Kevin and Rob have been requesting I do reviews for a long time, so here’s my first one. Now that it’s done I should add that I think the tightened wheelbase, lower truck height and the heavy hangers contributed to the flip trick struggles. Anyway, maybe I’ll do more as it seemed to at least make my friends laugh some.
Met up with Joe, Sean and Garrett at dog park on a cool day. I did a couple slappy crooks and a switch front nose before settling in on filming those dudes.
My calf is still not healed, but on a beautiful day I couldn’t resist standing on my board. And that’s literally mostly what I did. On the side of the school I just did a few nollie shoves, fakie shoves, ollies and posed a couple kickflips. I was wearing Xero Kelso shoes because I’m sick AF of being injured. Skate shoes suck. They weren’t as grippy as NBs, but felt okay. Their wider toebox made my 8.25 board feel absolutely tiny though. I skated maybe 10 minutes and did not seem to do anything that made things worse. Oh yeah, I wore toe spacers too which really seemed to help position the foot.
2023 goals:
Get healthy!
Never wear skate shoes again (that’s what caused my calf injury).
Put out a part for my 50th.
Get shown up 50 times.
Drink very little.
Halfcab heel noseslide 270 shove out.
Film a line with a treflip and a nollie treflip in it.
Up too early before the midwest moisture had burned off we delayed skating for some breakfast and a yummy nearby coffee joint then got to skating. I thought I felt good doing my morning exercises. Nope. I would go on to struggle something fierce. Joe was working the ledges in the actual pool area. I had tried messing around then went up to the very top area that has some seriously easy training wheels curbs which were fun. I had some 5-0s and 50s on a curb high one off a drop that was fun and some 180s off the next levels. I played with nose manuals on one of the little pads for a bit and got a couple, but couldn’t get shove out. I started playing with a line similar to the one at the start above but with a fakie 50 then wanted to switch 180 off the ledge, but the crack was preventing that. Then I started going the other way ollie up, front nose fakie, halfcab flip off the ledge. I did several halfcab flips on flat to try and get it dialed in off the ledge. I would get the line a couple times, but the halfcab flips were not great. Actually nothing was ha ha, but I was still pretty happy. Never halfcab flipped off a ledge that tall. Maybe not even off a curb? Or maybe once back off the little dock at Stonehenge. But yes it was really fun and I was very hyped to do it. Then I filmed Joe get a line in like 5 tries. Then a lot easier of a line above in about 20 tries ha ha.
After some driving we ended up at this weird bank at a cathedral which would normally be really fun and easyish to skate. But when you filmed like crazy the day before and session before it was a brutal warm up. I couldn’t kickflip and almost left my skateboard there. I tried some bigflips and didn’t get close. I finally got kickflip to fakie. Joe did a sick front shove over the hip. I tried no comply bigger spins for a while until the pain in my calf became way too much to keep skating. Then we got some margs to celebrate a fun trip!
(setup 2/10 null 8.25 esher, thunder hollow light 148 with venom 88a bushings, bones pj stf v1 51mm, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10 at slabs 8/10 at banks)
Up pretty early Joe and I got to Harrison St before the homeless had stopped pissing in the middle of the park (seriously right as we rolled up). Joe had skated there before. I was feeling pretty good actually even though it took us both a while to get used to the park and figure out what to skate. The first thing was the carve over the shallow end which resulted in a grind and was incredibly fun. Joe did the run to the boardslide. We tried some other stuff, I couldn’t quite grind the real quick transition by the big bowl. I took way to long to get the kickflip on the bank, but the grinds on the brick coping was super fun. Joe shut it down with the front shove and kickflip fakie line.
After an amazing lunch of Ethiopian food at Blue Nile cafe we ended up at the milk crate ledges. This spot has been on my list of spots for a long time and one of the main reasons I went to KC. I had no idea it was on such a hill which was a bit of a bummer. The top low ledge with regular angle iron was kind of actually the highlight. I would eventually calm down and get some of the longer crooks I’ve done in a while. Joe rattled off a few uphill frontside tricks. We started filming after a while, giving each other 3 tries to get some lines. I had fun basics line with crooks then slappy but couldn’t get a flipper after. Joe started his line with back 50 to boardslide 270 out. I went on to try fakie 50 and got this line a couple times very badly before trying to make it harder with a fakie front shove out which never worked. I eventually gave in to the soreness and exhaustion and filmed Joe get a banger fakie 50 to back 50. Fun day. Exactly why we went to KC. Skate a park, film some in the streets.
