Any time I go a few days without skating or skate poorly I start to obsess over my setup. Well that was the case once again and I had put some low hangers on my setup with some old tiny Spitfires. I went to this little area wanting to skate flat while wearing orthotics and see how my legs felt. Because they weren’t really feeling any better after a few days off of skating. The first few ollies felt like total crap. Did some 180s, shoves. I moved on to kickflip and struggled a little, but got a few. The lower setup flips so fast. Went on to fakie flip pretty quickly, varial flip in a couple tries, halfcab flip took awhile. Then got stuck with b/s flip one way and f/s halfcab flip the other. Got terrible, terrible versions of both. Got close to fakie bigflip and nollie tre, but started to get sore and lost motivation. I did the deck check ollie up on to the curved ledge (took more tries then I’d like to share) and barely got an ollie off it. The landing hurt my right knee which has been hurting. I decided to call it. Glad I got my venture low fix out of the way.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, venture AWAKE lows, 91a venom bushings, old 50mm 101a spitfire f4 classics, washers on the outside of the axle, new balance numeric pj 533 black gum size 12, fp gamechanger insoles)

Feeling run down for some reason all day I went to Red Hawk to meet Nate and Rob. I got there first. I started with my smaller setup. I didn’t think I’d really be able to skate, but after several minutes of no ollie noseslides I got crooks and front 50 first try. I came somewhat close to crooks shove as well. It went downhill for me after that though as my knee pain became too much to handle. At one point my left knee (which has felt tine lately) had a sharp pain that scared me. I remembered I had some FP Gamechangers in the car so I put them on and I felt slightly better. I just skated very slow and tried switch front noseslide shove which felt close a couple of times.. I tried my bigger board and back to the smaller one, but it didn’t matter. Rob shredded. Nollie front lip and switch boardslide shove. Nate did 50s easy to get warmed up, front tail, front lip then went after the front noseblunt. He also did some manuals on the rocks, nose manuals, nollie 180 nose manuals, switch inward heels, switch flips, etc. He got really close to some noseblunts. Matt showed and did a few easy 50s before the cops came and gave us a peaceful boot. We went to Erie park that had a bunch of bikers, scooters and kooks. Well, a few other skaters too that were ripping and having fun. Matt and Nate killed the tall ledge. Those tricks are nuts. I just sat and watched. Rob had done a few laps cruising around and smartly bounced. I don’t like how much pain I was in. I think I know will give up on skating without orthotic insoles.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

After a fun morning of helping Saul pour the last of the crete we all met at Crisis around 2pm. We drove off to a new spot Rob had found that looked really fun. It was. But unfortunately we got the boot really quick. Rob had done some axle stalls and smiths, Fuzz tried some ollies over a gap, I tried some axle stalls and slappy crooks, Dave did pivots. This spot has a ton of potential, hopefully we can get some time at it. Then we ended up at the double bank spot. Hype wasn’t too high, but we rolled it for awhile and before long it was a pretty heated and awesome session. We busted out the camera, lines were filmed, tricks were landed, fun was had. Rob with the steezy ollies and beanplant to tail. Dave back tails, front nosestall on the low bar, front 50 the low bar, switch shoves. Fuzz fakie flip the smaller bank then kickflip to fakie the steeper one first try. So sick. He almost got another banger line, but ran out of juice. I struggled with kickflips to fakie, but kind of got a line that I actually like with a kickflip to fakie on the smaller bank, fakie ollie the steep bank then alley oop boneless to terrible landing. Dave got the shaft having to film the longest. Sorry Dave. He also had the worst slam of the session hanging catching the inside of his arm on the bar. Then we were supposed to hit Safeway, but ended up skating the Crisis curb. I mostly sat after a slappy crook or two. Rob had slappy crook and crook to fakie, feebles, almost lap over smith or whatever that is called. Fuzz slappy feeble. Dave front hurricane! Justin and Connor were skating too. Justin was going bonkers. Slappy crook to feeble, crook to boardslide, crook to 5-0. Switch slappy crook bigspin, switch front crook fakie flip out. Dude destroys slappys.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

