Happy Independence Day! 🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇 @nolancormier #worstfirecrackerever

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jul 4, 2017 at 1:59pm PDT

Went to Broomfield park on a hot morning by myself. I had talked with Nolan the night before and thought I’d be Filmer Glen so I wanted to get some skating in before that. I felt pretty good. The stiff insoles felt a little weird at first again, but the amount of pain they avoid in my knees is worth it. I avoided ollies for awhile, but not too long. Actually manualled the blue box, front 50s and accidental 5-0s on the black box, crooks and noseslides the black box. Tried some lines. Got front 50, kickflip to fakie the mellow bank, super slow halfcab noseslide. Bank ride the steep downhill bank, ollie up on the black ledge, front 180 off, fakie flip on flat. Just ollie’ing up the black ledge felt cool. I got a very slow back 50 on the blue ledge, kickflip to fakie on the quick up blue bank. Was able to pop and do tricks for a solid couple of hours. I had stopped when Nolan showed and warmed up again with him doing lines on the parking block and quartapotty. Nolan did a bunch of boardslide combos and pivot fakies. I was hyped on doing fakie back 50s to fakie on the qp and some form of a switch front board that involved a truck grinding (I don’t even know which one). Nolan was more tired than he thought and we tried to film a few things on the quartapotty. Het got a lunch breaked blunt to fakie on the hubba above it, couldn’t get blunt treflip to fakie. We were thinking of a 4th of July post when some dudes lit off firecrackers and we thought it would be perfect. Stoked they gave us a few to try. Our timing was off the first few tries, hyped we managed to get it on the last firecracker. We laughed so hard looking at the results.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel size 12 with spenco full length thinsoles)

Still no calls for work, went to research around 1pm. It wasn’t too hot. I tried a different insole. The old basic Spenco Thinsole orthotic I rocked for like 15 years. I immediately felt better. It has almost no cushion, but somehow it seems to help. It gave me more confidence and it showed. I skated mostly in lines. I don’t remember an exact line, but I had a couple basics that stretched from the road to the manny pad. I had a first try crooks, the best feeling halfcab flip I’ve done in awhile, actually committed to 360 flips (didn’t get one – only tried a few though), tried noseslide 270 shove out for awhile, landed on switch noseslide shove out. Thinking of the session I didn’t get many tricks, but it felt better. My knee didn’t hurt as much, I was less scared of committing to tricks, etc.

I had to meet Hayden out at Erie to give him some boards, but I didn’t really want to skate that park. I brought Ollie and we hit Lafayette for awhile. My legs had gotten really sore. Doh. Ollie didn’t seem too into skating. He did his frontside halfcab on a bank though. He also tried my dork trick on the manny pad. Deck check up to manual to deck check off. He basically did it without the second deck check. The stiff orthotic insoles felt weird at the park. I got one line I liked of rock wallie the corner then b/s flip on the bank. Didn’t get the other line I wanted though. Bs 180 into the mellow bank, switch fs 180 into the next one, kickflip to fakie the bank. The switch 180 was scary and I had a couple slams trying it. I bailed all the kickflilps I tried. I threw my board. We left. I was still happy to have the ledge session not hurt me.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel size 12 with spenco full length thininsoles)

Didn’t sleep well because I had been told I would be called for work early Saturday morning. Somehow I didn’t get called and later in the afternoon I decided I should take advantage. I went to the slappy curb for awhile. It became obvious that my legs were not good very quickly. When the pain kicks in, so does depression and lack of motivation. I got a few slappy crooks and moved on. This is when I knew I was stubborn and shouldn’t be skating. I did a line of slow flatground kickflip, ollie up the curb, ollie the tiny 3 stair, back 180 off it. It took awhile. Ugh. Then I went up to the two stair area above. I noticed a little section had been waxed up. I did a back 50, it felt cool. Then I tried two lines in the opposite direction. Halfcab crook then kick back tail one way. Ollie up the two, front 180 off, switch crook. I had nothing. Never got into the halfcab crook. Did get into kick back tail, but they were really lame. The ollies up the 2 stair hurt. I kept doing them though because I’m sick of not being able to ollie. Never got the switch crook. I was trying to find motivation to move into campus more, but instead I just left.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel with footprint gamechanger insoles)

