On a snowy night the rest of the family was doing stuff so I watched skate videos (Ramblin’ and Riddles in Mathmatics) and messed with my setup. I left the 8.5″ setup alone. I replaced Ace 44s for my Venture lows on the 8.25″ setup. I went into the garage to try it out and wow it was terrible. The trucks are really old, the kingpin wobbles and the pivot cups are tore out. I say the trucks are old only because they are like 6 years old, but in fact they were only skated a handful of times. What crappy trucks to blow out like that. So yeah, I tried to like that setup, but I didn’t. Kickflips were hard, 180s were weird, etc. So I went back inside and put some high 8″ Ventures on. I had debated some 8.25″ Thunders, but couldn’t pull the trigger. I went back to the garage with the Ventures and it was crazy how much better they felt. Whew.

After work I swooped up Rob which was the first time I’ve seen him since his annual trip to Ireland. We hit MRKT then met Andy and Chris at a crowded Spring Canyon. I felt sore all day and it was apparent right from the gate that I would struggle. Add the fact I was on the big 8.5″ setup again and it was kind of a disaster. Rob looked great. Manuals, nollie lipslides, bean plants, 180s. Andy and Chris were ripping. I did the worst back 50 imaginable on the little ledge. Front 50s were fun though. Some dude had made a flat bar and brought it there. I saw Andy got on a front board so I decided to try a regular boardslide. Well my pop sucks and I knocked it over and the leg broke off. Talk about embarrassing. The guy who built it admitted he expected that, but it was still embarrassing. Especially because there was a dude there totally destorying it. front board 270 shove, back 360 lipslide, kick front board, crazy tricks. Then we played a game of SKATE. I was hating the big setup. Chris destroyed did some damage on everyone with nollie flip, heelflip, varial heel, something else and Rob ended me with a cab. I went over to the ledge and continued to not skate it well. Rob and Chris went quite awhile longer. I tried to skate the bench which feels so tall. Barely got a crooks and couldn’t front 50 it to save my life which bummed me out even more on the bigger setup. What’s the point if It doesn’t actually help my ollies? There was a dude named Dustin there totally ripping. Crazy board control. It was fun to watch. Looks like I’ll be clicking ‘setup change’ again for the next entry. Maybe I’ll try those 8.25″ Thunders I got awhile ago after all.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica deck, venture black icon 5.8″ trucks, venom 88a bushings, old 52mm bones stf v5 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, lakai ellis black/white size 11.5, spenco 3/4 orthotic thinsole and thin adidas insole)

My friend Jon Colyer in Seattle filmed and edited this and it’s so good. Of course the skating is sick too. It was great seeing Jon in Seattle.

Yeah so here I am in one of those setup OCD cycles. One thing I’ve come to learn is proportions are very important. The board should be as wide or wider than the trucks. Skating the 8.25 in Seattle with 8.5″ trucks doesn’t work well, it does’t flip as fast and it just feels weird. So after work I grabbed a barely used 8.5 from a previous setup spat and put the 8.5″ Ventures on it. After dinner I went out front of the house thinking if flatground goes terrible then I’m over it and I’ll go back to the 8.25 with small trucks. Only it didn’t go bad, it actually went very good. My halfcab flips felt better than they have in awhile, I did like 8/10 heelflips, one in a line with a bad treflip. But the fact that I landed a treflip at all made me happy. I had hucked a bunch of flippers. All of them felt fine. Then I wen across the street to the curb area and had a grand ol’ time. I landed a switch front 50! It felt cool. Which led to me doing a fakie front 50 without turning out. It felt cool. And I almost got one with a switch 180 out. Couldn’t do front tails, but most everything else was going well. Kickflip up the curb, fakie ollies up, kickflip off, b/s shove off, back 50 front 180, front 50 back 180, intentional front 5-0s. Even got a sketchy bs flip up the curb. After awhile I was sitting and posting the vert clip on the gram and Ollie came out of nowhere and scared me so good. Ha. Then he skated for about 20 minutes. He had a few clean ollies up the curb, a back 180 up the curb! Manuals into 5-0s, kind of a front hurricane trying to back 180 up, then he actually tried a hurricane and got one. He also did his first ever nollie shove. Fun night.

