After a really busy day of work I went across the street in a cool afternoon shortly before sunset. I was on my 8″ board and the 288s. I did some slappies to start that didn’t really go that well. My mind was mush. There was a kid there learning how to skate and he seemed annoyed I barged his session so I went to the side of the school to skate flatground. I sucked it up. Hard to describe how badly I sucked, but I skated for about 30 minutes and only landed kickflip and fakie flip, maybe a heelflip too. I was close to treflips, but could not get one. I hucked a lot of tricks, but just didn’t have the mental capacity to commit to tricks. I left after bailing a treflip and just staring at my board wondering why even bother. I really don’t like the 288S much anymore, they just don’t flick well.

(setup 8″ null archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 (cast baseplate v-hollow hanger), venom 88a bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, new balance numeric 288S maroon size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Another beautiful day so I skipped out for a very short lunch break to get some slappies in.  I hadn’t done a lot of exercises so I was kind of stiff.  Slamming into the curbs helped to get the legs moving.  I was on the 8.25 setup.  It wasn’t the best slappy session, but still fun.  Had some fun front and back slappies, took a bit to get front crook.  Tried switch front 50s and got into a few, but didn’t land it.  Got on switch slappy crook.  Ended with a front slappy.

Then after dinner I met up with Mike and Skelly then Garrett at Broomfield park.  It was pretty nice out and the park wasn’t very crowded.  Warming up was tougher than I thought it would be.  I had done lots of exercises.  Skating earlier I had worn the 288s and for this I went back to the 306s.  They hurt as the shoes and Nike insoles have gotten really thin.  Anyway, Mike and Skelly were mostly hitting the blue wedge area.  Skelly had a pretty good slam right away hanging up on the edge.  Ouch.  He would go on to get front shove to fakie also a quick ollie on then ollie off the side.  Mike was slappying the bottom curb somehow even though it’s oververt.  I was kind of all over.  I 180’d up the black ledge which made me kind of happy.  That was about the time Garrett showed up.  He had a line pretty quickly that was amazing.  Front 50 up the escalator ledge, back tail black ledge,front tail 270 shove the black ledge.  Also treflip into the bank.  I struggled with front 50s and it made me mad.  I switched to my 8″ setup because I couldn’t get the halfcab flip on the bank.  I still struggled with it, but would end up landing it.  I did several of the switch noseslide shoves.  I had some alright crooks on the 8″ setup, but not so much the 8.25.  Mike had some good front noseslides on the black ledge.  Skelly did some little front slashes on the brick qp, but they were really rad.  I slammed boardsliding the little rail, but would go on to get it a few times.  I got really close to a halfcab heel noseslide.  Flip tricks weren’t going very well.  I think mostly because my shoes were so thin I was afraid to commit.  Which of course just hurts more.  Justin was there ripping.  As Garrett tried the manual combo I hucked flip tricks.  Couldn’t get a treflip.  Decent night, I tried hard. Fun crew.  

(setup 8.25/8 nulls / ventures 288s/306s blah not worth all the details since I switch all the time)
(pain level 4/10)

Snuck out for some lunch break fun on a gorgeous day to meet Dave across the street. It was a fun one. Since I was so sore I wore my 288s. It may have helped. I didn’t really try many flippers, but slappies went well. Dave got some really good slappy front crooks to fakie. I got some to regs. We tried to switch it up, but he couldn’t go to forward and I couldn’t go to fakie. Dave had an amazing slappy crooks or two. I got a few little switch slappy crooks to forward and followed one with a kickflip off the curb cut to the parking lot. I was doing some good regular slappies for me and trying to follow them with kick back tails, but never got it. Dave was working on switch slappy front crooks and getting into them so good and grinding them. I didn’t see him land one, but he was there for awhile after me. He drove by me “working” on the front stoop shirtless soaking up the sun. Ha. That was a fun session.

