It was kind of snowing here in Boulder when I left to meet Will at Broomfield around noon. Got to the park and it was just Taylor and he was ripping. I started on my bigger 8.3, but this time with ventures. Felt great initially at least. Got through the normal warmups pretty quickly, even a few slow front 50s on the blurb. But then I just fell apart and had no motivation, drive, or peace with my setup. I changed back to the 8.25 with thunders and completely hated it other than 8.25 felt better than 8.3. Taylor had crooks shove and crooks to fakie. Will had his casual grace on the ledges and came close to nollie front 180 switch manual on the blurb.

(setups 8.3 with ventures with redrilled madness and 8.25 with thunder team hollows both of which sucked and then my splay revs which i still like)
(pain level 5/10 good ol’ arthritis)

Went to the garage during another 100+ mph wind day after work to skate some flatground. I had my smaller 8.25 with thunder setup. Started okay with some warm ups. Didn’t do so well on kickflips, but had fakie flip first try and got bs flip and halfcab flip. Tried halfcab heel for a while and could not get one. Then went into a four trick rotation. Nollie varial heel, treflip, switch flip and varial heel. Initially I was close to some nollie varial heels, but then they went away. Treflips were all close, but I kept not landing them. I was close to a few switch flips, but there was one in particular that was extremely close had it flipped a little faster. Varial heels I was quite close to as well. Then I just wanted to get a treflip so I just did them. I got some of my feet on a few, but never got one. I was getting so angry, lost my voice screaming. It was not cool.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null thunder 148 team hollow 52mm spits splay rev lt b/w size 12 remind cush insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Boulder park on the way into work for about 30 minutes before the wind hit. I hadn’t changed my setup and continued to completely hate it. Still I skated though. Did a couple things differently like bump to noseslide the triangle ledge which was fun. Also some nollie front tails on the hump to ledge. Did some different rollouts and stuff, but for the most part nothing special. Still felt good to skate a little though.

(setup 0/10 8.3 hayden, jessup ultra, thunder t2 149, 51mm spitfire classics, splay rev b/w size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Setup a new 8.3 board since I thought I liked my setup on Sunday. Nope, hated it beyond belief. It never fails, I should not setup a new board. I went on to completely suck it up and never at any point even landed a front 50 or even a crook. So I hucked. Got very close to kickflip back 50 on the blue lurb and kick back tail on the low side of the brown ledge. Will, Jameson and Justin were however ripping. Will switch nose manual all easy. Jameson trying frontside flip fakie 50s. Justin almost slappy front feeble up the low bank to curb.

(setup 0/10 8.3 hayden, jessup ultra, thunder t2 149, 51mm spitfire classics, splay rev b/w size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Feeling kind of sick I met up with some dudes at Broomfield park on an incredibly nice and warm Sunday. The crew was Cass, Brian, Sean, Will and me. Taylor was there shredding too. Out of the gates Cass was killing the flip trick game even if he couldn’t do a first try treflip in honor of the SOTY announcement. He would do treflip, hardflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, backside flip. Made a note to not play him in SKATE. I had another setup change which I mostly liked – 8.3 and Thunder T2s. I didn’t really test it on the ledge though. Brian, Cass, Sean and I played treflip for a while up on the top with the incline. No idea why we didn’t move down below as no one else was there. Cass did a couple, got close to fakie tre. I got a very over-50 defensive make. Brian did a couple questionable ones before putting down a solid one. And it was funny because he was filming it, but went outside of the recording area when he did it so you couldn’t see it. Sean got one after, down below. Brian also got some front 50s on the blue lurb. I got a fakie 50, but no back 50s. Had some fun noseslides to fakie on the bank to ledge. Was close to some other flipers. Sean did Rick flip in like 3 tries as well as laid down some of his patented greatness on the ledges. In retrospect I didn’t really do much, but it was a fun crew, nice out and a good session.

(setup 7/10 old 8.3 null flaherty, pj jessup, thunder t2 149, spitfire f4 51mm radial green, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insole)
(pain level 2/10) LOWEST IN A LONG TIME!

Kind of a windy morning making it feel chilly when it was actually pretty warm. Most of the 98% dudes were there. Lots of SOTY talk to start. Can’t really remember a whole lot because so many people were there. Jason’s front board kickflip out and kick back tails were great. Dan switch back 180 over the green box was amazing. Bratcher with a bunch of trick on the double kicker bank. Scott with some fakie ollies on it. Donnie was trying an insane boardslide transfer. Preston was ripping a regular board and doing losi grinds on rails. Cass is becoming a flatground wizard. Joe tall back tails and front crooks on the big wood ledge. Wade attacked the metal beam. I’m sure this is much more. I skated alright. Had a fun line I’ve done before of crooks the tall wood ledge then front shove the little kicker. Ted, Cass, Dan and I played halfcab heel for a while. I think Cass and Ted got them, Dan and I were close. I took a while at the end to do halfcab noseslide on the green box and wanted to line it out with front 50 shove on the main bench. But I couldn’t get the 50 at all. Kind of a bummer at the end, but whatevs, it was a fun session.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder hollow lite 148, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On the way to work I stopped for a brief mostly-flatground session.  I had 8.25 with slappy lows and mostly hated it. Especially the incredibly noisy pivot cups.  I struggled to kickflip or halfcab flip.  Did some basics around the park briefly after flailing at flatground.  Then remembered Monico was in a Rick flip challenge so I went in on them.  And I got one!  And it made me very happy.  

