After a night of enjoying the wineries in Palisade, then a long hike and directly after stuffing my face with tacos I attempted to skate the park. It’s terrible, super compact with a bunch of features shoved in. Everything is built well, it’s just crammed together. The bowl had water in it. I felt very out of it. I did some bad flyout kickflip attempts, a couple axle stalls then just decided to do 5 tricks for my 50th year. Except I couldn’t land anything and this took like 25 minutes to do. The treflip being so bad worked out so I could say 4.9 on my 49th. Not my best birthday session, and actually maybe my worst. Getting old sucks.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, venture 5.8 titatnium, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

Heard about how Mesa Univ remodeled and made all of their ledges skateable so went there on Liz and I’s mini trip. I had heard they were all tall and that was accurate. I cruised around and didn’t see anything I wanted to so we left. Went to the old skatepark there that I haven’t skated in 20 years. Last time was with JP and Jason! Or maybe even the NE dudes and Jeff, but wow it’s been a long time. I was excited, but the wind and my sucking drained me quick. The curbs on the banks looked fun, but they were all super crusty and didn’t grind well. I tried a line of kickflip on a bank then kickflip to fakie the next bank. But I took way too long to land one kickflip. I skated the ledge for a bit. Had some okay crooks, noseslides and one bad front nose that was in Jason’s honor. Couldn’t get a front 50. There was a dude there that could hardly ride his skateboard, but he could pop super high onto tall flatbars and stuff. It was a weird scene. The wind kicked in ultra fierce so I called it good.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, venture 5.8 titatnium, bones medium bushings, 52mm spitfire classic shape f4 99a, new balance numeric 288S grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On a really nice day Rob and Dave picked me up and we went to Evergreen park for a bday tradition session. We met Jake and Venture Dave. I am writing this way too late after the session so hardly remember anything. Except unfortunately it also seems to be tradition that I completely suck and get bummed on myself. Pretty early on Jake and I did warm up lines of noseslide to fakie, switch or fakie 180 off the curb, kickflip to fakie on the bank of the hip. Also early on we saw a patented Rob bean plant over the hip and a Venture Dave fakie impossible. After establishing I was struggling badly I went and hid in the corner and tried a bunch of halfcab flips to start a line. I had a few in a row at times, but then would miss a lot too. Argh. I did halfcab flip then crooks, but never got the treflip after. Rob had some really long back 50s on the curb, manuals, maybe nose manual, halfcab board pop out. Oh yeah we put a parking block on top of the bank which was super awesome. Dave did pivot shove then switch pivot shove!!!! Rob had some banging front tails, pivot to back tail. I had some fun slappy crooks, but they were nowhere near as good as Dave’s. I took to may tries to also do front smith stall and no comply to tail. VD almost got back 180 nosegrind, lots of impossibles, shoves, manuals and nose mannies. Jake lined out some gnar. Nollie back tail, wallie, back 5-0 the qp, hurricane the gnar qp. Front 50 up the hubba and maybe front blunt the main qp. Dave was of course the last one skating. His last line was nollie the a-frame, back disaster the main qp, gap front tail the parking block on the hip. So sick.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire 51m 101a f4 classic shape, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 5/10 lots of knee pain)