Later on I went to Frederick to meet Skelly, Mike, Sean, Hayden and more. Donnie ended showing after awhile. The park wasn’t very crowded initially, but would get kind of crowded, and then totally clear out while we were there. I sucked it up. Like I can’t even describe how depressing this session was for me. There was only two things I did okay. I noseslid the bump to ledge easily and I did the pull up loop second try. Honestly the loop was the most fun thing I did all night. The 8.5 killed me all night. I couldn’t kickflip the hump and I couldn’t b/s flip the hip. I think it was less than a month ago I said to my friend Josh “I would rather skate a 7.75 than 8.5”. So how did I end up on 8.5 again? Well, blame the pandemic and the board shortage and my idiot self. I never got a nose manual, did some of the worst crooks of my life on the ledge, couldn’t halfcab noseslide. On top of that I was finally getting the slightest bit of confidence to back 50 the lowest ledge in the park and my wheel fell off. That was a sign I should have left, but did I leave? No. I did manage a slappy front crook on the bank to curb when Donnie showed. He was hyped on that. Sean was funny. He said “I don’t know if I can 50 this bump to ledge” then did it perfectly with the most casual style ever. He would go on to 50, ollie, 5-0 a lot. But he couldn’t f/s flip the Glen hip. Ha ha. It was great seeing Hayden skate a park again. It’s been too long. He rips everything. The alley oop fakie 50 down the corner qp was so good. Back smith, 5-0s, tailslides and blunt the bump to ledge, f/s flip the bigger hip, fakie 5-0 halfcab out the little ledge. Mike was charging. He always does. It’s been awesome skating with him again lately. Slappies, wallrides, wallies. Skelly popped some good ollies over the big hips, back 180s and almost bigspin the smaller ones. Donnie charges. Front 5-0 the steep wall, unreal slappy survival tricks on the yellow curb I can’t describe, showed up the BMXers transferring from bank to bank and so much more. Oh, near the end of the session after hucking a front heel over the little hip ( I had no business hucking, but that’s what I do when I don’t want to commit to tricks) I was going towards the manny pad and things felt really weird. I carved a little and knew exactly what happened. Yup. Broke my kingpin. A dude there said “It is not your night” and he was right. I had fun skating with people. I was hyped to see everyone ripping. But my god I did not skate how I want to in any way and it really depressed me.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with custom hollow cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire F4 101a radial slim, new balance numeric 306 foy navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a breezy morning I met Rob and Kevin early at the dog park. I was annoyed with the wind before I even got there and had very little motivation. I had a new board. This time 8.5. Maybe since that’s all I have in stock I will eventually be grateful that being out of other sized boards forced me to stick with 8.5. Or maybe I’ll go buy a 7.75. Who knows with me. I put larger wheels on it too, some 54mm Bones I had. My setup felt pretty weird. I liked the board, the wheels were probably too much though. Kevin hadn’t skated in a few weeks after rolling his ankle so he had some serious energy. Nollie nosegrinds, 5-0s, back 180 nosegrinds, nollie flips, switch flips, a bunch of ripping. Rob was looking good too. We were on the far side for awhile with the two step and weird contraption. Rob did a nollie shove boardslide! He also had runs with halfcab noseslide and front board the tall part of the weird contraption. I felt better on front 50s on the low ledges, noseslides, halfcab noseslide. Then we ended up back at the little new ledge. Kevin manualled it and then all the way to the parking block. I slammed super hard on an attempt to wallie manual off the parking block. We were all messing around with new tricks. Kevin did fakie back 50 halfcab out. Whoa. He couldn’t quite do it out of fakie back nosegrind. Dave had challenged me to switch front 50 b/s halfcab out so I started trying slow switch front 50s and got a couple. I was already happy about that then started trying the halfcab out. As you can see I got a lame one with a flop out, but with how quick my phone dies sometimes that’s how it goes. Rob had been trying fakie 50 b/s halfcab out at the same time. He got his right before me. Back to back new tricks for old dudes! That was pretty cool. After that the wind was just so insane and we were all good to go.

