Bratcher and I rolled to Zuni park to meet some old dudes. Cass, Mike, Salty were there, Dave would join. The wind was cold, making a decent temp not feel great. Seemed like everyone was on their own for a while. Cass slammed so hard on a b/s flip attempt over the gnar hip. I got a front tail stall over the hip, could not commit to ollie up the euro 5. Dave had some cool lines, but also could not commit to ollie up the euro 5. Salty had some rad tricks on the qp going fast. Mike had some good boardslides. I spent forever getting a b/s flip over the dork hip. Dave got f/s flip over it quickly. Cass had rad ollies but couldn’t get the front shove. Dave had long grind transfers from the qp to mound. We all played with the hubba area, but I think only Dave landed some transfers. Oh yeah, Jack did the carve into noseslide and boardslide. My flip tricks were not working.

Cass and I looked at the area below which was kind of cool actually. Some two stairs, some okay ledges. I kind of wish we had skated it more.

After a while Bratcher, Dave and I went to the new Westminster spot with the ledges to bank. It was windy and cold when we got there. Those guys went on to kill it. Dave front board to fakie, front 50 back 180, back bigspin into it. Jack front board, sw nose, sw boardslide. I was quite unhappy with my consistency although did a few lines that I liked. Noseslide the bench up top, ollie down, boardslide into the bank, nollie bigspin on the bank. No comply bigspin on the bank, nollie front tail. I was taking forever to kickflip into the bank, then did it in a line. Noseslide, ollie down, kickflip. And the kickflip felt great. There was this first grader that hung around us for a while. He was funny. I liked how he told me to practice more. But when I finally did the line with the kickflip he was super encouraging.

I was toast at that point, but I went and looked at what the school had to offer. The 3 of us rode down some long stairs. Then I tried some weird stalls on the silly curb into downhill path. Dave did a stall to grind into it too. The hurricane felt pretty awesome really. I want to go back and do it with the actual path bomb and somehow make the corner. Last thing was Dave’s cool little boardslide 270. Pretty rad day. I wish I wasn’t so negative at times, but it was a super struggle at times for me.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, indy 144 titanium, 51mm spitfire green radials 99a f4, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On a somewhat warm afternoon I went to meet Will. Ted was there too, we started at the skatepark. For a while it was just us, no toddlers. I didn’t do much. Ted almost had some amazing Muska flips. Will had some lofty ollies. I tried some ollies on the steeper bank, got a noseslide and crook on the PJ ledge. Then after a while families and kids quickly filled in the park. Literally parents standing in the middle of the skatepark while their toddlers laid down on a skateboard in the middle of everyone.

We went to the ledges. I had a back 50 easy on the curb then went for 5-0 and survived a scary one. I started off alright, had some good feeling 50s on the lurb. But once it got to flip tricks and higher ledges, not so good. Took a while to get a fakie flip and followed it with halfcab noseslide. Will did switch manual, close to switch nose manual. Did halfcab manual. All while I failed at front 50s on the lurb and got so bummed. We tried some dream tricks for a while. He did a bunch of switch 50s and felt out switch nosegrind. I tried halfcab crooks. Initially was close, got less close. Was about to leave, but then Dave showed. So we skated some more. I didn’t do much, but had some crooks on the tall wood ledge. Saw Dave switch manual the grate, some kickflips, popped up onto the lurb. Then we chatted in the cold and Will and I left.

(setup 2/10 thunder 149 team hollow 8.3 null 52mms splay rev impact cush remind insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went to Broomfield around 7. The park had a lot of snow and ice around, making the lines way less fun. There were some 20 somethings there charging so hard. I avoided them and stayed up top on the bank to curb area. I think I did an ultra crap warm up line of f/s nollie on the hump, rock to feeble on the bank to curb, ultra crap kickflip out of the slightest bank. Hit the ledges. Will and I skated the angled pad which I haven’t in forever. I got a front shove to fakie on it after almost dying on a bail. Will almost had switch ollie up then switch flip. I was not close to kickflip fakie. I couldn’t crook the black ledge which was mind blowing. My frozen bushings would not pinch at all. Took forever to front 50 the happy ledge and could not believe it. Almost left without saying goodbye I was so depressed and didn’t skate for two days.

