Dave, Rob, Kevin and I met up with Sean at Spring Canyon on a warm and sunny day. I was hyped to see Skelly there when we arrived, fixing the pool coping. That dude is a workaholic. He did manage to skate with us a little, but he was pretty beat from working so hard. It was good seeing him. I find this park to be hard to warm up at normally, but it seemed easier than normal today. Maybe it was Sean grinding the tallest ledge within minutes. I mean I hope there are some kind of benefits of skating with him. Rob was manualling at speed right away, Kevin was doing tech tricks, Dave was boardsliding the spine. I got a first try (really slow) back 50 on the lurb which put me in a good mood. I would soon after get a line of nose manual, front slash the mound, back 50 shove. I slash the mound as a means of speed control to slow me down for the lurb. Smart huh? Or maybe I’m just a wuss. I tried front nosegrinds for awhile and got really close, but then the potato chip session started. I tried to play with Sean and Kevin with the ollie up then kickflip on the hump, then trick on the tight qp. Rob was in on it too, he got the ollie and kickflip, but avoided the qp. I had a better line than the one showed with a front rock instead of back rock. I mean, in my head it was better, but who knows, I probably scraped my heel on the kickflip. Kevin’s lines were crazy. Doing it switch too is bonkers. Sean’s made the line look effortless, but took awhile to get the sweeper. And oh man, that slam on the nollie nosegrind (which he had never done before) was crazy. Everyone was skating, it’s hard to remember everything. Rob got a few boardslides up that ledge which is gnarly to me, but never combined it with the downhill part. Things I was happy with were finally nose manualling the main manny pad, crooks the bench, ollieing the little rail, maintaining my 100% streak of boardslides down the little rail. My flatground wasn’t that great. Dave’s line with the switch wallie was nuts. We all skated the pole jam for a bit. Kevin switch no comply pole jam was nuts. I got one sketchy no comply pole jam. Sean thinks regular pole jams are easier than no comply ones. Dave was trying them switch too. After that we tried the downhill ride on grind. Kevin, Dave and Sean did it easy. 20 minutes later I did it and it was quite fun. Then we bounced.

(setup null rabethica 8.5 deck, venture 5.8 black icon trucks, venom 88a bushings bones v1 stf 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 255 cream/gum size 12, footprint gamechanger insoles)
(knee pain 2/10)

Happy 💥! It was so great seeing #nullumni member #hulslegend a few days ago. Nollie hard filmed by @idrawmazes

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jul 4, 2018 at 7:48am PDT

We didn't film much in Leadville because we were having too much fun – A couple clips with Jeff @baffoos @joerhamilton and @corpoglenny

A post shared by Eric J. Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jul 1, 2018 at 6:57pm PDT

We were up pretty early at a cold campsite and headed into town to get some grub and use toilets. It was a bit of a rough go for awhile, but before long we ended up at the Leadville park. Joel met up with us and cruised around. A few of us played SKATE to get warmed up and although Kevin got everyone with the nollie/switch flips it was still a good warm up. It’s hard to remember the difference between the morning and evening session, but I’ll try. It was cool that Chris Albright showed up and ripped. There was another mountain dude ripping so hard. He did a fakie flip up the euro! I managed a 3rd try kickflip up the euro which really surprised me. Chris got my back with heelflip I think. Then we both did early grabs up which was kinda scary. Rob had back 180 up. Joe was scared of it, but when he finally ollied it he did it super easy. I tried a few noseslide 270 shoves on the bump to ledge, but never got me feet on it. Rob did some cool front board pop outs. I got a treflip out of the bank opposite of the euro which felt great. Jeff and a few of his friends showed up. I was pretty beat at this point. Eric was sitting it out as his knee was too sore. Rob was chilling. Joe was still going of course. Front pivot on the bank to curb then front 50 down the hubba. Kevin was doing tricks up the euro too. Nollie flip and nollie b/s flip! Jeff went buck with the switch tre up and nollie hardflip up.

