Feeling very sore I just did a minimum session in front of my house. Mostly just pushed switch and did a few little switch ollies and a fakie shove.
(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Thunder bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 101a wheels, washers on the outside, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)
On a nice Thanksgiving day where the wind died down I got the invite to Saul’s and was hyped. The crew this day was Raul, Dave, Saul, Eric and a couple of others who’s names I am forgetting right now. Maybe Bryn or something? I was hyped to see Dave there. Anyways, I skated much better. Had quite a few back 50s in the “deep” end, a little slash or two in the deep end, some front disasters on the brick coping, some fun frontside grinds, flowed a little better. Saul continued his lines for days theme, added some stand up grinds, flowed real good. Raul has really good style and did lots of carve grinds, back d in the shallow, etc. Eric got more frontside grinds, was more consistent on the fast back 50s. I knew watching Dave would be fun, and he didn’t disappoint. So any frontside grinds, cab rocks, tailblocks, boardslides to fakie around the corner and backside boneless. Man this bowl is fun!
(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Thunder bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 101a wheels, washers on the outside, swiss bearings, No Play hardware, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)
After a chill day of working at home I went to Southern Hills with a bigger setup. It was an 8.38 that was basically brand new in my garage with Venture wides and some old Bones wheels that were lying around. It felt very weird. I was pretty sore and the warm up was not easy. I did a few noseslides and boardslides. Then I got a text from Saul to come skate his new bowl! I was hyped and tried to get a few more tricks before leaving. I got into a few front 50s, struggled with kickflips, crooks, got into back 50.
Kind of ironic that the day I setup a bigger board I got invited to skate a bowl. I was stoked to see Eric getting out of his car when I pulled in. It was Eric, Saul, Nick and I. My first few runs were not hot. Ha. The bowl is amazing though. 3 foot shallow, 4 foot deep end. Eric was going hard for the long back 50s. Saul has lines for days and carves it well. Nick got some good grinds in too. Eric managed to get a frontside grind in the deep end which he’s been working on awhile. I got some back 50s in the deep end that felt amazing. The little brick section is awesome too. Saul can grind through them. I used them for stalls normally or just a little scratch. What a fun session. Fun bowl, fun vibes.
(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Thunder bushings, 51mm Bones STFs, washers on the outside, swiss bearings, No Play hardware, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)
Went to campus with Dave on a cool evening right after work. We started off on the warm up curb. Dave was doing ‘slappy’ front tails when I got there, but then my presence prevented him from landing them for awhile. Ha. I did a bunch of slappy crooks and they all felt incredible. Man that trick is so fun. Dave went on to land a bunch of tails both frontside and backside. I got a couple fakie ollie front tail stalls, but then lost them, got slappy crooks to fakie, almost slappy crooks 270 out. Dave did some slappy crooks too, back 50 nollie shove out. Then we moved about 20 feet where Dave worked on no comply to manual while I posed no complies. Then we moved into campus a little and ended up at the mellow manual pad. Dave did a manual back 180. I came close to manual front shove out. We skated it for quite awhile. I filmed Dave. Then took a million tries to land a manual again. I had done a nose manual earlier. We messed around with tricks up/off for awhile. We both did switch ollies up with frontside halfcab down then with switch back 180s down. Although I’m not sure I even popped at all. I got kickflip up / down first t. But the banger was Dave doing it shortly after me. I’ve never seen him do a kickflip down anything. It was sick! I also got fakie bigspin up and front shove down. Dave came close to switch front 180 to manual. I tried a couple of lines. One was fakie flip on flat, switch front 180 off the curb then nose manual. Felt good. Tried another one of frontside halfcab flip, back 180 off the curb (it was too dark for kickflip off), turn around then kickflip manual. But Dave and I crashed at the same time feeling exhausted.
We went to the slappy ledge where we lasted a couple of minutes before Dave slammed really hard again. We were too tired to skate any further. Most of the session I had obsessed over how I wanted a bigger setup again. Ugh.
(setup 8.125 null message deck, venture 5.2 low custom hollow trucks with 3 washers inside each axle, stock thunder bushings, 50mm bones stf v1 wheels, swiss bearings, new balance numeric pj stratford 533 maple/black shoes 12)
Did a complete minimum session in the garage. A few manuals on the sheet of wood.
