Right after a boring work day I went to Broomfield park which was mostly dry and the rain was holding off. The park was not crowded, but the crew that was there was sitting on the sad ledge or playing skate near the little blue ledge. I went through my embarrassing warm ups. “Slappy” noseslides, boardslides, basic quartapotty tricks and struggled for awhile to get a back 50. There was a parent that brought his young toddlers to play skateboards at the skatepark. I literally mean push the skateboard with his hands. So I went over to the flow bowl area for awhile and carved a bit. They left and I skated the blue ledge some more. Got a few basic tricks like front 50 180s out, fakie front 50 front halfcab out, couldn’t get a front nosegrind. I did a backside flip on flat at one point and this dude was like “Wow, that was sick, HOW OLD ARE YOU?”. Geez. Guess I look that old now. I skated the black ledge for awhile. Got front 50s, front 5-0, almost first try front 50 front board and front 50 kickflip. Had a few crooks. Was trying lines with a flipper at the top of the park, front or back 180 into the bank then halfcab noseslide the ledge. It took awhile. I suck so badly at that trick. There was another dude skating the black ledge that was super nice and we were having a good time quietly cheering for each other. Finished up on the blue ledge with some failed tailslide attempts, switch front noseslide 270 shove attempts, got into a kick back tail, failed at the switch nosegrind 180 I had been chatting with Josh about. I had tried a bunch of fakie 50s attempting to do a b/s halfcab out, but didn’t get close.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, old NB# PJ NM533s)

Feeling very exhausted after work I went to the dog park for about an hour. Starting out wasn’t too bad actually. But I ended up kind of struggling with most basics. Never got a b/s flip or fakie bigflip. Again, I am going through another big change (vulcs back to cups) so I shouldn’t expect much. Plus I’m on an 8.5 now, have had plantar fasciitis and have not skated much flat lately. With that said I would go through long spells of not landing anything, but out of nowhere I did a line of heelflip, nollie tre, kickflip, very bad treflip. So as bad of a session as it was, the nollie tre I landed felt spectacular. I guess I did get a lot of heelflips too. I also tried a bunch of switch frontside flips that I actually committed to. I never landed on the board, but I did get them around and close to my feet. I would love to get that one.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, old NB# PJ NM533s)

@43shifty boosting!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 16, 2016 at 7:32pm PDT

A teaser for @nolancormier 's rock fakie part and a couple airs from him and @siouxer666 #rockfakie #shitflip

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Aug 16, 2016 at 8:03pm PDT

Went to Longmont park right after work. I had some minor foot pain going on all day, but when I arrived to the almost empty Longmont park it seemed to be completely gone. I felt good for once. I was wearing some really old NB# PJ shoes. My warm up was all over the place. In fact I didn’t really stick to anything and just cruised around. Had a couple of basic ledge tricks, flippers on the mellow bank. Rob showed around the time I got a line of ollie the backside hip, kickflip on the bank, boardslide the ledge and then bailed a front 5-0 or something. Rob cruised manuals, crail blocks and bonelesses for awhile. The one above is so steezy. I got a new trick on the mellow bank. Cab bigspin. Aka another Joe Hamilton trick. It felt cool. I tried a line of wallie up the snowboard jump then b/s flip over the hip, but never even committed to the b/s flip. Doh. Riley, Nolan and Garrett showed, Rob took off. Nolan and I dorked around on the mellow bank for awhile doing no comply tricks. He did a bunch of them like b/s no comply bigspin, cab no comply, no comply stale fish grab spin thing (ha) and who knows how many more. He got me to kind of land a couple fakie no complys and the stale fish trick. I stretched for awhile then did a few basic flippers before leaving. Fun day, first time without pain in awhile. Guess I’m back to skating cupsoles. Never doubt PJ.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, old NB# PJ NM533s no orthotics)

Sick of my feet hurting so much I went in front of the house for a quick one. I had put my work PJ shoes on. It’s the first time I’ve skated in PJ’s without orthotic insoles. It felt good. I skated for about 5 minutes. Did some ollies, nollies, slides and a kickflip. I could see myself wanting cupsoles for awhile again ..

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, old PJ NM533s no orthotics)

#empty

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 14, 2016 at 5:41pm PDT

Feeling a little bit better I rolled to Fort Collins ahead of schedule so that I could skate some before filming Hayden. I had taken some ibuprofen the night before so maybe that’s why I felt better. Or maybe because I finally had some meat again. Either way, I didn’t completely suck and it was refreshing. There was only one other skater for awhile before another dude showed. I didn’t do anything special, but cruised some basics. Had a line of a wallie off the flag, heelflip on flat and then back 50 on the glorified curb. I also had front 50s on it, “nollie” front tails and a manual. Couldn’t get nose manual. Had a crooks or two on the “legit ledge”, noseslides too. Then Justin and Wittman showed up at the park as I was trying over and over to front 50 the ledge. It took me a long time and when I finally got it it was very slow and I only grinded an inch or so. Oh well, I finally forced myself to skate it. My shoes were killing me. The Flacos were also purchased before I stopped wearing my orthotics. Argh. So I stopped at MRKT and got some new shoes, some Lakai VAII. They seem wider and a bigger size so not as tight on my foot. We then went to Northside that was totally empty when we got there. I pumped around while Hayden warmed up. Didn’t do much, but had fun. That park is rad.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, cream lakai flacos / lakai VAII no orthotics)

