On a warm afternoon I drove out to see if the little manny pad at Platt was dry. It was! And I had somehow forgotten there were two of them surrounded by perfect flatground. Never went to the 3 stair at all which I kind of regret. I had the place to myself for about 20 minutes. Warming up was slow as I was pretty sore. It took me like 20 tries to get a regular manual, but halfcab flips were working. I had a dream of a “warm up” line of halfcab flip, manual, nose manual, backside flip. Came remotely close, but never got it and it certainly wouldn’t just be a warm up for me. I had gotten remotely close to a nollie back tail front 270 out on the curb. I mean I did it, but not smooth with some tic tacs. It felt cool though. Had a couple heelflips, a sketchy wallie/nollie off the curb, a few tic tac’d fakie bigflips and somewhat close to front tail shove. I feel like my style was even worse than normal for some reason. Will and Rob had no problems manualling the little pads. For me the crack rights messed it up. Rob was shredding. Lots of good wallie/nollies, manuals, a line with manual, nollie tail body varial and no comply front shove “over the hip!” ha ha. Will had some poppy fakie ollies/nolllies/switch ollies, manual drop down manual, almost halfcab manual back 180, kickflips.

(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)
(pain level 4/10)

On a sunny Saturday I let things dry up some then went in search of rad. It took a while, but I ended up at a newly redone parking lot off Valmont. I had brought two setups. The 8.25 with ace lows and my 8.1 with venture lows. The aces felt much better to just cruise on, but my first try magical feeling kickflip on the venture setup sold me. I would go on to skate really hard and land a few things. I skated about an hour before trying to film anything and it was fun. I would try some lines with little ollies over parking blocks and stuff that were harder than they should be. And this one little gap over a curb down a little grass gap felt absolutely huge, but it was less than a 3 stair and I couldn’t get myself to commit at all. I came the closest I’ve come to the Reynolds line I’ve been trying for a while. Backside flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I got to the halfcab flip 3 or 4 times and couldn’t get it even though I had several outside of the line. Got one bad treflip, heelflip, almost first try nollie varial flip. After a while I saw the sun would be setting soon and wanted to get the nollie varial flip on tape so I could give it to Dave. Nope. I tried for like 30 minutes along with halfcab heels and couldn’t get either. I gave up and went over and tried back heels on the ‘almost a bank’ bank and got denied there too. Kind of a bummer ending to a session where I was really skating hard.

(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)
(pain level 3/10)

Cold and snowy night. My garage is full of stuff, but I was able to clear enough space to stationary skate on some cardboard. I basically tried the 4 straight flippers over and over. I only landed kickflip and eventually one heelflip, but I was surprisingly close to switch/nollie heel. I was wearing my Tiago’s because why not at least try to wear through them when I’m just stationary in the garage. They are so comfy.

(setup null 8.25 mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 44 lows hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 1010 tiago white 11.5 half 272 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a cool night I had some juice. I drove around for a bit and ended up at a new parking garage in north Boulder that was super well lit. I did a few basic tricks before realizing I just couldn’t do flatground only in a parking garage. On I went and I ended up at a newish building with a few tall ledges and a normal sized one that had snow around it. I had a setup change once again – 8.25 ace lows and I really liked it. This new spot had some decent flatground, some okay manny pads and then a few smooth and tall ledges in weird locations. Initially I tried to quick up to crooks, but wasn’t ready for that. Then I lined out a flip trick, noseslide to fakie, flip trick. But noseslide to fakie got hard. Had a few varial flips, couldn’t put down a heelflip or crooks. I was trying lots of flippers, hucking away, not landing much. After a while of trying to line out the taller benches I saw the shorter one with the snow. It’s hard to see but the gap in was a little scary (to me) because of the snow and it took a while for me to commit. In between tries I got backside flips, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip and close to a lot more. The noseslide was hard, I was hyped that i did it. Hyped on the session in general, I skated really hard and felt good.

