skate journal: mega hubbas then the little longmont park (april 8, 2015 day 95)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on April 9th, 2015 by corpo

After work I met up with Dave at Skyline HS. It wasn’t the intended meet up spot, it’s just what happened. We looked at some gaps and crazy boardslides then went behind the school and found the mega hubbas you see above (there is another one that’s b/s for reg footers). I felt insanely awkward warming up. Having a different board is weird. I would eventually boardslide the little b/s one. Dave was doing back 50s through the flat and down on top of hucking nollie/switch heels. I eventually got a few slow front 50s where I deck checked a little. Then moved a rock and was finally able to get on the downhill part. Then added front 5-0s. It’s tiny, but it felt really awesome. I ollied the curb and we split out.

To the nearby little park. There were a bunch of little kids there. A brother/sister combo doing laps on bike/scooter that constantly go. You could see the frustration on Dave’s face. But he still did a front tail over the hip that cleared the crack. In other words it was really long! I started with the c ledge boardslide. Did some pathetic and embarrassing attempts at ollies over the hip (although I’m going to put some of the blame on the difference in the nose/tail on the sample board). Then I tried a line of front 50 on the corner bump to ledge, turn then front 50 down the next hubba. I kind of got it, but got on before the downhill part of the ledge and was going so slow that I just landed into the bank. Dave started trying the same thing, but with a lofty f/s ollie over the hip to start. Took him awhile, but he got the line good. He also did some sick bluntslides over the hip. I skated this park way different then I normally have. Skated the little ledge for a bit. Got back 50, halfcab noseslide, front 50. It’s only about 3 feet long so it’s hard to get in/out of the trick. Then Dave and I did the double boneless plant things over the rail above. Dave’s slam was so funny! Oh man I almost peed my pants. Dave left after this and I tried a little kid line of 360 flip flyout (right by the rail we bonelessed over) then kickflip off the platform. One of the 3 flips I did felt so amazing. I haven’t done it out of a bump at all in awhile, it’s kind of easier. I would eventually get one with a kickflip off the platform too which actually felt really good. A couple kickflip attempts were sketchy and I landed on the tail once. Gotta give props to the sample board for not cracking on that one. Anyways, after landing the last kickflip I smiled, went and stretched a bit, then went home and watched The Office with India and Liz. Good day.

(setup 8.25 sample quincy deck venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)

skate journal: longmont park with dave and rob (march 30, 2015 day 86)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on March 31st, 2015 by corpo

Such a nice day. Felt hot when we first got there. Dave was first and I joined him in skating the little hump. We both struggled for awhile, but Dave did back tails and back tail to fakie super good. I did a front 50 on it. Yippee. Then we all skated a ledge I’ve never skated there before. It backs to the deep end of the bowl so it’s a little weird. Dave was getting on tricks quick. He did front 50s and front 50 180. Rob had boardslide popout and almost front board 270 pop out. Dave also got into front crooks which is super crazy. I took awhile to get up on the ledge and not worry about shooting my board into the bowl, but did front 50 then front 180 down the 3 stair. That was fun. Then I went for front 50 front shove out then front shove down the 3 stair. It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything down a 3 stair. I predicted to Dave that the first one I committed to would probably be a broken board and I was right. But luckily it was still skateable. I would eventually get the line and it felt awesome (even though the shove wasn’t so great). Then we skated the mellow bank in the clip above for awhile. It was a blast. We rattled off a lot of tricks. Dave did his weird underflip, b/s flip, cab nosegrab, f/s cab nosegrab, front shove and probably a bunch more. Rob was doing cabs easy, b/s flip, no comply crailslides (I think) and the awesome b/s no comply shove above. I did mostly flip tricks. No surprise there. Kickflip fakie, b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, bigflip, 360 flip. Then we skated the main area for a bit. I got a really fun line of cali grind the ledge above the 7′ qp, boardslide the ledge, boneless on the bank, bsts on the hip (it even made the noise!), b/s flip on the little bank, almost f/s flip on the mellow bank. Man that was fun. Dave was going for a crazy long line with a nosestall revert or pop shove on the bank, back 360 over the steep to mellow hip, skate around the park to boardslide the bump to bar. He never got them all in one, but he got them all. Rob was doing no comply to tailslides, manualling the deck of the bank and more of those steezy crailslide things (I need to pay attention to what he’s actually doing). Since my board was really cracked I decided I should push it further and try a line of front 5-0 on the new ledge then kickflip the 3 stair. But on my warm up run of front 50 then ollie I finished it off. Doh. This was one of my favorite skate days in awhile.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire 50mm f4 101s)

