Stopped at Boulder park in the morning. There was a lot of snow on everything north facing so it was extra limited. I had two setups for vetting. 8.25 with royals / 8.3 with slappy low profile with 1/16″ risers. Went with 8.3. Did not like it or skate well. Had some front 50s on the upper part of the triangle ledge, some hump to 50s. Tried a line of front 50 the triangle ledge then ollie onto the uphill hubba. Was not close at all to the ollie. Tried to grind across/down the old ledge, but couldn’t really get into it.

Later on I ended up at Square State to skate with Brian and whoever else is there. It was a cool crew, only about six dudes. Brian, Christian, Kyle, Kyle 2, Will, Nick, maybe a couple more. I started in the main area and took too long do to wallie nollie. I had put ace lows on. Maybe I disliked it slightly less than the 8.3/slappy lows, but I didn’t like it much. Brian and Christian grinded long on the mini. I ended up going in on kickflip nose stalls on the “bank” to curb. took about 30 minutes straight of just me trying them, but I got one and it made me really happy. Brian had done an amazing rock ‘n roll revert.

(setup morning 8.3 slappy low profile 1/16″ risers 0/10
setup evening 8.3 ace lows 1/10
splay rev s-series green size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

It had snowed overnight, but only a trace. The sun was out and it was nice and since there was no school for MLK Day I went and skated flatground. I had 8.25 with Thunder. Meh. Kickflips felt decent initially. I somewhat quickly got the Reynolds line – backside flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I thought I was gonna be ripping. Only landed a questionable f/s halfcab flip after that. Was close on a few. I really should throw away all my Thunder trucks, I very much dislike them.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice morning I went to Lafayette to meet up with Brian and a crew of others Cass, Jake, Gordon, Gray, Kyle, Will for a minute, and more. I really struggled for a long time. After some warm up there was a flyout session out of the bank. Jake got comfy with ollies. Cass ripped the front shoves. Gordon nollie and shoves. I could not get a kickflip and it made me so mad. Oh we had skated the toilet bowl some and I slammed on my first roll in. Argh. Brian and Jake had some tricks on the taller steeper walls. Eventually I swapped my setup out for the 8.25/Indy setup and liked it more, but that’s not saying much. I would struggle to get a line that was the one thing I was somewhat happy with. Kickflip on the mellow mountain bankpipe then a kickflip to fakie on the other bank. Oh there were some fun wallies over the corner of the rock. Gordon had some good back 50s on the granite pad. Will had some good front 50s on it. I couldn’t even 50 it. Kyle killed a bigflip up the euro. Brian had cool back 180 nosepicks up it.

Gordon, Cass and I went to nearby by Ryan Elem. Nothing good happened. We just kind of dorked around on the little brick bank. Cass went for front shove fakie. Gordon was close to back tail on the wall and popping it back into the bank.

Then we went to the metal curb spot, but were looking at the 7 stair out ledge then found this nearby. Such a sick spot. Dear Mark Suciu, come skate this, your quick feet would destroy it. Anyway, Gordon was quick on the front 50s through the kink and the 180 out was nice. I struggled for some questionable crook jibs. Cass was the noseslide king and shoved out through the kink which is pretty nuts.

(setups 8.3/slappy highs 1/10, 8.25 indy titaniums 2/10, splay rev s-series black size 12 nb272 insoles and currex runpro insole which I liked less than the reminds)
(pain level 5/10)

Let the temps warm up after a cold morning. Was going to dog park, but randomly remembered this spot on the way there that I’ve never skated. I was there about an hour myself. I had a setup change. 8.3, slappy trucks, old 51mm wheels. It felt good although the wheels felt small. I would get manual pretty quickly. Never got nose manual. Hucked a lot of flippers, landed very little. They have these tall butter benches that are light and I pulled one out to skate. Had some noseslides and noseslide to fakie on it. Was trying non-stop lines, never quite getting any good flippers. Was close to kickflip up the curb then front shove out of the curb cut. After one attempt I went to push off, but my board totally stopped and I slammed so hard. Turns out a bearing had broke and the wheel got wedged against the axle. Doh!

So after a quick trip home and wheel swap out I was back. I had opted to switch to some larger wheels and boy did I hate them. I could no longer manual or do many flippers. It sucked. I had pulled out the bench again, but a car pulled up right where I had put it off the sidewalk. It was the janitors, but they were happy to see me and waved. Dave showed a little after this. He would take a bit, but did manual body varial out. We got the curb to grind/slide a little. Dave slammed on a back tail. Fakie nosegrind to nose manual was first try on the camera. I had gotten close to the front slappy, kickflip up, front shove off, but couldn’t kickflip up when Dave filmed. I never got the front shove off and I don’t know why. Dave had some nice kickflips off the curb. I was hyped to get a couple crooks on the tall butter bench and some back 50s on the curb. Dave’s back 360 at the end was so good. Fun session.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 hayden, jessup ultra, slappy lights 8.5, old wheels 51 then 53, splay rev s-series black size 12 remind cush insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Shortly before dark I met Will at dog park. Did some warming up, nothing special. Oh one thing I liked was a better feeling than normal switch front nose on the bench then fakie nosegrind the curb. Then Will and I went full on huck mode. I tried a million halfcab crooks. He did sw flip back tail attempts for a while, then switch front 50s then tried switch front nosegrind which he was somewhat close to. I think I probably did a few halfcab crook jibs, but never landed one that actually locked in and grinded. It was still fun though. Want to go back for that one!

