Went to the dog park after work. There was only a couple of people there, puddles everywhere from the recent snow. So most of the normal lines/obstacles weren’t an option. Somehow this made it kind of fun. I basically just skated the lower step black ledge. Took a bit to get a few slow back 50s. I think I landed front 50 shove. Tried a few kick back 50s. Managed to kind of ollie the wallie barrier. Had some good feeling crooks on the metal bench, halfcab noseslide. Had b/s flip and halfcab flip, maybe heelflip. Didn’t commit to treflip. I left feeling kinda blah about skating as I hadn’t done anything new. I also didn’t like how loose my trucks were. I’m no Max Garson.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, jessup grip, venture 5.6 trucks, old 53mm bones stf PJ v1 wheels, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 black/gum size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Out to the garage on a cold winter afternoon after working from home. After a brief warm up I went in on the straight 8 sticking to roughly 10 tries. Kickflip and fakie flip were fine. Got a couple terrible heelflips, fakie heelflips popped well, but I didn’t land them. All switch/nollie tricks weren’t close, but I did commit to at least a few of each of them. Nollie flip felt the closest. Then I got halfcab flips quick, didn’t get janoski flip. No front heel/switch front heel. Got 360 flip, but no fakie tre. No halfcab heel or nollie front heel. Ended with switch varial flip almosts then a sketchy fakie varial flip. I didn’t land much, but I did commit to every trick which is a start.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, jessup grip, venture 5.6 trucks, old 53mm bones stf PJ v1 wheels, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 black/gum size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Up early on a Sunday I had limited time to skate so I went to dog park. After skating with so many rippers the day before and being blown away by their pop I wanted to push myself a little. I had hoped for a solo session, but there were a couple of people there when I arrived at 8am. Oh well. I started on the tiny box doing a couple manuals and a few ledge tricks. Even a slow front disaster which I haven’t tried in forever. Then I tried some stuff on the low step ledge. I couldn’t get over the top back 50s, but I did get a couple slow back 50s using my 90 degree angle I always use.  I had done a couple flippers.  Halfcab flip felt good.  I had tried some lines like front 50 the narrow low ledge then ollie the wallie barrier.  I got over it a bunch of times, but never without a slight back wheel bonk.  Argh.  I tried it for awhile and it tired me out.  I also tried a few weak attempts at front 50 the middle top step.  Not even close.  I did have one of the best crooks I’ve done on the regular side.  Well, at least I think it was a crooks.  But seeing clips lately I seem to do more of a weird pinched willy grind.  I stopped skating sooner than I needed to because I was exhausted and lost all drive.  Not hyped on how I skated.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, jessup grip, venture 5.6 trucks, old 53mm bones stf PJ v1 wheels, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 black/gum size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