skate journal: martha lake, shoreline parks in seattle (feb 28, 2015 day 59)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on March 4th, 2015 by corpo

martha lake skatepark

Saw this skatepark in Josh’s 40th Bday clip and thought it looked really fun. Turns out it’s even funner then it looks. Maybe one of the funnest parks I’ve skated. Once again it’s been almost a week since I skated before writing this so remembering everything that went down is impossible. We met a few of Josh’s friends there. Austin, Ted, Billy, Russel and probably a couple names I’m forgetting. Josh flew all over that park like it was nothing. He might be the only person that skated the mellowish quarterpipes. I had a blast. I was even little-kid-excited at the start not knowing what to try. It was all so fun. Nate and I agreed this was our favorite park. Mainly because it had an absolutely perfect ledge surrounded by fun stuff. I did a manual across the steeper bank, almost kickflip manual, kickflip over the f/s hip, b/s flip over the hip, was the last to nose manual the first pod. Nate and Josh manualed then dropped to nose manual on the second one. I went nose manny to manny. Landed on crooks shove a few times. Bigflip on the bank, fakie flip, kickflip to fakie from low to high. Nate did a Texas Plant!!! So rad. Maybe he’ll get to posting it some day (hint).

A video posted by Joshua Pluger (@boredzinejp) on

hammer

Then we went to Shoreline Park. We were warned the locals might not be so nice. Turns out they were incredibly nice. Ha. Except the parents. I was trying to wallie onto the ledge in the photo then drop to the lower ledge and my board came close to a toddler playing near the park. I told the parent her son was in danger and she yelled at me telling me she had a right to be there. What a stupid lady. The park was crowded when we first got there. So much was going on. It ended up being a really fun park. Maybe as good as Martha Lake, just different. Nate and I skated the ledges a lot. I had made a mental note of the tricks I wanted to do and did all of them. That is about as rare as it gets for me. I did the front 50 on the top ledge and dropped onto the downhill ledge, front 50’d the downhill ledge, front 50’d the ledge into the bank, did the really fun boneless over the rail, kickflip over the hip and ended with b/s flip over the hip and setting up with an axle stall on the qp. Nate back 50’d the ledge to bank and the bank to ledge. Ha. Kickflip over the hip and maybe nollie heel. Josh did every transition trick on the quarterpipe, front 50 and front tail the ledge on the pyramid and across the bank to ledge, slappy down the ledge. It was warm. Then we had to leave. Such a fun day. One of my favorites.

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

skate journal: street skating in portland!!! (feb 26, 2015 day 57)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on March 4th, 2015 by corpo

What a crazy day. Started at 4am Mountain time running to a bus stop in a bunch of new snow and 5 degree temperature. Then I was in soggy Portland eating and drinking coffee with Nate and PJ. After lunch it was dry. So naturally Nate and I went skating. We started out at the curved ledge/bank spot that our big crew had skated for hours over the summer. The ledge itself was wet. We did a few basic flippers and stuff before Nate suggested we move on. So we went to the spot above that we wanted to skate last time. Nate front 50’d it first try and it was on. Took me a little longer to get going, but we ended up tally’ing quite a few tricks. Nate did front 50, front 5-0, front 5-0 180 out, front tail, front tail to fakie and front noseslide. I got front 50, front 5-0 (intended to be front 50), front noseslide (not past the crack), front noseslide to fakie (past the crack!) and front 50 shove which took a long time. At this point I was already super hyped on the trip. We skated the metal thing in the middle a bit too. We both did ollie on then front slash then ollie or 180 off.

