip out. Denver legends Isiah and Trevor were there destroying as they do. Dave was doing long boardslides to fakie on the ledge, bigspins on the bank, nose stalls to fakie, and much more that I’m missed because I was skating non-stop having more fun than I have all winter. I got a few crook grinds that I stood up on and man they felt so great. Carleigh, Dave and I were trying kickflips over the bump for awhile. Dave gave up and did halfcab flip instead. Yes, tech Dave! He also did kind of an accidental cab flip over it. The halfcab flip was so sick though. I got a sketchy kickflip over it. Carleigh did shortly after me. We were at our 2 hour limit basically, but kept skating it was just so fun. Carleigh and Kevin were skating the mini. I was posing 360 flips to fakie on the bank. I committed a couple times, but never landed on it. We were doing some flip tricks on flat. I got first try halfcab flip and a few tries for a 360 flip which helped make my day. The park was clearing out. I spent awhile trying halfcab flips over the bump and would one. It felt awesome. Dave was lining out boardslide to fakie on the flat bar, switch noses jib the bank to ledge then crooks. The photo above was a crooks I thought until I saw the photo. Ha. I did a few other tricks than crooks on the ledge finally. Front 50, front 50 shove, halfcab noseslide, switch front nose. I ended with another fun crooks. Carleigh had done back blunt on the mini. Kevin convinced Dave to try and manual around the deck of the mini which he did pretty quickly. Such a banger to end the session with. Incredibly fun session. Oh and they were even playing great music.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, 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 knees were sore from climbing onto ramps)

On a cold night I headed out around 7:30 to skate. Seeing as how I had switched between 8.25 and 8.5 I put an old 8.38 deck on. I had also taken off the bottom washer on my trucks to loosen them up a little. So once again everything felt different, but it was in a good way. I started out on the top area at the bottom of the Max G rail. I skated it different than I have before. I ollied up one set then tried a stall trick on the next curb. I got a front 50 pretty quick, but going up backside was hard. I must say the Sour video is incredibly motivating and making me want to try new stuff. I got a really sketchy line of ollie up, nollie back tail, then no comply 270 to tail on the next set of stairs, then wallie nollie, then a wee little ollie over the sidewalk bump, ollie up the curb, kind of did a crooks, but I ran back into the ledge and sat on it. Pretty fun line. Then I skated the ledge area for awhile trying lines. Ollie up the curb, kickflip, terrible back 50 (but still a back 50 and I really want to get that trick back) go across the road and ollie up onto the manhole thing to quick ollie the tiny gap to the sidewalk then front 180 off. Sounds like a long run, but luckily there is no documentation of it. I got quite a few crooks. Got a line of front 180 up the curb, fakie shove, halfcab noseslide then bailed a flip trick. Going uphill is hard there. I got a front 50 pretty quick, but could never quite get another one. My legs had gotten tired. I couldn’t heelflip. I ended with a crooks like I always do there.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold night I went into the garage with motivation. Kevin had made a comment while we were at 303 after the Sour video that 8.5″ decks look better with my big feet. I agree that it looks better, but I normally struggle with flippers. Anyway, I started on an 8.5″ complete I had in the garage that was intended for Saul’s. It had clumsy Spitfire 99a wheels on it. I swear those wheels feel like they absorb all pop right out of you. I don’t know how people skate them. After some basic warm ups I went for 3 tricks. Nollie varial flip, heelflip, treflip. I came very close to several nollie varial flips on the 8.5. I mixed in 8.25, 8″ completes and the 7.5″ putter too. Still couldn’t land one. I got a treflip on the normal 8.25. I never got a nollie varial flip. But I was most frustrated that I couldn’t heelflip to save my life. I finally got one on the putter. It felt pretty great, but didn’t erase the previous hour of depression. Skateboarding is so hard.