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Feeling a little better health wise and on a super nice day I headed out to Blue Skies on my ‘gym break’. I felt motivated rolling to the park and pushed really fast into the downhill bank entrance. Wheeee. Ha. I didn’t end up starting too good though. I slammed pretty hard on a nollie to fakie attempt on the main bank. Kinda cruised around for awhile before settling in on flatground. Was 1-20 on treflips. Argh. Landed on a nollie bigflip and fakie double flip. Then added back 180’s off the main ledge and front 50 on the taller part of the narrow ledge. I would never get the back 180, but I did get the front 50. This one was better then the one other time I’ve done it there.

Later on that night after a run to Crisis I met up with Nolan at Broomfield park. It had gotten quite cold. I mostly just got some phone clips of him for the nullogram, but I did get some skating in. He shredded the bowl. I tried to skate it for a bit starting from the bottom. It was pretty fun except for a weird slam to my hip. Nolan did all kinds of stuff. Then we skated the quartapotty. I had gotten frozen filmer legs, but they came to life. Did most of my tricks and tried to learn a new one that Nolan said would be easy – front feeble to fakie. While I was working my rock fakies closer to feebles Nolan landed 3 or 4 new tricks I think. That’s pretty much how it goes for me. Anyways I was getting really close and the lights shut off. DOH. Nolan wasn’t having it though and moved his truck to light up the spot. Crap, gotta do it now! I did. Sweet, that’s a totally new tranny trick for me. Not sure I’ll be able to do it anywhere else, but it was fun either way.

Headed out around 7pm for a short skate before finishing off a new Null clip and getting it to 303 before the premiere on Saturday. I hadn’t felt well all day and it became apparently really quick that I was gonna suck. I should have left immediately, but I am dumb. It was pretty cold out. I started just doing different slappy stalls on a parking block then tried to get something going with flatground. I have to land 3 new flip tricks in the next 3 weeks so I feel this huge pressure to just skate flatground. Which isn’t all bad for me, but my body and mind wasn’t into it. Did a few kickflips, a first try heelflip that cheered me up a bit, a few no comply 180s and a fakie flip or two then I got an email from Rob with the files I needed to finish the Null clip so I went home to do that and write this run on sentence.

Feeling pretty tired, but not as arthritic I did my gym break at Blue Skies. I didn’t feel like ollieing too much so I decided to finally skate this little quarterpipe thing. Front lips took a few tries which was bumming me out, but then tricks started flowing pretty easy. Front tail, back 50 fakie, back 5-0 fakie, a few frontside ollies that felt really good. Did some fastish front 50s on the low ledge, still struggled with crooks which I don’t understand as I used to do them good there. Did a really slow front board on the flat bar stoking me out that I can land those to forward now. Now I just need to start going faster. Ended with an ollie off the main ledge (above in photo) and went back to work.

@bkfilmphoto waxing with a $5 foot long

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Dec 12, 2014 at 1:44pm PST

@fullertrron front tail yesterday

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 12, 2014 at 6:31am PST

For the first time in awhile I was feeling pretty arthritic. I don’t know why. It was pretty breezy so maybe that was it, but either way it kind of sucked. We met at this neat little bank. Someone had waxed it beyond belief. Dave locked into some good front tails as shown above. Rob had some too and no comply tails. Dave setup a piece of wood to dropin from the other side and try back tails which mostly just resulted in slams. I had some mini back tails and some bluntslides to grind, but mostly just bluntslide and not get out of it. Also tried kickflipping into the smallest part of the bank and then back 5-0 to fakie. Technically did it, but it felt really bad. I was struggling with kickflips. Ugh. Riley and Bernie showed up Riley did front tail, front tail fakie, front 5-0 and front noseblunt within a few tries. Geez. Bernie had some good front tails too.

