Drank a couple glasses of wine Friday night and kind of felt like crap on a day I was supposed to skate a lot. Ugh I hate having no tolerance anymore. Anyways, I met Bernie, Riley and Rob at Safeway ledge for an early bird session (11 am ha). It was a struggle. For all of us. I was there first and did the various “slappy” noseslide variation drill to get warmed up. 50s weren’t too much later. Rob was next and was going for front board 270 pop out. Crazy. Riley did a bunch of good basics and a few long suski grinds which was cool to see. Bernie had some funny early morning bails and came out with a front tail 270 I think.

Then we went to Broomfield park. Steve V joined. Riley, Steve and I skated the bowl for a bit. I actually dropped into it. Just in the mellow side section, but had some runs where I almost got tile in the deep side. Steve dropped in on the vert side I think. Riley was cruising lines with back 50s over the love seat. I’m never going to remember all that went on, but we mostly had the park to ourselves and it was pretty rad. Riley rips that park so hard. Rob and I were hyped watching the lines he would put together. Ollie up the ledge then ollie into the kicker, nose manual 180 the black box, fakie noseblunt the brick qp, front 180 nose manual the euro. Basically anything he wanted. Rob had good no comply tailslides on the hump. Bernie was doing manuals on the blue bank and just stopping in manual position and holding it forever. I skated ok, nothing really stands out. Got a line I’ve done before of f/s flip on the hump, front 180 into the bank, halfcab noseslide the black ledge. Then tried to do fakie flip on the hump then kickflip into the bank for a long time. I eventually got it. Then Rob and I went to get food.

Got back to the park and Jack and Carleigh had shown. I was in a food coma and felt more like sleeping then skating. Riley and Jack started skating the double set rail doing tricks back to back. Front smith then back smith. Front nosegrind then back nosegrind. It was getting gnar. They got to tricks like bluntslide front shove and bigspin front board. Man they were ripping. Bernie, Rob and I were skating the blue bank manny pad again. Bernie almost did manual front 180 fakie noseman down. I did a rock kickflip to fakie. After awhile a manny pad session started on the blue box. Bernie owned it. Front 180 fakie manual f/s halfcab flip out. Halfcab flip manual back 180 out. Riley had switch heel nose manny. Rob was doing switch boardslides. I was trying kickflip manuals, but mostly not landing the kickflip. Carleigh had tried back disasters for a long time then got a couple within a few tries of each other.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)

Feeling old and arthritic.  Stopped at Valmont after work.  The east side of the building is closed, has good ground and a couple manny pads. I had a new 8.38 Null deck.  Nothing came easy. I got a few of my staples. Added a rare and bad bs halfcab heel.  Put my hands down on treflips.  Almost did manual back 180 out.  Tried a line of fs hc flip, nollie tre, fs flip and came close.  Tried a lot of nollie heels and flips. Even hucked switch bs flips for awhile.  Not my fav flatground Friday.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)

Had pretty chill day at work, but I was pretty sore so I opted for a short skate. The first few noseslide attempts hurt to jump that high. I really hate the shape of this sample board. At this point I decided I only really wanted to do a couple things. First, a noseslide shove. Second, break this f’ing board. I started feeling better doing noseslides. Did one to fakie. Tried shove out for awhile. Then crooks, then a back 50. When going back up the hill I would do pop shoves trying to land on the tail and crack it. Just trying to see what this sample is made out of. It did not die easy. In fact, I’m pretty blown away by how many bad tail landings it held up to. It would eventually crack, but not even bad, totally still skateable. They say they allow custom shapes so maybe it’s something to consider. Kind of unlikely though considering how awesome Generator shapes and wood is. Anyways, back to the ledge. My favorite janitor (this dude hates me) came and sat on the end of the ledge. I decided instead of leaving to just keep skating the ledge, but to go slow and try noseslide shoves. Took a few tries but I finally landed on one. I still don’t know exactly what happened but it was kind of a mixture of noseslide shove and noseslide bigspin. I landed basically perpendicular to the ledge and turned to forward. I could have just as easily turned to fakie. Oh well. I went home and did Null taxes, setup a Null board because I can’t handle this sample shape anymore (I’ll keep it as a backup) and watched some Dexter. Neat.

