@siouxer666 setting up a freshie, flow guy @garrettswheelers with the hand me down. 😂

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jul 14, 2016 at 9:05pm PDT

Long day of work, stopped by meta to grab a new boards since new Null boards still hadn’t arrived, ate quickly then went and met Garret and Riley at Broomfield park. The park was packed when we got there with lots of awesome people I haven’t seen in awhile. Daryl, Collin, so many more I’m not remembering in my delirious state. I hadn’t really even done anything yet when Jake showed up too. So awesome. Everyone was kind of doing their own thing. Riley was doing switch flip switch nose manuals on the blue box. I did a few tricks on the quartapotty before joining Jake on the black box. He was rattling off tricks. Front tail, front 5-0, front 50 to front board, etc. I was stuck on front 50s. Argh. Although crooks were working pretty well. Tried to do a line of front 50 front 180 out then fakie flip out of the bank. Moved on to front 50 shove and came closer to the line. Jake also got fakie back tail. Riley was coming through in the middle of long lines with bangers like back smith down the rail, noseblunt on the brick qp, switch flip nose manuals, switch heel nose manuals, etc. He was shredding so hard. My shoes were kind of driving me nuts, they have so little board feel. I really got the desire to have better board fell, I might try some vulcs again.

(setup 8.1 Krooked Manderson deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, NB# PJ Stratford 533 navy/red)

Got up somewhat early and had sometime before the late shift at work so I went to Boulder park around 8 am. There were a few people there, luckily almost all skaters. 1 crazy fully padded mongo pushing sketch machine, a scooter kid that was getting a little old to still be on a scooter, a normal highschool kid, a bandana wearing snow bro and a total flowing ripper. For awhile I just kind of rolled around the park not really sticking to anything. I eventually did a kickflip out of a bump then front 50 down the little ledge which is quite fun. Also got a little b/s flip over the hip 3rd try. Had a scary slam on a dinky little frontside ollie over the hip. Not sure what happened there. Then spent the last few minutes trying nollie tre over the hip. It hyped me up to try it and I got really close so it felt great.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, NB# PJ Stratford 533 navy/red)

Feeling decent I left for work an hour early so I could stop at the Dog Park on the way and skate some flatground. I went by the Boulder park and it was empty. I was almost tempted, but not enough. It was not too hot when I started. Warming up went ok and I was digging into the rotation and having fun. Tricks I landed. Kickflip, fakie flip, shoves, fakie bigspin, halfcab flips, fakie bigflip, b/s flips, varial flip, heelflip, treflip, nollie treflip, halfcab heel. Came incredibly close to switch flip. Remotely close to nollie flip, fakie varial flip, fakie treflip, fakie heelflip. Not very close to nollie heel, switch tre, cab flip. It was a good time.

After work and dinner I didn’t have anything going on. Everyone was busy so I went to skate some more. I thought it would be real brief before I pick up Ollie, but Liz ended up picking him up. I felt great at first. There were some people sitting by the ledge so I kind of just did some mellow lines starting at the kicker up top. It was pretty fun just doing 180s and stuff all the way down. Then they left and I mostly just hit the ledge. I am trying to implement a new rule for the research center. Gotta do 50s both ways and a flatground treflip before I lay into the crooks. I got the back 50 quick, a bad treflip not as quick, but never got a stupid front 50. Man it sucked. It made me so angry. I tried and tried and just kept coming up short. This might have to do with the fact that I skated hard earlier in the day, but man it bummed me out. I still did crooks, but even they were sketchy. Got close to switch flips on flat, that was about it. When I got into the front 50s and it stuck I was reminded of how much easier park ledges are and how I kind of want to skate them. Anyways, the night started fun, but didn’t end that way.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, NB# PJ Stratford 533 navy/red)

The challenge from @boredzinejp was a switch noseslide to front nose. This trick is way harder then it sounds. I could barely do the absolute minimum for #over40defense. Thank you Josh for being a good sport and in return here is an easy one for you. Early grab Cali grind. #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #soexcitedtonevertrythattrickagain #sorryifyouwatchedthis

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 11, 2016 at 8:43pm PDT

I was quite sore and tired and just went to the rainbow ledge hoping to do Josh’s trick decent enough to do a real challenge. I hadn’t been there in awhile and was bummed on how low the branches hung and made it hard to try the trick on a taller part of the ledge. I was thrown off a little too by the shoes I was wearing. I’m trying to clean my closet of old shoes so I was wearing some Navy/red PJs that hadn’t officially died yet. They are a lot stiffer then the crappy Es Sals. I never got Josh’s trick any better then before, but I did slam a couple of times and look like an idiot. I did a few flippers in between, but they were horrible and slow. In the clip above the purple shirted bits are from this session.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, NB# PJ Stratford 533 navy/red)

@fullertrron early morning nosegrind

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 10, 2016 at 7:27am PDT

Met Dave at 7am at our parking lot. Dave was already ripping. Warming up at 7am is even harder then later in the day. I just did some spin around tail stalls and stuff. Dave was doing shoves, manuals and switch ollies. We rolled into campus with no plans. Ended up first doing some cali grinds off this little 4 stair thing. Then went to the flagstone manny pad. Dave did boardslides and switch boardslides in. I did a little front board transfer in and a couple basic tricks like it was a qp. We moved on and randomly found the little angle iron curb above. It was fun. Dave did good front 50s, front 5-0s, front 50 back 180 into the “bank”, fakie b/s nosegrind, back 50, and b/s nosegrind! I did back 50, back 5-0 where I did a crappy front 180 into the ramp, front nosegrind. Then I tried a line for forever. Front 5-0, kickflip, b/s flip the 3 stair. Man I got close. It was the hardest I’ve skated in forever. I was totally covered in sweat, sore, almost passing out from heat exhaustion, etc. It was awesome. Except I didn’t ever really land the b/s flip. Argh. I haven’t tried to flip down stairs in a long time. Doh, we looked for water. I may have looked composed, but I really did think I was going to pass out or puke. After that I just kind of filmed Dave rip as he always does. Bluntslides, bluntslide combos, solid ollies, eggplants off drops. You guys are going to love his Stubborns part.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Es Sal black/gum)