On an absolutely gorgeous day I went to dog park since Max was in town. I got there first. Max, Will, Jack, Mike KP would show from the young ripper contingent. Dave L, Will and Kevin would show from the older guy ripper contingent. Oh, and almost forgot Carleigh and Ashlynn would join too. What a fun crew. I had a new pair of the 306s, this time with a gum sole which isn’t as grippy. I should know better. I was pretty sore, I’m not sure why, but at no point did my body feel good throughout the day. Max and Will showed next. Immediately Max was destroying the place. His perfect switch tre was incredible. Will is super tall now, and rips even harder. Will and Dave L showed, Kevin too. Mike KP and Jack were next. It’s hard to remember everything, but those guys all heelflipped over the wallie barrier first try if I’m not mistaken? Then they went on to do a million tricks. Max was also doing amazing slappy crook variations. The switch front crook halfcab out blew me away. Max filmed me do a little line of front 180 the manhole, switch front nose a ledge, halfcab noseslide the next one. He was hyped on the switch front nose. Little does he know those are really easy when you don’t ollie. Kevin was ripping out of the gates. All his ledge tricks and nollie flips. I skated the parking block with Dave L for awhile. He did an amazing ollie over to nose manual to 360 transfer. I kind of got Dave F’s challenge of the crooks back 180 transfer. Now I have to do it while grinding. Then a ledge session ensued on the black box. I was on the small side, everyone else on the big side. Seattle Will filmed me do a line for a bit. I couldn’t no comply flip and It’s embarrasing that my crooks look like willy grinds. But the kickflip over the curb felt good. Then I filmed everyone hit the tall ledge for awhile. Some serious shredding was had. Mike’s kick front 50 and Will G’s back smith 180 were so crazy. Jack can do back 180 nosegrind 180 so good now. Kevin did the switch nosegrind 180 easy as well as the switch crook. Max was goofing around with hardlflip front nose stalls. Max, Will G and Mike left. I sat for awhile. Carleigh and Ashlynn had shown. Jack did the kick back noseblunt. I tried the crooks transfer some more while Jack did the no comply flip. Then we ended on the tiny pad trying tech tricks. Ashlynn got so close to heelflip front 50. Kevin close to switch flip front 50. I didn’t quite commit to kick back tail. Carleigh did pop shove front 50. Well, technically she may have not rode away, but she did it in my opinion. What a nice day with good friends and rippers. I was even happy with my setup. I could have gone for being a little less sore though, it prevented me from trying more ledge/flatground tricks.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, jessup grip, venture 5.6 trucks, old 53mm bones stf PJ v1 wheels, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 black/gum size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After work on a lovely Friday I met Dave at the rink off Pike St. Well, when I got there a roller hockey dude was getting some so I went to the basketball court. It was smaller, but still fun. After some brief warm ups we started the Chico Challenge which is a great warm up. Back 180, fakie bigspin, front shove. We had each done it when we saw the rollerblader leaving so we went off to the roller rink and continued. It’s slightly downhill so it made the challenge even more fun. Dave had some good one and added kickflip to it. I added a bad fakie bigspin. Then we did whatever for awhile. i was struggling again, but fakie flips felt good. Dave had some varial and fakie varial flips right away. He was super close to fakie bigflip too. I got a sketchy halfcab flip, a slow treflip, heelflip. We hucked other tricks. I was close-ish to nollie flip, Dave to switch flip and switch heel. Then we played a game of SKATE. Dave had me down quick. He actually got me with halfcab flip. That’s my trick! Ha. I have lost it though. Makes me want to go back to the 8″ days when I could land it every try. He also got me with a fakie sex change, fakie varial flip and cab. I mounted a little comeback to get it SKAT-SKAT at least with tricks like fakie bigflip, heelflip, b/s flip, fakie flip. We kinda gave each other passes on a couple tricks, but ultimately he won with a really good nollie back bigspin. It was 5pm and dark. Argh. Fun session though, I may have not landed much, but I did have energy.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, jessup grip, venture 5.8 trucks regular cast baseplate titanium hanger, old 53mm bones stf PJ v1 wheels, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cool night I went to Erie’s “Street League” park right after work. I arrived to the typical Erie scene. 30 scooter kids and 2-3 skaters. One of which was Kevin and he was already ripping. I had a new deck, 8.3 this time. Also the huge 54mm wheels I had gotten. We started with a game of SKATE which I was quickly skunked in even though Kevin only did tricks I can do. It was expected since I wasn’t warmed up and had a bigger setup. Young blood Quincy showed up, as well as not so young Kyle. Everyone seemed like they were skating well. Kevin was doing tricks like nosegrind the bump to ledge first try, crooks, back 5-0, almost back 5-0 front shove. I was doing tricks like kickflip from the wedge to the lower wedge. Kyle had a nice front 180 over the middle bump bar. Quincy took like 10 tries to learn front 5-0 back shove on the bump to ledge and had some nice lazy crooks on it too. I really don’t remember much, I ended with a kickflip to fakie on the back bank then a bad halfcab noseslide on the ledge. Gotta get rid of those huge wheels.

(setup 8.3 null collage deck, jessup grip, venture 5.8 trucks regular cast baseplate titanium hanger, 54mm bones stf v5 wheels, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10 sore from skating so much)

Had the day off work. Picked up Dave pretty early and after a MRKT stop we met Andy and Hayden at Spring Canyon. Andy had left his board at Launch so was forced to use his cruiser board. He still ripped it and looked good though. Hayden had already done first try manual and nose manual when Dave called out a physical challenge of nose manual the box in 10 tries. Hayden went for a switch manual. Dave got the nose manual around 5th try. Andy got closer to 10 tries. I got it about two hours later. Ha ha, it’s true though. I did skate some other stuff in between, but was struggling incredibly bad. Hayden was ripping, lots of unique lines, crazy balanced manuals, flippers. The manual around the potato chip was rad, the back 3 over the mini hip too, lots of tricks on the upper ledge first try, rock fakie the flag, crazy casual slappy transfers and a lot more I can’t remember. Dave was ripping too. Manual to body varial out, feeble transfer the spine, back tails over the tiny hip so good, kickflips, manual the round deck, some tricks on the qp I didn’t see. Once I finally got the nose manual going so slow I shortly after got a very sketchy bigflip on the qp which was the trick I had thought of doing there. Cool. Then for whatever reason I hucked kickflip up then treflip off and almost got it in a couple tries. Hayden was apparently hyped enough he decided to film it. About 20 tries later I got the line. I was so hyped. After struggling so bad it was nice to end it on a good note. As a bonus Dave did a crazy back tail 360 out over the little hip. And we weren’t even late getting him home on time!

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, mob grip, venture 5.2 v-hollow highs, 51mm bones stf v2 wheels, 3 speed washers inside each axle, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10 sore from skating so much)

On a nice and lazy day I set out to mostly just spot lurk for a bit. I found an old bank to curb that used to have u-haul trailers on it. I tried a couple boardslides, but it would have required some serious sweeping to be fun. I drove around some more and ended up at Platt Elem. What got me out of the car is they now have two manual pads in a row and the little kicker before the 3 stair is skatable now (it used to have a door stop above it that you could hit your hands on). I cruised the parking lot, there is some good flatground there. I started with a couple warm up lines. I initially had dreams of linking the whole spot, but that would mean landing way too many flatground tricks. First line was ollie the kicker, ollie the 3 stair, kickflip on flat. Second was ollie the kicker, front 180 the 3 stair, fakie flip on flat. The kicker is fun because it’s a mellow take off, but a quick landing. Anyway, rather than keep lining it out I started the tricks. As you can see the ollie up, back 180 and kickflip down took way too long. I thought it would be funny to show every attempt. I was skating hard, in between tries I would pose flip tricks and miss. After finally getting the kickflip I went over to the manual pad and tried some more lines to torture myself even more. I was so tired and sore I’m not sure how I kept at it. Anyway the line was, nose manual, treflip on flat, ollie onto the other manual pad and wallie nollie off, then back 50 the last one. While technically I got the line, the treflips were super slow, the wallie nollie barely a scrape. I tried some kick back tails and got kinda close. Fun spot.

