On a cold night I drove downtown in my new minivan after selling my beloved wagon. I had a setup change. 8.25 with aces and boy did it suck. I started near St Julian and did a little line of nollie front tail the long low curb, crooks the ledge by the fence, kickflip on flat. Also tried some fakie bigspins then front 50 the fence ledge but was not close at all. Then I moved around. Hit the alley behind the main parking garage and did a couple pivots and came close to front heels. More cruising around and didn’t really find anything in particular that interested me until I was back near my car. But I was really cold at that point and hating my board. Aces eliminated from potential 2023 goal of not changing setups.

(setup 1/10 8.25 null esher, jessup ultragrip, ace 44, bones 51mm pj stf 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain 3/10)

Brought my daughter to work at 9:30 and had some time to kill before Rob was ready to head north so I went to dog park. It was quite nice out and I had the park to myself for the most part until a couple of the CU crowd joined, but they are cool. I skated alright. Got a front smith on the low ledge, front 50 180 out (I can’t believe I’ve gotten to the point where I actually am happy I did this it used to be such a warm up). Got a few tricks on the quick up manny pad to ledge like boardslide, crooks, front board. Never got a good manual though and couldn’t commit to 50 on the cinder benches. Jack B showed up, but I had to go. Got a front 50 shove on the c lurb that took way too many tries.

After hitting LOCO and MRKT Rob and I would meet up with Hayden, Noè at a heated Spring Canyon park. I say heated because there were dudes charging so hard. I would never get anything going and would leave so depressed about my skating. Rob charged it though, nose manuals right away, had a line of halfcab manual then nollie lip. Hayden is so fun to watch. You never really know what you’re gonna see. He learned a new trick, fakie front shove switch manual (I think). Noè was having an “off day” which means only a few 20 trick lines ha ha. The kickflips to fakie on the steeper part of the qp were stezy. I was super bummed that it marked the first session that I didn’t get the little rail boardslide first try. I was like 20-0 on that thing. Now I’m 20-1 and feel incredibly depressed about my skating.

(setup null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, bones stf pj 51mm v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Let it warm up some then rolled to dog park. Well, I started at Valmont, did some pumping around and then forced myself to do 5 kickflips to fakie in a row on the bank. I would get 6 and it only took two tries. Then I went over to dog park and Jack B and Eric showed up around then too. We basically had the park to ourselves for a couple of hours and it was awesome. They were both charging. I was having a weird session where I would not land basic tricks, but get harder tricks first try. Like nollie back tail the bench (because Jack did it) and nollie back tail to fakie the c lurb. I also got first try halfcab noseslide which is rare these days and followed it with a goofy slow back 5-0 shove on the curb. Eric had heelflip over the parking block first try, crooks shove first try, front 180 the bench, front board shove, dude was shredding. Jack’s no comply over the metal bench then hippy jump was so good. I couldn’t commit to an ollie over it. We skated the barrier for a bit. Jack was doing really good fs ollies and ollies to fakie. Eric was close to back lip. Christian came by and shredded it. I got a totally not decked front rock. Then I went over to the skatepark again since some of the 303 dudes were there. Got a first try bigflip on the bank which hyped me up. Went back to the plaza and ran out of juice even though Eric and Jack were still charging and the park was quite crowded. The wind kicked in though and we bounced. Fun day, first couple hours with Jack and Eric were rad.

(setup null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, bones stf pj 51mm v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 2/10)

Got out on a nice night. Rolled down the sidewalk to the underpass on a new setup that was fun. Did a couple brief ollies. Was wearing the 1010s really trying to make them work, but I hated them. Ended up at the covered downhill ledge and got in a few noseslides and a fun noseslide to fakie before the wind went nuts and I went home.

(setup null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, bones stf pj 51mm v1, new balance numeric 1010 white size 11.5 half 272 insole)
(pain level 4/10 knee pain from the 1010s kicked in pretty quick)

Feeling tired and sore Dave was pushing for the bank to ledge and timing wise it worked for me so we did it. We met Cass at Dayton, it was cool out, but would warm up quickly. There was one other dude there nollieing into everything. There was a brief warm up before we played a game of SKATE that ended up taking forever. And not because we landed a lot of tricks. Cass was first out, Dave would win it, I couldn’t get a fakie bigflip or heelflip. Skating the park Dave had some cool front 5-0s on the qp to down on the ledge. Cass had some good back 180 grinds. I stuck on some noseslides (strike 1 against Thunder), enjoyed halfcab noseslides, kind of ollied onto the ledge and took a while to get a front 50 on it at the end.

Off to the bank to ledge I was feeling sore. Stefan would meet us then eventually Garrett and Joe. I struggled. Really struggled. Like even noseslides to fakie I couldn’t get into. The only thing I was happy with was the nose jib to fakie then halfcab flip. Oh I did a fakie bigspin on the bank too which was really fun and some boardslide flop outs that looked nothing as good as Dave’s. Cass added front nose to fakie, front 50s. I forgot how much Dave rips bank to ledges. Front 50s in a few minutes, back pivot, nose pick, axle stall lunchbreak tail stall, seems like much more. Stefan battled switch front tail and then nollie 180 crooks. He would get both. Garrett came and quickly did crooks, crooks fakie, crooks bigspin, shove noseslides, shove noseslide 180, kick back tail, kick back tail fakie, but couldn’t get the flip out. Joe couldn’t get tail or front 50 so instead did a first try front crooks to fakie. So amazing. He tried some Joe tricks, but came up short.

