On a nice morning I went to dog park to meet the Saturday morning crew. Rob, Cass and Jake were the only ones I knew would be there, but Will, Nick and many more joined. I was sore to start and wore some vulcs hoping for less of the ‘cupsole knee pain’ I get. They felt good for most of the session, but by the end I was too sore to continue. After some cruising around a big game of SKATE started. Jake, Cass, Will, Rob and me. Lots of 180 variations, shoves, etc to start the game. It would eventually come to Will and I and I managed to pull off a sketchy halfcab flip then fakie bigflip to end it. On the main course Cass was charging. Seriously skating harder than I’ve seen him skate. 5-0s, front noses and several back 180 nosegrinds that were super solid. Rob is still kicking off the rust but I saw a back smith, halfcab noseslide, back 50 no comply shove. Jake and Will were doing front tails on the little ledge. Jake almost getting nollie back tails after. I skated okay, had a few slow front smiths on the little ledge, crooks the bench. Was still happy with my setup, but not so much vulcs that suck a lot of the pop away. I need to unlearn that I can’t ollie high enough to get on the ledges there.

(setup 10/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11/5 half insole)
(pain level 5/10)

After a follow up with Mitchell (best sports doc in Denver) about my calf I met up with Jake at Cushing park. It’s my first time being there since the redo. I’m not sure if I even went before the redo or not. It was 60 degrees out and beautiful, the park wasn’t too crowded. Took me a bit to get a feel of things. That may have been made worse after a setup change and wearing 440s again. But I really liked the setup. I played fakie flip with Jake and his friend Max in the parking lot. Jake tried some fakie bigspins over the hip. I got a little ollie on the a-frame then back around to a cruddy noseslide. We did a few basics on the ledge then Jake skated the miniramp for a while and kept skating the ledge. I was kind of blown away by a really slow front 50 3rd try. I haven’t popped onto a “taller” one in a while and that setup snapped right to it. Like I thought I was bailing and went right into it. Then Jake and I played a game of SKATE in the parking lot. I had a streak of 3 flippers in a row that made me happy. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I would go on to win with a very slow, but rewarding treflip. Back to the park we lined out ollies up the euro, qp trick, ollie the little set. Jake did it quicker with a back blunt on the qp. I flailed on the qp for reasons I don’t understand so gave up and just did a back 50. Ollieing the little gap was painful, but fun. Was also hyped to see Ft Collins Jake there. No, not Creepy Jake, but Airbud Jake.

(setup 11/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After work went to dog park for about an hour. Didn’t skate great, didn’t skate terrible, but didn’t have much drive. In fact I’m not really remembering anything about the session other than a dude Eric tried to show me nollie heels and they felt closer than normal. Oh, I had taken Noè’s advice on a setup change and very much disliked it.

(setup 2/10 null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast royal bushings, bones 53mm pj, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

Not feeling very motivated on a cool night I ended up at Square House for the “Silver Session”. To my surprise only a few people were there and they had moved things around a little making things seem new and exciting. I hid in the back area for awhile and took a bit to get a 5-0 from the little qp to the bank. I was hyped Nick was there and he was hitting that area too doing little shoves on the banks. After a while some dudes had put a parking block on the bank and it looked really enticing. I would go on to get a run of slappy crook, then come back to the bank and kickflip. Felt really cool. I couldn’t get a bigflip on the bank though. The only person there I hadn’t met before was “Steezy” who made me jealous with his tiny setup and flip tricks. At one point he did a fakie flip front tail on the little ledge going ultra slow. Dennis is still one of my favs to skate with, he got a heelflip up the euro. Damian, Pat and Aiten ripped it. Jesse didn’t have his best session but was still in good spirits. I went in on kickflip axle stall on the parking block. It took a good 35 minutes, but was ultra rewarding. Thanks to everyone for the sympathy cheers! It really did make me happy.

(setup 3/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow with royal bushings no big washer flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 3/10)

Somehow the wind had held off. I wasn’t feeling like the skatepark again so went to Douglass, but a bunch of people I didn’t know were filming so ended up at Platt. Tried to do a “warm up” line of of pop shove a micro hip, manual, nose manual. Also mixed in a couple halfcab flips and a first try fakie bigflip. But never got the manual and was about to lose my mind so I went over to the 3 stair area. I wanted to ollie up it, but I was never even close. I committed once but fell in deck check. It was actually scary for me to ollie down it. I would eventually get a line of ollie the 3 stair then a b/s flip on flat. Then a varial flip on flat, front 180 down the 3, halfcab flip on flat. All 3 of these tricks were beyond terrible and I was really bummed on how scary the front 180 was. Oh well, at least I street skated.

