Managed about an hour of skate time across the street at the school since they were off for Veterans Day. I had 8.25 with Ventures. It felt great at first, then would continue on a downward path. In about an hour I landed 6 flippers. Just the standard ones. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, fakie bigflip and f/s halfcab flip. Tricks I was close to were f/s flip, halfcab heel and treflip. Hucked quite a few more, was not close.
Went to dog park around 11 after it kind of warmed up. Met Gordon and Bratcher, although Jack left pretty quickly. We did our thing for a bit then Gordon and I both went in on tricks/lines. He was trying back 5-0 front 180 out on the green box. I was trying a line of halfcab flip, boardslide, kickflip on the taller wood qp. Except I completely could not halfcab flip. Like to the point Gordon suggested maybe I should skate an 8″ board again. Sheesh. He would get close. I would get like 3 halfcab flips out of a million and never get the kickflip at the end. I changed the line to start with crooks, still didn’t get the kf. Gordon never got the 5-0 180. He changed his line to nosegrind, bluntslide, nollie back 180 on the qp which he did get. Like an hour later (not really) I got a bad kf very low on the qp. Somewhat happy I got it at least. Brian, Kyle, Sean, Mike showed. I was toast at that point though.
So we took the party to the ol’ bikepath snowboard jump. Joe was 3/3 on boosted hardflips and Jack was filming him. It was insane. The crew got rather large. Brian, Ashton, Brandon, Skelly, Mike, Wade, Jack, Dan, Garrett, Chris, Preston, maybe more. No one landed tricks easily. But some highlights. Skelly one foots. Brian almost got back 3 no comply. Ashton front heel. Brandon mega bolts treflip. Mike no comply 180. Wade front 180. Jack was a sweetheart and filmed. Garrett mostly watched traffic as did Dan. Chris with the mega heelflip then back heel. I took a while to get a kickflip and then threw my board when I couldn’t to a b/s flip. But I threw it so hard I injured my shoulder. Luckily it doesn’t seem too serious, but man, insult to injury. Fun crew, fun to witness, wish I could have landed a trick I liked today. Then we ate at Dark Horse an it was fun.
(setup 1/10 null 8.3 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles) (pain level 4/10)
Comments Off on skate journal: dog park with gordon then snowboard jump with everyone (nov 9, 2025)
After several days off skating due to intense back pain I drove to Bluecar then Emage before finally ending up at Broomfield park. The crew was 98%, null, square state, so good. We all had a blast the night before at the 98% premiere. It’s really hard to remember what all everyone did. I know watching Jack skate was extra amazing. He was fully shredding, doing so many things first try. Bump to bar blunt to back lip, crooks transfer nose manual, front smiths on the brick qp, everything so good. Garrett too, sheesh, back tail the ledge into the bank then back 180 nosegrind the black ledge then kick back tail. Brian got trick of the day with the skier front rock. Maybe the blunt to fakie from low to high too. Ashton manual kickflip out the mountain pad. Cass and I kind of hid out of sight for a while. Played a game of SKATE in which I landed absolutely nothing. At no point did I do anything noteworthy, but with my back being so tight it was understandable. There were a lot more people, it was hard to keep track of and really fun.
(setup 3/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, thunder t2 149, 53mm bones stf, strike mvmnt street transits with currex runpro insoles) (pain level 6/10 but I was happy that skating seemed to loosen up my back)
Comments Off on skate journal: broomfield park with lots of awesome people (nov 8, 2025)
After rain and then a cold wind I cleaned out the garage then skated flatground for an hour. I had a smaller setup. 8.25 with Thunders. It felt nice at first, but I took like 8 tries to get a kickflip. Oh yeah, I had new shoes too, Es Accel Slims. They suck. I mean they are grippy at least, but so incredibly thin and the toebox is way too narrow. Got a fakie flip in a couple tries. Halfcab flip took a while and almost drove me crazy. B/s flip wasn’t too bad. Couldn’t get nollie varial flip or heelflip. Then went in on treflip and never landed one. I was quite close though. Oh yeah, before treflips I did a couple varial flip reverts that were not good at all. Man my flatground is so bad now.
