Up early on a Friday when I work later. Went to Louisville to keep the ‘skate something different’ vibe going. I wore cupsoles to try and lower the knee pain. It may have worked, but I sure didn’t skate better. I had the park all to myself with the exception of another dude that came and carved around for a few minutes. I started with some ride on grinds, carves, boardslides. My warm up run was front 50 the low part of the ledge, boardslide the flatbar, then b/s kickflip on the bank. Going the other way I tried manual the little box, heelflip on flat, crooks. I never got the manual without tilting, never got the heelflip, but did have a couple fun crooks. I mixed in kickflip to fakies thinking I would do it right away. Nope. Took forever. I skate banks/transition so little anymore that the bank honestly kind of weirded me out at first. I didn’t really go on to do anything else. Maybe a front 50 shove. I was like 0-5 on halfcab noseslides. Not a very good session or reason to go back to cupsoles.

(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, 54mm bones stf v5 with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 533v2 grey size 13, xero thin insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

Got to Lafayette park around 7. It was date night, tons of high schoolers mingling, vaping and some shredding. Kevin had been there for over an hour and was already totally ripping. The first thing I did was drop in on the tall part of the flow bowl and almost died and felt a ton of pain in my knee. Great. Kevin did the nosegrind right after that. Then the front tail like it was nothing. I was pretty out of it initially. Kevin was doing slappy crooks, back d’s on the new qp. Then we went into flyout mode. I got a first try kickflip that felt good. Almost got treflip 3rd try, but instead I battled it for around 30 tries. Kevin did the nollie flip every time I think, the nollie b/s flip took a few tries. Kevin left. I skated for awhile even though my knees were in a lot of pain. Did a line of wallie the corner of the rock, axle stall the new qp, kickflip to fakie the little bank. After struggling to get up the manny pad I decided it was time to go home.

(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, 54mm bones stf v5 with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 6.5/10)

Woke up early when I’m on the late shift at work so I did some exercises then went to the dog park. It was cold in the upper 20s and took a bit to get warmed up. But after a bit I got a great long warm up line that put me in a good mood. Back 50 little one, crooks the two step, kickflip on flat, wallie wallies world, noseslide to fakie cinder block shuffle, fakie flip on flat, halfcab noseslide, heelflip, little front nose jib the two step, front 50 the little guy, bailed a treflip. I did get real close to a few treflips. Been trying to adjust my foot placement after seeing that guy in Rhino the other day. Oh yeah, I was back on my 8.5 setup. This time with big 54mm Bones wheels. I think I really need the extra pop of the hard Bones wheels. I would have a decent session. Did a few lines. Front 50 the black box, crooks fakie cinder block, halfcab flip. Tried back 50 shove on the little guy for awhile, but didn’t get it. Ollied Wallie World for the first time in forever. Tried to front 50 the two-step, but never got it. I was close though. Then I ended by doing front 50 shove on the cinder block ledge. I was happy I didn’t completely fail at that again. All in all a decent session. For the first time in several days I wasn’t super bummed on myself after skating.

(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, 54mm bones stf v5 with all washers outside the wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Met up with Kevin and Rob somewhat early on a nice Sunday morning.  At no point did I do a single trick that felt good other than maybe one halfcab flip.  I couldn’t get a treflip or 50 the cinder block shuffle.  Everything I did was garbage.  Rob and Kevin did some back 180 fakie 50s to fakie.  Kevin took awhile to get nollie nosegrind again.  We tried some treflips, I couldn’t get one.  My board felt too small for my feet.  Rob had halfcab noseslide on the taller ledge, front noses, most of his moves.  Kevin ripped it.  Sean, Bo, Hayden and Jack arrived.  Hayden’s nose manual was very Maxish.  I liked it.  That’s why I filmed it.  Ha.  Jack did a lot of no comply flips. I didn’t do a very good job of paying attention to everyone since I was in such a bad place.  We eventually left for a rail spot for Jack, but it didn’t go so well.  Ended up at the nearby manny pad.  Hayden got some good ones.  Donnie rolled in off a van which was so crazy.  Then we ended up at the nearby tall double ledge.  I posed for a while then just filmed.  Joe, Sean, Bo ripped it.  Sean with manual and nose manual.  Joe noseslide.  Bo lipslide.  It had gotten really cold at the end.  So sick of winter and my skating.

