This is one of those days I should get docked or red flagged or something because I had two setup changes. I had pulled out my 8.25/5.6v-hollow but put on 53mm wheels. I wasn’t planning on skating early, but I woke up really early so I went to Boulder park. I very much disliked my setup. I didn’t skate well. Took a while to get a warm up run of olllie into a bank, noseslide down part of the hubba, rock fakie a qp, fakie bigspin the hump. I had the park to myself for the first 30 minutes or so until a couple of characters showed up. First guy was short shorts stoney dude with funny sunglasses almost getting me high with the second hand smoke. He ended up being really good of course. Other guy probably orders everything from Zumies, had a good ollie and some scary grinds down the hubba. I didn’t go on to do much, but did make myself get some front disasters which took longer than they should have. Oh and I had slowly and sketchily ollied onto the bench a few times.

After work I picked up the van then met Rob and then Dave at dog park. It was weird because only a couple blocks away it was hailing, but dog park would remain dry. My setup change was less drastic this session, just different trucks (Royals instead of ventures). A casual 180 up the manny pad to get started made me like it. In trying to made dog park more interesting to me I tried to skate it differently. I was trying a line of ollie the kinked rail then boardslide the taller rail. But I would never land the first ollie, although did land on it once at least. Some 303 dudes showed up and I got kind of self conscious about not being able to ollie a little flatbar so I moved back to the normal routine. Only other thing I remember was finally getting a lame little nose manual with a love tap at the end. Rob had done noseslide and frontr board I think on the tall bench, fakie nosegrind revert on the curb, casual mannies, back 50s. Dave did some front blunts on a parking block, a bunch of grinds over the rounded arc ledge, front board fakie a flatbar and 5-0 shove on the curb.

(setup #1 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings, 53mm bones v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles)
setup #2 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, royal 144 hollow kingpin, 53mm bones v1 pj, new balance numeric 272 blue size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work I went to dog park to meet Dave, Rob, Jesse, Paul. Much to my disappointment the dog park was covered in puddles. Rob was still charging the manny pad and I stuck over there. Paul joined and squeegeed it. Dave came over from the park and went right into shred mode. Some of the best I’ve seen him skate there. Front 50 180 the smaller narrow bench, wallies the grate, front board the curb over a puddle, front tail the picnic bench from the propped up grate, manuals, front 50 the c, nose manual, dude was shredding. It was inspiring and I wanted to turn it on by my feet, shoes and skateboard had other ideas. I went on to have an absolutely miserable and depressing session where I didn’t land anything. I had started with the thick vans insoles but after they sucked every ounce of pop out of my first ollie I put the Nike ones back in. I played a game of SKATE with Jesse later on where I landed a lot of non flippers, but once we got to the flipper section I couldn’t land anything. Rob had taken off earlier. Saw him get some front 50s and back 180 out, manuals, back 50s, halfcab noseslides, etc. Paul was doing his typical shredding.

(setup 1/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, vans wayvee white size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 7/10 knee, foot, heel bruise from saturday)

After a couple days of laziness I was still feeling lazy, but forced myself over to the school in some new shoes. I intended to skate flatground, but after I couldn’t land a backside flip or fakie bigflip I kind of started just doing random stuff. Tried to do a line of ollie onto a narrow curb then front shove off, pop shove a manhole cover, ollie onto a rock. Never got it all. I had new shoes. Vans Wayvees. Wow they suck. I skated pretty hard, breaking in different shoes is rough.

(setup 3/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, vans wayvee white size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 heel bruise from saturday)

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After a hike and some sitting in the creek we ended up at Wilville and would stay there most of the day. We started at the main mellow middle manny pad. Rob and Jake were already there snapping up onto the lower part and doing tricks on the bank. Lee ollied the brick wall like 5 times to get a nose bonk. He has insane pop. Joe got kickflip to fakie on the bank. Rob had a nice nose manual into the bank. Jack manualled the whole thing then out of it too which was bonkers. Jake and I battled stuff into the bank. I was trying fakie ollie onto the pad then switch 180 into it, but ended up giving up and instead doing kickflip up and ollie in. Jake would get front 180 then halfcab.

