Wanting to be lazy on a cold breezy night I went out to the garage for about an hour. I skated my 8.25 slace board. I had gone out with the intention of trying front bigs, but instead after I did a few basic flippers I settled on varial heels. And kInd of got one. I was really surprised when I landed on it, felt cool. I hucked some other flippers too. Nollie b/s flip and switch b/s flip which were not close. Got one bad 270 flip. Happy I skated.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null keyhole 2, null grip, slace 8.25, spitfire f4 99a orange/black swirl classic shape, new balance numeric 440v2 wide size 12 navy, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Early on I went to Lafayette which would serve as a meetup spot for Nullers and hopefully a little old guy session. Brian had already left though. I had cruised around a little, almost got run into by a mongo pushing longboarder and Dave and Sean showed. Sean manualled the little pad all casual. Dave said we should get his back. Dave went nose manual and would get a few, one even followed by a crazy ride on grind up the shark fin. I never did got a manual. I did have a fun little switch noseslide shove followed by noseslide to fakie on the bump to ledge. Sean had some good back 5-0 180s. Jack showed and we bounced.

First spot in Brighton was a mellow little ditch with a flat bar in it, a micro hip and some retaining walls that could be stalled on. Sean couldn’t quite get a f/s flip on the hip. He’ll refer to that as ‘the one that got away’ forever ha ha. Jack slammed hard on some feeble 180 attempts. I couldn’t get a b/s flip and struggled to get a sketchy treflip, but it was fun. Garrett got a really good boardslide 270 shove.

Then to a flat bar that Joe and Sean skated. Garrett skated flat. I sat around. Then to a brick bank where I only barely carved it, but Sean and Jack got buck.

(setup 1/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, indy 149 forged hollow ace bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

Another beautiful “false spring” day in the 60s. I went to dog park pretty early and quite a few of the old crowd showed. Bratcher, Jesse, Gordon, Eric, Paul, Cass and Rob. Was really hyped Rob came and started getting his skate feet under him. Saw some manuals, back 50s, fakie bigs, nollie shoves, back 180s. Jesse left right away unfortunately. Bratcher getting his willy grinds on. Gordon pop, speed and sold basics. Haven’t seen Paul skate in a while either and was surprised how hard he was ripping. Seemed like he hadn’t hibernated all winter. Cass had some good back 50s and manuals. Saw a pretty gnarly Eric slam. I skated okay. Didn’t do anything that stands out, didn’t get overly frustrated. I liked some back 50s on the curb, one with a shove out. Struggled more than I wanted to on front 50s on the bench. Cass, Paul and I played a game of SKATE. Paul won it, I was happy to get a really fun feeling fakie bigflip, but not happy to get another letter on a treflip.

(setup 3/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, indy 149 forged hollow ace bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 6/10)

On an incredibly nice Friday I took the afternoon off work and met Will and Darin at Broomfield. I had some solid struggles at this session, only things I can remember liking were doing several heelflips on flat, actually 5 in a row at one point. they were supposed to be setups for treflips though, which I never even got close to. Will, Darin and Spencer did them well though. Will went in on kick back tails on the black ledge. He got into some, but never landed it. I really stunk it up, couldn’t really crook which was so frustrating, got one sketch front 50 shove, a halfcab noseslide that took forever. Darin rattled off his qp moves. I managed one back 50 on the blue lurb. Will was having no problems, same with Darin. It was cool seeing Spencer there, he was ripping and did 180s to fakie nose manuals on the crazy euro. Yes, both frontside and backside. I had one fakie bigflip I liked. We skated quite a long time, I really sore at the end.

(setup 5/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, indy 149 forged hollow ace bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

3rd day in a row at dog park, normally spells disaster for me, but it was okay. I didn’t have a ton of energy. The park was surprisingly dead, only a few people skating. One of them was young Ace whipping his 60mm wheels around. I skated pretty mid. Continued to have success with crooks and had a great feeling halfcab flip. But man I struggled with pop and I didn’t like that. Seriously could barely front 50 the main bench. Was close to kf back 50s going slow on the lurb. All in all a pretty lackluster session even though I attempted to skate hard.