Around 9:30 am I went over to the school and played around on the curb while I waited for Carleigh to show. I didn’t do much. Just the basic slappy crook stalls, pivot shove attempts. A few front crook or switch crook attempts. Then Carleigh showed and we went to Broomfield park. It was not crowded. It was warm. It was pretty awesome. We started by running into the steep bank and doing some bank rides. Then Carleigh shredded the bowl. I took a few runs from the bottom in it. Man I suck at transition anymore. I don’t have much drive for it these days. Then we hit the ‘street’ section. There was a period where I felt really good and was skating hard. I almost had a line of carve the bank/hubba,noseslide, rock ‘n roll on the brick qp then front 50 shove the black ledge. Never quite got it. Varied it up with some boardslides down the tiny rail. But then normal Glen kicked in and I stopped landing anything. Carleigh though had a sick run. Boardslide the tiny rail, back d the brick qp, boardslide the black ledge, front shove out of the mellow bank. She had some good front 50s on the ledge too. I posed a few frontside airs which was fun. My last trick I had to do was an over the top back 50 on the little ledge. Carleigh filmed it. I finally got one and ended with another really bad treflip with both hands down.
Then we went to the nursing home and skated with Jason to the ramp jam. It was rad. I basically held on for the two miles or whatever. I didn’t skate on the crowded ramp. But it was fun to watch and seeing Jason smile was awesome.
(setup 8.125 null message deck, venture 5.2 low custom hollow trucks with 3 washers inside each axle, stock thunder bushings, 50mm bones stf v1 wheels, swiss bearings, new balance numeric pj stratford 533 maple/black shoes 12)
Went to Denver park a little later then I had wanted. I was hyped to see Ashylnn when I got there though. She was playing a game of SKATE with some dudes near the entrance. I took a long, long time to feel remotely comfortable on my board and I was way more sore then I should be. I pumped the satellite dishes for awhile, avoided tranny, and bailed flip tricks. Eventually I settled in to a couple of lines. From the main gazebo area I did a little switch noseslide jib, a kickflip on the little bank, carved around one dish then the next and front 50 the little ledge. I can’t believe how hard I struggled with front 50s. Coming the other way I was trying crooks on the somewhat tall ledge then terrible back 50s on the little ledge. At least one of them grinded so I’m slowly getting those back. Had another line going that way of noseslide to fakie on the taller ledge, halfcab noseslide the little ledge and then a heelflip on flat. That line had me kind of happy. I skated flat for awhile until I landed a 360 flip (one hand down again 🙁 ). Hit the bump to ledge at the entrance a little, had a fun accidental front 5-0. Took a long time to do a tiny rock ‘n roll on the slippery bank to curb, but got a slappy crooks quicker.
(setup 8.125 null message deck, venture 5.2 low custom hollow trucks with 3 washers inside each axle, stock thunder bushings, 50mm bones stf v1 wheels, swiss bearings, new balance numeric pj stratford 533 navy shoes 12)
Got out of work at a decent time on Friday. It was cold. The dog park was covered in water. I drive by this spot on the way to work often and decided it was time to finally check it out. There were some cool looking humps nearby that I thought would be fun, but they had huge cracks. I tried a couple of other nearby spots on the block before just settling on this spot. I skated flat on the top for awhile. My bushings were stiff from the cold. Flatground went ok. I got a 3 flip with only one hand down which is about all I can ask these days. Couldn’t get nollie tre and didn’t feel too close on switch flip. I ended on a line of a wallie nollie coming out of the corridor on the right then ollie off the loading dock. Fun way to end it.
(setup 8.125 null message deck, venture 5.2 low custom hollow trucks with 3 washers inside each axle, stock thunder bushings, 50mm bones stf v1 wheels, swiss bearings, new balance numeric pj stratford 533 navy shoes 12)
Went out to the garage excited to play on the “putter”. Aka the 7.5″ board with 42mm wheels. I did a few warm up tricks then started trying nollie heel. There were a few I got incredibly close on. Then I moved on to treflips. Ugh. I probably landed on 30 or 40 of them and put one or two hands down. But I wanted a clean one. I landed on almost every one of them, but I just couldn’t get a clean one. I was yelling in anger at times. I eventually went inside to get my regular board (8.1″) and man it felt HUGE after skating the putter. It took me a few tries before I even was able to flip the big board around enough, but after several more hand(s) down makes I finally got this “clean” one. My mood lightened. I tried a few switch flips and got incredibly close. I may have finally figured out a foot position that works for me. Man I would love to learn that one.
(setup putter, reg 8.1 board)
Stopped by hear on another warm day after work. I only had about 30 minutes to skate and I didn’t really want to ollie. I settled in to a line of slappy crooks then rock ‘n roll 360 out. I had never done the 360 out of a rock ‘n roll that I know of, but I eventually got one. I saw a clip of Reynolds do it, but couldn’t find it now to link it. Doing a million slappy crooks was fun. I also did a few front 50s on the low part of the ledge and attempted a few switch flips that weren’t close at all.
(setup 8.125 null message deck, venture 5.2 low custom hollow trucks with 3 washers inside each axle, stock thunder bushings, 50mm bones stf v1 wheels, swiss bearings, new balance numeric pj stratford 533 navy shoes 12)