Woke up early on a Friday and I like skating early on Fridays so I’m less sore on Saturday.  I had another setup change and I liked it.  But man the first couple pushes I thought my knee may give out.  Ugh.  I would go on to skate pretty well for a bit and felt agile.  Had some fun warm ups and little pops over the hips.  Had a couple warm up lines going.  West I did noseslide to fakie then fakie big the hump.  Then crooks followed by kickflip over the front hump which I did not do well.  East I tried a line of front disaster, kickflip the back hump, front 50 shove.  Never got the kickflip.  I had put tablets on, I blame them and their dumb square non-flipping shape.  Pain started to kick in pretty fierce.  Argh.  I was trying front 50 back 180 the bank to ledge and front 50 shove the bench.  Was close, but got neither.  After a while I slammed on a noseslide on the bank to ledge and slammed way harder than I should and decided to call it.  Argh.  Skated terrible again.  I did mostly like my setup though.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 52mm spitfire f4 99a tablets, 288s grey 11.5 no insoles)
(pain 6/10)

I hyped up the tennis courts to Rob as a chill alternative to the dog park.  And luckily when we arrived there was no one else, but it would soon get quite crowded.  Argh.  Guess it has been empty for me since it’s been winter.  Cass showed pretty quickly too.  I was wearing different shoes and had a major setup change so nothing felt good to me.  I would have some okay crooks, switch front noseslides, a slow fakie front 50, slappy crooks and a couple slow kickflips.  Rob had manuals, nose manuals, almost no comply shove manual, halfcab nose and halfcab boards.  Cass manualled the ledge, back 50, can’t slappy crook, switch board the parking block, a good heelflip.  We started a game of SKATE.  Somehow within a couple minutes Cass was out and neither Rob or I had any letters.  Donnie showed and we got to chatting/skating so the game never continued.  Donnie did a few basics, but mostly skated fast and didn’t launch over the fence or anything ha.  I didn’t skate very well and was kinda bumming that the warmer weather means other people will be skating there.  Oh well, luckily there are like 4 parks now.

(setup null smoke valley 8.5, jessup pj ultragrip, royal inverted 144, spitfire f4 99a classic 52, 272 black 12 half insole)
(pain 5/10)

Arrived to a mostly empty Square House as I was pretty early.  Took a couple runs on the ramp, then Dave showed and went to the park section so I did too.  After a while Bryan from Sk8 Ratz joined and we mostly skated the park side just the three of us for a couple of hours.  Warming up was difficult!  I’ve been in a lot of pain lately and I don’t know why.  It’s been a few days so I don’t remember the sequence of things very well.  The first thing I remember was a nollie bigspin on the bank, maybe a few slappies.  It was nice being able to start slow in the middle of the park.  Dave and I had started to get things going when Bryan showed.  Had some fun noseslides and eventually crooks on the bump to ledge and took too many tries to get kickflip to fakie on the bank.  Dave would get some solid 50s and almost back 180 out.  Bryan had front 50 shove and front tail, close to fakie big tail.  We spent a lot of time on the euro.  I took wayyyy to long to get a couple kickflips then could not get the hip b/s flip after.  Bryan got a Glennish looking treflip (IE 270 flip and not clean) and kickflip.  Dave would line out pop shove further and further until he got it.  He was the only one grinding the diamond cut coping, some fun frontside grinds across/down the new feature.  I was trying to back 50 across down and totally hung up with the kingpin which immediately ended all hope of me sticking with my setup on venture lows.  We eventually went over to the ramp.  Eric, Brian, Tom, Billy were there.  Seemed like those guys were having fun.  I don’t remember a whole lot other than me bailing axle stalls and the knee pain being too much to keep skating.  Dave was funny and did a bunch of front 50s right after Eric made fun of them.  I get the diss, even if I think that trick is fun.  It was a fun night, I need to figure out why I’m hurting so bad these days.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S grey 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Having successfully taken a break from the dog park I went on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was lazy after a late night after the NCAR fire kept us evacuated until late the night before. The concrete was clean, way fewer rocks/dirt than normal which was nice. I didn’t have a lot of drive, but would get through basics at a good rate. Front 50s on the flat side of the C ledge came easy, front 180 out, front shove out. Crooks on the benches, couldn’t get noseslide 270 shove. Flippers weren’t great, but got a 270 flip to cheer me up. Had some back 50s and manuals, but no nose manuals. The scene was weird, a mixture of total beginners and annoying jocky type skaters with ear buds in. The beginners would stand like 5 feet from the manny pad with no understanding to move out of the way.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S grey 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10 right knee is not good)

Out kind of early on a Saturday morning I met up with Jake, Cass, Venture Dave, Rob, Kevin and then a bunch of Nullers after a couple hours. Riley, Garrett, Jack, Hayden, Bo, Joe, Sean and Monico!!!! So as you can see with a crew this size and a few days since the session it’s going to be impossible for me to remember everything. Of the original 5 only Kevin wore a non-white shirt. So we didn’t include him in our warm up game of SKATE (well mostly because we didn’t want to lose super quick). It was a fun game, somehow I won it on a no comply backside shove. I was like 1-4 on halfcab flips which was annoying. Other then that it was rad seeing Dave in the mix. He’s got a mean impossible and does a lot of similar manuals around the top of the bank like Rob. It was also rad to see Rob in the mix, getting front boards, crooks, manuals and the classy style. Kevin was shredding even more than normal. Kick back tails, fakie 5-0 halfcab out, treflips, nollie tres, switch 5-0s, everything. Jake was doing nollie back tails on the black ledge and fakie f/s noseslides and a bunch more. I skated okay, not great. I consistently had the pop to get up on front 50s on the black ledge, but didn’t land a lot of them. Cass had a perfect first try hardflip, good front noseslides. After a while I sat down, drank my smoothie then resorted to filming for the next couple hours as the Nullers were in effect and it was so fun to watch. It ruled seeing all of them at one session and how different they are and all so good. It’s rare to see Monico so that was the highlight. He ollied the black box second try! We got word of a fire near Boulder and thought it would be okay, but Liz started calling and I got an evacuation notice so I had to bounce. It was sketch!

