After a chill Friday at work I rolled through rush hour traffic to Rocky Mountain where I met Rob and Dave. They were warming up trying pressure flips. Both seemed close. I started with slappy crooks. It turned into a pretty good session. Rob had nollie tail, slappy crooks, nollie lips on the curb. Manual around backside then nose manual around frontside to 180 out. I think front board pop out on the ledge too. I skated decently for me. Had a lot of flippers including my first couple heelflips in months, f/s halfcab heel and flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip but no fakie bigflip or treflip. Got up on the ledge a couple times, but never got a grind. May have barely done a noseslide up to crooks jib that fell out right away. I couldn’t kickflip up the curb. Dave on the other hand, was still kickflipping up the curb after I had called and and was sitting. He had a fastplant over a median on the bank, manuals on the medians, shove fakie and ended with slappy crooks shove but couldn’t get it cleaned up. I know I’m missing a lot more. It was a fun Friday session and after had a fun dinner with Rob.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12 nike insoles)
(pain 4/10)

Another cold and snowy day, luckily Brian has created the amazing Square House. I got there around 7 and started with a game of SKATE against Jesse. I was wearing some 306 vulcs since I didn’t have time to fix up the hole in the Swifts or break in some new shoes. They felt okay, not great. But I certainly had troubles popping in them and my flip tricks were suffering. Jesse would go on to beat me but it was a good warm up. Dave showed up around then. I hit the bank to curb with some slappies for a bit trying to line out a kickflip on the bank which for some reason didn’t work. I hit the miniramp for a while. Brian and Gray were competing on who could take the most slams, Gray won. Brian’s casual blunt to fakie is magical. I had a couple alright runs for me and Brian made me smile about it. ha ha. Back to the “street” had some fun noseslides and crooks on the bump to ledge, but couldn’t back them with b/s flip over the hip. Was happy to get a first try kickflip up the euro even if it was sketchy. Went on to be like 3/4 I think before trying backside flips which I was also very close to, but didn’t get. Jesse played the hits with pop shove up the euro, pop shove tail grab the hip, bigflip the bank. Dave was shredding. I think he did a line with slappy crooks to fakie and switch slappy crooks to regs on the bank to curb. Probably also with a switch back 180 over the hip. I got sore near the end so just went back to the tiny qp and tried sugarcanes for a while. Dave eventually came and joined me. I got quite a few, Dave would get a couple too! It was good seeing that he is human and it didn’t come easy. But then he had to go on and do a backside version pretty quickly then challenge me right back to do it. Argh! Ha ha. That was a dream trick of his though so it’s awesome. Some of my attempts look closer than they felt. Gonna be a battle to get that one.

(setup 8/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain 4/10)

Somehow the forecasted wind was not in effect. Met a typical dog park Sunday crew. Rob, Jack B, Jesse, Dave, Nick, Tim and probably more I’m forgetting and the session is all a blur at this point. Some highlights I remember. Seeing Rob do the halfcab back 50, back 50 back 180, nose manuals around the C. Jack was working on crooks. I got a line I worked for of front 50 front shove then back 50 back shove, but the back 50 shove was beyond terrible. I had thought we’d be done skating, but Dave showed up. I continued to skate a long time actually but don’t remember a lot more other than I did seem to skate pretty hard. I had some really good feeling crooks. Dave worked up to an insane line. Switch front nose on the upper deck up onto the pad, front shove on flat, manual around the C pad then front 50 the upper deck like a stud! After that I was sitting and he went on to beat a group of teens in a game of SKATE.

(setup 8/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain 3/10)

Went to campus with Cass on a nice morning. I had that nervous feeling associated with wanting to get some additional tricks for my 50 part with the deadline coming up quick. We went by the little yellow lurb, but Cass wasn’t feeling that spot so we looked at Baker ledge which had cars before ending up at the downhill alley spot. We played a warm up game of SKATE that Cass won. We both did some basic flippers, but did not get get too far into the bag because no one landed each others tricks. Then we started trying some lines. We did some kickflips and halfcab flips into the “downhill” and some noseslides. Cass got a noseslide shove so we got the camera out and started rotating 5 tries each. I was trying nollie tre first, but it wasn’t feeling possible so I moved on to b/s flip, switch 180, noseslide fakie, fakie flip. I would get a very bad version of the backside flip and fall on the fakie flip. Then Cass would get his line and it was banging. I would get his back with a better version of my line, but that’s not saying much. Then I tried for a while and could not get another backside flip. We went to 303 then met the Null dudes and more at Kitrich.