(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, old spitfire f4 99a 51mm classics, es accel slim b/w size 12 with footprints gamechanger insoles) (pain level 6/10)
Comments Off on skate journal: garage flatground meh (oct 27, 2025)
Went to meet up with 98% dudes. Thought they would be filming some hammers, but everyone was just in a hockey rink goofing around with flat. I rode a smaller board with aces and big wheels and didn’t really land anything. I came remotely close to rick flip and got a kickflip or two, but that was really about it. Dan and Jason played an epic game of SKATE. Garrett landed a lot too. It was a fun even if I didn’t try hard.
(setup 0/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, ace af1 44 hollow, 53mm bones sft v1 103a, new balance numeric 440v2 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles) (pain level 6/10 things have not been so great lately)
Comments Off on skate journal: flatground goofing with 98 (oct 26, 2025)
Feeling tired and arthritic I met Cass at Broomfield mostly because I needed to pick up the Hayden boards from him. We warmed up on the bank to curb which is quickly disintegrating into a weird qp, still a fun warm up though. Mixed in some of the easier black ledge tricks. Laughed because Cass took like 5 tries to do a noseslide. I had a setup change, 8.3 with venture v8s. It was fine. On the blue lurb Cass smoked me to front 50 shove. We tried to mirror them out with back 50 shove but neither of us got them. Both failing in totally different ways. He would go fast and miss the shove off the end. I would go slow and come to a halt. Justin and Jameson were there, as were some other rippers. I took too long to do a slow halfcab noseslide. At the end Cass did a really good hardflip flyout, then treflip and a good flatground treflip. I did a terrible flyout kickflip and took a few tries to do boardslide on the bump to bar.
On a very windy morning in Boulder I drove to Longmont and met Dave at a very nice and calm Indian Peaks. 10 minutes later, it wasn’t so calm and the wind would get much worse, but we still skated. I hadn’t skated the front in decades so it was fun. The manny pad is better than it looks, the waxed up curb was fun, the flatground is good too. I hucked a lot, landed very little other than manual, a couple kickflips, halfcab flip and a nollie front crook (no grind) which I believe is a GleNBD. I liked how my board popped, but I was like 1/20 on kickflips up a curb which did not sit well. Dave had nollie crooks, fakie crooks, spracks to manual, cabs, 5-0 180s, crooks, he was ripping. After I left he did a switch manual on the pad!
Had some time, stopped at Boulder park. Reverted back to my 8.25 with venture hollows. Felt way better for the most part. I felt sore from the double session the day before, but I felt good pretty quickly. Front 50s worked first try on the 3 ledges I tried them on the day before. Also, the smaller/lower setup felt better for flipping. Did one little b/s flip on the hump. Did some f/s ollies on the main hip. Did a line of front 50 the bump to ledge, kickflp to fakie on the upper little bank, halfcab noseslide the triangle ledge. Front 50 shove the bench. Took a while to end on back 50 on the triangle ledge again, but it felt great.
Had some time before meeting so stopped at Boulder park on the way into work. I was on an 8.3 and T2s and thought I liked it. I hadn’t been there in a while. Kind of cruised around for a bit getting the feel of things before going in on front 50s again. They felt really good on the bump to triangle. I think I did a line of front 50 the bump to triangle ledge, go up top then front 50 the bump to ledge, then over to the bench and front 50 it. I had done some other stuff, but that made me happy. I then worked on back 50 over the corner on the upper part of the triangle ledge which I did and it felt cool. I think I did a kickflip or two, but they didn’t feel great.
After work I went to dog park. I was pretty sore from skating earlier, but it was sooooo nice out I just had to. Ted was there. He tried back 50 heelflip out on the curb, so I tried front 50 kickflip out. He got closer. My session didn’t go so well. I managed some basics, but really started hate my heavy setup and high trucks. I went in on front shove and it took way too long. I had started by lining it out, then just gave up and did it solo. Then finally set my phone up as a little more motivation. Finally got it. Left after that. Forgot there was another older dude there in D3s with some amazing manual combos.
Still feeling run down I went across the street after work on a nice and cool day. I had a setup change. 8.3 with T2s. Felt great to roll on, but I really didn’t do much. I had forgotten wax for the curb and it didn’t grind well at all. Managed some front slappies and crooks both ways. Got one kickflip that felt great, one that felt terrible. A couple nollie front 180s that felt great. Maybe a few shoves.