After dinner I bailed on going to a crowded Lafayette (thanks for the report Garrett) and just went to the school to skate flat. The side of the school is lit alright, but not great. I warmed up with a few slappies that didn’t feel so great. I got the kickflip and fakie flip prereq then went in on an 11 tricks 11 tries list.

Halfcab flip- took like 6 tries to land one, but then I got like 4 more
fakie bigflip – Didn’t get one in 11 tries, but I mixed in a few with the next trick and got one in a few tries that felt really good.
Heelflip – Didn’t come easy, but landed one or two
Front heel – didn’t get close
Backside flip – took a few tries for a dumb tic tacy one
fakie varial flip – almost got it first try, then couldn’t get close again
Treflip – The lighting and shadow really messed with me on this one. Came remotely close, but never committed with both feet.
nollie tre – not even close
nollie flip – not even close
switch flip – not even close
switch heel – there was a couple that stayed under me but I never got my feet on it

Ugh right? I mean I tried a few tricks I can’t do, but I am really sick of not landing treflips. I hucked some random flippers in between tries. Got a few switch front shoves, kind of close to pop shove under flip.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow light, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, all washers on the outside of the wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w/yellow size 12, nikesb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Running late after a tough night of not sleeping I met Jack, Hayden, Bo and Riley at a new manny pad spot in Loveland. Yes, I said Riley! And it ruled seeing him skate. He switch manualled it like it was nothing. Fakie shove manual, gave me some pointers on switch flips and switch heels. It was great seeing him. He had to take off and around then Joe joined us. I had skated the old guy spot in the other corner of the parking lot for a bit. There is a fun bank to ledge, but it does require ollieing up a curb. There is also a nearby ledge and 3 stair. I got a no comply to tail on the bank to ledge then ollied the 3 stair. It was a fun warm up. That place would be really fun to try a harder line. Then I skated with the crew. Jack was doing the sickest wallies on this rock to quick nose manual. Hayden was doing manual shove manual. Whoa. Bo was ruling it filming. Joe was doing pop shoves up the ledge, hardflips off. I started with some slow ollies up and posing treflips off. Then started realizing I should actually try it. Eventually I worked up the courage to go fast enough to ollie up, kickflip on flat then treflip off. Bo was kind enough to get me in the rotation. I kind of landed it. Well, I did land it. My hands may have been down, but it still felt rewarding. Actually it was rewarding to be skating hard. Maybe Sean is right about me not eating enough protein after all as I finally had energy. Jack got robbed on his trick. Oh yeah I had worn some old 212s. My favorite shoe. Seeing as how I’ve still had knee pain wearing cupsoles I tried and really liked the added boardfeel. I was in more pain after this though.

Next up we went to the old Loveland library where Jack tried a few gnarly gap to lipslides. I worked on my studly base tan taking photos. Next up was a crazy little electrical box that I was too sore and sketched to try. Bo gave kickflip a few goes, but didn’t put it down. Joe didn’t get the back 5-0 either. Jack got the classic one foot nosegrind. Hayden felt out a few tricks then put down a solid boardslide to fakie. Bo went for front 5-0 and got so incredibly robbed. It was nearly dark so we went and got the classic mexican post-skate meal. Good times with good dudes.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow light, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, all washers on the outside of the wheels, new balance numeric 212 b/w/yellow size 12, nikesb zoom air insoles)
(pain level 4/10 felt good until I stopped skating)

Not feeling too good on a nice day I went to meet everyone at dog park at 11. I think almost everyone was already there when I arrived. Eric, Kevin, Rob, Bernie, Sean, Jake, Dave L. Eric was bringing the heat already. Lipslides, 5-0s and I saw a legit nosegrind. I was struggling early and fell on a ledge and acted like a baby and Rob called me out which kind of woke me up and got me out of my self hatred funk. It’s hard to remember what everyone was doing because there were so many people skating. Bernie had some nice controlled 5-0s and manuals. Rob was charging too. I saw halfcab noseslide the two step, front board the tall part of the weird obstacle, back 50 to boardslide Slow & Low. Sean ollied the manhole, fire hydrant and then the jersey barrier. Jake had some nice ollies then bluntslide curbhenge. Birthday boy Kevin was ripping his normal tricks. I think he was stuck on kick back tail. I struggled with back 50s on the tiny guy and instead got a few back 5-0s, wallies, got a line of front 180 the manhole fakie flip on flat then fakie nosegrind the cinder block ledge. I also tried a back 50 on a low ledge and got into 5-0 and was leaning in a way where shove out made sense and got it. That cheered me up some. Luzius was ripping and hiding in the corners it seemed. He can do the most casual front or back 180s over anything.