Fun with the boy and the heat today. He got them halfcabs and mongo pushes on lock. #teamsweatstain

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 9, 2016 at 9:02pm PDT

Went to Louisville skatepark with Ollie in the early afternoon. It was hot, but the scattered clouds really helped out. I warmed up by trying Josh’s trick on the little ledge. I kind of got it. But more fun was the tricks I did going the other way. Back 5-0 and a rare back 50 front 180 out. I couldn’t quite commit to backside nosegrind though. Even with some decent lines to the ledge. Ollie was cruising like he does there. Halfcabs, 180s, mongo pushes. He flows pretty well, seems natural. We left. After lunch with a surprise visit from Rob we went to Kings Mill park. It was really hot then and a crew of lurking teenagers killed Ollie’s motivation to skate. I tried, but I really didn’t skate well. I started by bailing like 3 axle stalls in a row and it didn’t get much better then that. I was trying lines where I drop in on the bank, carve up the stair, do a front disaster on the qp, do another trick on the other qp, then come back and crooks the ledge. Couldn’t do the whole line. I was often unable to do the line because of one of the kids biking, standing or maybe skating. Not the most fun session. That park is rad though. Later on I tried Josh’s trick at the school for awhile. I didn’t get close. It sucked. But at least I was having fun getting close to hardflips and nollie flips.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Es Sal black/gum)

Had to be a parent for awhile. Ha. So didn’t get to get out like I thought I would after work on a Friday. I ended up skating flat again. It didn’t go as well, but I still had fun. I had difficulty with most of the basics. Partly because it was so warm out that my street was kind of soft. So sometimes when I landed my wheels would stick to the asphalt. Never got a clean treflip or b/s flip. Got a first try terrible halfcab heel. Posed switch flips, nollie flips, and close again to nollie fs flip.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Es Sal black/gum)

Tall guy selfie flip.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 7, 2016 at 7:16pm PDT

Feeling extra inspired after chatting with my homie PJ (not quite as big of an exaggeration as it sounds) I went to the dog park to skate flatground. I was pushing a little faster then normal to warm up. Did some ollies over a little crack gap, got a few kickflips going then started rattling off my small list of basic flippers. Most of them came pretty quickly, including treflip which has been such a pain lately. I hucked like crazy. I got close to a lot of rare or new flippers like nollie f/s flip, nollie flip, switch flip, nollie heel, hardflip. The highlight was trying cab flips and getting one! It wasn’t pretty, and I was so excited when I started rolling away that I bailed, but it still stoked me out so much. Jack came and we played a game of SKATE. He wasn’t warmed up at all, I had skated flat for almost two hours. I smoked him. Ha, even had a treflip first try.

Then we went to campus. First spot was the tall ledges with the little gap in the middle. We both got “gap” to manuals with a couple tilts in them. Then we skated the sloped ledge. Another dude joined us for awhile. It was cool. Jake did a really good bluntslide and a front tail. I kind of got a slappy crooks, a terrible front tail and almost a front crook jib to fakie.

@iamnotacreepyjake doing something creepy at a creepy spot. 👌

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 7, 2016 at 9:16pm PDT

Then we went to the bank to curb area. Jake did front 180 fakie pivot to forward along with this creepiness above. Ha. I did a slow kick back 50 which was new ground for me having to be quick after the curb ollie. I also came remotely close to some switch flips at the starting gate.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Es Sal black/gum)

So I found some Venture lows in my garage after all and didn’t hesitate to put them on. Something about how they look on my setup hypes me up so much. And with skating everyday sometimes it’s the little things that get me out skating. I had played soccer with Ollie and walked to get sorbet with India so I didn’t get out until it was almost dark. I was tired and sore at that point so I lost interest in going anywhere. I went in front of the house for what I thought would just be a few kickflips. My first few carves on the Ventures felt so good. Awesome. Things were feeling better then I thought they would and I got a little further on the trick list. Fakie flip, halfcab flip and 2-2 on heelflips. This dude named Levi that I have never met before was biking by, clapped for my heelflip then asked if I wanted to play SKATE. Ha. Sure. He used my board. He was fun to skate with. Neither of us could land 360 flips, I blame the fact that it was mostly dark, he can blame my dumb low setup (ha). I got another heelflip to go 3-3 for the night, had some problems with halfcab flips, but got fakie bigflip and a few other tricks to eventually beat him. It was cool though, we were just messing around with some tricks like fakie caspers and stuff.

(setup 8.12 Habitat Suciu deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, Es Sal black/gum)

Like I said yesterday, I had a dumb obsession to put Ventures on. I went with hi’s and quickly remembered why I do not like high trucks. So quick that I didn’t feel like keeping at it. I did quite a few kickflips, but didn’t land much of anything else other then 180s and shoves. I went home and put the Thunders back on (luckily I couldn’t find a pair of Venture lows laying around).

(setup 8.1 Habitat Suciu deck, Venture V-hollow 5.2 hi’s Thunder bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Sal black/gum)