Set my alarm early to go skate Boulder park before work. I sat there for a while debating if I should get up, but forced myself to get up. Got to the park shortly after sunrise although it was cloudy. Would go on to skate for about an hour and a half and had the park to myself the whole time and skated pretty hard (but not good) for me. I went the line route for the most part starting very basic and getting a little harder. An early one I was happy with was crooks the bench then kickflip going frontside over the hump. Also fakie ollie the deck hump, slow front 50 the triangle ledge, kickflip the main hip bank, then noseslide the bump to triangle. Noselide the bench, up around to roll in the little qp then ollie onto the triangle. Then one that took way too long, but was pretty rewarding. Kickflip to fakie the deck bank up top, halfcab noseslide the triangle ledge, turn around then a little b/s nollie on the hip and a front 50 on the bench which was so hard. Then I hucked some. Remotely close to cab flip the hump, noseslide 270 shove. Made myself get a few front 50s on the bench at the end. Wanted to do a 180 out but wasn’t close and I was gassed at that point. Fun session, skated hard.

(setup 8.5 null 20 year 14.25 wb, null grip, royal ultralight 149, 52mm bones v1 stf, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Got sick after the weekend so hadn’t skated in a few days. After the last session I had made a couple setup changes to try and dial in a non-woke setup. 8.25 with ace, 8.5 with slappy. I had a much better warm up ollie on the 8.25 so I started with it and went to the oval curb area and went through some basic stalls. Then went over to the curb cut area and tried a line of switch 180 into one then kickflip out of the next. But I couldn’t get the kickflip to work to save my life. So I went home and got the 8.5 with Slappys and would get the line in a few tries. I didn’t go on to really like that setup, but I liked it more. Tried some stalls on the bigger rock in the back, got a couple halfcab flips and noseslides on the table. Then went home. I guess I was still feeling kind of run down.

(setup 8.25/ace and 8.5/14.25/slappy with nb 600 and currex insoles)
(pain level 4/10 but had no energy or drive)

Nice day. Went to dog park and met Garrett and Joe after some slacking. Paul would show after a while too. I was there first and the crowd was kind of a weird mix of beginners and 303 dudes. I had changed setup to 8.5/14.25/aces and it felt big, but okay. I had some success popping up things, crooks. I was skating pretty mid though. Especially after it felt like I hyperextended my toes. Garrett and Joe showed. I switched from vulcs to cups in hope of less pain which worked. Joe wasn’t really feeling it, but still managed some quick bangers as he does. Garrett kickflipped off the kicker over the barrier and flowed around the park really well. Paul showed and eventually some flatground ensued. Garrett and Paul rattled off treflip after treflip and I kind of got one. Then Garrett said he’d get me a marg if I landed one. I kept trying and trying going so slow and eventually got two in a row. They felt so great. Paul also landed a few nollie frontside flips which he’s been working on lately. I would go on to get my first heelflip in forever too which also felt cool. Then we went and celebrated.

(setup 7/10 null 20 year 8.5/14.25, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55 hollow, spitfire f4 99a 51mm classic, new balance numeric 600 black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles after the 272s)
(pain level 5/10 toes from the hyper extension)

Up early on a cool morning met up with Jake, Venture Dave and Cass. There were quite a few other older folks there as well. I think the average age was around 50. Crazy. Dave was already manualling the long pad, shoving and got to impossibles soon. Jake was still in pain so stuck to killing the transition like the crazy qp by the big O replica. Some basics in the ledge area had been had. I took too long to do a halfcab noseslide and even longer to ollie up onto one of the benches. My flip tricks were going alright. I had gotten close to halfcab heel for the first time in forever. Cass had a beautiful front nose down the hubba. Seriously amazing. I tried to get a run going of crooks the ledge, axle stall the qp, fly out treflip. Tried so many, but never got too close to a treflip. It really bummed me out. Cass, Dave and I hit the mellow bank for a while. Well, cass was lining out kickflips over the a-frame as well as some flippers on the bank. I managed quite a few flippers but only the basics. Kickflip fakie, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s fip and couldn’t quite get fakie bigflip. Dave had some nice switch shoves, switch 270, casual impossibles and fakie impossibles. Twas a good session. Hanging after at Rest was fun.

(setup 4/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work on a pretty nice day I went to meet Donnie and skate campus. We met and Uni hill, but ended up staying there. I had gotten there first and attempted very unsuccessfully to warm up. My knee was hurting after putting the compression sleeve on and made popping difficult. After some various goofing around and a couple kickflips we settled in on trying to boardslide the tall ledge into the “steep” ramp. Ha. I had tried boardslide transfer from the ramp first, but it was weird. I got a couple boardslide transfers after all, none of them good, all coming to a stop. But it was tall and it felt foreign being so high up trying to balance and slide. The bails definitely did not feel good on my knee. It was fun though. Donnie’s front board to fakie over it was so good. Then the switch board transfer too. We skated for two hours and all I had to show was a couple of boardslides coming to a halt. ha ha. Oh, and I guess I was happy to get first try kickflip, fakie flip and b/s flp. Couldn’t get halfcab flip though and a treflip attempt hurt my knee. Donnie managed a couple flippers at the end that were really good. First try treflip on a very old 8.75 made me question my manhood ha ha.

