Went into the garage shortly after dinner wanting to do another 3 treflips. I started quickly into failing at kickflips. Seriously, got so mad when I didn’t land any of the first 5. I would go on to get a few, but not the 5 in a row I normally do to move on. Fakie flip was a bit of a struggle too. Switch flips were not too close. I tried nollie flips for a while and some felt oh so close. If it would just flip a little fast I would have gotten one. Next I went for treflips hoping the new rhythm I had the night before would carry over. Nope. It took 29 tries to get the first one, another one a few tries after that, then like 20 more to get another. I’m happy I battled and stuck with it, but I’m not happy how long it took. I was beat after that, tried a few switch bs flips and called it a night. I wasn’t as happy with the smaller setup and the lack of flick on the shoes. I should just be happy I wasn’t in a ton of pain.

(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)

Feeling a little skeptical of a Boulder park session and stuck wearing my glasses I pulled into Boulder park a little late. To my delight everyone was in the parking lot. Ha. The parking lot is new and there were some manny pad options, a new 2 stair with a weird wallride. Brian challenged me right away with nollie tre. It goes back to a bet he made me 10 years ago. I just had to land a front disaster and he said he’d land a nollie tre by 40. Well, he’s 49 now and going for it again before 50. I definitely wasn’t ready to commit to it as a warm up though. Jake challenged me to SKATE and we would slowly eek out perhaps our longest game ever. Unfortunately not because we landed so many tricks. Kevin and Brian were going for wallrides down the two stair on the weird curved metal sculpture. Rob and Travis were chatting. Other’s started showing up. Jack, Ted, Kyle. Everyone was skating flatground for the most part. Who would have thought Brian’s 49th bday jam would turn into a flatground session? Ha. Jake had got me two letters on halfcab flip, switch shove and f/s flip and I was at SKAT. At one point when Brian was trying nollie tres I tried one and got it. I was hyped. I got a heelflip, something else and took forever to get a fakie bigflip to get Jake to SKAT. He had been trying treflips for a bit, I thought I would get mine quick. Nope. I was really struggling with the bigger board and cupsoles. Brian was playing treflips too and landed on got his feet on some. Kevin did like a million flip tricks, including treflip, nollie tre, first try switch tre, nollie b/s flip, switch f/s flip, switch b/s flip, so many. Ted and Kyle too, man they landed a lot. Jack was going off. Lots of flatground. Varial heel, Rick flip, switch front heel and like 5 nollie tres off the two stair a lot more jaw dropping tricks normally done first try. All this was happening while Jake and I were still trying to land treflips. Ha. I would eventually get a really bad one. I don’t know if it was old age sympathy or just people desperate for one of us to land it, but it seemed to count. Jake got super close, but didn’t put it down. I did a few slappy crooks. Kevin did back 180 nosegrind shove. Rob slammed pretty hard on his first slappy crook attempt, but got a cool line with back 180 up the curb, halfcab 50 (I think?) and then beanplant off the curb. Then we played on the curbs near the entrance to the skatepark. I did some front slappies and slappy front crooks. Kevin did a gorgeous front blunt pop out. Tashi had a rad slappy crook to noseslide. Jack dropped in on a trash can. Then we went into the park. Brian was going for one of his 5 tricks by 50. I don’t know what you call it, but basically run along your board up to blunt fakie. Jack was trying back 3 flip over the weird hip. Kevin may have gotten nollie back big over it. I tried b/s flips, but was struggling with eye blurriness and just feeling too weird. Rob was busy almost taking out scooter kids. Brian would conquer his trick and did it oh so good. High 5s for that one! Really fun day. Great skating with Brian again.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus grey size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 3/10 not bad especially considering how long we skated)

