After Broomfield I had setup another complete of used parts. 8.25 deck with Thunder 148. I went to skate the curb across the street, but there was people at the school. Then I went to skate flat in front of the house and my neighbors family was sitting out front of their house and I didn’t want to disturb them. Argh. So I went to campus. Oh yeah, I was trying some different shoes to try and prevent knee soreness as well. Numeric 288s. No orthotic insole. That shoe has a lot of support. So I started at the slappy curb and did a few fun feeling slappy crooks. Then I moved on to this curb thinking it would grind and I could try Dave’s challenge. But this is when everything started to feel wrong. So I moved on to the little yellow metal lurb where things felt even less right and I gave up after a couple failed back 50s. On the way back to the car I did a bunch of little switch ollies on a downhill stretch that was pretty fun. I thought maybe it would get the juice flowing, but nope, I went home.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, thunder 148 trucks, spitfire 52mm radial slim 101a green/black swirl wheels, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric tan 288 shoes, stock insoles)

And now, starting a little pain level indicator to see if I ever feel good. Out of 10.
(knee pain level 6/10)

After dinner I threw a complete together from old stuff. Basically my Indy setup, but I put Venture 5.8s on there. Then Saul showed up and we rolled to Broomfield park where we arrived to a big crew of BMXers. Kevin was there too. Turns out there was a fire at a recycling center nearby and after awhile the smoke from it got pretty intense. It was pretty terrible and I can still taste it as I write this a day later. Kevin got on grinds right away. My board felt huge and made for some weird bails. Especially when we all skated the flow bowl. I haven’t carved around in it for awhile. It was fun. Kevin had some backside ollies over the channel, back disaster, back smith the deep. He was killing. Saul was too when he managed to stay in the bowl. Ha. He does the opposite of me and gets fully out on the deck on his tricks. He did the cool pump over a hip and a few solid grinds on the pool coping. He also almost did a crazy transfer while holding the coping and riding on the deck near the 3′ sections. I didn’t do much more than a couple axle stalls.

Then we went back to the “street” section. Saul beat up the curb with endless slappies. Frontside, backside, almost to back smith. He also did a front 50 on the black ledge. Kevin did some crazy easy looking switch front nosegrind 180s, nollie front nosegrind, switch front 5-0, fakie front nosegrinds, nollie tre on flat, almost back 5-0 front shove and totally died on a front blunt on the bump to bar. I did front 50 shove, the Joe Hamilton, intentional 5-0 and almost intentional 5-0 shove, crooks and one weak fakie nosegrind, but it felt cool. Flip tricks were way off. After skating Kevin gave me some normal Thunder baseplates. So look for yet another setup change. Neat.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, 52mm oj ez edge wheels, bones medium bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insoles)

The biggest #dork on #teamsweatstain. 📹 @slaherty

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 8, 2018 at 6:06pm PDT

I do still skate… but don’t actually land tricks 😂 📷: @corpoglenny

A post shared by carleigh samson (@gnarlycarleigh) on Jul 8, 2018 at 3:48pm PDT

On a very hot day I met up with Jack, Carleigh and Sean during the hottest part of the day. It was 95 degrees. We started off at the dry slappy ledge. I had a new board. A new 8″ board. And I hated it immediately. But I tried some lines to get warmed up. Nothing much, but wallie axle stalls were harder than normal. Carleigh did some kickflips. Sean did some noseslides on the tall ledge. Jack can’t skate so he cruised off spot lurking. He came back calling out the rock to fakie for Carleigh so we went over there. It was really hard to skate. I did ollie onto it which took awhile. Carleigh and Sean did that right away. Sean went on to do a sick front disaster up to front disaster thing. I did the dork trick along with posed some flatground. I hated my board being so small. That might turn into a garage board. Carleigh never got the rock fakie, but man she tried and she took a beating. The hang ups were so bad. Good effort though.

