On a nice cool afternoon I went to Douglass after bring Ollie to the airport. I was not expecting much. I brought three setups. All 8.25 with different trucks. It was funny set them all down so I could only see the top and did an initial ollie on the setup I thought had the Royals and had no pop whatsoever. Turned out it was the one with Venture lows. Doh! Of the 3 the Ace lows had the best feeling ollie so I went with it for most of the session. I really struggled. My knee was hurting bad at times so I put some gamechangers in some new 288s and my knee started hurting less. I did a couple basic lines like ollie up the curb, kickflip, noseslide. Couldn’t get crooks and my boardslides were really weak as I would hit the front wheels on the way up. I tried front 50s for a bit and maybe about 10% close. Got a couple other flippers, but then left after an hour hoping my knee wouldn’t react negatively to a little skating again.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null, jessup ultragrip, ace lows 44 hard bushing, 53mm spitfire f4 classic 99, new balance numeric 288 sport white/grey size 12 stock / footprint gamechanger insoles)
(pain level 6/10 left knee at times was quite bad)

Not feeling great, armed with a 10×10 list I went to the shady side of the school. I felt okay starting out. I tried a few pressure flips since Dave told me to. They weren’t close. Then went into normal routine and did a few kickflips before moving into the list that started with halfcab flip, fakie varial flip. I was surprised to get fakie varial flip as easily as I did and it hyped me up. Then I went for heelflip and my knee started hurting and felt super unstable. Then basically just gave out on one attempt. I sat for a bit, debated skating through the pain, but decided I should just not skate. It felt quite a bit worse overnight so I’m gonna chill for a bit with no skating. Argh. I guess at least I know that orthotic insoles aren’t going to prevent the pain, because hey kinda suck.

(setup 6/10 null 8.25 spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast low royal bushings, spitfire f4 51mm 99a classic shape 4 washers inside, new balance numeric 288 sport green/gum with currex run pro insoles)
(pain level 10/10 hit a breaking point)

I have had so little energy lately, but I managed to get myself out shortly before sunset. I ended up at the wood research area for whatever reason. There is a tiny section that isn’t knobbed where I did some crooks to get warmed up. After that I thought I’d get it going, but my left knee pain had other ideas. It was literally actually hard to balance while pushing at times. Ugh, this pain started in WI and I’m not sure why/what it is. I had a warm up line of fakie filp, switch 180 a little brick median, 180 onto the ledge, switch ollie off then added a couple tricks after like fakie bigspin and maybe varial flip. Next run was supposed to be noseslide then front 180 a manhole, halfcab flip, ollie up then pop shove off. But the darn halfcab flip almost killed me. I got to the pop shove a few times, but wussed out. I left quite depressed.

(setup 6/10 null 8.25 spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast low royal bushings, spitfire f4 51mm 99a classic shape 4 washers inside, new balance numeric 288 sport green/gum with currex run pro insoles)
(pain level 8/10 left knee bumming me out)

After some hesitancy I went to meet Rob and Mike and the standard dog park crew. Eric was there which was cool because it’s been a minute. The sun was out for a while, but then we got some good cloud cover that lasted for a couple of hours. I saw Eric get front boards on the taller concrete curbs and almost shove out. Didn’t see him get his patented quick heelflips which we’ll blame on an extended vacation. Rob seemed to rattle off the hits right away. Nollie front lip, nollie front 50 back 180, nose manuals, boardslide the tall bench, crooks, etc. It was good seeing Bratcher again as it’s been a minute. He switch ollied a parking block when I got there which he had never done before. Mike was getting his slappys on. I had a decent session. i think the clouds really helped out. Got a manual or two which has been rare lately, the best crooks I’ve done above the manny pad (which was only a couple of feet long and I have about 10 more to go but its progress) and finally got a Glen 50 on the bench which I’ve been scared of for months. i followed it with a terrible treflip. Mike and I went and played in the pond at the park for a bit. He had some good front slashes and a killer no comply. I did some axle stalls and took too long to do a kickflip fakie on a hump (what do you really call Evergreen skatepark’s “banks”? they aren’t banks, they aren’t quarterpipes they are just like dumb mounds that are sometimes kind of fun).

After some napping, cleaning and dinner I went to the side of the school with no real plan and did some flatground. It was a mellow little session with some dorking. I got 10 flippers total in an hour. Argh. Kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, heelflip, f/s halfcab heel, varial flip, fakie bigflip, sex change. Was hyped to have skated.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast low royal bushings, spitfire f4 51or52mm wheels 99a classic shape 4 washers inside, es melange black size 12 footprint gamechanger lite insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Up kind of early trying to beat the heat Paul and I went to Golden park and met up with Jake. We walked up the hill to a popping session. There was some breakfast skate crew with a tent setup with free food, some tunes going. For how many people were there the park never felt crowded. Maybe because most of them stuck to the bowl. We started out at the little plaza area. Paul said the weird runway was hard for him as he rattled off trick after trick on the pad ledge. Jake had some some 180s and halfcabs off the pad along with some tilted manuals. Paul did the quick up onto the bench then front 50 I wanted to do. They both ollied up onto the taller ledge too then bounced to the main park. I was by my self for a bit wanting to do a couple things before moving on. I was able to ollie onto the taller ledge with a little truck tap which I was hyped on. Also a line of halfcab noseslide then crooks. Shortly after that Jake requested the first filming of the day and did his banger line starting with front smith. He got it first try and 4th try because the filmer messed it up the first try :). Then he did the front rock. Paul and I were feeling out some stuff on the ledges and qp. I was enjoying crooks, but struggling with back 50s on the no-deck qp. I did have fun with the line to the noseslide. After that I flimed Paul get both his lines so he’d have something too then I went in and STRUGGLED with treflips until I got something resembling a treflip. I was toast after that. Paul showed up Jake with front noseblunts on the bank and then we bounced for Bluecar.

