On a cold Thursday night I went to the basketball court ledges after dinner. No one was playing when I got there and I struggled through some warm up motions. Then some kids came to play ball and were kind enough to give me the ledge side of the court. I couldn’t get the switch front nose as I had in the past. I got to a point where I tried one line over and over until I got it. Noseslide to fakie, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide. I was happy to land most of my fakie flips. I was having a lot of trouble jumping hight enough to get on the ledges proper though. I got wheelbite a lot. It was annoying. I did another line of front nose to fakie, switch 180, front board. Eventually I worked up the courage to try front 50 a barely waxed section of the ledge. It took a lot of tries, but one came out of nowhere. It was terrible and I didn’t grind, but I was happy to get on it. I would get a better one later. Then I went up to the bump. Did a few laps trying to do big ollies, but never really even snapped the tail well. This was the first time I was really missing the quick snap of a low truck. Because I couldn’t ollie I decided to kickflip. I think it would have been less scary had there not been snow surrounding the spot. I got a couple really bad kickflips. I had one that landed good on the downhill, but I shot out. It was still fun to kickflip there even if I didn’t do it clean.

(setup 8.5″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, super thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On another beautiful night Mike picked me up and we met Kevin at Broomfield park. It was crowded, but not as bad as it looked. Kevin was already there and doing halfcab flips and Janoski flips. Mike manualled the blue box as his first trick. I warmed up in less poppy ways. Eventually we were at the black ledge. Mike was doing his own thing going through his bag of tricks. I had called a trick to try for Dave that Kevin was interested in. Fakie 50 to creepy spin out. Kevin started trying it so I felt like I needed to as well. I’m more suited for trying fakie 50s on the blue ledge, but I have it a go. I got into a few fakie 50s, but I was scared and too uncomfortable to creepy out. Kevin got really close several times, but ultimately gave up. He didn’t have much problem going through his bag after until he got to kick back tail. Then when Mike beat him to that he got pretty bummed. So bummed that he did like 10 tricks in a row after that to make up for it. I had finally done a few front 50s. I was trying a Joe Hamilton when I moved wrong and smashed my nuts so bad I thought I was gonna puke. That was the end of it for me. Kevin had some nice runs like switch 5-0, 5-0, nollie tre out of the bank. Mike had nollie bs heel and nollie big heel out of the bank, nollie back 5-0 back 180. Them guys rip.

(setup 8.5″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, super thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10 before the bonk)

On a gorgeous night I went across the street feeling pretty sore. There was one of the high school kids skating too. He mostly did lines with lots of 180s and cruised. I stuck to the curb. I had put an 8.5″ deck back on after being too timid to ollie up the 2 stair at Southern Hills. I also wore the 379s again. I got a first try slappy crooks and it continued to be a blast after that. I got several 50s, front & back slappy crooks, a kick back tail stall (hyped!), kickflips off the curb, an actual tailslide and ended with a front 50 back 180 that was fun.

(setup 8.5″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, super thin adidas insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a super nice morning I went out in front of the house to skate some flat. I wore my barefoot shoes again. They didn’t feel so magical this time. So after a bit I switched back to my 379s. They felt even less magical so I went back to the Xeros. I stuck with them for the rest of the flatground. I had done a few flippers when Kevin showed. Shortly after that I got a 360 flip that felt alright, first try fakie bigflip, but could not do a heelflip to save my life. Kevin slammed hard on a heelflip, had a bunch of nollie flips, switch flips, heelflips (took him a bit too) and introduced me to Sean’s technique which I think I will be implementing in the future. Do the trick 3 times. If the 3rd one is garbage or a bail you have to do it one more time while skating fast.

Then we went to Southern Hills. Rob would show up shortly after us. I had skated the Xeros, but they felt really weird on the ledge so I went back to the 379s. Then back to the Xeros for the rest of the session. It’s weird, the barefoot shoes allow the toes to spread so it felt like I had more pop. But the shoe is so thin I didn’t have much confidence. Kevin front 50’d the ledge so easy. At least back 50s took him a few tries. Rob showed up while we were shooting hoops with a kickball. Ha. We all did our think for awhile. Kevin was doing front 50’s up the low bar. He would later go on to do it on the higher part of the low bar and make it up the stairs. He also hit his shin really hard a few times. Rob was doing front noseslides to fakie, back 50 no comply out the step, boardslides, front boards, no comply up the 2, kickflip or no comply shove into the bank then boardslide. Mike showed. He would do a sick line of front 180 up the 2, halfcab flip into the bank, slappy front noseslide the bench. He also impossibled and nollie back heeled into the bank as well as a steezy nollie back tail. Eric showed, but had bruised ribs limiting the action. He still got up on some boardslides. No patented heelflips though. Get well soon. I tried a line of crooks, no comply up the 2, b/s flilp into the bank, but never got the bs flip. I struggled with the no comply up. That was about it. The wind had picked up something fierce at times making it tough to skate. Still a fun day though. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to skate in barefoot shoes other than to say it really does feel like you’re skating barefoot. I think it’s a little too little for me.

