It’s been weeks since I’ve been to the dog park. I guess I’m taking the social distancing thing pretty serious. But I woke up early and work late and it was nice out. I wasn’t feeling too great, but that doesn’t normally stop me. I had switched to the cast baseplate, but other then that things were the same and felt the same. I had a fun initial slappy crook, then a sketchy slam on the first boardslide attempt. I was extra slow and cautious for a while, but things came together. I did some lines to get things going that aren’t noteworthy. First one I was happy with was front 5-0 the mini cinder block ledge, noseslide the tall side of the black ledge, noseslide to fakie the plastic ledge, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide the regular cinder block ledge, maybe a slappy crook at the end too. The thing I’m most happy about is committing to front 50s pretty much every try on the regular cinder block ledge. I got front 50, front 50 front 180, front 50 shove. I was trying to line it out with ollie over the mini cinder block ledge, but kept bailing the ollie. I would get it eventually though and it felt pretty easy and cool. I did the wallie thing and wood shot everywhere. Ha, my nose totally got tore up on that. The main parking block grinds so good. I had the best feeling front slappies and some really bad crooks on the cinder block ledge after. Then I got super tired and had very little energy and just kinda putzed around. I tried fakie nosegrinds on the mini cinder block ledge and failed, got a little front smith jib on the lower side of the black ledge. Man I love this park.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.8 titanium axle with custom hollow cast baseplate, doh dohs 88a boardside bushing no washer minilogo 94a roadside with flat washer, 53mm purple swirl blank wheels, 3 speed washers on the outside of each axle, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 almost sharp pain in the right knee should have worn the incrediwear knee sleeve)

On a cooler day I went out for skate lunch again armed with a 11×11 list. I did a few slappies then went up to the designated flatground area and started flipping (out). I got kickflip first try, then took a bit to get another. I almost lost my mind trying to get a fakie flip which took 10 tries. And it wasn’t even on the list, just a warm up trick. Argh, at least halfcab flip warm up only took a couple tries. Then it was off to the list:
fakie bigflip – couldn’t do this. Came so close to focusing my board. This is normally so easy for me. The terrible one I got was like 20th try.
heelflip – Got a worse one first try, then that epic rocket heel pretty quick to calm me down a little.
halfcab heel – not even close
nollie varial flip – finally landed on it, but couldn’t ride away.
treflip – got a few, but all were terrible.
nollie big flip – not even close
varial heel – kinda close. I gave up on the list after this, it was too tough
switch bs flip
switch heel
fakie treflip
nollie inward heel
Then I went down do the original straight curb and tried switch front tail. I probably got closer to rolling my ankle than landing the trick. It’s my turn to give Dave a trick in our ongoing game of SKATE so I wanted to do switch front tail. Oh well. I gave up and remembered Dave saying he hadn’t done kickflip axle stall. I know he can do it and want to see it so I went for that. I got a few questionable ones before getting a good feeling one. Back to work.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.8 titanium, doh dohs 88a boardside bushing no washer minilogo 94a roadside flat washer, 53mm purple swirl blank wheels, 3 speed washers on the outside of each axle, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 4/10)

Went across the street after getting a text from Max who wanted to grab and old 8.5 board of mine.  I would be there about 30 minutes before him and Will showed.  I had switched bushings yet again, this time they felt just about right.  Doh dohs 88a barrel and mini logo 94a little one.  It was really warm and sunny out.  I was wearing shorts.  It felt nice.  I had done quite a few of the normal routing before they showed.  I had the fastest front slappy I’ve done, it felt awesome.  Got a kickflip off the curb cut after.  Max and Will were on it pretty quick.  Will did the best slappy line I’ve seen there.  Slappy front crook transfer up, nollie front tail to switch crooks to fakie, switch front shove.  I feel like it’s missing a flatground trick, but wow, it was sick.  Max was doing crazy switch manuals up and own the curb cuts and got a line of 360 flip up into a curb cut and then nollie flip out to the parking lot.  He also had a killer fakie flip out of one.  I had a few decent slappy front crooks and maybe my first switch front tail.  I basically did a switch 90 and landed on all 4, but the nose was pretty clearly on the curb.  I also amused max with a bs flip attempt out of the curb cut that only turned 90 degrees.  And somehow I rode away.  I also got a 360 flip out which made me happy.  Then it was time to go back to work.  