PMG wins the rock throwing championship! @43shifty @baffoos @corpoglenny

A post shared by Eric J. Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jul 2, 2018 at 8:45am PDT

@corpoglenny @baffoos and I taking a dip in what was probably snow not too long before we shot this

A post shared by Eric J. Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jul 2, 2018 at 5:06am PDT

Then we took a much needed break in the frigid Turquoise. Kevin, Eric, Jeff and I were the only ones that went all the way in. It was cold. We thought we were so cool and then we look out and there were people water skiing without wetsuits. Ha. The cold water really seemed to reduce soreness for us though.

So then we were back at the skatepark. Eric was finally able to skate and it was great to see. Again it’s going to be tough to remember what went down as it’s been a few days. Rob and I were skating the round manny pad area. I struggled to get a manual. Rob however did manual drop down to manual into the curb cut. And then he does back 50 to manual. So crazy. I struggled with nose manuals for awhile then out of nowhere locked in and lined it out with a kickflip up the curb then a b/s flip on the humpy hip. That line made my day. Kevin was shredding the bump to bar. Front board super easy, a few more tricks and I’m not sure if he got the front feeble. Joe was lining out the hubba. Jeff was doing back tails on one gnar bank and back heels on the other. He also did a crazy front big heel. Joe, Kevin and I had a race to b/s flip on the bank that Jeff did the back heel. Kevin got it first. I got a sketchy one second. Joe got a super solid one third. I figured the only trick left for me to get was the noseslide 270 shove so I battled that for quite a while. I would try to ride down the ledge then ollie back up on the way back and it hurt so bad. Argh. But as you can see above I kind of got the ns 270 shove. It felt awesome. I chilled after that. Keggen1 showed up and wrecked it. That was fun to watch. Eric and Kevin skated the elevated pool corner for awhile. The session ended with Joe doing front 5-0 down the hubba and Kevin not quite front nosegrinding down it. He was locked in so good though. Then we went back to the camp site and drank way too much whiskey. What a fun day.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, gamechanger low profile insoles)

On a beautiful evening Carleigh and I met up then went to campus to meet Rob and Jake. We met at the slappy ledge and as I was waxing it a CU cop rolled up hot. But it turned out it was for someone else who actually needed help. We didn’t feel like pushing it and went around the corner to India’s dorm and skated the manual pad. It was quite fun. Carleigh was doing lots of kickflips and getting close to manualling the longer pad. Jake was breaking the tilt record on his manual attempts. Rob went in on nose manual to front tail on the ledge right away. He got one. So sick. He also did a no comply to manual around the sidewalk. I got a manual pretty quick, took awhile to get a nose manual then got a 3rd try kickflip manual. The kickflip manual felt beyond amazing and sold me on the smaller/lower setup again. I’ll use those Indys for my Saulside board. I tried kickflip nose manuals too, but never got close. Some younger kids showed up. Good to see young ones getting out and skating street. We went around the corner to the slappy ledge and the cops were gone so it was good to go. Jake and I went in on lines. Rob and Carleigh were hitting the tall manual pad. Rob got close to manual. Carleigh got close to no comply wallie up. Jake’s line was f/s halfcab, slappy crooks to fakie, front 180 up the manny pad, halfcab off. We tried treflips for awhile, but neither of us got one. My lines got gradually harder. First one was halfcab flip, slappy axle stall, wallie up the manny pad, ollie off. Then started with heelflip and ended with front 180 off the pad. I was skating pretty hard for awhile, trying to ollie the ledge, noseslide the tall flagstone ledge, etc. Last line was heelflip to tail crack, slappy pivot, wallie up, kickflip off the pad but I landed terribly and came to a halt with my hand down. Everyone was done at that point.

(setup 8.25 null monico deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, es accel slims navy/white asta size 12, gamechanger insoles)

