Finally some warm weather! Still lots of snow about, but I know the stashes. I was wanting to skate flatground and knew Platte would be dry on the south side. I would go on to have an okay session, a bit frustrating at times. Especially heelflips, they just didn’t want to flip. I skated a little over an hour and managed 11 flippers, a few of which were absolute garbage.

kickflips – felt good
fakie flips – felt good
halfcab flip – Had a few, they felt alright
fakie bigflip – one bad one
backside flip – okay
heelflip – seriously took forever and barely came around when I got it
f/s halfcab heel – total slop tail on the gound came to a halt
nollie varial flip – directly after the f/s hc heel with both heels on the ground, but I was still hyped. Haven’t done it in a while
horrible fakie varial flip
f/s halfcab flip
terrible treflip

After a break and some refueling I ended up at Douglass which had snow around the good side of the main ledge. I started on the side. Warm up runs felt good and I tried to skate fast. Switch 180, nollie tail, pop shove out of the bump. Would get some front 50s that had a tiny bit of speed, accidental 5-0s, front 50 180 and front 50 shove. Also a couple flippers. Then I went to the front of the school and skated a different bench that was already waxed beyond belief. It didn’t go well, even noseslides were hard. I would get a few crooks and tried to line them out by curving around and doing front 50. But never got the front 50 and had to stop as I was getting too depressed. Kind of a bummer end to a pretty good day.

(setup 4/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After a couple days of not skating or working out much I went skating after work. And wow did I feel off. I had drove around looking for a dry spot and found that the safeway ledge was dry. I used to love it so much almost 30 years ago when I first started skating with Jason. It’s not waxed up anymore, but it should be. It was tough skating a ledge right away, especially on rough concrete without much room around it. I did front and back axle stalls, pivots, back crooks stall, a sketchy front tail. First kickflip felt amazing. Taking forever to get a halfcab flip did not feel amazing. Was close on treflip too, but never got both feet on it.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Changed out the Slaces for Thunder 148 team hollows. Liked it more. Skated better. Got a 3rd try treflip. Battled some heelflips and got a few. Hucked some other stuff, but didn’t put much down. B/s flip and halfcab flip were fun.

(setup 7/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Went out to the garage on a new setup and hated it, skated like garbage. I had never done 8.3 with Slace and I probably never will again. It felt off as soon as I set it down. Took a while to get a kickflip. I think I was able to get a heelflip and then a treflip too.

(setup 1/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, ace baseplate slappy 8.5 hanger, spitfire 51mm 99a classic shape f4, emerica og-1 b/w size 12 footprints gamechangers)
(pain level 3/10)

The sun had come out and melted some snow. Later in the afternoon I drove around and ended up finding a lot out on valmont I’ve hit before. I was quite sore and probably shouldn’t have kept skating, but I’m stubborn. Eventually I would get a little manual on a little median, a couple basic flippers. Tried to line out a flipper with an ollie over a snow pile. Eventually got a f/s halfcab flip then landed on the ollie but fell forward. Took a million tries to get a heelflip and then bailed the ollie. Couldn’t get treflip or fakie bigflip, settled for starting with fakie flip. Except I couldn’t get a fakie flip and it drove me over the edge. Also the squeeking pivot cups were annoying me to no end. I had worn different shoes, but they weren’t the cause of the sucking.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lite royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, emerica og-1 black size 12 currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

On a very snow Saturday I met Nate at square house. Most everyone bailed as the snow as pretty intense. I had arrived first and did some basic warming up before Nate showed. He was feeling rotten and couldn’t really get things going. We stuck to the manny pad for a while. Dave showed, it was on. Nate had done some 50s, 5-0s, nollie front 5-0s, manuals, nose manuals. I had some manuals, nose manuals, front 50s, some really slow back 50s, a front 50 over the the pad on the upper ledge that felt great, some crooks too, couldn’t do a heelflip, but managed a bad treflip. Dave had some moves too. 50s, 5-0s, manuals, fakie nosegrinds, fakie nosegrind to 180 out the hard way. We eventually skated more than just the pad although it’s a blur for some reason. Dave was killing it. He got a backside flip up the euro! He had some crazy good lines linking tricks like front smith the tall qp, boardslide the bump to bar, fakie crooks down the escalator qp, kickflips up the euro, kickflips to fakie the bank, so much it was crazy. Nate had to chill after a while, he was hurting. I had tried the slappy crook, axle stall, kickflip to fakie quick line, but never got the kf to fakie. I went in on noseslide 270 shove out for so long, got so close, but never landed on it. I was so sore by the end. Dave was still going strong and probably could have skated even longer. Fun session.

