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)

Went across the street before dinner on what should have been a nice night, but the wind was kicking. Did some slappies while skating some slappies and at no point enjoyed it. Tried some switch front slappies and could not quite commit.

setup who cares it sucked

Back to Broomfield, but it was like 40 degrees cooler. Met up with the 98 dudes and more. At the park was Dan, Garrett, Scott, Gordon, Taylor, Kyle, Ladd, Jason, so many people I’m sure I’m missing like 10 people. Dan was a demo machine, seriously rips, such good style, such good trick selection. Garrett was ripping too, some banger lines. Jason vs Ladd frontside flips over the bump to bar were cool. Don’t think ladd ever landed it though. Jason did so many cool tricks including kickflip back nosegrind shove. I myself felt pretty bad on the board, well, actually boards because I changed half way through. I was unable to halfcab flip on the mellow bank until I switched to the 8.5 with T2s. And it felt good except grinds. Gordon was ripping flippers and said this is the year we learn tricks. I tried a few switch tres, was not close. Not so close to nollie tre either. It was a fun session. I didn’t land much. Everyone else did though.

(setups 8.3 thunder teams and 8.5 with thunder t2s both kinda meh but the 8.5 less meh)
(pain level 3/10)

I’m writing this entry on a Monday after skating Broomfield park both days over the weekend. So it all blurs as to who I skated with and what people did. Cass and Taylor were there when I arrived. Garrett would come after a while, Will showed about the time we were toast. I don’t remember anything even decent about my skating. Took too long do a sw noseslide 270 shove, nothing felt good. Didn’t even do 50s really. I played a game of SKATE with Cass near the start that he won and I didn’t land anything. I was wearing Splays again. Less pain, but also less confidence. I tried halfcab flip noseslides for a while and they weren’t the furthest from possible. Cass is still the bank flyout king with kickflip, treflip, hardflip and b/s flip I think. Taylor had some mean crooks combos. Will showed and was got to nollie noseslide right way. Pretty sick.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null keyhole 2, pepper grip, thunder team hollow 149, snot franky 53mm pink, splay rev lts green size 11.5 306c insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

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)

Went across the street on a hot evening in shorts for the first time this season. Was so lazy, did some slappies, bailed a lot of slappies. I wore some new Foy cups without any insoles to break them in. They felt better than 440s.

Got another stye going in my eye so I can’t wear contacts. Rather than drive somewhere I just skated to Willville on a very warm evening. For whatever reason I started at the big dry blocks. Nose stalls were good. Couldn’t get a crook or even try front 50. Went to the little ledge and did about 12 non pop tricks. Nothing felt good. I did the worst front 50 ever then left.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper grip, venture 5.6 v8 bones medium bushings hollow hanger, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Another cold indecisive morning we finally decided on Bennett. Ben, Joe and I rolled out and met Garrett. The park new section was mostly dry, the old section had a lot of water running through. I went through 2 setups before going back to the 8.25 with v8s. None of which I liked. Joe was super hyped on the park and put together lines right away as did Garrett. Although it did at least take garrett a few tries to get a kf nose manual as he adjusted to new shoes. Ben was close to hardlflips on the bank. Garrett had the most perfect b/s flip first try on the hip. I was struggling so I kind of just tuned out and skated by myself. Did a bunch of crooks, a bunch of front 50s on the curved curb high ledge. Couldn’t do flippers. I would get a line that sounds okay on paper. Nollie front tail then front 50 the two main ledges, turn around sw front nose then halfcab nose. Had some fakie 50s. Garrett and Joe ripped it. It was a fun session. We had the park to ourselves until school got out and it got mobbed with youth laying down on their boards or riding scooters.

(setups some 8.5/8.3s then the 8.25 with v8s, new balance numeric 440 high wide black size 12 with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

After some slow moving and breakfast at Southside Walnut we went to campus. It was Joe and Ben at first. We parked on the hill and went under the tunnel. We played a loose game of SKATE on the ultra mini bank to curb. I’m not sure if there was a winner, but it was a decent warm up. I did the little 3 stair ollie then terrible wallie nollie. Joe and I were trying tricks up the little euro/grate thing. Hardflip Joe and Garrett showed up. Security rolled by and said “keep the wheels on the ground” so we moved on. I had seen some footage of the low to high curb and we checked it out. And it delivered! Although the slight downhill approach made it hard for me to commit to front 50s. I would get a few slow little ones. Hardflip Joe did a hardflip then huge hippy jump. He had some cool front noses too. Garrett long back tails and the hilarious slam on the nollie heel. Nebraska Joe had some good 50s and his normal combos.

Then we went to the Baker area, but there were cars. So to the nearby ledge. Nebraska Joe struggled with front 50s which was unusual. Hardflip Joe did some front crooks, front tails. I did some switch noseslides. Garrett had the great halfcab noseslides, halfcab crooks (until I started filming) and some fun impromptu lines. Then the wind picked up and a big cloud moved in so we called it a day.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper grip, venture 5.6 v8 bones medium bushings hollow hanger, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After a bad night of sleep I got out later than I wanted to. Met up with Gordon, Paul, Cass, Kyle, Ryan. Seemed like everyone skated alright. Cass with treflip and hardflip flyouts, crooks shove, ripping. Paul front 5-0 front 180 was so sick. Gordon manuals so easy, 50s, 5-0s. Kyle was kind of messing around with flippers and did a nollie double heel first try. Ha. Ryan had some good flippers too the switch heel. I skated pretty mid, but all things considered with how sore I was to start it went okay. I didn’t land anything really noteworth, but it was okay.

(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 440 high wide black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10)