On a cool morning I got to Boulder park around sunrise and managed a couple warm up qp grinds before 7. Dang! I went on to have a weird, but decent session. Mainly the board felt quite hefty, but I was popping onto stuff so I shouldn’t complain. Got a couple tricks on the long qp I haven’t done there. Back 50 to fakie and a back pivot (which I think has been forever since I’ve done a backside one). Was kind of all over for a bit. Got a tiny back 50 on the top side of the triangle ledge, had some better front 50s/5-0s on the bank to ledge. Took a bit to get a line of crooks then b/s flip on the hump. Even longer to do noseslide the bank to ledge then front 50 the bench. Almost got shove out and almost 5-0 shove (it’s been a while). Had quite a few b/s tricks on the bench. Not the best session, not the worst and I feel like I did some things that could lead to progress.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire 51m 101a f4 classic shape, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5 no insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling a little better after a couple days of feeling run down I went out to do a couple slappies. But the main old section is junk now. So I went down to the hook and did a few front slappies then made myself kickflip and then slappy. Grinding that thing is fun. I was bummed on how many tries a decent kickflip took. Oh yeah, I had changed back to 8.25 with Ventures.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer, jessup ultragrip, venture 5.6 cast plate v-hollow hanger, bones medium bushings, spitfire 51m 101a f4 classic shape, new balance numeric 288s grey size 11.5 with 440 insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a super nice night I bolted to Frederick after an early dinner. I had put larger wheels on and would go on to completely hate the change as well as every aspect of my setup and skating. Ugh. I can’t win. It started when I almost fell pushing entering the park. Anyway most of us warmed up on the little mellow bank. The crew was Skelly, Mike, Rob, Dave, Squeeks, Will and more. I guess a couple things I did that were fun were a line of slappy the double bank to curb then a little nollie bigspin over the hump and I think I ollied up onto the tall pad after that. I couldn’t get a halfcab flip or treflip on the bank. Squeeks was shredding. Front boards everywhere, lipslides, front tails, fast and lots of energy. Mike had some good slappies, wallies, got a little halfcab noseslide at the end, shredded the mini bowl. Will almost had front heel the bank, front 50d the little benches. Rob had some good slappies, boardslide transfer the ledge to pad, I think manuals on it too. Dave had some good slappies, switch front tail the hip, tried to varial flip the weird hip, ended with a really good front slash in the bowl. It was good seeing Skelly again. Saw him popping around, some good front 50s the little pad.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 52mm spitfire f4 99a radial slim, 288S grey size 11.5 440 insoles)
(pain 5/10)

On a cool morning I met Cass and Jake at the new library ledge spot. Jake and I were there first. Warm up line was noseslide tall ledge, front 50 low ledge, back board the flat bar. Then we kind of did our own things. I would get crooks quickly then lose them. The ledges are really good and the whole spot is a little roomier than I had thought. It seems like I had most tricks quickly then would lose them. Cass had some really good front noses and crooks to fakie. Him and Jake did fakie back tails. Jake would get fakie front crook, Cass didn’t but man he locked into a lot of them. Jake had a line of noseslide to fakie then fakie front nose. I did switch front nose then switch nose shove. I struggled with fakie 50s, front 50s, everything. Came really close to slow kick back 50s and got a couple halfcab boardslides. All in all I like the spot, definitely need to skate it more because the ledges are really good.

Later on I met up with Nullers. Watched Jack and Joe land heelflip tricks. Did a few fakie shoves then a slappy crook or two.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 50mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 272 black size 12 half insoles then 288S later)
(pain 4/10)

On a really nice and warm day Cass and I rolled through LOCO then met Rob and Hayden at Berthoud park. We looked at the pump track, carved around the bowl a bit then decided a game of SKATE to warm up was a good idea. Cass was first out quickly again. Ha, he just can’t land tricks in SKATE. Hayden would go on to win as expected. I was happy to get close to a fakie tre though. I mostly flailed around on the ledges going slow and doing noseslides. In between filming Hayden I had been trying to line out all 3 ledge and came up with a few noseslide variations. I had done a few crooks on the second ledge. Hayden wanted to film me and in some miracle I did my line first try. Noseslide to fakie, halfcab noseslide, noseslide, kickflip fakie. I was so hyped. Cass had some noseslides too, front tails going up the middle ledge. Rob had taken off pretty quick. Hayden got a couple banging lines and managed not to collide with scooter kids that were not aware of skatepark flow at all. The bluntslide was so fast, the crooks were every try, the treflip into the bank so good and the first try nollie b/s flip ha ha.

Then we met Noé and Bo at Fossil. I was really sore. I mostly filmed. Noé said he hadn’t really halfcab flipped any stairs before then would do like 10 in a row. Hayden did some cool manuals. Cass almost did some cool manuals. Bo had a bunch of energy and back 50d the rail, 5-0 kickflip out the ledge. Then we went down below and I was starting to get more into my groove trying some crooks variations and trying to nose manual when I got called for work. Ugh. Took care of that then hit MRKT and hung with Eric.

(setup null smoke valley 8.3, jessup ultragrip, royal 149 lights, 50mm spitfire f4 99a classic, 272 black size 12 half insoles then 288S later)
(pain 5/10)

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)