I went a little later than normal, got there around 7:30 on a gorgeous night. Will and Rob showed up at the same time. Eric and Jake were already there. Jake landed the first several tricks I saw him do. Like front blunt on the qp, noseblunt the parking block, front 5-0 the black box. After that though I saw him fall a lot. Ha ha. I saw Eric get a back 50 and front tail on the blue ledge then I started my warm up process. It went alright. I was just starting to feel warmed up when Jake and Eric were eying up the 6 stair. I wanted to ollie it too, but Jake went and did it right then. I wasn’t motivated and the opportunity seemed gone. Eric was doing heelflips and sizing up the rail. Will was getting on the grinds. Rob had a couple odd falls early on. We played a game of SKATE. Rob came out swinging. No comply 360, back 360, backside flip. I was at SKA just like that. I had a good string when I had another turn though. Kickflip, heelflip, treflip, halfcab flip in a row. That made me really happy. Especially the treflip. It was kind of a dick move, but I really wanted to try one and I got lucky. Oh yeah, ha ha, Jake went out on kickflip. He missed the first, went for double or nothing, missed again, then went for triple or nothing and slammed on that one. That was insult to injury and he was out. Will and I were the last two and I bailed a couple fakie bigflips and he took me out with switch shove. I did some frontside flips on the hump which I haven’t done in awhile which were fun. Eric and I battled the little boardslide, then got them back to back. He tried the 6 stair one too, but never got it. I saw Rob almost nose manual around the mountain bank, but it was hard seeing what others were doing until I mostly skated the black ledge. Will was skating it too. He was trying back tail then switch back tail, the switch one eluded him. Jake had left. Rob and Eric were chilling. I tried to get a new trick on the black ledge for me, fakie nosegrind. It took like 100 line attempts to get there, but I did get a fakie nosegrind and it did feel rad. Will was trying switch nose manual. This dude Max was there with a total 90s setup and it was awesome. He was fun to skate with. Will started trying to back nosegrind the sad ledge. It made me want to back 50 it, which meant a line to it to try and get hyped. I started with kickflip the parking block, frontside tricks on the qp (got a front tail for the first time in awhile). But I was having trouble committing. Got a line to it eventually and back 50’d about a third of it. It felt cool. The line was back 180 the parking block, fakie axle stall, back 50. I probably did 15 kickflips over the parking block which felt great. Will never got the back nosegrind, but he was close. I ended trying some slow kick back 50s on the blue ledge. The first set of lights shut off, but left enough light to keep trying. A few tries later I got one. It was slow, but it felt great. This was some of the hardest I’ve skated in awhile. It felt great. I love summer.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Joe, Chad and I started off heading to campus. We went right to the best spot on campus, this rock to narrow pathway. Well, we had to move it as it has been pushed down the hill for some reason. Ollieing was not happening for me. Chad started with front nose jib to fakie, then 270 out. Joe did front pivot to fakie. I did nose jibs to forward and fakie and a front tail to fakie. Kevin joined and was into our “spot” so we kept skating it. He went for front blunt and got close, but I don’t think actually rode away. I added a bean plant to tail. Other tricks were done, we were having fun.

Been slacking on the social media. So here’s a clip from campus a couple days ago. @baffoos @joerhamilton @elcachado @_f_u_z_z @neilsoffire #joeistoonice

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 28, 2018 at 8:57am PDT

Then we went to the 4 stair ride off grind which made for more fun too. Me and Joe took awhile to commit, but got our grinds. Kevin made it look easy. Chad played around with the combo.

We were waiting for others to show and we had totally shut down the 4 stair so we skated this ledge to grass. Kevin and I kickflipped while Joe front shoved.

Fuzz, Rob, Neil showed and we moved on to the nearby old manual pad/bank spot. That spot has seen better days. Not an easy warm up for those that showed up either. But we ended up being there awhile and it was pretty fun. I got a no comply bigspin, no comply shove to fakie and a beanplant. Kevin did a kickflip rock transfer, but couldnt’ get the fast feet hard kickflip to fakie. Rob was going for b/s flip for awhile too and couldn’t quite get it. That spot is so hard to do kickflips on. Joe almost got front shove to rock ‘n roll. Rob did bean plant out of it. Neil might have shoved out of it as well as doing the front shove, no comply to tail and a bunch of bailed drop ins. Chad chilled. Fuzz chilled for awhile then got up and threw down the spinner and maybe a Sal flip.

