Went to Blue Skies for an early lunch. I was gonna meet Dave, but I ended up having to leave before he got there. I was gonna just skate flat and try switch flips, but there was people using the basketball court and half of the hockey rink. I ended up not really skating flat all that much and just had fun. I did have a couple treflips and came close to nollie flip, but nowhere near switch flips. Came really close to noseslide 270 shove, posed switch boardslides, did some faster then normal from 50s, couldn’t get the tall part of the front 50 though.

(setup 8.25 null ventures lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Worked from home. Went out to Rampy 3 separate times for about 20 minutes each time. Tried switch flips. Failed. Tried an 8″ setup with 42mm, but got closer with my regular setup. Felt very depressed. Didn’t even really get too close. Wasn’t wearing my wrist guard and slammed on my wrist at the end. Ugh. I have never really tried to skate switch in my life and it’s showing. I landed one switch kickflip in my garage about 10 years ago. Not sure I have it in me to get another one.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 8, 2015 at 8:05pm PDT

Went to Crisis right after work to see Neil. So exciting. We chilled for a bit then went over to Safeway ledges. I warmed up with my typical bash the nose into the ledge and turn around tricks. Neil was stretching because he has a torn meniscus and can’t really skate much. It didn’t stop him from getting in a few front 50s, noseslides and ollies. Then he wanted to film me. I went for a crazy line for the heck of it. Kick back 50 then nollie tre. I struggled a bit with the kick back 50, but I locked into a kick back 5-0 and when I landed that I knew I had to land the nollie tre. Got it! Probably the best line I’ve ever filmed and one heck of a great feeling to do those two tricks together. Before filming I had hucked a front crooks to fakie and did probably my best one ever. I still put both hands on the wall and pushed off, but whatevs. So I tried to film another line of crooks on the fence ledge then front crooks the main ledge. Couldn’t get the front crooks though so ended up doing a line of crooks, front 50 180 out then halfcab flip. Rob showed up shortly after that. I was just kind of messing around with halfcab flip noseslides and doing more back 50s since I was actually doing them ok for once. Rob filmed a couple rad lines with front noseslides on the fence ledge, some crazy shuffle tricks on the ledge and them more shuffle tricks after. Ha, it was tight. I finally back 50’d the fence ledge. Tried a bunch of switch flips throughout and didn’t get very close. Felt some of the best I’ve felt on a board in awhile.

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jun 8, 2015 at 7:42pm PDT

Then Neil and I went by Broomfield park to see Riley, Nolan, Scotty, Teagan, Garrett. Tight crew. Nolan is recovering from a broken foot and was just kind of messing around which was fun. Scotty has gotten so fun to watch. Nollie 50s, hardflips and fakie handplants. What an awesome combo. Riley and Teagan were attacking the double set. Garrett had front tail then back tail on the black ledge. I just kind of dorked around on the quartapotty and tried blunts to pivot, but was so tired. We left after awhile. Fun day.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Woke up early on a weekend again. Could have gone for more sleep, but with the sun coming up so early I just can’t. I needed to go to Sol and I was pretty sore from skating so much the day before. Dave is one of the few people that is up by 8am to skate so I hit him up. I got to Longmont park at 8:30am. There was one other dude there drinking beer and skating. I cruised around for awhile getting warmed up doing nothing in particular. Then that guy asked if I wanted to play a game of SKATE. Sure. I ended up winning it with a b/s flip that felt good. The narrower trucks with the wider board flip good. Then I tried to manual the ledge up top of the park for awhile and do a front d on the noping. But I never got the manual. Dave showed up. We were kind of doing our own thing before a switch flip battle ensued. I guess he had finally landed one on his ramp not moving. Neither of us landed it. We probably tried for 30 minutes. Dave landed on one and shot out. I had a couple that flipped good and i landed with one foot and the other next to the board. Looking like O-L for me in the game of torture. Skated the park for awhile. Dave was trying front tails over the hip then nollie bigspins on the bank. I posed some b/s ollies over the hip. Trying to pop them really high. It felt really cool. I didn’t commit to any of the big ones, but landed one or two that were bigger then normal for me. Then we skated flat for quite awhile. Dave was working on the nollie bigpin and got a good one that took a few tries. Then he almost landed f/s halfcab flip which I think is a totally new one for him. I landed a lot of my flipper. Fakie flip, fakie varial flip, heelflip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, f/s halfcab flip, nollie varial flip, nollie treflip (felt super good). Couldn’t land a 360 flip to save my life though. Dave tried to switch front bigspin the hip in the back of the park. He got super close. Had some rad switch front shoves on flat while feeling it out. And some rad lined setting up for it that had tricks like fakie front pivot on the noping, switch f/s ollies on the bank, switch 360 no complys on the bank and probably a lot more. I hucked some front heels over the back hip, but was rarely close. Then I started trying to go up the bank, grind the last bit of the step up into a manual on the deck of the bank. Got a couple. One in a line with a nose manual across the pyramid like Dave was doing. The last thing I did was skate the ledge for a bit. Manualled it, front 50, front 50 front 180, front 5-0 shove (trying front 50), a couple crooks (they felt good and i was a little worried they would feel weird with the smaller axles) and a horrible back 50. Whew. That was a lot of skating. Then I went to Sol and after a quick nap was out playing basketball with Ollie.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Went to Southern Hills around 9am since both kids were sleeping still. I played it really mellow for awhile. Just nosestall pivot stuff on the lower stair. Then stepped it up to back 50 on the stair. Then I skated flatground for awhile going through a few basics. Tried switch flips for awhile and started to get depressed so I stopped. Well kind of. Started doing laps with the ledge and stair. Tried a ridiculous run for awhile. F/s flip on flat, halfcab noseslide the ledge, kick back tail the stair. Got all the tricks, but never together. Tried b/s flip then fakie nosegrind, but couldn’t commit to the ledge. Landed one treflip. Didn’t come close on switch flips. Did crooks, a back 50, noseslide, noseslide to fakie, front nose, front nose to fakie, front 50 and a front 5-0 shove out where I was trying a front 50 shove out. I’ll take it. It was super nice out. I ended after trying several noseslide 270 front shoves out. Didn’t get too close to that one.