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, xero hana minimalist shoe with thin es insoles)
(pain level 3/10 somehow much less pain then i normally feel after that much skating)

On a gorgeous day I was kinda slacking. I setup a new board (8.25). I was messing around with it on the rug with my barefoot shoes (not the individual toe shoes I’m not that crazy) and they felt super good. So I went across the street wearing them. They felt beyond incredible. I did a few slappy crooks then started doing some tricks like front 50 and kickflip, but I tore the canvas on the shoes immediately. I went in for a bit and put some glue over them. Then I went out to just skate flatground. The shoes felt weird, but amazing. I felt like I had crazy control. I had done a few flippers when my work phone went off and I had to call it a day. Doh.

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, xero hana minimalist shoe with thin es insoles)
(pain level 1/10)

Feeling somewhat better after my little surgery I went across the street to do some slappy crooks and that’s about it. I didn’t want to push it. A board to the nuts would kill me. I did like 50 slappy crooks. They felt good. Struggled to get a slappy front crook, did a few front 50s, couple back 50s and called it.

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

April Fools! Ha ha, but i did actually “skate” at Boulder park. This was because I would not be skating for a few days and wanted to get a little skating in. I was super sore though and not really feeling like trying hard. There was a dude I’ve seen there before with his kid. He rips in between taking runs holding hands with his kid. Then a biker showed that was doing monster airs. Pretty sick to watch actually. There was only a few things I was happy about. Some long back 50s on the steeper qp, a b/s flip over the weird hip and a front 50 across and down the little ledge (it took way too long to land though)

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 7/10 lots of knee pain)

On a beautiful day I rolled to Indian Peaks with Dave L. We arrived at the same time as Dave F (hereby referred to as Dave – Dave L is Dave L). Rob was the first to start doing tricks. No comply bigspin, crails, kickflip. Dave had the fakie shoves. Dave L was cruising around checking out the line possibilities. I was kinda doing nothing, but managed a first try kickflip to fakie to cheer me up some. Rob had some wallride nollies, front shove fakie, front big, kickflip, one foots. Man its great to have his style and energy back in the mix. Dave L working on nollie cabs and did lots of cool little manuals on the brick medians. I tried the little nollie shove then wallride nollie on the lower wall, but couldn’t get the wallie nollie. Dave was doing beautiful wallie nollies, did his first ever Hale spin (nose stall tailgrab 360) which was so sick. He also had a crazy switch shove revert thing. Two Dave NBDs within a few minutes of each other. Crazy. I started hucking backside flips and several tries later I got one, then a really great feeling one, then another one shown in the clip above. I was hyped as that’s a trick I’ve wanted to do there for awhile. I failed at 360 flips to fakie for awhile. Dave had a sick 360 over the hip. Dave L had a nice 360 no comply over it. I finished with a tiny boneless over the hip then the little kickflip. The hip is much harder than it looks since it’s so rounded. Super fun session. Then Dave L and I looked at a ledge spot that I skated with Jason forever ago. It still looks good, gotta wax it up and get it going!

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a 5 hour drive from Pagosa then a quick nap I went right to skating. Oh, well I mean after a setup change of course since the previous session was so bad. I put an old 8.25″ deck on and lower forged baseplates. I got to a dry Southern Hills around 6 and skated for a little over an hour. I had very little confidence and skated poorly the whole time. A warm up run felt okay. Noseslide a bench, kickflip on flat, front 50 the low stair, boardslide another bench. Also did some crooks, noseslide to fakie, back 50s the step. Oh yeah, I had worn some 212s as my 379s had a hole I didn’t have time to fix. They felt good. Then it was time to try front 50. Never got one. Not even close really. I got onto the ledge a couple times, but it was pretty miserable. I did get a halfcab noseslide at least, maybe a quick switch crook turn around on the step. I focused my old board and left.

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 still some sharp knee pain and no confidence whatsoever)

Feeling sore I went to the Pagosa park by myself as the family chilled. We had just ate a big breakfast and I had way too much coffee. It didn’t seem like it while we ate, but man I was jittery and agitated. There was one other skater there and a couple little kids on scooters/striders. The other skater was kind of a typical small town punker skater doing a lot of no complies and nollie shoves. He was cool. The park flows alright. The hip seemed cool, but there was snow/mud near the landing on both so I avoided it. I did some back 50s on the qps and took way too long to get kickflip and bs kickflip on the bank (far left in the photo, actually a great bank). I kind of ran out of ideas for the park pretty quickly. I did some front slashes on the qp, but that was about it, I have no motivation for transition anymore. So then I went in on the ledge. Crooks and noseslides went quick. I struggled with some front 50s, got one or two and then could no longer do one to save my life. I was so incredibly frustrated. I left.

All in all I would say this skatepark kinda blows. It has some redeemable features at least. The ledge is good although it’s plopped in the middle of the park. The bank is good, the main transitions are good. But the flow is kind of boring, the retainer wall banks are just stupid. The super steep bank to curb didn’t even look worth trying to hit. I didn’t skate the big bowl although it looked alright.

(setup 8.5″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 all black size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10 kinda sharp knee pain and coffee jitters)