Brought boards to Monico’s parents house so they could bring them to him and went to Arvada park since I was close. It was cold, flurries at times. The scene was ~20 rollerbladers, ~10 scooter dudes and ~8 skaters. I could not get going to save my life. Literally couldn’t even do a no comply bigspin on the round bank. Went to the back to try a line of axle stall the bank to curb to quick kickflip to fakie on the bank. Never got it. Bob was there. Talked to him for a while and was way too sore and cold to start up again after that.

(setup 1/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148, 51mm bones pj 2 washers inside, es swift 1.5 maroon thin nb insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a nice Tuesday evening I went to Square State knowing that Garrett would show, but that was it. The crew would end up being Dennis, Jesse, Garrett and Nick. Solid crew. Dennis and I were there first and warming up was tough. I had new shoes. Es Swifts. They felt mostly great though and I landed my first 3 kickflips. I went on to skate alright, but didn’t have a whole lot to show for it. Had some fun wallie nollies on the pyramid wall, fun roll in to axle stall the bank to curb, a few kickflips in a row up the euro, but couldn’t get b/s flip the hip. Nick had a sick rock ‘n roll powerslide, nollie disaster revers the bank to curb, shove it’s everywhere. Jesse has such good ollies and did first try varial flip and I think treflip up the euro. Garrett was ripping so hard. He was the only one skating the big qp doing smiths, disasters. Ollie up the 3 stair, switch heel, kickflip, treflip, fakie treflip down the 3. Back 3 the hip. It was sick. Dennis shut the session down though with nollie down the 3, nollie front 180 up the euro and then nollie up the euro.

(setup 7/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148, 51mm bones pj 2 washers inside, es swift 1.5 maroon thin nb insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knee was slightly better)

After a nice chill day I went to Douglass during a brief calm period of a windy day. My right knee was still hurting. I thought maybe wearing more supportive shoes would help – 440s. Not really. I basically attempted noseslide to crooks for a while going slow and didn’t get remotely close. I did get up onto the noseslides pretty good though. Did one to fakie too. Posed some varial heels that felt doable. Oh yeah, I made a light change to my setup that I don’t think counts as a setup change. 148 axles instead of 149. Seemed like it flipped better but was also less stable. Now I have basically the same setup as Suciu, but without monster truck wheels like him (I think he skates 53 conicals ha ha).

(setup 6/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148, 51mm bones pj 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

Up pretty early on a crisp Saturday morning Rob and I rolled to Denver and picked up Nick before meeting Jake and Cass at the newly redone Cushing skatepark. We mostly had the park to ourselves for the couple hours we skated. Until the end when it got popping and we had mostly moved to the parking lot. I really struggled to get going for reasons I don’t understand. Kevin and Cass on the other hand were charging out of the gates. Kevin nollie flip out of the bank, pivot fakie the qp, back 180 the two set, back tail the ledge, switch nosegrind 180. For about the first hour we kind of skated whatever then there was largely a hip session. Jake would get fakie bigspin. Cass b/s flip and back bigspin. Kevin nollie bs flip and switch fs flip. I would flail at halfcab flips or fakie bigflips depending on my foot setup. I struggled for a while to line it out with kickflip out of the bank, but would eventually start landing most of them. Rob had manualled the miniramp, the deck of the top qp and I think a casual halfcab noseslide the ledge. Jake had a good crooks the ledge, front halfcab noseslide, nollie back tail and a bunch of front blunts the qp. He may have skated the mini too, but who was watching that? Ha. I got a couple lines I liked. Ollie the a-frame, noseslide the bump to ledge then quick kickflip the bank and followed by a noseslide to fakie. Then the same but with a kickflip to fakie that took way longer than it should have. Each ollie was really hurting my right knee. I didn’t really see much of what happened in the parking lot as I was the last one there. I think Jake was trying treflips and Kevin trying them switch. I struggled to do some basic slappies which confused me. Anyway, super rad crew, fun session, I like that park when it isn’t crowded.

(setup 6/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 6/10 right knee sucking)

After a chill Friday at work I went to dog park on a cold afternoon. Luckily the sun came out for most of the hour I skated. Isaac, Robbie were there along with several rippers. I was determined to flip my board a lot, but the cold and my tired legs weren’t having it. They weren’t on ollies either. But I managed to skate somewhat hard and battle through things to get a couple things I was happy with. First, I finally got the Reynolds line I’ve been trying for months. Backside flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. The b/s flip was total trash, but I was still happy. The other thing was a line of switch front nose the bench then fakie front 50 b/s halfcab out the curb. I had a few mediocre crooks and some better boardslides than normal. Couldn’t get a treflip or heelflip. Didn’t like how large my setup felt. Argh. Trying so hard not to let madness take over.

(setup 6/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 51mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 288S w/w size 12)
(pain level 5/10 right knee ain’t great)

Went to the dog park on a warm cloudy afternoon directly after work without a nap. It was popping. Lots of people. Paul and Robbie were there and a bunch of college kids I had never seen before. And then tall blond guy I haven’t seen in forever. Paul was shredding. I had worn vulcs for less foot pain. It worked for less foot pain, but it didn’t work for skating or preventing knee pain. I slammed on my first attempt to front 50 the curb and it was so embarrassing. F’ing vulcs man. They have no pop. I would go on to lose my front wheels several times trying slappy tricks on the metal curb which apparently puts way too much pressure on the wheels. Argh. I left super defeated. Paul had been ripping. He got the back 5-0 front 180 he’s been trying for a while.

(setup 6/10 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 6/10)

After a chill day I went to Douglass in the afternoon on a cool day with snow threatening. I didn’t feel too good when I got on my board and would struggle for the most part. I started on the side with some ultra basic warm ups and progressed to a decent warm up line for me. Got halfcab flip on flat, nollie back tail the lurb, b/s flip the micro hip then a fakie flip on flat before bailing a fakie bigflip. That would be the highlight for me. I went on to take a million tries to get some ultra slow front 50s on the downhill part of the lurb. I partially blame all the salt, but wow I really have lost all confidence on that trick. After that I went behind the school and went in on the double noseslide Cass and I had tried months ago. I would get close, but not that close. It was fun trying hard, but a bummer not having the confidence to go into the noseslide faster to make it easier. Went out front to maybe skate more, but was tired so I went home.

(setup 8/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 149, 53mm bones pj washers outside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

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)