After a busy week of work I met up with Dave and then Sean at a crowded dog park. The wind made the temp in the upper 30s feel really cold. Dave was there first, I rolled in to him doing a first try front blunt on a parking block. Then he went on to do a bunch of them really fast and good. My right knee was hurting, but Dave’s energy hyped me up and I joined him in the parking block lane. I even got a slow front blunt that felt pretty good. I had a new deck. It felt huge, but I think it was partially that I had put harder bushing in. Kickflips were a major struggle, ugh. Sean would join too, tired from a busy week of work. We tried the little angle iron bonk, tiny pad/ledge, parking block, mountain launch ramp. I think Dave was the only one to get all 4 without pushing. The only thing I did I was happy with was a front 180 off the little launcher which I hadn’t done before. Sean said he was tired and sucking then did a front nosegrind on the tall metal bench followed with back nosegrind 180. Yeah, totally sucking. He also ollied the hydrant to quick wallie. Dave and I battled kickflips to fakie on the grey wedge for a bit. They didn’t come easy for either of us. Dave would get two of them at least. I was happy when I finally got one. Then we were kind of all skating different stuff for awhile. I tried switch noseslide kickflip out for a bit and didn’t get close. Dave left. Sean was chilling and made the mistake of pointing the camera at me as the wind and darkness set in and the cold was almost unbearable. I tried fakie 50 fakie flip out which I’ve never done before. I got close on a lot of them, although i did come to a stop on most. I also tried 360 flips and got one bad one. Then kind of the fakie 50 fakie flip out. Obviously it doesn’t really count, but at least I can take advantage of the “over 40 years old, under 40 degrees” excuse.

(setup 8.5 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus gray size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 4/10 my right knee, at least the left knee was feeling better)

Somehow the snow/rain let up and skating was possible after I got off work. I met Jake and Saul at Saul’s. I missed my first scratch grind, but the second one got me hyped. Then I even landed some actual stand up back 50s quickly and things were good. Saul was flowing. His quick grind lines are quite incredible. Jake was attacking the straight wall coping like a man. Also airing the hip, frontside grinds the deep, front disaster. I tried a bunch of front feebles on the brick section, but never got one. Fun session, I need to skate there more.

setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus gray size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Pretty much right after work I met up with Dave at the new meetup spot on campus. There was gravel everywhere from the recent snow so we moved on right away after Dave shoed me up with a nollie back tail on the curb. Ha. Actually he had been doing it for awhile waiting for me and it was the first thing I tried. We moved on to the little yellow “ledge”. It must be a “ledge” if it has angle iron right? I had new shoes, some Es Accel Slim Plus shoes. I was trying anything to reduce knee pain. They were a big odd, but felt good and my knee pain was less severe so maybe they did the trick. Anyway, we did some tricks. We mostly started with nose jib 270s and stuff. I managed a nollie back tail first try, take that Dave! Ha. We would go on to get a lot. I had crooks, crooks fakie, front 50, nollie front tail 270 shove (maybe a gleNBD?), kind of a nosegrind 180 with the back wheels dragging around, front 5-0 to front board (not much grind if any), remotely close to kick back 50 and front 5-0 kickflip. I couldn’t do a back 50 to save my life though. Dave had nollie back tail, front 50 back 180, switch crooks fakie, switch front crooks fakie, crooks, crooks fakie, back 50, back 50 back 180 (one with a super bad slam to elbow that I can’t believe he kept skating), and super close to halfcab crook to fakie. Way too close. Dave was getting frustrated. We moved on. To the new business building area. The lights were alright, not great, but it was fun. We started with some kickturns on the bank and checked out the spot. We put the table after the bench. It was so much harder and scarier than we thought it would be. I did a million rocks before I finally ollied onto it. Dave had beat me with his amazing cab kickturns then ollie on. I played around with some side rocks and axle stalls with lines too. Almost ollied onto a lower ledge then off a tall drop over a rail, but chickened out. Dave’s front tail was unreal. We played around at the bottom of the new area too. Dave did a cool ride on to ollie on to drop down. I tried to ollie the six stair gap thing (height of 6, distance of 3), but chickened out and just caused pain for myself. That spot is like a skatepark. Fun times with Dave, we skated for a really long time.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, es accel slim plus gray size 12, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a day of rest and trying basically everything to reduce my knee pain I felt a little better. Warming up went alright. The intense knee pain wasn’t there. Eric showed, he heelflipped a parking block second try. I was still timid of pain, but I got a lot of my normal basics there. I had put the Nike SB insoles in again and had a bigger right shoe, new left shoe (yes I hope this confuses you). I was happy that I got on the cinder block ledges pretty easily, front 50 and front 50 shove. Eric had front and back 50s, front 5-0, front tail. We both got crooks. My flip tricks went alright. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, f/s halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. Tried a few tres, but not really. Eric had a back heel. Another dude was there charging and slamming really hard. He f/s flipped off the kicker over the barrier so good and I tried to get his back with an ollie. I almost had it, but couldn’t really handle the impact and it hurt my knee some. I took too long to get a line of heelflip, slappy front crook, back 50 over the corner of the little guy. I hucked some at the end with some slow kick back 50s, switch front nose shove, but didn’t get either. I wasn’t in as much pain, but it was there and keeping me timid and unable to progress so I ended up leaving. It sucks hurting so much, makes it really hard to enjoy and try hard.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic shape with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5 L size 12 R, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Kevin and I met Jake at the 38th ledge spot. Jake had just finished shoveling and it was drying off. There was another dude Max I think, he was nice. Those guys were quickly ollieing and stuff, I was more on the slappy tip. Did some slappy crooks quickly which made me happy. Kevin rattled off all kinds of tricks. Jake too. Front 50s, front tails, back 50s, crooks, etc. Jake had thought of a line he wanted to do and I started to feel out one myself. Jake was going for front tail to fakie then f/s halfcab noseslide. I was doing alright at slappy crook then kick back 50. I got into my first kick back 50 so I thought it would work. Jake did his line before Kevin was kind enough to offer filming. Then he did it again. I tried my line a bunch of times, got real close, but never rode away from the kick 50. Argh. Some slappy crooks were really fun feeling at least. We left for a spot that Kevin had found nearby. Getting out of the car I was in so much pain I knew I was done for the day. I was toast. Ugh. Jake and Kevin ollied up a loading dock and off before we got a pretty funny boot by a security guard that I think was just on a smoke break. Jake left. Kevin and I went lurking. We hit a weird double bank spot, but all I could do was ride down them. Kevin did a crazy line riding on some weird mound, back 180, halfcab into banks, quick ollie and he did a rare b/s flip! Then we found another cool bank spot nearby where you could wallie nollie and maybe crook a bit. We both tried. I wasn’t able to move well enough to get my front truck up there. Kevin did it really really good though. I might have to sub him in on more tricks when I’m in pain. I need to figure something out because the pain was unreal. Even when I woke up the next day it was beyond terrible. Ugh.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm bones stf 103a v1 with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 5/10 initially then 9/10 after the ledge session)

