Met up with Joe, Eric, Lee and Rob on a warm evening at dog park. It was crowded with youth, most of which were annoying. Lee had immediately done a front shove that was too high and Rob commented on how it was over maximum height. Ha ha. Lee warmed up skating the tall flat bars. The annoying youth got to Rob and he bounced. I don’t remember doing much of anything myself. I was adjusting to a setup change of 8.3 and aces. Felt decent. I lost in a game of SKATE to Joe, but had a great feeling b/s flip. I struggled with crooks. Aces pinch so differently than Ventures. Didn’t see Eric skate much. Joe was popping onto the tall ledges casually. Lee’s pop shove nose grind was bonkers.

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, new balance numeric 272 size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really hot afternoon I met Dave after work at the good ol’ shady Wilville. I had started on my 8.3 with Ace lows, but quickly swapped out for my 8.25 with 5.8 ventures. Anyway, pretty quickly we got into some difficult physical/mental challenges. Riding off the levels of the ledges was way harder than I imagined. I cannot believe Dave did all 3, that was bonkers. Backside no less. We also did some ollies onto the ledge. Dave more frontside coming from the manny pad side and then went into nose manual. I think in a long line with a nollie back 180 off the curb and then a halfcab flip. He did like 5 halfcab flips! I sketchily ollied straight on a few times. I had a few flippers. Then we really settled in to tricks off the curb to start lines. It’s hard with little setup and the fallen debris from the tree. I had done a few pop shoves before settling in on starting with kickflips. Dave had to leave but managed to manual and nose manual into the bank first. I setup my phone and went in on kickflip then treflip then hopefully 180 onto the ledge but I never got a treflip. They were close, but never got one. Doh. Really fun session though, we skated hard.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium/v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288s green/gum size 11.5 440 insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to Broomfield park on a hot morning to meet Nullers and Cass. To my surprise when I pulled up Blaine came running up to say hello. It was so great seeing him and catching up. I went on to skate like dookie. I had changed to 5.6 axles and hated it. The only good thing I did was beat Cass in SKATE ending with a heelflip. Sean, Garrett, Joe all killed it. Cass had some moves too. Great seeing Blaine skate as well.

Then we went to Cole in Denver where I had hoped to ollie up the 3, but instead I didn’t even try and ended up just filming for a long time in the hot sun just baking away. It was fun though. I like getting out in the streets.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Jack and Jesse picked me up pretty early and we were off to 112th park in Thornton. I had made a slight setup change now that I had access to all my goods again. 8.25, but still 5.8 ventures and 51s. It felt pretty good and I started off quicker than normal. Maybe it was having 3 days off skating. I did the bank ride over the long 2 stair pretty quickly, had some basic flippers that felt good, was popping my tail and having fun. Most of the other old dudes were at the bowl area. Jack was doing the wallies real quick. Jesse was popping hit tricks high like he does. I had a fun first try b/s flip over one of the micro hips, also first try kickflip out of a little bank, some crooks, but couldn’t front 50. Salty had a rad line of powerslide to fakie the volcano then fakie carve over the bench. Those dudes arranged a session at a miniramp but I wasn’t really ready I was having too much fun. Luckily I got a line I had been trying. Bank ride down the 2, ollie down the tiny euro, axle stall the incredibly weird no deck qp, kickflip out of a micro bank, crooks the tall ledge. Lastly I ollied the weird snowboard euro while they were figuring things out.

The miniramp was much taller than we had thought, but it was mellow. We started slow and eventually put down some tricks in the not sun. Me and Jesse raced to front 50s and got them back to back. I couldn’t get a front disaster, but did get kind of a slow beanplant to tail which I haven’t done in forever. Jack had some nice ollies to fakie. Salty did feeble to fakie, 50 to fakie, cab feeble and a banger of a cab pivot. The ramp was Scott’s. He ripped and had some unique moves like some weird disaster the side of the extension, cab pivot 270 out. Jesse shut the session down with his first ever lien to tail and it was sick!

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium/v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 3/10 way less knee pain in the zero lift shoes!)

Feeling lazy on a hot morning I went to the waunakee park.  After some weak attempts to get things going I settled in on noseslide 270 shove.  It felt better to huck a trick that’s hard for me than just putzing around.   I was hyped to get one.  I also did a few slow and low front 50s and basic flippers before making myself do several halfcab noseslides.  My knee buckled near the end.  Argh.  I guess these 272s aren’t good for me.  I wore some 868s and skated for a bit longer.  I hated them but my knee felt more stable.  