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, indy titanium 144, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic pink/green, splay rev s-series black size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to Broomfield after dinner. It was nice enough out. Especially for mid January. Started on my 8.25/14″ with Thunders. It never felt good. Switched to my 8.25/14.25″ with Indys. It felt better. I did not do anything great, struggled with pop. Although I did have a line at one point that I liked. Axle stall to rock the bank to curb, crooks the black ledge, nollie tail 270 shove the blurb, fakie back smith fakie the quartapotty. I tried a bunch of treflip noseslides on the bump to ledge that were closer than normal, but I’ve never been remotely close so it doesn’t mean much. Will had a banger line of back tail shove then nosegrind 180 the black ledge. Nice switch flip at the end too. Jameson did a backside flip fakie 50 on the blurb really good. Justin ripped like he always does.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, indy titanium 144, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic pink/green, splay rev s-series black size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Pretty sore after skating Frederick so long the day before after being sick for a week. Went up and met Noe, Bo and Hayden at Northside. Bo and Hayden went into a game of SKATE. I cruised around and quickly realized I was probably too sore to really skate. When Noè showed I said “first try treflip” and he went on to land 10 in a row. At least the first couple were sketchy. He did a million flippers including a first try cab flip that was so amazing. I don’t remember myself doing anything worth noting. I tried some basics, they were whatever. There is so many curbs and other little things spread around that it’s hard to flow in that park. Hayden had some good tricks on the little barrier up top. Bo had some fast long grinds on the main wall.

Then we went to the bank to curb area. Noè and I started on the bump area. I did the one trick I was happy with today – a wallie nollie out of the bump and it felt really cool. Noè would go on to do a line of nose manual then nollie tre. I was sucking it up on the bank to curb, not landing a single trick. Grabbed my 8.25/14 venture setup and did front tail first try then almost kickflip axle stall. Filmed Hayden get an amazing line with a slappy, no comply to tail and a Fuller pviot. It was a fun day even if my skating was garbage.

setups mostly 8.3 with thunder which I hated, 8.25/14 with venture
(pain level 6/10)

Met Dave around 1 at Frederick on a sunny Saturday. There was no snow there so the park was totally dry. Warming up felt alright, just cruising around popping little ollies and stuff. I avoided the bank to curb area for a while because a couple guys were trying the bump to bar and slamming so hard. Seriously not sure how one dude avoided broken ribs and the other came so close to hitting his head. Dave was doing some amazing slappy crooks totally posted up through the corner. Some were going to back lip and he’d land those too. He had some really good lines with tricks like front pivot on the bank to curb, fakie shove the steeper bank, switch front 3 the hump. He also did an amazing bluntslide shove and at the end switch front 3 the actual hip. I had been trying a line that morphed around a bit. Initially started with fakie flips on the mellow bank, but I started not landing them and it was just frustrating. Then I went slappy on the bank to curb, noseslide the bump to ledge, crappy kickflip on the steeper bank. In between tries hucked some fakie bigflips over the pyramid and got a sloppy one. Still hyped me up though. Was able to ollie onto the pad pretty easily, but kickflip off didn’t feel good at all and I didn’t even commit. Near the end I tried crooks on the curved ledge over the lower pad. They were way harder than I thought they would be. I managed a few short ones, but never got a good posted up one. Hopefully I can work up to it eventually. Fun session, a lot more happened and we tried and did some new stuff so that is all we can ask for.

(setup 4/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder hollow lite 149 with t-ii bushings, 51mm spitfire radial 99a green, splay rev s-series black size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a week of being sick I went out in the garage on a snowy Friday after work to dust off the cobwebs. Some warm ups were meh, kickflips weren’t easy and didn’t feel good. Then just went in on a 4 trick rotation and tried each trick 20 times.

Nollie flip – was not close
Treflip – landed on, was close on most of them
Halfcab heel – close, but no cigar
Switch varial flip – not even remotely close

(setup 4/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder hollow lite 149 with t-ii bushings, 51mm spitfire radial 99a green, splay rev s-series black size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a lovely Saturday morning I went to dog park to meet Jake. You read that correctly, Jake! He was there already as were Alexi and Ian. Paul, Will and eventually Gordon would join too. Warming up went okay for me, everyone seemed to be having fun. Jake beat me to back 50 on the lurb. He also had some tailslides and front 50s. I had some decent tricks for me. Kickflip up the lurb first try, slow front 50s on the bench, back 50 front 180 out on the curb,, a decent crooks above the manny pad getting further than I have before (but still only about half way), first try halfcab noseslide, some crooks. It’s funny watching Paul struggle with halfcab noseslide considering how hard he rips tricks like back 5-0 front 180 out. He had some good slappy front crook and sw slappy front crook. Will arrived and did his easy 5-0s and nosegrinds. Jake needed some kodak courage on the pivot fakie. Gordon showed, but we pretty much left for Willville around then.

Willville was fun. I was happy to get manual into the bank first try. Will was hyped on the spot being named after him and did a gnarly kickflip into the bank. Gordon had some fast ollies up and shoves to fakie. Jake nollie back tail, fakie front noseslides and hustled Gordon on front tail. I had settled into hucking kick back tails. For the most part I was not as close. With the exception of the suski/pivot. Man I wish that would have gone into tail. Oh well, really fun day, great to see Jake out skating again and uppers 60s in January!

(setup 8/10 null hayden 8.3, jessup ultra, thunder hollow lite 149 with t-ii bushings, 51mm spitfire radial 99a green, splay rev s-series black size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)