Went to dog park after work having changed trucks to Ventures. They did not feel good for ollies, but flippers did feel better. I would have a pretty blah session, but managed two things I hadn’t done before. A front tail shove on the curb and a front smith to fakie on the c lurb. Neither one grind/sliding. Still felt cool.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, venture v-cast 5.8, 51mm bones pj, new balance numeric 306 blue/white nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

On a breezy night I went to Square House and for a bit it was just Jesse and me. Warming up felt impossible for me, nothing felt good. Nick and Jake showed then Ben, David and D5. Gray would skate most of the time. We were on the miniramp for a while and I skated it so terribly. Moved on to the main area and still skated pretty bad, but better. Got a first try kickflip up the euro. Gray, Jesse and I all got pop shoves up the euro. I had never done it there and it was pretty fun. I would go on to get a b/s flip up it which felt really cool. Jess, David and I finished with a game of SKATE that I got destroyed on which was ultra depressing. Especially getting letters on tricks like halfcab flip and heelflip. Jesse won it with a super good fakie tre. Struggling so bad with flippers sent me into setup madness.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones pj, es melange black size 12)
(pain level 5/10)

I didn’t do anything on Sunday and it was great. But I felt pretty out of it still Monday after work where I met up with Paul, Sean and Rob. I had a mixed session of weird flailing and some decent stuff. New things I got were front 50 the curved part of the C ledge finally, front 180 up the ledge then switch 180 off. Skated hard though and posed some stuff I hadn’t done before and seemed to skate a bit faster. Rob was ripping with nollie lipslides, shove lipslides, manual back 180, back 50 back 180, halfcab boardslide and more. Paul added switch 50s to his ledge game. Sean did his infamous line of back nosegrind then kickflip nose manual. It was so nice out, hard to leave, but everyone seemed exhausted.

(setup 5/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones pj, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Oh man. I haven’t edited the video yet and thinking back on this day I cannot believe I thought it was a good idea to try it. It had snowed overnight and we needed to squeegee the park just to even skate. I had skated for what seemed like an hour before filming even started and I was feeling a great deal of anxiety about the whole thing. Finally I just started asking people to film and it began with Paul showing me up on some slappy crooks variations. Things were going incredibly slow for a while and I think after like 3 hours I was only at like 18 tricks. But then Jack arrived as a mostly full time filmer and it really got going. I think my favorite personal trick was kickflipping onto the C ledge and also a heelflip 3rd try. A couple of my favorite show ups were 180 a parking block then Sean 180’d the hydrant, me doing fakie 50 then Rob doing halfcab 50. After about trick 40 I started to go cross eyed due to being dehydrated with bright sunlight. I was a mess and kind of stopped caring if people were showing me up or not and just did a few more tricks to get to 50 or more (hopefully). Brutal day. I will not be doing it again. Especially because the next decade would be 60! Huge thanks to my friends for participating in such a silly idea, skating all day and filming. Video soonish.

(setup 8/10 null 8.3 pmg, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones pj, new balance numeric 272 b/w size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Took the day off work for obvious reasons and met up with Dave at an empty Frederick park at 10am. I got there first and felt great as soon as I put my board down and did a few warm up laps. Dave showed a few minutes later and we kept our warm ups going. I felt snappy pretty quickly and even got a manual on the little pad first try I think. I man have popped up onto the taller ledge first try too, but I did it a few times. Dave and I settled into some lines on the manny pad area. I couldn’t get a nose manual to start it. Dave got his line way quicker than me. Back 50, manual, quick up front 50, nose manual. Wow! I ended up doing ollie up, kickflip off, noseslide (I had done a few crooks that felt good but when I finally got the kickflip I just wanted to keep it going), 180 onto the pad then switch front nose off it. Normally if I pop up that ledge once I’m pretty hyped, I must have done it 20 times! After that we went to the bank to curb area. Dave had the nice boardslide to tailslide. I got a questionable treflip flyout after struggling to do axle stalls. Dave front pivot to front rock then kickflip flyout was so sick. My phone missed some of the action after this. I had some slappy crooks and nollie front 180s out of the bank. Dave did a halfcab rock up to feeble. He had to get to work. I ended it on front slappy then rolled out to celebrate with the family. Really fun session.