quick step

Remembering all of what happened next is going to be impossible a week later as I write this. I think we ended up here next. It was slightly drizzling which made it scary at first. So I just dropped in and did cali grinds off of it. Then an early grab cali grind off it. That’s what the photo of me is. Not even close to what you thought eh? It was fun. It dried up and we skated the ledge. Nate killed some fast back 50s and maybe back 5-0 too. I got crooks. We both did front 50s.

nate-noseman-portland

This was right up the block and was one of my favorite spots of the trip some how. We both did nose manual into the bank then manual the 2 stair section. Sounds basic. It was. And surprisingly fun.

nate-curb-portland

We ended up here for awhile. Nate manual’d and nose mannyd the thread the needle pad quick. I took a long time to manual it. Nate got a no comply flip over the parking block. I fell on a few. We had fun surfing the little reflectors.

whiteledge

This was fun for a minute. Had a fun noseslide to fakie then switch 180 off the curb. It was scary though because of so much traffic. There was also a little ledge drop that I rode off of that was kinda tall. Then we ended up at the crazy mossy area that Silas destroys in a Portland video. It was a really humbling spot that was so much harder to skate then I would have imagined. Nate did some super rad nose mannies the hard way (backside) and manualled another ledge before trying to 180 nose manual a 3rd. I could not ollie onto the ledge backside. All I did was some front 180’s up and switch front 180s off. Might have done kickflilp up/off. Then as the rain started up again I manual’d a box that Nate manual’d ever try and then sloppily ollied onto a tall ledge and slowly dropped off it. Pretty fun. We were beat so the rain was probably somewhat of a blessing.

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

skate journal: fossil creek with chadman then old man night at launch (feb 19, 2015 day 50 (in a row))

Posted in Favorite, New Deck, Skate Journal on February 20th, 2015 by corpo

New favorite #griptapeart by my son Ollie

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on

Such a nice day out! Got out of work at 3:15 and headed up to Fort Collins. Stopped at my Dad’s grave on the way. Went to Fossil Creek first. I love that park. When I got there there was just a couple other people sitting up top. I just skated the ledges on the bottom. I was feeling pretty arthritic. Mostly likely due to the huge weather changes coming (snow ugh) and skating every single day. I had a new board with awesome Ollie artwork after breaking mine yesterday. I warmed up with back 50s on the curb. Started trying lines with back 50 then crooks. Never got a regular crooks pop out. Kept landing on it, but not riding away. It was weird. I got a couple that fell off to fakie. Did front 50 shove. Chadman showed up! So stoked to see him. He is one of the best dudes out. I tried to back 50 the square ledge in the middle of the park and finally did it slowly. Chad did it super fast of course. He also started with a good line of switch front 180 onto the ledge, front smith the ledge up top then nollie shove off the curb. I was trying crooks shove one way and a line the other way. Out of nowhere I did a great feeling crooks shove. I think I’ve done that trick before, but I don’t even know. Either way it made my session go from fun to insanely fun. On top of that I got my f/s line next try. Ollie up the ledge, front 50 the upper ledge, kickflip off the curb (didn’t have to push in between any of those) then noseslide the ledge off the 3 stair. I was hyped! Chadman was killing it. Really good nollie flips, long fakie nosegrinds to shove out. Long manuals and nose manuals going fast. At the end we went up top and messed around for a couple minutes. I failed to ollie the ledge off the 3 stair. Chad came super close to drop down nose manual shove up the curb. So crazy.

@nolancormier at the super fun @launchskate facility. #nullskateboards

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on

Then we ate Chipotle and went to MRKT. Then I went to Launch for “Over 30 Night”. To my surprise it was a mellow one with only a few people there. One of which was Nolan totally ripping. He’s only 25, but is one of those dudes that fits in with a mellow old man session or a heated young kids session. He can do it all. Like front tails across the whole ramp to forward or fakie, huge f/s ollies, hurricanes, sugarcanes, tricks I don’t know the name of and the stuff you see above. At least the f/s invert took awhile. I didn’t skate great. I think I was feeling the Rampy effect and skating a lot already. I got a few squeeker front smiths, little b/s slashes to fakie, front disasters, but wasn’t flowing too well. Played a game of SKATE with Andy and John that was pretty fun. It was right after John got there so he wasn’t warmed up and went out quick. Andy was trying some real tricks like hardflip, varial heel. He got me with 3 shove and fakie 3 shove. I got him with lame tricks on him like varial flip and fakie varial flip. Somehow had an ok b/s flip and a good feeling heelflip. Fun evening of skating!

