My calf was feeling better and I wanted to get out and test it a little without anyone around. I went to Scott Carpenter before work which served two purposes. 1, no one would be there and 2, I was on very limited time. I stuck with my theme of changing my setup every day of the year so far. Really though, it’s just trying to find something that works okay with the wide Xero Kelsos. 8.5 with Thunder team hollows and 53mm wheels. It was too much, I couldn’t pop to save my life. Mostly my session consisted of really bad flailing without any confidence. I had one crooks on the bench that felt good, some fun 50s on the qp, little noseslide down the hubba.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, thunder 149 team hollow venom 88a bushings, 53mm bones pj 103a v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Decided to try and skate after all, but only the ramp. There were a lot of 20 somethings there on over-30 night. All are nice. Jack B was there and he eventually gave up skating the street area just not digging the vibe. I was wearing the Xero’s and they felt weird as I skated a “smaller” board this time 8.5. The extra width of the shoes makes all boards feel so small. I didn’t skate the ramp well at all although I did get a couple hurricanes in a row. Brian took such a gnarly slam to start on a front feeble fakie. But he would get up and go on to skate and entertain the way we love. Salty skated the ramp the whole time too. The fakie 270 feeble fakie was sick. Jack B came and skated it for a bit. Christian destroyed as he does. I’m writing this way too many days after the session to remember who did what. I do remember laughing that Christian tries back noseblunts as his exit trick often. It was a fun session, although I was pretty unhappy with how I skated and how bad my setup/shoes felt. I did enjoy being around skateboarding though.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal ultralight 149, bones pj 51mm stf v1, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 3/10 my calf doesn’t really hurt too bad but the gross swollen knot weirds me out)

Shortly after the Dr told me not to skate I picked up Kevin in Denver and we went to Broomfield park. For those not in the know, Kevin moved to WI. But yeah the doc wasn’t happy with my calf progress and said not to skate for a long time. Well, he said to avoid jumping which I mostly did. But going to Broomfield isn’t very good for that. Especially when only the street section is dry and even the quartapotty had a puddle in front of it. I rode my 8.75 setup because why not, it should prevent me from trying flip tricks and ollies. I did do a kickflip though which felt surprisingly good. Also a few basic non-pop nose stall related tricks on the ledges. Kevin took requests like a first try signature switch nosegrind 180. There were a few people there with multiple phones in the way pointing at tricks they were trying. It ended up getting pretty cold and windy so we left.

In Boulder we went to Valmont which was 10 degrees colder, but the sun had come out and there was no wind so it felt great. I kept with trying not to really jump. Had some fun doing ultra basic front 5-0 to fakie on the top of the bank and a couple fun runs on the little transition area in the top. Cass, Jack B, Paul also showed. Kevin did a switch backside flip, alley oop nollie b/s flip, some good long runs. Paul gets his back leg up on ollies and they look rad. Cass back big over the euro like it’s nothing. Jack B went over to the small section of dog park that was dry and worked on crooks. I did a couple slappies there eventually. Kevin had nollie nosegrind on the bench. Cass was almost doing back 180 nosegrinds on the curb.

(setup null 8.75 spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 hollow, bones 51mm pj v1 103a, xero kelso b/w size 12 nike sb dunk insoles)
(pain level 3/10 not much pain because I didn’t really do anything)

Jack B picked me up and we went to the “Silver Session” at Square State. There was an abundant amount of older 20 somethings claiming they were “basically old enough” ha ha. It was rad through, everyone was cool and it ended up being a really fun session. I had tried skate shoes again, 212s. It only took 3 tries to get a kickflip so it seemed like the right call (until the next day when I woke up in calf pain). After a brief warmup in the main park I went to the miniramp and was super hyped on how hard Travis was shredding. I haven’t seen him skate in like 10 years and it made me happy to see him out there shredding. Brian slammed pretty good on the first wall. Doh. It’s also always a treat to see him shredding the mini. Then back to the main park where a good group of dudes were working on tricks and routing for each other. There was Dennis, Pat, Damian, Alton, Jack B, Jesse, Tim and more. Jack had done a live stream so I swiped a few of the tricks from it. It’s hard to remember what everyone else did. I had a crooks I was happy with on the bump to ledge, wallie nollie, took way too long to kickflip up the euro and came remotely close to kickflip 50 on the bump to ledge. But it felt good to actually be skating. Jack boardslid the rail again, first try pop shove up the euro and much more. Jesse with the pop shove tail grab over the hip. Damian front 50’d the rail to prove his 20 something ness. Dennis is still one of the nicest dudes ever and super fun to skate with. Everyone else shredded too. After a while I went back to the ramp as I was getting really sore. It was fun and I would do a few tricks I was happy with. Wish the coping wasn’t so darn sticky though. It was a really fun night with a fun crew. The bummer is it appears that wearing even the most minimalist skate shoes resulted in my calf acting up again. Ugh. Skating in Xero’s isn’t fun, but that appears to be the only option I have to prevent constant injuries.

(setup null 8.3 vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, bones 51mm pj v1 stf 103a, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 12 with 272 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 got so sore quickly)

On a sunny but cool morning I gave India a ride to work then went to the skatepark. I was armed with the same crappy Xero’s, but a couple smaller boards. After some carving around I did some flatground ollies with both and basically nothing happened. It was so depressing. Like I totally attempted to ollie and the board did not leave the ground. It was almost kind of amazing in a way, like wow, it’s amazing how much the body can degrade after 3 weeks of not skating when you’re almost 50. I would stick with an 8.25 with venture lows and it was okay, but I still had ghost pop over the hip. Cass would show after a while. He hasn’t skated in a long time, but he’s only 30 something (okay almost 40) so he was good. Covid got him good. He would get kickflip over the hip, almost a sick line of back bigspin the hip, fakie fail then front big on the bank. I got some kickflips. As in plural this time. I got around 5 kickflips to fakie, but they took a long time to get the first one. Never got two in a row. Jack B showed while I was trying to backside flip and was about to lost my mind. Luckily I finally landed one. Cass called out a fun game of best dork trick on the bank. He would almost get a fakie casper, but kind of rolled his ankle. That wasn’t a dork trick anyway Cass! I did some bean plants which I haven’t done in a long time, but they sucked and would not make Rob proud.

(setup null 8.25 hesher, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low v-cast, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic, xero kelso bw size 12 NB insole from some 306s)
(pain level 5/10 not worth it)

On a cool winter Saturday I heard that Valmont was shoveled. I hadn’t got the okay to skate yet, but I was feeling good and went skating. I had told Dave I’d maybe skate 20 minutes. He knows better. Two hours later I finally decided to call it. Maybe because that’s how long it took me to land a kickflip. Ha ha. Honestly though, I tried to wear some Xero Kelso shoes that shouldn’t injure me. They didn’t, my legs felt better, but man they SUCKED for skateboarding. Dave hasn’t been able to skate much lately either due to a hurt back. I was happy to be able to push without pain. I did have some fun when I wasn’t trying a kickflip to fakie which literally took like 50 tries. I thought it was mostly the board being so big, but really it was the shoes with toe spacers. Dave had some rad switch tails over the hip, fakie flip on the bank, boardslide to fakie on the rainbow, nollie back 180s over the hip. Jesse had shown and did a few amazing pop shove tail grabs over the hip. Dave wanted to learn one. As you can see he kind of got it. Then he hurt his back on the invert. Doh.

(setup 8.5 null vhs, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 ultralights, 54mm bones stf 99a slims, xero kelso b/w size 12)
(pain level 3/10)

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.

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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.