Went out to the garage on a very cold snowy night. Attempted to start on the putter, but it felt so pathetically dumb. Got my first 4 kickflips. After that it was downhill and only landed a fakie flip and one bad heelflip. Close to several tres, not very close to switch flips. Pretty over my garage.

(setup 8.3 null esher, jessup ultragrip, royal 144, spitfire 52mm f4 99a classic shape two washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Up early on a surprisingly nice Monday morning I went to SC armed with 3 completes. I was very sore and lacking any motivation, but the point of this session was to see if I liked any of these setups. I really want to like 8.3, but I dislike Venture highs with it. So I had 8.25 with 5.6 venture highs, 8.3 with royal 144, 8.3 with thunder 149s. All the wheels were 51/52. I had only done Royals on 8.25 before and it was too little WB for them. For some reason I really wanted the Thunder option to work. It didn’t. Seriously hate how those trucks turn. It’s like a quick little turn but then nothing deep. I tried to stick with 8.25 venture for awhile and didn’t like that and know from past that I don’t like it. So I went for the 8.3 with Royal and it was the winning combination. I had much better pop and grinds. I didn’t really try flip tricks on any of the setups, but know from past experiences that Royals flip fine. As far as tricks I really didn’t land anything worth noting. I hope the Royals work out long term because I desperately want to be done with madness.

(setups above)
(pain level 6/10 jut so sore)

On a nice day after breakfast with Liz Saul and I rolled to Berthoud. We had planned on meeting Mike and Skelly, but were surprised to also see Allan, Garret, Julian, Kyle and more. It was a rad crew. I had switched to Aces and while they were fun and carved good I could not find a good pop with them. Mike and Saul were in the bowl to start mostly. I tried some noseslides. Really wanted to do noseslide to fakie then switch front nose, but never got the two. Couldn’t get treflip flyout either. Mike was doing no comply up the euro. Saul and I got grinds on the weird bank wall. I had some fun grinds around a mellow corner in the bowl. Allan still carves fast. Julian is a ball of energy hopping up and down everything. Garrett is such a treat to watch and was in ATV mode. Skelly had some good one foots and little pops. Yeah not a whole lot to mention but it was a fun session for sure.

(setup null 8.3 smoke valley, jessup ultragrip, ace 55 af1, spitfire f4 99a tablet, new balance numeric 440H b/w size 12)
(pain level 6/10 achilles arghghghgh)

On a nice Saturday morning Kevin and Cass showed up and we rolled to dog park. It was really wet. So we swept and squeegeed for awhile then went over to the park as it dried. There was a birthday party with like 20 little girls on bikes. It was kind of hilarious, super frustrating and scary watching them slam into each other trying to make it up quarterpipes. I had motivational issues, but would get a fun line of manual the top of the bank then bs flip on the pointy weird bank/qp. Cass had gotten front shove, kickflip and treflip over the hip. Kevin some long lines through the kids.

Sean had shown and didn’t even bother going to the park. He just went right to the dog park and was doing more squeegeeing. I slammed super hard on a nose manual attempt and pretty much never recovered. I was so depressed. I had done a few ultra basics, but that is it. Kevin, Cass and Sean went in on the picnic table. Sean did back 5-0 front 180 and back nosegrind 180. Kevin got super close to nosegrind shove. Cass was close to front nose bigspin. Lots of 303 dudes had shown up which was cool. Devin’s pop is unreal. See their clips below.

(setup 8.25 null jack, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low royal bushings flat top bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape 3 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achilles so sick of it)

On a nice, but cool Friday I was able to leave work early after a brutal week and somehow the tennis court spot was mostly dry. I brushed the snow off the ledge, moved the parking block to a dry spot and started the warm up process. I had a new deck and put lows back on. It felt incredibly dreamy and my warm ups went well. I had a switch front nose on the ledge that felt particularly fun, some good slappy crooks. Dave showed and went through the warm up battle. We would get going and have a good session, especially Dave. Dave had a lot of lines I should have probably filmed. Things like front 180 onto the box, halfcab off the launch ramp, feeble transfer the parking block, front nose the ledge. Or front 50 the ledge then nollie back 180 off the launch ramp, switch crook the ledge. He was seriously shredding. Kickflips, pop shove the a puddle, crooks fakie the ledge. My achilles was still hurting and making pushing awkward. I didn’t get many lines, but had some crooks, noseslides, took too long for halfcab noseslide, fakie 50, switch nose 270 shove, the slowest worst front 50 ever, some halfcab flips and a kickflip over the puddle (maybe). As the sun had set and temperature dropped quickly we tried some mirror lines on the ledge and it was a blast. Dave did front nose/sw front nose, front board/sw front board. I had noseslide/sw noseslide, switch front nose/worst front nose ever. It was a fun ender for a fun session.