(setup 5/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lite royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

After work on a warm day in which most of the snow melted I randomly thought of this spot. There is good flatground around this spot and someone had slightly waxed up the first step. Not sure why I hadn’t thought of it before, but a grind to noseslide or crook would be so cool. Anyway, warming up was kinda blah. Went for a line of halfcab flip, ollie up the two, front 180 off, fakie tre. Never quite got the ollie up and fakie tre wasn’t even remotely close. Had tried to ollie onto the first step then up the ledge on the right side, but kept hitting my toes. Settled in on trying to back 50 up to noseslide. Got kinda close. In between tries I would do slow flippers. Got a treflip.

(setup 7/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lite royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After my first three day break from skateboarding in a long time I went to Square State on a snowy night. It was a silver session, but I didn’t really know what to expect and it turns out it was super mellow with only a few people there. It was awesome. It was Will, Darin, Tom, Tom, Clayton, Chris, Jason. Will and I started a little on the tiny section, then skated with Jason Born (for real his name) on the main section. Jason was going for 5-0 kickflip out, front tail shove back to tail, treflip 50. I just did some noseslides and crooks, then went in on front shove up the euro which I don’t think I had done there before. They felt great and it was cool to impromptu get another one off the kicker after. Will had back 5-0. I tried some kickflips into grinds, but was not close. I took too long to get a little line of slappy crooks the bank to curb then come back and kickflip on the bank. Near the end Will was getting into kick back tail so I filmed him. And between tries I would do slow flip tricks on the spongy masonite. But I managed kickflip, heelflip, b/s flip and treflip. Will did the kick back tail so good. Serious hammer. What a great session. Oh yeah, I had changed back to my 8.5 with thunders and liked it.

(setup 8/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 hollow lite royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

On a crisp morning I drove to DIA and picked up Nate, we went to York St park and had a ball. Ha, well we both kind of felt things out for a while. Then Nate did a pretty amazing line. Ollie on the bank, boardslide transfer a flat bar, back 50 the diy curb, back 50 the qp. I had tried a million back 50s across the gap and couldn’t quite get it. So I gave up and did a front 50 over it instead with the added bonus of a first try front pivot to fakie after.

Then to the nearby red curb/ qp diy spot that rules. Although it was funny because Nate was scared of the curb and popped some ollies over the mellow hip instead. Dave was already there killing it with switch front crooks. Garrett and Jack would show too. Garrett’s crooks were so good, his front tails too, slappy hurricanes, easy basics on the qps. Jack did an amazing sugarcane and bluntslide before his foot randomly started hurting. I did my little 6″ grinds and non-decked rock ‘n rolls. Nate would get some 50s, boardslide to fakie, switch boardslide shove out. Dave went beast mode. Lined out an ollie over the qp gap, slappy crooks shoves, switch crooks, long boardslides. Nate suggested he try crooks shove the hard way out and Dave went in hard on them. He put in a solid effort, but didn’t get one. That would be a hammer!

Then we went to the warehouse. Warming up there was brutal. After some qp tricks, curb spracks we mostly skated the angle iron ledge. Garrett had some amazing back tails and was going for b/s flip out. Also nollie front noseslides. Dave had some solid back 50s, switch crooks, front boardslide to fakie and tried some with body varial out. I had some really fun crooks, crooks shove, crooks fakie, struggled to get front 50 but got one with a shove out, some slow accidental 5-0s, took way too long to get a second halfcab noseslide. Managed a really bad treflip and was 2-2 on heelflips. Oh, there was some girl there doing some crazy things on her skateboard, like just in her own world doing crazy squat poses. It was kind of awesome, but also really distracting. We had some good tacos and margs after that. Fun day, great folks.

(6/10 setup 8.3 null keyhole, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 ksl af1 hollow, spitfire f4 99a classic shape 52mm orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Left Boulder and it was super cloudy and cold. Got to Broomfield and the sun was out and it did not feel cold. I was meeting Bratcher, Gordon and Eric. But crew after crew of older dudes showed up. It was kind of awesome, but also overwhelming for the mood I was in. I would never get going. The only thing I had I liked was a front 50 on the black ledge then noseslide to fakie the bank to ledge, also a fakie bigflip and a questionable treflip. None of which came easy. I was a bit hesitant not wanting to hurt the calf. Eric was ripping. Saw him 50 the ledge into the bank, manuals, tailslides, heelflips, axle to fakie the quartapotty. Bratcher was on the slappy and boardslide tip, getting some good ones. Gordon megapop nollie grinds. Darin doing his routine. After a lengthy session they went to Kings Mill. I left with the intention of joining, but the warmth of the car felt so nice and I ended up just driving home.

(3/10 setup 8.3 null keyhole, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 ksl af1 hollow, spitfire f4 99a classic shape 52mm orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 calf held up at least)