Somehow the forecasted wind was not in effect. Met a typical dog park Sunday crew. Rob, Jack B, Jesse, Dave, Nick, Tim and probably more I’m forgetting and the session is all a blur at this point. Some highlights I remember. Seeing Rob do the halfcab back 50, back 50 back 180, nose manuals around the C. Jack was working on crooks. I got a line I worked for of front 50 front shove then back 50 back shove, but the back 50 shove was beyond terrible. I had thought we’d be done skating, but Dave showed up. I continued to skate a long time actually but don’t remember a lot more other than I did seem to skate pretty hard. I had some really good feeling crooks. Dave worked up to an insane line. Switch front nose on the upper deck up onto the pad, front shove on flat, manual around the C pad then front 50 the upper deck like a stud! After that I was sitting and he went on to beat a group of teens in a game of SKATE.

(setup 8/10 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)
(pain 3/10)

Went to campus with Cass on a nice morning. I had that nervous feeling associated with wanting to get some additional tricks for my 50 part with the deadline coming up quick. We went by the little yellow lurb, but Cass wasn’t feeling that spot so we looked at Baker ledge which had cars before ending up at the downhill alley spot. We played a warm up game of SKATE that Cass won. We both did some basic flippers, but did not get get too far into the bag because no one landed each others tricks. Then we started trying some lines. We did some kickflips and halfcab flips into the “downhill” and some noseslides. Cass got a noseslide shove so we got the camera out and started rotating 5 tries each. I was trying nollie tre first, but it wasn’t feeling possible so I moved on to b/s flip, switch 180, noseslide fakie, fakie flip. I would get a very bad version of the backside flip and fall on the fakie flip. Then Cass would get his line and it was banging. I would get his back with a better version of my line, but that’s not saying much. Then I tried for a while and could not get another backside flip. We went to 303 then met the Null dudes and more at Kitrich.

I was quite sore as was Cass. Those dudes was ripping. I did a few noseslides and crooks and that was it. Cass had a really nice front nose shove. Garrett was smoothly rattling off tricks. You never know what Hayden is going to do. Sean cruising fast making everything look so solid. We did some more spot lurking then ended up at the new business building and where I filmed Garrett and Hayden battle some awesome lines. Hayden’s friends were charging too. Fun day.

(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)
(pain 4/10 not bad all things considering how much we skated)

Had a couple glasses of wine the night before and stayed up late. Woke up extra early and was feeling good somehow so I went to the park for about an hour. I had it all to myself until the last few minutes. I had a new deck, a Spanbauer Dead Spots and man it’s pretty! I did not skate well, but also, not terrible. I tried kind of hard and for 7-8am skated decently I suppose. It’s amazing how difficult front 50’s on even the lowest ledges have become for me. I would get a couple. Also a first try ollie onto the little bench. A few noseslides. Not much for flippers. Oh well, it was nice out and I got to skate before the wind kicked in.

(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)
(pain 4/10)

Met Sean after work at dog park on a nice afternoon. They said it would be windy, but it had held off so far. I had put a nice little 8.25 back together with some 5.6 v-hollows. It didn’t feel amazing, but nothing really does anymore. I didn’t skate too hard, but did get through a lot of my basic bag. There was a cool crew as Nick, Ferg, Robbie, tall blond guy were there. Sean did a really cool wallie then 5-0 shove around the corner.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings no big washer flat top washer, 51mm bones pj, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain level 6/10 right knee and feet)

Dave hit me up after I had a relaxing dinner to skate campus. I met up with him about when it was getting dark and it was way colder out than I had thought. It was around freezing with 87% humidity. I could tell immediately that I wouldn’t skate well. After cruising around looking for Dave we ended up at the wood bank area, although would never get past the long curb and mini bank to curb. It’s pretty easy to describe our 2 hours of skating with a couple of lines. Dave got back 50 the curb (really good), front shove to fakie the “bank”, switch boardslide 270 out. I did a fakie bigspin into the “bank”, boardslide the curb, front pivot the bank to step, front board flop out the ledge. We ended up doing quite a few tricks on the bank to step which was probably the most fun part of the session. Dave did back pivot shove to fakie, switch front nose the ledge, fakie shove. I’m not sure if I got a line or not but I enjoyed a few tricks on the bank to step like front tail stall shove, back nosepick shove, front axle to fakie. Tough night.

