It was supposed to snow for a few days. I didn’t have to be to work until 9:30. It was still dry out. So I went to the Boulder park in the morning. There was another dude there when I arrived. He was having fun getting carvy with it. I cruised around a little, did a couple very basics in the mini section. Struggled with front d which bummed me out. Did a horrible beanplant. Did some ollies over the hip and a kickflip. Tried to front 50 the down ledge and totally couldn’t. It bummed me out. As did carving around. I spent the rest of the time trying cabs over the tiny hip until I got one (as shown above, I man as partially shown above). I’ve never really done cabs before so I’m trying to learn them.

Then after switching back to lows (with a riser) I went to the trusty Valmont garage. I was a little sore from skating earlier in the day, but not too bad. My first wallie over the parking block was not a rock stop slam so that was good. Kickflips came pretty easy. Soon I was trying a bunch of stuff. I really didn’t land much (as usual), but I was trying hard. Got close to nollie flip, varial heel, hardflip, switch flip, nollie 360 flip, 360 flip. Got halfcab flips, heelflip, fakie flip, b/s flip. On the tiny curb I made myself lock into halfcab crook. I did a few, they felt rad. Also some front tailslides, front crook stalls. Then I was forcing myself to ollie the newspaper stand or do a 360 flip. After a bailed 360 flip I went to push and something was weird and my board shot off. Turns out I broke the truck. Doh. I haven’t done that before. Good thing I have some older ones I can use to setup.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture v-hollie hi’s in the morning, venture lows in the evening, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 white/gum)

Went into the garage after celebrating Ollie’s birthday. My legs had some juice and I could have gone for a real session, but I just did the little spins and stuff and called it a night.

Went to these ledges on a cool night with sprinkles threatening to move the session indoors. I was incredibly stiff when I started. As I tried some silly pivots to fakie on the banked curb this old lady’s dog was barking at me something fierce. It was this little brown poodle looking dog. The lady was cool, she said she hoped I wasn’t scared of dogs. Naturally I said I wasn’t, but maybe this dog. She laughed. Normally people like that hate skating, but she was cool and wished me a good night. I got some noseslides going, ride on front 50s on the escalator part, a kickflip or two. It became a struggle to do anything else though. Got a few crooks. Most just bonked off right away, but I had a few that grinded for awhile. Kind of got a line with crooks over one gap and then noseslide 270 out over the next, but the 270 was in no way legit. Not very close to front crooks, front tail, front smith or even back 50 really. After awhile I left. It wasn’t raining, but it was cold and I kind of just wanted to skate flatground.

So I went to the Valmont garage. I set my board down, took one push and went to wallie a parking block, but hit a stop rock and slammed. I was close to a board focus. This time of year it’s hard to be excited about parking garages. Shortly after a truck pulled in and this guy stopped when he saw me. I was like great, a kickout. Instead he told me to have fun and enjoy the warmth. Whoa, cool! I stubbornly kept skating and would eventually have a couple highlights. One was a line of switch ollie a parking block, fakie flip on flat, halfcab flip on flat, kick back tail the tiny curb (it felt really good though). Another line was pop shove on flat, 360 flip on flat, kickflip front 50 (sloppy as it gets, but it’s been awhile). Other then that I didn’t get much of what I tried. No nolllie flips, proper cabs, nollie cabs, switch heels, or another kick back tail. Those lines did cheer me up though.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture v-hollow light 5.2 hi with 3 washers on the inside of the axles, venom 88a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 white/gum)

Worked an 11 hour day. Didn’t have the energy to get out and skate so just went in the garage for a little minimum. I think I just kind of spun some cabs around and other stuff.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture v-hollow light 5.2 hi with 3 bushings on the inside of the axles, venom 88a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 white/gum)

Long ass hike with Liz starting at our house. So fun.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 24, 2016 at 4:31pm PDT

Went on a long walk hike with Liz and was super sore and tired after. Went for a short minimum in the garage. Posed some more cabs without ollieing. Maybe I will one day land a real one.

@boredzinejp I challenge you to the boardslide run along. Inspired by @louiebarletta. Takes a bit to figure it out, but I know you will. #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 24, 2016 at 7:39am PDT

Up early on a Saturday morning that was super nice out. Did some yoga, ate and then left to go skate while others woke up. I went to this bench to try a boardslide ghost ride for the game of OLDFART. At first I thought it would be impossible. Mainly because I couldn’t even ollie high enough to get on the bench initially. Slowly I would boardslide further, then enough to start trying the jump off. It took me about an hour before I got the last one. It was a blast to land it though.

Then I met Rob, Dave, Fuzz and Austin at the new bank spot. It was funny because another old guy showed up randomly. And he was on a Null board! A lot went down, remembering it all is impossible. We skated this for a long time. Rob and I warmed up with the ol’ no comply bigspin. Austin did all wallrides and wallies real quick like. Who invited the young guy? Fuzz had the steeziest halfcab flip in history. Dave got wallie over the hip which he’s wanted to do for awhile. I struggled with kickflip fakie so did bigflip first try. Rob came close to wallie nollies. Dave did his pop shove body varial and wallrid over the pipe. Fuzz called out his primos and landed a wallride or two. A lot more went down, it was a really fun session. Dave and I were the last ones standing and tried switch flips on the bank for awhile. Dave got real close. I was happy to huck it. Rob had to take off.

