On a cool morning I brought my quiver to the dog park. 8.25, 8.5 and 8.75. I was a little later than the last couple days because I had been called for work. I warmed up on all 3 trying a line to see which board worked the best. Boardslide the butter bench, front 50 the little metal ledge, kickflip, back 50 the lower step. For awhile I thought I’d just be happy and stick with 8.25 because I couldn’t kickflip the 8.75. The 8.5 setup had some bushing that had totally froze up and made the comparisons a little hard. Anyway, the 8.75 started to win even though I struggled with kickflips. I ended up mostly skating it the rest of the session. I’m not calling it a setup change, but it probably will go down and I’ll owe Launch some money. I went on to actually have fun on my skateboard again even when a couple high school kids came and hogged the benches. I did a few things I hadn’t done in awhile. Kinda ollied the wallie barrier. Actually, it was epic as I ollied it but rode down the other side. It takes special skills to be that bad. Had some good crooks, halfcab noseslide, noseslide to fakie on the taller metal bench, ollie the little kinked rail, front 180 a parking block super easy. Struggled with flip tricks, but was having enough fun to actually try them. I got a line that made me happy enough to leave. Fakie nosegrind, switch 180 then front smith the lower step (I didn’t grind, but popped out quick – whatever it’s me). So this whole goal of the same setup all year might technically be shot, but at least I had fun. I wanted to stick with 8.75 initially before the wheelbase was different in the latest null shipment. So maybe I can just blame Generator. Ha ha. It was nice to enjoy skateboarding.

(setup a mixture of old stuff, boards, 2020 8.25 setup and 8.75)
(pain level 3/10 feeling better too!)

Feeling a little better physically I went to the dog park before work and had about an hour to skate. I skated TERRIBLY. The only thing I was happy with was a couple halfcab noseslides on the cinder block benches. I was almost unable to front 50 a bench. I tried to ollie the wallie barrier after and couldn’t do it. I couldn’t land halfcab flip. It was so depressing I went back to obsessing over my setup.

(setup 2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate/v-hollow axles, bones medium bushings, old 53mm pj bones stf v1, 2 washers inside each axle, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy white/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 4/10)

On a nice morning I went to dog park. I was still fighting a cold, lacked some energy and any pop whatsoever. Starting was more of a struggle than I imagined possible. Everything hurt and nothing came easy. I tried a line of halfcab noseslide, crooks, ollie the wallie wedge. I had some good feeling halfcab noseslides, but never got the ollie. Tried a line of wallie the wedge, front 50 a bench, treflip and more, but it doesn’t matter because I never got the tre. In fact I only got two front 50s and a terribly slow speed. It was a mental struggle to get up on it. I failed at several other things and then just started trying f/s halfcab noseslides. I needed to hand Dave a trick so I went for it. I got one that was way better, but my phone was pointed up too high. I’ve done this one a couple times, but definitely want to keep it in the rotation.

(setup 2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate/v-hollow axles, bones medium bushings, old 53mm pj bones stf v1, 2 washers inside each axle, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy white/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 6/10)

Went into the garage on a decent night, but I felt too run down to skate in coldish weather. I had a new pair of 306’s in some fruity white with Miami Vice colors. Oh well, I like that shoe, it works best for me these days. I warmed up to some kickflips and fakie flip. Tried nollie flip for a bit before moving on to heelflip where I got stuck for like 30 minutes. I never landed one. It was ridiculous. After finally giving up I also couldn’t do a halfcab flip, but I blame the small garage space for that. Got a b/s flip and then a treflip pretty quick. So I left on a good note. Is it possible I can only land heelflips on low trucks? Argh.

(setup 2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate/v-hollow axles, bones medium bushings, old 53mm pj bones stf v1, 2 washers inside each axle, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy white/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 4/10)

Went out into the garage on a windy night. I would say it was too cold to skate outside, but Ollie was skating campus with his friend so clearly I’m a wuss. I wore some 212s since my Foys are dead. Well, I wore them until I realized they weren’t as good as worn down Foys. I was very slow to get started. I had put cast baseplate on and Bones wheels. So yeah, the baseplate could be construed as a setup change by some very anal people. But I said the goal was “venture 8.25 trucks” and these are still Venture 8.25 trucks. I got a few kickflip, fakie flips. Couldn’t comprehend heelflip. Got varial flip, backside flip and hucked a couple treflips. Oh yeah, I hucked a bunch of Janoski flips and got kinda close to that.

(2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 cast baseplate/v-hollow axles, bones medium bushings, old 53mm pj bones stf v1, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy b/w size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 4/10)

Went to dog park around 10:30 am on a day that felt much colder than the temperature indicated (38). I got there first and quickly knew I would be having another off day. Argh. Sean was next. After we had done some warming up we played a game of SKATE. It didn’t go well for me. I got pink slipped, getting letters on tricks I can do like heelflip and front shove. After that I played Kevin and only got one letter on him with pop shove or something. My flatground game blows lately. I gotta work on that. After that I went on to not really do much or try anything hard as most of the Nullers and other crew had shown up and were ripping so hard. Then I went and stood in the freezing cold shade/breeze and filmed. That was some of the coldest I’ve ever felt.

