Bolted to Blue Skies around my ‘gym time’ because it looked like the weather was going to move in and prevent a lunch time skate. It ended up being horrible time. I got there right when a huge wind kicked in that lasted the whole time. The temp dropped from the upper 40s to the upper 30s in minutes. It was windy, rainy, windy, snowy and lots of windy windy windy. I tried to skate the little ledge. I was skating so slow and without any confidence. I rattled off a bunch of tricks without ollies. Noseslide 270, switch noseslide 270, front nose 270, sw front nose 270, halfcab noseslide, crooks, almost crooks shove, front 50 (it took awhile ugh), front 50 shove, front 50 front 180, the worst front tail flop in history, posed back 50 and posed fakie nosegrind, tried a bunch of switch boardslides, but didn’t get one. At end I tried to ollie onto the middle ledge and the depression really kicked in. I got pretty close a few times, but no cigar. The last one was a total insult, I just ran into the ledge. Ugh. I stretched and went back to work.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 50mm v1 STFs washers inside each axle bones medium bushings nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Met up with Dave and Aki at lunch on a decent day. I was very sore and I would go on to suck very badly. It was a pretty depressing session for me. I was unable to do a lot of the basics I do every time I go there. Like front 50s on the little ledge were tough. Ugh. At one point I started trying to kickflip the low part of the dragon bar. I hadn’t committed, then Aki tried a couple and did it all casual. It had me hyped and I finally committed, but I fell. I committed one more time after that, but didn’t land it. Aki was ripping some long lines with ollies over flat bars, front 50 front 180, back 50 to back tail, kickflips, you name it. Dave was doing fakie 360 shoves on the bank and almost doing front board shove out on the flat bar. Aki and I played around with some noseslides on the middle tall ledge. I managed a weak boardslide on it. I filmed Dave for a bit get really close to his line then I had to split for work.

Later in the evening after working on a new Null teaser for awhile I went out in the garage hoping to feel a little better about skating. I had taken off my Spitfires and put some old STFs on. I measured my Spitfires and they were down to 44mm! Wow. I don’t know how much bigger the STFs are, but they are a few mms bigger. I just posed tricks. Switch flip one way, nollie heel the other. Got insanely close to the switch flip. Not so close to the nollie heel. I listened to Clean Girls and it brought the hype. I didn’t land anything, but I felt better about skateboarding.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 50mm spitfires/stfs 4 washers inside each axle bones medium bushings nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

@nolancormier bundle up and skate. ⛸

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Nov 19, 2015 at 5:48am PST

On a chilly night (it was 32 when we started and mid 20s when we finished) I picked up Nolan and we went to the empty Louisville park. I could tell immediately that I would not skate well. I told NOlan I needed to learn nollie front nose and we tried some. Well, he did some. I just jumped off my board and shook my head because I will probably be getting a letter on it. I also was like 1/10 on front 50s and crooks. Yikes. Nolan was doing front crooks, smiths, tailslides, lots of tricks. I gave up on the ledge after awhile. We started skating the bank to ledge. Nolan was doing back 50s, back 5-0, crooks and other tricks over the hip so I filmed him once. One try that’s the line he got. He rips. I was trying to do a line with crooks on the ledge, then crooks on the bank to ledge like Nolan. Never got it. Did some noseslides, jumped off a b/s flip over the hip for some reason. Nolan also did 360 flip, b/s flip, cab, front smith, frontside flip, a bunch more. I took a long time to do kickflip to fakie on the bank. We messed around with the mellow qp/bank with coping on it. Nolan did kickflip b/s nosepick. I came close to kickflip pivot, but couldn’t get enough speed most times. Nolan then tried 360 flip into “whatever it lands in” and he did like 3 treflip front 50s in a row. I tried a bunch of kickflip boardslides on the bank to ledge. Got close, but that was it. Fun night even though I skated poorly.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser bones medium bushings 4 washers inside each axle 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

I was almost feeling like skating. I guess the desire to take a break after hitting 300 days is finally dieing down. I went out to the garage for about 20 minutes and set the “manual pad” up the “long” way. It ended up being really fun. I didn’t get any new tricks, but I did some the long way that I’ve previously only done the short way. I know the “long” way still isn’t long, but with how little room there is in the garage the long way means I have to actually manual. I got nose manual shove, front 180 nose manual, switch nose manual 180, nose manual back 180 and halfcab nose manual back 180 out. It was fun and got me hyped to skate for real again.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers inside each wheel 50mm spitfire f4 101a bones medium bushings nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