(setup 8″ null midnight rider 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, custom orthotic insoles)

On a very hot day Kevin and I messed around on the curb across the street for a bit. I could tell my body wasn’t doing so good as anything on the curb kind of hurt. Neither of us landed much before Carleigh, Ashlyn and Margeret showed up to pick us up. After a short rain delay we hit the Nederland park. I quickly remembered how little I like the park. I took a few laps around. The uneven ground is so bad. The ledge is taller than I remember. Whah whah. Most people skated the bowl for awhile. I took one run in it. I couldn’t drop in which turned me off. Kevin got a back smith in the deep. Carleigh scrached the deep. Ashlyn took a bit to dropin then slashed the deep. Margeret tried was grinding and tried to go over the death box. I went off and skated the park. I took way too long to get a mediocre line. Axle stall the hump qp, crooks the ledge, heelflip on flat (barely moving), boardslide up the end of the rail. That was pretty fun at least. Around then Sean showed up. Carleigh, Kevin and Sean skated the step up. Sean is so good. His casual ollies and 180s first try were so sick. Kevin did back 180 too. Carleigh moved in on kickflip and landed a perfect one after awhile. It was so good. Rain was threatening. I wanted to front 50 the ledge and it was so much harder than I wanted it to be. I got perhaps the slowest one ever done. Sean made grinds look so easy. He also did heelflip and front 360 up the step up. Kevin did heelflip up I think and then came close to hardflip. I like the step up, but I hate how little speed I generate for it. I came remotely close to a kickflip up before the rain officially ended the session.

After the drive down and some tacos we went to the research ledge. I was so sore. If I wasn’t with others I wouldn’t have tried to skate. But I’m stubborn. Sean and Kevin were ripping. Flip trick down the hill then ledge trick. I think Kevin did 10 nollie flips in a row. He did back tail, crooks. He was ripping. Sean did some really good basic flippers and solid ledge tricks. He did front 5-0 shove, front tail shove, front tail 270. Carleigh was mostly watching her dog, but did a few noseslides and kickflips. Jack was there, it was rad to see him. He manualled down the hill, but still isn’t able to ollie. I tried hard to not let the pain bother me. I got a crooks and the worst back 50 ever.

@slaherty 50/50 #coloradoskateboarding

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 7, 2018 at 5:23pm PDT

Then we checked out the new spot. Sean front 50’d it. Kevin fakie ollied from high to low. I did a boardslide and slappy crook on the parking block. Kevin also nollie lipped it both ways. And that was that.

(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, footprints gamechanger low profile insoles)

Wasn’t too hyped to skate flat, but it had rained a bunch so there wasn’t many options. I went across the street. I brought the putter. I went to the back area which was pretty wet at first. I warmed up with a few flippers. Hucked a few on the puuter. Then figured I’d hit Dave with b/s flip since I’ve never seen him do one and I know he can. I got one in a couple tries, but took about 10 tries to get a better one. I don’t really like how mine look. I wish I pivoted more which I know isn’t what most people think looks good, but I wish I did. I was messing around trying to ollie or manual this little brick manual pad on a crate. It was weird. After awhile I tried a super long line. Front axle the taller rock, noseslide the table bench, manual the bricks, kickflip the mini bank, ollie onto a curb backside, back 180 off, switch 180, 360 flip. I never got it obviously, but it was fun trying. I only got to the kickflip on the tiny bank once and blew it. I went on to get the treflip solo. I hucked quite a few other flippers while i was there. One of these days some new ones will feel possible.