(setup 5/10 null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollows venom 88a bushings, bones stf v1 pj 51mm 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 5/10)

Nice day out. I rolled down to Dayton to meet Cass and Jake. There were some other older guys there, solid session, great vibe. Jake was quick to shred the “spine” and quarterpipe. Cass was dealing with some back issues. We all seemed to skate alright. My flippers weren’t working as easy as hoped. Oh, it’s actually funny I had 3 setups in the car and chose an older deck with Thunders on it. At first I didn’t like it, but ended up liking it. Got a few of the ledge basics. Jake did front 50 on the tallish ledge and I made myself get one too before we left for the bank to ledge. Except that I did a Glen 50 which is a 5-0.

Then to the nearby bank to ledge Cass had Stefan to join us so we had a good crew of 4 of us. It took most of us a bit to get used to it. Maybe not Stefan or Cass so much. Cass was doing video part tricks quickly. Aka front nose shove. Stefan front 50s and tails quick. I would get some questionable slappy crooks, noseslides, first try noseslide to fakie and a front pivot/smith stall, super close to kickflip back 50. Jake would get close to crooks, front 50, front 3. Cass got some front 50s and front nose variations before he had to leave. Stefan did the most buttery nollie front crooks. At the end I became obsessed with a 3 trick line. Crooks, kickflip, kickflip fakie. As you can see the crooks where terrible, but it was a fun way to end a really fun day.

(setup 8/10 null 8.25 spanbauer night spots, jessup ultragrip, thunder 148 hollows venom 88a bushings, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic shape, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After picking up some new boards from 303 Cass and I went to Broomfield park where we would meet Rob and eventually Sean. Cass and I started with a no warm up game of SKATE. It wasn’t our best, but I did pink slip him so I liked it. Ha ha. Rob showed up near the end of our game of SKATE. I got a first try line of noseslide to fakie, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide the blue ledge. Cass and I made ourselves do 10 halfcab noseslides. It started as a goal of doing 10 in a row, but we quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen. Rob probably could have though since he was 3/3. Sean showed up and rattled off some of his basics which would be enders for the rest of us. Will came much later when we had all started to sit down. I saw him do some nice ledge tricks. So yeah, not much of a session and I don’t really know why. It was so nice out. Oh well.

(setup rating 3/10: null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings no big washer, 51mm pj bones v1 103a stf, new balance numeric 306 foy blue size 12 nike sb dunk insole)
(pain level 4/10)

Went over behind the school feeling like doing a few flippers. I had put 5.6 v-hollow on and wore my Tiago shoes. Those shoes are so sturdy it’s crazy, but not great feel. Anyway I only did a few kickflips, fakie flip, halfcab flip and backside flip. Posed a few others, but not really.

(setup 4/10: null 8.25 esher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-hollow royal bushings no big washer, 51mm pj bones v1 103a stf, new balance numeric 1010 white size 11.5 with half 272 insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a windy day before the holiday I got out of work early and headed over to Valmont. Dog park was still pretty wet and Jack B was skating it but we quickly moved over to Valmont. Will would join shortly. The wind was intense at first, but the clouds came in and the wind went away. Before he left he had some patented steezy barrier carves, drop down manuals off the bank, maybe a crail on the bank or two. Jack B worked on bigspins on the bank, one foot out of the shark fin. Will had such a good back 180 over the euro. We tried noseslide transfers for a while, both making it look doable without feeling close at all. I had some pop issues up the euro, took a long time to get a halfcab flip on the bank, had a fun line up top in the bowl area. Will had a cool wallie. Evergreen “Billy” showed up again and ran into a kid on an electric motorbike before getting stoked on my hoodie and buying a dvd. That was cool. Decent little session.

(setup 3/10 null beatles 8.1, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast plate v-hollow hanger 4 washers inside each axle bones medium bushings, 51mm pj bones v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a really nice afternoon I was able to coordinate a session with Dave. We started at Valmont and basically skated there until dark. It was a bizarre session. I think Dave and I both skated well, but there was an Evergreen Billy twin hogging the park and charging right at people, drunk dude trying head stand tricks and fingerflips, super hype dude that would yell so loud anytime anyone got remotely close to landing a trick, little snake kid and some dude doing wallie grinds on the barrier so good. Dave started on the hip, some really good nollies, back 180s and switch back 180s. I was kind of all over the place. Did a line of slow crooks on the edge of the euro bank then kickflip on the shark fin. Also a barrier ride linked with a lucky backside flip with toe drag over the hip. I had also done first try kickflip and kickflip fakie on the mellow bank. Dave got the barrier axle stall. It was funny because he had to do 3 pivots in a row on the west side steep qps before he would try it. I randomly decided to film it and he did it that try. I was failing treflips to fakie on the mellow bank although getting both feet on a lot of them. I was trying noseslides then kickflips and changed to crooks while Dave randomly filmed me. It’s funny that we didn’t even know we were being filmed yet. But after that I intentionally filmed Dave do the nose stall Hale transfer which was so sick. Then over to dog park for a bit. Tried some ride on nosegrinds on the metal cover, Dave almost did it switch. I did some slappys and a few other things, but we bounced pretty quick. Fun session.

(setup null beatles 8.1, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast plate v-hollow hanger 4 washers inside each axle royal bushings, 51mm pj bones v1 103a, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(setup satisfaction level 5/10 ha ha felt like starting this. i liked how easily it flipped, but i felt dumb tic tacing around)
(pain level 2/10)