I was planning on avoiding skating the rest of the day, but Skelly and Mike hit me up to go to Lyons. Somehow I felt like going. I arrived to a crowded park and was in disbelief at how bad of a park it was when crowded. Once people are up skating the quarterpipes the whole middle of the park becomes pretty useless. And that’s the stuff I wanted to skate. There were bikers, roller skate girls, rollerbladers and a bunch of skaters. Some of which I knew and was hyped to see them. Dustin, Moses, Veronica. Skelly, Mike and Dave of course. I started with Skelly skating the little qp at the top getting in peoples way. He would have some nice front disasters and ollies on it. I didn’t get more than front slash, but it was a good setup to noseslide down the hubba going slow. Mike had some rad wallie flyouts into the bank. Eventually the park emptied out and we had more fun. Fuller put together some amazing lines with some frontside airs over the hip, axle stall transfers, boardslide transfers, 180s up the euro, fakie shoves on transition. He had a fakie sex change on the little bank too! I had some fun back 50s in the mini ramp section. That’s the tallest I’ve done in awhile, but the transition is really good so it didn’t seem so scary. I settled into a line of noseslide the hubba, front 5-0 or 50 the ledge, treflip flyout. Never got the treflip flyout although I was quite close a few times. Dave did some cool ollies onto the pier 7 ledge then back 180 into the bank. Mike got a front nose on the bump to ledge. Dave got boardslide to fakie on the bump to ledge and bump to rail. I took too many tries to get the boardslide on the bump to rail. In the end we messed around with the little ride on ledge area. Dave did back 50 up to manual. I ended with back 50 up to nose manual 180 into the bank. Sounds way harder than it really is, but it was a fun end of the session. Fun crew, not so sure about that park though. It’s definitely one of those parks that gets crowded way to easily.

(setup 8.5 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium with custom hollow cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 54mm bones stf 103a v5, new balance numeric 306 foy navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

This part is so incredibly good. As a skateboarder this part makes me so proud of the artistry it shows. The filming, the editing, the style and trick selection Tom Knox paints throughout the crusty spots. Poetry in motion man. This might win part of the year for me.

