Dave hit me up after I had a relaxing dinner to skate campus. I met up with him about when it was getting dark and it was way colder out than I had thought. It was around freezing with 87% humidity. I could tell immediately that I wouldn’t skate well. After cruising around looking for Dave we ended up at the wood bank area, although would never get past the long curb and mini bank to curb. It’s pretty easy to describe our 2 hours of skating with a couple of lines. Dave got back 50 the curb (really good), front shove to fakie the “bank”, switch boardslide 270 out. I did a fakie bigspin into the “bank”, boardslide the curb, front pivot the bank to step, front board flop out the ledge. We ended up doing quite a few tricks on the bank to step which was probably the most fun part of the session. Dave did back pivot shove to fakie, switch front nose the ledge, fakie shove. I’m not sure if I got a line or not but I enjoyed a few tricks on the bank to step like front tail stall shove, back nosepick shove, front axle to fakie. Tough night.

(setup 0/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralights 149, bones pj 53mm, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain level 5/10 right knee does not like me much)

On a cold, but thankfully not windy weekend I went to dog park around noon to meet Rob, Skelly and more at Greenblock aka Dog Park. Skelly was on time! Paul was there which was rad. Actually so many people that I knew it was kind of hard at times as there were so many people to catch up with. Including Ben from Evergreen/Escapist, Damian, Steeze and Alton from Silver Sessions, Big Mike who is one of my favs, many more. I’ve had a bit too much wine writing this. My skating was alright. I had a setup change. Basically the same, but with Royal trucks instead of Ace lows. They were better, but my setup was not perfect. Is it ever? I saw Rob get back 50 no comply our, back 50 back 180, nollie lip. Paul did back 5-0 front 180. I got a first try fakie 50 halfcab out on the curb, front 50 180 on the curb to switch noseslide 270 shove on the bench. Came super close to front heel on flat, nollie front tail 270 shove. Mike did fakie back nosegrind for the first time in a while and it was sick. I was pretty tired and sore, but then Fuller showed. And he apparently brought an entire crew of young kids with him as they arrived right after he did ha ha. Dave shredded though. I saw a line with manual around the C ledge then front 50 the bench all casual. After a while we ended up over at the barrier and we ended up skating it differently. Trick off the curb, trick in the barrier, trick up the curb. It was really fun even though I was already exhausted having already skated a few hours. It really exposed how rarely I do anything off a curb, even shoves were scary and hard. Fuller did another line of fakie shove, axle stall to rock ‘n roll, kickflip up that was even better. But the switch no comply was hot too. I took a long time to get my line, but I did get Dave’s back as we did our lines back to back. This was a really fun day even though I didn’t land a whole lot beyond my basics.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

Bummed on only having ~1 hour between work calls into the evening on a nice Friday I went over to the school. I had made my first real setup change in a while – same deck, ace lows, 53s instead of 51s. It felt really good actually. I still struggled and had no confidence, but I’m also still breaking in newish shoes still. After about the first 30 minutes I think I had only landed kickflip and b/s flip as far as flip tricks go. But I would go on to get a couple treflips, halfcab flips, fakie flips and close to a few more. Then it was back to work.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, ace low af1 hollows hard bushing, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

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)

Got to dog park a little after 10 on a crisp Saturday morning. It was in the upper 20s which felt incredibly cold compared to the upper 70s of Hawaii. The colder weather surprised me how hard it made warming up. But things did get going and it was fun. There was a pretty epic crew of mostly Saturday morning peeps. Cass and I played a warm up game of SKATE that took a while. Not one of our best, but certainly not our worst. I would win it on halfcab flip or backside flip. Did some normal skating around then got in on the table session with Bratcher, Cass, Fergs and Sean. Cass got up onto it pretty quick as did Jack. Mine was questionable, but really fun and rewarding. Fergs front nose shove was sick, I was hyped to get his back with a little nose jib down. Sean front nosegrind up it was sick. I had to bounce to bring my mom to the dr. Fun short session.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with royal bushings flat small washer, 51mm bones pj v1 with 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 288s w/b size 12)
(pain 4/10)

After a long day in the heat doing some swimming, hiking and the art museum Liz and I met Neil at Ala Moana. I was super disoriented and had to wear glasses because of a huge stye on my eye. I had also changed my setup to 8.5 with ace highs hoping that a whole trip on this setup would convince me I liked it. Neil was charging out the gate. he is built for lines here. He got the phone out pretty quickly and I think did this line first try. It took me a bit to get used to the wavy ledge. It was a fun session. I didn’t get any lines really, but managed to finally land a treflip in Hawaii going 1mph between peds. After this fun session we had some food and went to see Dinosaur Jr!!!!!!! Epic start to the trip.

(setup 3/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollows, 53mm bones pj v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12)
(pain level 2/10)

Sean and I ended up on campus after driving around looking for some dry. We started at the old meetup curb that has gotten much crustier thanks to some snowplow destruction. Sean easily did some manuals and popped over the median. I took too long to get a slappy crooks. Then we went into campus when my wheel locked up skating the little downhill curb. Then on the way back to the car to get a skate tool my wheel fell off. Argh. Aces I love you, but you quality control sucks. Anyway we went back and ended up at the downhill alley ledge spot. It was a really slow start for me. The pop of the low Aces wasn’t working to get into noseslide very well. I would go on to get a couple lines I really liked though. Halfcab flip into the “bank”, noseslide to fakie. Also backside flip, switch front 180 then noseslide. It’s not much, but it did make me quite happy. Sean struggled with front 5-0s but would get one perfectly when it came time to film it. He had front shoves, heelflips and f/s halfcab flips into the downhill. Also ollied up on to the ledge and off at the end.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 53mm bones pj stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 288S w/b size 12 half 440 insole)
(pain level 5/10 was dying by the end)

After a bad night of sleep I met up with some mostly older folks at dog park. It was supposed to be super nice, but instead it was pretty windy which sucked the warmth out. Bratcher and Jesse were there shredding, working on crooked grinds when I first showed. Jesse was popping over flat bars like it was nothing. Jack apparently switch 50d the curb and had some nice back 5-0s that I saw. Paul was there shredding like he does. Back 5-0s easy, switch slappy crooks, nollie 180 switch crooks on the curb. Will showed up and casually front 50’d everything. Sean worked up to a line of ollie the hydrant, nose manual up the table, back nosegrind the bench, front 180 nose manual, fakie flip on flat. Wow! I had new skate shoes. I had given up on the Xeros. I had the one shoe closest resembling the fit I want. The New Balance 288 Sport. They felt decent. I wasn’t sure how they would feel after six weeks of Xeros so I paired it with an 8.5 with venture 5.8s that I immediately hated. I have no recollection of anything noteworthy that I did.

(setup 1/10 null vhs 8.5, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 v-cast/titanium, 51mm bones stf pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 288S size 12 w/b 425 insoles)
(pain level 4/10 body still adjusting to skating again)

Out in the garage on a snowy day lunch break. Skated for about 45 minutes. Mostly just stationary since there is so little room in my cluttered garage. Took a bit to get kickflips. Took even longer to get a treflip, but the key is that I did land on one. I put my feet on a few of them. Still amazed at how small 8.5 feels with the Kelsos. Ugh.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 low, 53mm bones v1 pj, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb and xero insoles)
(pain level 3/10)