(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, custom orthotic insoles)

Was driving to the research ledge and saw that they repaved the asphalt at this nearby building. So I pulled in and checked it out. An added bonus was a ton of brand new square parking blocks. This spot has a lot of options. I tried to pay more attention to flip tricks and started doing lines with flipper to warm up. First one was boardslide a parking block, kickflip on flat, noseslide to fakie the yellow ledge. Then ollie off the loading dock, nose jib to fakie, halfcab flip. I did some lines starting with f/s flip. They were still bad late pivot ones, but it felt good to try. Another line was heelflip, back 5-0 the curb (my fav trick all day as I never just quickly do back 5-0s), boardslide the yellow ledge. My favorite line was fakie flip (had tried a bunch of fakie varial flips and had to give up), fakie nosegrind the curb, halfcab crook the parking block (i’m not sure it technically was a crook, but i turned and put the truck on the block so i’m counting it and there is no camera to say it didn’t count anyway) then ollie low to high. I tried a half ass attempts at nosesliding off the drop, but never really committed. The metal ledge was too tall to 50. I tried no comply flip for awhile. I’ve never done it down a drop. It made it scary. I committed to a few, but never landed on it. I might go back or that one. After awhile I gave up and went to the research ledge. I did a noeselide or two, a bad crook then got tired and called it a 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, pinnacle powerstep orthotic insoles)

I would really like to skate flatground 1 hour a day. I got out of work pretty early and went to the dog park. I hate skating right after work as my legs get sore, but sometimes that’s just what works. I was doing the warm up process and the wind kicked in fierce. Ugh. That kind of killed my motivation. So I just tried non flip tricks like cab for awhile. I think I may have gotten the closest to a legit cab for me. It definitely felt like I made some progress. So I guess I can thank the wind for reminding me to try cabs. It calmed down and I tried more flippers. For some reason nollie heels felt possible and I tried a bunch. I never got close, but a few did flip right. Got a sketchy line of halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip. Wanted to try a line of 360 flip, no comply 180, fakie 360 flip. But then a bunch of bikers came and there was some class on learning bunny hops and so I just stuck to the painted area and tried fakie tres until I got one. I had gotten a sketchy 360 flip earlier to try the line, but bailed the no comply (argh). The fakie tre took away a lot of the frustrations I had earlier, although they didn’t erase the big chip on the tail I got from throwing my board (what a crybaby).

Then I went to Saul’s for a bit. It was a rad crew. Ed makes rock ‘n rolls look amazing, heck even his back 50s look stylee. Saul had some back 5-0s, back 50s, front slashes. He keeps getting a little better every time and it’s awesome to see. Chris only took a few runs that I saw, but dang he put a licking on the coping. His first few walls were all frontside. Whoa. I didn’t skate it too well, but that’s okay. The little setup isn’t so good in there, but carve grinds are still fun.

(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, custom orthotic insoles)

Feeling better somehow I went out for an hour in front of the house to skate flat. It started really slow and rather than bail tricks I can do I bailed tricks I’ve never done. Like switch tre, nollie front/back heels, etc. I took like 10 tries to get a halfcab flip. It was maddening. But I would go on to get a lot of flip tricks. Fakie flip, fakie varial flip, both halfcab flips, both halfcab heelflips, 360 flip, heelflip. I tried to end it by filming a heelflip to challenge Dave, but I couldn’t land one so I went inside angry.

(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, pinnacle powerstep orthotic insoles)

Joe and Eric were about to hit the road back to Nebraska. But we drove down and hit Wheatridge for about 30 minutes. It was hot and it was tough to get the mind into skating, but we did it. We mostly started with a tiny qp session. Kevin was trying to learn peter blunts. Joe was doing his namesake. I did my second ever front smith to front rock. Kevin also had a funny fall trying to ollie the pyramid first thing. Eric and I skated the bowl briefly. Then we all hit the mellow bank above for awhile as I remembered I needed to do a switch no comply 180 on a bank. I got one. Kevin got one shortly after. Eric did a cool sal frontside flip and Joe did fakie flips to setup a line with front 50 down the hubba. (sorry I didn’t load the other clips, but I just did this one for my Dave challenge. I ended with a boardslide transfer into the hubba. Kevin tried to ollie the double set and slammed. Ha. Fun little session considering how hungover I was and sore we all were.

(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 insoles)

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)