Found out earlier in the day it was official that PJ would be having a part in the new NB video. It hyped me up. I’m not really sure why PJ footage gets me so hyped, I mean I can’t do 1/10 of the stuff he does. But something about how he does his tricks is so magical. So I went to the research ledge after putting low trucks on again (ha) feeling hyped. It was raining at my house so I was surprised I was able to skate outside. I started with noseslides, then started into lines pretty quickly. Just a basic flipper on the street, ollie up the curb, then a ledge trick. I got most of my basics pretty quickly, including a couple terrible back 50s. I slammed really hard overshooting a front 50. I haven’t done that in awhile. I got a 3 flip on flat going up the hill right away which hyped me up. No hands down! Got halfcab flip, fakie flip and fakie bigflip to start lines down the hill. Heelflip and almost fakie heelflip up the hill. Got a couple good feeling halfcab noseslides, but then I saw what they look like. Ha. You know they are bad when I’m too embarrassed to put them on my youtube channel that no one watches. I finished up with another crooks and a switch front nose. Both felt great. Then I just kind of got tired so I decided to not push it and went home.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, 1/16″ riser, venom 90a bushings, old spitfire 101a 50mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric 254 cream/gum size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsoles and Footprint 5mm kingfoam insoles)

Biked over to Saul’s after work, dinner and a nice nap. Rob and Saul were already skating, Nolan and Matt showed shortly after me followed by Jack and Carleigh. Rob struggled with front slashes initially, but then almost every one of them after that. This was the last session with Nolan before he moves to Portland. Such a bummer. He is so fun to watch and skate with. Him and Jack were getting crazy with the ride in grinds. Nolan did crooks and 5-0. Jack did like 10 tricks. Disasters, 5-0, sugarcanes, etc. Saul had some stand up 50s, the ultra quick carve grinds, fast frontside carves. I skated decent, got my line of grind the little corner then a front rock. Tried the double carve grind like Saul does in the deep end and mostly failed. At least I didn’t bail any roll ins. Matt took a long time to get a back 50, but then showed me up with a first try double grind. Nolan 360 flipped over the hip, did a bunch of huge FSAs and a million other tricks. Jack had some really scary front 5-0s, some amazing bigspin pivots and got close to kickflip front pivot. Carleigh was doing the the best back 50s in the deep, got front disaster on the bricks and almost back d. Fun session. Rad peeps.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric 254 cream/gum size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsoles and Footprint 5mm kingfoam insoles)

After driving down from the mountains and some chilling at home I went out to the street not expecting a whole lot. The first few ollies were once again painful and terrible. But things started flowing. I took awhile to get halfcab flip, fakie bigflip. Got the worst b/s flip ever done. Got a heeflip or two, some other slow tricks. Then mostly tried treflips for awhile. I got like 5 with the hands down, but not a clean one. Either way it felt great to be trying 360 flips and actually be committing rather than just bailing them. Flatground makes me so happy.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric 254 cream/gum size 12 with spenco 3/4 thinsoles and Footprint 5mm kingfoam insoles)

Had a couple hours in the afternoon while visiting my Mom’s to skate. I went towards the BV skatepark, but saw the scooter kids and striders and decided to just skate flat. I mean I had kind of planned on it anyway since I mostly hate that park, but the scooters were the nail in the coffin. After a terrible day the day before I decided to try vulcs with spenco insoles again. I had some extra Lakai insoles in the car so I rocked the thickness. It ended up feeling great. I skated slow, but gained some confidence. I did a few lines with the basic flippers and got to the point where I was trying lines of heelflip then treflip. Got a few heelflips and one hands down treflip. It was awesome. I also tried lines where I ollied a little water bottle, do a 180 then try fakie tricks. I probably ollied that little water bottle 50 times. It felt cool. I still don’t really like how high trucks feel with 14″ wheelbase though. Anyways, fun session. Was hyped to land a treflip even though it was hands down.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric 254 cream/gum size 12 with spenco full length thinsoles and Lakai insoles)

After a nice sleep at my mom’s in Buena Vista I drove to Gunnison with Ollie. We arrived at a park with more scooter kids than skaters. Ugh, this is getting so old. They were annoying too. “Can you do tricks?” I tried warming up over the hips. My setup and shoes and everything felt weird. Ollies felt really weird. I technically landed a b/s flip over the hip first try, if I was 80 maybe it would have counted. Then it just got worse for me. Bailing front disasters on the little qq, not landing kickflips, not really trying. Ollie was doing halfcab manuals and halfcab manuals on the little table top. He also did a bunch of 180 combos. Front 180 up, front halfcab back in, etc. It was cool. He did cannon balls over the big lump. He was having fun. And yes that is a scooters kids spiky helmet at the bottom of the photo of Ollie. He took a break after awhile and I decided to stop too. Then we went off to Crested Butte to not find a camping spot.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel size 12 with spenco full length thinsoles)

Early morning scooter slalom with very little sleep. @ollie.gillingham handled it better.