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

skate journal: TEXAS PLANTS!!! (feb 17, 2015 day 48)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on February 20th, 2015 by corpo

Shortly after getting home from work I went out to Rampy with one purpose, to learn Texas Plants. I started with the tail grab bomb drop into the ramp. Got comfy with that then started hucking. To my surprise the board started coming up to my front hand. Josh was right with the tip to put the front foot back a little. A few tries later I landed one. Then another, And many more. They got better as I went. I was about as excited and happy as I’ve ever been skateboarding. I never thought in a million years I would land this trick. Thanks for getting me to try it Josh!

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

skate journal: good times at southern hills (jan 25, 2015 day 25)

Posted in Favorite, New Deck, New Trucks, New Wheels, Skate Journal on January 26th, 2015 by corpo

Such a beautiful day!!! @matthouse back tail in a t-shirt

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on

Went to Southern Hills after a long morning of cleaning toilets, vacuuming, etc. It was SUPER NICE OUT! Like 60 degrees and sunny. Breezy at times, but not bad. I had a totally new setup due to losing my last setup. Doh. So new Venture lows, Bones medium bushings, Reds, 8″ Null deck and some Ricta 51mm speed ring wheels. I was gonna just go with Null wheels, but Meta had them and I like to check the competition. Ok, the real reason is they were smaller. I gave everything a coat of Snaky Jakey wax and went to it. It’s been a minute since I was so motivated. I was skating fast for me. Did a line of noseslide, kickflip, crooks. I was super hyped on going faster for the noseslide. Had an exhausting line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, ollie up the 2 stair, ollie down the 2 stair, noseslide (was supposed to be crooks). Had a few front 50s, but definitely struggled with them as I have been for awhile. The new board did feel poppier though. A couple felt good. Had one line with ollie the two stair (it sounds lame, but there is a crack in front of it so it’s not all that small of a 2 stair) then front noseslide. Was trying a ridiculous line of front 50 a bench, nollie tre on flat, kick back tail the bottom stair. Since I never landed the nollie tre I just did back 50s on the curb which were fun. Also came close to ollie onto a bench then up onto a table. So close. Matt showed up and did every basic ledge trick first try perfect. The back 50 so casual looked so fun. I’m jealous. He also did front 50, front 5-0, front tail, front tail fakie, back 5-0 and back tail. But he couldn’t do a nollie tre! Ha. Oh and it took him 5 tries to land a treflip which might be a record for him. I didn’t get much more after Matt showed. I was pretty beat. Oh, some crooks where I started at the beginning of the ledge and grinded pretty far, rather then just jibbing the end. Fun day, that’s the best I’ve felt all year! 25 days down. 1/12 of my goal of skating 300 days.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta 51mm wheels)

skate journal: blue skies park! and some flatground (jan 8, 2015 day 8)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on January 8th, 2015 by corpo

blue skies skatepark longmont

Finally warm and somewhat dry enough to go hit Blue Skies during gym time. I was hyped. The main bank was a snowy mess so I had to skate around the bikepath to get there without getting my shoes wet. I pushed switch. It was fun, there was a big corner that was hard to make going switch. The park had more snow/ice then I thought it would. I started slow. Did a bunch of boardslides on the flat bar then front 50s on the low ledge. I went a little faster each time. I tried to grind further too. Did front 50, front 50 180 out, front 50 shove, front 5-0, almost front 50 kickflip out. Back crooks and back noseslide on the taller part. Tried 3 flips for awhile. Finally got a few. Tried a line with 3 flip, ollie a flat bar, 3 flip. Got it, but it wasn’t pretty. I’m basically just trying to force myself into learning 3 flips and trying them when I would normally just do a kickflip. Came close to some faster f/s halfcab heelflips, landed on a varial heel, had a good feeling b/s flip. Skateboarding in the sun and decent temperatures is nice.