(setup 8.5″ null rabethica deck, venture black icon 5.8″ trucks, venom 88a bushings, old 52mm bones stf v5 wheels, 3 washers outside each axle, lakai ellis black/white size 11.5, spenco 3/4 orthotic thinsole and thin adidas insole)

After a couple recovery days from #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux I went over to the school. I had put my smaller trucks back on. I thought it would be this glorious return to a setup I loved. It wasn’t. I had really enjoyed the wide trucks in Seattle, but hey dont’ work with 8.25 so well. But it took me awhile to realize that. Low trucks make me kind of clumsy. You have to land everything so perfectly (which is normally easy for me, but I was tired ha ha). I don’t think I even got a clean back 50. I hucked a lot. Got a switch crook jib or two. Didn’t get flip tricks, but man them kickflips rotated fast. I had new shoes. Some Lakais. They felt good, a little narrow in the foot, but good. Had a couple front tailslides, couldn’t do fakie 50.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, venture awake 5.2 lows, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, old swiss bearings, lakai ellis black/white size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Coffee, DIY and plenty of all-over body pain. With @the_neviathan, @corpoglenny and @chipbaker #ibuprofenpatrol #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux #jpskatecrap

A post shared by Joshua Pluger (@boredzinejp) on Mar 31, 2018 at 10:36am PDT

Great weekend skating hanging (and eating) with a great crew of people @nolancormier @boredzinejp @the_neviathan @corpoglenny #mattspears #sam

A post shared by Seattle Skate Rock (@shopdeckcollisioncrew) on Apr 2, 2018 at 2:12am PDT

After skating til almost midnight we were up by 7:30 to get Joe to the airport. After a breakfast we were back to knowing the only thing we know how to do besides eat. Skate. We ended up at Long Acres DIY. At first it was just Josh, Nate and I. Chip joined for awhile. Then later on it was also Nolan, John, Matt, Sam and a couple locals. It was good seeing Chip. He tries a lot of flip tricks and I love seeing it. He wasn’t able to stay too long. Josh, Nate and I skated surprisingly well considering how beat our bodies felt. Having little wallie options to get going is fun. Transferring over the keg spine was so fun. Josh had disasters on the qp right away, ollies over the hips, pole jam, sweepers on the mellow bank. Nate got going on the granite ledge with front smiths, front nosegrind (I think), and I think back 5-0. I was skating the best I had all trip. Doing lines with basic tricks. Had a line with comply shove on the mellow bank, front 50 the coping ledge, turn around on the qp, kickflip fakie on the mellow bank, switch noseslide the granite ledge, transfer the keg, kickflip on the bank. I had some other fun tricks like no comply flip on the bank, front rock on the qp, switch front nose the granite ledge. It was fun. I started to get sore so Nate was kind enough to film a line of me. It was okay, I kind of wish I had tried something else in retrospect. Oh well. I filmed Josh get a line first try. Polejam, back 50 transfer the qp, keg transfer, sweepr. So good. Nate was up next and got a banger of a line. Front smith the granite ledge, frontside ollie the qp hip, keg transfer, nollie 270 flip on the mellow bank. Whoa what! After that Josh and I didn’t skate a whole lot. Nate did nollie inward heel on the bank and another crazy trick. I filmed Nolan destroy it. Dude rips so hard, especially stuff like this. Matt and Sam ripped it. John ripped it. What a fun crew.