Next we ended up at this tiny ledge which entertained us for quite a while. Basics were done right away and everyone kind of tried something new. For me that would be a nosegrind which seems to always elude me there. I would eventually get one (Kevin said I didn’t bonk, but I think the tail hit) and line it out with a kickflip and a little ollie down the 3 stair. Rob went in on back 50 body varial out. He was charging for awhile and got a sketchy one then a few tries later totally bolts. Fuzz had some creative lines like back 50 transfer up to push off the fence to front tail, back 180 fakie 50s then was trying them with switch front 180 out, but got spooked. Joe did a bunch of Joe tricks including the new one which was nollie front 50 to front board. Neil was struggling after a failed bike rack pole jam. I don’t think it helped that you couldn’t really line out to the ledge without messing with everyone waiting to hit the ledge. I’m not remembering what Chad did. Doh. Kevin was going for the Asta vibe and nearly put down first try switch flip switch front 5-0. So crazy. He never went on to ride away, but he sure got close. After this we went to the stadium bank to fence, but there was a moving truck parked in front of it. Doh.

Skateboarding is fun, skateboarding with friends is also fun…. #superfriends #skateboardingisfun #neilsdailyvid

A post shared by Neil Thurman (@neilsoffire) on May 28, 2018 at 10:12am PDT

Skateboarding is fun, skateboarding with friends is also RAD! . . . . #superfriends #skateboardingisfun #neilsdailyvid

A post shared by Neil Thurman (@neilsoffire) on May 28, 2018 at 10:13am PDT

After food, drinks we ended up at Red Hawk adding Saul and Damon to the mix. At first I sat thinking there is no way my legs would work. Fuzz was chilling too. I went around to the back of the school to look at the tiny little hubbas and there was another skate crew just chilling. It was kind of funny, just being some random dude skating by saying hi. After a nice slam on a stop rock I was back out front and the body started working. Saul was killing the slappys. The ledges were getting skated like crazy. Chad did a line pretty early on with a ledge trick I’m not remembering then ollie on the stage and ollie over the rock. Damon was rolling through his unique tricks. Joe filmed for awhile then working on a line of front 5-0, no comply 180, switch boardslide up to front 50. I had some fun crooks then tried back 180 up, halfcab flip, something on the ledge for a long time, but kept not landing halfcab flips. It was frustrating and started to remind me how I don’t like the 8″ Venture highs. Neil got it going. Shoves up the curb, cabs on flat, manuals on the rock, lipslides, 50s. Rob did like a million no comply shoves up the curb perfectly and lined out with manual on the rock, wallie, crooks, boardslide. Fuzz had some liquid courage going and went in to full destruction mode. He had fakie flips up the curb going super fast, halfcab flips up, his front 180s off the rock were so good, 100mph switch noseslide or boardslides, front tails. It was great seeing it. The session lasted a couple hours. We were all in disbelief we hadn’t gotten the boot yet. Near the end I was trying to lean no comply shove up the curb like Rob and got a couple sloppy ones.

Then we skated Brian’s next. Yes. More skating. Well, not all of us. Saul, me, Chad, Damon, Joe. It was really fun. I haven’t skated a miniramp in so long and I really like that one. I got a lot of the tricks in my bag and it was fun. Saul was the only one to get the parking blocks to grind. Damon has crazy fakie f/s bigspins to pivot and should have died multiple times, but somehow gets out of it. Chad ripped. Joe did the Joe Hamilton. Then Brian joined for one run and a friend of his learned to drop in. It was scary to watch, but he survived and can say he dropped in on a ramp. After this we hung out for quite awhile and it was really fun.

(setup 8.25 null monico deck, venture v-hollow 5.25 high trucks, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf v1 wheels, es accel slim shoes all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)

Joe and Chad arrived from Nebraska on a Friday afternoon. Damon arrived shortly after at my house and then we were off for the Flatground Friday tradition. There were 8 of us. Joe, Dave, Rob, Eric, Damon, Chad, Neil, me. It was cool seeing so many people skating flat, but also kind of hectic. Damon and Chad were the young ones and it showed as they quickly jumped on some flip tricks. Dave beat me to a kickflip. Eric was on them heelflips. Neil was lining out his tricks. A PVC pipe was added to the mix for tricks over. Damon took MVP honors with several tricks like fakie flip, b/s flip and a perfect fakie treflip. Dave, Joe and I got kickflips over it. Rob bean planted it. I think Eric heelflipped it. Neil pop shoved it. At one point I had a good line of halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip. Shortly after I managed a nollie tre which I haven’t done in a long time and it felt great. I couldn’t do a regular treflip though. Also had a fakie bigflip that felt good. I’m sure a bunch of tricks went down, but I’m writing this several days/sessions/sickness later it’s hard to remember.

