Up to Fort Collins on a cold Sunday with the Nullers. Jack, Joe, Garrett, Sean and I met up with Hayden, Peyton and Noè. Jack is smartly not skating yet and letting his body heal. Sean was ripping back nosegrinds and nollie back nosegrinds, manuals, quick footed pop. Noè did switch nose manual fakie flip then turned around and did switch nose manual fakie varial flip, 100 nollie flips, every other flip trick, varial heel to fakie on the weird bank. Hayden nollie lip up a potato chip, smooth manual combos, looked good on the football deck. Joe was popping high out of the gates, showed up Noè with a first try nollie hard, front smith the bench, had some steezy Reeboks. Garrett came in second in the game of SKATE which is basically like winning when you’re playing Noè. Peyton was going for varial mute over the channel and got really close. He pushed full speed for like two hours and didn’t quite get it. Doh. I skated absolutely terribly. I had done a few stationary ollies on various setups and definitely ollied the 8.5 with aces the highest so I brought it. And I hated it. I would get a couple of very slow 50s, halfcab noseslides on the low ledge. Managed a few noseslides on the bench. Couldn’t get flip tricks to save my life and was like 0-50 on super slow treflips.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, null grip, ace 55 af1 hollows, 51mm spitfire 99a classic f4, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco orthotic insoles)
(pain level 4/10 not bad for all of a sudden skating and popping three days in a row)

Was late to meet Sean and Cass at Broomfield on a day that was warmer than expected. Sean had to leave pretty quickly so he was already charging it and did a few bangers near the end like front 180 nose manual 180 then halfcab nose manual in same line. Cass had a new Christmas complete 8.25 with Slappy trucks. He quickly got rid of the square board for a PMG and immediately started landing tricks. Ha ha. We battled treflips unsuccessfully for a while. I could barely ollie onto the low blue ledge. Had some okay noseslides and boardslides, couldn’t crook to save my life though. I was able to get a fly out kickflip, Cass got a fly out treflip. A couple of Colorado’s finest Heroki and Noah showed up and it’s always amazing watching them shred. There was also a Fuller doppelganger there who was a surfer from San Diego so he flowed kind of like Dave too.

(setup 2/10 glenosaur 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.6 royal bushings, 51mm bones v1 stf 103a pj, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Took a lunch break and did some flatground at the school across the street. It was okay in that I skated and tried for real and didn’t hold back and the knee held up. But it was humbling in that I had zero confidence or skill. I landed a few slow kickflips, halfcab flip, b/s flip, but couldn’t get a trefilp. Had some fun slappy crooks, front slappys, front slappy crooks and a couple switch slappy crooks.

(setup 4/10 pmg 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.6 royal bushings, 51mm bones v1 stf 103a pj, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Trying to go into 2024 with less madness. Wasn’t gonna skate but but did cruise around on a few setups to see some pros/cons of each. I had put ace hard bushings in the 8.25/royals setup. I didn’t like the tight bushings. Stationary ollies felt weak. 8.5/aces was indeed super fun to ride, slightly better pop, but still not great. Smaller wheelbase 8.5 with Thunders was terrible. Almost fell pushing, had no pop. Not sure I eliminated anything, but I did like the 8.5/ace the most.

It’s always tough to be hurt on Jan 1, because it’s a great day to try and skate with some motivation and pretend to set the tone for the year. I felt good when I got on my board. In fact my knee felt great, was so tempting to really skate. I did do a kickflip, a couple boardslides and a first try crooks followed by nollie back tail. Then it was mostly just slappies. It felt pretty great to get a few tricks in. Dave, Jesse and Jack B did this crazy ride on grind over a death trap. Dave was shredding, looked in good form after the back pain. Sean and Paul both looked good too. Sean did such a good kickflip nose manual. I did a lot of chatting because I was trying to avoid skating too much. Mike showed, good seeing him. Dave and Sean did nose/tail slides across two parking blocks next to each other. Dave tried switch crooks to crooks which would have been nuts. That’s about all I remember, it was fun and encouraging that I’ll be able to really skate soon. Then I went and sat in a frozen river for the annual polar plunge. Burr.

