I am out of Null decks and really wanted a new board. So I went to Meta and got me a pro deck from one of my favs pros and companies – Habitat Mark Suciu. A little later I went over to the school not feeling much like skating. I started by putting my tail down on the curb and trying to jump to front nose since it’s my new challenge. I didn’t get close at all. After awhile I tried them while moving and it was much easier. Too bad that asphalt is the worst asphalt ever and not fun to skate. I would do a kickflip between each try as I was breaking in some old Es Sal 20s I had in my closet. I think I may have only skated them once. For whatever reason I thought they were too thin, but they seem good now. I ended up technically getting a switch nose to front nose, but it was just a jib. Oh well, not a bad start to the challenge.

(setup 8.1 Habitat Suciu deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Sal black/gum)

After a lot of sleeping and lounging I headed out to the dog park to try and relearn flip tricks. I started slow, was going through some of the basics at a decent rate and then stalled out at 360 flip. It was so incredibly frustrating. I posed other tricks too, got close to switch flip and nollie front heel, but could never get the 360 flip. I wanted to focus my board, but luckily I landed on a treflip in the middle of snapped the board. I was hyped! Ha.

I miss the midnight Alaska sunsets. #cantbelieveitsdarkalready

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 12, 2016 at 8:24pm PDT

Later on I went out to the research ledge. I had a new deck and new trucks. I had been skating some old Thunders that had really bad axle slip and I remember why I gave up on them a long time ago. I had traded a pair of free Ventures for them. Oh, and I had new shoes I started earlier too. Ha, I’m a poser! My last Swifts were too small and they were killing my feet. I started off pretty bad missing noseslides and it almost sent me into a rage. But stubborn me stuck with it and I would have some kind of fun. I got a lot of the basics for me. Noseslide, noseslide fakie, boardslide, crooks, switch front nose, horrible back 50, horrible halfcab noseslide, noseslide shove. I could not get a front 50 though. I got into a bunch, but never landed one. It was dumb. I posed a lot of flippers too. Got a couple over 40 treflips (whew), close to switch flips and had a few more of the basics.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)

This one is for you @boredzinejp #weekendatglennys

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 29, 2016 at 11:49am PDT

The Fremonsters and I hit Memorial Park in CO Springs to start a nice day. Chris was there! After a brief run or two through the park dodging kids we quickly decided to get out of there and skate the vert ramp! Ha. It was a blast though. We all pumped it. Chris did a mini demo and showed us some inverts that were gnarly! I was super hyped on early grab airs that I just learned a few days prior. Great warm up.

Just got rained out, classic CO trip #weekendatglennys

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on May 29, 2016 at 1:48pm PDT

Then we went to the bank school with steps to grind. Most of us skated the mellow steps for awhile. Some of us, like me, stayed on the beginner section the entire time. My list of tricks I landed is so expansive. Front 50, sketchy back 5-0. Yeap, that is it. Got close to crooks at least, but it started to rain. Everyone struggled with the smaller section though. Even Nolan couldn’t back tail it first try. Fuzz had some nice front 50 back 180s. Matt did a bunch of tricks including front tail, front 5-0. Nolan had crooks and front nosegrind. Rob, Fuzz, Dan, Joe, Nolan had a bank session going. I didn’t see them land a whole lot. Ha. Rob did a crazy no comply bigspin grab. Fuzz did Sal flips. I think Nolan did 360 flip to fakie. Dan got close to fakie inward heels. It started to rain and Joe did a front 5-0 on the bigger set of steps. Sick!

@mattrief gettin dem angles #weekendatglennys

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on May 29, 2016 at 5:36pm PDT

After some lunch we ended up at Harrison, one of the best spots ever. Everyone had fun carving around to get things started. That spot is so awesome. People settled into tricks. Nolan took awhile to do back tail which was kind of surprising, but he had so many amazing tricks. Rob had some rad lines. Joe did a fakie 50 amongst many more tricks. Matt filmed. Eric did transfer to tail and a long back 5-0. Fuzz had a rad Sal flip transfer. I took a long time to get a kickflip, did a GleNBD of early grab back 5-0 and came close to noseslide 270 shove out. Dan kind of had fakie crook.

Then it was the last spot of the trip. The OG park. I was so excited to skate the little ledge. Joe challenged me to a game of SKATE which he eventually won. It was a good warm up. Most people were done skating. Fuzz was rolling fast around the park with an old homie that was there. Joe and I kept skating the ledge avoiding the dumbest group of beginner bikers I’ve ever seen. They were biking around trying to clap their hands. Anyways, I can’t remember all that Joe did, but it had tricks like fakie 50 back halfcab out (thats what he beat me with), front lip to 5-0, front 5-0 to front board. I was skating pretty slow and without confidence, but I managed to get some back 50s, back 5-0, front 5-0 shove, front nosegrind, got into front crooks, close to kick back 50. The session ended with me doing a b/s flip over the mellow hip and Joe doing a Creepy spin over the hip. My favorite day of the trip.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)

Woke up at 5am feeling way too much pressure to do Josh’s challenge (fakie front pivot to back pivot to tail). So got up on my Friday off and went to Arvada park determined to do the dumb trick. Ha. Well, the qp I had in mind to do it had a really bad approach for fakie and I couldn’t do it on the other one I imagined. I tried for about 30-45 minutes before giving up and trying to have fun at an almost empty park. Had some fun carving the snakerun. Skated the little qp up top for a bit. Had a fun line of rock ‘n roll, front 50 the granite low to high ledge, ollie into the mini euro, manual the bump to manual pad, bailed a 3 flip to fakie on the blue chip. Skated the miniramp for awhile. Did a few basics. Skated the pier 7 ledge for awhile. Got some front 50s and “nollie” front tails and a scary switch front noseslide. Got a bigflip on the blue chip. Posed b/s flips over the hip. Tried switch flips on the blue chip for awhile. Left feeling depressed that I was getting another letter.

