On a very nice afternoon I met up with Skelly, Will and Ted at dog park. Dave would show a little later. Will and Ted were already getting it on Eric’s box. Will was killing it with nollie noseslides, nosegrind 180s, switch crooks. Ted’s front cooks were crazy good. I had some crooks, tried a lot of varial heels (inspired by Tiago!) that were not close, tried a bunch of noseslide 270 shoves that I could not get. I would stick and the bails were killing my foot. Dave had some nice boardslides to fakie and 270 out, front 50s and back 50s! One line of switch 180 5-0 the masonite pad, back 50 the bench, varial flip on flat was so good. Skelly had some boardslides, 50s the curb. I did some rare crooks to fakie and tried crooks shove but couldn’t get one. Hucked some kickflip boardslides with Dave, but never committed.

Then we went over to the valmont park. Dave would slay it like normal. Wallie over the barrier, kickflip into the bank, back tail 360 out over the hip, euro to manny the mellow bank, so many things I can’t even keep track. Skelly got close to front shoves and kickflips, had some good one foots. I was kind of all over the place, had some okay things but never really stuck to anything in particular.

(setup 3/10 8.25 royal 144s 53mm snots strike mvmnt transit street trainer no insoles)
(pain level 6/10 not wearing arch support seemed to help my recent foot pain)

After work on a cool day met Will at Valmont toddler park. Will had forgot his normal skate shoes so was bumming on wearing his “work” shoes but he still skated. I had a kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank, hucked some nollie cabs over a hip, hucked big heels on the mellow bank. Then we skated the pool for a while. I’ve wanted to axle stall it for a long time. It was a bit of a battle, but I was happy to do it and carving around into it was fun too. Will took way less tries to get the rock fakie.

Over at dog park my foot had really started hurting. Eric was there. He had some good crooks, front tails, front and back 50s on the lurb, think he had some heelflips. I really struggled with pop. Had a line of slow front 50 180 on the lurb then halfcab noseslide Eric’s box.

(setup 2/10 8.25 slappy low profile 53mm strike mvmnt transit street trainer with footprint gamechanger lite insoles)
(pain level 7/10 my right foot hates me)

Let the temp warm up a bit and the snow to melt. Met up with some dudes at Broomfield. Gordon, Cass, Will, Eric, Steezy. I had a setup change and when I put it down to roll across the park I really liked how it felt. 8.3 with venture v8s, 53s. I went on to have an above average session especially by my recent standards. I had a first try front 50 on the black box. I would go on to get several 50s. Had a line I really liked. Front 50 shove out the black box, halfcab flip on the bank, switch front nose the black ledge. Cass told me to keep going, but I was too happy. I would also get a very slow and sketchy front 50 on the ledge into the bank which I haven’t done in quite a while. Gordon had nollie front 5-0s, nollie back 50s and got back 5-0 front 180 out. Cass had an off day, saw some good crooks though. Will almost did nollie front 180 nose manual. Eric had some front tails and several heel flips at the end. Even some back heels. I couldn’t get a treflip to save my life. Doh.

(setup 8/10 8.3 keyhole 2, cheap pepper grip, venture 5.8 v8 titanium hanger ace bushings, 53mm snot franky wheels 99a, new balance numeric 440v2 high black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a surprisingly nice evening I went downtown with the main goal of skating the newish ledge. I parked by it, did a couple of noseslides and moved on to get warmed up before coming back. Ended up at the nearby alley with the bolted red metal ledge. Did a line of 180 on the brick to concrete bump then switch front nose. Tried nollie front 180 to start. Totally did the splits right in front of some people. Somehow it didn’t hurt at all. I had a setup change which may have contributed to the problems. 8.3 with slace. Mostly disliked it. Did get some nollie 180s and tried to follow with halfcab nose, but the darkness was too weird. Went over to WF and had some fun on the qp. Although the front pivot fakie took way too long and gave me a hot pocket as I kept slipping off the griptape. Went to the ledge, had some fun noseslides. Took too long to get a crooks and was reminded how little I like ace/slace. So yeah, not the best night didn’t do a single flip trick. But street skating is always at least a little rewarding.

(setup 3/10 8.3 keyhole 2, cheap pepper grip, slace 8.5, 50mm tablets, converse fastbreaks grey size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a nice Easter afternoon I drove off with no plans in mind other than to hit some random business spots and avoid skateparks. Ended up at a newish building off 55th that has the crazy roof spot. Had a setup change. 8.25 with v8s. It was decent. Had too big of wheels on it though – 53mm. I started with a warm up line that was really a decent line anyway. Noseslide a tall wood ledge, ride down a handicap ramp, ollie a parking block, kickflip off a curb cut. Took me a while to commit to the kickflip, but when I did it felt great. I sized up moving a bench after the kicker, but there was a sign that messed with it. I skated some flat for a bit until I could do a rare one and I got a first try 1mph frontside flip out of nowhere so that made me happy. Went to a nearby spot that has a weird gap I chickened out on again. Tried to line out a tall 3 stair ollie. Fakie flip, halfcab flip, ollie the 3. Changed it to b/s flip then halfcab flip and only got to the 3 stair once and bailed again. Decided I should just go home and enjoy the chill day.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers bones medium bushing which were too tight, 53mm snot franky wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 high size 12 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

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Met up with Bratcher at dog park. Fergs was there too. Was a pretty quick and fun session. I hadn’t done a whole lot before Jack wanted to move on to the streets. A slow front 50 on the bench, halfcab noseslide, some crook attempts on the top shelf. Fergs and I hucked some flippers. I was on the 8.5/14.25 with thunders. It seemed alright.