(2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 v-hollows, 1/16” riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire green swirl classics f4 99a, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy black/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 5/10)

On a gorgeous day I went to Fuzz’s, watched a few vids then rolled out with Jack to Denver. We picked up Kevin and ended up at this school I’ve never been to before. There was some ice on the in the shade of the lower ledges which was a bummer. I felt so rusty on my skateboard. Even just ollieing up the curb felt weird. Fuzz and Kevin got up the big ledge pretty quick. Kevin has a lot of pop, it wasn’t as easy for Fuzz. Jack went right into manuals then trying back tail the 2nd tier. So gnarly. Fuzz and Kevin did the ollie up the ledge, ollie up again, ollie the gap. Kevin had some line attempts. Got in some noseslides and nollie 180s off the ledge. My dork line was ollie up the little 2 stair, deck check the ledge up it, ollie up the smaller ledge, ollie the little gap. I also had a couple little kickflips, fakie flip. I filmed Jack rip for awhile then we bounced.

Ended up at this old spot I haven’t been to in years. I remember filming Jeff do a front crooks to fakie and switch crooks. It was as hard, if not harder than I remember. Jack had some funny 360 slams off the curb before, also some good 3s and a couple front pivot to fakie. Fuzz got a nose stall pretty quick on it. Kevin nose stall to fakie and then did it switch too. His shoulder was bugging him and he had a good slam on a fakie ollie or two and went to the bar. All I did was try front rocks for a couple hours and never cleanly land one. Frustrating skate day, rad people, amazing weather though.

(2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 v-hollows, 1/16” riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire green swirl classics f4 99a, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy black/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 4/10)

Took an intentional day off from skating on the 2nd so that I would have no chance to try and skate every day of 2020. I was feeling a little better physically and went to the dog park while working from home to meet the Daves. They were both there already as were a few others, but it wasn’t crowded. I felt incredibly rusty and timid. It would be the first time trying to really olllie since hurting my ankle a week earlier in Omaha. It felt fine, I was just timid. Dave L was popping over the parking block easily, pop shoves over it too, front and back 50s, back 5-0s on the cinder block benches no problem. Dave F had some nice boardslides and a boardslide 270. I also saw him get his first kickflip since his infection over Thanksgiving. It was rad. I didn’t get anything worth writing about, but I was happy to start ollieing again.

(2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 v-hollows, 1/16” riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire green swirl classics f4 99a, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 306 foy black/gum size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 4/10)

On an insanely windy day I went downtown hoping the trees would block some wind. They did, and on top of that the wind almost stopped for a couple hours. I was pretty sore so I wore some Westgates I had gotten from Tytus. They felt pretty good initially, but I eventually got that cupsole knee pain that reminds me not to wear cupsoles. I want to explore more and since I was in pain that’s mainly what I did. Just kinda wandering in allies and behind buildings I haven’t looked at before. I had a really embarrassing slam on an ollie off a curb into a parking garage driveway. I almost stopped at that point. Did a fun wallie nollie behind the Boulder Theater. Took a long time to do a really lame manual down a sidewalk then forced myself to kickflip. Right next to it was a new mini bank to curb that I took too long to slappy. Ended up at Casey and took awhile to do a bad line of front 180 the little stage gap, switch front 180 on flat, get into noseslide on the kinked hubba. I had thought of falling off the first part to grass ride, but it was too wet to ride. Went down near Ideal. Did a tiny crook on the plastic bench in the back. Man I was sore and lacking pop. So I walked some more. I went to go home, but right as I got to my car Dave called and said he was on his way. So we skated Wells Fargo for a bit. To our surprise they had taken out a tree and made a new miniramp. Ha, it is so hard to skate. I took forever to get a front slash. Then we started trying lines. Dave had some good slams, but would get the 3 trick line for the win. Then he ended it with the 3 continuous slashes for the MVP award. So sick. Not the best start to a new year, but I was ultra timid on my ankle still.

(2020 setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 v-hollows, 1/16” riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire green swirl classics f4 99a, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 913 black/yellow size 12, stock insoles)
(Pain level 7/10)

Went in front of the house on a nice afternoon to try a few ollies and see if my ankle was ready to skate. At first I couldn’t even commit to no pop shoves off the nose. My ankle didn’t really hurt until I tried a switch front 180. Something about the way you land that trick gave it a good jolt. It’s my back foot that got hurt. I would eventually do a couple slow shoves and one kickflip. Then I went in before doing any major damage.

(Setup 8..25 null abstract 6 deck, venture 5.6 v-lights, 1/16” riser, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire tablet f4 99a, jessup ultragrip, new balance numeric 212 size 12, nike sb zoom air insoles)
(Pain level 6/10)