(setup 2/10 8.3 thunder 149s 52s splays remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Went out to the garage on a very cold and snowy night. Did some warm ups. Got to kickflip which took a bit, backside flip too, halfcab flip way too long. I was skating my 8.25 with indys. Then I went into a rotation of 4 tricks. Treflip, nollie flip, back heel, switch heel. Didn’t land anything. Did the first 10 on the 8.25 setup and was closish to nollie flip and treflip. On the 8.3 with T2s I was close to treflip. Otherwise I wasn’t close to anything and somehow managed to just go inside after 20 tries of each trick without getting angry.

(setups 8.25 indy titaniums or 8.3 with T2s both sucked and splay revs)
(pain level 5/10)

On a cold day in the mid teens the sun had come out so I went in search of dry concrete. I went right to the back of Platte because I knew it would be dry with the south facing bricks retaining a little heat. I brought my ledge which I have skated in a couple years. I had gone back to the sample board with ventures. Other than how well it crooked and kickflipped it, it was a terrible setup for me. I skated about an hour and a half. Maybe only the first 30 minutes the sun was out, so it was pretty cold. Somehow I was fine though. I would get a few of the basic flippers. Ledge tricks didn’t go so well. I took forever to get two front 50s that were basically just axle stalls. Noseslides, regular crooks were okay, got a couple bad halfcab noseslides, fakie 50. I hucked quite a few kickflip crooks. They weren’t close, but they also felt somewhat doable. It’s funny trying such a hard trick backside, then going like 1mph frontside and not even being able to axle stall. I had been nearly perfect on halfcab flips so I tried to get a quick line of halfcab flip then crook. But I could no longer halfcab flip and almost lost my mind. Eventually got a couple, but bailed the crooks. Oh well. It was 16 degrees and I skated pretty hard.

Then after some Pica’s dinner I ended up at Square State with Nullers and FOCO crews. It was cool. I was out of place being there with such rippers. Initially I got a line with an axle stall, wallie and noseslide. Yippee. Watching everyone skate was pretty incredible. Garrett flowing, doing such stylee tricks. Hayden too, flow and style kings these two. Noè is crazy to watch, he just lands sooooo many tricks. He went to town on the qp. Young Lakin was ripping too. The willy grinds made me laugh. He put down a lot of tricks though. Joe hardflips always rule to witness. Bo’s pop even though he said his knee was hurting was as amazing as ever. Emmet has some really steezy frontside grinds. Will and I skated in the background for a while, nothing much happened and we kind of stunk up the mini. But Will did get a kickflip and nosegrind that were sick. Fun night, I was pretty sore and skated like dookie and hated my setup. Oh well.

(setup 2/10 sample 8.25/14″, null grip, venture 5.6 v-cast bones bushings, 51mm radial spitfire 99a green, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10 early, 6/10 later)

Went to blue skies for a quick lunch break. Slight modification, regular aces instead of ace lows. Still hated it. I was pretty sore, tried to get it going, but nothing worked. Ghost pop on ollies to fakie, no pop at all, flip tricks no worky. It was the most depressing session. The main bank had snow on it, most of the ledges did. I was excited to go back to work.

(setup 0/10 8.3 aces splay revs)
(pain level 6/10)

Stopped at Boulder park in the morning. There was a lot of snow on everything north facing so it was extra limited. I had two setups for vetting. 8.25 with royals / 8.3 with slappy low profile with 1/16″ risers. Went with 8.3. Did not like it or skate well. Had some front 50s on the upper part of the triangle ledge, some hump to 50s. Tried a line of front 50 the triangle ledge then ollie onto the uphill hubba. Was not close at all to the ollie. Tried to grind across/down the old ledge, but couldn’t really get into it.

Later on I ended up at Square State to skate with Brian and whoever else is there. It was a cool crew, only about six dudes. Brian, Christian, Kyle, Kyle 2, Will, Nick, maybe a couple more. I started in the main area and took too long do to wallie nollie. I had put ace lows on. Maybe I disliked it slightly less than the 8.3/slappy lows, but I didn’t like it much. Brian and Christian grinded long on the mini. I ended up going in on kickflip nose stalls on the “bank” to curb. took about 30 minutes straight of just me trying them, but I got one and it made me really happy. Brian had done an amazing rock ‘n roll revert.