I”m always exhausted and unmotivated after driving down from my moms. I’m not sure what it is, but for some reason the change in altitude gets to me and I’m always beat. On top of that I think I’ve hit a burnout since reaching 300 days. I was going to skip skating, but since it’s supposed to snow a bunch I figured I should get out. I thought of trying Josh’s trick for the game (nollie front noseslide to fakie) at the research curb and it somehow got me out of the house. It did feel good to be outside, and it was warm out. At first I thought it was impossible. So I used more angle and ended up getting into it and landing some non-slide versions. I also messed around with switch front noseslide bigspin out and would eventually land on one. So I got a few of the nollie nose stalls to fakie. I will have to try again sometime and slide them. It seems somewhat possible. I went over to the ledge and made myself do one crook. It took a long time. Ugh. It made me want a wider truck again. Just when I thought I was totally happy with my setup. Great.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 lows bones medium bushings 4 washers 50mm spitfire f4 101s nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Escaped work for lunch at Blue Skies. @fullertrron and @43shifty were ripping! Great to see Aki again too

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 13, 2015 at 12:52pm PST

Skipped out of work at lunch time and met Rob, Dave and Aki at Blue Skies under very blue skies. I got there first. I was sore and it showed quickly. I should probably take a day off of skating. Dave showed and made himself nollie into the bank to get into the park. Rob showed about the same time and cruised around for a bit before shredding harder then I’ve seen him shred in awhile. It ruled to see. His list included tricks like back 50 on the main ledge (back 50 on that is scary!), boardslides through the kink, front board and front nose down an escalator ledge, boardslides on the snake rail, b/s flips on the bank, his patented no comply behind the back grab spin the board trick. Dave got his nollie in and a whole lot more. Feebles on the flat bar, front 50 on the flat bar, front 50s on the main ledge floating out of the escalator part, ollied up the tall middle ledge like it was nothing, almost front 50 from the qp to the ledge. Aki had a bunch of flat bar tricks like back 50 above, crooks, back 50 the ledge, ollie onto the middle ledge, kickflips, front 50 the tall part of the main ledge every try. I didn’t skate well. I kind of made it onto the middle ledge once. Had a couple ok crooks. Tried a line of front 180 off the middle ledge, fakie flip on the bank, crooks the tall part of the main ledge. Got close. Stoked on the crew, wish I could have skated better.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Had a blast dorking around with Ollie tonight on the 'manual pad'. Gotta bring these tricks to Wilville now. Hey @fullertrron Ollie did your trick.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 12, 2015 at 8:30pm PST

Went out into the garage with Ollie on a somehwat nice night, but I was too burnt and lazy to go skating. I was pretty sore and didn’t want to ollie at all. This little manual pad is the perfect solution! Stoked that Ollie joined me. There were a few other tricks we did, some slams too, but the clip above basically sums it up.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Today’s “song of the day” is a whole album. This band ruled snowboard video soundtracks in the early 90s and I was a huge fan. Saw them in Denver once at the Mercury Cafe. Such a great show. Such a great album and band.

Went out to the garage on a very windy early evening with some snow still laying around. I started on the “manny pad” which was easily my favorite part of the night. I know that doing manual tricks on a sheet of wood don’t really count, but it’s fun regardless. I did almost all of the normal ones first or second try. It felt so cool. I added a new one to the rotate. Switch nose manual back 180 out (f/s halfcab?). Then I attempted some flip tricks. It didn’t go well at all. Kickflips were ok, but anything past that was a battle. I mostly wanted to try tricks I’ve never landed. I got very close to switch flip, close to nollie flip. Not very close to nollie inward heel. And not close to anything else on my list. At the end of the session I decided to try and ollie a tennis ball container. I suck at ollies so need to work on them. Unfortunately my garage probably isn’t the right place as even a tennis ball container seems tall when you have half of a push and have to pop basically the second you put your back foot on the tail. The garage door 3 feet from the landing adds to the hardness as well. Oh well, enough excuses, it was hard, but fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Had a busy day going at work, but was able to get out during gym time to Blue Skies. It was super nice out. I was more sore then I thought I would be, but felt excited to skate there. After the typical ollie to fakie – cab kickturn warm up I got the inkling to try crooks up the escalator ledge. I got a couple early on, but they were really slow and not grinded far. Rob showed up and began cruising around and mostly hitting the bank doing tricks like crail taps and no complies. I get a better crooks up the ledge, still not fast or anything, but it felt rad and grinded a bit. I got a slow front 50 on it too. If I go there more this winter again I’d like to get those good. Rob did a sick no comply through the legs grab where the board does 540. I have no idea what it’s called, but it was neat. I had a couple of kickflips to fakie on the bank that felt good, some other stuff I’ve done there before and a weak sauce back 50 on the escalator ledge. Rob got a boardlide on the tall part of the long ledge down through the escalator part of it and flat. Trick of the day. I ended trying a line of ollie a flat bar then front 50 the tall part of the long ledge and never got into it. Doh. Fun session though.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)