Got to the tennis court shortly before the sun set. It was cold. I pushed around a bit and bailed a few slappy crooks. What the heck. I didn’t have much energy or drive and my legs felt very heavy. I skated for about an hour. Had a good feeling manual on the little pad, struggled to get a terrible little front 50 on the ledge, crooks, halfcab flips. Nothing really stands out, I don’t like the feel of 8.25 with 5.6s, but I’m going to try and stick with it.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate titanium hanger, venom 91a bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

After another Sunday getting stuck working way longer than needed I eventually made it out to a parking garage off Valmont to skate some flat. I avoided the library spot only because I was in a super foul mood after working and didn’t want to be around people. One of the better garages for flatground is now totally vacant and I made good use of it. Well, I skated in it for an hour and a half or so. I had brought my 8.5 and 8.25 setups and after a quick spin to compare realized how stupid 8.5 feels to me. I got to my warm up line of kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip pretty quickly. Then I went in on 2 trick lines. Fakie flip followed by halfcab flip. Halfcab flip took too long, but then started a line with it then did b/s flip. Did quite a few cruddy b/s flips and couldn’t get fakie bigflip after. Gave up on that one and then everything kinda turned into random hucks. I would get a first try fakie varial flip, eventually a fakie bigflip, couldn’t get a heelflip to save my life, f/s halfcab flip, super close to nollie varial flip and somewhat close to nollie front heel. I was kind of close to nollie treflips so I setup the phone to have one clip of the session and much to my delight I landed one in a few tries. I didn’t have much time left to skate so I called it on a good note. I was pretty bummed on how I change setups all the time making these tricks harder. And the fact that I spent another week basically on 8.5 when I should know by now that I always end up disliking 8.5. Argh. I can skate 8.25 better. I should stick with it and I really hope I do for quite some time.

(8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate titanium hanger, venom 91a bushings, spitfire 51mm 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S b/w size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 2/10!)

Feeling lazy after a long week of work I eventually made it to Square House to meet Jake, Garrett, Joe and Donnie. Jake and I were there first and started on the ramp. No surprise, but I had changed my setup. 8.3 with mini logo 8.3 trucks, 52mm classics. It felt great on the ramp. Jake and I both seemed to be skating pretty well at of the gates. He had front blunt, blunt to fakie, front d revert and a lot more. I had back 50s to fakie (the cheater way), inconsistent with front disasters and my first couple hurricanes in a long time. Garrett, Joe and Donnie warmed up with a game of SKATE that took a while and had some crazy tricks, makes and slams. I think Garrett ended up winning it. He had some nice kickflips to fakie, back blunts, flows really well. Joe probably did front crook to fakie before doing an axle stall. Ha, but he really did skate the ramp like a street skater. Donnie had some high speed antics as one would imagine but I’m not sure if the got the grind off the extension to lower section. I really like this ramp.

Then things started to thin out so we went to the “street” section. This is when I really started to dislike my current setup. Took me like 10 tries to get a kickflip on the little bank. I had some crooks and noseslides, didn’t get b/s flip over the hip and never committed to ollieing up the 3. Not my best skating. Donnie was a mad man. Grinding off the higher qp to the lower and managing not to kill any kids in the process. It was close though. He had some high speed 5-0s on the little qp, transfers, front 50s on the ledge. Garrett shredded. Treflip to stairs to kickflip fakie the qp, switch heel the stairs, front feeble the tall qp, died hitting a crack and dove into the qp at full speed. Joe had some incredible lines like back tail the bump to ledge, fakie hardflip the stairs, switch hard on flat with both feet behind the back bolts. It was pretty amazing. He also ollied up the stairs super easily, heelflip, hardlflip down, nosegrinds down the ledge.

Near the end the dude working was skating and nearly died trying to front 50 the rail. It was the worst slam I think I’ve ever seen in person. Pretty sure he broke his thumb while taco’ing the rail with his back. It was so brutal. After that we had lost some motivation and played a game of SKATE in which I was quickly out. I used Garrett’s board and I liked it at first, but not after a few missed halfcab flips.

