On an incredibly nice morning I rolled to Denver, picked up Kevin then went to the Rhino plaza. Kevin and I warmed up with some flat ground and nose slide variations on some benches. Nothing too special. Noseslides, nose slides to fakie, crooks, etc. Kickflips for me, nollie flips for Kevin. It was so warm out. 55 degrees felt like 80 after how cold it’s been. Cass showed up and slammed super hard on a puddle at the start. It was brutal. He recovered and shortly after we went to the “flatbar” which was now about 6” off the ground. Kevin was able to front and back 50 it. Cass may have gotten front 50. I posed some front smiths that turned into little jjbs. Then we skated the orange double ledges. Kevin had some good front 50s hop the gap back to 50. Cass had front nose. I had some crooks and felt out noseslide through the gap.

Then we went to the nearby escalator ledge, gave it some rub brick love and started skating it. It had started getting cloudy and cooling off a little bit, but still quite nice out. The ledge was harder to skate than it looks. After not skating outside for so long it felt cool to just flow around and do slappies, flip tricks, ollie over manholes, etc. Cass had done a better noseslide shove. Kevin and I did some crooks. Mine felt good and then I saw the footage. Doh. Cass had a nice treflip. Kevin and Cass did 3 shove late flips. Wow. I couldn’t even treflip.

Then we went real close to a bar that had a crappy quarterpipe outside of it. Cass got food while Kevin and I skated it. It was about 4 feet tall, soggy, slippery and falling a part. it was kind of funny because the asphalt was pretty good, but it took awhile to adjust to slowing down that quickly. Kevin of course ripped it. Nollie flips, switch flips, back d, switch front d, pivot fakie. Then he went to eat. I mostly just skated flatground very badly. Oh yeah I was skating my 8.25 at the first spot, but had switched to the 8.5 for the second for reason’s I do not really know. I tried to get a line of halfcab flip on flat, b/s flip low on the qp, treflip on flat. Never got the kickflip, but got a couple treflips in a row and several halfcab flips.

(setups 8.25/8.5 ventures/ 52mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

This Feb has been brutal. Went out to the garage after work again for an hour of flatground. Warm up tricks were whatever. Got to treflip pretty quickly and committed to the first one, but didn’t land it. This would happen almost 50 more times before I landed one. I don’t get it, I was committing to almost every one of them and felt like they would be makes. I didn’t get angry somehow and got a couple more pretty quickly after the first one. After that I was beat, tried nollie flips for a bit then switch front heels. But I was out of juice.

(setup null archway 8″, jessup ultragip, venture 5.2 v-hollow, bones medium bushings, spitfire 50mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Shortly after work on a snowy night I hit the garage. I had modified the putter by giving it some 8″ high trucks. So maybe it’s not really a ‘putter’ anymore. I started with the 306 shoes again and on the 8.25 setup. But quickly I was back in the comfy 212s and on the 8″ setup. Kickflips felt great as did fakie flips. Posed nollie front heels and nollie inward heels for a bit. Got halfcab flip, b/s flip, not a good f/s flip and took awhile to get heelfilp, varial flip before going in on the treflip challenge. Similar to last night I thought I would get it right away. Instead it took me 14 tries to get the first one, the second was a few tries later and the third came after 28 tries total. 3/28 is pretty terrible, but much less terrible than 3/55 like last night. I went on to nollie flips and felt like I was pretty close until I watched the footage. I gotta jump higher. Got an over 80 varial heel 3rd try, but couldn’t clean it up. Tried switch f/s flip and was not close. Then switch front heel and some felt relatively close. Should keep that one in the rotation.

(setup null archway 8″, jessup ultragip, venture 5.2 v-hollow, bones medium bushings, spitfire 50mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Another cold and snowy night. Went to the garage after work. I wore some old 306s because I wanted to see if I can wear them or need to order new 212s soon. They felt good with a thin insole. Warming up wasn’t as good as normal. I did get the first couple kickflips, moved on to fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip then treflip. I will blame the different shoes slightly for not being as grippy. But in no way completely to blame for the failing that ensued on treflips. The thing is I was committing right out of the gate. I thought I was gonna get them quick. Nope. I was so angry, yelling, throwing my board (in a manner that would not chip it). Some 40 tries in I grabbed the putter and got a treflip that try. After a few fails I went back to the 8.25 which wasn’t close. So back to the putter and I got the next two in a row. So basically around 55 tries to get my 3 treflip garage quota. I calmed down after landing them and stuck with the putter and did some hucking. Nollie heel (not close), switch b/s flip (not close but feels doable), nollie bigflip (I’ve landed a couple but it’s s o hard in this little space). I ended on a somewhat tolerable f/s flip. Then I went inside super angry and tried to mellow out and watch some basketball.