(setup null 8.25 mc hesher, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 44 lows hard bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 2/10 really some of the best i’ve felt in a while)

After driving from Grand Junction I chilled for a bit then rushed off to dog park on a nice cool afternoon. Valmont was empty so I started there. I had changed my setup to 8.3 with ace 44 lows. I liked it more than the previous setup, but wasn’t exactly in love with it. I had some fun on the top section. Did a little roll out on a weird little rounded qp, rock ‘n roll the tight qp, back 50 the main qp, curve around then front disaster it. Did a few variations of that which were all fun. Had some good feeling ollies over the euro, kickflip to fakie did not come easy on the bank.

Then I went to the dog park which was mostly empty too. I skated alright, cruised around faster than normal, didn’t land much flippers. Had a fun line of front 50 180 out, halfcab noseslide the bench, back 50 the curb. After a while I went in on fakie 50 creepy spin out. I kind of landed a couple, but not good enough to hand off to Dave. Fun session. I skated the ledges okay, transition pretty well, flatground not good at all.

(null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, ace 44 af1 lows hard bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After a long day of driving and seeing some amazing sights I went out for a quick cruise at the skate friendly Colorado Mesa University. I felt very disoriented and hated my setup beyond believe. The good lower angle iron ledges near the student center were dark so I moved on and found a perfect rail off a drop. I couldn’t make myself commit. I ended up at the spot in the video. It was pretty sick, but I was skating like dookie. The slam hurt way more than it should have. After some more cruising I did a 1 mph kickflip then did the lamest ollie off a 3 stair ever. I need to street skate more.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

While visiting my aunt I had some time in the morning so I went to check out the skatepark. There was a crazy rain storm a couple days prior so the middle of the park was mostly full of sand/mud/water. Which was fine because it was lumpy quarterpipes and steep banks mostly anyway. The outside of the park was smooth and had several ledges. My body was thrown off from all the driving and sitting around, but I made myself jump. Had some okay warm ups doing some slow basics. Could barely ollie onto the lowest ledge shown in the clip and barely got some super slow front 50s. Had one great feeling heelflip, halfcab flip. After a while I went in on fakie 50 shove out and I went nuts trying. I was so angry, hating my setup beyond believe. Never got a clean one. Then I needed to go. I really wanted to keep skating. It was a cool park, the ledges are amazing. There was a fun little flyout zone too that I had some fun kickflips out of.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Golden park early on my to meet my mom on a road trip through Utah. It was quite cold and windy and mostly miserable. I didn’t like my setup and I had new shoes. My warm up line was noseslide the main ledge, turn around on the wallie thing, kickflip fakie on the mellow bank. Also did crooks the ledge and tried to line out to kickflip the hip and couldn’t commit to the kickflip. Flip tricks went decent on flat which was the one saving grace. I couldn’t front 50 one of the benches in the small section. I did ollie on to one and manual the pad, couldn’t nose manual though. I ended with a fun line of halfcab noseslide one bench, crooks the next, bad front 50 the pad.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 brown size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cool night in the upper 30s I lacked motivation to drive anywhere so I went to the school. I went to the back which has some okay lights. Warm ups weren’t terrible, did a switch shove and a few kickflips. An hour later I had only landed 6 flip tricks. Kickflip, fakie flip, backside flip, heelflip, varial flip, halfcab flip. I came remotely close to treflip, switch flip. Hucked quite a few others. It’s really hard to skate back there, the ground is rough, it’s not lit well, big cracks between each section, but it felt good to skate.

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After meeting Nate’s son and pawning him off on Liz to babysit we went to dog park on a cool evening. We were later than anticipated and Rob had already been skating a while. I tried to get warmed up while they chatted. I did not feel too good on my skateboard nor would I at any point. I did get a front smith on the lower ledge though which stoked me out, it even grinded. Also did several “nollie” front 50 180s which is a rare one. Flip tricks were really hard and felt impossible. Rob still killed it for a while cruising and styling his staples. Nate back 50’d the narrow metal bench real quick then slammed on a little boardslide. That’s the Nate I know and love ha ha. He went on to skate really well even though he was on my 8.1/Thunder setup. Nosegrinds, smiths, 5-0s, manuals, nose manual 180s and nollie flips! It was a fun session. Near the end no one else was really skating so we filmed a few clips to document the bro fest. Great skating with you Nate!

(setup null mc hesher 8.25, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 v-cast with bones medium bushings, 51mm bones pj 103a v1, new balance numeric 440 blue size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)