Went out to Rampy feeling pretty tired and unmotivated again. First run was kind of fun. It’s neat being able to grind right away sometimes. But after that I didn’t want to be on the ramp again. I did a few kickflips on flat, did some manuals and finally some switch kickturns before calling it a night.
Went out to Rampy with Ollie after work, picking up India in Broomfield and then finishing a loft in Ollie’s room. As you can imagine I was super tired, but at least not feeling quite as arthritic. Rampy treated us well. Ollie’s first run had almost all of his tricks in it. I had a couple long runs that hyped me up, then made me sad that Rampy will soon be gone. Oh well, change is good.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows w/stock bushings 52mm stf v3 pj stratford 533 brown/gum)
Went to Stonehenge hoping I’d be able to warm up enough to skate, but they were moving again. Doh, drove to Arapahoe ridge and Dave called me. We agreed to meet in Gunbarrel and skate his manual pad as a bank to curb on this mellow bank. It ended up being super fun. I had changed bushings because I was sick of wheelbite. I went with the stock Venture bushings since the bottom one is a barrel bushing that should limit the trucks from touching the board. I liked it for the most part, but I was mostly skating straight. They were stiffer for sure, but I never once had wheelbite so that is awesome. Anyway, the skating, it went way better then yesterday. Especially because I did Dave’s trick in a few tries as he showed up. F/s cab tailblock nose grab (no idea what you would really call it even though Dave told me). We setup his little box and went through the basic grinds. Dave quickly did some really long front tails that were super good. I was kind of all over the place and had some problems with the kingpin hanging up on the wide coping. Darn low trucks (ha! I love them). I would do a few other tricks like kick back smith stall (trying 50), front 50 and 5-0 to fakie, failed at front smith kickflip out for awhile, failed at kick back tail, had some front lipslides and even a tailslide that actually slid and what you see above, almost a front nosegrind or two. Dave took awhile to land his first back tail shove out. It was tight when he got it. His pop shoves to nose were great too. Flatground went ok for me, the stiffer bushings definitely felt weird on tricks like treflip. I did have a few poorly landed b/s flips and a first try nollie varial flip though. Not having wheel bite was awesome so it might work out. A lot more went down then I remember, but it was a fun session. I set the phone down to film the last few minutes of it. Otherwise the clip would have tons more hammers.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows stock bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)
Had 30 minutes in the morning after dropping off Ollie before I’d have to bring India to ballet. So I hit the research center. The pain in my right groin was bad at first, but it seemed to warm up quickly. I got most of my basics down. Back noseslide, boardslide popout, noseslide to fakie, crooks, back 50, halfcab noseslide. I forget what I did frontside, but it wasn’t too special. Had some ok flatground tricks going back up the hill.
I got home and India was feeling sick and opted out of ballet. I had told Nullers I would film them when I got home from INdia’s ballet, so instead of telling them I was done early I went to Southern Hills to shred. That was probably the wrong choice as I SUCKED it up big time. I felt horrible. I waxed the curb and tried a ton of front crooks on it. Got none. Could barely do noseslides on the bench. Sucked at flatground. My legs didn’t feel connected to me. It was horrible. The one positive I took away from it was ollieing onto the bench and then the table. It wasn’t perfect, but I was happy to do it. I got one front 50 on a bench, those things don’t grind very good. Tried noseslide 270 shove for awhile, got super close, then decided to lie down and take a nap in the shade. That’s how bad I felt. Then I met up with the Nullers, Riley and Nolan killed it and things were good.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)
Dave and I went skating around 6:30. We went to go to Stonehenge, but there were moving trucks and people moving into the building. DOH! So we went to the bank spot with the 4 holes in it and the ledge. There was some serious struggling going on for both of us. I tried a line of halfcab flip, back slash on the bank, front 50 the ledge for like an hour before getting the worst 50 ever. I slammed on the halfcab flip a lot due to wheelbite. Dave got frustrated trying to ollie a hole. I had a couple brief crooks on the ledge as did Dave. Dave put down several front crooks! Seriously. So sick. I put down a hurricane that grinded at least an inch and had a long lunch break. Add in a horrible tic tac landing and you have the makings of one awesome trick. Dave had some good front 50s too and near the end did a really good boneless over a hole.