Then we was off to Crestview. We would lose Dave and Jake, but gain Jack. I was feeling oh so out of it I went and did a few nose stalls on a curved ledge around the back. I tried to skate the bench with Jack, Sean and Kevin, but I could barely even commit to the slowest of boardslides. It was so frustrating. Sean front lipped it. Kevin was back 50’ing it easy, doing boardslide pop over. Jack did boardslide pop over to manual shove out, Louie boardslide. I went and played on the manny pad with Bernie. Rob and Eric were chilling. Bernie did a fakie manual, I got nose manual. Bernie went for front 180 fakie manual, I tried kickflip manual. My kickflips up were decent for me, but I didn’t lock one into manual. Jack, Sean and Kevin joined us on the manny pad. Sean did an ollie over a cone to quick nose manual. Kevin had a good slam and came real close to switch flip manny. Jack came close to fakie tre nose manual. Jack and Bernie entertained us by manualling the whole sidewalk and parking lot.

After chilling we went to the nearby bike path snowboard jump. It was the perfect spot to chill and catch some phat air. Sean’s ollies were phenomenal. Jack did some other tricks too like impossible, almost kickflip under flip or something. Kevin charged some back 180s but couldn’t give us a switch Gish. I took too many tries for a kickflp and then even more tries to not land a 360 flip. Oh well, it’s fun just rolling down that bike path. It was funny when some Square State kids recognized Sean and Jack. Then it was dinner time. Yum.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow light, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, all washers on the outside of the wheels, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

So I had gotten some new trucks at 303. Some Thunder 151s. I meant to get some 149s, but they didn’t have them and well I wanted something different. I have to admit to myself that I like bigger boards, but the bigger Ventures require lot of heft to pop them. I wanted a lower and lighter bigger truck for 8.3 or 8.5. So I put them on an almost new 8.3 I had in my garage. I arrived to an almost empty Broomfield park. I started on the quartapotty and it was really fun. Also a few basics on the blue ledge. My setup was feeling great with the exception of flip tricks, but I kind of blame these Es Accel slims for that. Sean showed. We started with a game of SKATE. He pink slipped me again. I had the excuse of new trucks. I mean even though it’s my own fault it’s a decent excuse right? I did get a defensive f/s halfcab heel, but other then that it wasn’t so good. Then we mostly skated the black ledge. Sean methodically went through his routine landing so many tricks first try. 5-0 180s, nosegrind 180s, tailslides, nollie/fakie 5-0s and nosegrinds. I had more pop than normal and was able to 50 the ledge several times. It was fun. Got one shove out, front 180 out, didn’t do any accidental 5-0s. Had halfcab noseslide and noticed the lack of the baseplate Thunder problem. Did some okay crooks, switch front noseslides. After a while I got really tired and chilled. Sean did a line first try of nollie back nosegrind 180 then fakie back 5-0 180. Wow. Then we played a game of SKATE and I finally got a letter on him. Yes, only one letter. Ha ha. And I forget which trick it was on. He was on fire and landed tricks like nollie back heel in one or two tries. After the game I tried treflips until I got a super bad one, got a halfcab flip and could not get fakie bigflip. Sean did the tricks above in a few tries. Man he was ripping.

(setup 8.38 null plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder 151 hollow light, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, all washers on the outside of the wheels, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work Jake and I cruised over behind the school to do some flatground. Ollie’s friend Alex was there trying varial heels. We were hyped to see him and after a brief warm up we asked if he wanted to join us in a game of SKATE. I had tried some old 868s to try and reduce pain. They did reduce knee pain, but I didn’t really like them much and they were really hard to get used to. So I got a letter on fakie flip. Alex had to go to work but left us with a varial heel which we both missed. I think I got a letter on halfcab flip too. And couldn’t get a fakie bigflip. I matched Jakes varial flip, got a letter on frontside flip. I got him with heelflip. f/s halfcab heel, I think a f/s halfcab flip and something else. We were both at SKAT so the treflip battle was on. And neither of us could get one. Jake landed on a few at least. I’d say we were about 0-50 before Jake had to leave. I sat for awhile and reflected on how bummed it made me to not be able to treflip, halfcab flip or fakie bigflip. So then I went to 303 to get something new ..