#junkjamz

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Dec 12, 2014 at 4:24pm PST

Then we went into this new building that’s being constructed and junk jammed it. Bernie and I started with a game of SKATE. It was super dusty in there so whenever you landed or bailed a trick dust would fly. It looked neat, but it tasted horrible. The only trick I got Bernie on was nollie tre and the one I got felt really good. At one point I tried a b/s flip and hung up on the back wheels and did a back 270 kickflip. We laughed and Bernie wanted to count it, but I just couldn’t. Bernie got me with heelflip, cab flip, fakie inward heel, and a couple more I can’t remember right now. Then the junk jam was in effect. Dave, Rob and Riley were skating a pallet manny pad. Okay Dave and Rob were doing manuals on it and Riley was doing tricks over it (heelflip, kickflip maybe even switch flip). Us old guys tried to ollie it too, no one put it down. Then we made a bank spot. Riley killed it. Ollied over the whole thing, back heel, varial heel, geez. Rob had some sick one foots, a rad crook bonk, and more I can’t remember right now. Dave and Riley transferred a corner hip a bunch. I had a b/s flip and some little crooks. Bernie did a crazy front axle stall, Riley and Dave did crazy roll ins. Fun was had, dust was inhaled and the day ended on a tic tac race.

Sometimes you gotta finish the day with a good ol' #tictacrace

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Dec 12, 2014 at 3:42pm PST

Grey skies feel good today

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:01am PST

Headed out to campus for the first time since the students came back in the fall. That may be my longest bread from campus ever. I guess I’m getting old and get annoyed by college students. I felt a little odd, like arthritis kind of or something, but not in pain. I went to the ledge above first, but quickly realized I needed some other warm up. So I went one building away and did skated this slappy/regular ledge. It turned out to be a good warmup. I bashed into it a few times, got a slappy back 50, close to slappy crooks. Got front 50 and front 50 180 out. Didn’t quite get front 5-0. Did a line of “nollie” back 180, halfcab flip, back 50, backside flip, fakie varial flip. Sounds awesome right? But wow if you could just see how bad all of those tricks were. Either way it hyped me up. Then I went to the ledge above for awhile. Did a line of pop shove off a curb, manual a little manny pad, horrible back 50. Tried a bunch of nollie bigfilps and got close. Did a line of f/s 180 off the taller part of the ledge, switch front 180 on flat then front 50 the lower part of the ledge. Took awhile to get one on a taller part of the ledge. Some other dude showed up for awhile and skated the ledge straight on. He did a pop shove nose stall. Pretty cool. I did a crooks then moved on as I didn’t have much time and really wanted to skate the next spot.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever lined out this spot before. I think I have, but I couldn’t find a journal entry for it. Anyways the goal was to ollie up curb onto the sidewalk in the far left of the first photo, front 180 the little rock gap into the parking lot, halfcab flip on flat, then come around and ollie the 5 stair. I committed to the 5 stair almost every try which kind of hyped me up, but I would splat to the ground pretty fierce. I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve ollied some stairs. I thought it would be pretty easy though so I started thinking f/s halfcab flip instead. Got a few of those and still splatted down the stairs. Doh. It started approaching time for me to get home so I really had to land it and last try did it. Whew. I know it’s not a big set of stairs at all, but it felt like a cool line and I was skating really hard. On the way back I hit the fast hill above the 3 stair parking lot. Rather then just bomb it I did some power slides which felt so cool. Bombing is fun, but for me powerslides are so much more fun. I got to my car feeling sore and a bit shaky from skating so hard. Awesome.

Flatground Friday #scenesfromwhereifalldown

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:08am PST

Flatground Friday! This time with some new shoes. Another pair of Stratfords from the stockpile. I feel like I’ve been blowing through shoes, but I’m still getting 3 weeks out of these which is about as good as it gets for me. I started a little slow, but ended up feeling pretty good. Got through a lot of the basics in first or second try (first try nollie varial flip!). Struggled a bit with 360 flips as always. Did the worst nollie tre ever. Slammed hard enough on a fakie treflip that someon walking their dog nearby asked if I was ok. Tried some new trick. Not close on switch flip or nollie f/s flip. Landed on fakie double flip and shot out. Super close to fakie hardflip. Almost some really good f/s halfcab heels. Some really good for me heelflips.

Okay so now that I was down to skate lows again I stopped by Meta to get a new set after work. The hanger’s I had were really worn down and apparently so old that the mold was different (pre-DLX) and they didn’t fit right in my newer baseplate. I traded in a set of trucks that Reed had given me. Then I went to old faithful – the research center. I had about 30 minutes to skate and just hit the ledge. Didn’t skate it too well, but I attribute that mostly to having already skated earlier in the day and being incredibly hungry. I got one good crooks, a sloppy back 50 or two, struggled for front 50s. I forgot how good the low trucks carve. They carve better then the highs. Flip tricks were whatever.

