@fullertrron pulling out some ultra rare ones last night while I worked on coming up short.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 11, 2016 at 6:16am PDT

Went to Longmont park later in the evening and met Dave. The park was not too crowded, the scene was typical for Longmont park crowd. I’m writing this way to long after it happened, so I wont remember much. I know we played a game of SKATE on the mellow bank. It was a close one SKAT-SKAT for awhile. We had both done sex changes which was rad. Dave won it with a backside front shove. Ha, does that make any sense? Backside ollie with a front shove. Then we both tried switch flips on the bank for awhile. Both god close. I gave up and started trying cab flips, but Dave kept at the switch flips and got one! So sick. I kind of got some cab flips too, but as you can see they weren’t quite far enough around. Dave also got a backside bigspin over the hip. We both tried frontside bigspins over the hip, well, Dave’s was switch. Both got remotely close. I took off then. This was the first session in awhile where I felt good on my board at times.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics!)

It’s hard to skate right after work. Especially now that I’ve been doing these weird barefoot exercises all day to try and kill off my plantar fasciitis (it seems to be working!). Skating without my orthotics is so weird. I’ve skated with them for 15 years, so not having the arch support feels so bizarre and made for another really slow warm up that made me want to focus my big board. But after getting a couple heelflips and close to nollie tres I started to feel alright. I still struggled, but I should kind of expect this considering I just started skating a big board AND I stopped skating with orthotic insoles for the first time in 15 years. I didn’t get anything rare. Came close to halfcab heel, somewhat close to switch f/s flip, not very close to cab flip (screen shot above). Then the wind kicked in fierce and killed my desire to keep skating.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics!)

#day221

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 8, 2016 at 8:02pm PDT

After a fun time at the Lucky’s Market grand opening I got out for a bit in front of the house. There was one big change though, no orthotic insoles! I have been researching plantar fasciitis and read about the evils of orthotics so I pulled the plug. It felt really weird at first. It ended up being alright. I landed a few basics, a couple crappy treflips, but couldn’t get a b/s flip. I was worried about hurting my back the whole time (the reason I was told to start wearing orthotics (seems like I wish they would have told me to strengthen my arch instead)). Not digging the big board.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics!)

I thought I was loving the bigger setup so I set up a new deck. I was out of 8.38s so I set up an 8.5 which is basically the same. Or so I thought. I had a long day of doing chores and hanging with the girls. I didn’t have a lot of time so I went with the default of the research ledge. I did not skate well at all. I don’t really know why. I tried my new rule at that spot of having to do 50s and a treflip before crooks. The back 50 and treflip came somewhat easy, but I kept either not getting onto or sticking the front 50. It sucked. I am starting to hate this ledge. Maybe I should just go back to not skating it frontside. Other filp tricks went ok, but that board felt rather huge. I stuck with it for awhile, got one line I liked. Front shove, front 180 up a curb, fakie flip on flat, switch front nose the ledge. I gave up on front 50s after getting into several and sticking then did a slow line, with tricks that mostly felt good coming down the hill. B/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, ollie up the curb, crooks. Got a couple more crooks. Did a quick and terrible halfcab noseslide. I may never really learn that trick. It was a really frustrating session. Made me question the bigger setup already. Doh.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum, spenco orthotic thinsoles with footprints heel pad)

I woke up with a lot of plantar fasciitis pain, did a bunch of exercises for it, did some other stuff around the house then met Rob at Safeway ledge at 2. It was a cloudy morning that looked like rain, but right when I showed up the rain cleared and it was rather hot. Rob was already sweating and ripping. His patented long back 50s, back 180 fakie 50, really sick nollie front lips, was trying halfcab noseslide shoves and got close a couple of times, kickflips, cabs and more. For all of the pain in my feet earlier, it all went away when I started skating. I hucked a lot, but didn’t seem to land much, although I had a rare back 5-0.

A @nolancormier trick and a few @siouxer666 tricks from the @andalebearings #wheeliedope contest yesterday put on by the fine folks at @metaskateboards and @crisis_skateboards

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Aug 7, 2016 at 8:07am PDT

Then we went to Broomfield and watched the fun little manual contest they had going. It was mostly Meta and Crisis dudes, so it was awesome. I skated around for some of it, but not very seriously. Riley and Nolan ripped it as did everyone else. After the contest I chilled for awhile, then started skating the quartapotty with Riley and Nolan. We played a game of SKATE. No surprise, but I was the first one out. At least I lasted longer then 5 tricks. I even ended up landing a couple of the tricks Nolan got me with. Front pivot to front rock, and front pivot to back rock. I was hyped to land a new trick even if it’s just a dork trick for Nolan. I skated flatground pretty good. Halfcab flip, fakie bigfilp, first try 360 flip, heelflip, etc.