Then after hanging with India for a few hours I went to Valmont with the sole purpose of landing a switch flip for the game of torture I’m playing with Josh and Nate. I brought an 8″ setup from my garage too in case it was easier on it. It wasn’t. It sucked on both. Above is as close as I got. I’m getting really sick of trying switch flips. I went home as it started to rain again. I put some 8″ Venture hangers on my board and tried a few switch flips on the flat of Rampy. Got pissed then tried to skate Rampy. That was somewhat ok. Tried more switch flips. Didn’t land any. Over it.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushing 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Another crazy day at work. I had a chance to go skate earlier, but it was pouring. Then things cleared up in the afternoon and I went to meet Dave at Blue Skies. Aki was there when we first got there. There was people in the hockey rink. I pumped around the crack banks for a bit because my legs were really sore. Aki was doing a bunch of tricks on the flat bar. Crooks, front lip, front 50. Dave showed and Aki had to leave. The people had left the hockey rink so we went up there. We ended up skating for like two hours so there is a lot I’m not going to remember. Dave had new shoes too so I think we both had more misses then normal at the start. Dave had a bunch of lines involving no comply 180s, switch no comply 180s, nollie front 180s, nollie back 180s, cabs, f/s cabs, helipops, back 360, front 360, his new one nollie cab, kickflips, fakie bigspins, fakie shoves. Wow that’s a long list. He also came really close to switch kickflips. At the end of the session he put down a couple varial flips. So sick. I mostly tried normal tricks going the slightly downhill way and switch flips going uphill. There were some really close switch flips and I feel like I made more progress on them, but I guess it’ll still take awhile. Hopefully within the next week so I don’t get another letter. I couldn’t do a treflip. But everything else went decent. Landed kickflips, heelflips, halfcab flips both ways, b/s flips, f/s pivot flips, fakie flips, fakie bigflips. Lines I tried were fakie bigflip, turn the board around then nollie bigflip. Also heelflip, f/s flip, fakie treflip. Got kind of close. Came close to f/s halfcab heel, switch flips and landed on a varial heel that could maybe count in an over 60 game of SKATE on defense. Then I realized I had to be back at work like 30 minutes ago. Fun times.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Super tired after a long day of work. Almost didn’t skate, but it was nice out and I felt like I should for a little bit. I went to the research center and wow the view of the craziness in Longmont was pretty awesome. The bright spot in the photo above is actually lightning. Anyways I did a couple noseslide tricks to start. Oh yeah, had some new shoes. NB+ Quincys. I was liking the temp tryout of vulcs with the Es Accents, but they are just too slim and hurt my feet too much. This will be a true test if I can handle going back to vulcs. The board feel compared to the PJs is night and day better. I really didn’t skate long though. I would try a ledge trick and on the way back up try a switch flip. I never got close to the switch flips. On the ledge I good back noseslide, back noseslide fakie, front noseslide, back board pop out, crooks, a few tic tac’y back 50s and a really bad halfcab noseslide.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

The first line. The first line. The first line! So amazing! The back tail 270 shove to manual blew me away too.

A photo posted by @newbalancenumeric on Jun 3, 2015 at 9:37am PDT

A video posted by #MarquiseHenry💯 (@marquisehenry) on Jun 2, 2015 at 9:07pm PDT

Dude is on fire. Now lets see the full part!

Went to Blue Skies without intending to only try switch flips. I got there before Dave and was skating the park. Dave showed up and after a few more minutes of messing around he hunkered in on switch flips too. We just went after each other over and over. Watching some close ones, a lot of not close ones. Dave go insanely close twice. Another session spent failing at a challenge. At least this one I do hope to land and maybe bring it on the regs.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs es accents)

Met up with Rob at this spot after a busy work day then kicking the soccer ball with Ollie. It was super nice out. I decided to try out some vulcs again because the NBs are too stiff for me. I had some old used Es Accents in my closet so I wore them. They are super thin. Basically the opposite end of the spectrum from the PJs. So that was a bit weird to start with. I managed to get manual, drop down the 2 then back 180 off. That’s it as far as manny tricks. Oh, and a nose manual sideways on it. Rob did the same and then nose manual the top part and then manual drop down manual. Then we played a game of SKATE that lasted pretty long. My flip trick game was off because of the difference in shoes, but that’s a lame excuse. Rob won the game. He got me on cab, back 360, switch front shove, fakie 360 shove, and something else I can’t remember right now. It was a fun game. I was hyped on how my heelflip felt and doing a f/s no comply 360. Rob left then I sat in one section trying switch kickflips over and over. I thought I would just do it for like 20 minutes, but it ended up being over an hour. I got super close a couple times and not close the other 100 times. I seemed to learn a few things about how to position my feet and my shoulders. I still have 10 days to land one. I hope it doesn’t take all 10 of those days.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs es accents)