We went down to the rock area so Eckert could do a rock to fakie on the rock. Well, that was my idea for him anyway. It proved much harder than we thought. Although Leebo did back blunt in like two tries. Jake had a cool tailblock. Jack front shove fakie. Garrett’s tricks were cool too. I don’t remember doing much of anything there other than some drop ins and rock rides.

Next up we went to the narrow bank double set area. I had wanted to try a grind off the bank like I did before. I almost died rolling down one of the banks hanging up on the crack though. It hurt bad mentally and physically. Jack did some amazing sketchy bank to back 50 a table. I baby stepped to grinds and eventually got one and it felt cool. Garrett did some sick front 5-0s. Jack thought about 5-0 to fakie, but nope.

Then we went to the bikepath snowboard jump. I was oh so sore. I managed a kickflip that was super fun. Joe had one too and some shoves and a fakie flip on the bank. Rob had some lofty ollies. Lee had his patented mega front shove. Jack did some half impossible and a one foot or two before sketchily filming Garrett loft a kickflip. Fun day. Fun crew.

(setup 3/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, new balance numeric 288S green/gum size 11.5 with 440 insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

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Rob, Joe, Eric, Lee, Sean and I met at Dayton park on a sunny hot day. There was a lot going on, hard to keep track of everything. Rob had some lines with mannies, back 50s, front boards. Joe had tried to go during one of Rob’s lines and had instant karma with a front 5-0 overshoot slam. Ha ha. Joe did Joe tricks and even added back 50. He was getting up onto the taller bench no problem. Eric had a nice boardslide transfer the wide spine. I was struggling with noseslide 270 shoves. Lee showed me up by doing it first try off the top ledge. But he couldn’t get it on the low bench like me. And especially not as good as I did it. I also got a front 50 on one of the ledges that took too many tries, but felt great when I did it. Sean slayed it as shown in the clip above. The ease at which he can pop up onto ledges is insane.

Then we went to the nearby bank to ledge and barged Rodrigo’s session. I slammed pretty much right away on a slappy crook attempt. I posed some frontside tricks before settling in on kickflip 50 for a couple of hours in the hot sun. Sean did some basic grinds, tailslides, felt out fakie back tails but hated the line to it. Lee maybe did shove nosestall then called it a session. Eric did an amazing staple gun. Joe did the Joe Hamilton and was the last one skating with me and got a kickflip front rock. Two hours later in the heat I was by myself skating hating things, but trying hard. I would end up getting a kf axle with a tic tac. It was cool though. I was hyped.

Lastly we went to nearby Commerce City park. Lee went off. Some tall noseslides, switch front noses, fakie 50s. Joe skated hard too, doing most of his tricks. Rob cruised some manuals. I ollied up the euro and did a fun little line of front tail on the bank to wallride nollie. Then we got some yummy mexican food and Eric paid way too much for tacos.

(setup 4/10 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, new balance numeric 288S green/gum size 11.5 with 440 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

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Met up with Joe, Eric, Lee and Rob on a warm evening at dog park. It was crowded with youth, most of which were annoying. Lee had immediately done a front shove that was too high and Rob commented on how it was over maximum height. Ha ha. Lee warmed up skating the tall flat bars. The annoying youth got to Rob and he bounced. I don’t remember doing much of anything myself. I was adjusting to a setup change of 8.3 and aces. Felt decent. I lost in a game of SKATE to Joe, but had a great feeling b/s flip. I struggled with crooks. Aces pinch so differently than Ventures. Didn’t see Eric skate much. Joe was popping onto the tall ledges casually. Lee’s pop shove nose grind was bonkers.