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272s then 868s)
(pain level 6/10)

Drove to Milwaukee to skate with Kevin.   We met at a DIY that looked extra fun to me.  It was.  Initially I was like a kid in a candy store and couldn’t figure out what I wanted to skate.   After a bit we started with some warm ups on the hip.  I had obviously put backside flip on my list after seeing the hip.  Kevin was going for nollie bs flip.  Both of us took longer than we wanted to but would get them.  The halfcab flip was fun.  Kevin got my back with janoski flip.   Then we hit the ledges for a bit.  I was quickly reminded how hard Kevin destroys ledges.  He did more than what’s in the clip.  Back smith, back tail, nosegrind, but the switch crook was my fav.  Oh and obviously the Gish.  I got a couple slow accidental 5-0s and 50s.  My pop was super off in the 288s which I wore to avoid knee pain with some success. We ended with a game of SKATE that Kevin smoked me in and won on a treflip.  I would force myself to do a slow crappy one before we settled in for a post session drink and cruise to the lake.  

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288S size 11.5 green/gum thin insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Did a kickflip early in the day after losing miserably in basketball. Then later, on after a few drinks, we went to the Waunakee Skate Park.  My brother and I took turns on my board.  He did some kick turns and a couple board slides. I basically just did some noseslide tricks, although there was one run near the end, where I did a crooks and a switch front nose slide along with a switch noseslide shove.

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288S green/gum thin insole)
(pain level 1/10)

After a rain delay I met Joe at the 20th street DIY.  It had gone from pouring rain to sunny and super hot/humid in no time.  It took me a while to get going.  Partly because there is so much greatness that I couldn’t figure out where to start.   The line I worked up to was really fun.  Grind over the love seat, crooks, kickflip to fakie.  I had some way better feeling crooks than I did in the clip.  Joe rattled off his ledge maneuvers and got some legit crooks.   The rock and roll I did on the double qp was so fun.  That’s why I love this park so much.   There is some weird fun stuff but also some perfect ledges.  I would get a line of front slash the little qp then slow front 50 shove the red ledge.  Hyped me up to ollie that high.  Joe’s boardslide around the bar was gnar as was the halfcab flip ender.  Super fun session.  I’m missing a lot.   Man I wish DIYs were as good in CO.  Maybe I should do something about that. 

(setup 5/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 2/10 but pain in my left knee)

On a hot night I pulled into a hectic Broomfield park about the same time as dave and Rob.  The batting cages were crowded, there were teenagers “going beast” with shopping carts, BMXers, and then surprisingly Jack, Joe and Garrett too.  So yeah, it was an overwhelming vibe for us older folks.  

The bank to curb was more fun than normal to me.  Did some slappy crooks on it and finally a front tail.  Saw Rob get some front tails too.   Dave and I played on the mellow bank doing his new trick.  Nollie back shove body varial.  He got a really good one.  I would get a sketchy one that was really fun.  

Then it was mostly chaos.  Saw Rob get close to halfcab noseslide the bank to ledge.  Dave fakie pivot the quartapotty which needs a new nickname because of the gnarly new coping.  He nose manualled the blue pad too.  I tried a lot of kf 50s that were close, but never got both feet on.  Had some slow front 50s on the black box but couldn’t back them with a treflip flyout.   

The Nullers ripped.   Jack did his first kickflip in 9 months.   Garrett so smooth. Kf back tail was hot.  Joe showed off his pop.  Sean joined at the end and rattled off flippers and black box staples.  

(setup 6/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a hot afternoon I went to Dayton park and met up with Stefan. Had a pretty fun session. I had some great feeling crooks, back and front 50 over the ledge on the quarterpipe, had a new audience for switch front noses, a couple slow accidental front 5-0s and a lot of bails throughout. Stefan is a positive dude, fun to skate with. He was shredding. 5-0 to fakie over the ledge, nollie front nosegrind, nollie tails, 50s easy. After a while we started trying nollie tres. Well, I tried, he landed. He got like 8 of them and I could not get one even though I landed on several of them. Doh! It was a fun session.

(setup 6/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)