Day 291. 💦

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 30, 2015 at 8:07am PDT

One of those rare morning when I work late that I decide to leave early and stop by Boulder park. It was lightly sprinkling as I pulled in. There were two other people there that left shortly after I got there. Hopefully it was the rain that got to them and not me. I did a few axle stalls around the park, almost got a grind in the round deep end and then it started to get sketchy to skate. So I just tried this line over an over of ollie into the far NW bank, kickflilp out of the bump, front 50 down the hubba, front 50 up the hubba. Never quite got it, but did get halfway up the hubba. Good enough for me.

After work I stopped by the research center. I had energy and wanted to skate. It was cool out. I warmed up by riding down the Max stairs a few times then hit the ledge. Had some fun warm up runs with a basic trick on the ledge then ollies up the curbs and the little gap. Took awhile to get crooks. Got back 50 first try. Had an ok halfcab noseslide. Took forever to get a front 50 and when I did I headed around the building to find a good spot for flatground. I told myself I needed to do 15 flip tricks. That’s pretty much all I have so it would be tough. It started out good though. Kickflip, fakie flip, heelflip, halfcab flip, fakie bigfilp, varial flip, fakie varial flip, 360 flip, nollie varial flip, nollie 360 flip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s flip, b/s flip. And then I couldn’t do a trick to save my life. My feet were hurting like crazy and I knew I would never skate the Suciu’s again. I was getting close on f/s halfcab heel, but I would wuss out a lot because of how bad my feet hurt. I ended up getting horrible b/s and f/s halfcab heels to make 15. Fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture vlight lows venom bushings no bottom washer 1/16 riser 4 washers on the inside of each axle 50mm spitfire f4 101a adidas suciu adv)

Almost to 300! I was dragging after a very busy day of work and some family stuff. Ended up just doing a quicky in the garage. The some manuals to start with. First time doing switch nose manual 180 out the long way on the sheet of wood. Neat. Then tried 10 nollie heels not getting close at all and called it a day.

Fun extended lunch break with these dudes!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 28, 2015 at 1:06pm PDT

I haven’t skipped out for lunch at Blue Skies in forever. I also haven’t skated with Rob in forever. Warmups seemed good for everyone. I think Dave had been there for awhile because he was ripping. Fakie shoves on the bank. He also beat me to a kickflip to fakie. Luckily I had my new setup as an excuse (can it still be an excuse since I almost always change something?). Rob hadn’t skated in awhile, but he didn’t look rusty. He had kickflips on the bank, boardslide to fakie the flat bar, no complys, no comply bigspin, crail, boardslides on the ledge and those steezy back 180s. Dave was front 50’ing from low to high on the main ledge really fast. Also got a line with switch shove on the bank then boardslide shove out on the flat bar. I had front 50, front 50 180, front 50 shove, some bad crooks, did ok with flip tricks. Took too long to get kickflip to fakie, but got fakie flip first try. Tried halfcab flip on the bank for awhile, but couldn’t get it. Rob and I left as Dave was doing feebles on the flat bar. He probably skated for a few more hours.

(setup 8.25 null venture vlight lows venom bushings no bottom washer 1/16 riser 4 washers on the inside of each axle 50mm spitfire f4 101a adidas suciu adv)

Went out to Valmont with my fresh new setup. I made it even fresher with some new Venom bushings I got at Meta on the way. I felt pretty good initially and went through the various no ollie noseslide maneuvers. Struggled a bit with crooks, struggled a lot with front 50 on the medium part. Was 2-2 on treflips and kickflips felt good too. I was surprised at how close I got to nollie inward heel. Man, that would be awesome. I went into huck mode after awhile. Front smith, front tail and front crook on the medium part. Got a really bad front tail and somehow almost got a front smith too. Hucking is fun. Technically landed two kickflip noseslides, but they were not posted up at all and just dinged the edge. I’m pretty happy with the 8.25 and low trucks at the moment. It’s the first time I’ve gone run that setup. Not sure I’m feeling the bushings. Oh well. Full on nerd out on my setup in the “setup” section below.

(setup 8.25 null venture vlight lows venom bushings no bottom washer 1/16 riser 4 washers on the inside of each axle 50mm spitfire f4 101a adidas suciu adv) whew.

Went out to the garage with some new stuff. My Westgates had died in record time so I started the Suciu shoes. I’m not very excited for them as they are super thin. I also setup an 8.25. I had wanted to before the rain last week and I goofed around on the garage board. I put some old Spitfires that were still pretty new and not as flatspotted as the OJs. I just did a few manuals on the “manny pad”. It was fun. Then about 10 kickflips.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser no bottom washer 50mm spitfire f4 101 adidas suciu)

Got to Denver park at 8:30 feeling exhausted, unmotivated and cold. I also quickly realized how stupid I am to think that an 8″ works for me again after a week of skating in my garage. I slammed rolling off a ledge and one point after my back foot slid off the back off the little nose. I did not skate well at all. I got an axle stall on the double up bank thing, a halfcab flip that took a lot of tries, a couple slow front 50s on the little ledge in the corner and not much else. Dave had some moves. Wallrides, ollies in the dishes, etc that were cool. Yesterday he wasn’t feeling very well, today I wasn’t. Simon joined and we went to this famous spot.

Simon early morning boardslide to fakie

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 25, 2015 at 9:09pm PDT

Simon and Dave went for it. Dave got remotely close to boardsliding all of it, but he is goofy footed so has a disadvantage in speed. Simon noseslid and boardslid to fakie it. So sick!