Feeling really weird and out of it I tried to warm up for a bit on the crappy curb across the street. I had new shoes on (Lakai Flaco) as they were a little longer, but at the same time narrower. I didn’t get much going before Nolan showed up and we ended up at Red Hawk meeting Fuzz, Rob, Kevin and eventually Dave. Upon arriving I felt terrible. Kevin went right to ripping. He had way too much energy. Ha ha. I tried to get things going, but it didn’t happen. Got a line of kickflip up the curb, front 50 front 180 out, switch noseslide on the ledge and a crooks or two on the ledge. But then I basically resigned to filmer Glen. Rob got a couple cool lines with no complys, manuals, wallie nollies, boardslides and crooks. Fuzz got a rad one with fakie ollie, switch board and front 50 back 180 out. Dave got a good one with manual and front 50 body varial. Nolan almost got a crooks nollie varial flip out or however he decided to try and flip it out at the moment. Kevin was shredding some tech moves and got a line of switch flip up the curb, halfcab manual, front 5-0 and nollie front nosegrind. So good. He also did tricks like kick back tail, front noseblunt, front blunt, back 5-0 front shove out. We set Hosercam up and skated the longer ledge for awhile. Fuzz got a new trick of fakie 50 f/s bigspin out. I did a very slow kick back 50 tic tac. I was hurting so bad. Kind of a bummer of a day because I was skating one of my favorite spots with some of my favorite people and skated like complete dookie.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, cream lakai flacos no orthotics)

Breck park with @fullertrron

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 12, 2016 at 2:25pm PDT

@boredzinejp 's challenge was frontside flip revert so I took full advantage of the term revert. I told you I'd lower the bar Josh! @fullertrron and I learned new ones for the next challenge yesterday. Front smith to front rock. My first transition challenge! You got it! (It helps if you do it on a huge vert wall like us) #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #ithelpsifyouwearadinosaurjrshirt #thestreetstuffatbreckparkblows

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 13, 2016 at 6:39am PDT

After running some boards to The Grind in Silverthorne, Dave and I went to Breck to check out the newish park. It was a beautiful day up there, sunny and warm, but not hot like it is down on the front range. The park was not crowded and in fact another older crew was up from our area too. It was cool seeing them. Dave and I weren’t all that impressed with the street area. Ok, we were pretty much totally bummed on it. They might as well call Team Pain street sections prefab parks now. It had your standard Team Pain bump to this, bump to that, no regular ledges, no idea how to build a street section. We got warmed up on the tiny qp in the back of the park as I had an idea to try and learn front smith stall to front rock. It took us about 30 tries and we got them! We were hyped! Then we tried to skate the park. I sucked miserably. I was only able to front 50 the pier 7 ledge slowly and I got a rock kickflip to fakie on the bank under the giant ledge that maybe 1 person a year skates. Dave got a sick line of frontside boardslide the top pool coping qp, nollie into the bank, axle stall, back tail on this little bank over a weird little pool coping section. Sick! He also did a bunch of other tricks on the qp like backside boneless, back tail, many more. My feet were starting to kill me. I guess without wearing my orthotics my foot sits flatter in the shoe and my toes were smashed into the front of the shoe. It hurt. I tried to at least carve around some stuff, but even that hurt too much after awhile. Dave and I agreed there is no need to go back to that park again. Come on Team Pain, step up your street game already.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics)

Right after work I went out to the melted asphalt for a real quick one. Did a couple slide around 360s, nollie shoves, then a line with ollie, nollie, no comply 180, fakie shove and called it a session.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics!)

@fullertrron pulling out some ultra rare ones last night while I worked on coming up short.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 11, 2016 at 6:16am PDT

Went to Longmont park later in the evening and met Dave. The park was not too crowded, the scene was typical for Longmont park crowd. I’m writing this way to long after it happened, so I wont remember much. I know we played a game of SKATE on the mellow bank. It was a close one SKAT-SKAT for awhile. We had both done sex changes which was rad. Dave won it with a backside front shove. Ha, does that make any sense? Backside ollie with a front shove. Then we both tried switch flips on the bank for awhile. Both god close. I gave up and started trying cab flips, but Dave kept at the switch flips and got one! So sick. I kind of got some cab flips too, but as you can see they weren’t quite far enough around. Dave also got a backside bigspin over the hip. We both tried frontside bigspins over the hip, well, Dave’s was switch. Both got remotely close. I took off then. This was the first session in awhile where I felt good on my board at times.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics!)

It’s hard to skate right after work. Especially now that I’ve been doing these weird barefoot exercises all day to try and kill off my plantar fasciitis (it seems to be working!). Skating without my orthotics is so weird. I’ve skated with them for 15 years, so not having the arch support feels so bizarre and made for another really slow warm up that made me want to focus my big board. But after getting a couple heelflips and close to nollie tres I started to feel alright. I still struggled, but I should kind of expect this considering I just started skating a big board AND I stopped skating with orthotic insoles for the first time in 15 years. I didn’t get anything rare. Came close to halfcab heel, somewhat close to switch f/s flip, not very close to cab flip (screen shot above). Then the wind kicked in fierce and killed my desire to keep skating.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, nb# quincy 254 blue/gum no orthotics!)