Went to Valmont park after a rainy day. Initially the scene was cool. Just this girl carving around Z Boys style and me. I wanted to do the no comply big for my game of SKATE with Dave. And since I barely got the minimum fakie front crook I figured I shouldn’t go to hard. I did a few of the no comply shoves and they were all super fun. Kickflips were not fun, grinding transition was not that fun either. I did get close to my line of 50s down the pond, noseslide the bump to ledge then kickflip to fakie on the low part of a hump. But I couldn’t get the kickflip. It got me really frustrated. I also really struggled to ollie up the euro. The scene got less fun when cute carver girl left and was replaced by a non social dude and a rollerskating girl followed by a bunch of youth. I tried to end of halfcab flip on the bank, but instead just bashed my toe. I had worn vulcs to try and mix it up and while they felt fine for park skating I didn’t really like them.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast plate ti hanger royal bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 272 maroon size 11.5 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Had a short amount of time and it was raining and my garage is a mess so I drove across town to an abandoned garage to skate for 45 minutes. I had put Ventures on. I like it. I thought. I mean I did like them more than Thunders, but flip tricks were still really hard. I went in on the fakie front crooks. The one above was actually the first one I did. I tried to grind further and I did scoot a couple along, but none were as “quick” as the one above. I can’t believe how hard that trick is. I took a long time to get fakie flip, Halfcab flip was quick. Couldn’t get treflip or fakie bigflip.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast plate ti hanger royal bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After work feeling better I went to skate the tennis court, but there was a football practice next to it and all the ledges were piled in a corner. So I drove near campus and went to the little 4 stair gap with the flagstone bench after it. But the flatground had pebbles everywhere and there were still kids around so I went down the sidewalk and ended up at uni hill school where I would camp out for a couple hours. That spot is pretty epic I’m not sure why it’s not waxed in spots. I messed around with a couple of things before settling in on a line. Flip trick, shove off the curved bench, ollie the lowest part of the ledge. I thought that would be a good warm up line. Two hours later I was scraping myself up off the floor amazed at how bad I am at skateboarding. Granted the flip trick at the top of the hill was awkward, but still I was like 5/50 on varial flips and when I did land them I was too scared to commit to the pop shove. Then it was fakie bigflip which I was like 4/50 on and only committed to one shove. Halfcab flips were super hard and I only got one. I was starting to get so incredibly tired and resorted to kickflips to start, but I had the board backwards to setup for shoves and it was so hard. I landed one pop shove finally with my hands down then finally tried the tiny little ollie and slammed so incredibly hard. Like fully shot out and landed on the upper part of my back. I was happy to skate hard and to street skate, but man, that was brutal.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Spring Canyon to meet up with Noè, Garrett, Joe and Sean. Noè was already rattling off flippers when we showed. We started skating and I still didn’t feel good. I had taken Saturday off because I felt really run down. I didn’t do much other then some nose manuals on the lowest pad and a crooks or two on the bench. Those dudes all ripped it. But it didn’t translate to ripping in the streets as we went 0-4 batteries full of filming. Ugh. Some days kinda suck.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a bad night of sleep I was woken up by Liz’s alarm as she slept through it. So I got up and since I had some free time before work I went to skate. I started at valmont and wasn’t really feeling it so much and thinking that “uh oh I’m not going to like this setup”. But I went over to dog park and liked it a lot there. I had some decent warm up lines and then would chill a bit in between and catch my breath. I really started liking my setup doing a simple front 180 over a parking block, it felt so right. Fakie flip and halfcab flip after didn’t come easy though and I bashed my knee real good with my board once. Argh. But some things came so much easier than normal like front 50 180 on the taller pad, manual the low pad, halfcab noseslides. Crooks didn’t feel good though. I had a fun front 50 back 180 out (it was a flop out, but it was first try and made me smile). Fun run of accidental front 5-0, crooks, back 50, b/s flip. Near the end I was trying nose manual then front 50 the bench, but I kept not quite getting the nose manual. I was super close to some treflips, but ran out of juice and needed to get to work.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 149 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Drove through rush hour traffic and pulled in to Rocky Mountain as soon as it started raining. Argh! But it was cool to catch up with Rob. He was on his board for the first time in a while. The rain finally let up shortly before dark and we tried to squeeze in a session. I had all new everything. Well, the trucks aren’t actually new, but I have barely used them. Somehow I’ve never done Thunder hollows on 8.5 before. It felt pretty great. I’m just determined to finally make 8.5 work as it feels so natural to ride.

Rob rolled around on his cruiser at first before getting out his regular board and getting a bunch of axle stall combos. I was all over the place never really sticking with anything. Couldn’t quite get nollie back tail on the ledge, had a fun first try crooks, some back 50s on the curb, slappy front crooks, kickflips felt okay, couldn’t get Dave’s trick, was definitely struggling getting used to the setup change. Dave did his fakie front crooks a few times, boardslides to fakie, nollie to fakie on the bank, halfcab boardslide the curb, ride on front tail shove. It was a fun session even if it was cut short by rain.

