Woke up at 5am feeling way too much pressure to do Josh’s challenge (fakie front pivot to back pivot to tail). So got up on my Friday off and went to Arvada park determined to do the dumb trick. Ha. Well, the qp I had in mind to do it had a really bad approach for fakie and I couldn’t do it on the other one I imagined. I tried for about 30-45 minutes before giving up and trying to have fun at an almost empty park. Had some fun carving the snakerun. Skated the little qp up top for a bit. Had a fun line of rock ‘n roll, front 50 the granite low to high ledge, ollie into the mini euro, manual the bump to manual pad, bailed a 3 flip to fakie on the blue chip. Skated the miniramp for awhile. Did a few basics. Skated the pier 7 ledge for awhile. Got some front 50s and “nollie” front tails and a scary switch front noseslide. Got a bigflip on the blue chip. Posed b/s flips over the hip. Tried switch flips on the blue chip for awhile. Left feeling depressed that I was getting another letter.

Later in the afternoon I met Dave and Rob at the “Dawg Park”. I was pretty sore, but kickflips came easy. I hucked and landed on a lot of tricks. I landed very few tricks. Tricks I landed on, but didn’t ride away from: 360 flip, nollie varial flip, nollie flip, nollie 360 flip, halfcab heels, varial heel, switch f/s flip. Doh. We ended with a game of SKATE. I was the first one out. So then I posed switch flips and cab flips. Then I went home and had some GF beer.

(setup 8.25 null abstract 5 deck, venture lows, venom 91a bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

Had to come in early for work and had to stay late so I had a long lunch break. I went to Longmont park as I am so sick of Blue Skies. When I got there there was one other skater. A mongo pushing basketball shorts without a shirt wearing dude. He was pretty good and he made sure I knew it. We had a funny ledge session. I would do a trick, he would do it better. This would have been annoying, but he was somehow pretty cool about it. I got a few of my basics. Then kinda moved on trying a flatground trick and then noseslide the ledge on the pyramid. That other dude left, Aki showed. We mostly skated flatground, he did back 50 back 180 out on the bump to ledge. I took a long time to land a treflip and could not get the speed to do a bad flyout over cones. Doh.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, venom 91a bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

Ok @corpoglenny, another fun tranny challenge (at your favorite skatepark!). This one is inspired by @samsawyer who was inspired by Drehobl. I challenge you to the "Sam Sawyer Stall and Spin-to tail". Enjoy! #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #unwarrantedslomo #trannydancing #jpskatecrap

A video posted by Joshua Pluger (@boredzinejp) on May 1, 2016 at 1:06pm PDT

Went to Lafayette park before work not feeling very energetic. I was taking a ‘day off’ which meant no ollies. I cruised the park a bit, tried Josh’s trick on the tiny qp for awhile. Gave up, cruised around, tried it in the toilet bowl for awhile, gave up, tried it on the tiny noping, gave up, cruised around a little then went back to trying it on the tiny qp. Didn’t get it. Left for work feeling quite bummed out.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

After a Crisis run we stopped by Safeway ledge. Rain was threatening. Matt got some 50s in right away and the noise of the raw grind seemed to fuel some stoke for all of us. I was so incredibly stiff and sore from the night before so it took me awhile to get to ollies, but it was fun once I did. Matt had front tail, front tail fakie, front 50, front 5-0, front 5-0 fakie, front 5-0 shove, back 5-0, back tail, fakie 50 to fakie, and several flippers. All in a brand new pair of shoes. Jake had 50s, front 5-0, front tail, front tail fakie, fakie 50 front halfcab out, fakie back tail first try, close to nollie noseslides and like 3 360 flips. I had a bunch of tic tac back 50s, one clean one, front 5-0, maybe some more tricks and started on front crooks. Not many tries in I landed one. It felt truly amazing and made me so happy. I tried again, but never got one. Oh wait, I guess I got one where I fell off right away. Then we went to Broomfield park as it started to rain. After it dried up we played a game of SKATE that Matt one. It took us like 20 tries to land a b/s flip. After that we left.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

After work I picked up Rob and Dave and we headed to Fort Collins for a MRKT run with benefits. The park was empty when we got there, but it changed quickly. I felt overwhelmed at first and took 4 tries to land a kickflip. Argh. I didn’t really sit back and watch a whole lot so it’s hard to remember everything that went down. Rob did a push to wallride and I took several tries and learned it too. Pretty fun. Dave did a weird version where he took his foot off while on the wall, but put it on the ground. Rob was working on a cool manual curve around on the wedge thing. Steve has too much pop and was doing tricks on the bench. Dave was all over the place doing long lines with manual the little hump, boardslide transfer the spine, etc. Neither Rob or I got clean crooks on the bench. Flatground did not go well for me, struggled with heelflips and treflips. Got one weak front 50 on the bench, but it was my favorite thing of the day because that bench is so tall to me. Almost got nosegrind on the little ledge. Dave got a couple good ones, front 50 body varial out, long back 50s, he was ripping regardless of what he says. Rob had some cool flatground lines going with lots of no complies and shoves. Steve got a back 50 front 180 out.