Then we went to Valmont. For a brief period I skated great. And by that I mean I got super close to two new tricks, but didn’t actually land them. Nollie inward heel and kickflip crooks on the ledge. Both very close. Got a few other basics like back 50 first try, crooks, but couldn’t front 50 the middle part, couldn’t get front crooks. Did a couple other tricks, flatground was ok. Dave got into crooks both ways and a nice front 50. Then we goofed around off the drop doing various street plant tricks. That was fun. I need to tweak more to hang with Dave. That boneless bonk was fun though.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)
Was feeling very arthritic, sore, tired, down. Stood on some manuals on the carpet then tried to figure out pressure flips for a bit. Didn’t get close. I will never understand that one. I suppose that’s fine.
Another day of working from home leaving me feeling tired and run down. Ollie didn’t want to skate or let me go anywhere. It was super nice out so I skated flat in front of the house. I felt horrible initially and the first ollie felt like it almost pulled a muscle in my groin. Ugh. I almost quit immediately, but instead I went on to skate flatground for 2.5 hours and have one of my favorite flatground sessions ever. Kickflips came, then halfcab flips, fakie bigflip and a few more basics before I started with 360 flips. I wanted 5 before I moved on. I got them, took awhile, and they weren’t close, but I would eventually get to 5. Tried a line of f/s halfcab flip then f/s flip. Got it quick. The f/s flip wasn’t great, lots of pivot, but whatever. Then I really started hucking. Lots of nollie inward heel attempts, got a horrible varial heel. Well, it wasn’t all that bad, just slow and I landed it sideways. But it was bolts of course. Ha. I started trying fakie treflips and like 3rd or 4th try rolled away. Whoa. So I turned around, did a front shove, hucked a nollie treflip and landed it. Feeling pretty hyped I went for treflip next (I had to avoid cars for a bit so I was pushing along the sidewalk so I could still count it as one line) and put down one of my best tres ever. I felt so great. I landed all 3 of them good. I wasn’t skating fast, but that’s me. I had put the 3 3flip challenge on my list of things to do by age 40 before the reactive arthritis hit me. Since I would have to wait between cars often I was giving JP the play by play over gchat and he told me I had to do a switch 3 flip too. So I tried. I got really close. Never both feet on, but it seems doable. Also hucked front heels, Rick flips, got a b/s halfcab heel first try, switch varial flip first try, several heelfips, landed both feet on a nollie flip for the first time in a few years, b/s flips. Watched a biker run into my neighbors car. Hucked f/s cab kickfips for awhile and landed 3 that would count on defense because of too much pivoting and not a fluid motion. But I think it could come! I finished after hucking a few flatground airwalks so I could spice up my airwalk post. I am loving the low trucks. Oh yeah, I had new NB# PJ shoes. The brown/gum ones. Clearly they skated awesome and man it’s a good feeling having a PJ Ladd pro model shoe.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)
I was not feeling like skating and had to be around in case Ollie got home from Elitchs. Dave was working nearby and stopped by to peep footage and try to talk me into skating. After peeping some footage we saw it was raining and we went out to the garage. Shortly after Riley joined as he was coming over to get a board. It ended up being a session! Riley was skating my board and did all of this in about 30 minutes. Dave had some moves too that I will hopefully post soon. Riley’s tricks are above, he shredded hard. Dave unleashed a large bag too. He did pivot fakie, lots of back tails to fakie, Texas plant, back boneless, some other plants I don’t know the name of and a lot more tricks I’m forgetting. I did a lot of my standard Rampy tricks. It was fun. I will miss Rampy.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)
Went to the Valmont area yet again in hopes of skating this bank to do an airwalk to fakie for the old man instagram game. Unfortunately there were no lights on this bank and it quickly got too dark to film. I still had a decent warm up though. Shoves, kickflips, halfcab flip, boneless, no complies, etc.
