On a very warm Saturday Rob, Dave, Paul and I rolled up to Evergreen for a birthday tradition. We met up with Salty, Bratcher, Miller and Jake (still unable to skate). Great crew. We filmed almost nothing which was kind of nice. Bratcher had a migraine and didn’t really skate. Salty had some cool grind reverts on the qp and went for some fast boardslides on the ledge. Paul was the youngest and it showed popping onto the ledges with ease. Front 50 down the slight hubba looked fun, back 5-0s, front nosegrind the fence ledge, windshield wiper on the qp. Rob manuals, crails, front board pop out, back 50s, front slash the qp. I was skating decent and starting a line with kickflip over the hip but totally broke my board. Doh. Luckily I had a used one in the car that was somehow actually in better shape. I don’t know if I quite got back into the groove after that. But I would get a bad b/s flip over the hip, first t fakie bigspin over it. I had a bunch of crooks, noseslides on the fence ledge, a few slow front 50s. One thing I actually liked the most was kickflip up the curb then noseslide the out ledge. Had some fun 180 nose manuals from the wedge to the hip deck. I ended trying slow treflips and eventually got a very sorry excuse of a treflip. Dave lasted the longest of course and was shredding. Lots of kickflips over the f/s hip, b/s flips over it, pivot the steep qp, bump to nose manual the wedge to hip deck, front 50s the bump to ledge, showed up Paul with a layback grind to tail, back 3 over the hip, ended on a varial flip that took a bit. Fun session, great crew, fun park, great weather, good margs after.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null keyhole, forged hollow indy 149 with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, last resort grey cm002 size 12 (way too big) with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I took a half day and on a warm afternoon picked up Bratcher and rolled to Windsor park. We met Hayden and Will and we basically had the park to ourselves until the end save for an e-motorbike. Ended up being a pretty fun session. Bratcher lots of tricks on the curb height ledge, ollied up the euro, front 50 the taller ledge. Hayden is so fun to watch. Such casual manuals, back tails, crooks, nosegrinds. Filmed an amazing line of him 50’ing the double set curb, crooks off the bank to ledge then a super lofty b/s ollie the qp hip. Will skated the tall ledge with ease. Front smith on the bank to ledge was amazing. First try pop shove up the euro. I had a couple of lines I liked, but I struggled in my oversized shoes. Warm up line above was about as good as I did all day. Crooks, noseslide to fakie, halfcab noseslide. Later on I would get a crooks on the lower ledge, flatground heelflip, front 180 the euro. Other than those nothing really stands out as noteworthy from me. Fun session, good crew.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null keyhole, cast hollow 144 mindys, 52mm spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic, last resort grey cm002 size 12 (way too big) with footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Stopped by dog park after work on a nice evening. My legs felt like garbage. I think the only thing I did were some slappy crooks. Paul and Ted did slappy crook shoves. I tried to shove too, got close, but did not land it. Will had some sick back smiths on the green box. Dave showed and casually killed as he does. I left early. I had probably done more than I said, but I was pretty down about my skating.

(setup 4/10 null keyhole 2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollow knox 149 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, last resort cm002 size 12 grey half 574 insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 8/10)

Had a garbage day of work. Dave hit me saying he was going to Valmont on a fine day. I beat him there. Valmont was a wash of toddlers so I started at dog park. Mostly chatted for a bit, then did some warm ups. Didn’t get far into anything. Paul showed. Dave found a cool new line grinding the end of the barrier. We tried to line out to it, but I never really landed anything. Dave had a cool front slash up the end of the barrier. Paul had accidentally worn his chill shoes (Janoski’s) and basically hated them and didn’t skate much. Somehow Valmont cleared out so we went over there. I spent a while getting kickflips on the hip with the barrier. Got two to make it true. Had only done it once before. Dave did the best over-50-make in history on a b/s flip over the hip. He had some cool lines. Then we watched Satellite Jack shred it and him and Dave learned halfcab plants (I have no idea what to call them). I did a few bad noseslides then got a leg cramp. Filmed Dave get a cool line of a gnarly lipslide then bluntslide bonus on the weird sharp qp/lump.

(setup 7/10 null keyhole 2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollow knox 149 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

Feeling very sore from the day before I went to dog park to meet Bratcher and Gordon. Was pleasantly surprised to see most of 98% dudes there. I didn’t skate very hard as I was so sore. Did a few basics, liked how my setup felt on halfcab noseslides, crooks and ollies. Didn’t really do much for flippers. Wore vulcs for less pain, didn’t really help or hurt I guess. Then I went to the out ledge spot and all I did was dork around on a mini bank with curbs on the sides. Did a switch nose jib shove.