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, snot 52 pink swirls, new balance numeric 272 size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a really hot afternoon I met Dave after work at the good ol’ shady Wilville. I had started on my 8.3 with Ace lows, but quickly swapped out for my 8.25 with 5.8 ventures. Anyway, pretty quickly we got into some difficult physical/mental challenges. Riding off the levels of the ledges was way harder than I imagined. I cannot believe Dave did all 3, that was bonkers. Backside no less. We also did some ollies onto the ledge. Dave more frontside coming from the manny pad side and then went into nose manual. I think in a long line with a nollie back 180 off the curb and then a halfcab flip. He did like 5 halfcab flips! I sketchily ollied straight on a few times. I had a few flippers. Then we really settled in to tricks off the curb to start lines. It’s hard with little setup and the fallen debris from the tree. I had done a few pop shoves before settling in on starting with kickflips. Dave had to leave but managed to manual and nose manual into the bank first. I setup my phone and went in on kickflip then treflip then hopefully 180 onto the ledge but I never got a treflip. They were close, but never got one. Doh. Really fun session though, we skated hard.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium/v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 288s green/gum size 11.5 440 insole)
(pain level 4/10)

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Went to Broomfield park on a hot morning to meet Nullers and Cass. To my surprise when I pulled up Blaine came running up to say hello. It was so great seeing him and catching up. I went on to skate like dookie. I had changed to 5.6 axles and hated it. The only good thing I did was beat Cass in SKATE ending with a heelflip. Sean, Garrett, Joe all killed it. Cass had some moves too. Great seeing Blaine skate as well.

Then we went to Cole in Denver where I had hoped to ollie up the 3, but instead I didn’t even try and ended up just filming for a long time in the hot sun just baking away. It was fun though. I like getting out in the streets.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 5/10)

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Jack and Jesse picked me up pretty early and we were off to 112th park in Thornton. I had made a slight setup change now that I had access to all my goods again. 8.25, but still 5.8 ventures and 51s. It felt pretty good and I started off quicker than normal. Maybe it was having 3 days off skating. I did the bank ride over the long 2 stair pretty quickly, had some basic flippers that felt good, was popping my tail and having fun. Most of the other old dudes were at the bowl area. Jack was doing the wallies real quick. Jesse was popping hit tricks high like he does. I had a fun first try b/s flip over one of the micro hips, also first try kickflip out of a little bank, some crooks, but couldn’t front 50. Salty had a rad line of powerslide to fakie the volcano then fakie carve over the bench. Those dudes arranged a session at a miniramp but I wasn’t really ready I was having too much fun. Luckily I got a line I had been trying. Bank ride down the 2, ollie down the tiny euro, axle stall the incredibly weird no deck qp, kickflip out of a micro bank, crooks the tall ledge. Lastly I ollied the weird snowboard euro while they were figuring things out.

The miniramp was much taller than we had thought, but it was mellow. We started slow and eventually put down some tricks in the not sun. Me and Jesse raced to front 50s and got them back to back. I couldn’t get a front disaster, but did get kind of a slow beanplant to tail which I haven’t done in forever. Jack had some nice ollies to fakie. Salty did feeble to fakie, 50 to fakie, cab feeble and a banger of a cab pivot. The ramp was Scott’s. He ripped and had some unique moves like some weird disaster the side of the extension, cab pivot 270 out. Jesse shut the session down with his first ever lien to tail and it was sick!

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium/v-cast plate royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 3/10 way less knee pain in the zero lift shoes!)

Feeling lazy on a hot morning I went to the waunakee park.  After some weak attempts to get things going I settled in on noseslide 270 shove.  It felt better to huck a trick that’s hard for me than just putzing around.   I was hyped to get one.  I also did a few slow and low front 50s and basic flippers before making myself do several halfcab noseslides.  My knee buckled near the end.  Argh.  I guess these 272s aren’t good for me.  I wore some 868s and skated for a bit longer.  I hated them but my knee felt more stable.  

(setup 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm stf v1 pj, new balance numeric 272s then 868s)
(pain level 6/10)