Later in the afternoon I met Dave and Rob at the “Dawg Park”. I was pretty sore, but kickflips came easy. I hucked and landed on a lot of tricks. I landed very few tricks. Tricks I landed on, but didn’t ride away from: 360 flip, nollie varial flip, nollie flip, nollie 360 flip, halfcab heels, varial heel, switch f/s flip. Doh. We ended with a game of SKATE. I was the first one out. So then I posed switch flips and cab flips. Then I went home and had some GF beer.

(setup 8.25 null abstract 5 deck, venture lows, venom 91a bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)

Back to the dog park right after a painfully slow day at work. I had setup a smaller board and trucks. 8.25 with 8″ high trucks. This was my original goal for the year so I’m not too mad at myself. I was incredibly sore so it wasn’t magic, but I did flip my board easier. I was feeling better about most tricks I did. I landed a very bad halfcab heel, but it felt better then anything the day before. I landed a 360 flip second try and it made me so happy. Came really close to nollie flips. Dave was skating decent too. I’m forgetting his early tricks, but at the end he was insanely close to 360 flip and his pop shove body varial. It felt good to leave in a good mood. It might have been partially because I was wearing some old PJ shoes found in the closet too.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture v-hollow light 5.2 hi, venom 88a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 white/gum)

Took and ‘off’ day. I’ve been liking the bigger setup so much I committed to it with a new deck. While I was at it I put some new wheels on that weren’t worn down under 50mm. The 360 manuals with ollieing really are fun.

(setup 8.38 null control room, venture wides, venom 91a bushings, bones stf 51mm v2, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

Fun little flatground session on a freshie before date night Liz. For those who are counting, I did not make my New Years resolution of not changing my setup. Back to lows and 8.1. #ohwell

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 25, 2016 at 6:09pm PDT

After some more skate madness I decided to go with a Null 8.125 as my setup. The 8″ are too narrow and the 8.25″ just seems to big. Normally it would be an easy call to go to 8.1, but the 8 and 8.25 boards have 14.25″ wheelbases. The 8.1 has a 14″ wheelbase. I like 14.25. Oh well. So far I seem to like it. I didn’t have much time so I just went in front of the house for awhile. It was not warm and there was snow/water lining the edges of the street. The warm up process didn’t seem too bad and I ended up rattling off a lot of tricks. I got most my kickflip variations and a few treflips that felt good for the first time in awhile. Stayed away from straight heelflips as that can be a board breaker for me on a fresh deck. Tried nollie tres for awhile and never landed one. Tried halfcab heel for awhile too and got a good feeling one. Hucked other tricks too, close to front heel. I actually had fun skateboarding.

(setup: 8.1 null control room, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

I really needed a new deck and I was out of 8.125 Nulls so I picked up an MJ board at MRKT. It’s a horrible graphic in my opinion, but it’s the right size and MJ is one of my favorite pros so I got it. There was a foot of snow on the ground and it was still dropping. After working from home I went out in the garage wanting to land a new trick. I started in a zone of trying to get a perfect backside flip going down the garage, nollie flip going up. Never got the nollie flip and the b/s flips I got were anything but perfect. Then I went with my 5 treflip minimum down the garage and rotated between switch flip (close), switch heel and nollie inward heel up. That took awhile. I got a nollie varial flip at least, a crappy nollie bigflip (I was still hyped on it!), and an over 40 varial heel. I hucked switch front heel for awhile and came so insanely close on one of them. That trick somehow feels possible. Fun night, I was motivated. Skating flat and listening to old cassette tapes (Daisy Chainsaw!) and new ones (Bilge Rat) is fun.

(setup: 8.125 chocolate mj, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 black/gum)

Went out to the garage for a quick kickflip before heading up to the mountains to go snowboarding.

(setup: 8.25 null control room deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 black/gum)

50 days in a row spoiling myself with a new complete. Everything except the old bushings. Perfect.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 20, 2016 at 7:38pm PST

All new everything (except for bushings)! I was feeling extremely lazy, out of it and sore and didn’t get out skating until around 2pm. I was going to meet Jake and Carleigh at Valmont ledge. I got there first and was starting to warm up when a truck backed in so the destination was changed to research ledge.

I actually had some fun there for awhile. Noseslides and crooks worked. It was fun trying to get the crooks groove going on some new trucks. Jake had them too. Carleigh did noseslides and noseslide shoves. She does that trick good and doesn’t come to a halt on the noseslide like most people (me). Carleigh also did a bunch of kickflips and got into front noseslides and battled front 180 nosegrind for awhile. Jake was rattling off tricks. Front 180 up the curb, fakie back tail the ledge. Back 50, front 50, front 5-0 180, front tail, front tail shove! Geez. I never got a clean back 50 or front 50. I managed a front 5-0 on accident instead. Flip tricks were going ok for me. Did some kickflips up the curb. Almost a line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, kick back 50. Never got the kick back 50, haven’t ever done it there. Carleigh left first. Jake next. My stubborn self stayed awhile putting my body through more needless pain. I tried back 50 shove, but when you can’t back 50 it’s hard to do that. I ended trying a few tricks 5 times going slow. Halfcab noseslide, halfcab crook (didn’t get it), switch front nose, fakie 50 (didn’t get it) and for complete science fiction I hucked 360 flip noseslide (not even remotely close). I felt ok earlier on, but I was mostly just bummed when I left.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)