On the way into work I stopped by Boulder park for a short one. Changed my setup again, same stuff, except Thunders. Infinitely better. Didn’t really get too caught up in much, first try front 50 on the bench made me happiest. Or a first try kickflip to fakie on the mound up top. Took a bit to get the bump to front 50. At one point a young teenager showed up and got his camera out and told me him and his friends were going to film a skit. It was pretty funny, they filmed him cruise around the park warming up and drinking coffee then into him fingerboarding when he got warmed up. Wish I would have gotten their channel because I bet it’s a funny clip.

(setup 6/10 null time warp 8.25, jessup ultra, thunder team hollow 148 t-ii bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classic, strike mvmnt transit street trainer black/gum size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 sore from skating almost 3 hours the night before)

Was thinking of slacking, but Will wanted to hit Broomfield so we did it. I got there first. I had yet another setup change. 8.25 with indy titaniums. Initial feelings were that I would like it. At the park was leather jacket guy from paco the other day going 100mph trying to boardslide up the diy rail to 50 the parking block. He repeatedly slammed super hard and the parking block messed with the blurb approach. Oh well. I had some okay kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip I think all first try. But shortly after Will showed I went 0-20 on f/s halfcab heel. He on the other hand did a bunch of switch flip, maybe even 5 in a row at one point. I struggled on 50s on the black ledge, had one good feeling sw noseslide 270 shove. Will had the nosegrinds both way all good. Justin showed and was ripping so hard. Phoenix was there ripping nollie nose manuals or nosegrinds. I had some hurricanes on the bank to curb. Near the end Will did sw manual and sw nose manual on the blurb. Amazing. I tried a line of front 50, front slash the quartapotty, kickflip the parking block. Committed to the kf, but never got it. Then I spent like 30+ minutes trying a halfcab heel. I was not close for soooo long, but I did get a bad one eventually. I will say I waxed all my bushing, the pivot cup, everything and nothing would stop the Indys from squeeking incredibly loud. I really don’t like Indys, they just don’t work for me and feel so noodly.

(setup 2/10 8.25 indy titanium 144 52mm strike mvmnt size 12 currex runpro)
(pain level 5/10)

On another unseasonably warm November day I drove to Denver and met Cass at Paco Sanchez park. I had randomly thought about it recently and how good the ledges are. But I didn’t remember how bad I am at ledges now. I was super sore too. With all that going against me I did get an ultra slow/bad line of front 50 shove then halfcab noseslide and some crooks. Cass had some good 50s, noseslides, front shoves, kickflips. Will some really good back 5-0s, manual up the wedge, front 5-0. Cass and I played a game of SKATE, he said it was a good game, it wasn’t. I got letters on fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, front shove and something else.

Then we went to Barnum as it was only 4 minutes away. It was mostly dead because of a Broncos game. I was so sore at this point, hardly did anything. The 5-0 around the corner was so fun as were the long (for me) back 50s. Will’s ollie over the ball was amazing. As was watching him take like 10 tries to roll in. Cass came out of nowhere with the noseslide shove down the hubba. He had some good grinds on the bank to curb too. It was nice getting out in the sun and doing something different.

(setup 1/10 8.3 thunder hollow 53mm bones strike mvmnt size 12 currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10)

I’ve had a lot of busy weekends lately, so it was nice to not have anything lined up for the day. Around 11 I set out without any real plans in mind. I drove to a school in north Boulder (Foothills) as I hadn’t been there in years. It still wasn’t great, but I saw some options for Dave and I ollied a two stair to get the juices flowing. Then I went to Crestview and discovered the freshly painted curb that was so good. I could do real frontside slappies and it was fun. I did a warm up line of slappy, ollie up a curb, axle stall a dry curb, front 180 down a two stair. Then I went to the metal bench area and was humbled by how hard they were. I couldn’t get a line of front 180 up then sw noseslide 270 shove. I don’t know why the shove would not work. The kickflips up took me a bit, but I would get quite a few eventually. Not sure why I couldn’t front board after, but the little scrape was all I had. I then ended up at the basketball court. I went right past the skatepark. One dude was skating it and popping some ollies over a hip. Another was practicing ollies in the grass in full pads. I proceeded to not feel good on my board at all. Managed some noseslides and little crooks, one front axle stall that took a long time and I barely got up there. Couldn’t do any flip tricks to save my life. Had a setup change of 8.25 and slappy lows, it was okay. I just don’t land anything anymore. With that said, I still had fun getting out and skating different spots.

(setup 3/10 8.25 slappy low profile 52mm splay rev b/w size 12 272 and currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 initially the splays felt great, but by the end I was soooooo sore)

Tried to dawn patrol it since this time of year is so hard to skate in daylight. Got to Boulder park around 7 and proceeded to totally suck it up. I could not wake up to save my life. My setup change felt beyond terrible. 8.3, thunder team hollow, 53mms. I tried for about 30 minutes, but at no point was I happy with anything so I left.

