Off to Evergreen on a nice day.  Rob, Neil, Joe, Damon, Jake, Damon, Garrett and then the Emage dudes also showed up.  I didn’t have a good session.  Joe, Cass and I battled b/s flip the hip.  Cass was first of course.  Joe and I both had questionable ones before getting good ones.  Mine felt great and was about the only trick I really liked for the day.  Oh I guess kickflipping from the bump onto the hip was fun too.  We got to see a Rob bean plant over the hip, some manuals and back 50s.  Damon did a million tricks over the hip, often in lines.  Cass hurt his back.  Neil popped up and over things with ease, manuals, 50s, one foots.  Joe had a lot of grinds, also halfcab flip the hip.  Jake was the only one of us that did tricks on the steep qp.  Garrett got over some initial jitters then proceeded to casually kill it.  Fakie tres over the hip, back 50 up the ledge drop down to the curb, nollie back heel, back 360.  Shredding.  Fun session, but I was definitely sore and tired.

(setup 3/10 8.5 smoke valley redrilled to 14.125 wheelbase, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v-cast, bones 52mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 272 green/black size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After feeling sick and resting most of the day I went to the side of the school for some flatground. I was on a bigger board again with Thunders. My calf was hurting pretty good and my dumbass was determined to skate through it. I would get a few flippers. Kickflips, fakie flips, halfcab flips, b/s flips, fake bigflip, varial flip, but that was about it. Close on some on other ones. Liked my setup. But when I was done my calf hated me.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 149 no big washer, 53mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 calf/general pains from 306 which hurt me and I don’t know why I tried skating them again)

Feeling grouchy I went to meet friends at dog park right as a stiff breeze kicked in. It would be quite frustrating and seemed to effect everyone. I almost left after taking almost 10 tries to get a kickflip. I blame the wind, but really it was another setup change that is to blame (8.25 with 8″ venture highs). I don’t remember much about this session other than a game of SKATE with Jake in the corner that was somewhat protected by the wind. The reason it was memorable was because I got a few sketchy treflips before the judges finally just had sympathy and counted one.

After that Sean, Paul and I went to the ledge near Steelyards. As Sean warmed up I did some noseslides. had a noseslide to fakie followed by a halfcab flip that would be the highlight of my day. Then we went and filmed at a nearby construction site which was completely draining and appeared to hurt my calf again.

(setup 3/10 null 8.25 spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.2 high with royal bushings no big washer, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 nike sb insoles)
(pain 4/10)

Nice warm morning, lots of older people at dog park. Crew was Jake, Cass, Rob, Sean then eventually Garrett and Joe. I had changed to 8.25 deck. I really liked it. The key word being “liked”. I don’t remember much about this session prior to a game of SKATE with Cass, Sean, Jake. I got a letter on Sean with a treflip which made me happy. But that was the only letter I got on Sean and he would win. I outlasted the older 30 somethings though. I would also get several front 50s on the black ledge and an ultra rare manual the blue pad. Saw Rob do shove lipslide, nollie lipslide, front 50, nose manual, back 50 back 180 blue ledge. Cass front noseslides, front tails, chilling. Jake had front tails and mostly skated the bowl. Sean did Sean things. The long 5-0 down the new bank to ledge so casual blew me away. Garrett and Cass looked good on their boards too. AFter that we drove all over Lakewood and didn’t skate anything.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149s, 51mm bones stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10 vulcs)