Worked from home on a warm Friday. Had it set in my mind that I would do a flatground friday, but Saul sent out an invite and the way my body was feeling it seemed more fun. I biked over there. At first it was just Saul and I and it was really fun. Again my first few runs had me doing different lines and then I settled into my normal lines. I had put high trucks back on. Being able to roll around the whole bowl is cool. Saul had hurt his should a couple days before, but I didn’t notice. He was ripping. Still rolling in, those really quick grind lines. Longer 50s. We both worked on feeble grinds at one point. I think his were better. I tried a back smith stall and got it first try (and a few more times) which felt neat. Dave showed. He flowed around for awhile and got another one of his incredibly long boardslides, manuals. Dave and I might have started a ‘gotta land a kickflip before you can roll in’ goal. At least when it isn’t crowded. I had a couple more runs I was really hyped on. Got the little 50 near the hip then front rock on the big coping. Tried a front disaster and did the weird smith thing, got a few front slashes in the deep. This was my favorite time skating there. Carve grinds too, the funnest trick. Saul can do lines with so many in a row. Looks so fun. We called it around 8pm and Dave and I watched BATB. So fun.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 highs, venom 88a bushings, bones stf v3 52mm, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533 black/gum/hyperfeel with footprint gamechanger insoles)

Any time I go a few days without skating or skate poorly I start to obsess over my setup. Well that was the case once again and I had put some low hangers on my setup with some old tiny Spitfires. I went to this little area wanting to skate flat while wearing orthotics and see how my legs felt. Because they weren’t really feeling any better after a few days off of skating. The first few ollies felt like total crap. Did some 180s, shoves. I moved on to kickflip and struggled a little, but got a few. The lower setup flips so fast. Went on to fakie flip pretty quickly, varial flip in a couple tries, halfcab flip took awhile. Then got stuck with b/s flip one way and f/s halfcab flip the other. Got terrible, terrible versions of both. Got close to fakie bigflip and nollie tre, but started to get sore and lost motivation. I did the deck check ollie up on to the curved ledge (took more tries then I’d like to share) and barely got an ollie off it. The landing hurt my right knee which has been hurting. I decided to call it. Glad I got my venture low fix out of the way.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, venture AWAKE lows, 91a venom bushings, old 50mm 101a spitfire f4 classics, washers on the outside of the axle, new balance numeric pj 533 black gum size 12, fp gamechanger insoles)

Feeling run down for some reason all day I went to Red Hawk to meet Nate and Rob. I got there first. I started with my smaller setup. I didn’t think I’d really be able to skate, but after several minutes of no ollie noseslides I got crooks and front 50 first try. I came somewhat close to crooks shove as well. It went downhill for me after that though as my knee pain became too much to handle. At one point my left knee (which has felt tine lately) had a sharp pain that scared me. I remembered I had some FP Gamechangers in the car so I put them on and I felt slightly better. I just skated very slow and tried switch front noseslide shove which felt close a couple of times.. I tried my bigger board and back to the smaller one, but it didn’t matter. Rob shredded. Nollie front lip and switch boardslide shove. Nate did 50s easy to get warmed up, front tail, front lip then went after the front noseblunt. He also did some manuals on the rocks, nose manuals, nollie 180 nose manuals, switch inward heels, switch flips, etc. He got really close to some noseblunts. Matt showed and did a few easy 50s before the cops came and gave us a peaceful boot. We went to Erie park that had a bunch of bikers, scooters and kooks. Well, a few other skaters too that were ripping and having fun. Matt and Nate killed the tall ledge. Those tricks are nuts. I just sat and watched. Rob had done a few laps cruising around and smartly bounced. I don’t like how much pain I was in. I think I know will give up on skating without orthotic insoles.

(setup 8.25″ null spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

After a fun morning of helping Saul pour the last of the crete we all met at Crisis around 2pm. We drove off to a new spot Rob had found that looked really fun. It was. But unfortunately we got the boot really quick. Rob had done some axle stalls and smiths, Fuzz tried some ollies over a gap, I tried some axle stalls and slappy crooks, Dave did pivots. This spot has a ton of potential, hopefully we can get some time at it. Then we ended up at the double bank spot. Hype wasn’t too high, but we rolled it for awhile and before long it was a pretty heated and awesome session. We busted out the camera, lines were filmed, tricks were landed, fun was had. Rob with the steezy ollies and beanplant to tail. Dave back tails, front nosestall on the low bar, front 50 the low bar, switch shoves. Fuzz fakie flip the smaller bank then kickflip to fakie the steeper one first try. So sick. He almost got another banger line, but ran out of juice. I struggled with kickflips to fakie, but kind of got a line that I actually like with a kickflip to fakie on the smaller bank, fakie ollie the steep bank then alley oop boneless to terrible landing. Dave got the shaft having to film the longest. Sorry Dave. He also had the worst slam of the session hanging catching the inside of his arm on the bar. Then we were supposed to hit Safeway, but ended up skating the Crisis curb. I mostly sat after a slappy crook or two. Rob had slappy crook and crook to fakie, feebles, almost lap over smith or whatever that is called. Fuzz slappy feeble. Dave front hurricane! Justin and Connor were skating too. Justin was going bonkers. Slappy crook to feeble, crook to boardslide, crook to 5-0. Switch slappy crook bigspin, switch front crook fakie flip out. Dude destroys slappys.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