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.8 titanium, doh dohs 88a boardside bushing no washer minilogo 94a roadside flat washer, 53mm purple swirl blank wheels, 3 speed washers on the outside of each axle, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10)

I work late this week so cruised across the street for some slappies at lunch. Todays setup change was to put 5.8 hangers on and venom 92a bushings. Immediately the bushings were too soft and I was getting wheelbite like crazy. Argh. Even when coming out of slappies. I didn’t really do much of anything and kept it pretty mellow. Got a front shove from the curb cut to the parking lot and a b/s flip out of the curb cut. Jack came and met up and skated for a bit too. He had a front slappy even though he says he sucks at slappies. He was ripping the flat ground. Heelflips, fakie tre, varial heel, halfcab flip, backside flip and almost got rick flip from curb cut to parking lot. Man it was good to see Jack again.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.8 titanium, vemon 92a bushings with flat top washer, 53mm purple swirl orb wheels classic shape, 3 speed washers on the outside of each axle, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 5/10 some good sharp knee pain)

On a nice morning I had gone for long walk then decided to skate flat. It was still pretty early, around 10am. I was armed with a list of 15 tricks. I wasn’t limiting myself to a certain amount of tries, but if I wasn’t close at all I would stop around 10 tries. I had warmed up with a few kickflips and was skating the 8.25.
Halfcab flip – came quick and felt good
Backside flip – took close to 10 tries
Fakie bigflip – around 12 tries
Heelflip – came quick
Halfcab heel – didn’t get it, but it was close and I committed.
Front heel – not close. Feels doable, but never committed
Treflip – got a really bad one 20th try.
Nollie varial flip – can’t land this to save my life anymore
Switch flip – not very close
Switch heel – they flipped really well, but never committed
Varial heel – committed, got close, but never landed on the grip
Switch tre – not even remotely close
Frontside flip – got a decent one for me, but it was really slow
Nollie bigflip – not as close as I hoped
Heelflip body varial – the last trick was originally rick flip, but I swapped it for this one to try and get Dave a trick. I was close before I turned on the camera, and not that close once it was on. Doh.

After lunch I went to Rocky Mountain to meet the Daves. Max and Will would come about 30 minutes after us. The parking lot was almost completely wet from the melting snow. The drains from the roof sounded like rivers. The sidewalk was mostly dry except the ledge area which now had a pretty water gap added to it. It would let up later on and sound more like a babbling brook. Max laughed at that and said I should crook over the babbling brook. Ha. I did a little line of kickflip up the curb then noseslide to fakie over the water gap. Dave L was doing some good manuals. He had a nose manual that bonked off a grate then back to nose manual. Dave F had the sickest boardslides to fakie over the water gap and skates the banks like they are doable. Max and Will are on another level. They were doing really hard tricks immediately. Max had b/s flip over a median on the bank, ollied the bank flat gap, slammed super hard on front heel over a median, did a lot of manuals/nose manual spins on the median that shouldn’t be possible, back tails over the water gap so much more. Will was a little more low key, but was killing it too. Front 3 over a median, back tail the water gap. I’m forgetting other tricks right now, which is a shame. I managed to cleanly ollie onto the narrow ledge by the entrance. It hyped me up. I failed at crooks over the water gap. I blame my new wheels, narrow trucks and lack of skill. Dave had a nice front 50 over it as we were leaving. I wish my legs didn’t lock up at the end so I could have tried too.

(setup 8.25 null curby deck, venture 5.6 v-hollow trucks, stock bushings with flat top washer, 53mm purple swirl orb wheels classic shape, new balance numeric 288s jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 5/10 – it was fine playing skate early, but gradually more sore at the school)