On a nice day off work I met Jake at Broomfield park. It was way more wet and snowy than we thought. But we went to work scraping and sweeping it away. The sun made quick work of the thinned out puddles as we played SKATE in a dry spot near the brick qp. We started with ollies, 180s, shoves (I got letters on switch back 180 and switch shove) then Jake initiated the flippers with kickflip. I think he may have missed fakie flip, maybe even on a double or nothing. He beat me to halfcab flip, but I got miracle first try one that felt good. He had me at SKAT with frontside flip and something else. I got him with fakie bigflip and heelflip and we were tied up going into the treflip game. Jake was so close, me too. I managed to get one in like 4 tries that had a pretty great skier stance landing. Jake didn’t get it unfortunately. Then we skated the sad ledge as it was the only thing truly dry. There was another dude that joined us and some younger skaters manualling the black box through puddles. I struggled with front 50s and chickened out of back 50s, but other than that did alright. Jake had front 50, back 50, noseslide, noseslide shove, crooks, crooks fakie, crooks shove, halfcab nose, front tail. The other dude worked up to back tail and kick back 50 which were really good. I had noseslide, noseslide to fakie, switch noseslides, halfcab nose jib, front 50, crooks and eventually a crooks shove with another skier stance landing. Jake had left. Things had dried up and I went for my initial Broomfield goal which was 20 tricks on the blue ledge. I would get 20, but they got pretty bad as the soreness kicked in fierce. There weren’t really any highlights. Maybe front 50 to front board. I struggled with fakie 50s. Got back 50 and randomly back 50 pivot 180 out. Darin had showed. My last trick was nollie back tail jib. He was quickly ripping the blue ledge. Crooks fakie, back tail fakie, 5-0s.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 red cast baseplate titanium hanger, venom 88a big bushing 91a small bushing flat washer top, 52mm bones stf 103a v1 with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 5/10 but more like 7/10 by the end)

Out in the garage on a snowy night I reassembled my “putter” and tried some flippers. It was an 8″ setup with 5.0 venture lows and 50mm wheels. It flipped really easy. I did kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip quick. Couldn’t heelflip though. Got a garage make treflip in around 10 tries. Then tried front heels. Some were close. Most were not and I grabbed my regular 8.5 setup and initially was closer. Then less close. Then dinner was ready and I didn’t feel like trying anymore.

(setup 8″ putter and normal 8.5)
(pain level 4/10 initial foot pain)