We stopped by Loveland park on the way back. The park was wet in a lot of space and there were several small town skaters. Rob and Dave didn’t skate. I thought I would want to leave too, but after a couple noseslide 270 shove attempts I started to get hyped. Didn’t land any though. Took awhile to front 50 the tiny hubba. Took awhile to land a kickflip over the wedge, but it was quite fun when I got it. Did several basic tricks on the little qp above the “ping pong table” – Rob. Got a horribly ugly b/s flip over the wedge. I probably would have kept skating, but Rob and Dave looked cold and bored so we took off.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

Up early on Mother’s Day cleaning the house for Liz. Got some cleaning done and rain was threatening so we didn’t want to go for a hike. So I just went out and skated flatground for a bit. It turned into quite awhile. Kickflips came fine, bad heelflips, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip wasn’t first try, I landed on a million treflips but never had a clean one, nollie tre, landed on so many other tricks but didn’t ride away. Hucked cab flips and switch tres for awhile. It felt fun to huck. Also really close to a few nollie heels. Liz decided she just wanted to write so I headed out to Safeway ledge feeling pretty tired and sore already. Somehow rewarming up was fine. Got through quite a few basics. Well, back 50s were still tic tac’d as I can’t ever seem to lock in. Got a slow front tail that slid which made me happy. Didn’t get too flippy as I had already spent a couple hours skating flatground. Although I had a few close nollie heels again. Some day! Then I basically just got into a rut of trying front crooks over and over and over. Got close to a few. I hope I learn that one.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

It must be the weekend because the weather was crap. Cooler and raining. At least it wasn’t snowing I guess. I got to Yellow Curbs first. It’s been a long time since we’ve been there, it used to be a bust, apparently it’s not anymore. Man it’s a fun garage. I cruised around for awhile before settling into a line attempt. Back 50, front slappy the tiny curb, nose manual another section. I never got the nose manual. Sometimes I would do slappy crooks instead. Rob showed and got in the groove quickly with manuals and long back 50s out of the gate. We had a really fun session. Rob did a bunch of nose manuals, nose manual to front lip, lap over front lips, wallie nollies, no comply manual, no comply up and then kickflip off, front shove off, a lot of radness. I got a few back 50s (that trick is so hard for me), front 50s, front 5-0, slappy crooks, one slow slappy hurricane that felt awesome, remotely close to front nosegrind, struggled with kickflips up the curb, close to b/s flip off. I had started my day off 10-0 on kickflips, so that was good. Fun session.

After driving to Denver in the rain and back I had an hour or so before Carleigh’s party so I skated flatground in the garage. Got kickflip and heelflip then just started hucking. Nollie flips, varial heel and nollie heel. I landed none of them. I did land on some varial heels though. Close to nollie flip. Remotely close to nollie heel, but felt like I learned better foot placement and how to pop it.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

Woke up really early for some dumb reason. Got ready for work then went to Lafayette because I thought the tiny little cement qp would be an easy place for my new challenge. Nope. For about the first hour I mostly tried a flip trick, did a wallie on the rock, a rock fakie and then bailed the trick I have to try. It was frustrating. I gave up after awhile and tried to have fun skating, but some lady brought her kids into the park to play on the slides (aka the hubbas). That really annoyed me. I did some 50s on the little ledge, manualed it, tried to do manual front shove out (no idea why I thought of hucking it). Had some mediocre runs in the toilet bowl. Avoided the big bowl because I was the only one there. The thing I was probably most hyped on was a line of ollie flyout over some cones and then close to kick back tail on the little ledge.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

Went to Boulder park around 8am with an hour to skate. The warm up process went better. First thing was a line. No surprise. Dropin the deep bowl, 5-0 out of the little coping in the entrance, no comply 180 on flat, switch front 180 on flat, front d in the mini. There were a few other people there. And in typical Boulder park fashion none of them would even look you in the eye and say hello. That kind of bummed me out, but whatever, I just kept skating. Front 50’d the bump to ledge by the mini a few times. Noseslid down it, posed some kickflip noseslides. When I would commit the board would go over to boardslide. Did some ollies over the tiny hip, some 180 variations with no pop. Managed 50 front 50 the main ledge first try and then do the downhill part a few tries later. That hyped me up since I couldn’t commit to the downhill for some dumb reason last week. Then I mostly just posed for awhile. Treflip noseslide attempts on the bump to ledge by the entrance. It’s a dream trick. I’ve never gotten remotely close or even really tried it much. There were 2 or 3 that flipped, rotated and my front foot was above it. But of course my back foot was on the ground by then. I don’t care, it felt rad to pose it. Going the other way I got one slow front 50 up part of the ledge which was also fun.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

On a beautiful day I met Rob, Dave, Aki and randomly Dan at Blue Skies for lunch. Rob and I were there first. I missed my first kickflip. And the second. The third and the 4th. Ugh! New shoe blues! I was bummed immediately. Dave showed up ripping out of the gates. He would go on to do a line with front 50 and back feeble on flat bars and a fakie 3 shove on the bank. Aki had lines for days. Front boards, kickflips, nollie front 50s, back 50s. Rob was going off. Boardslide one of the taller ledges, almost crooks on it, ollies over the flatbar like they was nothing, boardslide down the kinked ledge, crail blocks, etc. We were all surprised when another skater showed and even more surprised it was someone we knew. Dan! He rips! And he ripped! Ha. Back 50 transfer the round bar, lipslide the low ledge, back 50 up the escalator, treflip, almost switch treflip, but he can’t nollie tre! I did! The one redeeming thing I did was a couple sloppy nollie tres. I had been trying kickflips on flat (and getting really mad when I didn’t land one) and then kickflip to fakie on the little bank with the big crack at the bottom. It was a dumb thing to try, but for whatever reason I kept trying. I really don’t like this park very much.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)