(setup 8/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones pj, es melange black size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

Was sore, but it was so nice out and Sean and Paul were going the park so I went to dog park too. Shortly after being there someone said I should do 49 tricks so I started trying. I have no idea what the count was but I’m going to list them now and see.

ollie
front 180
back 180
switch 180
boardslide
noseslide
noseslide fakie
noseslide 270
switch front nose
switch back nose (10)
switch back nose to forward
switch back nose front shove
halfcab nose
crooks
slappy crooks
slappy front crook
front 50
back 50
front 50 180
front 50 back 180 (20)
front nosegrind 180
fakie 50 f/s halfcab out
kickflip
fakie flip
varial flip
b/s flip
rock ‘n roll
front rock
back slash
front slash (30)
nollie front tail
nollie front tail fakie
nollie back tail
nollie 5-0
nollie 50
manual
fakie bigspin
nollie front 180
nollie back 180

Okay yeah not even close to 49. Oh well, not too bad considering it was just a regular session without a plan going in. Sean was kinda lazy I didn’t see much. Paul was ripping and has some fakie 5-0 halfcab out. Also I had made a setup change. Man I love how it skated but I cannot flip aces to save my life.

(setup 4/10 null 8.3 abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 51mm bones pj, es melange black size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

Was almost not going to skate at all, but it was so nice out and I had remembered this little ledge spot I hadn’t skated yet. I warmed up with some switch front noseslides and noseslides, some flippers. I had new shoes (Es Melange) and my 8.3/Royal setup so everything felt weird. I skated somewhat hard, probably only because it was a new spot which kind of excited me. I almost had some back 50s, a few halfcab noseslides, some uphill front 50s and then a few crooks that felt way better than they look. I have never nollie front 180’d off a curb before and it took quite a few tries, but it felt neat even if I don’t appear to pop whatsoever. For flippers I only got kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip and b/s flip. The warmer weather made the trucks feel way too loose. Glad I got out to skate a little.

(setup 4/10 null abstract33 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralights 149, bones 53mm pj, es melange black size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

(setup 3/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12 nike insoles)
(pain 5/10)

After a chill Friday at work I rolled through rush hour traffic to Rocky Mountain where I met Rob and Dave. They were warming up trying pressure flips. Both seemed close. I started with slappy crooks. It turned into a pretty good session. Rob had nollie tail, slappy crooks, nollie lips on the curb. Manual around backside then nose manual around frontside to 180 out. I think front board pop out on the ledge too. I skated decently for me. Had a lot of flippers including my first couple heelflips in months, f/s halfcab heel and flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip but no fakie bigflip or treflip. Got up on the ledge a couple times, but never got a grind. May have barely done a noseslide up to crooks jib that fell out right away. I couldn’t kickflip up the curb. Dave on the other hand, was still kickflipping up the curb after I had called and and was sitting. He had a fastplant over a median on the bank, manuals on the medians, shove fakie and ended with slappy crooks shove but couldn’t get it cleaned up. I know I’m missing a lot more. It was a fun Friday session and after had a fun dinner with Rob.

(setup 6/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, es swift maroon size 12 nike insoles)
(pain 4/10)

Another cold and snowy day, luckily Brian has created the amazing Square House. I got there around 7 and started with a game of SKATE against Jesse. I was wearing some 306 vulcs since I didn’t have time to fix up the hole in the Swifts or break in some new shoes. They felt okay, not great. But I certainly had troubles popping in them and my flip tricks were suffering. Jesse would go on to beat me but it was a good warm up. Dave showed up around then. I hit the bank to curb with some slappies for a bit trying to line out a kickflip on the bank which for some reason didn’t work. I hit the miniramp for a while. Brian and Gray were competing on who could take the most slams, Gray won. Brian’s casual blunt to fakie is magical. I had a couple alright runs for me and Brian made me smile about it. ha ha. Back to the “street” had some fun noseslides and crooks on the bump to ledge, but couldn’t back them with b/s flip over the hip. Was happy to get a first try kickflip up the euro even if it was sketchy. Went on to be like 3/4 I think before trying backside flips which I was also very close to, but didn’t get. Jesse played the hits with pop shove up the euro, pop shove tail grab the hip, bigflip the bank. Dave was shredding. I think he did a line with slappy crooks to fakie and switch slappy crooks to regs on the bank to curb. Probably also with a switch back 180 over the hip. I got sore near the end so just went back to the tiny qp and tried sugarcanes for a while. Dave eventually came and joined me. I got quite a few, Dave would get a couple too! It was good seeing that he is human and it didn’t come easy. But then he had to go on and do a backside version pretty quickly then challenge me right back to do it. Argh! Ha ha. That was a dream trick of his though so it’s awesome. Some of my attempts look closer than they felt. Gonna be a battle to get that one.

(setup 8/10 8.25 null spanbauer dead spots, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings flat top washer, bones 51mm pj, new balance numeric 306 navy size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain 4/10)