Later on I went to Saul’s and Jesse and Bratcher joined. Saul had some of his amazing carve grind lines and a few stand up 50s. I took forever to get some axle stalls, but had a couple fun lines. Got the old carve around to axle stall to front rock. Some carve grinds in the deep, axle stall and a micro front slash on the brick section. Jesse laughed, got some good axle stalls in the deep, the bean plant to tail, grinds, nose stall to fakie. Jack had some good slashes and rock ‘n rolls. It was a really fun session. Hope to be back there soonish.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow with royal bushings no big washer flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 5/10)

Got to dog park a little after 10 on a crisp Saturday morning. It was in the upper 20s which felt incredibly cold compared to the upper 70s of Hawaii. The colder weather surprised me how hard it made warming up. But things did get going and it was fun. There was a pretty epic crew of mostly Saturday morning peeps. Cass and I played a warm up game of SKATE that took a while. Not one of our best, but certainly not our worst. I would win it on halfcab flip or backside flip. Did some normal skating around then got in on the table session with Bratcher, Cass, Fergs and Sean. Cass got up onto it pretty quick as did Jack. Mine was questionable, but really fun and rewarding. Fergs front nose shove was sick, I was hyped to get his back with a little nose jib down. Sean front nosegrind up it was sick. I had to bounce to bring my mom to the dr. Fun short session.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with royal bushings flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 4/10)

Lots of rain on the last day in Honolulu. Neil picked us up and we bolted to the east side. After a cool visit to a Buddhist temple Neil and I ended up at the Kailua park. What a cool little park. I was feeling the sorest I had all trip and kind of not really wanting to skate much. But we did and Neil inspired as always. So did the others that were there. Another older dude warming up with ollie after ollie and working up to flippers and ledge tricks. Also a female skater popping front shoves really high as well as varial heels which were so sick. Neil’s front shoves to fakie were so good. Cab over the bump and then kickflip were tight. I had some noseslides and crooks when Neil wasn’t filming but was really struggling with flippers. I couldn’t do a kickflip to fakie on the bank. Neil’s nose manual to quick 50 was so good. Rain started so we bounced. Thanks for showing Liz and I so many amazing sights Neil!

(setup 1/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 53mm bones pj v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

Neil had the day off and we headed to the north shore. We hit the park since it wasn’t raining while Liz slept in the car. It was a quick session, the park is really weird. Even though the other dude there that was shredding said it’s the best park ever, it’s not. Ha. We had fun though. Neil’s ride on grind was way harder than it looks, same with the no comply to tail. I took too long to get the same old Glen tricks, kickflip and noseslide. It was a fun session though.

(setup 3/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 53mm bones pj v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 1/10)

Seriously love skating random spots just cruising around a downtown area. On a hot day Neil and I started at a kind of random curb spot with some skate stopped ledges and a ride on curb that neither of us could quite get. We quickly went over to the downhill curb slalom that was super fun. We pretty much documented what we did. I wanted to add a fakie bigflip after the back 180, but couldn’t get it. I also couldn’t get a halfcab flip to start the line. I had some fun 5-0s on the first curb too. Neil was charging. His lines were FAST. He almost almost tried 50 gap over the curb at one point too. Paul met up with us and somehow struggled with the front 50 on the first curb. But he ollied the 4 stair first try as well as almost doing the 50 gap over the curb.

Next we hit the little downhill section and 2 stairs. Pauls ollie up and into the bank was so good. My jibs were fun. Behind that was a fun little bank to curb that was for real incredibly fun even if the cracks denied me.

Somehow then we got to skate the downtown plaza for a good minute. Neil was first with the no comply then one foot down the 3. Paul did the manual pretty quick followed by all the ollies which was trick of the day. I played around with the 2 stair then noseslide and could never quite get all the way up on the ledge. We got the boot, walked around some then called it a day. Man it was fun.

(setup 3/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 53mm bones pj v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

After some fun snorkeling it was Saturday and Neil and I rolled to a dream spot. A long metal ledge that starts low and doesn’t get tall. There is also kind of a bank and some curbs to play with too. Oh, and the asphalt is new as well. The crew was Neil, me, Paul, Eric, Dave, Ian, Bronson. Everyone was chill, skating hard, having fun. When we first got there I was kind of overwhelmed with excitement. I did the switch front nose then fakie 50 right away. I would struggle to do some front 50s and kept doing 5-0s on a low part. Eventually when everyone was skating the tall part I just did the nollie front tail to fakie then switch jib shove and a few crooks. Neil was charging lines for days. Manuals, shoves, kickflips, front 50s, cruising, inspiring. Paul is one of my favs, his nosegrind was so good. Bronson is the only one in his 50s and he was killing it on everything including boardslides to sugarcane the curb. Dave had a lot of solid tricks, the front crook to fakie was so sick. ian’s back tails are amazing. Eric fakie nosegrind was hot. Eventually Neil and I agreed to hit another spot so we bounced.

Then we were at this school which was really fun, but man I was beat. Neil was flying around the spot and did the kickflip in way less tries than me. Loved his manual, shoves and speed. I had also done a line of noseslide to fakie, switch front nose, switch 180 off the curb then tried kickflip. Both of us were close to grinding the entire little curb, but didn’t quite get them. Then it was off to see the amazing spitting cave and a fun dinner at Kona Brewing.

(setup 2/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 53mm bones pj v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 4/10)