Ah yes just some good ol fashion fun with friends! coloRADo has been a blast! @fullertrron an @joerhamilton cruising the spots. #neilsdailyvid #coloRADo #skateboardingisfun #superfriends

A post shared by Neil Thurman (@neilsoffire) on May 26, 2018 at 9:13am PDT

The last part of the session was for sliding the pvc coping. Dave feebled it. I fell into it. Joe halfcab boardslid it. Damon did all kinds of stuff on it.

We moved on to this new spot. What a beaut, but the ledges aren’t too forgiving for the older folk. Unless of course you are the oldest one at the session and immediately front 50 around the corner like Dave did. So crazy. It was a fun session. Rob impressed me by getting up front 50s out of the gate too and kept at a sick line which he did get, even if he tried for awhile to clean it up and make it perfect. Noseslide to fakie, fakie 360 shove, halfcab boardslide. Neilsoffire was in effect with the long lines to get his hype up. Lots of front shoves, noseslides to fakie, front 50s and almost front 50 through the corner. Joe had front 50 and front 50 shove and front 50 through the corner all while maintaining the function of pillar in the middle of the spot. Ha. He went on to film Chad get a line of front tail, nollie flip, back 180 nosegrind. He also filmed Damon go for front nosegrind to fakie then fakie front nose through the corner. Damon also did front 50 bigspin out, fakie back 50 halfcab out (magical), fakie front tail and probably like 20 more tricks. Dave was killing it. Slappy crooks! So many front 50s through the corner, boardslide through the corner, front noseslides. I took awhile to get a basic line of switch front nose, switch front 180 (couldn’t land a halfcab flip), crooks. I got one or two front axle stalls which were really scary to me. That’s the end of the skating for day 1. So fun. Such radical people.

(setup 8.25 null monico deck, venture v-hollow 5.25 high trucks, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf v1 wheels, es accel slim shoes all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile orthotic insoles)

Took a lunch break to skate flat at blue skies with Rob and Dave. I got there first. I did my newish dynamic stretches then started pushing around as Rob and Dave assembled. The warm up wasn’t easy for anyone. I got my first kickflip though, then 5 more in a row. Tried the Iron Man a few times, but didn’t get heelflips at that point. After awhile Rob put Dave’s putter in the middle of the rink upright to do tricks over which made things a little more fun. Dave did a switch ollie over it pretty quickly. It’s crazy how casually he can do that. Rob was starting to link long lines together with kickflips, bs flips, back 180s over the board, halfcab over the board, fakie bigpins and a 360 shove. At one point he had a really long run with like 8 tricks. So nuts. There was a period where things were working very well for me. Kickflips and heelflips felt so good. Got a couple kickflips over the board which felt awesome. Couldn’t get the treflip after for a line though. Was also doing a randon flip trick then front 180 over the board, fakie flip and trying fakie treflip. Got close, but never got both feet on the fakie tre. Dave worked for a nollie front 180 over the board. Dave and Rob tried for kickflips over it. Rob might have got one with a scratch violation. I hucked a few nollie back heels. That trick seems so possible. I also got a first try 360 shove.

Then we played a game of SKATE. It went pretty well for me even though Rob was the king of second try on double or nothing. Ha it was funny. I think it was fakie flip, heelflip and varial flip he got 2nd try. His luck ran out eventually though and after a couple double or nothings he went out. I had landed a few flippers in a row. Dave was close to all of them too. Fun flatground friday. It was tough going back to work. Can’t believe how good my shoes felt and the bigger board.