(setup 303 8.25 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 (cast baseplate v-hollow hanger), bones medium bushings, spitfire 52mm 99a tablets, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)  

Picked up Kevin then we hit this new spot.  Basically the area is a skatepark.  We looked at all the park had to offer then went in on the cali/ride on grinds which were way harder than they looked.  Kevin got one first.  I kind of got one a million tries later and he had already gone over to the double orange ledges.  I had gotten a couple kickflips that felt really good and I thought to myself “never again skating 8.5” (yeah right). Then we tried our lines.  That was fun.  Kevin literally landed like 20/21 nollie flips even on my board.  There were a bunch of others skating, everyone was nice.  One dude had an amazing treflip.  The lines took awhile.  I had one kickflip where I squated extra low and almost couldn’t get up from it.  I thought my knees would be done after that, but they kept going.  After getting our lines Kevin did the snake run to ride on grind.  It took him a long time, but he got it.  Then we called it a day.  It was nice to not completely hate myself for the first time in a few days.

(setup 303 8.25 deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 (cast baseplate v-hollow hanger), bones medium bushings, spitfire 52mm 99a tablets, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)  

Had the day off work.  Since my knees have been hurting so much I tried some old cupsoles – 288S.  I did some shoves and 180s in the street before Jake showed.  We arrived to a mostly empty park and it would remain mostly empty until the end when a bunch of people showed.  Initially I felt alright and was happy about the shoe change, but it would start to also cause a more intense knee pain that was worse.  Jake and I tried to manual the pad.  Neither of us got it, but both were close.  That was one of the few positives of the session for me, getting up the box pretty easily for a brief period.   I had done a few basics, but got hung up on front 50s and kickflips to fakie on the end of the twinky thing.  I would never get them, or too close to noseslide 270 shove.  At one point I bailed a noseslide and screamed then pretty much went and sat down after that.  Chatted with the homie Cass who had randomly shown up.  Then filmed Jake rip the pool wall with front rock, feeble fakie and front pivot.  Wow.  He had done a lot of his moves on the ledge, quarterpipes, everything.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (red cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom bushings (88a big, 91a small one flat washer), spitfire f4 52mm radial slim 101a wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 6/10 knees)  

After work I met Jake and Kevin at Broomfield park.  Jake had already been there and was already stacking tricks on the black ledge.  Kevin and I had done some warm ups when Jake missed a crook.  So I said to Kevin ‘lets do crooks and beam him’.  Kevin did such a good crooks and stared at Jake who responded with ‘you jerk’ then Kevin pointed to me right as I did one too.  Ha ha.  Jake is obviously a good sport or we wouldn’t be doing that and we all had a good laugh.  Other than an accidental 5-0 turned shove out I would go on to have an absolutely terrible session.  It’s been a few days as I’m writing this so I’ll just leave it at that for me.  Jake ripped.  Front tails, front tail fakies, fakie back tail, f/s halfcab noseslide, front tail the steep bank, 5-0 to fakie on it too.  Kevin struggled with the typical Kevin tricks, but seemed to land everything else.  He took a bit to get switch nosegrind 180, nollie nosegrind. But of course his switch and nollie flips were super on point.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (red cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom bushings (88a big, 91a small one flat washer), spitfire f4 classic shape 99a 50mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knees)