I on the other hand was SUCKING. After filming those guys for awhile I tried to front 50 the concrete ledge above. It took me forever. It was ridiculous. It also took me too many tries to boardslide the metal one. I did get a noseslide first try at least.

A couple @jackspanbauer highlights from today's amazing #slappyslalom. Thank you so much for hosting such a fun event @badeggskatezine! Guest appearance from @charleydavidson

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Oct 25, 2015 at 7:03pm PDT

And of course some @nolancormier clips from #slappyslalom. How the heck did he grind through that wiper? #contestmakenosepick Thanks again @badeggskatezine!

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Oct 25, 2015 at 7:48pm PDT

Then it was off to Slappy Slalom 5! Aka Slappy Ending. Where I didn’t hardly skate at all. I mostly just watched everyone rip. There was so many obstacles and people it was insane. Nolan and Jack killed it. Everyone did. It was a blast to watch. Near the end of the day I finally did a few lines. Did the little rainbow rail. Did the same line as last year. Slappy crooks, manual the crisis box, boardslide the long pvc slider.

@matthouse back nosegrind

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 26, 2015 at 5:59am PDT

Then it was off to here where everyone was tired. Matt killed the ledges though. Nosegrind, back tail, front tails, etc. Bernie had some moves too. First try front smith front 180 out. Nolan proved he isn’t just a tranny skater. Scotty had some crazy good treflips, nosegrinds and almost front hurricane on the elevated curb. I got one crooks, small boardslides and felt tired. Tried noseslide 270 shove for awhile and failed. Bernie did a fakie manual fakie flip out on the long low manny pad. Nolan did kickflip nose manual. Bernie and I tried fakie bigflip manuals for awhile, he got one. I never even flipped the board up there. Argh. I was really hating my small setup by the end of the day and my wheels had a huge flat spot from the two powerslides I did at Slappy Slalom.

(setup 8″ null venture lows 50mm ojs westgate emericas grey)

Met Dave at the normal campus meet up spot. Basically a slight downhill median. We got there at the same time. Warm ups for both of us were various nose stall 270s. We would get a bit more courageous with each warming minute (it was cold when we started!). I slammed trying to ollie onto the median, but it woke me up. It was the first time this season slapping that cold of ground. Ouch. We both did some manuals. I did a dumb switch board stall turned around to manual. I think Dave got it too. I did a line of ollie onto the median, kickflip on it, back 180 off. Dave got a clean back 180 nose manual. I managed a front 180 nose manual 180 out which felt really cool.

In the morning. #strugglefest

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 24, 2015 at 9:18am PDT

Then we moved into campus for the new spot Dave found. Quick up a curb to another curb. It’s fun. I struggled with back 50s for a bit. Dave started doing front crooks and did a perfect one to fakie before the camera was on. I filmed him for quite awhile and it didn’t happen again. But he did get on to forward that was tight and one with a 270 out. Ha. After that I skated for awhile and Dave chilled. Then Dave filmed me try a chinese nollie followed by a slappy crooks to fakie. Got it real quick so I tried to add a trick to the beginning and somehow did the line with a no comply 360 right away. I was hyped!

Last one from the weekend to make writing my skate journal easier. @fullertrron breaking in a new ledge at 'The best stadium in all of college sports'. Bump to 50.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 26, 2015 at 7:02am PDT

Then we went to this new spot. Dave did gap to 50 easy. It’s harder then the photo looks. We skated for awhile. It’s a cool alley that had a manhole we were messing around with tricks over. Spoiler alert. Dave did a steezy pop shove followed by a bump to 50 and an over 40 nollie big. So good. I tried to do back 180 the manhole then fakie flip, but I struggled with the fakie flip. Instead I went with kickflip then no comply 180 to set me up for a switch front nose. I would eventually get it in on film thanks to Dave being such a wonderful guy. Then Dave went and shut down the ledge with a front tail. Okay, maybe he didn’t ‘shut’ it down, but the spot probably will be shut down soon when they finish construction. That was it. Fun day. We skated hard.

(setup: 8″ null venture lows 50mm ojs emerica westgates grey)

Friday night! Whew! Raining again. I went out to the garage as it was too early to hit up a parking garage. I skated for quite awhile and I didn’t land much of anything. It was kind of depressing. I did huck a lot of different tricks so that’s cool at least.

(setup 8″ null venture lows 50mm ojs emerica westgates grey)

Went out to the garage on another rainy afternoon. I was feeling better and more hyped to skate. I grabbed my regular board and went through the pain of warming up. I started by doing some form a cab. Basically just a fast pivot spin. No ollie in. It lead me to think I’d be able to do a cab if I were to have more room. Then I did a few kickflips, shoves, fakie flip. Started going through the list. Halfcab flips were hard as it’s so narrow with the bikes and mattress. Bs/fs flips. Heelflip. Got to treflip and got stuck. Partly because I couldn’t do it and partly because that trick seems to hurt my shoulder more then other tricks. I grabbed my garage setup and tried on it. Kind of got a couple. Then the real hucking began. I would end up getting a few rare ones, varial heel, back heel (landed 90 degrees and turned the rest of the way) and at the very end a halfcab heel that took a really long time. I had also hucked a ton of nollie heels (not close), nollie flips (super close) and switch flips (relatively close). It was fun.

Went into the garage not feeling good or motivated. Slid the 4 main 180s around to get warmed up. Then just felt tired. Forced myself to try some more nollie heels, but was too tired to try to hard. Tried some on India’s old 7.5 that had trucks, but not wheels. Ha. It didn’t help. Rode my 8.38 setup for a bit. Went inside to go to sleep.