After getting lots of ghost pop lately I tried a different setup. Indys. It was below freezing and the slappy curb was wet. So I ended up at the rock area. I did a very easy feeling front axle stall on the rock first try and though wow this board has pop. But then I tried kickflips and ollieing onto the rock for quite a while. I did a slow kickflip before everyone of these ollies. I may look bummed, but I was pretty happy that my knee was letting me try so hard. I would never quite get the ollie up onto the rock, but I did get like 30 kickflips.

(setup generator blank 8.5/14.25, indy forged hollow 149 with royal bushings, orange spitfire f4 53mm 99a classics, vans wayvee white size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsole orthotic and 272 insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After a very long work week I went over to the school. I had gone to PT and she said it would be okay if I started jumping a little. I started at the oval curb area and really struggled to even axle stall. Yikes. Ended up on the side of the school and took about 20 tries to do a slappy crook then kickflip. Yikes. I was happy to kickflip, but unhappy about how hard it was. I went home feeling very saddened by how hard skateboarding was and wondering if I’ll get anything back.

(setup 5/10 8.5 generator 14.25, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium with bones medium bushings, 52mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 600 knox black/gum size 12 spenco orthotic thinsole)
(pain level 6/10 of course my knee seemed to hurt more now that I was cleared to skate)

After working in the office I went to Valmont park after and met Dave. Well, he was at dog park initially and needed very little convincing to go over to Valmont. It wasn’t crowded. I had a big board that felt ridiculous, but was kind of fun to cruise on. Dave was shredding. Front tail the volcano, manuals, front rock the weird rainbow qp, grinds over it, nollie back 180 over the hip, blunt to pivot the volcano, so much more. I randomly found a hip on a mound we had never hit before. I disobeyed doctors orders and popped the worlds smallest ollie over it. Like literally nothing happened when I ollied. Man it’s gonna be a tough road to recovery. Dave had a nice ollie or two on it. We’re gonna stack some tricks on it! I had some fun riding grinds off the edge of the wedge, a slow grind over the rainbow, some nollie shoves although I couldn’t get the little nollie bigspin on the bank. Dave left and tested my knee with a line of axle stall the pond then noseslide the bump to ledge. Felt good to try a couple of actual tricks and the really good news is I don’t think my knee was upset about it. I can’t wait to really skate again.

(setup 1/10 null vhs 8.5, jessup ultragrip, slace 8.5 trucks, 53mm orange spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric knox 600 black/gum size 12 with spenco thinsole orthotic insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a long day of work there was a little sunlight so I went across the street to get some slappy crooks in. I have been changing my setup basically every day because why not. I’m only doing slappys so maybe I’ll have some luck figuring out a setup I really like. And I very quickly reminded myself that I absolutely hate Thunders. I somehow could barely even push. Even worse I couldn’t slappy crook. What the heck!

(setup 0/10 8.5 sample 14.25, thunder 149 hl, bones v1 52mm 103a, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 half insoles with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 6/10 I guess even just pushing in vulcs hurts these days)

On a nice Sunday I picked up Jesse and we left snowy Boulder for an almost entirely dry Longmont. Jesse and I got there first and started the warm up process which is basically all I have now since I shouldn’t be ollieing yet. Jesse had some good flippers, fast plants, noseslides and slappies right away. I dropped in and did some slappies. Might have even ollied into grind a couple of times. I did have one fun dumb line of front slappy, slide around 180, switch noeslide, slappy front crook. Rob hasn’t skated this winter, but came and did some really long manuals. Dave’s back hurt so he kept it “mellow”. Nose stalls on the bank to sideways curb, crazy switch roll in to the brick median with a drop, ride on slides, switch slappy crook. It was a fun day with a good crew, but man I’m really looking forward to my knee feeling better and trying flippers again.

(3/10 setup 8.5 14.25 sample, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, snot 52mm pink, emerica og-1 with currex run-pro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a cold and snowy morning the sun came out and it was quite nice out. My left knee is still swollen and painful, but starting to feel better thanks to PT and not jumping. So I set out in the afternoon for some more no-pop skating. I started at basemar and half piped it at the kicker. I didn’t even know what I would do when I got there, but then started messing around with nollie shove then fakie side rock. I would end up getting all 4 of the no pop shoves combined with various side rocks. It was pretty fun even if I was hating my setup (do I ever like it?). Then I drove around until I found the bank with the side curb which was fun too. Tail to fakie and shove was really fun. I came close to a nose stall manual, but the crack got me. My knee started to hurt a bit so I called it a day after driving around and looking at a few other spots.

