Tried to motivate to skate early since I knew I’d be a filmer later on. I tried to go to the bikepath ledge/hip, but couldn’t find parking near it so ended up at the research ledge. It was pretty nice out, but I was feeling pretty sore and unmotivated. I was just kind of forcing it so I’d be more content filming later. I also had new shoes. Es Accel SQs. They seemed good, not as grippy as the Arto’s, but way comfier. I struggled pretty hard. The first basic line was pop shove, front 180 up the curb, fakie flip on flat, switch front nose. The switch front nose was soooo bad, but I had been trying for long enough that I didn’t care. And I wasn’t filming or anything so who cares. I did manage a few slow and sketchy back 50s. I took a brief detour for some wallie nollies up top (photo). I had tried a bunch of the straight 4 that I can’t do and never committed. Saul biked by and we chatted for a bit. Then I just kind of tried ledge tricks for awhile. Crooks are still fun there. I got a couple halfcab noseslide jibs. The funnest part was trying noseslide 270 shoves out. I have never done it without going off the end of a ledge, but there were a couple that felt close. Then I left. I didn’t really skate later as I was so sore. I did a couple axle stalls at stonehenge, but I was more content pointing the phone/camera.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es accel sq burgundy/gum size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Went to Blue Skies hockey rink to meet Dave on a completely insane warm day approaching 70 degrees. When I arrived there was some snow near the upper goal and streams of water running down the hole rink. Warming up wasn’t so easy. Dave beat me to kickflip! Then he almost went on to beat me to halfcab flip. Yikes! Ha. I went for awhile thinking I might not land anything, but some things ended up working. Heelflips especially, I landed a lot of them. Dave did a lot of kickflips. He was almost doing them in lines with multiple shoves and varial flips. I had big dreams, but they didn’t really pan out as I was too inconsistent. My legs were tired. I got fakie flip, fakie varial flip, fakie shove and close to fakie treflip in one line. That would have made my day. I only got to the fakie tre once though. I had quite a few tricks with absolutely terrible landings. It became kind of funny. Dave claims he’s never done a regular halfcab flip, but wow he got close right away and stayed close. Can’t wait to see him do that one on the regs. He couldn’t quite get fakie varial flip which was odd. That’s kinda how the day was. I tried a bunch of tricks, some easy, some hard, landed some of them, but nothing that stood out. I did a line of heelflip turn around and the worst fakie heelflip. Aki showed! Dave and I were pretty tired at that point, but streams had dried up so much they were small enough to do tricks over. And just like that we had a new spot! I tried a line of switch 180 over one, front 180 the bigger one then fakie tre. Got close, but never rode out of the fakie tre. Dave was doing a random trick then back 180 the larger puddle then trying halfcab flip. Man he got close. Aki was doing f/s halfcab over the smaller puddle, back 180 the larger one then switch flip on flat. I think he got the switch flip. Dang! We all kickflipped the “large” puddle that had evaporated so quickly every try it got easier. I wish I could have stayed, but I needed to get back to work.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

After working late then watching Stranger Things with Ollie and his friends I went across the street to the curb. It’s kind of funny because Ollie and his friend were skating in the garage. The curb had gotten pretty dry, but still grinded. I skated slow and mellow. Did some 50s. Forced myself to try a front tailslide. Didn’t really slide, but did get up on it better. Tried some nollie front 180 switch crooks. Felt close the first try then got further away each time. Tried a few kick back tails and got into a couple, but never rode away. The curb is low enough for me to “nollie front 50”. I put it in quotes because it’s more of a nose scrape and pivot the trucks onto the curb. Still fun though.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

I had setup a new sample board and was excited to skate. It was warmer out than it’s been, but I wasn’t feeling too good so I opted for a short garage session. Warming up felt alright. I ended up trying nollie flips first. Got close. One of these days I’ll be able to hover a little longer and land them. Got close to switch flips again. Hucked a few more things before taking a song to land a treflip and then another song to land a sketchy varial heelflip. I was hyped on that! Also hyped that the sample board held up to some poorly landed heelflips that could sometimes result in a broken tail.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Went out to the garage on another cold night. I was feeling better about my chances with landing tricks. I did some whatever to warm up then randomly the first trick I tried was rick flip. Ha. Probably hucked it about 10 times then went to nolie flips. Got so close, but didn’t land it. Then I started roughly using songs as a gauge for how long I tried tricks. I had DJR playing and it worked well to try a trick for about a song. Some times though I would just do something like ‘fakie flip tricks’ and did fakie flip, fakie varial flip and almost fakie treflip. Didn’t get nollie heel or nollie flip although both were close. Switch flip was even closer. Tried switch 360 flip because why not. Honestly if I somehow manage to be setup right that trick totally seems possible. I committed to it a few times, but never got remotely close. Managed a few poorly landed regular 360 flips. I got a halfcab heel for the first time in months and followed it with a second try f/s halfcab heel. That was the highlight for me. I ended trying more nollie flips, but couldn’t put one down.

(setup 7.5″ putter, new balance numeric 358 black/white 11 custom orthotics)

Went out to the garage not feeling particularly great on a cold night. I chose to wear the Suciu ADV shoes instead of a different old pair of shoes. They are not very grippy. Anyway, I started out with some of the shoves and stuff before digging in to nollie flips and heels. I never got close and I don’t know if I even made any progress. It was frustrating. I started hucking pressure flips though. I think I finally grasp the movements needed to do them. After awhile I gave up on nollie flip/heels and added 360 flips to my fail list (WTF!). I did manage heelflips and a terrible fakie heel. I got incredibly close to switch flip out of nowhere. That would have been great. All in all a pretty weak night.