(setup 6/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a cold night I went to go to the silver session at Square State. But when I got there no one was there and it was dark and locked up. Doh! So I went to look nearby and saw a new apartment complex with some two stairs and brand new ledges. I felt very out of it cruising around and there were a couple constructions workers left so I felt weird and avoided the benches but rode off the two stairs a few times. Kind of ollied this tiny gap. Dave showed. We explored a parking garage that basically had nothing in it but made for a fun hill bomb. Then ollied this little gap kind of and then saw the banked curb to curb which was infinitely harder to skate than it looks. Dave got the axle stall first and some nice kickflips. I had some ridiculous bails, an axle stall and kind of close to a couple nollie flips. Dave did a front pivot and by then Brian had responded that we could skate Square State so we went over there.

It was crazy having it all to ourselves. I had to warm up over again and pretty quickly went in on the tail jib bigspin. I had to come up with various ways of motivation to get there and eventually settled on ollies into the propped up little ledge. In the meantime Dave was landing trick after trick. Front 50 up and back 50 down the propped up little ledge was amazing. Fakie shove disaster was first try. I think he was 100% on pop shoves up the euro and then got a frontside one too. His lines were so good. I would eventually land my trick. I was really sore and was slamming on kickflips up the euro until I filmed them. Luckily I managed another funny slam. I was so sore though, like unskateable sore and it bummed me out. Dave finished off the session trying switch front shove to disaster but ended up doing it to back smith instead and rode out of it like a champ. What a fun night!

(setup 6/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsole orthotics)
(pain level 7/10 knees and side)

On a nice Saturday morning I went to dog park. I haven’t been too motivated by dog park lately but I think now that I can ollie more again it maybe I will again. It ended up being a really fun session, some of the best I’ve felt on my board in months. I took way too long to write this entry though and forget a lot of it. I was happy to get a few kickflips off the kicker and a front 50 front 180 out on the little ledge. I had some more dog park traditional moves like crooks and stuff. I couldn’t get a treflip or kickflip up onto the pad though. Bratcher, Jesse, Dan, Ferg, Scotty, Paul, everyone was ripping. Jesse first try pop shove tailgrab over the grate was nuts. Haven’t seen Paul skate in a while, he’s still got lots of moves. Watching Dan skate is always a treat. Radley was there ripping too. Bratcher had some cool pole rides, slappies and a lot more. It was a really fun session, best I’ve felt on my board in a while. Would have liked to have gotten a treflip though. I was trying them in lines after kickflips off the side of the grate. Oh I also had some halfcab noseslides on the bench which might not seem like anything, but they are hard for me.

(setup 6/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow bones medium bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, es swift b/w size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsole orthotics)
(pain level 3/10!)

After work and very little warm up I met Cass and Dave at a chill dog park session on a warm day. We had intended to skate Valmont, but it was mobbed with kids on scooters and striders doing laps on the pump track. So over to the dog park where initially there was only a few people and most of us were over 40. Dave was shredding the ride on grind to the curb to front board transfer. We hit the far side for a while. Cass had a nice kickflip over the curb. Dave feebled the little rail and a cool back nosepick 270 transfer over the parking block. I was not feeling good on my skateboard at all. I would get a few basic slides on stuff, one nollie front lip the little rail. Posed some flippers, but landed nothing, hated my setup. Dave had left and like 50 people in their prime showed up. Went over to Valmont and it was even worse. The worst part of spring is how crowded the parks get. Then out to dinner with birthday boy Matt.

(setup 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 lows hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 custom orthotic insoles)
(pain level 7/10 knee didn’t like the thin shoes or skating after sitting all day at work)

Before dinner I went over to the school hoping the side was clear of snow. It kind of was, but I had to clear some out and it would dry quick. I had a slight setup change, ace lows instead of highs. It flipped rather nicely but I can’t say I was totally sold. I would get several kickflips, some fakie flips, couple halfcab and b/s flips, couple slow f/s halfcab flips, a floppy varial flip. Couldn’t quite get f/s halfcab heel, heelflip or treflip. Argh. At the end I went up and saw this snow pile which I ollied in a few tries. It’s been so long since I ollied over anything, I do love having some random snow piles to ollie in winter.

(setup 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 lows hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 remind medic insoles)
(pain level 5/10 probably should have taken a day off skating though)

Met up with Cass at Broomfield, did some shoveling/squeegeeing for a while, then went to look at this bank spot but it was covered in snow. Some driving later we ended up back at Broomfield which had dried up quite a bit. We put in a little more effort then were able to skate the lower part without issue really. Darin showed up as we were getting warmed up. Cass was kind of ripping. Back 50s, hardflips, fakie back tail. Darin had his moves and made himself do a treflip pretty quickly. I didn’t land much of anything other than a halfcab noseslide and fakie 50 for quite a while. I was getting quite upset, but then had to reset and just make myself do more basics. Ollied up on the black box then did some accidental 5-0s on the blue. Got a crooks and a 5-0. Switch front nose then switch back nose shove. So it didn’t end up being the worst session, but I definitely wasn’t happy. Especially with how I couldn’t do flip tricks to save my life even on a smaller setup.

(setup 3/10 8.25 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace 44, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 remind cush impact insole)
(pain level 5/10 pretty sore)