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 868 grey size 12, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Arrived at a very crowded dog park on a nice smokey day. Dave was already there. I was impressed he wanted to stay there. There were so many high school kids, but somehow it wasn’t too bad. That’s the advantage of a street park, there is space for lots of people to skate. I had put thinner insoles into the Accel Slims, I would end up hating it, but still managed to skate. Warming up was fine cruising around getting snaked and doing basics. Dave and I stuck to the slow and low in the back area for awhile. Dave was trying nosegrinds both ways, but never quite got one. We both tried fakie 50 b/s halfcab and came up short. There was this headphone wifebeater wearing dude doing laps on wedgy who was quite annoying. He wouldn’t wait and was clearly only at the park for himself (thanks Feedback TS). I took too long to get a rock flip off the kicker. Managed a nollie back tail to fakie, but still not close to the shove out. Flip tricks weren’t great. I came close to nollie tre, but struggled with everything else. I tried some lines. Back 5-0 the little guy, ollie Wallies World, kick front board Curb Henge. I never got any of the tricks. Ha. Going the other way was trying wallie then a flatground trick and never landing flatground. Then started trying either noseslide to fakie or switch front nose followed by halfcab noseslide 270 out. Got a couple that felt closer, but still not legit. Dave tried too and had similar results. I hucked halfcab heel noseslide a few times. It felt doable and fun to huck. Didn’t struggle as bad at slow 50s on the cinderblock ledge and got one with a shove out. I tried noseslide 270 shoves out on the Two Step and got close, but failed. It really wore me out and a couple bails hurt so I chilled and watched Dave. He had a sick line with a varial flip, long front board on Full Metal Jacket. He did more, but I forget right now. He ended with a solid front 50 or two on the Two Step. Ripping! Pretty fun session.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin xero insoles)
(pain level 5/10 these shoes hurt)

On a nice warm day I met Sean at dog park right after work. It was not crowded. My new shoes felt terrible so I challenged Sean to SKATE. About the only thing I landed was kickflip, fakie flip and heelflip. He smoked me. The rest of the session was mostly a wash for me as well. I once again had the fear of trying to front 50 the cinder block ledge. I hate that I have to overcome that fear every single time I go there. Sean’s ollie the barrier then a quick ollie over the hydrant was crazy good. He also worked the East side with some lines line front nosegrind the two step then nollie back nosegrind the black ledge. Back nosegrind the two step then nollie back nosegrind 180 the black ledge. Wow. I was wanting to huck, but kind of tried a line for awhile. Nollie back tail the little guy, crook the two step, front tail the black ledge. I kind of got it after Sean had left. I had changed to back 50 to start with though. The front tail was just a brief little jib stall. I also came incredibly close to switch flips. There was one in particular that I was over and it just didn’t quite flip fast enough. It would really help my moral to land one. It got kind of crowded after that and I was tired so I left.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin flat nb 288 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After some chores, hiking with Liz and a nap I ended up meeting Dave L at Douglass. It was almost cool out! I had new shoes, Es Accel Slims. They didn’t feel great or terrible. Dave had already been close to 50 on the ledge, but we played a game of SKATE. I struggled with the different shoes for sure and couldn’t even get a heelflip. I had gotten a lead with tricks like fakie flip, halfcab flip and a couple others that Dave normally lands. He got me with switch shoves, back 3 and some more. I had several two try tricks at SKAT. I got a regular cab. I can’t tell it may have been my best one and felt almost like I did it right. I ended up losing on switch front 360 which I was also closer than expected on. I need to work on that one. Then we skated for awhile. Dave ruled the 1 down 1 up. So many different 180 versions up and down. I didn’t land many flippers at all after that, but on the ledge I had a few great feeling crooks. Maybe the best crooks i’ve done there. Then Dave and I started chatting. Then he left and I wanted to battle through some flip tricks. I finally managed a heelflip and f/s halfcab flip, but the rain started in so I left.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, es accel slims tricolor grey size 12, thin flat nb 288 insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Feeling really run down I met Sean, Jack and Kevin at Broomfield. Kevin and Jack were skating, but we left quickly after having to beg Jack to leave the skatepark (ha). We went to Galileo first. Aka stop rock central. It’s one of those spots I should love, but I don’t. Everyone else does though. We were there for a long time. People were doing their thing. Our crew was huge. Donnie, Garrett, Hayden, Bo, Laroy, Sean, Jack, JJ, Kevin and I. Hayden almost got nollie front 180 fakie 5-0 180 on the little one, but slammed super hard. A few bluntslides when across both by Kevin, Hayden, JJ and Garrett. Jack’s first try was front noseblunt. Wow. Him and JJ added back noseblunts. Donnie did switch front 5-0. Garrett never got the Nolan. Hayden came up short. Kevin was ripping. I heard JJ say the spot is hard. Bo was filming right away so I never did. Unfortunately my arthritis was kicking and I was very sore and lacking confidence. I spent about an hour trying to back 50 the low ledge and felt like quitting skateboarding. I started messing around on the bank with a couple basics and Kevin challenged me to bank SKATE. I had to triple or nothing a kickflip to fakie and was borderline losing it. After that it was fun though. I got b/s flip, f/s flip, fakie flip, shoves to fakie and a great feeling halfcab flip. I think Kevin got to SKA. He won and got me on tricks like switch flip, nollie flip, switch front shove (almost had it) and ended me with switch frontside flip.