@nolancormier #pivotfakie #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Apr 1, 2018 at 11:35am PDT

#skateboardingrules @the_neviathan #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux #skatetourist

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 31, 2018 at 4:07pm PDT

Then we went to Garfield school to see it in person. When we showed filmer Jon was there who was so rad to see. The dude he was filming wasn’t stoked on people watching him though. Ha ha. We dorked around with some wallrides at the top. We had miniramp lines with a drop in then wallride. Matt had really high wallrides. Nolan had a gnarly pivot to fakie. Ha. Then we found this fun little bank ride hand plant around the corner that is amazingly fun. Nate went frontside, Matt did a push up, Nolan went up and down the whole bank. It was an epic ender for the trip. Then we had tacos at a nearby taco truck and I went to the airport. What a fun trip. I can’t believe how great the weather was. Thanks to everyone for such a great time, especially Josh for hosting us in such an excellent way.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, black venture 5.8 v-light, 3 washers outside each axle, 88a venom bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, old swiss bearings, new balance numeric 255 baby blue size 12, spenco 3/4 thinsole with 5mm footprints insole)

@boredzinejp @joerhamilton @the_neviathan and I had an epic “vert” session last week. Its kind of hard to distinguish Josh and I, but he’s the one actually skating vert. 😂 #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux #vert

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 4, 2018 at 6:34pm PDT

@boredzinejp 🆙🆙🆙 #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 30, 2018 at 11:41am PDT

Just look at the list of spots we skated in one day. What were we thinking???? Anyway, Joe, Nate, Josh and I started our day at the infamous SVR. We were there at 10am. Josh was cool about letting us play on the bottom with no expectations or attitude. The three of us joked and tried to run up and hang on the coping. I think I was the only one that didn’t touch it. We pumped around. Man it’s a lot of work on 51mm wheels. Ha. Josh dropped in right away. It’s insane. It’s 13.5 feet tall! Josh did some airs, grinds right out of the gate. He even dropped in on the extension which is so gnarly. Might have to start calling him Joshy Way. The 3 “street” skaters kept it to the qp and well under vert. There will be a video post above too at some point. We all took some time to get different tricks. Joe did the silly hat trick rock, f/s halfcabs, front shove to fakie, switch front shove, fakie front shove and a kickflip to fakie. Nate was hilarious. He was doing flatground kickflips and then turning around to do a kickflip on the qp. It was pure comedy the way he was falling. He did have some good front slashes on the little qp. I was having fun trying different ways to get hyped for a kickflip. Front slash, axle stall, front rock. I ended up getting a line that felt incredible. Axle stall, weak f/s ollie, b/s flip, kickflip to fakie. When you see the footage you’ll see I was like 10 feet under vert, but it felt incredibly fun. Oh yeah, I had a couple early grabs that we jokingly compared to Josh’s. For all of those wondering, I soundly beat Josh in the ‘Who did it better?’ poll. Ha ha. What a fun session.

The Roxhill Radmuffins. With @justin_gollmer, @the_neviathan, @nolancormier @corpoglenny and @joerhamilton #roxhillradmuffins #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux #jpskatecrap

A post shared by Joshua Pluger (@boredzinejp) on Mar 30, 2018 at 1:53pm PDT

Then we went to a park called Roxhill and joined up with Justin and Nolan. After a few cruises around everyone else decided everyone should boardslide the tiny rail. I was scared. Ha. Luckily when it came my time to do it I was able to get it. Josh went on to murder the bank to ledge. Front 50, back 50, front 180 180, back feeble (I think), crooks to fakie and probably like 10 more tricks. Nolan had a sick crooks on it, some rad lines with feebles on the flat bar, back tail or smith the tall qp, noseblunt the bank so perfectly. Joe was getting in on the bank to ledge too. Front 50, front 50 180 out. Nate, Nolan, Justin, Josh nose manualled the manny pad. I had fun doing front 50s on it. I never got a bank to ledge trick. I did have some fun long back 50s or 5-0s on the bank at the top. We played a game of SKATE. Oldest to youngest again. I didn’t do as well, but it did get further into the order. Josh got everyone with front 180 one foot. I came surprisingly close to getting it. I forget what I got out on. Nolan got a turn and did his patented ‘Shit Flip’ which resulted in a bunch of people trying it at the park. Pretty funny. There was a rad crew there. One dude that looked like Kalis who was destroying the ledge. Halfcab noseslide nollie heel out. I tried a few noseslide 270 shoves, but then it was time to go.

We split up for awhile. Josh, Joe and I went to Judkins. We lasted long enough for me to roll in on a 4 foot section and do a disaster on a tiny qp. Joe did a front 50. But we weren’t feeling the vibes at that park.

