I guess the reason I felt so bad on campus was because I was getting sick. Doh. So I just rolled in front of the house for a bit. Didn’t ollie, just did shoves off the front of the board, slide around cabs and nabs, that’s about it.
Went to campus as I didn’t have much time and it had rained. I started under the Engineering building and could not get anything going at all. I felt terrible. I couldn’t even kickflip. I moved up to the bike path above that had dried and tried some flippers. That didn’t work either. I pushed around and ended up on the new flat by the stadium. I tried some tricks for awhile, got heelflip, but not halfcab flip. Then just gave up and only tried nollie heels or switch flips. Got close to both. Felt heel pain and left. I had been wearing some new spenco full length insoles without any other padding. I think they need some type of padding.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)
Woke up early and have the late shift so I got ready for work then hit the Boulder park. I parked next to someone gearing up for the park too. As I warmed up he kept gearing up. 30 minutes later he was skating the park too! Ha. My warm up was ok. I like cruising that park when it isn’t crowded. I felt like I was skating slower then normal, but not because of lack of effort, my board just felt slow. Weird. I did lots of tiny ollies over little hips, did some axle stalls. Got a kickflip over the backside hip easy, but took forever to get a b/s flip the other way. It was annoying. I also struggled to front 50 down the tiny hubba. I would get it, but it took awhile. My last few minutes were spent trying boneless combos on the little qp and 360 flips going slow on flat. I got two terribly slow boneless to tails. That is a new one for me so I’ll enjoy the baby step. The 360 flip took awhile and when I landed it I put both hands down. But it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve tried one as they seemed to hurt my heels the most. Also the first one in vulcs. Fun morning.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)
Went up to Fort Collins to sell boards and film with Hayden. It started raining when I got there. It didn’t really stop. We tried to warm up at Northside. Hayden did a bunch of tricks on the small part of the jersey barrier. I did an axle stall! Hooray. Then it started raining. We went to Aggies. I dorked around with some slappy crooks, slappies, manuals and falling down before filming Hayden do like 20 tricks. Back to Northside where I just filmed in between showers.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)
Met at Crisis at 9:30. Did bidness, then off to Broomfield park. I felt pretty good pushing right away and felt motivated. Things would be hit or miss for me and I fell a lot, but I blame the stiff insoles allowing me to skate again without creating more pain, but having less boardfeel then the gamechangers. I saw Rob manual the banked pad real quick, boardslides on the ledges, crooks the black ledge. Dave did boardslide to fakie on the flatbar, front 50 the black box, way better stuff then I’ve listed that I can’t remember right now. Another dude was there skating hard and manualling the whole park. Fuzz showed, disappeared, showed back up and we did a little 10 flatground trick to get things going. Both of us had some struggles on ones we normally land, but ultimately got to 10 in a pretty decent time frame. I had a first try nollie tre to cancel out the 20 missed b/s flips and heelflips. Fuzz had a sick fakie heel. In the main stunt area various things were going on. I remember Dave getting obsessed with feebles on the flat bar which he did really good. I was trying a new one for me on the little blue box, switch front noseslide back 270 shove out. I got close a couple of times, but for the most part was not ever close.
Then we hit this alley. The cruise down was fun. We skated a somewhat mellow bank that has a little curved curb at the bottom making it look interesting and a little harder then a normal bank. It’s a little harder to skate then it looks, dogs were barking at us constantly, but somehow no one told us to leave. Dave rattled off basics the fastest. Pop shoves, fakie bigspin, nab, cab, kickflip, no comply 270. Geez. Rob and I have the same bank go-tos. Kickflip and no comply shove. Unfortunately for Rob the bank was out to get him and he never quite got the no comply shove. But he did have some steezy bonelesses, ollies and one foots before that. Fuzz did really good b/s flip and halfcab flip. I did a couple kickflip variations, posed hardflips, nutted myself trying to be dave (fakie bigspin). Dave also did a super crazy switch back 360 and an old school kickflip.