We eventually ended up at the flat rail where I felt so incredibly sore. Kevin, Sean and I started messing around on the steep bank. It is super fun. Back 50s, pivots were the firsts, then front 5-0s and more. Then we started lining it out even more. As you can see above Sean and Kevin had some long lines. We were fully dorking. It was awesome. I did get a line of a little fakie side rock, kickflip then back 50. I was so sore the kickflip barely possible. I attempted a couple boardslides on the rail, but could not squat because of pain and gave up. Its funny the trick Jack was accidentally doing on the rail. Feeble to 5-0 to shove. Feeble front 180, blunt pop out 5 feet etc. Him and Hayden were feeling out tricks and then started getting oh so close to bangers. I feel bad for Hayden, he got straight up robbed. Joe had joined us and was trying back tails on the rail, but never locked in. After we had a nice dinner. Skateboarding with friends is awesome. Arthritis, not so awesome.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 7/10 arthritis flare up)

On a warm day I headed up to MRKT and stopped at Fossil on the way. I had run a bunch of errands in the morning and was feeling productive, but not so much motivation in the skate department. I had hit up Bo and he was down to skate at Fossil for awhile. He showed up at the same time and so did front 5-0 first trick. I spent awhile doing basically nothing to try and get warmed up. It was apparent I would be struggling. I almost never feel good on my board when I’m at Fossil. Ugh. Bo rattled off lots of ledge maneuvers like back lip shove, front lip, front 5-0 shove, back 5-0 shove, back 50 treflip! And of course lots of good treflips. I took awhile to get crooks, barely 50d the lower part, halfcab noseslide, had a good feeling switch front nose, struggled with all flip tricks. I tried to kickflip up the low part of the ledge, got a bad one in a few tries. Then I tried another because I wanted to treflip off the ledge. Bo tried b/s flips. There was another dude visiting from Florida that did pop shove up and heelflip up, he was cool. Bot and I tried forever. I was getting so frustrated. Like questioning if I can even skate the way I want to anymore. I would never get it again. Bo got the b/s flip then bounced. I chilled for a bit, then decided I just couldn’t leave feeling this bummed on skating. I was really sore, struggling. Got another crooks that felt alright, switch front nose. Got a line where I ollied up onto the ledge near the Carroll gap, heelflip on flat, kickflip off second try. I left on that note. I was still bummed, but not totally bummed.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-hollows, venom 91a bushings with roadside washer, 52mm bones stf 103a v1, 3 washers inside each axle, new balance numeric 440 white size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)