Worked from home on a nice Friday after a rainy morning. Rob and I went to meet at Wilville around 3:30. I had a fun push there. I did one warm up nose stall on the skate stopped ledge and immediately a security guard came out and gave the boot. Doh. I went out front and Rob was there and we agreed to try Dog Park. Rob got there first and told me it was all wet. Argh. So then we decided on research which was dry and bust free. However there were quite a few students and cars making it not as chill as normal. I had watched a bunch of CK1 parts earlier in the day and it got me hyped to try some lines. It kind of helped with some warm up lines that were fun. Rob got halfcab noseslide, halfcab noseslide to fakie, crooks, boardslide and maybe halfcab boardslide too. I just had noseslides and a crooks or two. I couldn’t get halfcab noseslide, front 50 or back 50. We did some downhill lines for awhile. I was skating so incredibly slow. Got halfcab flip, the slowest fakie bigflip in history, couldn’t kickflip up the curb. Rob was trying a line of back 180 up the curb, body varial, front shove, front board pop out. He had one body varial that was so sketchy and amazing that he survived without a fall. I was trying some super slow frontside halfcab flips when Rob sat and I sat too that was the skating for the day. I wish skateboarding wasn’t so hard sometimes.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

Happy #gsd! @43shifty golden hour back smith.

A post shared by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jun 21, 2017 at 7:10pm PDT

After dinner on a warm evening I met Rob at Safeway. We both warmed up in a similar manner just doing ‘slappy’ noseslides and stuff. Rob was the first to touch his tail and go back 50. 50s were had by both. Well, my back 50 were all tic tac’d until a good feeling one later on. But that was after the Rob demo was in effect. Back smith, front tail, back 180 fakie 50 halfcab out, halfcab noseslide to fakie, back 50 bean plant out! There is more, but I’m not remembering right now. There was a period where I felt really good on my board. It felt great. Kickflips felt good. Ollies onto the ledge didn’t hurt at all. I was trying front 50 no comply shove out, but never got it. Also never quite got fakie nosegrind. But it was fun and even just going 50s felt great. I was also happy the whole time with my setup. A rarity these days.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with thin lakai insoles)

Went to Saul’s after a walk with Liz on a warm evening. As I arrived Lazer, Eric and Tucker were bouncing. Doh. Luckily Saul was down to skate more. My PF pain was kicking pretty good which effected my confidence. Ugh. Running down the transition hurts, I should just commit to everything and I’d be better off. Saul was ripping and rolling in everywhere. Even the deep end. He was grinding longer, slashing the shallow, almost the deep, trying new stuff. Me too. After getting a few carve grinds and the easy roll ins I tried a new line. Drop in where I always do, but carve quicker and grind the corner near the hip and do a front rock on the big wall. It was fun.

Then after some driving around and figuring out if Dave was gonna skate I ended up at Valmont. I quickly wanted to go home I was so sore, but Dave said he was coming after all. My right knee was acting up on top of the plantar fasciitis. Ugh. I tried a line for awhile of halfcab on flat, wallie nollie the loading dock, then noseslide the ledge. Maybe got to the ledge one and the wallie nollie was questionable. Dave showed and after a couple of minutes slammed super hard on a front 50 attempt. His hand slapped super hard, but the way it looked I thought it was his head. It scared me. Luckily Dave is stubborn and after a brief rest was skating again. I mostly tried switch noseslides both ways, but mixed it up with a few other hucks. I couldn’t get a halfcab noseslide. Argh. Dave was doing really good noseslides and noseslides to fakie. We went to the manny pad, but I was too tired to ollie and the storm hit. I tired to time it so that Dave would be manualling with lightning in the background, but I couldn’t get it. Not the best session, but whatevs.

(setup 8.38″ null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, venom 90a bushings, bones stf 52mm v5 wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric pj 533s black/gum 12 with stock nb insoles)