(setup 5/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium redrilled to v8 with bones bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Worked later than I thought I would. Managed to catch a bit of daylight and saw Will. He was working on back smiths on the bank to curb. I did some various warmup non-pop tricks then got a front smith and a really bad front board on the concrete bar thing. I got a crooks on the back of the two step. Somehow a first try manual on the lurb. That was about it. Will had quickly done some 50s on benches, but had to go. I left too as I was extra sore from so much sitting at work.

(setup 7/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium redrilled to v8 with bones bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

On the way to work I stopped by dog park for about 20 minutes on a different setup and new shoes. Oh and it was incredibly windy, unskateable. I really just wanted to do a noseslide and crooks. I had 8.3 with forged redrilled v8 ventures and it seemed okay. Well, it noseslid really well and crooked even better. But when it came to front 50, not so good.

(setup 6/10 null flaherty 8.3, jessup ultra, venture 5.8 titanium redrilled to v8 with bones bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a classic orange/black, new balance numeric 440v2 wide navy size 12, half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Pretty sore. Sean showed up and we met Garrett then stopped by a tall ledge in Gunbarrel on the way. Well, Sean nosegrinded it, Garret front nosed it, I just did a b/s flip out of the bump.

Then to Rocky Mountain where we crewed up hard! First time seeing Rob in a long time, he cruised around getting his skate feet back. Garrett was going pretty hard, Hayden too. Noe was kind of hiding skating flatground. I didn’t do much of anything, had some slappys, a couple flippers. There was so many people it was kind of crazy. Dan, Chad, Dave, Joe, Bo, Jack. It was almost too many people to organize, but we did and we went to West View school. Most didn’t skate. Garrett, Sean and Noè got some baller tricks. Bo almost ollied in.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null keyhole, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 7/10)

Finally some warm weather! Still lots of snow about, but I know the stashes. I was wanting to skate flatground and knew Platte would be dry on the south side. I would go on to have an okay session, a bit frustrating at times. Especially heelflips, they just didn’t want to flip. I skated a little over an hour and managed 11 flippers, a few of which were absolute garbage.

kickflips – felt good
fakie flips – felt good
halfcab flip – Had a few, they felt alright
fakie bigflip – one bad one
backside flip – okay
heelflip – seriously took forever and barely came around when I got it
f/s halfcab heel – total slop tail on the gound came to a halt
nollie varial flip – directly after the f/s hc heel with both heels on the ground, but I was still hyped. Haven’t done it in a while
horrible fakie varial flip
f/s halfcab flip
terrible treflip

After a break and some refueling I ended up at Douglass which had snow around the good side of the main ledge. I started on the side. Warm up runs felt good and I tried to skate fast. Switch 180, nollie tail, pop shove out of the bump. Would get some front 50s that had a tiny bit of speed, accidental 5-0s, front 50 180 and front 50 shove. Also a couple flippers. Then I went to the front of the school and skated a different bench that was already waxed beyond belief. It didn’t go well, even noseslides were hard. I would get a few crooks and tried to line them out by curving around and doing front 50. But never got the front 50 and had to stop as I was getting too depressed. Kind of a bummer end to a pretty good day.

(setup 4/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)

After a couple days of not skating or working out much I went skating after work. And wow did I feel off. I had drove around looking for a dry spot and found that the safeway ledge was dry. I used to love it so much almost 30 years ago when I first started skating with Jason. It’s not waxed up anymore, but it should be. It was tough skating a ledge right away, especially on rough concrete without much room around it. I did front and back axle stalls, pivots, back crooks stall, a sketchy front tail. First kickflip felt amazing. Taking forever to get a halfcab flip did not feel amazing. Was close on treflip too, but never got both feet on it.

(setup 3/10 8.3 null flaherty, jessup ultragrip, thunder team hollow 148s with ace bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic 3 washers inside axle, new balance numeric 440v2 wide brown size 12 half 574 vulc insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)