After 35+ inches of  spring snow throughout the week I went out on a Saturday afternoon in search of something dry.  I found the front of one of the newer research areas.  There is a ledge/manny pad/4 stair and a taller ledge with limited runway.  There was some snow melting and falling from the roof which ended up becoming so much that it prevented lines between the ledges.  Initially at least it was fine though.  I did a couple warm up lines.  Slappy noseslide to fakie the low ledge, switch 180, noseslide the tall ledge.  Ollie off the tall ledge, no comply 180, switch nosesslide.  Switch front nose the little one, turn around, crook the tall one.  Front 180 off the tall one, halfcab flip on flat, front 50 the lower one.  Oh yeah, I was on mixing boards again.  8.25 with 5.6 trucks and 8.38 with 5.6 trucks.  This happened because of how hard flip tricks were yesterday.  Neither felt great.  I came close to a slow front disaster on the 8.3, couldn’t do it on the 8.25.  Got close to back 50s on the 8.3, but not the 8.25.  The approach backside was terrible, uphill with lots of cracks.  I did a few of the worst front tail jibs ever.  A bunch more snow came and kinda prevented the line aspect.  I got pretty down and depressed about my skating.  Even with the smaller trucks the 8.38 felt hard to flip other than straight kickflips. At one point I did a halfcab flip on the 8.3 and then on the 8.25. The 8.3 worked, but the 8.25 felt good. So I kind stuck to it after awhile, the 8.3 just felt kinda large and unnecessary. Then I tried nollie varial flip for awhile and got more depressed. Although capturing the snow falling right behind me was pretty cool.

(setup mixture of 8.25 & 8.38 setups with 5.6 trucks on both)
(pain level 3/10)

After work I walked around to the back of the school hoping it would be dry since it gets a lot of sun. It was dry. And it was super hot with all the sun coming off the bricks. Nice. I didn’t have any real plans, no 10×10 list, only loosely wanted to try a few switch backside flips. Warming up took awhile. I think it was like 5 or 6 tries just to get a kickflip. It was rough. I was about half an hour in and had only landed kickflip and fakie flip. Then for a brief period things clicked. Got halfcab flip followed by backside flip. Fakie flip followed by f/s halfcab flip. Also got fakie bigflip first try, finally some heelflips. But then I hit a wall. I hucked a lot of tricks. One switch bs flip was close, a few nollie inward heels were close, a couple janoski flips were close. Tricks that I can normally do at least 1/20 did not come. Treflip, nollie varial flip, halfcab heels. I finally just gave up and walked home through the melting snow. I was very bummed on the lack of a treflip.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, venture 5.8 trucks custom cast baseplate with hollow kingpin and titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, all 3 speed washers on the outside, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles)
(pain level 3/10 and i say this again – i struggled to jump)

After work I chilled for a minute, changed my setup and headed to campus as the clouds were moving in.  I did a few slappy crooks at the meet up curb then headed down to the flagstone ledge.  I wanted to be pretty close to my car considering it looked like it could start dumping rain any second.  There was a puddle on the frontside approach that limited the angle and speed.  I was okay with that since frontside scares me these days anyway.  It was a bit of a struggle initially, but I was skating it backside too which I’ve never done before.  Backside went pretty well.  Noseslide, noseslide fakie, boadslide, crooks, switch front noseslide, halfcab noseslide.  Didn’t get halfcab nose to fakie, back 50 or kickflip nose.  Frontside I tried just ollieing on for awhile.  I don’t think I ever got a clean one.  I had a couple mediocre switch nose jibs then took awhile to get front 50.  But I was getting into it.  I was just going really slow and not locking in right.  I got one though and it felt pretty awesome.  As the rain started I tried treflips for awhile and got one!  That’s my fist in a few weeks.

(setup 8.3 null curby deck, venture 5.8 trucks custom cast baseplate with hollow kingpin and titanium hanger, bones medium bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, all 3 speed washers on the outside, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10 but once again my legs were kind of numb and lacking pop)

Went over to the curb right after work.  Saul and Jake were there, Dave L would arrive shortly after that.  I don’t think a whole lot out of the ordinary happened.  I saw Jake get a really nice frontside flip, slappy bluntslide.  Dave had a cool manual to back 50, some back bigspins.  Saul had some really long backside slappies, slappy crooks, frontside slappies and some sick flashy new swirl wheels.  I struggled on flip tricks out of the curb cut, but did get first try front shove into the parking lot, a couple tiny switch slappy crooks and the normal slappies.  

(setup 8.5 null collage deck, venture 5.8 trucks cast baseplate with titanium hanger, 1/16 riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm bones easy street v5 wheels, new balance numeric 288s black jack curtain size 11.5, no insoles, incrediwear knee sleeve)
(pain level 3/10 but I didn’t have much pop)

This is one of the raddest crews in Colorado. All of these people rule and this video stokes me out and makes me want to go skate.