I lounged away the hot part of the day and when the clouds rolled in I headed out to Louisville intending to go do the metal curb spot. But when I arrived there was a family playing basketball and sitting on the curbs and I didn’t feel like rolling into that. After some driving around looking for a school I ended up at Louisville park since there were only a couple of scooter kids there. I was skating a smaller board in hopes of easier flip tricks. It seemed to help but I didn’t do much. I had done a few basics around the park and settled in on the line of crooks the ledge then noseslide to fakie the bump to ledge. But it started pouring.

It dried up before I got all the way back to Boulder so I went to Platte with no real intentions but ended up going in on crooks shove. Took a while, but I got two and I was hyped. Although I wanted to do shove off the curb after and missed it both times. Doh. Hucked a little more, but crooks were basically it. Considering how tired I was it felt good to go in on one trick.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 beatles, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 148 royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 white size 11.5 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

So yeah, this really happened. I don’t really know how to write this entry. Everyone hear knows he’s been my fav skater since WHL. I have been DM’ing a little with PJ for years. He’s always been super nice and when I saw he was in Omaha I reached out and asked if he was coming through CO. He said yes and I told him about dog park, but it didn’t seem he’d be coming through Boulder. I had plans to meet up with Rob, Paul, Ed on what initially seemed like would be a normal mellow Friday session. But pretty quick into the session PJ said he’d be coming by. After an initial excitement freak out I was able to settle down and we skated.

PJ and Paul showed up around the same time. It was actually kind of funny because PJ slammed on his first kickflip. Like just a little look around at the park, stand on the board, slam on a kickflip. He then did some warm up flatground just going slow in a little section in the back of the park. Then we were all skating just doing our things. Rob had a nice manual around the lurb, back smith the curb (got a cheer from PJ). I’m sure this comes as a surprise to know one, but this session is a blur for me and I don’t remember much. Paul had some nice switch slappy crooks, back 5-0s. PJ had some really casual kickflip manual, 50’d everything, first try front shove back 50. We thought he left, but turns out he was just chilling a bit. Ed had shown and was cruising around getting manuals and ollies and everything. I had some crooks, slow 50s, switch front noseslides.

After a while we noticed PJ skating the actual skatepark so Paul and I went over there. I may have gotten a little line of boardslide transfer into the bank followed by b/s flip the hip but I honestly can’t remember if I did the bs flip. PJ was mostly skating the bump to ledge. PJ did front shove back 50, back tail, nollie crooks, kickflip noseslide pretty quickly. He also took a few tries to ollie the pyramid, but then did 180 and kickflip first try. Varial heel the euro hip first try. A funny kickflip over the hip where he readjusted and landed where most mortals would have bailed. I knew it was now or never to get a clip of him showing me up and he thought the idea was funny. Thanks Paul for filming. PJ had initially tried to show me up with treflip noseslide, but settled for kickflip noseslide. At this point things were pretty normal and it was super fun. I did noseslide then kickflip to fakie on the bank after and PJ did nollie crook (I think) followed by such a casual treflip to fakie. After this I offered to film his his treflip noseslide which took him several tries. It was cool to see his process and that he doesn’t in fact always land everything. When trying the frontside flips Paul was trying the noseblunts. It was cool and both dudes got their tricks. Paul and I chatted with PJ for a bit after skating and it was awesome. I really can’t believe it happened and how normal and fun it felt once it was done. Epic day for me. Thanks for coming to Boulder PJ!

(setup 5/10 8.5 nullosaur, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 53mm bones stf v1 pj (ha) wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 wide white size 11.5 with half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Still feeling run down I went over to the school with a bigger setup and proceeded to not land anything. Well, I guess a fluke switch front shove, fakie flip that took too long, halfcab flip and some slappys.

(setup 2/10 8.5/14.25 thunder team hollow)
(pain level 6/10 so sore and arthritic from being sick)