(setup 7/10 null keyhole 2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollow knox 149 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

After the snow had cleared and sun came out I went to skate. I felt like going to a street spot and ended up at Casey for some reason. I started out in the back on the rock area which was less appealing than I remembered. For a while I tried to manual the rock lowest rock, but couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ollie the whole thing either. So I settled for a rock ‘n roll which was dumber and harder than I wanted too. I did have a few flippers in between tries at least which felt pretty good.

Then I went to the stage area. I had ollied it and 180’d it and wanted to do more. Decided on front shove and made myself ollie up before each try. The ollies up were way harder. Like so hard for a while and I was getting really frustrated. But then they started to work and I was committing to front shoves. But those turned into a battle too. I was so tired from jumping up and down. But when I got it it felt great.

Then I went down below to the weird manny pad / ledge thing and didn’t really find much to do other than a couple backside ledge tricks. Crooks felt really good. Not shown is the weird approach having to swerve around a rail. Fun day, skated hard.

(setup 7/10 null keyhole 2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollow knox 149 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a snowy Friday I went to the garage. I had been kind of sick the last couple days, but wanted to get the legs moving. I had a new deck, different setup. Basically after chatting with Lord Degros he recommended this setup. 8.3, Indys, 51mms. Warming up felt great just doing ollies and shoves. Kickflips were okay. Took forever to get a b/s flip, but I blame my legs from not exercises for 3 days. At the end I hucked varial heel and nollie flip, varial heel was remotely close.

(setup 6/10 null keyhole 2 8.3, jessup ultragrip, indy forged hollow knox 149 royal bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 felt so uncoordinated)

Had a bit of time on the way into work so I stopped by dog park. It was cloudy and cool, but not cold and it felt great. I had told myself I need to do 4 basics before I could leave. Manual, front 50 the bench, halfcab noseslide the bench and ollie something. I would get them all, the front 50 taking the longest. Had some good feeling back 50s on the curb. Skated my 8.5/14.25 with Thunders. It was pretty mid. Ended with an ollie over the kinked round bar with a little wheel bonk. It was a decent quick morning session.

(setup 3/10 8.25/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lights with bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After a rainy morning I met up with 98% dudes at some apartments out on Arapahoe. I rolled up to Donnie getting nuts on the ride on curb that goes off a 7 stair with a narrow bank. He did 5-0, switch crook and switch crook halfcab into the bank. So nuts. I had rolled into it a couple of times and posed some flatground.

Then we went up to the ledge area. Garrett went nuts and got some bangers. Halfcab noseslide then kickflip back tail. He had also just messed around doing 6 tricks lines. Also kickflip up the two, front tail, b/s flip up a little gap. I was hyped to see some Wade front noseslides. Ladd had some good crooks and 50s. I had some crooks and noseslides and Scotty was kind enough to point the camera and I somehow managed a couple of lines. Crooks then front 180 up a little gap. Switch nose jib then kickflip down a 2 stair. I was pretty happy with those, but really wanted to get a treflip and could not get one to save my life. Donnie had some great slams and got another great line or two. Really fun session, great dude.

(setup 2/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, slappy lights 8.5 indy 92a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic black/orange swirl, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insole currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Met up with Bratcher and Dave at Howard Hueston. I did one run around the park, Dave had maybe done a couple runs. What a useless skatepark. Then we went into the basketball court to skate flat, a parking block and lotta tall ledge. The parking block is a nice addition to the spot. We were there for like 3 hours and a lot happened. Well, maybe not a lot of flip tricks or ledge tricks, but a lot of curb tricks at least! Jack learned switch slappy crook and I think switch slappy crook fakie bigspin out. He also had some cool rocks on the ledge up to axle stall. Dave’s front board and back board through the corner were awesome. He also slammed pretty hard trying to front 50 around it. I was impressed he had the pop and could get up in 50 so well. He and Jack both had switch crooks with shoves on the curb back to back. I didn’t skate the curb a whole lot, the no comply flip felt really cool though. I had some okay crooks, couldn’t 50 to save my life. Boardslide through the corner was not easy and I don’t really think switch front was “through” the corner, but it was still fun. I had tried a few lines, but never got anything I was hyped on. Still, it was a fun session and we skated hard.

Then Dave and I went to the little Glenwood bank. I was a fun session, kinda chaotic with all the pedestrians and cars. Dave’s tailslide run was pretty quick. He had done some long switch crooks from the top, but couldn’t figure out the transfer in. I had taken about 20 tries to do a rock ‘n roll. The wallie out Dave started was so fun. I couldn’t do a slappy hurricane transfer, but the boardslide to fakie was fun. I hadn’t done wallie nollie in a while and it was harder than I thought it would be. Dave’s 180 switch crook is insane. I think he should keep it for Stubborns 2050, but he wasn’t happy with it.

(setup 3/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, ace af1 hollow 55, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)