(setup 8.25 quincy sample venture wides bones med bushings spitfire 50mm f4 101s)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 8, 2015 at 6:38pm PDT

After work I met up with Dave at Skyline HS. It wasn’t the intended meet up spot, it’s just what happened. We looked at some gaps and crazy boardslides then went behind the school and found the mega hubbas you see above (there is another one that’s b/s for reg footers). I felt insanely awkward warming up. Having a different board is weird. I would eventually boardslide the little b/s one. Dave was doing back 50s through the flat and down on top of hucking nollie/switch heels. I eventually got a few slow front 50s where I deck checked a little. Then moved a rock and was finally able to get on the downhill part. Then added front 5-0s. It’s tiny, but it felt really awesome. I ollied the curb and we split out.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 8, 2015 at 7:48pm PDT

To the nearby little park. There were a bunch of little kids there. A brother/sister combo doing laps on bike/scooter that constantly go. You could see the frustration on Dave’s face. But he still did a front tail over the hip that cleared the crack. In other words it was really long! I started with the c ledge boardslide. Did some pathetic and embarrassing attempts at ollies over the hip (although I’m going to put some of the blame on the difference in the nose/tail on the sample board). Then I tried a line of front 50 on the corner bump to ledge, turn then front 50 down the next hubba. I kind of got it, but got on before the downhill part of the ledge and was going so slow that I just landed into the bank. Dave started trying the same thing, but with a lofty f/s ollie over the hip to start. Took him awhile, but he got the line good. He also did some sick bluntslides over the hip. I skated this park way different then I normally have. Skated the little ledge for a bit. Got back 50, halfcab noseslide, front 50. It’s only about 3 feet long so it’s hard to get in/out of the trick. Then Dave and I did the double boneless plant things over the rail above. Dave’s slam was so funny! Oh man I almost peed my pants. Dave left after this and I tried a little kid line of 360 flip flyout (right by the rail we bonelessed over) then kickflip off the platform. One of the 3 flips I did felt so amazing. I haven’t done it out of a bump at all in awhile, it’s kind of easier. I would eventually get one with a kickflip off the platform too which actually felt really good. A couple kickflip attempts were sketchy and I landed on the tail once. Gotta give props to the sample board for not cracking on that one. Anyways, after landing the last kickflip I smiled, went and stretched a bit, then went home and watched The Office with India and Liz. Good day.

(setup 8.25 sample quincy deck venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Apr 7, 2015 at 7:51pm PDT

Went to the Longmont park with no plans of actually meeting anyone or skating too long. I arrived to a park completely filled with daycare kids. I thought it was an elaborate joke. There were literally dozens of parents standing in the park watching their little helmet-clad-scooter-riding kids learn how to stand up at the skatepark. I have no idea how I actually had the will to get out of the car and enter the gates. But I kind of just stayed on the little hump and long ledge and avoided the masses. Actually finally back 50’d it without going over the top at the start. I was skating really slow. Oh yeah, I had a new sample board. It’s shape is really different. I didn’t like it. But it’s more just the fact that I’ve skated Generator boards for 12 years straight and it felt really weird. To my surprise Riley showed up! And right when I had a good run. Front tail the hump, crooks the ledge, turn around front 50 shove out. Then Riley suggested I do crooks to fakie which I got 2nd try. Whoa! Riley was doing switch nose manual, nose manual nollie flip, etc before I made him do the line above which he did while I was on the phone before I phone filmed it. Then Riley cruised the park owning it for awhile while I repeatedly tried to front 50 the smaller hubba. But I couldn’t even just do the downhill I had to make it harder on myself and get on the flat part first. I technically did it once. But I put my hand on the ledge, stuck my butt out in the air, landed like I just ollied a 20 stair, etc. I would get on it cleaner, but never rode out again. I don’t know why that ledge feels so tall to me. In the meantime Riley was doing every trick imaginable over the hip. I managed another weird looking beanplant on the noping. And then I did my line of cali grind, boardslide, boneless, back tail, kickflip again which felt great. Bernie showed up and we played a couple games of SKATE. The first one I landed a treflip and a few other basics. Riley won. The second was Bernie’s game and I landed on a few of the tricks like fakie tre, fakie heel, hc heel, but I was out right away. Bernie went on to beat Riley I think.

(setup 8.25 quincy sample board venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 50mm 101s)

Went out in front of the house on a beautiful evening. Warming up was difficult as it always is at this age, but things really started going well. I got an over-40 nollie bigflip which started the stoke. Then a treflip. Then a line of fakie flip, fakie treflip, turn around avoid a speeding car, bolts 360 flip. I was on top of the world. I rattled off a few more flippers and went for a heelflip and much to my surprise I snapped the tail. No!!!! Total shocker. Obviously I landed back on the tail, but I thought I was feeling good and that wouldn’t happen.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 50mm 101s)

