On a surprisingly nice evening I went downtown with the main goal of skating the newish ledge. I parked by it, did a couple of noseslides and moved on to get warmed up before coming back. Ended up at the nearby alley with the bolted red metal ledge. Did a line of 180 on the brick to concrete bump then switch front nose. Tried nollie front 180 to start. Totally did the splits right in front of some people. Somehow it didn’t hurt at all. I had a setup change which may have contributed to the problems. 8.3 with slace. Mostly disliked it. Did get some nollie 180s and tried to follow with halfcab nose, but the darkness was too weird. Went over to WF and had some fun on the qp. Although the front pivot fakie took way too long and gave me a hot pocket as I kept slipping off the griptape. Went to the ledge, had some fun noseslides. Took too long to get a crooks and was reminded how little I like ace/slace. So yeah, not the best night didn’t do a single flip trick. But street skating is always at least a little rewarding.

(setup 3/10 8.3 keyhole 2, cheap pepper grip, slace 8.5, 50mm tablets, converse fastbreaks grey size 12 half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a beautiful morning I stopped by Boulder park on the way into work. There was a few youth skating/scooting, but would leave shortly to go to school. I had an okay start. Was really bummed to ghost pop some ollies to fakie. Pretty early on I almost did a front 50 shove first try. So I set up the phone and of course could not longer front 50. Got so mad, depressed, sore.

(setup 2/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, converse fastbreaks grey size 12 with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 foot/knees from the converse)

On a cool night with rain threatening I went to Square State. Kyle, Nick and Brian were there skating. Justin and Will would arrive after a while. I did my warm up wallie nollie over the kicker. Got a kickflip up the euro which felt really fun. Then pretty much spent the rest of the session trying that silly line which I did get, but not on wax. I’m not sure why the kickflip was so hard to pop up 6″. I was happy to get a front slash on the tall qp though which I have never done before. Justin ripped the park. Was good to see he was human and took a few tries to do a 5-0 to fakie on the tall qp. The nosegrind was so perfect. Will had a nice back 50 then went in on switch flips up the euro. He got close a couple times, but that is not an easy approach switch.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, converse fastbreaks grey size 12 with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10 right foot is still bad)

Sore from the day before and hurting from more tennis in the morning I left my house with no intentions other than to maybe get a treflip. I first stopped at the manny pad off 55th, but I was so sore all I did was a slappy crook and realize I hated my shoes. Ended up at the big new building off 55th and putzed around some warm up dork stalls before giving up on kickflips. Found a new spot I thought would get me going. Did a rock on roll on the bank to rubber curb. Some 180s, a noseslide, couldn’t kickflip. Did a little nollie bonk into a sidewalk hill nearby. Then off Pearl scoped a micro bump to bump that I ollied before giving up and heading home.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, converse fastbreaks grey size 12 with half insole and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 7/10 right foot pain from tennis and knees were shot I couldn’t hardly squat)

Will, Rob, Dave and I rolled to Denver on a nice morning. Salty and Bratcher were there, but left pretty quickly. Cass and Jake were there, Kyle arrived shortly after us. My foot did not feel good. Cass quickly learned all the blunts and almost added blunt back shove to fakie. He did the blunt front shove twice. Kyle did like 100 tricks on the little qp. Dave took some slams getting used to the long parking block spine, but man he did some cool stuff. Was great seeing Rob on the board, cruising, carving. I was really struggling. Did get a warm up line I liked though of back 50 the little qp, wallie the low part of the spine, noseslide the ledge, crook the ledge right on the edge. Then I tried a million kickflip axle stalls. Some were close, most were not. It was really frustrating to not get it. But after giving up I did have fun doing some old Rampy tricks on the little qp. Fakie hurricane and fakie pivot fakie were my favs. Jake was ripping, the front pivot and pivot fakie were solid. Dave’s lines were crazy good. I lined out the front tail on the pyramid with a slappy crook and a pivot on another little qp.

Then we went to the nearby DIY warehouse. Kyle did some flatground then stopped skating. Cass did some long ride on grinds. Saw Rob bust some 180s, halfcabs and get on some front boards. Will had some cool back 50s and thought about back nosegrinds. I did the incredibly non-proper front rock then crooks and was happy to get crooks shove. Also got a first try front axle, but then couldn’t do it again. Did a crooks on the tall ledge. Dave had some long lines on the spine thing, on the qp, to long ride on grind. Then the cops came and told us to leave, but were nice and of course used to skate. So we encouraged the kickflip which was cool to see. Then we went to an overpriced hipster taco joint, but it was still fun hanging with everyone.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, vans half cab wafflecup beigh size 12 remind impact cush insoles)
(pain level 7/10 right foot pain from tennis)