(setup 3/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 hollow no bottom washer, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape washers outside, new balance numeric 306 blue size 12 footprint gameghanger insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a really hot day I drove through rain almost all the way to the school where Rob and Dave were sweeping the construction debris away. I attempted to start skating in some 868s, but they felt like moon boots and I switched to 440s. Also, even though I had fun on the 8.25/lows I tried my 8.3/thunders and stuck with it. We had a good session. Seemed like everyone was doing different stuff pretty quickly. Rob was doing fakie back nosegrind reverts on the curb over and over. Not sure I’ve ever seen him do that before. It encouraged me to try the regular fakie nosegrind revert which I definitely got close to, maybe even an over 50 make. It felt cool. Dave had kickflip to fakie on the bank, ride on grinds/slides on the curb, switch back 180s up the curb. I couldn’t do a halfcab flip to save my life and kept getting weird wheel bite almost turning me into doing a cab flip. I had some slappy hurricanes which I recently remembered to try again. Rob was going for slappy crooks to fakie, casually did boardslides to fakie, manuals, more that I’m forgetting. Dave became obsessed with switch shove front nose. Then we both tried to 50 the ledge that has grown incredibly tall over the years. Dave was going for back 50 after switch back 180 up and got denied. I was going backside after kickflip up the curb or frontside after pop shove up the curb and I got denied on both even when committing a lot. Argh. The pop shoves up the curb were fun though. After Rob had left Dave and I were messing around on the curb. I got a better slappy hurricane, some switch boardslide 180s out and then randomly posed a nollie front shove backside nose stall. I would get it in a few tries. Dave had been doing slappy front crook and sw slappy front crook then he joined in the nollie shove noseslide game. We would both get little slides with it. Such a cool feeling. I also got one or two to fakie. Then the darkness started weirding us out and we bounced. I think I may have broke my max number of setup changes this week. Yikes.

(setup 5/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 hollow no bottom washer, spitfire f4 99a 52mm classic shape washers outside, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half/no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After dinner I went to dog park to meet Jesse and Mike and possibly Dave. Mike couldn’t make it but Paul rolled in. Jesse was there and we went right in to a game of SKATE which he would win again. I just can’t beat him. Not even after he slammed and hit his chin on a fakie bigspin. It was crazy. It was decent though. I wore some Es Melange shoes and thought they were great at the time, but now my calf is acting up again. Argh. Anyway Jesse won on treflip and I wasn’t even remotely close. Dave showed and did a lot of parking block transfers to get warmed up before he went on to 5-0 over the arc. After playing SKATE I got a different setup out of my car and mostly enjoyed it more. 8.25 with venture lows. I would get a second try f/s halfcab heel, but struggled with kickflips. I had some fun crooks on the back of the two tier, a few manuals on the pad. Dave was all over the place and settled in on some fakie 50 halfcabs for a while. He also almost did a kickflip off the c pad. I had started committing to crooks on the ledge over the manny pad, but never locked in. I was hyped to feel more posted up and committed. I also tried some kickflips over the green curb and some other random stuff. I couldn’t nose manual the pad to save my life. Argh. By the end there was just one younger skater who was trying to learn nose manuals and I’m sure will have them way better than me next time we see him.

(setup 1 3/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 52mm bones v1, es melange black size 12
setup 2 4/10 8.25 null esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows v-cast, 52mm pink snot wheels)
(pain level 4/10)

After a day of laying around and going to see Mission Impossible to avoid the heat I made myself get out shortly before sunset. I went to campus. I wore some new 272s instead of 440s and my body was not happy about that. Especially after a failed kickflip where the tail took out my arch. Argh. I made myself do 5 flip tricks near the tunnel to get warmed up. But it didn’t go well at all. Breaking in new shoes is tough. I would get slow kickflip, fakie flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip and f/s halfcab flip. Also had a pretty good slam on a stop rock and somehow again it didn’t bother me, but instead happily reminded me I wasn’t at a skatepark. I went to the yellow lurb but they messed it up even more now. Doh I was hoping to trick kf crooks there. I went to the hallway, but it was dark so I ended up at the tall engineering ledge of all places. I had thought I could try a line of halfcab flip, noseslide, treflip. Except that the noseslide was basically impossible to me. Argh. Then I went to the rec center to hit another tallish ledge. They had added a portapotty and it smelled terrible. I did one line of tail drop off a tallish ledge then noseslide before I left due to the terrible smell of the portapotty. Then I just kept on going and went home.

(setup 4/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 53mm bones v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 teal size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

After a slow morning I had a little over an hour to skate on Liz’s bday so I bolted to the flagstone ledge spot on campus. I was wearing 440s in hopes of less knee pain. It may have helped. I skated slow, cautious, but also challenged myself a little. Like maybe a kickflip at 3.5mph instead of 3mph. Came close to f/s halfcab heels, somewhat close to switch varial flip, couldn’t get treflip or heelflip. Had the normal stuff backside. I ollied onto the ledge once with a little trick jib. I couldn’t get a front 50 but I did get both trucks kind of on there at the end. I had worn some slippery socks I normally try to avoid skating in. I think that added to some frustration. Anyway, I skated for a bit and it was in the streets so it felt kinda cool.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 53mm bones v1 pj, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)