After some axe throwing with coworkers I was driving down Dillion Rd near the old TF stomping ground so I pulled in and drove around. Saw some new spots that look fun but had cars, old bank spots that are not really skateable anymore, and a new empty parking lot in the shade. The shady spot was kind of perfect since it was in the mid 90s. I started really slow just kind of doing some no pop shoves, 180s, etc. Oh yeah, I had a little setup change. Indys instead of Aces. Board still felt big, but easier to manuever with the slightly lighter trucks. After the first 30 minutes I think I had only landed kickflip. But I kept hucking and eventually added fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip, fakie bigflip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip and really struggled to get the tenth trick which was fakie varial flip. I had hucked quite a few other tricks that were close. Gotta keep trying back heels because they were really close. Glad I skated. Bummed it takes me an hour and a half to barely get 10 flip tricks going slow these days.

(setup 5/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, indy 149 forged hollow knox royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really nice night I had thought of slacking, but decided to take advantage of students still being gone and went to campus. I had no intention of ending up at the flagstone ledge to warm up, but the way traffic and bikes were I just stuck on the fun downhill bike path and it spit me out at the ledge. I had a new board/ setup change that I hope to stick to. 8.5 with the bigger 14.5 wheelbase and aces. Anyone reading this knows the chances of me sticking with a setup are zero. But I did have a fun first session at least. I mostly skated the ledge and didn’t try a lot of flippers. I couldn’t get crooks. Front axle took a while to get. I was happy to get a front 50 and an accidental 5-0. Seemed like I gained a little confidence and could maybe do them moving next time. Then I went nearby and did a line of ollie up a 2 stair, kickflip, front 180 down the two stair. Then over to the business building as it was getting dark. Got a couple lines I liked. Boardslide the tall ledge, kickflip, noseslide to fakie the wood bench, fakie flip. Then noseslide the tall ledge followed by a crooks on the wood ledge, then a bailed backside flip. Lastly I tried to ollie up the 3 stair. I got myself to commit mentally, but my back leg wasn’t having it and I hung up. Then I walked back to the car. Fun session, tried hard.

(setup 5/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 hollow 55, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Earlyish Saturday a large contingent of the old dude crew showed up. And one younger dude that didn’t get the memo and was totally charging haha. The crew was Bratcher, Rob, Paul, Tim, Eric. I had Thunders this time around, like them more the Ventures, but not a whole lot. I was still feeling somewhat run down and didn’t have a lot of energy. There was a lot going on so it was hard to pay attention to others. Like Rob’s front 50 back 180 I missed which I wish I would have seen. Also saw him nose manual around the blue bank, some front noseslides, manuals after some frustrations. Paul’s back 5-0s front 180s are great. He also did some front nosegrinds on the black ledge and back 50s on the bank to ledge. Eric and I eventually mustered the courage to front 50 the ledge into the bank. I only got it once, but it was rewarding. I took way too long to get a line of crooks the black ledge then noseslide to fakie the bank to ledge. Jack was stacking clips. Switch boardslide to 50 is one of my fav moves of his. Eric added some front tails and quartapotty moves. Paul and I finished with a game of SKATE that took a while because he was being nice. He got me on nollie flip to end it.

(setup 4/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder hollow light 149 royal bushings, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a cool afternoon I met Dave at the meet up curb. The session started off alright with some good dorking and hucking. Dave had done a pop shove front 50 on the curb, gotten into switch crook stalls and was trying back tailslides off the uphill curb cut. Then we kind of settled in on trying kickflip tails. Mine was f/s, Dave’s b/s. I had set the phone down, but it ran out of space before capturing anything. Not that it really had much to capture. Dave did a few like the video above. I didn’t get any f/s ones but was close. We moved one building to the north and ollied up a curb to 3 stair ollie which was fun. Then to the ride on ledge / ledge area where the real struggled started to mount. The ride on grind is not as smooth as it used to be, we both hung up the first few times. I had put Ventures on and disliked almost every second of it. I would get a couple front axle stalls that I tried kickflips out of since I was just standing there. Might have gotten one little grind. Managed an alright fakie 50, some noseslides, couldn’t flip my board. Dave had some good ride on front 50s some with front 180 out, switch front nose the ledge. Then went in on the front 50 up to switch crook down which he kind of did, but mostly would stick or fall off. My eyes had been weird because of some sickness (my eyes get messed up when my body fights something and I also get arthritis it’s really fun) and I had a setup change making everything so hard. Oh well, we skated, we ollied a 3 stair, we did some grinds. It was frustrating, but we did it.

(setup 1/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, venture v-cast 5.8 royal bushings, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Later in the evening I went to campus wanting to skate the bank to curb. It was still 93 degrees. Yikes. I putzed around on flatground a little before then went to it. I had a setup change. 3 days in a row. This one is supposed to stop that. I sure hope it does. 8.5 with 14.25 and royal 149s. I liked it a lot. First thing that made me happy was some noseslide 270s. Then a front shove to fakie. Then I randomly started hucking nollie shove noseslides. I never got one to slide, but I did get a couple little tap ones like in the video. I did quite a bit of flatground in between tries. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip and two (bad) treflips in a row! I tried some front shove back 50s too, but wasn’t as close. Eventually moved on. Ended up under the Engineering building. Did a few basics on a poorly lit bench then spent way too long trying to do a line. Slappy crooks, kickflip into the second bank, b/s flip up the angled curb. Took me forever to commit to the kickflip and I would only do so if I took a massive speed check. I did come close to getting all 3, but would never actually get the b/s flip. Decent night, skated hard.