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, mob grip, venture 5.2 v-hollow highs, 51mm bones stf v2 wheels, 3 speed washers inside each axle, venom 88a bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 5/10 sore from skating so much)

After an annoying morning that seemed to take forever to get ready I met up with Dave L, Dave F and Will from Seattle at Rocky Mtn. It was basically totally dry except for a puddle running across the runway to the ledge. To add to my morning my first attempt at a slappy would results in a full slam. Ugh. Rob would join us and hang. It was good to see him, hope he can skate soon. Kevin and eventually Fuzz would join too. I had decided to go for the marathon run to get warmed up. Ollie down the 2 and 3 stairs, flatground trick, ledge trick, bank trick, ride down the dirt hill, a couple little ollies, kickflip into the downhill sidewalk. It took a few tries, but I got it. The stair ollies, no comply 180, switch noseslide to forward, boneless on the bank, ollies over some puddles and stuff, kickflip. It was really fun. Kevin had shown up around then and was immediately ripping as always. Will had some clean ollies on the bank, popped over a median, had some good shoves, halfcab flips on flat. Dave L had a nice back 180 up the curb then fakie ollie onto a median and manual down it. Pretty sure I could never do that. He was also doing nice back 50s then trying to backside ollie onto a median and manual down it. It looked so hard. He wasn’t really feeling it and started filming Kevin and Dave F. Kevin had been doing a bunch of stuff, but went in hard on an insane line. Manual a rock to ollie a snow pile out, front tail to fakie, switch 180 off the curb, heelflip on flat, ollie up the curb and nollie flip to fakie on the bank. It was funny because he did it once, but bailed the little halfcab off at the end. Dave was doing these crazy cab manuals on the brick medians. He was also doing nollie 270 manuals. Tech Dave. He had a line with a fakie ollie onto a median and a front 50 on the ledge. I was struggling beyond believe, but managed to keep skating and have a little fun. I was having problems with kickflips up the curb which is normally an every try thing for me, especially at that spot. I had sworn off the 5.2 highs, but eventually started liking them. I did have a fun line of kickflip up the curb, manual a brick median, crooks the ledge. Then I just kind of skated the ledge slow and did flip tricks in between tries. I got a few flippers. Heelflip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, treflip. They felt good. Got halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, switch front nose, slow front 50, accidental front 5-0 to tail, super slow back 50, close to noseslide 270. Overall a fun day even though I skated terrible. I should know to expect it when I make changes to my setup. Even though all I had done was put a high hanger on instead of a low. Same size even.

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, mob grip, venture 5.2 highs, 51mm bones stf v2 wheels, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 88a doh dohs bushings (no boardside washer), new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10 sore from skating so much)

After work on a Friday I met Dave at a dry hockey rink in Longmont. The temp was in the upper 30s, but it felt colder than that. I was pretty sore. Dave and I both struggled to get going. I quickly realized why I have moved away from low trucks in the past. Basically every little bump in the concrete becomes so amplified. And I really struggled with kickflips or anything. I guess except treflip, I got one pretty quick. But I couldn’t heelflip or halfcab flip to save my life. Dave had a good amount of flippers. Varial flip, sex change, fakie flip, fakie varial flip. He had some good lines with front shoves, switch front shoves, nollie cabs, cabs, fakie shoves, switch back shoves. Not all one line (ha ha), but some good ones. Then we decided to have a “quick” game of SKATE as the sun had gone behind clouds/mountains and it was getting cold. The “quick” game lasted forever. Neither of were landing tricks, and when we finally did the other person normally landed it too. Like varial flip and fakie flip. But we did get some letters. I only remember getting Dave with heelflip, but he did get to SKAT before I hit him with a 270 flip that took several tries. He had gotten so close on an earlier attempt I wanted to see him land it. He had gotten me to SKAT as well with tricks like cab, sex change, I forget what else. There was a trick I landed that I was totally surprised and stoked that Dave got, but I forget it now. Argh. Anyway, glad we skated, it was mostly fun. Ha ha. I did at least eliminate low trucks from the list of trucks for my 2020 setup. Yes, I am really trying to come up with a setup I’m happy with and stick to one size for all of 2020.

(setup 8.25 null nolan deck, mob grip, venture 5.2 awake lows, 51mm bones stf v2 wheels, 3 speed washers inside each axle, 88a doh dohs bushings, new balance numeric 306 b/w size 12, footprints gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10 cold/sore from a full work week)