With some Stubborns glitches I decided to try skating. I wasn’t very motivated and it showed. Dave’s friend Dave L skated and he was ripping. Front boards, front blunts, front blunt shoves, etc. I had take my riser off which was a little weird actually. It did make ollies feel good though. Well, the ledge felt taller, but ollieing over the round bar came pretty easy. I struggled with all flip tricks, got a couple crooks on the ledge. Regular Dave had some sick bluntslides, boardslide shove on the round bar, feeble the round bar and almost died on the round bar. He was skating my garage sale board since he forgot his setup.

(setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks with forged baseplate, doh doh bushings (yellow bottom, blue top) bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, new balance numeric 212 black/white size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a windy day it calmed down slightly before I had to go to the chiropractor. I skated flat for about 30 minutes. It went alright. I got a couple bad 360 flips. Had a bs halfcab heel I think.

(setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks with forged baseplate, 1/8″ riser, doh doh bushings (orange on bottom, blue on top), 2 washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Went to Broomfield on a crisp, but nice morning. I had put risers on to avoid wheelbite. They helped with wheelbite. Did they help my ollies? I’m not so sure about that. Anyway, I’m writing this a few days later after non-stop editing staring at skateboarding for hours and hours. So I don’t remember much about this session other than Rob and Eric were there too. I’ll try though. Eric did a wallie into the brown bank. Eric and I ollied onto it and off. We tried it in a line with front 50 on pier 7 and tried to follow with back 50 on the sad ledge. We got close. Eric was heelflipping everywhere. Rob had some of his longer lines, back 50 no comply out, halfcab flip, etc. I had a line of boardslide transfer to fakie into the brown ledge, halfcab flip on flat, crooks the black ledge. We ended doing some flippers and stuff. Rob had some nice back 360s. Eric continued on the heelflip destruction. I tried the Ironman, but never got past heelflip. Fuzz showed and the wind started and we left to go edit.

(setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks with forged baseplate, 1/8″ riser, venom 90a bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, new balance numeric 212 black/white size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Met Rob at Dog Park on a cool day that I had off work to edit. It was colder than I thought it would be. We did some warming up, then talked to a dude for awhile then got back at it. Rob wasn’t really feeling it and did a lot of manuals and 180s before some quick footed 4 trick line. I think it was back 180, cab, fakie flip. Huh, that’s only 3 eh? Ha, there was a backside flip too. I had gotten a few of my flippers and hucked even more. I had a couple tricks on Eric’s ledge. Boardslide, noseslide and crooks. We played a game of SKATE. It was an odd one. I got a defensive cab at least. I couldn’t get halfcab flip or heelflip in the game. Got a slow backside flip, got a lot of wheelbite. Got a letter on no comply finger flip. Looking back I can’t believe I didn’t double down on that one. I got outed on a fakie 3 shove. After that I eeked out a sketchy hands down 360 flip and it was a day.

(setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Having a chill day mostly editing I went over to Creekside with Ollie after putting some new wheels on (Spitfire 52mm radial swirls). It was cold out. I felt the relieve of no video part tricks to film anymore and was having fun messing around. Got front 50 back 180, front and back 50 shoves, front 5-0, slappy crooks, front 50 body varial, some basic flippers. I had a good time. Ollie came close to landing his fist fakie bigspin and got into several front 50s, but never landed one.

setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10 it was cold)

It was supposed to be windy and rainy, but it was nice out. We met up at Red Hawk. Dave and I got there at the same time. Sean and Rob shortly later. We had warmed up on the slappy curb for a bit. I was feeling okay on my skateboard, but still with some sore heels from the Dentist 5 session. Dave had done a good 50 I think before Sean got on the ledges and immediately 50’d, 5-0d, nosegrinded, etc with ease. Rob mostly sat out the session to save his legs for later (it worked!). I started hucking my dream trick (kick front board) and it seemed doable. Oh yeah, I had a new board since I had broke mine at the dentist, this time back to 8.5. It felt good. Dave signed up to film me. Poor guy. I ended up trying a line of halfcab flip, nollie front tail, kickflip front board. I struggled with halfcab flips, but somehow the nollie tail worked. The kick front board landed in darkslide more times then not. Then the wind really kicked in and the clouds came in. Argh. I got my line. I had a few decent halfcab flips, but the one I landed in the line was beyond terrible. The kick front board was a quick jib. Still, it was cool to do all of them in a row, but I don’t think it’ll make the Stubborns cut. Sorry Dave. Sean had been trying a line he wanted. Fakie 50, fakie tail 270 shove. I flimed him do it in a few tries. Dave was maybe gonna try a trick, but the wind was beyond insane and rain had started.

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#thestubborns

A post shared by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Nov 24, 2018 at 2:21pm PST

Off to yellow curbs we went. There was another crew there when we arrived. One older dude Jason that we knew, good seeing him still ripping. We all did our thing. That garage has a tiny curb that’s so fun to slappy. I had a fun front 50 back 180 out, several slappy crooks, front slappy on the little part, back 50s and a no comply flip. Rob was getting it and Dave filmed him. He nailed like 3 lines with tricks I’ve rarely seen him do or never do at all. It was sick, you’ll have to wait for the vid. I tried a line of no comply flip then slappy front crook for a bit, but ended up giving up and filming Rob and Dave. Dave was doing some incredibly long front 5-0s and followed one up with a banger you will be seeing on December 7th.

setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10 felt okay early but after the drive my body could not recover)

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Thanksgiving warm up with @corpoglenny and the best back drop ever