After a nap, dinner, some indoor basketball with Ollie I went to Valmont on a mild December night. As I pulled in Carleigh hit me up to skate. I was there for awhile first though. I had put my Venture Lows on again. Well, not change the whole truck, just the hanger. I’m dumb. Basically since I have the tighter bushings I thought I could get away with less wheel bite and it seems to be true. This might be partly due to having such tiny wheels. Anyways, so I started out hucking. Got into a few back 180 nosegrinds, but have no idea how to land one. Go ultra lucky with a first try back 50. Ollied a little box with some good scrape. Hucked some flatground. Landed on a switch flip and shot out. It was so bloody close. Both feet on, rolled a tiny bit then shot out. Argh! Carleigh showed up and rattled off a few flatground tricks and did several noseslide shoves. I can’t do that trick to save my. I got somewhat close, but not really. I added a short front noseslide, front 50, weak front tail and a couple 360 flips with hands touching.

Pretty sore from skating yesterday, but not wanting to spend a lunch break at the gym I went to Blue Skies again. It was obvious from the start that my legs were extra sore and lacking pop. So I mostly did stuff that doesn’t involve popping too much. I had thought of f/s halfcab noseslides on the way there so I tried them in a line. Boardslide to fakie the flat bar, fakie flip, fakie fs throw the board at the ledge. Never got close. Also tried boneless on the big bank then boardslide the main tall ledge. That is probably the first time I’ve boardslid that. It’s tall. Did halfcab boardslide on the flat bar. Not the best session and I should have probably rested instead, but no, nevermind, it was skating instead of work. It ruled.

60 degrees, a bit breezy at times, but 60 degrees! I skipped out to Blue Skies during my gym break. I started mostly started just doing tricks like ollie to fakie on the main bank and fakie ollies on little one next to it. Some slappy noseslides, boardslide the flatbar. Typical warming up. I didn’t get too into flip tricks. A few new things at today’s session. First I did a little line where I rolled off the highest ledge down a level then down the bank and did a crappy noseslide on the main long tall ledge. It was pretty hard to get setup that quick. Then I front 180’d a flat bar which was kind of scary. I was easy to ollie it super easy after that at least. I also did a really slow back 180 over the low part of the snake bar. Also an ollie to tail transfer on it. Baby learning steps here which make me super happy. I finished it with an ultra slow and scary front 50 on the taller part of the narrow ledge. FINALLY. I’ve wanted to 50 that for years now. The ultimate goal would be to front 50 the whole thing, but that’s going to be awhile, if ever. I was a little more tired then I thought I would be and I didn’t have a ton of energy, but man, I LOVE dorking aroud at this park instead of being at work.

It was nice out, the kids didn’t need help with homework and I had just watched the Plan B video so I felt like skating. In all honesty though the Plan B vid didn’t really hype me up because it was hard to watch without PJ in it. I went to the research center. Tried to start on the ledge, but it wasn’t going well so I went to the Colorado side and started messing around. Did the noseslide, boardslide, ride down the stairs combo. Then started thinking it would be fun to front 50 the inside of the curb I boardslide. I tried to line out a couple flippers down the hallway before it:

#scenesfromwhereifalldown

But I could not land anything. The narrowness of the hallway weirded me out. I was struggling so bad I rarely landed fakie bigspins. And when I did it was even less likely I would land the front shove after. I guess I was tired from skating so much or something. I would eventually give up on lining it out and just do one flip trick like heelflip. I got into front 5-0, but never committed to a fast front 50. The gap in was a little weirder then I thought. Partly because it’s longer, partly because you can’t take much angle in. Then I went down to the ledge which went a little better. Took awhile to get a crooks though, but did eventually get a great feeling one. Front 50s felt good again. I swear having tighter trucks gives you more pop. I guess maybe with loose trucks more energy is dispersed when trucks move around? I don’t know, but I’m kind of digging being able to get on ledges again. Did a front 50 front 180 out that felt great. Went at a front tail and felt like it was close to being a real one. Did a couple bad back 50s. And I mean really bad. Halfcab noseslide. I went home pretty sore and tired.