I was quite sore as was Cass. Those dudes was ripping. I did a few noseslides and crooks and that was it. Cass had a really nice front nose shove. Garrett was smoothly rattling off tricks. You never know what Hayden is going to do. Sean cruising fast making everything look so solid. We did some more spot lurking then ended up at the new business building and where I filmed Garrett and Hayden battle some awesome lines. Hayden’s friends were charging too. Fun day.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain 4/10 not bad all things considering how much we skated)

Had a couple glasses of wine the night before and stayed up late. Woke up extra early and was feeling good somehow so I went to the park for about an hour. I had it all to myself until the last few minutes. I had a new deck, a Spanbauer Dead Spots and man it’s pretty! I did not skate well, but also, not terrible. I tried kind of hard and for 7-8am skated decently I suppose. It’s amazing how difficult front 50’s on even the lowest ledges have become for me. I would get a couple. Also a first try ollie onto the little bench. A few noseslides. Not much for flippers. Oh well, it was nice out and I got to skate before the wind kicked in.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain 4/10)

Met Sean after work at dog park on a nice afternoon. They said it would be windy, but it had held off so far. I had put a nice little 8.25 back together with some 5.6 v-hollows. It didn’t feel amazing, but nothing really does anymore. I didn’t skate too hard, but did get through a lot of my basic bag. There was a cool crew as Nick, Ferg, Robbie, tall blond guy were there. Sean did a really cool wallie then 5-0 shove around the corner.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings no big washer flat top washer, 51mm bones pj, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain level 6/10 right knee and feet)

Dave hit me up after I had a relaxing dinner to skate campus. I met up with him about when it was getting dark and it was way colder out than I had thought. It was around freezing with 87% humidity. I could tell immediately that I wouldn’t skate well. After cruising around looking for Dave we ended up at the wood bank area, although would never get past the long curb and mini bank to curb. It’s pretty easy to describe our 2 hours of skating with a couple of lines. Dave got back 50 the curb (really good), front shove to fakie the “bank”, switch boardslide 270 out. I did a fakie bigspin into the “bank”, boardslide the curb, front pivot the bank to step, front board flop out the ledge. We ended up doing quite a few tricks on the bank to step which was probably the most fun part of the session. Dave did back pivot shove to fakie, switch front nose the ledge, fakie shove. I’m not sure if I got a line or not but I enjoyed a few tricks on the bank to step like front tail stall shove, back nosepick shove, front axle to fakie. Tough night.

(setup 0/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralights 149, bones pj 53mm, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain level 5/10 right knee does not like me much)

On a cold, but thankfully not windy weekend I went to dog park around noon to meet Rob, Skelly and more at Greenblock aka Dog Park. Skelly was on time! Paul was there which was rad. Actually so many people that I knew it was kind of hard at times as there were so many people to catch up with. Including Ben from Evergreen/Escapist, Damian, Steeze and Alton from Silver Sessions, Big Mike who is one of my favs, many more. I’ve had a bit too much wine writing this. My skating was alright. I had a setup change. Basically the same, but with Royal trucks instead of Ace lows. They were better, but my setup was not perfect. Is it ever? I saw Rob get back 50 no comply our, back 50 back 180, nollie lip. Paul did back 5-0 front 180. I got a first try fakie 50 halfcab out on the curb, front 50 180 on the curb to switch noseslide 270 shove on the bench. Came super close to front heel on flat, nollie front tail 270 shove. Mike did fakie back nosegrind for the first time in a while and it was sick. I was pretty tired and sore, but then Fuller showed. And he apparently brought an entire crew of young kids with him as they arrived right after he did ha ha. Dave shredded though. I saw a line with manual around the C ledge then front 50 the bench all casual. After a while we ended up over at the barrier and we ended up skating it differently. Trick off the curb, trick in the barrier, trick up the curb. It was really fun even though I was already exhausted having already skated a few hours. It really exposed how rarely I do anything off a curb, even shoves were scary and hard. Fuller did another line of fakie shove, axle stall to rock ‘n roll, kickflip up that was even better. But the switch no comply was hot too. I took a long time to get my line, but I did get Dave’s back as we did our lines back to back. This was a really fun day even though I didn’t land a whole lot beyond my basics.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really cold and windy day I went to campus to find some motivation and some spots avoiding the wind. I went by Baker ledge and it was full of cars. I thought of the quick up bank to curb and thought it would be protected from the wind. It was. I was kind of motivated to line things out, like a trick on the bank to curb then go around and do something on the skate stopped ledge. But when I would go around the building the wind was insane. So I kept to the bank to curb. I’ll just start by saying I hated the ace lows in the wild. Like completely hated. I could barely ollie up the curb. I started with some nollie tails where I just rode along the bank and didn’t even ollie up. Then I took a bit to get a noseslide to fakie. After that I tried back 50s for a while and failed. Then I just wanted to do ollie up, nollie front 180 (or nollie to fakie I guess?) and that took me forever. I left after that. Tried to find some more motivation, but the wind was insane so I just left.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, ace low af1 hollows hard bushing, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

Bummed on only having ~1 hour between work calls into the evening on a nice Friday I went over to the school. I had made my first real setup change in a while – same deck, ace lows, 53s instead of 51s. It felt really good actually. I still struggled and had no confidence, but I’m also still breaking in newish shoes still. After about the first 30 minutes I think I had only landed kickflip and b/s flip as far as flip tricks go. But I would go on to get a couple treflips, halfcab flips, fakie flips and close to a few more. Then it was back to work.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, ace low af1 hollows hard bushing, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 4/10)