Then we went to a 4 flat 3 flat 3 that Jack wanted to check out. It was pretty gnar with very little space in between sets. We didn’t even think of trying the 4 to start because the landing was so close to the next 3. I managed to ollie both the 3s at least.

Then a quick stop at the snowboard jump since we were so close. I took a few tries to get a kickflip.

Then to the 3 stair area. I was playing with lines, Jack was rattling off tricks down the 3. I had a line of halfcab flip, terrible ollie a manhole then front 180 the 3. Jack rattled off 180, switch 180, halfcab, pop shove, one foot, switch ollie. It was crazy how willing he was to commit. I was hyped on a front 180 up 2nd try then took forever to kickflip down it. I did commit several times before the roll away so had a few slams.

Jack left. I looked at the little ledge by the trash cans and did a couple of basics. Then noticed another area nearby I had never hit before. The ledge was really tall and a noseslide was hard. Someone good could line it out with a trick down a long 4 stair.

Fun day skating in the streets!

(setup 7/10 null 20 years 8.5/14.25, jessup ultra, thunder hollow lite 149, bones stf 52mm v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 wide highs black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On the way into work I stopped at Boulder park for a short session. I started on an 8.25 with Royal and it was laughable how incredibly bad it felt. So I swapped for my 8.5 with T2s. Did some whatever then settled in on what I hoped would be a quick warm up line. Grind the qp, carve a weird hump, kickflkp to fakie on the bank next to the hip. But I couldn’t kickflip. At all. I lost my mind and it was so depressing.

After a long day at work I met Dave in the crack riddled parking lot behind Safeway in Longmont. He brought his curb. I was skating a very old 8.3 that had Indys on it and was so sore. But we skated and it was fun. I did a few of the sprack to manuals, took a long time to kickflip the parking block. Dave switch spracked it, sw tail the bank. Then did a crazy long line starting with no comply flip and getting to slappy crooks which involved some helipops, shoves and kickflips. Dave did the slappy crooks which is so crazy. Then we put the curb up and did a few tricks. Well, Dave did a few tricks anyway. He was 2-2 on front hurricane. Always fun skating with Dave.

(setup 8.5 with T2s early then 8.3 with Indys later and both I hated and some Splays which were starting to get painful)
(pain level 6/10)

On a warm afternoon I met up with Will at his namesake spot. We hit the main manny pad area for a while. I had a christmas complete – 8.3 thunders 53s. Meh. We skated the low part of the ledge for a while. Will doing real tricks with pop like 50s and tailslides both ways. I did a lot of no pop tricks. And my setup felt like it had no pop so that wasn’t helping my lack of pop. Then we went up to start working on manuals. I got a first try manual then couldn’t do anything. Will had manualed down pretty far, but not til the end. I CU cop came and was super nice, but told us not to grind basically. So we played a game of SKATE that I lost really badly on. I think I did get a few flippers though. I started to get crazy knee pain. We went and looked at other spots, but didn’t skate anything. My knees hurt so bad walking home that I almost took off the Foy Cups and threw them in the creek.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null keyhole 2, pepper grip, thunder team hollow 149, snot franky 53mm pink, new balance numeric 306 cup grey size 12 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

Met Will at dog park after work. It was breezy, but nice out. I was very sore and seemed like the knee pain got worse as I went on. I’m reminded of how much the 600s hurt my knees. Nick was there, but couldn’t get it going because of the wind so he left. Kind of a weird session. Will did switch manual and was trying to go right into switch front 50 on the bench. I don’t think he got both together. He had some nice nosegrinds and all that. I was okay on the lower stuff. Had a couple flippers. Tried the line above for a while starting with fakie flip, but as soon as Will started filming I couldn’t land one. Argh. So I just did the halfcab noseslide then kickflip and when I landed the kickflip over the curb I decided why not try no comply flip. And it worked out! Left on a good note after that.

(setup 7/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper grip, venture 5.6 v8 bones medium bushings hollow hanger, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Went to Square State in the evening hyped to see Brian and skate some. I had a new board which felt good with the mostly new kicks. Brian and I played on the china bank for a bit. I had some axle stalls and maybe a front slash onto the other bank, a kickflip on the bank. Brian did rock to feeble to fakie, front slash, blunt fakie which kind of ruined his back. After that Alex and Nick were playing SKATE in the middle and I tried a bunch of treflips near the china bank. Landed on a couple bad ones, but never got a clean one. At the end I posed some halfcab flip noseslides on the little ledge, but was not close.

(setup 4/10 null kaleidoscape 8.25, pepper grip, slace 8.25, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, converse fastbreaks white size 12 half 574v insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)