(setup null 8.3 smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, mini logo 8.3 trucks with royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Another day another setup change. I really thought this was the one. I know people are telling me to stick with one setup, but now that I have freed my mine of my loyalty to Venture I’m trying to find what I actually like. I though 8.5 with royals would be the ticket. It was not. I started off alright at Boulder park around 7am. Most of the time I was there another dude was skating, but we didn’t interact at all. I took a while to get down on the various bump to ledges. The board still felt very hefty which I was not excited about. Also they did not grind very well. I did skate hard, I just didn’t land anything. I did make myself ollie up onto the old ledge and ride down it several times. Also finally did a bunch of roll ins to setup for bump to ledge bails. But I was happy to finally easily do a bunch of roll ins. Had some crooks, a couple kickflips to fakie on the little bank that barely got around and hucked a bunch of back 270 kickflips over the hump that were not very close. I ended by taking way to long to do a line of ollie a little hump (and try not to get ghost pop which kept happening), noseslide to fakie the bench, halfcab flip over the hump. It did feel good though.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 4/10 lots of skating this week in old trashed shoes)

On a super nice day I managed to leave work at a decent time and get to dog park. It wasn’t too crowded surprisingly and there were even a couple older dudes at the start. I did a couple rock ‘n rolls on the low part of the barrier then some slappies to get the legs going. I didn’t skate great or bad, just kinda in the middle. Couldn’t get nose manual again, made myself finally try some nosegrinds on the medium pad, but was never too close. I hucked for awhile and it was fun. Got close to kickflip back 50 and remotely close to kickflip crooks. Got the most basic of flippers and stalled out when it came to fakie bigflip and treflip. I think I’m over the big hefty setup. Time to lighten the pop a little, but still stick with the big board.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 ti axle royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10 some knee and achilles pain but man the achilles is finally doing somewhat better again!)

After debating a lazy night I picked up Saul and we rolled to Frederick where we met Mike and Garrett. There was almost no one when we arrived. We started in the little bowl which I had only skated once before and this time it was actually fun. I would have some fun carve lines then ended with a run that had axle stall and rock ‘n roll in the shallow. I was hyped on that. Mike had some good lines with front slashes and lots of backside carve grinds. Saul hit coping on basically every wall. Then we went down to the main area. We mostly skated the curb area for awhile or did laps around. Kinda hard seeing what others did. Saul got a couple slappies, had a good bail, went back up to the bowls for most of the night. Mike had some good slappies, wallrides, wallies. Garrett was doing super fast switch manuals, tricks over the pyramid ledge, super good slappies, b/s flips the big hip every try. I skated okay, but nothing special. Was happy to get a 2nd try ollie up the tall pad, halfcab noseslide, crooks, but couldn’t get nose manual or backside flip over the hip. The whole time we were there this dude was trying a long run ending with kickflip boardslide. he never got it, but he did end up getting all the tricks. The kf boardslide was sick.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 ti axle royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Went to Broomfield shortly before dark after a rough day at work. I had put ventures on my 8.5, left everything else the same. This is my last round of comparing venture vs royal. I didn’t really like the ventures much, they are so hefty. Skating was alright though since the lights never turned on we only had about 15 minutes of skating which means I never got to the frustrating tricks. Sean did some basics for him which I would have freaked out over.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 ti axle royal bushings, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Was about to give up on skating since work drained me so much, but instead I went to New Vista on a beautiful evening shortly before sunset. I ended up gettin in an hour of skating and it was an alright session. I had put an 8.5 deck on since the 8.3 felt small the last few sessions. I think I should just commit to it for life. It felt so good and natural for everything except flip tricks. But even then I kind of blame the Royals for being squirly. I did a few basics on the ledge, was able to get a little front 50 somewhat quickly, came close to front 50 180 out. For flip tricks I struggled, but got halfcab flip, b/s flip, varial flip, fakie flip. Close to nollie and fakie bigflips. At the end was tired, but forced myself to ollie onto the box then front 180 off. Gotta keep trying to jump.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10 achilles was feeling alright, but had some arthritic knee pain)