Then I decided to try Josh’s trick on the only real bank at the park. I got one! Then I got Riley to film me do it again and I got another. Both were terrible compared to Josh’s. I definitely “revert” rather then pivot all the way around. Oh well, I was hyped. Fun day, fun people.

(setup: 8.38 old bottom of the well null deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum, spenco orthotic thinsoles with footprints heel pad)

Feeling much much better I went to the dog park before work. There were more puddles then I anticipated. I found a section to work with though and had fun. After a quick warm up period with ollies, 180s, shoves off the nose, etc I settled in on switch flips for awhile. Then switch flips or 360 flips. Never got too close to switch flip. Took awhile to commit to 360 flip on the bigger board. Then started trying in a line with a flip trick I can normally do it like heelflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip. I would get several treflips, but none of them were without a hand down. they were whipping around really well though. Also came close to nollie tre, got a halfcab heel and was amazed at how good they were popping. Ended trying fakie and nollie bigflips. Got the fakie one, close to the nollie one. I left feeling good.

(setup: 8.38 old bottom of the well null deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum, spenco orthotic thinsoles with footprints heel pad)

Worked from home as I was feeling pretty sick. It allowed me to rest up and get feeling better. It also allowed me to assemble a new big complete from old parts in my garage. The rule was not to touch my existing setup at all. I found a really old 8.38 deck, some partially used Venture 5.8s and some wheels/bearings. When I was done with work I still felt pretty lousy, but I figured some exercise and fresh air would help. It did. I didn’t skate great, but I had fun. I had the trucks way too tight, so that didn’t help. I did the basic 50s above, which were both harder then normal. The frontside one is so much harder then it looks having to dodge the handrail. I played with some flippers too. That really old board didn’t have much pop. I tried a line for awhile of front 50 the narrow ledge (in the clip), kickflip into the second “bank”, cruise around the bike racks then backside flip up the slanted curb. Got so close. Then just did the b/s flip by itself. That was about it. I felt a lot better when I was done skating. I went home knowing I would want to keep skating the bigger setup so put my new wheels/bearings/good bushings in it.

(setup 8.38 null bottom of the well deck, venture 5.8, thunder bushings, some old STFs, 2 washers on the inside of each wheel, NB# quincy 254s blue/gum, spenco orthotic thinsoles with FP heel pad)

I guess the reason I felt so bad on campus was because I was getting sick. Doh. So I just rolled in front of the house for a bit. Didn’t ollie, just did shoves off the front of the board, slide around cabs and nabs, that’s about it.

Went to campus as I didn’t have much time and it had rained. I started under the Engineering building and could not get anything going at all. I felt terrible. I couldn’t even kickflip. I moved up to the bike path above that had dried and tried some flippers. That didn’t work either. I pushed around and ended up on the new flat by the stadium. I tried some tricks for awhile, got heelflip, but not halfcab flip. Then just gave up and only tried nollie heels or switch flips. Got close to both. Felt heel pain and left. I had been wearing some new spenco full length insoles without any other padding. I think they need some type of padding.

(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)

Woke up early and have the late shift so I got ready for work then hit the Boulder park. I parked next to someone gearing up for the park too. As I warmed up he kept gearing up. 30 minutes later he was skating the park too! Ha. My warm up was ok. I like cruising that park when it isn’t crowded. I felt like I was skating slower then normal, but not because of lack of effort, my board just felt slow. Weird. I did lots of tiny ollies over little hips, did some axle stalls. Got a kickflip over the backside hip easy, but took forever to get a b/s flip the other way. It was annoying. I also struggled to front 50 down the tiny hubba. I would get it, but it took awhile. My last few minutes were spent trying boneless combos on the little qp and 360 flips going slow on flat. I got two terribly slow boneless to tails. That is a new one for me so I’ll enjoy the baby step. The 360 flip took awhile and when I landed it I put both hands down. But it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve tried one as they seemed to hurt my heels the most. Also the first one in vulcs. Fun morning.

(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum spenco thinsole orthotics)