Feeling a little better I went over to Basemar around the time it got dark. I was on a tiny setup and would mostly dislike it. But I hadn’t put mini logos on my truck tier list so kind of needed another session on them. I started out in the kicker area just kind of dorking and really struggling still feeling arthritic from being sick. The cracks at that spot are so bad now. I literally did nothing. Went over to the alley door spot and did a warm up line of ollie to fakie then fakie nosepick the curb. The fakie nosepick felt really cool. Then tried no comply followed by back pivot 270 shove on the curb. But gave up on the pivot shove and spent too long trying kickflip. I would get a few, but kept touching the rail and wanted a clean one. Weird night, I hope to have energy soon.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null beatles, jessup ultragrip, mini logo 8.3 trucks with royal bushings (and they still wouldn’t turn), 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape yellow, new balance numeric 440v2 wide size 11.5 white with half insoles and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On another very hot day I met up with Cass and Kyle at the warehouse where things were once again arranged completely different. Cass was doing flatground then a qp trick and did one of the best b/s flips. Kyle was nosesliding the huge table from flat and got 270 shove and 270 out. I had a smaller woke setup, 8.25 with ventures and it felt good. I had done a little flatground and was happy to get a first try halfcab flip which have been a struggle lately. Then I mostly just skated the long metal ledge while the Cass filmed Kyle. I rattled off quite a few warm up tricks. Crooks to fakie and switch noseslide 270 shove being my fav. I struggled with frontside grind unfortunately. I was also starting to ahte the Tiago shoes and was getting some knee pain.

We left for the nearby jersey barrier spot where I didn’t land anything, Kyle showed his front blunt expertise and Cass tried an acrobatic maneuver for an hour.

Then we went to a nearby little gap spot. It’s funny I had skated the big Tiago’s earlier, but had some vulcs on for the gap which felt way more comfortable. I did a few flatground kickflips, the ollie took about 10 tries and I could not do it more than once. Doh. I had wanted to ollie the gap then do a flipper off the curb. Cass would ollie it, back 180 it and get a banger bigspin for stubborns 2. Kyle did a couple mirror lines interchanging switch heels and switch front shoves. Also a fakie flip. Felt fun hucking down that gap and made me miss street skating and filming.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null beatles, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 with royal bushing flat top washer, spitfire f4 99a classic shape yellow wheels, new balance numeric 1010 / 574 vulc with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 earlier on with the 1010s and would get less with the 574s)

Had a long day of work filled with some bad news and didn’t have the motivation to do a real session. But I did get out shortly before sunset to the school for about 30 minutes. I had some new Tiago 1010s to try and reduce knee pain. Last time I tried them I hated them, but this time around I had arch support in them and they seemed better for now. I started on the side doing some slappys and trying kickflips. Oh, speaking of Slappy’s, I had put Slappy trucks back on. Ha. They felt surprisingly good this time around. Well, for ollies at least, not for flippers, but that might be the new shoes. I had some fun ollies over the manhole and posed a couple treflips over it. Then I went to the side and did several axle stalls. It was surprising how easy they were compared to normal. The shove out took a bit, but it was pretty rewarding. I went home after that.

(setup 6/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, jessup ultragrip, slappy lights 8.5, 51mm bones stf v1 pj 103a, new balance numeric tiago 1010 phantom size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10 really enjoyed that midsole)

Not feeling very motivated I hoped being around some friends would get me skating a little. I kind of hid in the “impact section” (joke by one of Squeek’s friend) where I saw Dan do a manual to front rock back to manual and then a first try switch front board. The switch front board inspired me to try one there. It took me so long, but I got it and followed it with a first switch front nose. There was a dude (Dave?) that was rattling off really cool pivot variations on the little qp which was inspiring. I did a couple tricks then joined Garrett, Donnie and Dan on the miniramp. I would go on to skate it okay considering it’s been a long time since I’ve really skated transition. Only got one front 50, a few non-decked front rocks, fakie smiths to fakie, but it was fun. Dan almost had amazing front bigspins. Donnie destroyed. Garrett was trying not to fall on his wrist and still looked really good and the kickflip pivot was rad. After that I chilled. Squeeks’ 40 bday part is rad.

(setup 5/10 null 8.5/14.25 20 year deck, null grip, thunder team hollow 149 with bones medium bushings, bones 51mm stf v1 pj 103a wheels, strike mvmnt transit street trainer shoes size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10)

After work and a nap I went over to the side of the school with sore knees, thick shoes and a smaller setup. 8.25, slace lows, strike mvmnt shoes. I didn’t have a 10×10 list and after some slappys I just kinda winged it and would end up getting 11 flippers in an hour. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. It was a long time before I landed anything else, but then they started to flow as I calibrated to the smaller setup/ bigger shoes. F/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip, a frontside flip that felt really cool, heelflip, halfcab heel, varial flip. Was very close to treflip, fakie heel and nollie varial flip. Not as close to nollie bigflip and front heel.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null is all you need, jessup ultragrip, 825 slace lows with ace hard bushings, 52mm 99a f4 tablet, strike mvmnt transit street trainers black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

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)