(setups 8.25 with 5.6 and 52mm wheels, 8″ with 5.0 lows and 50mm wheels, new balance numeric 306 navy/white size 12, thin sole tech insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a nap and a tough day at work I went to the garage before dinner. I had seen this video and wanted to try some cancel flips. I hadn’t sone many exercises throughout the day so warming up wasn’t easy. I slammed pretty hard on a pop shove and got discouraged. So I went for kickflip and after a few of those I started hucking cancel flips. I could tell I wasn’t doing them quite right so I setup my phone to record in slow motion to get an idea of what I was doing. Then I landed it that try. I don’t know if it’s technically a cancel flip, but it starts to flip and I cancel it with the back foot so I think so? Anyway, it felt really cool and it was only like 10 tries. That never happens. I didn’t really feel like trying any more. I did fakie flip, b/s flip. I hucked halfcab heel for awhile, but didn’t land one. Then I went in on treflips. I was determined to not take as long to get my 3 treflip minimum. I got the first on in 9 tries which is longer than I wanted, but not terrible for me. Second one at 14 tries, 3rd at 23 tries. 3/23 is my best in a long time. I was left with more time and almost didn’t know what to do. So I hucked. I was very close to switch flips, not close to nollie heel, kinda close to nollie bigflip. Then I went in for dinner. Fun session. Landing a new trick in only a few tries felt incredible. As did getting a few treflips without losing my mind.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On Valentines day several married men met up enjoy the warm indoor Square House facility. The crew was Ed, Saul, Kevin, Sean and me. Ashton and a friend were there for the first few minutes, but then we had it all to ourselves. They were hucking down the stairs and hitting the bump to ledge. Kevin and I were the first ones skating. It took some getting used to the slipperiness before tricks were hucked. Ed and Sean were there shortly after. Saul a bit later. It’s been awhile since I’ve skated at an indoor masonite park. It’s really exciting, but also very disorienting. We had a fun session. I took awhile before I could do much of anything. I had some fun back 50s on the quarterpipes, kickflip to fakie on the little bank, chickened out of skating the flat ledge because of speed, had a fun front shove out of the kicker, some crooks that felt way better than the one in the clip, posed some kickflip 50s, did some wallie nollies on the pyrmaid wall and ended with the b/s flip that was a nice way to end it. Ed was the first to leave. He had some good “Street Ed” ollies, sylee rock ‘n rolls, 50s on the qps. Saul was the only one to successfully slappy the curb as it moved around, hit the halfpipe area a lot and did his first ever rock to fakie on the 15’ vert wall (wish we would have filmed that lol). Kevin was ripping. He had back d’s on the tall qp, lots of tricks on the ledges, even more tricks on the little qp, and several tricks down the 3 stair. Enough that Sean started following his lead. Although Sean beat him to switch front shove. Kevin had wallie nollie on the pyramid wall too, a million back smiths, the switch flip took awhile. Switch Gish was in effect, but man it was rad when he got it. Sean is so graceful and powerful. The back 5-0’s and nosegrinds were so solid, f/s flip over the hip was way quicker than it looks, the front 270s were all so good, kickflips down the 3, the back heel came pretty quick. What a fun crew. Lets do it again.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5/12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

In a week of amazing parts this video stood out to me. I like that Santa Cruz still makes longer videos and shows off their roots in skateboarding history. The editing is really good, I love the 80s skate video vibes. Knibbs, McCoy and Eman have amazing parts. RIP to Henry, seemed like such a talented and fun skater to be around. Hoping for an Asta part in the next one ..

Went to the garage on a very cold and snowy Saturday afternoon. I was hyped to try some new Ace bushings. I had heard good things on Slap and liked how Sean’s setup felt. But upon putting them in they felt like they had no rebound and kept popping out over the washer. As you can see from the bolt I had them about as loose as I could. They didn’t feel too bad initially though. I also wore some old 288S shoes and started out pretty good. Got to kickflips quickly and did my first 5 in a row. Took a couple to get a fakie flip, but then did 4 in a row. Same with b/s flip. I got some of the best feeling heelflips I’ve done recently too. Then I went for the dreaded treflip. I really thought I was going to land one in under 5 tries. I was so close. But then the bushing problems became too much so I stopped and swapped the small bushing to a Venom bushing. This made for a weird clicking noise that would add to my frustrations as I kept not landing treflips. Then I put some old Bones medium bushings in which finally felt decent. I started to get more right knee pain so I switched shoes to old faithfuls too, NB 212s. They hurt less. I struggled with treflips for a bit, but then went for the Ironman challenge of kickflip, heelflip, treflip. I never quite get it, but I did eventually land a really bad treflip. It was enough to cool my temper and stop me from throwing my board as hard as I could at the ground (in a manner that would not chip or hurt the board). I tried some nollie flips after that and was very close, then some nollie front heels that weren’t so close. Pretty terrible session really.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, several different bushings, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a, nb 288s/212s)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cloudy and cool day I snuck away to dog park at lunch break. Initially it was just a scooter kid and me, but then a couple other skaters joined. I had made a couple slight setup changes. Cast baseplates and bones wheels. Initially my setup felt great. It’s hard to warm up in 19 degree weather, but I wasn’t really that cold, in fact I took my jacket off. About the time I started to get warmed up my bushings started to freeze. There was a brief window where I was skating alright. I did some back 50s on the long low ledge that came off the end, I even did a couple with front 180s out. I tried to do back 5-0s, but kept sticking. I had some fun crooks on a new ledge. Then my right knee really started to hurt and prevented me from trying to pop more than curb high. Flippers were weird with the frozen bushings too. I couldn’t do heelflips, got halfcab flip and b/s flip. Didn’t get a treflip, but the bushings really messed with that. Man I hate tight trucks. I ended trying a bunch of fakie 50 halfcabs out. I was going faster than normal and came close to some decent ones. Then I had one where my knee pain became too much and I left to go back to work.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast baseplate v-hollow hanger, stock purple bushings no big washer, bones 52mm v1 stf 103a, es accel slim plus size 12, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 6/10 right knee)

Went out to the garage shortly after work. Was somehow pretty fired up. I started trying some late flip variations and quickly realized I had no chance. Then nollie front heel for awhile some of which felt close. I committed, but the board only half flipped. Then I went in on 360 flips to get my minimum of 3. I got the first one in 8 tries. I was hyped even though it was terrible. But then it was close to 30 more tries before I got another one, but it felt good and then another one two tries later. I didn’t get too frustrated because I landed on a lot of them. There was one in particular that spun around so easily. It made me happy. After that I tried switch flips and go so close. The board just wasn’t flipping fast enough.

(setup 8.25 303 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows, stock purple bushings no big washer, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 52mm f4 classic shape 99a, es accel slim plus size 12, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 3/10)