@fullertrron front hurricane at a fun after work session at @nolancormier and @forde_photo 's apartment.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 1, 2015 at 5:45pm PDT

@nolancormier smith at his new apartment.

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Sep 2, 2015 at 10:14am PDT

Feeling a little less arthritic, a little less pain in the groin I stopped here after work to meet Dave for a shortish session. As I was warming up with my no ollie tricks a car pulled up and it was Ladd. Turns out him and Nolan moved into the apartments in the background of Dave’s photo. So rad! So I went up and told Nolan and he came down and joined Dave and I. Dave and I stuck to the curb, aka the beginner/old fart section. Nolan did for the most part too. This spot is way harder to skate then it looks. Dave and I did boardslides. Dave did back board to fakie then back board 270 out which was so good. Nolan did a lot of tricks on the curb. Crooks, back tail, front tail, front 5-0, back blunt. I took awhile to get a halfcab boardslide, got a weak first try hurricane then at the end of the session got really close to a kick back tail. Nolan did a few tricks on the top bar. Boardslide pop in, front 50, crooks and the rad front smith above. Dave had a sick front hurricane. I tried some line of back 50 then nollie treflip. Got close. At one point I tried to ollie up the curb. Bad idea, the groin strain pain was intense. Ladd joined us after awhile and only skated the young buck section. Front 50, boardslide, front tail. Also some nice treflips on flat. I had to leave to pick Ollie up from football practice. It feels funny being the dad that was out skating too long and was late picking his son up from football.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows 52mm stf v3s nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

I had the day off work. I was up late seeing Drive Like Jehu destroy it. But since I don’t really drink at all anymore I had no hangover and was feeling pretty good and wanting to skate. I went to Lafayette park around 10:30 not really knowing if I could skate because of my groin pain. I started by doing axle stalls on a bunch of various things at the park. The first of which that was scary was the bank to bank at the end of the snake run. I hit the toilet bowl for awhile and did a basic line of kickturn on the rock, axle stall on the lowest extension, front 5-0 on the parking block. It took a bit and I slammed hard into the pump boob at one point. Having the park to myself ruled. It reminded me that my distaste for skateparks is more related to crowds then terrain. I forced myself to do a tiny scratch grind on the 8′ end of the snake run. I should have tried axle stall, but I’m scared. Then I did a bunch of little spine transfer tricks. Just the typical front 50 to fakie, fakie 50 or pivot then back to fakie. Pretty fun. I got a few noseslides down the little hubba. Somehow ollieing backside doesn’t hurt too much. I had a line of b/s ollie the manhole bump, powerslide, hurricane on the spine thing then noseslide down the hubba. That was a neat feeling. Then I battled noseslides down the 3 stair ledge for awhile. I have never landed it. It seemed like the faster I went the harder I stuck, so I had to find that perfect medium that allowed me to lock in perfect. I eventually landed one that wasn’t the whole thing, but it was fun either way. I ended my awesome day trying cab flips on the flat bank in the back corner. I had a really fun run going into it. Wallie the rock hip, front slash the tiny qp, turn to fakie on the manhole bump, 2 switch pushes then try the cab flip. It was a tough place to do them because there isn’t much room to take angle into the bank. Anyway, I kind of rode away from 2 of them. The first of which was only a halfcab flip that I turned around to forward as I was riding down. The second was closer to a real one, but still wasn’t one clean motion. Oh well, it felt great trying a flip trick and somehow it didn’t seem to strain my groin. I had a blast.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

My groin strain is still pretty bad. I wanted to skate, but didn’t want to ollie. I didn’t have much time. I thought about Boulder park and it didn’t get me excited. Then I remembered Red Curbs and got excited. Especially because it was super hot outside. I started with a slappy crook and was immediately happy I didn’t go to Boulder park. I skated for about 45 minutes, never ollie’ing and had a blast. I had lots of ride on front 50s, “nollie” front tails, one to fakie, a nollie back tail that took awhile, switch front noseslides, and ended with a really fun slappy crooks to fakie. It’s so hard for me to not do flip tricks when I’m skating, but I managed. I was happy to leave having not caused any pain to my groin.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)