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Went to Denver park because we heard it was partially dry and we didn’t know what else would be dry in Denver. It ended up being pretty fun. It was Joe, Eric, Cass and me and it wasn’t too crowded. We basically skated the front ledge area the whole time. We were subjected to local yocals doing handstands and riding snowboards. I took quite a bit to get going, but would eventually get little front 50s, front 50 shove and the Joe Hamilton aka front 50 front board pop out. Joe would get a lot of his normal lip to 50, front smith, combos as well as boardslide the S rail. Eric managed to not die rolling through a snowy bank. Cass had some good tailslides on the bump to ledge. We played a game of SKATE that didn’t go well for me or Cass and I got super mad losing on a helipop.

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Then we went to the Denver Squarehouse. Brian hooked it up! We are all in mega debt to him. It was a difficult place for me to skate though. I think it literally took me the entire session to get warmed up and able to skate it. I would finally get a front disaster then b/s flip on the bank. Got some flyout kickflips that felt good and ended the session with a very slow front 50 that was not easy. Eric was in pain and I didn’t see him skate much other than some jams to fakie. Kevin shredded. Had some kickflip flyouts, a line involving nollie flip on the bank, front disaster low to high, some other stuff. Cass had bigspin over the hip right away then hurt his foot somehow. Joe ripped it, kickflip fakie, fakie flip, halfcab flip on the bank. Fun session.

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Then we went to Dinosaur Jr and it ruled! Great day.

(setup 8.3 null esher, jessup ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

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On a cold and snowy Friday Eric and Joe got to town so of course we were going to find something to skate. We swept the part of dog park that had been shoveled near the curb and ledge then swept a little part of the skatepark. Then we went to the pump track where the black asphalt had melted away a lot of snow. We pumped around for a bit then focused on the bank shown in the photos above. It was way harder than it looked. It wasn’t steep or anything, it was just narrow and lumpy. Joe and I did some nollie shoves and we all started in on some tricks. Eric got pop shove staple gun and the Sal flip. Joe got kickflip to fakie and fakie flip. I got b/s kickflip and no comply shove to fakie which took way too long. Some other messing around and Eric did a narrow rock to fakie, Joe and I did some little hip ollies.

Then over at the dog park. I did some slappy crooks, front slappies, a line with front 50 180 on the curb then switch noseslide 270 shove, crooks, some bad back 50s on the curb, and could not front 50 the little bench. Joe had some good slappies, his normal 50 combos on the bench and a front smith.

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After some dinner went to Square House for a ramp session. The ramp was the highlight and thats pretty much all we skated. It was funny because when we got there the only people skating were Christian and Saul. I asked Christian if he was over 40 and he said 48. I was like stop ruining it for the rest of us. Then Saul made a funny joke about how it was just the two of them for the last 20 minutes. Christian totally charged it and it was crazy watching him destroy it. So many high speed tricks. Saul had some of the best back 50s I’ve seen him do. Kevin was the youngest one there, had some gnarly slams, but also stacked some greatness. Front feeble grinds were my fav. Brian was just testing out his knee, but still did some really cool tricks like the harder way windshield wiper. Eric was in a lot of pain so finished once he did his rock fakies. Other Eric came and tried to catch up quick, had some gnarly slams, but seemed to figure things out pretty well. Ed graced us with some of his steezy rock ‘n rolls and long 50s. Joe did a lot of his 50 to rock variations and even got kickflip rock fakie. I think that’s all of us right? Sorry if I forgot. Kevin and I did some shoves on flat at the end and I ended with a little wallride. I would like to note that I lasted longer than Joe!

(setup 8.3 null esher, jessup ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 cold weather pains)