Woke up early, attempted to go back to sleep, failed, went to skatepark. I had made my setup change to match Alton’s setup I liked so much the day before. Would I like it again? The odds were stacked up against me skating before 7am. Especially when skate coach dad pulled his SUV up to the park and proceeded to coach his kids for the next hour. I hadn’t been there in a while. The bad graffiti and trash everywhere sucks. It’s so embarrassing. I started very slow, thought for sure I would leave quickly as I was disliking my setup a lot to start with. But man, it came around and I ended up really liking it. It was poppy and flipped pretty well. I had a few front 50s on the little pad, across the bump to pad. I couldn’t get a b/s flip on the hump, but I did get a first try halfcab flip on it after a noseslide to fakie. On flat I had some good feeling kickflips and a first try b/s flip. Took a bit to get a really slow halfcab noseslide. I settled in on a little line at the end of nollie tail the pad then front 50 shove the bench. Took a while, but I landed it and I was hyped. I was happy how easily I was popping onto the bench and didn’t have my recent knee pain.

(setup 6/10 pmg 8.25, jessup ultragrip, indy 144 reynolds hollow mids with hollow kingpin, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288 sport white size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

After work on a warm afternoon went to dog park and it was chill when we got there, but quickly filled up with the youth. Our crew was Paul, Rob, Jesse, Alton. Seemed like we started pretty mellow and didn’t really get into a groove. I don’t really remember anything really. Rob and I played a game of SKATE which featured lots of knee pain, one kickflip, lots of no comply variations. It was pretty fun other than the knee pain. After that Alton learned his first nollie f/s flip, Jesse rattled off several flippers, I came incredibly close to switch f/s flip and Paul seemed close too. I was fully committing and watching it flip under me and there were a couple that felt like they could be makes. Gotta keep trying that one! Alton had a boss front nosegrind on the back of the tall ledge. I used his board and got a first try crooks on it and the madness was real again. I had a different setup because I didn’t want to put together a new one really. I didn’t like it.

(setup 2/10 null abstract33 8.3, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a, new balance numeric 288 sport white size 12)
(pain level 5/10)

After a couple off days from feeling sick I didn’t feel up to dog park, but did decide to head over to the school. I had done a couple ollies on an 8.1/venture low and quickly gave that up for the 8.25/aces. Hated both. Someone has put in some work on the slappy curb on the side of the school and dug it out. Slappys were the only fun thing. I couldn’t kickflip. Seriously not even one. Then I went to noseslide the picnic bench and missed it by a mile and almost tweaked my knee as my board when under it. Focused that old board, went home super sad.

(setup 2/10 8.25 dead spots, ultragrip, ace 44s, 51mm spits, nb 288 sport size 12)
(pain level 5/10 left knee hates me)

** this entry had gotten lost in my drafts for some reason **

Had to hustle in the morning and got picked up by the outlaws Jack and Jesse and we went to Zuni park. That park still isn’t great, but we had fun. Jack rattled off some tricks on the little qp. Jesse and I rattled off a few too. Some long 50s are really fun. I couldn’t quite get a front disaster to sugarcane and didn’t try any back sugarcanes so I’m going to take a letter against Dave on that one. I tried a lot of backside flips on the weird steep to mellow hip before finally getting one. I was scared to even ollie on the steep bank.

Then we went to the DIY which was pretty fun and weird to get used to. Especially for how little time we skated there. Jack rattled off the wallride to fakie. Jesse did lots of slappies and boardslides. I had a few boardslides, noseslides and crooks then took a bit to get a rock ‘n roll then spent a long time doing another kickflip. Ha ha, man I love kickflips.

After some food and a break I went to Longmont and met Rob at Indian Peaks. The hype wasn’t too high initially as the tree had shed all over the spot and there was a huge gross puddle. But we skated and we did some stuff. We had skated a bit before I set up the camera. I think the only trick I had landed was kickflip to fakie and no comply bigspin. Rob had some good ones as shown above. No comply shove to fake was first try I think. I couldn’t get a f/s flip or front shove to fakie and Rob couldn’t reel in a b/s flip. That spot isn’t as magical as it used to be, but it was still fun.

(setup 6/10 null abstract33 8.3, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm pink snot, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half nsoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After some slacking in the morning I ended up going to Sheridan DIY to meet Cass. Turns out Squeeks was organizing a pour on a new spine. I helped gather up some rocks but didn’t really spend much time with it. After some cruising around and not really doing anything worth mentioning Cass suggested a game of SKATE. It’s funny, we tend to only play when we’re struggling to get warmed up and this game showed it. I wasn’t liking the new setup so much this time around. I would win it on a fakie bigflip, but it was a brutal game where we struggled to land anything. Cass chilled after that. His friend Greg showed and noseslid over the median. I was in a lot of pain so I switched from the 440s to some 868s. The pain subsided a little, but so did any ounce of board feel. I managed a couple lines though. Heelflip, crooks, front 50 a curb, noseslide a taller ledge. Also fakie flip, switch front nose, switch back nose then bailed something.