So we went to Benefit which was a rad park, but I was too dead for it. It had some weird tiny hip that was fast one way and slow the other, a bunch of ledges, a qp, manual pad, pole jam and some angry kids playing basketball. Joe went to work on the ledge. He got a couple new tricks. Front lip to front 50 shove out, front lip front shove front board out, smith 180 out. Josh was lining out the quarterpipe with every transition trick, hitting the manual pad with manual, nose manual or nose manual 180 then popping some ollies over the hip. His friend Ken joined us for a bit and did some stylee qp tricks. I did a b/s flip over the hip, a couple qp tricks, couldn’t ollie up the manual pad or ledges and then spent a long time trying no comply pole jams which I ended up getting right as it was time to go. Fun ender for the day.

Or so I thought. We ended up at Bellevue that night too. I was so beat. It was Josh, Nate, Joe and I and we met up with Pat. I was so sore and tired I could hardly ollie onto the 4″ tall hubba. I don’t know how everyone else was still popping. Nate and Josh wallied a plastic barrier. Nate did his boardslide transfer a bunch and some manauals up and down the bank. Josh wallied over the cement barrier. Joe was lining out the ledge on the bottom with tricks over the hip, even doing back 50s on the drop down ledge. I don’t remember much more until everyone but Joe started messing around with the ride on stair grinds. Easily my favorite part of the night. Ha. We normally went frontside on the 2nd stair. I had a fun front 50 back 180 into the bank. Pat was going for smith. Josh had to go backside. he did like 3 tricks in a row at one point. Back 50, back 50 to bank ride, back 50 front 180 out. We ended as Joe boardslid the rail. Then we went and loaded up on crappy food as we had burned so many calories skating all day.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, black venture 5.8 v-light, 3 washers outside each axle, 88a venom bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, old swiss bearings, new balance numeric 255 baby blue size 12, spenco 3/4 thinsole with 5mm footprints insole)

#cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux might be over, but I’ve got like 10 more of these to go. @boredzinejp @shopdeckcollisioncrew @nolancormier @the_neviathan @justin_gollmer @joerhamilton

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 1, 2018 at 6:39pm PDT

Went to a new park in the morning with some rain threatening, but never actually rained. The park was cool. Justin joined us as did John and Nolan a bit later. People warmed up in the manner that they do. Mine was a rock kickflip to fakie on a little wedge. Josh was doing real tricks on quarterpipes and stuff. Joe and Nate were getting at the ledge. I was hyped on the rock kickflip to fakie even though it took awhile. Then we all played a game of SKATE (before John and Nolan arrived). We went oldest to youngest so I was up first. I went through a few basics. A couple letters were had. Then it was Justin who got a couple letters on me, but I was happy that I somehow landed switch front shove and nollie back bigspin. I think the heelflip got everyone. Next up was Josh who I think got everyone with back 360 except Justin. I was at SKAT when Josh did a frontside flip turn around that was counted as a frontside flip. I did a very defensive kickflip spin 180 that wasn’t counted as a frontside flip. At least I landed going backwards. Oh well. I was feeling pretty good at that point, did a few backside grinds on the noping that were fun and then everything started to hurt. I just filmed everyone after that. It was fun to watch. Everyone was ripping. The triples boardslide was so sick.

@dadbrett (22) @imjustamaintencekid (24) @nolancormier (28) #thehomienick (30) @the_neviathan (33) @joerhamilton (34) #jonnyfunbags (37) @justin_gollmer (39) @boredzinejp (42) @corpoglenny (44) #skidmarkskatemag #youngatheart #skatingkeepsyouyoung #skatingmakesyoucrazy #collisioncurbclub #skatefam #gregoryisaacs #SM1Lens @collisioncurbclub

A post shared by Seattle Skate Rock (@shopdeckcollisioncrew) on Mar 30, 2018 at 12:03am PDT