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 7, 2017 at 4:17pm PDT

Ollie and I had a blast camping, but neither of us slept too well. After a nice breakfast we went to the skatepark. There were some skate lessons going on, it was pretty packed. We cruised around hitting the back area mostly. I haven’t been there since they added on, it’s more fun for sure now. We did some rocks and slashes and stuff on the little tight qp. I tried a line for awhile of noseslide to fakie then switch noseslide shove. I started feeling very clumsy. I went and tried the b/s flip on the steep bank for awhile. I was close initially, then got further away and eventually quit. Ugh. I was so bummed. I did get the noseslide to fakie then switch nose shove line at least. Ollie had been trying the his line for awhile and it all came together within a few tries of the camera coming out. Oh yeah, one funny tidbit from the session. After skate lessons were done several kids went and got scooters. I asked where their skateboards went and a kid said “skateboards lessons are over”. Ugh.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel size 12 with spenco full length thinsoles)

Happy Independence Day! 🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇 @nolancormier #worstfirecrackerever

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jul 4, 2017 at 1:59pm PDT

Went to Broomfield park on a hot morning by myself. I had talked with Nolan the night before and thought I’d be Filmer Glen so I wanted to get some skating in before that. I felt pretty good. The stiff insoles felt a little weird at first again, but the amount of pain they avoid in my knees is worth it. I avoided ollies for awhile, but not too long. Actually manualled the blue box, front 50s and accidental 5-0s on the black box, crooks and noseslides the black box. Tried some lines. Got front 50, kickflip to fakie the mellow bank, super slow halfcab noseslide. Bank ride the steep downhill bank, ollie up on the black ledge, front 180 off, fakie flip on flat. Just ollie’ing up the black ledge felt cool. I got a very slow back 50 on the blue ledge, kickflip to fakie on the quick up blue bank. Was able to pop and do tricks for a solid couple of hours. I had stopped when Nolan showed and warmed up again with him doing lines on the parking block and quartapotty. Nolan did a bunch of boardslide combos and pivot fakies. I was hyped on doing fakie back 50s to fakie on the qp and some form of a switch front board that involved a truck grinding (I don’t even know which one). Nolan was more tired than he thought and we tried to film a few things on the quartapotty. Het got a lunch breaked blunt to fakie on the hubba above it, couldn’t get blunt treflip to fakie. We were thinking of a 4th of July post when some dudes lit off firecrackers and we thought it would be perfect. Stoked they gave us a few to try. Our timing was off the first few tries, hyped we managed to get it on the last firecracker. We laughed so hard looking at the results.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel size 12 with spenco full length thinsoles)

Still no calls for work, went to research around 1pm. It wasn’t too hot. I tried a different insole. The old basic Spenco Thinsole orthotic I rocked for like 15 years. I immediately felt better. It has almost no cushion, but somehow it seems to help. It gave me more confidence and it showed. I skated mostly in lines. I don’t remember an exact line, but I had a couple basics that stretched from the road to the manny pad. I had a first try crooks, the best feeling halfcab flip I’ve done in awhile, actually committed to 360 flips (didn’t get one – only tried a few though), tried noseslide 270 shove out for awhile, landed on switch noseslide shove out. Thinking of the session I didn’t get many tricks, but it felt better. My knee didn’t hurt as much, I was less scared of committing to tricks, etc.

I had to meet Hayden out at Erie to give him some boards, but I didn’t really want to skate that park. I brought Ollie and we hit Lafayette for awhile. My legs had gotten really sore. Doh. Ollie didn’t seem too into skating. He did his frontside halfcab on a bank though. He also tried my dork trick on the manny pad. Deck check up to manual to deck check off. He basically did it without the second deck check. The stiff orthotic insoles felt weird at the park. I got one line I liked of rock wallie the corner then b/s flip on the bank. Didn’t get the other line I wanted though. Bs 180 into the mellow bank, switch fs 180 into the next one, kickflip to fakie the bank. The switch 180 was scary and I had a couple slams trying it. I bailed all the kickflilps I tried. I threw my board. We left. I was still happy to have the ledge session not hurt me.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel size 12 with spenco full length thininsoles)

Didn’t sleep well because I had been told I would be called for work early Saturday morning. Somehow I didn’t get called and later in the afternoon I decided I should take advantage. I went to the slappy curb for awhile. It became obvious that my legs were not good very quickly. When the pain kicks in, so does depression and lack of motivation. I got a few slappy crooks and moved on. This is when I knew I was stubborn and shouldn’t be skating. I did a line of slow flatground kickflip, ollie up the curb, ollie the tiny 3 stair, back 180 off it. It took awhile. Ugh. Then I went up to the two stair area above. I noticed a little section had been waxed up. I did a back 50, it felt cool. Then I tried two lines in the opposite direction. Halfcab crook then kick back tail one way. Ollie up the two, front 180 off, switch crook. I had nothing. Never got into the halfcab crook. Did get into kick back tail, but they were really lame. The ollies up the 2 stair hurt. I kept doing them though because I’m sick of not being able to ollie. Never got the switch crook. I was trying to find motivation to move into campus more, but instead I just left.

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

Worked from home on a warm Friday. Had it set in my mind that I would do a flatground friday, but Saul sent out an invite and the way my body was feeling it seemed more fun. I biked over there. At first it was just Saul and I and it was really fun. Again my first few runs had me doing different lines and then I settled into my normal lines. I had put high trucks back on. Being able to roll around the whole bowl is cool. Saul had hurt his should a couple days before, but I didn’t notice. He was ripping. Still rolling in, those really quick grind lines. Longer 50s. We both worked on feeble grinds at one point. I think his were better. I tried a back smith stall and got it first try (and a few more times) which felt neat. Dave showed. He flowed around for awhile and got another one of his incredibly long boardslides, manuals. Dave and I might have started a ‘gotta land a kickflip before you can roll in’ goal. At least when it isn’t crowded. I had a couple more runs I was really hyped on. Got the little 50 near the hip then front rock on the big coping. Tried a front disaster and did the weird smith thing, got a few front slashes in the deep. This was my favorite time skating there. Carve grinds too, the funnest trick. Saul can do lines with so many in a row. Looks so fun. We called it around 8pm and Dave and I watched BATB. So fun.

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