After a lazy day I ended up at Douglass and it was quite sunny and warm. I started on the side of the school. I was quite sore and sluggish, but had a couple of warm up lines that I thought might fire me up. Nollie back tail then nollie shove the micro hip. Nollie front 180 the micro hip, switch noseslide. Then the next two lines were supposed to be easy and ended up taking forever. Slappy crooks then b/s flip the micro hip. The b/s flip took so many tries. Same with the other line was supposed to start with a kickflip over the micro hip and I struggled so bad with it. I was supposed to front 50 the ledge then ollie a cone after. Never committed to the ollie over the cone which was after a curb. Had a couple halfcab flips. Then spent wayyyy too long trying to fakie flip the micro hip which I would eventually get and then just decided I was too tired and sore to continue.

(setup 3/10 null glenosaur 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.6 royal bushings flat top washer, spitfire f4 52mm classic shape, es melange size 12)
(pain 6/10 left knee was very swollen)

Rob and I rolled to Parker early on a Saturday morning. It was cold when we left, but by the time we got there the sun was out and it was warm. It’s a big park, everyone seemed to warm up differently. I was feeling better than expected, probably because I had actually taken an ibuprofen the night before. There was a while where we were all mostly skating the long ledge or manny pad. Rob was the only one I saw successfully manual and nose manual it. And kind of close to nose manual to front tail. He also popped up onto front 50 on the long ledge. Venture Dave was doing shoves, impossibles, switch 180s but not getting the nose manual. Jake had a really sick crooks shove right away. Maybe even first try? Also back and front 50s, maybe front tail then nollie back tail and f/s halfcab nose. My flippers were working better than they have and I came quite close to a line of fakie bigflip, front 50, treflip. Didn’t quite get the treflip. Kind of got front 50 shove, did get accidental front 5-0s, crooks, fakie 50. Jake did an amazing line of ollie up a tall ledge, ollie up the bank to ledge, front blunt the volcano up top. Cass had really good front noses on all ledges, some kickflips, worked on halfcab noseslides. He had also invited Brekon who was absolutely destroying the ledges. Nollie Suciu grind was nuts! I had some fun noseslides to fakie on the bank to ledge and followed them with a little front grind over the hip in the mellow bowl below. I filmed the bank to ledge session for a while. Max did fakie front shove. Rob noseslide and front board. Dave with the sick fakie impossible. Dave and I were last men standing and he did the impossible on the bank and I took too long to do b/s kickflip and kickflip to fakie. Super fun session, good dudes, weather and park.

(setup 5/10 null glenosaur 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.6 royal bushings flat top washer, spitfire f4 52mm classic shape, es melange size 12)
(pain 4/10)

Feeling tired after a day in the office I met Rob at a cool dog park. Alton arrived shortly after us. I had nothing all session and my knee didn’t feel great. Some okay noseslides maybe. 1/4 on kickflips. Rob knocked out some bangers near the end. A run of back 50 back 180 out, fakie bigspin, shove lipslide. Also a really good nollie lip. Alton did a fakie flip nosegrind. Whoa!

(setup 2/10 null glenosaur 8.25, jessup ultragrip, royal 144s, spitfire f4 52mm classic shape, es melange size 12)
(pain 6/10)

Feeling a little better I went over to the school to test out my knee and a new board. I mostly just did slappies, but I was feeling better than I thought. I took a while to get the helipop and was kind of bummed that was the one I landed because the others felt way better. Slappy front crooks was fun. Was happy to get a very mediocre treflip.

(setup null glenosaur 8.25, jessup ultragrip, royal 144s, spitfire f4 52mm classic shape, es melange size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain 5/10)

On a surprisingly warm afternoon Rob, Sean and I met up at a chill Broomfield park. It’s been a few days since the session so hard to remember a whole lot. I had a warm up run that took a while which was fun. Axle stall the quartapotty, nose jib 270, nollie front 180 out of the bank. I didn’t have much energy and my knee was hurting pretty bad. Also a run with an ollie onto the black ledge, kickflip out of the bank, front slash the bank to curb, noseslide the ledge. Rob had some no comply shoves out of the bank, front tails the bank to curb, crooks, back 50s, back 50 no comply out, and a rare case of not being able to manual. Sean so effortlessly rattled off his basics which would be after black enders for me. We played a game of SKATE and I was the first one out. I know I got a letter on cab and was out on no comply 360. Rob left, I filmed Sean for a bit. Then Sean and I played another game of SKATE where I got pink slipped and I think the only trick I landed was randomly a first try f/s halfcab flip. I took 4 tries to get a kickflip. I had a smaller setup this day, I mostly liked it but the board was too small. Gonna finally setup a new board next time I skate if and when that is as my knee pain was just too much to deal with.

(setup 5/10 null 8.1 all you need, jessup ultragrip, royal 144s hollow kingpin, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic, new balance numeric 288 sport b/w size 11.5)
(pain level 8/10 left knee is toast)

After my first day of work in nearly 2 weeks I met up with Rob and Dave at dog park on a beautiful afternoon. The park was pretty chill and had some new obstacles left over from the GB games. The bank to coping was pretty cool and fun to carve on. I was feeling very out of it and jet lagged. Immediately saw Rob pull a nice nose manual. Dave seemed to have a lot of energy and spring and was lining out everything. Boardslides around the c ledge, back 50 around it, front and back slashes on the bank to coping. Rob had halfcab back 50s, nollie front 50 back 180 out, no comply up the pad to front board off. I had a bad noseslide to fakie onto the pad then switch nose jib off. A fun run of noseslide the bench, back slash the bank to coping, little ollie off the grate kicker then front 180 off the new green kicker. Lastly a fun line of slappy crooks then front shove off the new green kicker that took way too long. I had skated an 8.3 with ace lows and didn’t like it. Not really counting it as a setup change though because I had left my board in Germany and didn’t have time to setup what I wanted.