flatground rules

After work I went near the research center and found a good sized dry patch of asphalt. I was sore from already skating and working, but I wanted to be out in “warm” (40s) weather a bit more. It didn’t take me too long to get flowing. I was struggling a bit when out of the blue a really good line (for me) came out of nowhere. No comply front 180, fakie flip, fakie treflip. The added bonus was I went fast enough that I didn’t have to push in between any tricks. Granted the fakie tre was pretty slow, but that’s the only way I could do it anyway. It hyped me up. I tried another line of f/s halfcab heel, treflip, front heel. Never got all three. Tried the nollie tre, heelflip, treflip line too, but only landed one nollie tre. Either way I was hyped. My trick list was kickflip, no comply 180, no comply finger flip, fakie flip, b/s halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip, varial flip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip, b/s flip, heelflip, front heel (horrible), 360 flip, fakie treflip, nollie treflip. Came closer to nollie heels and switch flips. At the end I tried b/s halfcab heels for awhile and landed the first one I’ve done in years. It felt amazing. Hooray for flatground!

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

skate journal: awesome short session at these banks with dave (dec 24, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on December 25th, 2014 by corpo

dave the ripper

After a busy morning of running Christmas errands and then lots of football at Fairview with Ollie I met Dave at this spot for a quick session. I should skate this spot more, it rules. We went through quite a few basics to start. Slappy nose, tail slides. Board slides. The weather was nice and warm. Dave did a sick boardslide to fakie. I mostly did switch noseslides (no pop) which were fun. Then battled a halfcab boardslide which ended up being really fun. Lined it out with a front 180 up the curb first (didn’t get a nollie tre after). Dave did a really good front lipslide. And Front 5-0, switch boardslide. I got a switch boardslide too, and kind of a switch front noseslide 270. Flatground went decent for me. I really like how Venture lows carve. This was a really fun session.

skate journal: campus awesomeness (dec 6, 2014)

Posted in Favorite, Skate Journal on December 7th, 2014 by corpo

Grey skies feel good today

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on

Headed out to campus for the first time since the students came back in the fall. That may be my longest bread from campus ever. I guess I’m getting old and get annoyed by college students. I felt a little odd, like arthritis kind of or something, but not in pain. I went to the ledge above first, but quickly realized I needed some other warm up. So I went one building away and did skated this slappy/regular ledge. It turned out to be a good warmup. I bashed into it a few times, got a slappy back 50, close to slappy crooks. Got front 50 and front 50 180 out. Didn’t quite get front 5-0. Did a line of “nollie” back 180, halfcab flip, back 50, backside flip, fakie varial flip. Sounds awesome right? But wow if you could just see how bad all of those tricks were. Either way it hyped me up. Then I went to the ledge above for awhile. Did a line of pop shove off a curb, manual a little manny pad, horrible back 50. Tried a bunch of nollie bigfilps and got close. Did a line of f/s 180 off the taller part of the ledge, switch front 180 on flat then front 50 the lower part of the ledge. Took awhile to get one on a taller part of the ledge. Some other dude showed up for awhile and skated the ledge straight on. He did a pop shove nose stall. Pretty cool. I did a crooks then moved on as I didn’t have much time and really wanted to skate the next spot.

hammer

mega hammer

I’m not sure if I’ve ever lined out this spot before. I think I have, but I couldn’t find a journal entry for it. Anyways the goal was to ollie up curb onto the sidewalk in the far left of the first photo, front 180 the little rock gap into the parking lot, halfcab flip on flat, then come around and ollie the 5 stair. I committed to the 5 stair almost every try which kind of hyped me up, but I would splat to the ground pretty fierce. I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve ollied some stairs. I thought it would be pretty easy though so I started thinking f/s halfcab flip instead. Got a few of those and still splatted down the stairs. Doh. It started approaching time for me to get home so I really had to land it and last try did it. Whew. I know it’s not a big set of stairs at all, but it felt like a cool line and I was skating really hard. On the way back I hit the fast hill above the 3 stair parking lot. Rather then just bomb it I did some power slides which felt so cool. Bombing is fun, but for me powerslides are so much more fun. I got to my car feeling sore and a bit shaky from skating so hard. Awesome.