Worked from home on a nice Friday after a rainy morning. Rob and I went to meet at Wilville around 3:30. I had a fun push there. I did one warm up nose stall on the skate stopped ledge and immediately a security guard came out and gave the boot. Doh. I went out front and Rob was there and we agreed to try Dog Park. Rob got there first and told me it was all wet. Argh. So then we decided on research which was dry and bust free. However there were quite a few students and cars making it not as chill as normal. I had watched a bunch of CK1 parts earlier in the day and it got me hyped to try some lines. It kind of helped with some warm up lines that were fun. Rob got halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, crooks, boardslide and maybe halfcab boardslide too. I just had noseslides and a crooks or two. I couldn’t get halfcab noseslide, front 50 or back 50. We did some downhill lines for awhile. I was skating so incredibly slow. Got halfcab flip, the slowest fakie bigflip in history, couldn’t kickflip up the curb. Rob was trying a line of back 180 up the curb, body varial, front shove, front board pop out. He had one body varial that was so sketchy and amazing that he survived without a fall. I was trying some super slow frontside halfcab flips when Rob sat and I sat too that was the skating for the day. I wish skateboarding wasn’t so hard sometimes.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

Happy #gsd! @43shifty golden hour back smith.

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jun 21, 2017 at 7:10pm PDT

After dinner on a warm evening I met Rob at Safeway. We both warmed up in a similar manner just doing ‘slappy’ noseslides and stuff. Rob was the first to touch his tail and go back 50. 50s were had by both. Well, my back 50 were all tic tac’d until a good feeling one later on. But that was after the Rob demo was in effect. Back smith, front tail, back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, halfcab noseslide to fakie, back 50 bean plant out! There is more, but I’m not remembering right now. There was a period where I felt really good on my board. It felt great. Kickflips felt good. Ollies onto the ledge didn’t hurt at all. I was trying front 50 no comply shove out, but never got it. Also never quite got fakie nosegrind. But it was fun and even just going 50s felt great. I was also happy the whole time with my setup. A rarity these days.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

Went to Saul’s after a walk with Liz on a warm evening. As I arrived Lazer, Eric and Tucker were bouncing. Doh. Luckily Saul was down to skate more. My PF pain was kicking pretty good which effected my confidence. Ugh. Running down the transition hurts, I should just commit to everything and I’d be better off. Saul was ripping and rolling in everywhere. Even the deep end. He was grinding longer, slashing the shallow, almost the deep, trying new stuff. Me too. After getting a few carve grinds and the easy roll ins I tried a new line. Drop in where I always do, but carve quicker and grind the corner near the hip and do a front rock on the big wall. It was fun.

Then after some driving around and figuring out if Dave was gonna skate I ended up at Valmont. I quickly wanted to go home I was so sore, but Dave said he was coming after all. My right knee was acting up on top of the plantar fasciitis. Ugh. I tried a line for awhile of halfcab on flat, wallie nollie the loading dock, then noseslide the ledge. Maybe got to the ledge one and the wallie nollie was questionable. Dave showed and after a couple of minutes slammed super hard on a front 50 attempt. His hand slapped super hard, but the way it looked I thought it was his head. It scared me. Luckily Dave is stubborn and after a brief rest was skating again. I mostly tried switch noseslides both ways, but mixed it up with a few other hucks. I couldn’t get a halfcab noseslide. Argh. Dave was doing really good noseslides and noseslides to fakie. We went to the manny pad, but I was too tired to ollie and the storm hit. I tired to time it so that Dave would be manualling with lightning in the background, but I couldn’t get it. Not the best session, but whatevs.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with stock nb insoles)

More Father's Day fun. Campus with Ollie! Make sure the sound is on to hear Ollie laughing at me.