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 sport b/w size 11.5)
(pain level 6/10)

Last day in Berlin. Had kind of a mellow morning and my knees were so swollen I thought there would be no way I could skate. But eventually we headed to Park am Gleisdreieck to hit the Tetris ledge spot. We met up with Gabe at the skatepark. I took a couple runs in the mellow bowl which was actually kind of fun until I hung up on a back 50 and dove to the flat. It actually served as a good warm up. Gabe and I went over to the ledge spot and it ended up being way more fun than the last time I skated there. Gabe was popping into some fast front 50s right away, noseslides, 180 50s, front 50 drop down to 50. Oh but he had a loose axle nut and kept losing a wheel. I was a little slower to get going, but skating alright. Had some fun crooks, noseslide down to noseslide, front 50, almost quick up to nose manual. Ben showed up with a crew. Fria who they had just met in Berlin and Miles who was a dog park local for a while so that was cool. Fria was jumping on front 50s quickly. Miles was really spry popping up all the spots so easily. Ben had a nice up up to manual and some fast back 50 attempts. At some point Ben started filming Fria and Miles. I had done some things I was happy with like finally a halfcab noseslide and noseslide down to noseslide and crooks one of the taller ledge. Then I kicked off a really fun chain of events. I got a slow front 50 shove out, Miles got 180 up to halfcab manual and then Fria got front 50 drop down 50. It was awesome. Before I could leave I made myself do a treflip, but I was really struggling. I would eventually get a 270ish one. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a nice cherry on top to a really fun session. I did film Ben for a while trying to get a back 50 and Gabe used my board to do the front 180 fakie 50 180. He also had a couple really nice treflips. At the end a dude from France joined and had a really cool quick up to a taller pad to nollie 3 shove off. Goodbye Berlin, I hope to see you again some day and still be able to skate.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 4/10)

After a long bus ride and walk through the city I arrived at the long stairway to the granite fortress known as Stalin Plaza.  They were filming a movie on one set of stairs and told me it was closed so I had a pretty good panic attack as I went up the other side.   But it was good and I arrived to an empty plaza and sat to calm down for a while, did some warm ups then cruised around and checked it all out.  It was way larger than I had thought.  The lower level was cool too but some annoying kids and rollerblader had shown so after a couple noseslides and slappies I went back to the main area. For about an hour I felt pretty good on my board.  I had a really fun run on the higher pinkish ledges of noseslide to fakie, halfcab noseslide then crooks.  I had posted up and did a few crooks in a row.  It felt great to get a few.  Like it was the whole reason I bought a new board when my luggage went missing.  I also got a couple slow front 50s that took way too long.  Then skated lines for a bit just having fun.  Switch front nose, halfcab flip, crooks, noseslide, bail a treflip.   I didn’t try many flippers though, wanted to take advantage of the granite.  Tried noseslide 270 shove for a while.  Kind of got one somewhat quickly, but couldn’t get a better one.  Some other people showed up so I stopped selfie filming.  My body had also mostly shut down so everything had become a struggle.  I didn’t do much more, enjoyed watching some dudes play some really good games of SKATE.  Then Liz and India showed up, filmed me do one last crooks and we bounced off to the castle.  Felt pretty amazing to skate this spot and made me want to be much better at ledges if somehow that is possible getting into my 50s.  

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 5/10)

The darn rain. Seriously though it had been holding out at our hotel, but on the day we went there it mostly rained. I would get in about an hour of skating total, but didn’t really have time to hit the other nearby spots that seemed almost equally as amazing. I had done a couple of initial noseslides and crooks before the rain picked up. I had a really fun double ride on grinds that were scary slippery. Then I went nearby and skated some curbs for a bit that were fun, but I wasn’t really feeling it. Especially after slamming hard on a nollie back tail attempt. Then the granite dried up and I was able to skate for real for a while. I had a really fun line of noseslide way up top, curve around and ollie a 2.5 stair, ride on grind, noseslide and added backside flip, halfcab flip and almost front 50 on the ledge by the double set. Then I tried kickflip back 50s for a while and was close, but no cigar. I was cut short as it started pouring. Doh! I was pretty unhappy with how bad my setup felt.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 5/10)

Up kind of early with a slight hang over I went to the nearby diy park Dog Shit. And man did I ever suck it up. I could not get into a rhythm and everything was harder or scarier than it should have been. I struggled with basics like front 50s on the lowest ledge, noseslides, crooks, had ghost pop over the hip. Argh. I had some fun little axle stalls on the bank to curb followed by an ollie on a mound, then wallie a corner. Had some fun little scratch grinds on the granite coping. At the end I made myself get a slow little front 50 on the ledge in the upper left of the photo. Oh yeah a German skater had come too and was doing some shredding marathon lines. Like the same stuff every time.

Then I went up to the bench spot that is basically on the opposite corner of an intersection to be humbled even more. I couldn’t do anything. I could barely noseslide. I may have gotten a crook jib. It’s funny because we had watched people skating it the night before and they made it look pretty easy. nope, they are tall and the ground is also pretty rough.

(setup 8.25 flower, mob grip, venture 5.6 shake junt v-hollows, spitfire 51mm f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 288 b/w no insoles size 11.5)
(pain level 6/10 knees)