On a nice Friday afternoon I met up with Will at dog park. I started in my Splay shoes and could tell they really helped reduce the pain in my foot. But they are so floppy I could not do anything in them. Switched to 440s and the foot pain came back quickly. Ugh. I was able to kickflip quickly though. Went for a 3rd shoe which was the Vans wafflecup and it seemed like a decent compromise. I did not skate well, but had some good feeling crooks on the new butter bench. Had one front 50 on the lurb that felt good. Hucked a bunch of noseslide 270 shoves, some of which were close. Will was very quick to 50 and nosegrind everything. Then he went in on manual kickflip out which took him a while. What a cool trick. The bonus nosegrind was a nice touch. Glad to get some skating in, really hoping this foot pain goes away though.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, a few different shoes)
(pain level 8/10 right foot pain from tennis)

After work stopped by the parks to test out my foot and man it was not good. So on Monday I was playing tennis with Liz trying to break in some new Foy cupsoles and my foot started hurting. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but man it did not go away. Even pushing hurt as it’s my back foot. So I went over to the skatepark right as Dave was rolling up. I had no confidence and didn’t do much. Dave revealed the Gat Air which he did several time. I wanted to do it too, but it was too much for my back foot. Did some fun bean plants. Dave had done some lines in the pond avoiding the kids. The lipslide was so good. Hope my foot gets better soon!

(setup 7/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers ace bushings, 50mm spitfire f4 101a tablets, vans half cab wafflecup beige size 12 gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 9/10 right foot pain from tennis)

On a nice Easter afternoon I drove off with no plans in mind other than to hit some random business spots and avoid skateparks. Ended up at a newish building off 55th that has the crazy roof spot. Had a setup change. 8.25 with v8s. It was decent. Had too big of wheels on it though – 53mm. I started with a warm up line that was really a decent line anyway. Noseslide a tall wood ledge, ride down a handicap ramp, ollie a parking block, kickflip off a curb cut. Took me a while to commit to the kickflip, but when I did it felt great. I sized up moving a bench after the kicker, but there was a sign that messed with it. I skated some flat for a bit until I could do a rare one and I got a first try 1mph frontside flip out of nowhere so that made me happy. Went to a nearby spot that has a weird gap I chickened out on again. Tried to line out a tall 3 stair ollie. Fakie flip, halfcab flip, ollie the 3. Changed it to b/s flip then halfcab flip and only got to the 3 stair once and bailed again. Decided I should just go home and enjoy the chill day.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null kaleidoscape, pepper cheap not so good grip, venture 5.6 v.8 hollow hangers bones medium bushing which were too tight, 53mm snot franky wheels, new balance numeric 440v2 high size 12 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

On a coolish Saturday morning I met up with Jake, Gordon, Scotty P, Ladd at Barnum DIY. We had some time before Nullers started showing which was Garrett, Noè, Lakin, Bo and Hayden. The place is great. I attempted to start on my 8.5, but I didn’t. Skated an 8.25 with T2s which I thought was okay until I couldn’t crook to save my life. It was a fun session though. I skated pretty hard for the first couple hours because I knew my time was limited. Had quite a few front 50s on the lower obstacles, close to manuals. Tried a line for a while of switch front nose, halfcab flip, kick back 50. Never got the kick back 50. Hucked some flippers, didn’t get some. Jake had front 50s and tails, battled noseslide shove and got a really good one even if no one but me saw it. Gordon was ripping full speed 50s, manuals, ride on grinds and noseslides. Ladd makes things look easy. Scott put down some shoves. Garrett showed and quickly kickflip manualled the pad and front nosed the upper deck ledge. Nollie 180 crooks was sick. Then everyone else showed up and did great things. We then went to the ledge up the hill. I did a quick switch nose jib into the hill then filmed Lakin and Garrett battle the ledge.

(setups 8.5/14.25 with thunder then 8.25 with T2 neither were great, 440v2 highs with half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 5/10)

I really shouldn’t have gone skating. Work had drained my soul and I had no energy. But I tried to skate because it was so nice out. Slappys weren’t even working. Seriously was struggling with slappy crooks of all things. Kickflips were hard. Was totally defeated on treflips, heelflips. It was an absolutely brutal session that really made me consider hanging up the towel. I was luckily smart enough to leave and go play football with Ollie which was so much more fun.

(setup 2/10 null 20 years 8.5/14.25, jessup ultra, thunder hollow lite 149, bones stf 52mm v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 wide highs black size 12 half insole and currex runpro insole)
(pain level 4/10)