(setup 2/10 null 8.25 esher, thunder hollow light 148 with venom 88a bushings, bones pj stf v1 51mm, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10 not too bad initially)
First park was Harmon. It was very windy, pretty warm out, crowded with teenagers with ear buds. I hadn’t slept well and drove 10 hours over the last two days so my body was shot. Needless to say it resulted in me skating like complete garbage. I mostly hit the top area with some ledges and smaller qps with mud surrounding it. My board would go in the mud on my first attempt at a bank ride to 50 on the weird little bank thats there. After quite some time I would get a couple slow lines. Crooks, rock fakie, halfcab noseslide. Boardslide the flat bar, switch front nose. It was nice having a new crowd because the kids thought the switch front nose was “super sick”. Ha. I had tried some other stuff, but mostly nothing worked. I was there a couple hours.
After stopping at Escapist I ended up at a nearby park. It has a very gnarly bowl section and then some mellow bank with a couple ledges and flatbars which was kind of a dream park. Too bad I was beat beyond believe and so sore. There were only a couple other skaters there equipped with the required earbuds. I couldn’t get a crooks even. I went to do a kickflip and could barely stand up from it so I left.
(setup 1/10 null 8.25 esher, thunder hollow light 148 with venom 88a bushings, bones pj stf v1 51mm, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 7/10 tired pain not so much the calf)
Feeling sore, but having some time to hit the side of the school Nate gave me a 10×10 list that I modified slightly. My calf was still pretty hosed so I went extra slow and just hucked away wearing some newish 440s again.
Kickflip – got a couple bad ones
Front Shove – yeah ha
Heelflip – nope
Fakie flip – felt okay
Fakie Varial Flip – Nope
Fakie Bigflip – Got a really bad one 10th try
Rick flip – Not too close
Treflip – Also not too close. I was really sore so went home after this instead of trying the next two.
Sw Flip
Nollie Flip
(setup 3/10 null 8.25 esher, thunder hollow light 148 with venom 88a bushings, bones pj stf v1 51mm, new balance numeric 440 white size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10 right calf)
It’s been a few days since this session so it’s really tough to remember what happened. Luckily I had filmed some clips. I know I really sucked it up with the exception of a few crooks on the bump to ledge that felt good. I had worn 212s to try and limit the calf pain, they did, but everything else was super sore and I had to sit by the end of the session. Jack and Salty were there first. We spent like 15 minutes trying to get the heavy parking block onto the bank above the euro as bank to curb, but it didn’t fit. So it ended up as a fun boardslide off the bump. Or if you’re Dave, a fun grind. He did 50s and 50’s, even switch boardslide up, slappy crooks in and almost switch slappy crook halfcab transfer over which would have been nutso. Salty had some feebles to fakie on the upper qp which were crazy because he went down switch between the rail and hubba which may not look close, but it is. Also front slashes on the big qp and almost no comply shove up the euro. Jack had bump to board and then boardslide down the rail. Also nice ollies over the hip, shoves up the euro, no comply on the bank. Dave was shredding. Don’t remember all his lines, but there were some amazing long ones. Last thing he did was a few kickflips up the euro.
(setup 3/10 null 8.25 esher, thunder hollow light 148 with venom 88a bushings, bones pj stf v1 51mm, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 5/10 right calf and both legs)
After driving down from the mountains and chilling a bit I met up with Jack B at Wilville. It was nice out, but there was a lot of snow and puddles. My calf still hurt, pushing was not fun. I wore some old 212s in hopes of reducing calf pain and I think it worked. Well, at least the lack of any heel lift seemed to not make the calf strain worse. We met in the manual pad area which was pretty wet then went to the rock area. Had some rock rides to fakie to get warmed up. I struggled to do kickflip, rock ride to fakie, fakie flip. Hit a little curb and did a few stalls but Jack wasn’t feeling that. Ended back at the main area. Tried a line of manual 180 the grate, fakie flip, switch 180 manual into the bank. Didn’t get close. That was it for the skating, I didn’t want to skate long as the calf felt pretty weird. We went and looked at the big wilville bank, that thing is crazy.
(setup 2/10 null 8.1 all you need, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 v-cast royal bushings flat washer, 51mm bones stf v1 103a 3 washers inside, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 7/10 right calf pain)