(setup morning 8.3 slappy low profile 1/16″ risers 0/10
setup evening 8.3 ace lows 1/10
splay rev s-series green size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

It had snowed overnight, but only a trace. The sun was out and it was nice and since there was no school for MLK Day I went and skated flatground. I had 8.25 with Thunder. Meh. Kickflips felt decent initially. I somewhat quickly got the Reynolds line – backside flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I thought I was gonna be ripping. Only landed a questionable f/s halfcab flip after that. Was close on a few. I really should throw away all my Thunder trucks, I very much dislike them.

(setup 3/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, splay rev s-series green size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice morning I went to Lafayette to meet up with Brian and a crew of others Cass, Jake, Gordon, Gray, Kyle, Will for a minute, and more. I really struggled for a long time. After some warm up there was a flyout session out of the bank. Jake got comfy with ollies. Cass ripped the front shoves. Gordon nollie and shoves. I could not get a kickflip and it made me so mad. Oh we had skated the toilet bowl some and I slammed on my first roll in. Argh. Brian and Jake had some tricks on the taller steeper walls. Eventually I swapped my setup out for the 8.25/Indy setup and liked it more, but that’s not saying much. I would struggle to get a line that was the one thing I was somewhat happy with. Kickflip on the mellow mountain bankpipe then a kickflip to fakie on the other bank. Oh there were some fun wallies over the corner of the rock. Gordon had some good back 50s on the granite pad. Will had some good front 50s on it. I couldn’t even 50 it. Kyle killed a bigflip up the euro. Brian had cool back 180 nosepicks up it.

Gordon, Cass and I went to nearby by Ryan Elem. Nothing good happened. We just kind of dorked around on the little brick bank. Cass went for front shove fakie. Gordon was close to back tail on the wall and popping it back into the bank.

Then we went to the metal curb spot, but were looking at the 7 stair out ledge then found this nearby. Such a sick spot. Dear Mark Suciu, come skate this, your quick feet would destroy it. Anyway, Gordon was quick on the front 50s through the kink and the 180 out was nice. I struggled for some questionable crook jibs. Cass was the noseslide king and shoved out through the kink which is pretty nuts.

(setups 8.3/slappy highs 1/10, 8.25 indy titaniums 2/10, splay rev s-series black size 12 nb272 insoles and currex runpro insole which I liked less than the reminds)
(pain level 5/10)

Let the temps warm up after a cold morning. Was going to dog park, but randomly remembered this spot on the way there that I’ve never skated. I was there about an hour myself. I had a setup change. 8.3, slappy trucks, old 51mm wheels. It felt good although the wheels felt small. I would get manual pretty quickly. Never got nose manual. Hucked a lot of flippers, landed very little. They have these tall butter benches that are light and I pulled one out to skate. Had some noseslides and noseslide to fakie on it. Was trying non-stop lines, never quite getting any good flippers. Was close to kickflip up the curb then front shove out of the curb cut. After one attempt I went to push off, but my board totally stopped and I slammed so hard. Turns out a bearing had broke and the wheel got wedged against the axle. Doh!

So after a quick trip home and wheel swap out I was back. I had opted to switch to some larger wheels and boy did I hate them. I could no longer manual or do many flippers. It sucked. I had pulled out the bench again, but a car pulled up right where I had put it off the sidewalk. It was the janitors, but they were happy to see me and waved. Dave showed a little after this. He would take a bit, but did manual body varial out. We got the curb to grind/slide a little. Dave slammed on a back tail. Fakie nosegrind to nose manual was first try on the camera. I had gotten close to the front slappy, kickflip up, front shove off, but couldn’t kickflip up when Dave filmed. I never got the front shove off and I don’t know why. Dave had some nice kickflips off the curb. I was hyped to get a couple crooks on the tall butter bench and some back 50s on the curb. Dave’s back 360 at the end was so good. Fun session.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 hayden, jessup ultra, slappy lights 8.5, old wheels 51 then 53, splay rev s-series black size 12 remind cush insole)
(pain level 4/10)