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 18, 2017 at 7:31pm PDT

Had a lazy and awesome day with Liz and India while Ollie was in drivers ed class. I picked him up and we went to campus. We started in the engineering building and worked our way up behind the football stadium. The clip above shows most of it, but it doesn’t show Ollie waiting for me to land all these tricks. Ha. He does his tricks, he has fun and then he waits for me to land my tricks. I didn’t feel like jumping too much, but it was working. I think the stiff PJs really help my ollies. I only tried a couple of kickflips and most of the time I wished I had my bigger setup. After the back 50 I totally bailed an ollie attempt down the next 3 stair. Ollie took a few tries to get the drop down off the ledge into the quick back 180 off the curb cut. The front 5-0 was supposed to be a 50. Ha. I was happy that I was able to get up into the grinds pretty easily though. The street plant hurt to land. I’ve wanted to do that crook for awhile. It was harder than I thought it would be and I wanted my wider trucks the whole time.
Ha ha. Ollies slashes were the best I’ve seen him do. It was a really fun time with him.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel with old sole tech insoles)

Met Rob around 11 at Broomfield park. There was only a couple people there. I was feeling better after some rest and was wearing the PJ shoes again and the support felt great right away. Pretty early on I ollied onto the black ledge which has been hard for the last few months so I was hyped. We mostly skated the black ledge area. Rob was doing front noseslides, front boards, crooks. I had thought of a warm up line which I kind of did. Switch noseslide, kickflip to fakie on the mellow bank then halfcab noseslide. The halfcab noseslide was terrible, but it was fun. Also got front 50, b/s flip on the mellow bank, crooks the ledge then super close to treflip. Was hyped to also get a front 50 shove. Rob had super sick nose manuals both ways on the blue bank. We played a game of SKATE where we displayed how not to do backside flips. Ha, it lasted awhile. Rob won it with fakie 3 shove.

Then I went to Crisis to maybe get some 8.25″ trucks, but I ended up just going to Safeway. Oh yeah, I was skating my 8.25 setup with the 8″ trucks on it. It felt good at Safeway though. I took awhile to get basic 50s, but I kept at it and ended up getting a few more. Front 5-0s and a super rare back 5-0. Halfcab noseslide. Then started hucking kick back 50 and just stuck with it. I kind of got one where I tic tac’d into feeble and back, but eventually I go too tired and called it a day.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel with thin adidas insoles)

Met Rob at the Dog Park after work. It was warm and surprisingly windy. I tried to skate, but it because apparently quickly that I shouldn’t skate. I got a few kickflips, but the PF pain was too much. I played around with switch ollies and stuff since they don’t really hurt, but nothing special. Rob seemed to warm up pretty quick and had a line of back 180, cab, sw front 180 then backside flip. So sick! Kickflips, front shoves popped high, no complys, manuals. We ended it quick since I couldn’t really skate and the wind was annoying.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric 254s cream/gum with nike lunarlon insole)

Got home from work and chilled a bit. Riley was painting the house. Got a text from Saul to come skate and it worked out that Riley was finishing up so we hit it. Riley was hyped as he’s never skated Saul’s before. His first run was less painful looking than Nolan’s the other day, but clearly showed the bowl is harder than it looks. He went on to rip it though. Front noseblunt in the shallow, feeble and 5-0s to fakie in the deep, lipslides, bonelesses, he figured it out for sure. Saul’s runs with the quick carve grinds are so sick. Even his trendepents can’t withstand the abuse. He also locked into some good 50s, had a front slash,etc. I skated it okay and the first few runs had me in different lines which I liked. My heel (plantar fasciitis) was pretty bad so running out was extra painful, but I had fun for sure. Then I went home and climbed on the roof to trim trees and clean gutters. Fun.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 88a bushings, green spitfire F4 52mm classic 99a wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric 254s cream/gum with stock nb insoles)