On a cold and windy Saturday I packed up LGJ and was planning on a solo parking garage session. But instead I ended up on campus as the wind didn’t seem bad on the drive. I found myself at the tiny yellow lurb. I was not feeling very good. Blame the weather, my attitude, I don’t know. I tried a warm up line of back 50, nollie front 180, fakie thruster on the stupid flatirons wanna be bank architecture. The back 50 took forever and I don’t think I ever even got a clean one as most started in back 5-0. I was trying to keep to myself as I started to notice that every student had a mask on. Even outside in the wind. Oh well, I felt like I should be wearing one. I never got the line as I kept hanging up on the reentry on the bank. I was very upset with how much I was struggling with the back 50 and even front 5-0s on the little lurb. After a bit I started hucking. Kickflip crooks and front smith kickflips out. I was close to both. I had setup my phone to film in case I got either. Looking back it died in 7 minutes. 7 minutes! I need a new phone. I did commit to the kickflip crooks, but never locked in. I think it would have been more of a kickflip back nosegrind, but that would have been totally fine with me! I tried some front tails too, but they mostly depressed me. I made myself do a line before moving onto another spot. Front 5-0, heelflip, ollie the 3 stair. I almost got it second try, but slid out on the 3 stair ollie (it has cracks before and after making it kind of weird). Then the front 5-0 eluded me for quite some time and I was getting so angry. I was seriously struggling to ollie the 8″ to 5-0 it and I was furious. I would get the line though and it did feel rad. I went to the Roser Atlas area. The wind had picked up again. I went for what I thought would be a very basic warm up line. Back 180 off a ledge, halfcab flip on flat, crooks the ledge. But the back 180 was elusive and making me so mad. I had a couple bad shinner slams from back 180 attempts. Finally got one and was setting up for the halfcab flip and got wheelbite and fell. I lost it. Focused my board. Sat in the cold wind contemplating skateboarding and how disappointed I am in my level of skating. Then I walked to my car as the wind raged and seemed to poke fun at me.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work I went to Broomfield park to meet Sean. It was windy in Boulder, but Broomfield wasn’t bad. Darin was there when I arrived and so I joined him on the quartapotty/blue box. I started with the 8.25 from my quiver. Got a few of the basic quartapotty tricks, but couldn’t back 50 the ledge to save my life. It was so annoying. Darin rattled off qp tricks like blunt to rock fakie, back tail and back noseblunt! At one point I did a fakie 50 on the ledge and randomly just fakie front shoved out. It was one of my few highlights for the night. After some bailed front 50s I switched back to the 8.3 setup and liked it more. I tried to 5-0 off the edge of the blue ledge, but struggled. Darin rattled off his tricks. Sean was rattling off some tricks on the blue ledge and did a cool line of front 180 the double set then halfcab nose manual the blue box. Darin had taken off. I had gotten quite angry with myself for how bad I was skating. Also the 15 some scooter kids that were there. At one point Sean and I were the only skaters there. I tried nosegrind 180 for awhile and got kinda close, but gave up mostly because of too many scooter kids in the area. I wasn’t doing too good at front 50s on the black ledge, but I was happy to get the little rail boardslide most tries again and some decent feeling crooks. Sean worked on back tail shoves as he had somehow never done that trick. And of course it’s Sean and he’s good, so he landed it some 20ish tries later. I had tried noseslide and switch noseslide 270 and wasn’t close to either. Then we bounced.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 90a bushings no boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cold night I went to Frederick around 7.  There weren’t a whole lot of people when I arrived and it would thin out quickly.  But to my surprise Skelly was there!  I haven’t seen him in forever and it was great seeing him.  Also Fuller, Big Mike and after a while Garrett and a surprise Derek Yale sighting!  That was awesome too.  Warming up wasn’t so easy in the cold.  Dave was going in on the yellow curb.  I was kind of all over initially.  I really like how you can push at this park.  I had some okay stuff somewhat quickly.  Noseslide the bump to box, kickflip over the hump frontside, kickflip on the bank, b/s flip the upper hip.  Mike had a cool boardslide around the yellow curb.  Skelly with steezy ollies and halfcab board transfer.  Dave did a first try slappy front crooks to fakie and then switch slappy crooks too!  Wowsers.  I got a weak slappy front crook.  I was riding the 8.3, the bushings in it quickly froze making for a weird skate.  I hucked tricks over the hump, but didn’t land much.  At one point I was going near the qp and someone yelled Glen!  I recognized the voice immediately, but didn’t see who it was and turned around and it was Derek!  So stoked.  Caught up with him then we fought off the cold by skating.  He still has his quick light footed manual style and it was great to see.  I would get a fun line for me.  Front 180 into the bank by the yellow curb, switch front 180 fly out, noseslide the narrow ledge, finally ollie up the euro (can’t believe it took me so many tries because it was so easy when I finally committed).  After that I didn’t really land much.  Garrett made some hard tricks look really easy, but he didn’t get the front nose.  Ha.  Front smith on the box was sick.  Garrett and I played a frozen game of SKATE to end it.  I would only land front shove, kickflip, fakie flip, heel flip and fakie big flip.  At least I got one letter on him with fakie bigflip.  He get me with nollie flip, janoski flip, switch flip, halfcab flip and ended me with switch heel.  I was close though!  Fun night.  I didn’t get as tech as I wanted, but I did at least do a few new things and it was a really fun crew.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger with cast baseplate, venom 90a bushings no boardside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went out to the garage with the goal of doing 10 treflips.  I did some warming up and was really hyped on how some warm up kickflips felt.  The goal was to rotate treflip then a different trick until I got to 10.  I went about 0-40 on treflips and wasn’t doing much better with other tricks.  My 8.3 setup was sitting in the garage.  I grabbed it and got closer, then landed one a few tries later.  So I stuck with it.  I would get other tricks that felt good too.  Fakie heel in particular.  I got another treflip pretty quick.  One more after awhile.  B/s flip felt good.  Switch flip and nollie flips didn’t feel too far off.  The bigger board did seem to feel heavy.  I was getting tired, but wanted to get to at least 5 which I did.  It took a long time.  I somehow stayed positive and kept going.  Although I’m not too hyped on the fact that the 8.3 felt better because that probably means I’ll change again.  