Today ruled.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 23, 2016 at 10:21pm PDT

Then we went to this random pond spot Dave hadn’t skated in 20 years (literally). We were sketched at first, but it ended up being chill. We totally experienced the initial “how do you skate this?” feeling, but ended up getting some goods. I spent my time trying kickflips over the hip (not another kickflip). Dave and Austin stalled out the tall part of the ledge. Austin had some crazy transfers and a front blunt on the ledge. Fuzz had a sick nose pick along with some epic tail stalls (ie, not epic). Dave rattled off a ton of tricks and ended with a line that had a pivot shove to fakie. So sick! Dave left.

@nolancormier kickflip fakie. 📸 @_f_u_z_z

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Apr 24, 2016 at 7:01am PDT

After that it was chill mode. We watched Nolan and Garrett skate this spot. I filmed them get some tricks. It was fun. Then it got cold and we called it a day.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture v-hollow light 5.2 hi with 3 washers on the inside of the axles, venom 88a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 white/gum)

Back to the dog park right after a painfully slow day at work. I had setup a smaller board and trucks. 8.25 with 8″ high trucks. This was my original goal for the year so I’m not too mad at myself. I was incredibly sore so it wasn’t magic, but I did flip my board easier. I was feeling better about most tricks I did. I landed a very bad halfcab heel, but it felt better then anything the day before. I landed a 360 flip second try and it made me so happy. Came really close to nollie flips. Dave was skating decent too. I’m forgetting his early tricks, but at the end he was insanely close to 360 flip and his pop shove body varial. It felt good to leave in a good mood. It might have been partially because I was wearing some old PJ shoes found in the closet too.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture v-hollow light 5.2 hi, venom 88a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 white/gum)

With Fallen Footwear going under the shoe debate has become a hot topic again. I get bummed out on some of the stuff people say that isn’t correct. So for whatever reason I decided to document my current stance on the whole corporate vs skater owned shoe argument.

For years I took a ‘skater owned brands only’ stance. This changed when New Balance Numeric came around and gave PJ Ladd a shoe. Why? Because I’m a huge PJ Ladd fan and because the shoe seemed perfect (note – it is perfect). Lets start by listing a few facts about all skate shoe brands.
1) All skate shoes are made in China by non-skaters. From Vox to Nike, no skaters are manufacturing the shoes.
2) All skate shoe brands have a skate team.
3) All skate shoe brands have skaters involved in running the team and helping with shoe designs.

With that said what makes skater owned brands different from corporate companies? I think there are two main differences which can be broken up as a pro and con. The pro is that the bigger brands have access to better technology which in many cases make better shoes. This isn’t always the case, just a general consensus. The con is that a non-skater bigwig executive type could pull the plug at any point. It’s my believe that a skater owned brand would hold onto their company longer then a major corporation trying to make numbers. Obviously there is a point where even skater owned brands shut down. Both the pro and con are huge though.

Another aspect of the skate shoe world that often gets overlooked is the environmental aspect. I live in Boulder, CO. I am kind of a hippy. So this is probably a bigger deal to me then others, but I want my shoes to last as long as possible. Both for financial reasons and to minimize my waste.

I guess overall to me the biggest thing is that you buy your shoes at your local skateshop. Whatever brand you chose as long as the local shop benefits I’m down. I personally do not like Nike though. Nike continues to steal riders and make way too much of a point of being everywhere. I want variety in skateboarding. I do not think badly of any other company. I am a little upset that the skater owned brands didn’t immediately improve their quality once bigger companies started moving in, but I think there has been more effort for quality lately.

Thanks for listening. Have fun. Go skate.

A couple random notes:
Supposedly the process of vulcanizing a shoe is incredibly bad for the environment. Why isn’t this a big deal?
New Balance isn’t actually a corporation, but a privately owned company. I didn’t know that until this week.

This part is excellent.

Right after work on a nice day I went to the “dawg park” to meet Dave and Rob for some flatground. As I pulled up I saw a little kid on a bike trailing Rob around the slab. Pretty funny. His name was Levi. He was having fun on his bike. He left after a little while though. Rob was once again the first one landing real tricks. Kickflips, no complies, manual to ollie over a rock, back 180s, no comply shoves. Dave seemed to go right from warming up to trying switch front 360s. I felt like I had gotten warmed up and was trying tricks beyond kickflip, but just not landing them. I landed one heelflip and felt stoked. I should not be that stoked to just land a heelflip. We played a game of SKATE. It started by all 3 of us bailing our first trick “go to” trick. Awesome. I forget what Rob went out on, but he was the first to go. At that point I had SKA and Dave only had S. I struggled to land a couple flippers to get him closer then he got me with the pop shove body varial. What a crazy trick. After Rob and Dave left I told myself I would do 10 treflips. At 0-20 I lost it and focused my deserving board. Good riddance to the big setup.

(setup 8.38 null control room, venture wides, venom 88a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, es accel slim black/white)