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

A little crisp in the morning, but really nice once we got going. Cass and I were there first and there was only a few people skating. We had a solid couple hours before it got crowded. Now that doesn’t mean we warmed up quickly. Ha ha. I was still sore from playing ball a couple days ago. I had new shoes and was struggling to find the flick with them. I basically spent the whole time trying two lines, which I would get. The “warm up” line that took way too long. B/s kickflip on the little chip, crooks the little ledge, backside flip the hip. Then the next one which wasn’t supposed to be the only other line I got, but soreness got to me. Kickflip to fakie the little chip, switch front nose the ledge, fakie bigflip the hip. I had done some boardslides on the little rail and failed to 50 the bump to ledge, also failed to ollie the hydrant mostly because I can’t push that hard with my achilles yet and I kind of hurt it. Argh. Cass had some good front boards on the flat bar and then fakie front boards. He had some poppy ollies over the a-frame and kickflips over the hip. He came close to bigflip over the hip. Sean came and did some ollies and 50s. But oh man they were sick! The long front 50 was sketchier than he made it look, the uphill 50 gap to the bank was NUTS. We then got some tacos and checked out a nearby school, that had nothing more than a weird bank to curb that I did a pivot on.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 5/10 still sore from basketball/bad diet)

Cass and I arranged a Boulder session as the weather was great. But by the time we arrived the wind was raging pretty hard. We still had a good session though. Kind of early on we hit the little qp and it was fun we rattled off some tricks. I had done front d then kickflip to fakie. Cass was doing good back smiths so I filmed it then did the front d to sugarcane then luckily got the kickflip. Cass had some good tailslides. I didn’t have much else but a lot of noseslides and I tried a bunch of noseslides to fakie then “cab” flips over the mound. I say “cab” because its’ really only like 270. I got pretty close a few times. Cass was getting some good crooks on the bench. And we had a Rob sighting! He came in for a bit and cruised around before a big gust sent him on his way.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a snowy day I ditched the fam and dropped of boards at Ramps and Alleys in Salida then proceeded to skate the ramp for about 20 minutes. It was really fun, a lot like Rampy. The aluminum coping doesn’t grind too well, but that’s okay it’s fun for stalls. I took the opportunity to do a few tricks I haven’t done in a long time. Fakie front axle, fakie hurricane (although I fell out to rock) and fakie pivot fakie. I couldn’t get a front tail or a fakie tail revert. It was fun though and they let me play music on the boom box.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Had some time away from the family in the morning so I took advantage on a nice and warm morning. I had the park mostly to myself except for a few minutes between a couple of beginner skaters and scooter kids. I started really slow feeling coffee jitters and disdain for the park. I had wanted to do a bunch of flippers on the bank, but b/s flip took too long. I would get a line to kickflip fakie of front tail off the tiny qp to weird ledge, rock ‘n roll the qp, kickflip fakie on the bank. Then I wussed out on rock fakies for a while and rather than getting mad I just started skating how I want to skate. I did flip tricks around the park and lined out the wood ledges which are better than most of the concrete mounds in the park. I started with b/s flip then halfcab flip, go around and front 50 the ledge. Also tried crooks the other way then drop in and try treflip to fakie. Which then turned into the most ridiculously long line which I did actually come close to. Two flippers, front 50, kickflip flyout front rock, axle stall the qp, treflip fakie the bank. Never got it, but I was close. A couple of the two flippers I got were halfcab heel then heelflip, halfcab flip then treflip, b/s flip then fakie bigflip, I was having so much fun with it. I was 3/4 on heelflips which hasn’t happened in what feels like forever. I got the treflip 2nd try, but was so close on all of them. I was so close to going 3/3 on flat. I didn’t get much on the ledge, aluminum coping isn’t the best, but it was more fun than the weird transition and huge coping. I kept thinking my brother and his kids would show up so I skated hard thinking my session could be over any moment. They never did and I ended up just leaving on my own. Flip tricks make me happy.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After a stressful day of work I busted out for a quick one at the tennis court before my brother would arrive. It was cool out. There were a few other skaters there for the first time. They were pretty chill and nice. I’m dealing with an arthritis flare up, but was able to skate pretty well for me. I mean I didn’t really land a ton or anything, but I skated more how I want to skate with lots of flippers in lines. I almost got a line of f/s flip, switch noseslide, fakie bigflip. Been struggling with fakie bigflips lately. Had fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, almost heelflip. Halfcab flip, crooks, b/s flip. None of these were great, but I was really trying and it felt cool. Had some slappy crooks, a little switch front board on the curb, multiple front 50s which is the first time getting up on the ledge that easily. Even got a front shove out of one. But they were all pretty slow. Ended trying switch front nose shoves and then a manual on the little pad. I got really sore at the end, but I had to go anyway. I had hucked a lot of other flippers, some of which were close.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape with 2 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 6/10 arthritis)