(setup 8.25 null jack, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.2 low royal bushings flat top bushing, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape 3 washers inside, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10 achilles so sick of it)

Was determined to make 8.25 with 5.8 Tis works. After the initial no flip tricks warm up stage I was quickly reminded why I dislike when trucks are wider than a board. It’s so hard to flip. I got a couple kickflips that didn’t come easy then a mega shinner on a b/s flip attempt. So I turned to the putter. I still didn’t land anything, but I did come incredibly close to nollie flip and remotely close to sw fs flip.

(setup 8.25/putter nb# 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 4/10 achilles pain will not go away argh)

After work I rolled out as it was getting dark and met Skelly at Valmont park. We pumped around. I started to hate the 8.5 when I couldn’t even noseslide the pyramid ledge. We went over to greenblock. My achilles was not feeling well. Due to puddles I skated the curved ledge for the first time. Had some nollie front tails that were ridiculously fun. Other than that I had a few fakie 50s on the curb where I almost got switch front shove out. Skelly and his crew Dylan and Stephan mostly skated the barrier. Dylan had lots of moves like boneless disaster, lipslide over the love seat, 5-0s, smiths. Skelly got some rad lines combining back 50s and frontside grinds. I added a weak little front slash or two. Never again skating > 8.3.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium thunder bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a nice day I met Dave at Boulder park after work. It was crowded. I took a few runs around the park and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had made the dumb mistake of changing to an old 8.5 deck. I enjoyed it this day though. I had a fun little front nose 270 on the bank to ledge then met Dave in the parking lot where we started skating a really good slappy curb. I started with slappy crooks, Dave started with switch slappy crooks. We went on to do a few slappy variations. Dave had some good kickflips, cool alley oop back 180s off a curb, switch slappy crook shove, nollie back 5-0, backside slappy, slappy crooks to fakie and I think ended with a slappy front crook. I had some funny basic flippers that I landed, but with toe or heel drag. Slappy crooks, slappy front crook, fronstisde slappies, nollie 50 and 5-0, couldn’t get switch crooks like Dave. Skelly showed, we chatted some then went into the park as things were dying down since it was getting dark out. I landed nothing of note. Skelly had several good backside grinds over the bench. Dave grinded down the parking block and flowed in the rad Dave style we know and love.

(setup 8.5 null smoke valley, jessup pj ultragrip, venture 5.8 titanium thunder bushings, 51mm spitfire f4 101a classic shape, new balance numeric 288S white size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Got 10″ of snow in Boulder, but somehow the Fort got none. So Kevin and I headed up there on a cool day. There were some puddles at Spring Canyon, but they would dry up and we skated for a few hours. I skated terribly and at no point felt good on my skateboard. The nose manuals were kind of fun, had some alright crooks on the bench, maybe a halfcab flip and bs flip, some slow frontside grinds on the low ledge, mostly just couldn’t believe how bad I skated. Kevin said he wasn’t shredding, but he was. Back smith the bench, switch front nose, front smith, nollie flips, etc. Hayden is so fun to watch skate. The longer line above was first try. He did so many cool and surprising tricks.

(setup null esher 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast plate titanium axle thunder bushings, 49.99mm boardycakes roundups washers outside, new balance numeric 440H b/w size 12)
(pain level 5/10 achilles and general pain)

Having taken several days off for the achilles I reached my limit. I went over to the low curb with the intention of getting Dave’s challenge – switch back pivot shove. After some warm up attempts I set the phone down and much to my surprise would get it a few tries later. As you can tell I was pretty excited. I went on to do both nosepick shoves, but the backside one was too ugly to post (which says a lot for me). Then I wanted to do a Jack inspired back nosepick shove to pivot. It seemed possible, but the board kept flipping. I started just trying axle and would then settle for the feeblish stall. It was still really fun and now Dave has some wiggle room. Had a really fun time, did two new tricks and managed to not push at all or hurt my achilles more.

(setup null esher 8.3, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.8 cast plate titanium axle thunder bushings, 49.99mm boardycakes roundups washers outside, new balance numeric 440H b/w size 12)
(pain level 5/10 achilles)