So I went over to this other one which was a bit steeper then I remember and lit pretty well. I tried airwalks to fakie for two hours. Luckily there was a curb (in the background) that I could entertain myself on too and I did like 10 kickflip back tail stalls on it. I believe I did an airwalk to fakie. Here’s a screenshot of it, still waiting on Judge Fuller to say yay or nay. But in my eyes I did one. Granted it’s one of those over-40-defense-first-time-ever kind of makes. I was sweating like crazy. There was no one in this area. At one point a suburban creeped up all slow, parked for awhile, then left. It creeped me out. After thinking I landed an airwalk I did a quick line of kickflip into a different bank, ollie onto the curb, ollie off a little loading dock. Fun.
Then I wanted to ollie this little median. It should be really easy right? Remember who I am. To get hyped I started doing tricks off the little curb. I did kickflip, shove, front shove, switch front 180, 360 flip (took awhile, but can you believe it?) and finally varial flip before I got the ollie. Pathetic huh? Ha I was hyped either way. I was sweating and skating hard. The 360 flip off the curb was a battle and the first one in a long time off of anything.
Then since I was in the area I went over to the ledge in hope of rattling off a few ledge tricks before I went home. It went pretty good! Noseslide, crooks, back 50, halfcab noseslide, front 50 the middle section first try, front tail the lower part, fakie front 50 f/s halfcab out (felt super rad), couldn’t quite ride away from front noseslide, got a front 50 shove on the middle section, ended when I couldn’t get kick back 50 or front crooks. I tried a ton of nollie inward heels and got pretty close to a few. Really fun sweaty session.
I had taken off the little riser and I liked it more. I know low trucks aren’t for everyone, but if there is one thing I’ve taken away from my recent change to a smaller/lower setup it’s that I ollie just as good, if not better with it. I was on a 8.5 with 54mms a few weeks ago. That was miserable. Ha.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream (I think I can finally retire them since they are so bald))
If at first you don’t succeed, wax, wax again.
After a long day of filming and skating the day before it was mostly a family day. I got to get out for a couple hours during the hottest part of the day. Shortly after noon. I drove by Southern Hills hoping to skate there, but they were doing another one of those clean up the school things. Ugh. I was thinking of trying airwalks to fakie so I wanted to go somewhere else with a mellow bank and a ledge. Valmont again then. I felt a little better initially. I had setup a new board and put tiny risers (1/16) on. After some warmup no ollie noseslides I started trying real tricks and it became apparent that I wasn’t actually feeling better. In fact, I struggled way harder then the day before. I never got a back 50. Got a couple front 50s on the middle part. I had to wax like crazy to do so. Airwalks on flat were not happening so I never tried them on the “bank”. 360 flips went alright, landed a nollie varial flip. Hucked nollie inward heels for awhile which somehow seem like they would be easier then nollie heels which I’ve never landed. Had a fun run of kickflip up the curb, heelflip on flat, ollie off the loading dock. Also front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, front 180 off the loading dock. Started to feel warmed up. Got a couple brief front tailslides. I was at least trying them good enough that I would slide out sometimes. Tried front smith for awhile and got pretty close. Was trying switch front noseslide bigspin out too when it started raining. Doh. Went to the red curb valmont garage nearby and some dork in a BMW had to tell me that I wasn’t supposed to be skateboarding there. Thanks dude. I kept skating for awhile. Tried a line of slappy crooks, 360 flip on flat, fastplant the little median. Got close to the fastplant, but couldn’t get the 360 flip so I gave up thinking I could find some dry on the other side of town. Nope, it ended up raining for a couple hours.
(setup 8.1 null venture lows 1/16 riser thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)