(setup 4/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, new blance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Met up with some old dudes and young dudes at dog park on a really nice Saturday. I mostly talked with people, did a few slappy crooks, one switch front nose. Then went over to the skatepark and did a couple grinds on the bank as well as a couple no pop nollie bigspins on the bank. Jack and Jesse were ripping. As were Sean and Andrew and Paul.

(setup 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 left foot with a spenco orthotic insole)
(pain level 3/10 but I didn’t pop)

It’s been way too long since I’ve seen Dave. He’s been out with serious back pain for a while, I’ve been dealing with my knee issues. We met up at Glenn Close. I had got there first and was pleasantly surprised to do the manual from the curb cut to the little broken bank second try. Dave would go in on the manual too and we would both get it. Dave was skating really well. Nollie front 180 into a curb cut, f/s halfcab tail stall the next. I took too long to do the little axle stall 270 thing on the broken bank. Dave went in on f/s halfcab flip tail and would of course mostly get it. Then we went to the side of the school. Dave had a cool line of grind the low part of a bike rack, wallie nollie, ride between some sketchy close poles, nollie 180, switch slappy crooks, kickflip, varial flip. The insanity! I had some cab kickturns on the shed bank, slappy crooks, frontside slappies, front slappy crooks. Dave did switch slappy then fakie flip and nollie back tail. I took way too long to eek out some tiny switch slappy crooks which seem so hard to me. Fun session. We skated. I managed to resist popping and didn’t hurt my knee I think.

(setup 6/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 left foot with a spenco orthotic insole)
(pain level 3/10 but I didn’t pop)

In the afternoon went over and did a few slappy crooks, manual attempts from the curb cut to bank, front slappies. First with my 8.5 setup, then with my 8.25 which felt better.

On a really nice day I went to campus with high anxiety about my body holding up to skating. I parked in the meet up lot and vetted which setup I would skate. 8.25 with royal vs 8.25 with ace lows. The Royal setup won and I went on to have a session where I liked my setup the whole time (I know this comment will jinx me, but I did really enjoy it). I did a slappy crooks then went down and ended up at the empty basketball courts. I skated flatground around goose turds and some stalls on the curb. I would get 5 very slow sketchy flippers. Kickflip, fakie flip, varial flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigfilp. Curb stalls weren’t really hurting me which was encouraging. My fav was probably a couple from smith stalls. Then I ollied a couple 2 stairs. Then the little line above of the deck check to fakie the f/s halfcab flip which would be my highlight of the day. Cruised around for a while, ended up behind the stadium and tried noseslide on the Ralphie scuplture but it wasn’t working for me. Then ended up at the fitness center ledge where noseslides were way harder than I hoped for and kind of hurt my knee. Last thing was a couple slow front 50s on the tiny downhill curb near baker. That was it. Really a fun session because although I still didn’t skate very well I did a few tricks and popped a lot and didn’t seem to make my knee worse (but I wont really know until tomorrow).

(setup 7/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 51mm bones stf 103a pj v1, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 left foot current run pro insole right shoe stock insole)
(pain 4/10 knee didn’t really hurt too much, but still feels so weird)

On a nice morning I met up with Bratcher and crew and then quite a few Nullers too. And then a lot of others as well. It was pretty awesome actually, except that I wasn’t feeling so hot on my board. Cass went in on front boards quick and did the shove out in a few tries. He would do it to fakie too before slamming his but onto the edge of a parking block later one. Jack and Salty skated the small qp and had some fun. I slammed pretty hard trying to ollie up the curb. It was a depressing slam that took a lot out of me. Hayden and Peyton were killing it. Peyton made the obstacles all seem so small and easy. Fast plant on the top of the weird banked qp? Yep. Hayden had slappy crooks off the qp to curb, ollied into boardslide, manual boardslide fakie manual. Garrett’s kickflips over the bench were so easy and the stylee nose manual bonks the little a-frame. I did have fun with the tiny little grind to layback front rock and some front slashes. The legend Jeff Hulslegend showed, kinda chilled and did a lot of flippers first try. His friend Kyle was shredding as were several others that showed up. It was a fun session even though I didn’t skate very well.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null glenosaur, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148 with royal bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 600 knox black/gum size 12 left shoe currex insole right shoe half insole)
(pain level 6/10 knee wasn’t in incredible pain, but felt quite weird)