Got out of work with a little daylight left and went to dog park. Had a kinda random session in which I came close to hard stuff, but really I didn’t land much. Had 8.25 with slappy lights. It was way better than my last two setups, but I still didn’t like it. I will say that I really did like the 8.25 at least. I had success with crooks and halfcab flips. Was kind of all over and then went in on a random line for a bit. Front slash the barrier, front board to fakie the little concrete bars, halfcab flip. I got one really bad front board to fakie, but there was a crew of dudes learning kickflips and I kept getting in their way. Tried a lot of noseslide 270 shoves that were not close. Hucked kickflip 50s which I didn’t commit to. Then it got dark.

(setup 1 8.3 thunder team 53mm 0/10
setup 2 8.25 slappy lights 52mm 4/10)
(pain level 5/10)

Went to dog park on the way into work, had 22 minutes. Didn’t get much. Board felt poppy, but terrible. Got a couple terrible front 50s on the bench at least, but no other redeeming tricks. Tried to ollie some things, but would clip when I committed.

After work I stopped by Valmont since Dave was there. I just did some carves, maybe some 180s. Dave was so close to a fakie bigspin manual on the volcano. Better go back and get it Dave!

(setup 2/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, venture 5.6 v-cast, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, strike mvmnt transit street trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Managed about an hour of skate time across the street at the school since they were off for Veterans Day. I had 8.25 with Ventures. It felt great at first, then would continue on a downward path. In about an hour I landed 6 flippers. Just the standard ones. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, fakie bigflip and f/s halfcab flip. Tricks I was close to were f/s flip, halfcab heel and treflip. Hucked quite a few more, was not close.

(setup 5/10 8.25 null time warp, jessup ultra, venture 5.6 v-cast, 51mm spitfire f4 99a classic, strike mvmnt transit street trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to dog park around 11 after it kind of warmed up. Met Gordon and Bratcher, although Jack left pretty quickly. We did our thing for a bit then Gordon and I both went in on tricks/lines. He was trying back 5-0 front 180 out on the green box. I was trying a line of halfcab flip, boardslide, kickflip on the taller wood qp. Except I completely could not halfcab flip. Like to the point Gordon suggested maybe I should skate an 8″ board again. Sheesh. He would get close. I would get like 3 halfcab flips out of a million and never get the kickflip at the end. I changed the line to start with crooks, still didn’t get the kf. Gordon never got the 5-0 180. He changed his line to nosegrind, bluntslide, nollie back 180 on the qp which he did get. Like an hour later (not really) I got a bad kf very low on the qp. Somewhat happy I got it at least. Brian, Kyle, Sean, Mike showed. I was toast at that point though.

So we took the party to the ol’ bikepath snowboard jump. Joe was 3/3 on boosted hardflips and Jack was filming him. It was insane. The crew got rather large. Brian, Ashton, Brandon, Skelly, Mike, Wade, Jack, Dan, Garrett, Chris, Preston, maybe more. No one landed tricks easily. But some highlights. Skelly one foots. Brian almost got back 3 no comply. Ashton front heel. Brandon mega bolts treflip. Mike no comply 180. Wade front 180. Jack was a sweetheart and filmed. Garrett mostly watched traffic as did Dan. Chris with the mega heelflip then back heel. I took a while to get a kickflip and then threw my board when I couldn’t to a b/s flip. But I threw it so hard I injured my shoulder. Luckily it doesn’t seem too serious, but man, insult to injury. Fun crew, fun to witness, wish I could have landed a trick I liked today. Then we ate at Dark Horse an it was fun.

(setup 1/10 null 3.8 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After several days off skating due to intense back pain I drove to Bluecar then Emage before finally ending up at Broomfield park. The crew was 98%, null, square state, so good. We all had a blast the night before at the 98% premiere. It’s really hard to remember what all everyone did. I know watching Jack skate was extra amazing. He was fully shredding, doing so many things first try. Bump to bar blunt to back lip, crooks transfer nose manual, front smiths on the brick qp, everything so good. Garrett too, sheesh, back tail the ledge into the bank then back 180 nosegrind the black ledge then kick back tail. Brian got trick of the day with the skier front rock. Maybe the blunt to fakie from low to high too. Ashton manual kickflip out the mountain pad. Cass and I kind of hid out of sight for a while. Played a game of SKATE in which I landed absolutely nothing. At no point did I do anything noteworthy, but with my back being so tight it was understandable. There were a lot more people, it was hard to keep track of and really fun.

(setup 3/10 8.5/14.25 null 20 year, thunder t2 149, 53mm bones stf, strike mvmnt street transits with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 6/10 but I was happy that skating seemed to loosen up my back)

So I finally got to the Madison skatepark. I was having back spasms the last day so I didn’t really think I’d skate, just cruise and look at it then leave. But we got there and it was nice out and I felt decent for a while. The park is pretty amazing. Pretty tight and compact, but other than that amazing. There were a few beginners and one ripper. I didn’t do anything great and I was really hesitant because of my back. There were some granite ledges that were fun to crook, I didn’t get any 50s. I did a line a couple times of noseslide a mini hubba then front 50 a ledge. But after a couple I could no longer 50. Had some other fun noseslides around, some ollies, bailed a lot of kickflips on banks. It was cool to check out though and I would definitely like to skate there again.

(setup 3/10 null 3.8 flaherty, jessup ultra pj, venture v8 5.8 with ace bushing and titanium hanger, 52mm spitfire f4 99a pink/green classics, strike mvmnt street transit trainer black/gum size 12 with currex runpro insoles)
(pain level 5/10)