After letting it warm up a collection of us met at Broomfield park to check out the new additions to the park. I arrived first and got called for work immediately upon exiting my car. Argh! But I jut needed to make some calls so it wasn’t too bad. I had rolled around a little and was getting used to my setup when others showed up. Rob, Dave then a bit later Bratcher, Jesse, Tim. Also the Daryl and Justin which are always good to see. David, Max H was there. Darin showed up. So yeah, as you can see a lot of people were there and the park was quite crowded and chaotic at times. I had yet another setup change, 8.3 with Thunder 149s. It was good except for the big wheels I put on it. There were too many people for me to notice everything that was done, but I’ll start with Rob. He had some really good front tails on the new bank to curb, shove lipslide on the blue ledge, crooks, front boards and laid his board to rest when he couldn’t get a kickflip. Dave was on a mission as always. He had a really good run of boardslide to fakie the brick qp, switch crooks to forward the new smaller bank to curb, ollie up back 180 from the banks on the pier 7 replica but couldn’t get the pressure flip garnish ha ha. Him and Darin skated the quartapotty for a while which is way hard to skate now with the massive coping. I had a lot of fun crooks and had a couple noseslides to fakie on the bank to ledge, some fun front slashes on the bank to curb. Mostly I bailed tricks though and took way too long to boardslide the bump to bar. At the end Darin and I did some flippers. Well, Darin did a bunch in a try or two making me jealous of his little 8″ board. I may or may not have gotten a treflip as I’m not sure if my back foot was really on it initially or not. Jesse was shredding, Bratcher too. Great seeing Daryl and Justin rattling off tricks and the rest of the Emage crew was ripping. Pretty fun session.

(setup 5/10 8.3 PMG, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 149s, spitfire 53mm orange swirl classic shape F4, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After watching it snow most of the day the sun kind of came out and the ground was dry so I went to Platte to skate flat. I had tried 8.25/5.6 and hated every second of it. I did have a couple of kickflips that flipped faster than normal, but everything else was miserable. After flailing around for ~20 minutes I went to the ledge that had snow falling on it off the tree and did a few tricks. Noseslides, crooks and made myself do 3 little back 50 jibs in a row.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 with royal bushings, 51mm bones stf pj, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to dog park after work having changed trucks to Ventures. They did not feel good for ollies, but flippers did feel better. I would have a pretty blah session, but managed two things I hadn’t done before. A front tail shove on the curb and a front smith to fakie on the c lurb. Neither one grind/sliding. Still felt cool.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.8, 51mm bones pj, new balance numeric 306 blue/white nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Was sore, but it was so nice out and Sean and Paul were going the park so I went to dog park too. Shortly after being there someone said I should do 49 tricks so I started trying. I have no idea what the count was but I’m going to list them now and see.

ollie
front 180
back 180
switch 180
boardslide
noseslide
noseslide fakie
noseslide 270
switch front nose
switch back nose (10)
switch back nose to forward
switch back nose front shove
halfcab nose
crooks
slappy crooks
slappy front crook
front 50
back 50
front 50 180
front 50 back 180 (20)
front nosegrind 180
fakie 50 f/s halfcab out
kickflip
fakie flip
varial flip
b/s flip
rock ‘n roll
front rock
back slash
front slash (30)
nollie front tail
nollie front tail fakie
nollie back tail
nollie 5-0
nollie 50
manual
fakie bigspin
nollie front 180
nollie back 180

Okay yeah not even close to 49. Oh well, not too bad considering it was just a regular session without a plan going in. Sean was kinda lazy I didn’t see much. Paul was ripping and has some fakie 5-0 halfcab out. Also I had made a setup change. Man I love how it skated but I cannot flip aces to save my life.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones pj, es melange black size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

Was almost not going to skate at all, but it was so nice out and I had remembered this little ledge spot I hadn’t skated yet. I warmed up with some switch front noseslides and noseslides, some flippers. I had new shoes (Es Melange) and my 8.3/Royal setup so everything felt weird. I skated somewhat hard, probably only because it was a new spot which kind of excited me. I almost had some back 50s, a few halfcab noseslides, some uphill front 50s and then a few crooks that felt way better than they look. I have never nollie front 180’d off a curb before and it took quite a few tries, but it felt neat even if I don’t appear to pop whatsoever. For flippers I only got kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip and b/s flip. The warmer weather made the trucks feel way too loose. Glad I got out to skate a little.

(setup 4/10 null abstract33 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralights 149, bones 53mm pj, es melange black size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

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)