Last we hit this school for a brief one. We were all pretty sore and beat, but I had fun trying lines. Noseslide the low bar down, slappy crook a curb, ride off the three stair. Tried it with a longer line adding a back 50 on a curb then front 180 a two stair then turn around to mini hill bomb. Got it, went back for back 5-0 and slammed super hard. Ugh. Then witnessed Fuzz do a ride line and we filmed it.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)
Got out of work kind of early on a warm afternoon. I had been given a 10×10 list by Nate, but it became clear quickly that my body was not up for skating. Of course I just kept skating though. I did a few basics, but even struggled with regular kickflips. I started hucking some no comply tricks. I tried no comply front 360 bigspin for awhile, but never got to close. Rob arrived. We both tried no comply front 360 shove for awhile. I managed to get one. We did some other skating too. I still feel like switch flips are obtainable. Rob was cruising his shifty ollies, back 180s, cabs and getting back into his groove. It was a mellow session. I skated a long time, but didn’t land much. Then Dave showed as I was hoping to leave and Rob bounced. I decided to film a no comply 3 shove which didn’t take all that long and I landed it way better then the one before. Dave was warmed up so we played a game of SKATE. I got a letter on front shove. Ugh. And something else, but I ended up beating Dave with a combination of flippers, no complys and one foots (he can’t do them!) and ended it with heelflip. I felt bad at first, but he was hyped on getting close to the heelfip and kept trying it. Even on another board that some kid left. Oh yeah, I had started wearing my old spenco orthotics again and it really seemed to help with my heel pain/plantar fasciitis. Although it also took away quite a bit of board feel. I guess I’ll live with that since it was the first time in awhile I felt like I was actually not making my pain worse by skating.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)
Was feeling really lazy and not wanting to skate, so I met Dave on campus around 7 at the meet up lot. I’m not sure anyone else could have fun on this curb, but we do. It’s nice skating a curb you can do stalls on and not only grind/slide tricks. We hucked. Dave did did pivot body varials, fakie 3 shove, back 180 50s, back 180 switch smith (bennet?), much more. I came close to hurricane shove out. One landed in casper so I jumped and landed it. It cracked us up and put me in a good mood. I came close to kick back tail, front smith kickflip out, kickflip front crook.
Then we went a whole 50 feet to this spot. I managed to somewhat skate it this time without slamming. I did a couple slow switch board transfers and some really slow 50 transfers. Dave did feeble transfer first try then back 50 transfer and then bluntslide transfer.
Then a small manny pad for awhile. We both took awhile to get nose manuals. Dave got a good switch noseslide on the ledge. I was struggling to do regular noseslides. Dave tried some fakie shoves switch manual and switch nose manuals, landed manual back 180, manual front 180. I tried manual kickflip out and got remotely close. I would like to do that some day, but man it’s hard.
On to the next curb. Well, this monster flatbar. Dave was feebling it so good that I had to get his back with a tiny and slow front 50. I tried another one and did an accidental front 5-0 that Dave was hyped on so he made me try more and it took me awhile.
Last up was the bank to curb. Initially we thought we would have fun, but we both quickly got frustrated with how hard the curb ollie makes things. I got a front 180 fakie 50 (stall) to front cab out like 2nd try then took like 20 more tries to get it again, and a bunch more fails to do it with a grind. Ugh. Dave was trying front shove nose stall. He got some OLDFART defense makes, but got frustrated to. He slammed hard on a bennet grind. Doh. We walked back looking for Dave’s car key that he ended up finding in his car door. Ha.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum footprints gamechangers)
It seems like every single post I start by saying how tired I am. Well after an 8 hour drive, a short bike ride and some food I went out on a totally new complete for a brief session. I felt better then I thought I would though. I hate having a brand new complete so wanted to skate it initially on a ledge and not show up at a park with a brand new complete. A few noseslides in a huge mob of people went by following Pokemon or something. It was weird. I got a couple of crooks, a couple bad back 50s, couldn’t halfcab noseslide or front crook. Did a few real basic flippers and hucked some nollie and switch flips that felt close. Did a line of front 180 up the curb, fake flip on flat, switch front nose. Got tired and left. Not bad considering how tired I was and everything was new, even my insoles.
(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum)
Had one of those long and tiring days of walking around in museums. I got dropped off at the park with no warming up or anything. It was pretty hot, but crazy humid. Joe’s shirt was already a wet rag. He was grinding the ledge already. I wasn’t even comprehending how to ollie that’s how bad I felt. It went on like this for a bit. Joe landing a good ledge trick, me doing something like a switch noseslide. Joe did so many tricks, front lip to front 50, back 50 to boardslide, fakie 50 fakie shove, fakie 50 fakie bigspin out, he was landing everything. And for the second time skating with him in a row he said it was extremely rare that he lands that many tricks. We tried some tricks on the bank for awhile. I came close to switch front shove after Joe did it easy, we both tried b/s hardflips, I did a front lip on the qp, Joe also did a fakie bigspin. Another dude was there that was fun to skate with trying big frontside flips over the hip. Matt showed, we chatted, he had the new Riley board and it looked good. I was feeling crazy from the heat. That humidity was insane, I couldn’t breath. I thought I was going to throw up most of the session. Matt ripped with back 5-0s so easy. I had to leave, it was short, but fun.
(setup 8.1 Krooked Manderson deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Etnies RCT navy)
After a long drive from Woodruff to Omana I got out for a brief session at the parking lot next to Liz’s parents house. It’s nothing special. I had almost no energy, no pop, no desire to skate initially. I carved a parking lot, did some axle stalls on the curbs, then said I needed to do 20 tricks before I went in. I ended up getting warmed up and not feeling so bad. I skated slow though and most of the tricks were done terribly. There were some real basics like 180s and some less basics like b/s flip. Oh, I did a cab though! That’s rare for me. Couldn’t end it with nollie tre so settled for something more basic like shove rewind.
(setup 8.1 Krooked Manderson deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Etnies RCT navy)