(setup 0/10 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralights 149, bones pj 53mm, es swift maroon size 12)
(pain level 5/10 right knee does not like me much)

On a cold, but thankfully not windy weekend I went to dog park around noon to meet Rob, Skelly and more at Greenblock aka Dog Park. Skelly was on time! Paul was there which was rad. Actually so many people that I knew it was kind of hard at times as there were so many people to catch up with. Including Ben from Evergreen/Escapist, Damian, Steeze and Alton from Silver Sessions, Big Mike who is one of my favs, many more. I’ve had a bit too much wine writing this. My skating was alright. I had a setup change. Basically the same, but with Royal trucks instead of Ace lows. They were better, but my setup was not perfect. Is it ever? I saw Rob get back 50 no comply our, back 50 back 180, nollie lip. Paul did back 5-0 front 180. I got a first try fakie 50 halfcab out on the curb, front 50 180 on the curb to switch noseslide 270 shove on the bench. Came super close to front heel on flat, nollie front tail 270 shove. Mike did fakie back nosegrind for the first time in a while and it was sick. I was pretty tired and sore, but then Fuller showed. And he apparently brought an entire crew of young kids with him as they arrived right after he did ha ha. Dave shredded though. I saw a line with manual around the C ledge then front 50 the bench all casual. After a while we ended up over at the barrier and we ended up skating it differently. Trick off the curb, trick in the barrier, trick up the curb. It was really fun even though I was already exhausted having already skated a few hours. It really exposed how rarely I do anything off a curb, even shoves were scary and hard. Fuller did another line of fakie shove, axle stall to rock ‘n roll, kickflip up that was even better. But the switch no comply was hot too. I took a long time to get my line, but I did get Dave’s back as we did our lines back to back. This was a really fun day even though I didn’t land a whole lot beyond my basics.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

On a really cold and windy day I went to campus to find some motivation and some spots avoiding the wind. I went by Baker ledge and it was full of cars. I thought of the quick up bank to curb and thought it would be protected from the wind. It was. I was kind of motivated to line things out, like a trick on the bank to curb then go around and do something on the skate stopped ledge. But when I would go around the building the wind was insane. So I kept to the bank to curb. I’ll just start by saying I hated the ace lows in the wild. Like completely hated. I could barely ollie up the curb. I started with some nollie tails where I just rode along the bank and didn’t even ollie up. Then I took a bit to get a noseslide to fakie. After that I tried back 50s for a while and failed. Then I just wanted to do ollie up, nollie front 180 (or nollie to fakie I guess?) and that took me forever. I left after that. Tried to find some more motivation, but the wind was insane so I just left.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, ace low af1 hollows hard bushing, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

Bummed on only having ~1 hour between work calls into the evening on a nice Friday I went over to the school. I had made my first real setup change in a while – same deck, ace lows, 53s instead of 51s. It felt really good actually. I still struggled and had no confidence, but I’m also still breaking in newish shoes still. After about the first 30 minutes I think I had only landed kickflip and b/s flip as far as flip tricks go. But I would go on to get a couple treflips, halfcab flips, fakie flips and close to a few more. Then it was back to work.

(setup 8.3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, ace low af1 hollows hard bushing, 53mm bones v1 pj washers outside, es swift 1.5 maroon size 12)
(pain level 4/10)

Brought boards to Monico’s parents house so they could bring them to him and went to Arvada park since I was close. It was cold, flurries at times. The scene was ~20 rollerbladers, ~10 scooter dudes and ~8 skaters. I could not get going to save my life. Literally couldn’t even do a no comply bigspin on the round bank. Went to the back to try a line of axle stall the bank to curb to quick kickflip to fakie on the bank. Never got it. Bob was there. Talked to him for a while and was way too sore and cold to start up again after that.

(setup 1/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148, 51mm bones pj 2 washers inside, es swift 1.5 maroon thin nb insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

On a nice Tuesday evening I went to Square State knowing that Garrett would show, but that was it. The crew would end up being Dennis, Jesse, Garrett and Nick. Solid crew. Dennis and I were there first and warming up was tough. I had new shoes. Es Swifts. They felt mostly great though and I landed my first 3 kickflips. I went on to skate alright, but didn’t have a whole lot to show for it. Had some fun wallie nollies on the pyramid wall, fun roll in to axle stall the bank to curb, a few kickflips in a row up the euro, but couldn’t get b/s flip the hip. Nick had a sick rock ‘n roll powerslide, nollie disaster revers the bank to curb, shove it’s everywhere. Jesse has such good ollies and did first try varial flip and I think treflip up the euro. Garrett was ripping so hard. He was the only one skating the big qp doing smiths, disasters. Ollie up the 3 stair, switch heel, kickflip, treflip, fakie treflip down the 3. Back 3 the hip. It was sick. Dennis shut the session down though with nollie down the 3, nollie front 180 up the euro and then nollie up the euro.

(setup 7/10 8/3 null abstract33, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow 148, 51mm bones pj 2 washers inside, es swift 1.5 maroon thin nb insoles)
(pain level 5/10 knee was slightly better)