A post shared by Sean Flaherty (@slaherty) on Nov 22, 2018 at 1:26pm PST

On a nice morning I met Sean at the Dog Park. He had signed up to film me try the front shove down the dentist 5. Poor guy, but man, what an awfully nice guy. We got there about the same time. He went right in on kickflips and heelflips while I slowly worked on no pop shove its. I had gotten my slow kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip line when I noticed Eric’s ledge sitting in the distance. Rad, we brought it out. Dang that thing is tall. Well, as you can see, not for Sean. He destroyed that thing so casually. I was hyped to get a line of halfcab flip, crooks, backside flip (although the bs flip was terrible). I tried another line of heelflip, front board, 360 flip, but never got the 360 flip. Sean was mostly just skating the ledge. He had a couple more at the end like fakie nosegrind or fakie 5-0. I also tried a bunch of front shoves and they were kinda working. Sean said we each had to do a good backside flip before leaving. Oh man how little does he know me? Ha ha. But he suggested a tip which is to stare at your back foot and it worked pretty well for me actually. As in I landed one backside flip without a huge tic tac. He got a few, but it had to be totally perfect.

Then we were at Dentist 5 with a truck right in front of the sidewalk. Argh. I figured I’d have to find a different way to line it out, but wanted to ollie the stairs a few times before trying the shove anyway. Sean ollied it first try. I tried to get his back, but bailed. he front 180’d first try, I still bailed. Even after he back 180’d it I bailed. But I did get it. Then he kickflipped it a couple times and I got his back before feeling out how to get up the curb. The no comply shove wasn’t an option as I couldn’t do it at the 45 degree angle to get around the truck. I settled on kickflip up which wasn’t easy. I hucked a couple front shoves that felt more doable then last time then Sean started filming. What a nice dude. The kickflip was hard, that angle was killing me. I went through a few waves of close to getting the line and not close at all. Then I was in the zone and SNAP, broke my nose real bad. Noooooo! I looked at Sean’s board and told him I’d give him another one if I broke it. Ha ha. But only a few tries later I rode away and it felt incredible. Like up there with the top best feeling tricks I’ve landed. I’ve never done a front shove down more than 4, so this is pretty cool at 45 to get it down 5. We called it a day after that. I was very happy.

setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, vans ultracush insoles)
(pain level 2/10 felt great before the jumping started, but I would expect to hurt after as I have no tolerance for drops anymore)

Met up with Jack and Sean at a double set rail near Jack’s house. Jack boardslid it before we got there then entertained us with some amazing bails before realizing the selfie cam was good enough.

Then we went to Red Hawk. Sean did all the 50s and 5-0s. Jack did bluntslides with some pop out or pivot shove out. Ha. I was feeling okay, struggling with front 50s, but the kickflip front board seemed close. Chad showed up and rolled around the place maybe once before we got the boot. Doh.

Off to Douglass it was. The sun was out and there was a couple high school kids there skating hard. They didn’t seem too bummed we barged their session. I played a game of SKATE with Sean while Jack did front smith to manual to kickflip out and front tail front heels out. Wow. That boy good. Sean beat me, but it was okay. I was wearing some old 212s since I just couldn’t handle the Tony Hawks anymore. They felt good. After the game of SKATE I had fun for awhile. Actual fun. Ha ha. Landed some crooks, noseslides, a 360 flip and a few front shoves off the training drop. Then I filmed Chad for a bit and he got a rad line for Stubborns. He’s got a wicked good back 5-0. Sean was going back 5-0 front 180 out on the longer ledges. Jack was playing around with tricks like front tail to 5-0, 5-0 to front nose, back tail, back nosegrind. I joined the ledge session. Had fun with some noseslides and stuff then tried to front 50 it. UGH. I probably tried 50 times and didn’t get one. I got into about 3 of them and even with Sean and Jack giving me advice I couldn’t get it. We left and I felt super depressed. I would blame it on getting old, but I’ve never had pop.

setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, vans ultracush insoles)
(pain level 4/10 that weird pain in my legs that seems to come from eating too much (any) dairy)

On a nice morning I worked on some Stubborns stuff then went to skate flat in front of the house. I told myself 10 flip tricks before I could leave. I got 10. Most weren’t pretty, but I did it. I think they were kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, heelflip, both halfcab heelflips, 360 flip, b/s flip, fakie varial flip and varial flip.

Then I went to Douglass for a dream trick. Noseslide 270 shove. I was bummed to see that there was ice in the shade which made it a bit of a gap in. Argh. I tried though. And all things considered I got pretty close, but never rode away. Sean arrived and I eventually gave up. I had a weird new sharp pain in my knee. I filmed him get a banger line.

Then we went to research center so I could do crooks shove. I was sore and my first couple attempts at noseslides were terrible. Although Sean did laugh at my first trick being a switch front noseslide. I did get a crooks first try though so I thought that would be a good omen. Sean was running through tricks. Front 50, 50 180, 5-0, 5-0 180, 5-0 shove, tailslide, tailslide fakie then started hucking tailslide heelflip out. My phone died though and he was kind enough to film me try crooks shove. I don’t know how I didn’t land it. I really tried and I committed and it just didn’t work out. Doh.

setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, dc foamy insoles)
(pain level 4/10 some sharp knee pain at times)

After another way too fun night at J Mascis I had the day off work and went to set a trick against Dave in our silent game of SKATE. I played on the curbs at the school for awhile though. 50s, 5-0s, that’s about it. Then I went and did a fakie bigflip. Looking forward to not drinking for awhile.

(setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, dc foamy insoles)
(pain level 7/10 legs felt fine but the hangover was rough)