(setup 8.5 null vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, thunder hollow lite 151 venom 88a bushings, 52mm snot pink/yellow swirl 101a, new balance numeric 440 white/red size 12 half insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

Left my house and it was dry after work. Halfway to Dog Park and everything was wet. Argh. Got there and dog park was totally wet while Valmont was mostly drained well with some puddles in low areas. I had followed Kevin’s recommendation with a slight setup change. 8.5 deck, Ace lows. I liked it, but it was still pretty hefty. I did skate the transition better than normal, but flippers were hard. Anyway, I warmed up slowly and there were a bunch of annoying kids on bikes doing the famous dumb evergreen loop. I was getting pretty frustrated with the kids when all of a sudden they all left and this dude Fergs showed up and we went on to have a great session. I had a really fun and tic tacy long grind on the pond side going almost the length of it. Also got the euro, volcano manual, and finally back 50’d the high to low. Fergs did backside flip over the hip, then varial flip, then heelflip. He was shredding. I got close to 360 flip fakie on the bank and even closer to b/s flip over the hip when the darkness became too much. I left with a good feeling.

(setup null 8.5 plant life deck, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 low 55 hard bushings, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, 440 white/red size 12 half insole)
(pain level 4/10)

On a cool morning that warmed up very quickly I met up with Cass, Sean and Kevin at Broomfield park. I had nothing, tried very little and hated my setup. Got smoked in a game of SKATE with Cass. Sean and Kevin were ripping.

We checked out a couple spots, got a boot, filmed a bit then and impromptu session ensued on a little mini street hip which are basically my favorite things ever. I had done a backside flip pretty quickly so then setup the camera after and couldn’t do it again as well, but I still had a blast. Collin, JJ, Cass, Donnie, Garrett, we all skated it and had fun. I love sessions like this and would like to go back and huck some harder tricks.

Then we ended up at the downhill dragon ledge spot. I took a couple tries to roll into it, but that was fun and I thought a switch noseslide 270 shove would be easy. Nope. Never got into it and got so bummed. Collin ollied the bar and almost kickflipped it. Joe, Donnie, Garrett also skated the ledge. Donnie was skating it switch which was pretty amazing. I mean ha, I was too, but he was actually ollieing into switch 50s. Garrett came up short trying his trick which was a bummer. Then we were all so hungry and decided to get some food and good times were had.

(setup null 8.3 vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, 440 white/red size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After a cold Martin Acres pancake breakfast I went to the hill and watched the 303 King of the Hill contest for a while. The rain kept messing with it so Sean, Collin and I went to the library spot. We were not alone in this decision as it was very crowded. I had put Ace highs on. Felt okay. I didn’t skate well at all, but did manage some slow flippers in between people that made me happy including a treflip that was barely a make. Sean and Collin were shredding.

We went filming and met up with others. Got the boot from a church. Ended up at Casey where Sean and Collin easily ollied up the ledge and Garrett put down a rad tailslide bigspin. Collin and I messed with a cool wallie nollie in the back. He actually did it, but didn’t take the drop.

Next we went to the ride on grind that was nearby where I made a fool of myself. Garrett, Sean, Collin so easily did the ride on grind. I was trying to line out a kickflip up the curb then grind it, but was really struggling with the kickflip. I was kind of in the zone for a while, but then a couple cars of teenagers showed up. They were fine and all, but watching them progress right in front of me bummed me out. I got close again as it was getting dark, but ultimately didn’t really care so gave up. Garrett had gotten his banger anyway. Thanks for filming Jack!

(setup null 8.3 vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, ace af1 55, 52mm bones stf v1 103a, 440 white/red size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10)

The endless quest to like a bigger setup is ongoing. I tried the old 8.3 with venture 5.8 and wow the first ollie was so hard and I immediately disliked the venture high heft. But I stuck with it thinking I’d be able to deal with it. Jake and I started right in on a game of SKATE. It was not my finest game and flip tricks did not come easy. I took several tries to get a halfcab flip, never got a backside flip or heelflip, never got a treflip although did get my feet on a couple. Jake was close too. He ultimately won on a frontside flip that I couldn’t quite defensively pull off. Then we skated for a while. I continued to dislike the hefty setup and could not get good posted up crooks. Jake got a bluntslide on the curb, nollie back tail the metal bench. I had a funny nose jib on the picnic table. After a while I asked this guy if he could move his selfie tripod and it started a conversation that was rad, but went long enough my legs got sore. Then 3 older scooter dudes showed up and I was like hell no and left.

(setup null 8.3 vhs deck, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium hanger cast baseplate royal bushings flat top washer no big washer , 52mm bones stf v1 103a, 440 white/red size 12 half insole)
(pain level 3/10 so stoked)