We ended on 360 shoves. It took me several tries to get one this time. Dave was close and added some switch flip attempts. Hyped on 360 shoves though.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 black icon trucks, 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, bones medium bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprints gamechanger lite insoles)

After a nap, dinner, some chatting with Liz I went to Broomfield park running late to meet up for the first Tuesday night session in awhile. Rob, Ed, Donnie, Garrett, John, Darin were already there ripping. Rob especially. He was silently stacking tricks like bigspin front nose, back 50 shove, back 50 back 180, close to halfcab boardslide shove. It ruled seeing John skate as it’s been a long time. He was ripping too! He was sliding his patented switch noseslides, front shove revert, close to nollie flip. Garrett and Donnie were on one together racing to back nosegrind on the sad ledge. John and I were trying some lines like front 50 and back 50 on the little ledge, but when we tried to add 180’s to the mix we just kind of lost interest and did our own thing. We did flatground versions of some footplant trick Dave can do casually on transitions. It was kinda fun. There was a lot going on so it remembering all of it is impossible. Darin and his crew were mostly just skating the quartapotty. I was 5-5 on halfcab noseslides for the night. It was awesome. They weren’t great, but at least I wasn’t bailing. I really think the pop training Rob and I did the day before over the cone helped. Gotta ollie stuff more. John put down a long line with front 50 on the black ledge, ollie the little rail, noseslide the black ledge, and almost switch noseslide 270 shove the black ledge.
I had some decent lines too. Front 50, boneless over the rail, best crooks I’ve done in awhile. Donnie was charging the bank spot and it was inspiring. So I tried to push as fast as him (I couldn’t) and just boardslide the flat bar. That felt cool and I tried to ollie the 6 after. Well, kind of. I posed it, but didn’t really have enough speed or commitment. Most people had left. The park was just 3 other dudes, Donnie, Garrett and me. Garrett and Donnie never got kick back tails on the black ledge. They were amazed at how tech I was getting with front 50 shove though. Ha. I did get one and it felt cool and I almost lined it out with a halfcab flip on the mellow bank and fakie nosegrind on the black ledge. Last thing for me was to take 30 tries to scratch grind the bank. I was inspired by Donnie charging it so hard. It felt cool. Garrett’s bigspin onto it was sick. Donnie had done b/s flip onto it too and like 20 tricks grinding like 5-0 up it over the steep bank, switch front crook, switch back 50 (serious wtf), front 50 and the tricks in the video. What a fun night. Skating with friends is great.

So now for the shoe change reasoning. I just couldn’t put the NB# 288s on again. The heel is so high I was too scared of rolling my ankle. So I put some old Es Swifts on and they felt really good. I had put some gamechangers in for a bit of the session, but they didn’t feel good.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, es swift 1.5 grey shoes size 11.5 with stock insoles)

Work has been so busy I haven’t had a chance to write this for almost a week after. So I’m apologizing up front for how much I have forgotten since then.

Rob, Fuzz and I met up with Jack at the high school in Denver with all the ledges we remember as being fun. I don’t remember if it’s East, West or North high and we definitely couldn’t tell Jack until we were almost there. But we would eventually all be there remembering that the ledges aren’t so easy to skate and the place is covered in cracks. Warming up took awhile. With the exception of Jack it was awhile before any trucks grinded the concrete. No pop noseslides and crack nollies helped. Jack did a couple back 50s before laying into the first of two impossible tricks. Ollie up to crooks 360 shove to 5-0 the lower ledge. That really is what he was trying and getting frustrated with not landing. ha ha. Fuzz and I were trying lines for awhile starting with the downhillish ledge and ending with the pointy ledge. Fuzz was trying no pop noseslide, kickflip a big crack, chinese nollie one right after it, then front 180 nosegrind the pointy ledge. He got real close. I was trying switch front nose, switch 180 over the tall crack, crooks the pointy ledge. I got it at some point. I also tried to ollie onto the a ledge, ollie up the next level, ollie the 2. I don’t think I linked up all 3 and the second ollie up was never graceful, but it was fun to try. Rob was doing halfcab noseslides then back 50s. Fuzz was doing nollie front tails and got a nice front 5-0. Fuzz got me to ollie the bump to gap. He made it look so easy and did the next flat gap too. Jack had moved on to try cab back noseblunts and was going in and out of being close to landing it. He would eventually get a cab nosegrind, but not quite the noseblunt. Dan, Collin and a friend of their’s who’s name I forgot showed up. Dan had some nice tailside variations, Collin with the boardslide and noseslide tricks and tucked in shirt guy with the mega pop front 50 on the second level. Rob heated up with some good back 50s and got a back smith! So sick. Rob and I got crooks on the granite ledge. Man crooks on granite is the most fun feeling.