After work then a long traffic jam I ended up at a mostly empty Frederick park with Dave.  Warming up wasn’t as bad as I thought and for some random reason I thought of Donnie inspiration and we hucked some fs ollies up the bank.  And it was super fun.  We stuck to the bank area most of the night.  We tried lines for quite a while.  Dave did his line of fakie flip then bigspin, but of course I got a spam call which messed up the recording.  I tried kf to fakie then rick flip for a while but was not close to the rick flip, was also not close to f/s halfcab flip or even f/s flip.  I tried some sw front bluntslides and gave up after a slam.  Dave had sw blunt slide and front shove over the hip.  I had some alley oop fakie frontside grinds down the qp that were fun.  This seems like very little, but it was actually a long session and quite fun.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, slappy low profile 8.25, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic pink/green, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Stopped at Boulder park for a little over 30 minutes in the morning.  It was incredibly nice out.  I had a setup change that I despised.  8.25 and T2s.  There was some snow piles around, but mostly skateable.  Warm up line was supposed to be noseslide the hump to ledge, axle stall, nollie back 270 but I never got the nollie 270.  Had some fun front 50s until I almost broke my thumb on a slam that my thumb caught on the way down.  Ouch.  Hurt so bad.  Thought I’d be going to the ER for a minute.  Did some other basics, they were fun.  Glad I skated with the exception of that slam.

(setup 1/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, thunder t2 149, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic pink/green, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 3/10 until the slam but my legs still felt decent)

Feeling overwhelmed with setup madness I ended up just grabbing an old 8.3 with some thunders on it and completely hated it. I had gone to Southern Hills. Haven’t been there in a long time and I remember why. I mean it’s okay, but them ledges are TALL. I did some noseslides and noseslides to fakie and that was really about it.

After some lunch and setting up a new board I went looking for dry spots. I didn’t come up with much, but I ended up at dog park as I was very surprised to see it was dry and almost empty. I had put Royals on and they are pretty good. Not great as they lack pop, but I did prove a couple of things to myself. Mainly, wearing these Splay shoes I need lighter setups. I had regular manuals better than normal. Other tricks were okay. Back 50s on the curb were better than normal. Slappy crooks worked well. Had a line that was really poorly done, but sounds okay on paper. Front 50 180 the lurb, sw front nose the bench, fakie nosegrind the curb. Did halfcab flip then b/s flip first try, but regular kickflips were terrible. Did another line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide the bench, back 50 the curb. Did more whatever stuff. Ended on a line of sw front nose the narrower metal bench then fakie front nose jib the green ledge. Oh yeah, I couldn’t front 50 it to save my life which I imagine will be a quick death to the Royals. Since I had that problem before too. I should also mention it was quite windy and cold.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, royal ultralight 149, spitfire f4 99a 52mm pink/green classic, splay rev lt b/w size 12 with remind cush insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Cass and I decided on Frederick on a Saturday as we knew it had been shoveled. Dave was hopeful to show later. Cass and I pulled in at the same time and were hyped to see Scott P, Dan and Donnie were there too. As well as other Longmont ripper JJ. We chatted a bit and got going. The weather was mostly nice, but cloud cover would cool it off a lot at times. Donne and Dan learned new tricks on the little curb to get warmed up. Nollie front crook and fakie 5-0 pop out respectively. I cruised around some and eventually spent some time in the bank to curb area. Cass was killing the back 50s on the curb. I had a kickflip to fakie that didn’t feel poppy or good. Donnie destroyed the curb area with some cool approaches to grinds and reverts. Can’t even really describe them. Dave had shown. He made light work of tailslides and boardslides too. I had a fun line of noseslide the bump to ledge then b/s flip the hip. I tried to do some ollies to fakie and stuff on the steeper bank. Donnie front 50’d the ledge on the top of it. We were all in the front area a while on the manny pads and such. Dan did fakie manual which didn’t come easy. Dave manual, but couldn’t seem to get nose manual. The crazy pop shove noseblunt slide over the pyramid was nuts. I tried a line of back 50 the curb, ollie onto the taller pad, kickflip off. Didn’t get it. Dan and JJ were manualing the tall pad like it was nothing. Cass had done front board shove on the bump to bar which was pretty amazing. I changed my line to front slash the speed reducing qp, olllie up the euro, kickflip off. took me forever, but I got it eventually. Unfortunately I cracked my tail really bad. While trying that line I had done a couple fakie bigflips over the pyramid which I was happy about. But when I went to go film it I couldn’t get it. Dave got some kickflip tail reverts over it though. Fun session. I’m sure I’m missing a lot, we were there a long time.

(setup 3/10 null hayden 8.25, jessup ultra, venture 5.6 v8 ace bushings hollow hangers, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, splay rev lt b/w size 12 remind cush insoles)
(pain level 4/10)