(setup 1/10 8.5 14.25 sample, jessup ultragrip, slace low 8.5s, snot pink 52mm, emerica og-1 black size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a nice afternoon I couldn’t resist the urge to skate a little. I was sore from PT exercises, but in a good way and the knee felt better than it has in months. But I’m trying to still be patient. Just because it’s feeling better doesn’t mean it’s healed up. My knee is still quite swollen. I went behind Safeway hoping the super mini bank to curb was dry and it was! Took a couple tries to do some axle stalls then went in on the pivots. The f/s one took a big I kept putting the front wheels down in the crack. It was fun though and some of the attempts grinded which felt cool on my new Slappy trucks. Then I went to the ride on grind off Pearl parkway. I also did a couple ollies that felt good and popped pretty well. But I kept it to literally only two ollies. Then lastly over to the arapahoe bank with the holes thinking maybe I could carve over a hole or two but there was a lot of snow. So I just did some no pop noseslides on the ledge and called it a day. It was incredibly fun to get out and street skate even if I didn’t pop.

(setup generator 8.5/14.25 sample, jessup upltragrip, slappy 8.5 hollow, 52mm snot pink wheels, new balance 212 b/w sized 12 spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles and 272 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

After my last session my knee felt totally done and I knew I had to take some time off. I almost made it 3 weeks before needing to get out for a brief slappy fix. I may have done a couple tiny ollies too, but mostly just slappy crooks and a couple attempts at front slappys. Knee is feeling a little better, but definitely planning on giving it a while longer before really skating.

(setup generator sample 8.5/14.25, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 af1 lows hard bushings, 52mm stf bones v1, vans wayvee white size 12 custom orthotic insoles)
(pain 3/10)

Was in the office, but took a lunch break and met Dave on a cold and windy day. I got there first and struggled through some warming up. I had a goal of a line of boardslide, kickflip, ollie to fakie on the bank, switch front nose, fakie flip. But I only got to the fakie flip once and didn’t land it. I was really struggling with flippers because of the wind and my confidence. Dave showed and it got more fun. He started in on hippy jump then boardslide to fakie the flatbars. I skated really slow with some other tricks, got a couple noseslides, one really bad crooks, a couple kickflips, remotely close to some random hucks, one nollie shove to fakie on the bank that was scary. Oh yeah, Dave was trying nollie back tail on the flat bar and I was trying switch front nose. A couple of tech rail skaters here. We got them. Dave would go on to get a line of front board to fakie, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, front 50. Pretty sick! I didn’t land much, but it felt like progress and it was fun reliving the Blue Skies era with Dave again.

(setup 6/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 orthotic insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a cold and windy night I struggled with motivation to go to square state’s silver session. Much to my delight there were only a few people there. I started out on the little kid area getting used to my dumb setup change then went to the ramp with Nick and Gray. I was somehow rustier than last time with almost no confidence at all. Gray got distracted then Nick and I skated flatground for a bit. I haven’t landed a treflip in months so I went in. My knee was hurting pretty bad and it was hard to do treflip since you have to put a lot of pressure on the front foot. I would kind of get one and didn’t feel like cleaning it up. Nick did some f/s cabs and shove reverts. Then off the the main area that was just a line of people doing tricks up the euro. Jason did nollie tre which was pretty epic. There were also nollie inward heels, nollie front heels, treflips and back heels. I would get a kickflip up it pretty quickly which made me somewhat happy. But not before I decided to dive down the euro bank to flat on my side. It was a crowd silencing slam and I almost left, but in some weird way it was fun to slam again. Although my knee would totally disagree. Then I spent the session trying to do kickflip and b/s flip on the mellow bank and really really struggled. Kind of got them. Kind of hate thunders. was trying to line the kf to fakie out with a fakie nosegrind on the little baby ledge but I couldn’t get the kf so it never worked. Steeze was there doing lots of flippers. Jesse was ripping. Fun night, wish my knee would be happy with me.

(setup generator 2/10 8.5 14.25 blank, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 hollow with royal bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 pj 103a, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco orthotic 3/4 insoles)
(pain level 7/10 that f’ing left knee)