Had a fun Easter morning with the fam. Took a nap then went out skating. I’ve been feeling the warming up on tranny so I actually went to Boulder park. Wow. It wasn’t too crowded when I arrived. I pumped the bowl a few times, hit the mini ramp area a few times. Then a group of helmet wearing kids kind of took over with their stupid game of follow the leader. So I left to the research center. I must admit the PJ influence from the latest NB edit wants me to skate ledges better. I posted up on this ledge and put together several new ones for me at this spot. I started with noseslide. Then noseslide fakie. And then my newish trick of noseslide shove which took a bit. I almost did a few noseslide bigspins out on accident. Maybe I’ll work on that one later. Then crooks and back 50. Then I went for crooks shove which I’ve never done on a non-park ledge before. It took a minute, but I got one. And oh man did it feel cool. Then I went for back 50 shove out. Got the first one, but it was horrible. Worked awhile longer and did a better one. Still not great, but for the most part I’m just happy I’m kind of getting back 50s again. Next up was halfcab noseslide which I did slow. Then I lined things out for a bit. Front 180 up the curb, fakie flip, switch front nose to regs. First try. Horrible. Then front 180 up curb, fakie flip, switch front nose. This one felt pretty cool. Then lined out kickflip up the curb followed by crooks to fakie. That one felt great. I was doing flipppers when going uphill or after lines too. No treflips. Got close to fakie treflips. I had done a few frontside ledge tricks too. Just a few basics because I don’t really like skating this ledge uphill. Last trick was kick back 50. And wow was it a struggle. Like 30 minutes straight and not going fast struggle. The one I eventually got had a hand touch on the wall, but it was locked in pretty good and made me feel good. I left after that feeling pretty satisfied having done 4 tricks I’ve never done on that ledge before. Noseslide shove, crooks shove, back 50 shove and kick back 50.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 50mm 101s)

After another Crisis run on a Saturday morning and chatting with Fuzz for awhile I met up with Dave, Rob, Riley, Garrett and Julien at Broomfield park. My legs had some pain and I didn’t seem all that motivated. Riley was killing it as usual. There will be a couple phone clips on the nullogram with the proof. Dave was doing long back tails on the hump. Garrett, Riley and Julien were skating the double set. Julien got really close to front shove. garrett close to kickflip and treflip. Riley did a bunch. Kickflip, nollie flip, switch flip, switch heel, sw f/s flip, bs bigspin. The typical Riley show. Ha. Rob had a new setup to break in, but he was looking comfy on it already. Really good no comply tailslides. I didn’t do much beyond stuff I’ve done there a lot other then ollie the six stair finally (it’s been a few months) and some fs nosegrinds on the blue ledge. Dave early grabbed and ollied the six stair all easy too.

Then we went to a gap spot for Riley, but got the boot right away and ended up at Safeway. Rob went off with back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, back 50s, back smith, fakie nosegrind 180 out (I think). Riley did a bunch of basics easy as did the other young dudes. Dave didn’t do a perfect front crooks. What gives? Ha. I mostly just did 50s, a couple front tails that slid a tiny bit and a few kickflip back 50s. Oh yeah and crooks on the lower fence ledge which felt fun.

Lastly we went to the bank to blue bar spot that is nearby. I filmed Riley b/s flip over the rail then he filmed me do a rock ‘n roll kickflip out on the side of the bank. I was super hyped on that. It was a trick on my list. Stoked!

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 50mm 101s)

Had one of those Fridays at work with nothing to do until the afternoon and of course it spilled over into the evening. I was tired, arthritic and hungry, but I still wanted to skate a bit. The snow had melted, but it was still cool out. A lady was sitting on the ledge so I went over to the long stairs to ride down them a couple times then went over to the back area pictured above. I started with some ride on grinds on the 2nd stair. Someone had kind of waxed it up a little so that was fun. It would stick after awhile. Since it was supposed to be flatground Friday I started doing flatground tricks at the top of the hill then grinds. Then I ollied the four stair once and started trying lines where I would do a flip trick, ollie up the two, then down the 4. Getting up that two stair is so hard because of how narrow it is on top. I ended up giving up on ollies because kickflips felt easier to get the right angle. My flatground game at the top was feeling decent. Even though my shoes were feeling way too large I was still rattling off a lot of my tricks. I did a few treflips. One of which felt like the best treflip I’ve ever done. I struggled a bit with heelflips though. But halfcab flips, fakie bigflips, varial flip were good. Even did a sketchy nollie tre. I was falling down a lot and it always feels good when I’m trying hard enough that I fall. It seems like the more I fell and tried different tricks the less sore and arthritic I felt. The kickflip up the two stair did not come easy. I got up it quite a few times, but would run into the dirt. I kept changing the flip trick to start the line. Tres worked initially, but then I couldn’t do another. Doh. I ended up getting the line with a b/s halfcab flip, kickflip up, barely ollied the 4 (had to push). Man I was tired. I’d like to do that line again, but maybe front 180 the stairs. It’s only 4, but it’s kind of awkward to get speed and it’s a little bigger then a normal 4 stair.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 50mm 101s)

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