Well today I went out to skate. Good weather. Oh, today is Sunday. Yesterday I was out of sorts. Just tired from work. Took me all day to just feel sort of rested, and still just didn’t feel great. As I get older I’m finding that two-day weekends are not enough. They do not really refresh me very much. So when I went out to skate today I was, frankly, not really “feeling it.”

I took two board with me - the 9" Heroin board I’ve been enjoying and the 8" Mode freestyle deck I’d not really ridden. When I got to the spot I immediatly felt that I needed to put softer bushings in the freestyle setup, which I did. It then felt kind of fucked up. I gave up on in immediately and rode the 9" deck.

When I got home I took one of the risers out from under the trucks on the 9" deck, so it now has Indy 159s and 1/8" risers. It is amazing how much a difference 1/8" makes to the way the board feels. Now, I may add the other 1/8" back if I’m scraping the tail too much. We’ll see.

I am rapidly reaching the conclusion that a true freestyle board just doesn’t feel good to me anymore. I’ve been avoiding this, but I think it is true.

I also think my days of freestyle contest participation may be over. I’m going to call it a “soft retirement.” No big announcement. I think I’m just done. I just want to skate, on a board I enjoy riding, doing the moves I enjoy doing. That’s it. No sense of defeat. Actually, I have a sense of triumph. Morehei Ueshiba, found of Aikido, said “True victory is self-victory.” I agree. You have to understand yourself and your own motivations. So PROBABLY no more contests. I just don’t care about that anymore.