The day after taking my first day off of skating in 2021 I went to campus right after work. It was kind of warm and I knew I could find some dry patches and something to skate. I ended up at the new little downhill curb. I had a fun nollie front tail to get things started, but then I couldn’t kickflip. I would eventually get some, but they felt so bad. I went for a warm up line noticing there was still a little daylight left! The line I ended up getting was ollie up the curb, ollie down the 3, bad kickflip, better kickflip, front 50 front 180 out, bailed the halfcab flip. Then I ended up at the little bump to hill I recently hit with Rob and Jake. I wasn’t feeling too good. Pop shove was 2nd try, kickflip took like 5 tries. Fakie bigspin 2nd try. Halfcab flip took a long time, but I partially blame the darkness. I ended on front shove. I went to the double curb area. Tried to do manual, ollie the first one, ollie from the kicker off the next one. I had a tough time getting over that first curb. There’s an optical illusion making it look big. Anyway, when I finally landed it some pain shot through my right knee. Ugh. I called it a night and walked to my car. Arthritis sucks.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (red cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom bushings (88a big, 91a small one flat washer), spitfire f4 classic shape 99a 50mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

After some slacking then a fun snowball fight with Ollie I drove to Willville to skate flatground in the remaining sun. I had forgotten to tighten my trucks which made things kinda hard. Kickflips still felt great through. I got fakie flips, took a bit to get halfcab flips, got a bad f/s halfcab flip first try, took awhile to get heelflip then did a few in a row, got a bad fakie bigflip, b/s flip, couldn’t get rick flip or treflip. I did skate with some motivation until about the time the sun went behind the flatirons. Then I was over it.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (red cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom bushings (88a big one no washer, 91a small one flat washer), spitfire f4 classic shape 99a 50mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After hitting 303 Kevin and I met up with Rob and hit Redder curbs. Kevin and I hit 303 because we had recent struggles and it’s never our fault, but instead our setup’s fault. Ha. I went back to 8.5 with 8.5 Ventures, but traded in some large 51mm wheels for some narrow 50mm wheels. I’ve never really done the big setup with tiny wheels before. Well, not that I know of. Kevin was also switching back from Thunder to Venture. We woke. We had intended to meet Rob on campus, but the snow was starting to pick up so Redder curbs it was. Warming up didn’t seem too bad for anyone. Rob was on the back 50s and no complies right away. Kevin was figuring out his setup with switch flips. My trucks were way too loose, but I was having fun. Slappies worked well and kickflips felt great. Almost had some fun b/s flips out of the little kicker. Kevin and Rob had nice back 180s. Rob and I had some wallie nollies, Rob had front tails too. Jack showed and quickly did impossibles, treflips, popped kickflips. He is so freaking good. Then he went on to learn f/s halfcab back 50 in a few tries, did like 10 of them in a row and casually added the no comply flip over the mega gap in a few tries. He also learned slappy crooks (of course doing shove out second try), did the most popped no comply 180s and fakie tre’d over the little median. Rob learned slappy front crooks! I ended up doing my first slappy crooks shove (i’ve only shoved out of regular crooks before). I also did a b/s flip over the little hip. I got kind of close to kick back tail on the curb. Near the end I started trying nollie back tail shoves. Most of them weren’t close and were embarrassingly slow and awkward. But out of nowhere I did one and it felt quite amazing. I may have even slid it a little. Kevin joined the learn slappy crooks party. He also took top honors in the slam department. He tried a no comply 180 and went down soooo hard. It was brutal. He also ollied the parking block gap, back lipped the parking block, halfcab bonk the median like it was nothing. Dave showed near the end still riding his putter. He went into noseslides, tails, quickly. I had kind of tuned out at that point and was ready to go. Dave apparently skated for like 2 more hours ha. So awesome.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 trucks (red cast baseplate titanium hanger), venom bushings (88a big one no washer, 91a small one flat washer), spitfire f4 classic shape 99a 50mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 mustard size 11.5, footprint mid elite insoles)
(pain level 4/10 mostly the cold causing the problems)