(setup 7.5″ putter, Suicu ADV 10.5 with custom orthotic insole)

Out pretty early on a Sunday I got to Wilville feeling better. I started at the middle manny pad as there was some sun up there. I was trying to do two flip trick lines then nose manuals. It was fun. I got a few of the basic flippers when Saul showed so I moved down to the curb with him. I can’t say the curbs there are very good for slappying. We should wax up a section, but they are still fun enough. Saul had some good long slappies. I was not skating as well as I had hoped. I kept missing flip tricks trying to line things out. Damian showed. Jake a little later. Damian had good slappies as did Jake. I was trying a line of noseslide the end of a flagstone ledge, front 180 off a curb, halfcab flip then some slappies, but I never got the halfcab flip. Jake was ollieing onto the hubba thing and halfcabbing (both ways) off. I couldn’t ollie up it. Saul was doing slappy back 180s to fakie 50s. Pretty sick. Saul was the first to leave. Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It was not Jake’s day. I was up SKAT pretty quickly, but he did manage to get me with a treflip before I eventually got him with either varial flip or f/s halfcab flip. I was pretty much completely hating the bulky 868s by then. Damian was hanging with us still, trying treflips and stuff. Dude is cool.

Then we met Jack and Carleigh at a weird pipe spot that Carleigh shut down so we moved on to this other Jack spot which was way harder to skate than it looks. All I did was a side rock truck tap on the pipe thing. Jake did a scary looking front rock. Jack ollied to axle stall then into the whoop. Him and Jake also did tailblocks. Carleigh did a staple gun and easily the gnarliest trick of the session which was a kickturn on the top. Go there to understand it. Then we started cruising around to a park with a fun looking bank with stones on it, but the bank was that soft stuff they put in playgrounds these days. Jack still noseslid and back tailed a rock though. Carleigh did a cool bean plant over a rock to get his back. Then we all played on this zip line thing for awhile. Jake did a boardslide while holding on. It was so rad.

Then we saw this spot. Well, Jack saw it first and said he wanted to do something. So he started by kickflipping off the wood section then rode onto the ice. It didn’t break so naturally the next move would be to late shove onto it. He handled that quick. I couldn’t leave without trying something too. I eventually settled on a tail drop shove off the back ledge then a street plant onto the ice while holding the ledge on the end. Several tries later I skidded out of it. Man it felt awesome. I know it’s pretty dumb, but man it felt awesome. Oh yeah, Jack had ollied from the flat part onto the wavy dam then rolled into the ice. But he stuck and wasn’t able to slide out. Man how I love random spots. I do not like the bulky 868s though. They will not be skated again.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, custom orthotic insole

Slacking and not feeling too well I went over to the curb across the street to see how I really felt. It was clear quickly that I was more sore than I’ve been in awhile. I got a few 50s, slappy crooks, etc. I skated extra slow and felt terrible.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, custom orthotic insole)

After a long day off work hanging with Liz I finally stopped slacking and went skating. Saul was skating and that sounded good and I decided to skate there. I took my normal 8″ setup. I only did a few ollies along the bike path, but it seemed to warm me up pretty good. I was surprised how good my setup and shoes felt at Sauls. Low trucks rule. Will and Saul were already ripping. Carve grinds are the funnest thing ever. Will can do them frontside and backside, switch and regs. He was also working on bag ladies, flash and rolls, front and back rocks. He got them all. His front 5-0’s are so good. Saul might not have as long of a trick list, but he gets better every time I go there. More standing up on grinds, more control and looking more natural. He tried some tricks like front 50, tailblocks, slash grind while grabbing, etc. I felt better than I thought I would. Carve grinds, a few slight back 50s, got my first couple front axle stalls on the brick section, kind of a little jib slash to fakie, almost a kickflip way under coping, front rocks the opposite of how Will did them. I spend a lot of time mini ramping it and the front axles took too long, but it was a fun session for sure.

Since I skated there I went by Wilville on the way home and after bailing a couple nose manuals into the bank I decided to try and do a kickflip to fakie. I was kind of surprised how good I was ollieing up the curb and equally surprised how I could not get setup for kickflips to save my life. Then a crew of young’uns came and it was weird. Like I was trying a kcifklip to fakie, bailed and a dude manuals right under me. No one said hello until later on. Freakin’ kids. Ha. I was so pissed by that time anyway because I was like 0-20 on kickflips. I just couldn’t get my foot setup to flip. I tried going faster and having more time on the bank. Nope. I tried going slower to feel more comfortable landing with my front foot back a little. Nope. I eventually snapped and focused my board as it was rolling down the bank. Ugh.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric 868 black/gum size 12, custom orthotic insole)

Went out to the garage wanting to try some new shoes that hurt my feet less. Well, not new shoes, but shoes that have been in my closet wanting to be skated. I started with some Adidas Suciu shoes. They felt alright. I literally just tried nollie flip then nollie heelflip over and over on the putter. I got close to both, but never both feet on close. My heel kept hurting and that shoe is super thin so I grabbed my NB 868s. It was kind of crazy how much better they felt. Way gripper and just plain felt better. But it didn’t result in a make on either trick. I hucked a few nollie inward heels and got close right away, but then it drifted away. I ended up riding my normal 8″ board and getting just as close. I added in a few treflip attempts. I landed quite a few of them with a hand down. I was out there for awhile. I had a few heelflips too. I like skating the garage like that.

(setup putter/8″ adidas suciu/nb 868s)