(setup 7/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, royal 149 ultralights, 52mm spifire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Arrived to a busy and weird scene. There were these older teens skating that were so incredibly clueless. Like no spacial awareness whatsoever. Before I had set my water bottle down one had run into me and gotten run into when cutting someone off mid tailslide. It didn’t really get better for me. I had one flyout kickflip and some fun noseslides. Dennis, Garrett, Joe and Darin was there. Garrett had some amazing back tails into the bank, Joe some amazing front crooks to fakie. Joe had a really long line and some solid f/s flips. A treflip session kicked off. Everyone but Dennis and I landed them. I went like 0-50. Some were close, most were not. Jameson did a line of all 4 treflips, double treflip, lazer flip, geez.

(setup 2/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 af1 hollows, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Finally emerging from a heat comatose shortly before sunset I ended up at Douglass with yet another dumb setup change (ace lows). It felt good at the time though, I hucked around pretty good although it did take me like 8 tries to get a kickflip initially. I couldn’t get a halfcab flip in one of the warm up lines either. But I did end up getting a few flippers including heelflip and treflip which are rare these days. Crooks was tough. Front axle stall even harder. Couldn’t quite get a front 50. Once it got dark I intended to skate more, but ended up just driving around then going home.

(setup 5/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 classic 99a yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half 574 insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10 I guess sleeping a lot is good for the body)

Thought I had more energy. Went to campus with a bigger setup. Started up near the tunnel to the hill. Tried a line for a while of a flip trick, a stall on the mini bank to curb, noseslide the sandblasted flagstone bench, kickflip a metal grate out of the kicker, ollie up the 3 stair. The line had started after trying most of the tricks during warm up. Flip tricks went alright I got halfcab flip and heelflip but then I started to really struggle with noseslides which I blame on me changing my setup like a moron. Anyway I never quite got the kickflip before a few people came out of the building and sat at a table. And I didn’t feel like stumbling around like a dork in front of them so I moved on. Had a fun downhill roll and ended up at the fitness center. Went into line mode there too. Flip trick, noseslide, front axle stall a bench, 180 a rock. But I got super tired or something and was totally sucking, missing noseslides even. I left feeling ultra depressed, but realized I was exhausted so whatever. Gonna miss these quiet summer nights on campus.

(setup 6/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year, null grip, slappy 8.5 lights with ace bushings, 51mm pj bones stf 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 left knee is really swollen)

Met up with Carleigh after work at Valmont. Yes, Carleigh! She was there with Zack and Marg. We hung for a bit. Rob showed. We skated Valmont briefly. I think Carleigh kickflipped the hip, I posed a few flippers. Zack did a cool ride on grind into the deep end of the bowl.

Over to the ledges I saw Carleigh piece together a quick up onto the manny pad then boardslide off followed by a front 50 on the lurb. Rob didn’t get a first try kickflip for the first time in a while, but I think got it second try. Also some nice manuals some of which he dropped down and kept manualling. Back 50 back 180 out followed by halfcab noseslide. Paul had shown and was quickly rattling off Sean tricks like back 5-0 front 180 out and nosegrinds. But he also had some mean switch slappy crooks. I tried like a million kickflip back 50s and didn’t get a single one. I also tried several front nosegrind 180s and dragged my back wheels along the ledge on the 180 every time. Argh. Other than that I had some okay crooks on the back of the two step and one slow treflip that felt decent. Dave had shown up after Carleigh had left. He was flipping his board more than normal, somewhat close on several treflips. He took a long time to get a nose manual, was kind of losing his mind, but once he did he got a nosegrind in a few tries. Eric showed up as we were leaving and they had a little barrier session. I was too sore to keep skating. They both did boardslides to fakie which they hadn’t done before. They also did barrier firsts of feeble to fakie and lien to tail. Rippers! Also ripping were Austin, Eric and Jason. Eric’s nollie flip over the parking block then treflip was so good.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null all you need, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollow lights with royal bushings, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 574 blue size 11.5 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Was slacking after work, but decided a 10×10 list would be good motivation to skate a little. My list:

kickflip
bs flip
fakie bigflip
heelflip
bs halfcab heel
treflip
nollie treflip
fakie treflip
switch flip
nollie back heel

Rain was threatening and I tried to warm up quickly even though I had yet another setup change. 8.5/14.25/thunders. I thought I would do real bad, but was happy I was able to get 6/6 before the rain hit at nollie tre. I was happy to get a first try fakie bigflip and my first halfcab heel in forever. Other tricks were whatever. Treflip was a little over 10 tries.

(setup 5/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, null grip, thunder 149 team hollows with royal bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 wide 11.5 white with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)