(setups: 8 & 8.38 nulls with 8 and 8.5 venture highs with 306 foys)
(pain level: 2/10 hooray!)

Feeling a little better, but still sore and arthritic I wanted some alone time.  It’s kind of incredible after flare ups like this I lose all confidence and I don’t really like skating around anyone.  So I went to this ledge spot in Niwot before Nullers were meeting up.  I skated for a good hour before anyone else showed up.  I didn’t really intend it to be the spot of the day, but it seemed to work out for the best.  But before anyone else showed I skated slow and worked my way up.  Starting with noseslides and 180s.  Working in some crooks and kickflips.  Ended up getting 50s both ways, kind of close to manual the pad, front 5-0, took awhile for halfcab noseslide.  Got kinda close to getting front crook.  Had a few of the basic flippers like halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip.  My board felt good for flippers, but small for ledge tricks.  I was close to kickflip 50s so setup the phone to do a quick huck and see if I could get one.  A few tries in I got a kick 5-0.  It wasn’t perfect, but man it felt pretty awesome.  And it kind of took my momentum away as I was already getting sore again and kind of wanted to stop.  But shortly after that Rob and Jack would show.  And then Sean, Garrett, Hayden, Joe, Bo, Kyle, Donnie, Dan.  It was packed.  I didn’t really do much more after that except a slappy crook, sketchy nollie front tail and a f/s halfcab nose jib.  Rob got into the groove.  Back 50s, crooks, halfcab noseslides.  Hucked some bigspin front nose, back 180 fakie 50s.  Jack was trying back 180 nosegrind variations.  It was crazy how quickly Sean linked together nose manuals and grinds/slides.  It ruled seeing Dan skate.  He does tricks with such a strong style.  The front tail then nose manual combo was hot.  Hayden boardslide the pole jam, pole jammed it, got a good line.  Garrett with the nose manny shove then shove 50 radness.  Donnie had an epic roll in to grass on his monster truck setup.  Joe ollied the pole. Kyle did a sick bluntslide.  Bo was quick on the filming tip.  

Then everyone started hopping over this bike rack.  I’m lame and didn’t even try to get over it once.  Rob had left.  Everyone else was jumping over it or in Jack’s case through it.  Joe wins the award for best trick in my opinion with switch ollie.  So crazy.  Dan had a stalefish over it.  Sean kickflipped it.  Lots of 180s went down.  Donnie tried to hurt himself on a trash bin.  

We went to Niwon high for the rail.  I briefly tried some nose stalls on a bench and took way too long before filming.  My board felt tiny and I can’t deny the obsession with a bigger board coming on.  Anyway, Bo didn’t commit to the rail.  Jack did and manualled out of a boardslide first try and basically out of 50 too.  So crazy.  I didn’t like how cold I felt at that point.  Stupid winter.  We ended it with some quality entertainment as Donnie skated a grass hill with his monster truck.  He’s crazy.

(setup null 8″ archway deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollow highs on red cast baseplate, venom 88a bushings no boardside washer, old bones stf v2 51mm, new balance numeric 306 foy navy/white size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)