After some food and a nap I had a couple more hours before the ladies got home so I went to skate Southern Hills, but there was some kid birthday party so I ended up at Bear Creek. I had started in Dunks which felt somewhat okay, then to the 272s which quickly felt pain, then to the 288s which I should just realize are the current best shoe out. The b/s flip was my warm up. It was super dumb and hard. I wanted to ollie up the curb as setup but it was way too quick and my ollies weren’t working too well anyway. There were so many pebbles in the approach. It’s amazing how many idiot landscapers there are that think they can put pea gravel on a slope. I was doing a few flippers attempts on the way back but not really landing anything. After I got the backside flip I went to the ledge area which was more fun than previous times. Maybe because it felt like it was about to rain so there was some urgency. I did a few of the basics backside, but front side could barely get a front axle stall. Probably the death of the aces right there. I was happy I went for the second session. It just felt good to get out and skate some streets.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, ace 44s hollow kingpin, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classics, new balance numeric 440/272/868/288/Dunk ugh)
(pain level 6/10)

After a late night I would meet up with Sean, Paul and Rob at dog park just as the normal morning crew was leaving. I had changed my setup to be like Paul’s, and I really liked it. I started out kinda quick and went on to have a good session. Sean and Paul had been there a while and were in their groove. Sean did the fakie nosegrind then halfcab nose manual 180 super quick. Not sure if he got over the hydrant, but his flippers were looking decent. Paul sat pretty quick, I didn’t see a whole lot but I know he had done some of his fast grinds he’s been working on. Saw Rob get some nollie lips, nose manuals, halfcab boardslides, crooks, front nose fakie, back 50 no comply shove and probably more I’m confusing with other sessions. I was able to kickflip onto the pad a couple of times. One of which felt perfect and I was able to back 180 off. Also go front 50 shove the pad, ollie up front shove off, noseslide further than normal above the pad, a crooks above it, committed to front 50s on the bench. Not to many flippers though even though they felt alright. Went home right after Rob did with the intention of skating more later, but didn’t at all.

(setup 7/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, ace 44s hollow kingpin, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classics, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After work on a hot evening I picked up Paul and Jesse and we went to an almost empty Frederick park. There was only one kid on a bike, but that didn’t stop him from constantly being in the way. The park did fill up a bit around sunset, but as always chill. I started on my 8.25 and went on to suck it up. Took like 5 tries to get a kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank. We had met Cass there. We tried 5 warm up tricks on the mellow bank. Took me forever and b/s kickflip was even hard. Jesse did bigflip before kickflip and really struggled with kickflip. It was funny. Paul was shredding the park pretty quickly even having never been there before. He would go on to do the big wallride over the pyramid and several grinds on the little pad. Cass couldn’t get a front nose on the bump to ledge which means it was an off night. I couldn’t get up the ledge to save my life. Tried on both setups. Was bumming pretty hard on everything. At the end we skated each others boards. And wouldn’t you know it I ollied up the ledge first try on Paul’s board and got a 270 flip in a few tries. Argh. More madness to come. His board was 8.25/ace/53mm. It felt really good.

(setup 8.25 ventures / 8.3 royals, new balance numeric 440s white size 12 no insoles)
(pain level 6/10 just lots of pain argh)

Went to Boulder ditch on a hot afternoon after work and met up with Dave. We had seen the recent addition and wanted to check it out. I struggled to get an axle stall on it, Dave would get pivots. We were both pretty sporadic for a bit until we figured out what and how to skate some things. I had my contact ripped out of my eye by a pine tree. That kind of sucked, but luckily Dave somehow saw it drop to the ground and I was able to recover it. Dave had caveman 50s on the beam, steezy front boards, back board, nosepick and had some long lines. I had started out on 8.3 royals and changed to 8.25 ventures and liked it more. The rock ‘n roll, slide to fakie then switch nose jib was really fun. The noseslide to fakie took a while and Dave had left (as if most of you didn’t already know this since his truck was gone). Fun, different spot.

(setups argh 8.3 with royals then 8.25 with ventures, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10 some left achilles pain)

After a weird rainy night with not much sleep I eventually got picked up by Jack B and Jesse and we went to Broomfield park. We would be meeting Sean then Garret. Stefan randomly showed up too. I had gone for a long run the day before and my left achilles was kind of hurting. I thought since it’s my front foot it would be fine, but nope, it didn’t feel good. I didn’t really do much popping and stuck to the no-pop noseslides and stuff. Also took too long to get a grind in the bowl. Everyone else was ripping. Well, maybe not Garrett so much because he said his back was hurting. Doh. Bratcher is always full steam ahead. Oh yeah, I had skated my ace low setup most of the session and really disliked it. I rode the 8.1/thunder too and disliked it more though. So probably an actual setup change coming when I can finally skate again.

(setup 8.25 ace lows / 8.1 thunders vans wayvee white size 12 nb# 272 insoles)
(pain level 8/10)

After work rolled up into a heated dog park session. I kind of just played on the barrier for a bit and did a few lame basics to get the legs flowing. Luckily things died down pretty quickly and we had a pretty normal session. Paul was getting Verso on us with lines including nollie nosegrind 180s and ending in fakie 5-0 180s. He’s been working on skating faster and it showed. He even did a back nosegrind which I haven’t seen him do before. Rob was shredding nose manuals, manuals, back 50 no comply shove, crooks, front boards, did his lightwork demo, a lot more I’m probably confusing with the previous session. I went on to have an above average session for me and did a few things I was hyped on like first try kickflip up the c pad, front 50 and accidental 5-0 the bench, a really fun ollie the metal grate a-frame, crooks, front halfcab heel. Struggled to do intentional 5-0s and treflips though. I left feeling really good even though it doesn’t seem like it on paper.

(setup 6/10 8.1 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 147, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 101a, vans wayve white size 12 nb# 272 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)