Radical day. #thestubborns

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 28, 2018 at 6:31pm PDT

Then we went to this weird wallride spot. We were pretty slow to get on it. Jack did a wallride in the hard spot, Fuzz did a fakie thruster on it. Rob and I did the wallie nollies on the mellower part which wasn’t easy either. I started messing with a line that I didn’t think would come together, but Jack started filming it so I figured I better make it work. 500 tries later I had another kickflip for my part and a wallie nollie. Ha, it was actually awesome though. I got the line 3 times technically. Once when Jack had just started filming, but it was crappy. Then again a lot of tries later, but both tricks were crappy. So I did the ‘3 more tries’ rule and next time I got to the wallride I did it way better. The kickflip was maybe the best one too. Man it felt awesome. Thanks for filming Jack, I think that might end up being one of the better lines I’ve filmed.

Then we went to Hinkley which I’ve never really skated. And that would be the case once again as my legs had shut down for the day. I couldn’t really convince my body to ollie and I only got one crappy front 50 and a good slam hitting a stop twig. Rob killed the manual and nose manual quick. And I think he did a 180 up, fakie bigspin and then bean plant off? Jack got gnar on a gap to grind, then pulled a pop shove nose manual nollie heel out out of nowhere. It was amazing. Fuzz had done a sick line of front nose drive shove, front shove, front 180 all quick footed and we tried to film it. He did it again, but wasn’t as happy. It’s still sick though.

One heck of a day with the dudes. I need to skate with friends more, it’s so fun.

(setup 8.38 null monico deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, new balance numeric 212 size 11 with footprints gamechanger orthotic insoles)

Most years I challenge myself to my age in flatground tricks. It’s kind of torture and gets harder each year both physically and having to add another trick. Last year I wasn’t up for it, but here’s the one from two years ago. It was a beautiful morning, no high winds. The 45 clip isn’t exactly in order. I didn’t skate to warm up at all. I just filmed everything starting with the nose/tail no pop shove, moved into shoves, did some flippers, some no complies, finished the flippers, then finished with the easy part of 180s and some bonelesses and stuff. The trick I was most worried about was treflip as it’s given me lots of problems lately. When it came in a few tries I felt stoked, relieved and encouraged. Dave showed up when I had done most of the flippers and was finishing up on fakie tre which took the longest. I did sex change after that, but no more flippers. I was so exhausted. Dave had a couple cameos, Matt with the first try treflip while out with his dog. Going through the clips later in the night I had actually done 46 tricks. So I deleted the ugliest one which was a creepy spin where I didn’t fully rotate at all. Calling it my ugliest trick with all of the ugly tricks above is saying a lot. Ha ha. I was very hyped on the nollie varial flip and nollie treflip. The fakie tre took the longest, but felt amazing when I landed it. Getting both halfcab heelflips felt rad too. I really need to learn some switch tricks to make next years a little more interesting. I must say the Thunder trucks flip great, but the weird turning sure makes for some weird tic tacs.

Then Dave and I met Jake at Boulder park. They skated the mini while I ate. Then I joined them in the combi bowl. I thought we would just be carving around, but they were really skating it. Jake was grinding the deeps, trying sweepers. Dave was doing front pivots on the crazy steep narrow corner, manualling the deck, airing the little bumps. Hopefully I’ll post a clip of it at some point. I got in on it and tried a line of roll in, tiny grind, back 50 into the bigger bowl. I was so content with the flatground session that my brain couldn’t get me to roll into the little 3 foot section. I did eventually though and got the line with some good tic tacs on the back 50.

Then we went to Saul’s. Jake and I were already beat. The only thing I really did was a few carve grinds. Jake had a killer run. Ed joined and ripped it. Saul gets more coping in one run than anyone. It was a fun ender for a great day.

(setup 8.25 null monico deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)