Then we went to Kenmore after a lunch. This park is so sick. Mellow hip, solid ledge, mellow bank, weird obstacle, mellow qps and a bowl. Nate and I tried to skate, but we couldn’t. We were too sore. Argh. We sat for awhile. It was a fun session to watch. Justin, Josh and Nolan were ripping the spine in and out of the bowl. Joe went in on the ledges. The hubba front 50 was gnar. Josh had some rad manuals across the weird thing then 360s over the hip. After awhile John said he wanted to make a clip of everyone starting by youngest going to oldest. Since me and Nate only skate for the camera we got up and started trying to skate. But actually it did work as motivation to struggle through the pain. Nate was doing 5-0 180’s on the bottom of the weird thing into the bank. I hucked tricks I’ll never land over the hip. Well, I guess I got one really bad b/s flip. Flipping the board with the wider trucks was hard. Hucking f/s cab heelflips feels possible. Gotta keep going at that one. I was nervous when it was my time to film the line. I was trying no comply 270s over the hip, but gave up and thought I’d struggle with kickflips. Somehow I was 3-3 on kickflips though. The first two were garbage though. After the filming Joe did like 100 tricks on the ledge. The best part was him actually working on front 50s and taking his hat off and putting it through his legs. Ha ha. Justin’s crook on the ledge was so good. I dorked around with Nolan at on point doing little carves over the rock and doing handplants. My first attempt was funny because I ran right into the rock and dove over it. At the end Nate was trying a Suciu trick of 180 nose manual switch 180 out on the weird thing. He kind of landed it. Then we retired for food and rest.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, black venture 5.8 v-light, 3 washers outside each axle, 88a venom bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, old swiss bearings, new balance numeric 255 baby blue size 12, spenco 3/4 thinsole with 5mm footprints insole)

Joe and I spent the morning making it impossible for Josh to get any work done while he was “working from home”. Then on a lunch break we went to Josh’s stomping ground Green Lake (Lower Woodlands) skatepark. We have an ongoing joke about this park because I don’t like it much. Would that change this time around? Nope. Ha. It took awhile before I got annoyed though. It’s just one of those parks you need to skate a lot. Or at least to me, Joe was having fun. Josh was ripping. Tricks on the tiny vert qps, grinds around the bank to curbs, spine transfers, beanplants, lipslides, slappy crooks to fakie, front nose the tall ledge, solid crooks the tall ledge, manual and nose manual the narrow bump to ledge, front 50 and front tail the pyramid ledge, totally bolts 360 flip out of a rounded bump. Dude was ripping. Joe had some tall front 50s, I think boardslid down a rail, got a halfcab flip out of the bump to end it. I had a warm up line of wallie up onto the narrowish ledge, kickflip on the mellow bank, noseslide the pyramid ledge, got a b/s flip out of the bump, got a nollie varial flip on the top area (was hoping for nollie tre though) and rode around a lot avoiding weird obstacles.

@nolancormier is so fun to skate with. #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Apr 1, 2018 at 6:51pm PDT

After distracting Josh some more Nate and Nolan rolled into town and we went to Northgate. Nolan’s friend John would meet us and then Brett. The people already there skating were rad. I was quite sore. Argh. Joe and Nate went to work on the ledges. Nate’s long back 5-0s are amazing. He was lining them out with no complies on the round bank. It ruled seeing Nolan skate again. He destroys. I skated the barrier thing with Nolan at one point. He ollied into it, did pivot fakie first try and blunt bigspin. I did the rock ‘n rolls and the tiniest front slash imaginable. Nate did the pole jam 50 which was nuts. This was after someone else did it during a nearby car wreck that distracted us and he ran into Nate and still landed it. Joe did fakie 50 fakie ollie out then started hucking fakie 50 fakie flip out. He would get it! I didn’t really do much of anything now that I think about it. Tried halfcab crooks for awhile. John was all over in a rad way. Nolan had super long back tails, the kickflip on top of the oval middle after a 360. Brett skated the ledge. Nate ended the session with a textbook Janoski flip on the round bank. Then it was off to Treepeople!!!

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, venture icon 5.8 trucks, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, 3 washers outside each wheel, venom 88a bushings, new balance numeric 255 baby blue size 12, pinnacle powerstep insole)