A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 13, 2015 at 10:19am PDT

A nice sunny morning. The fremont heads and I went to campus first. We thought we wouldn’t last too long and would move on to another spot before others met up. Well, we know Carleigh was gonna meet up right away, but not sure about others. I gave them a little tour of campus and we hit the bank to fence. We were all stiff and tired to start. Eric had a goal of doing a footplant on the fence. It took him a bit, but he got it. Dan had some rad fakie pole jams. Joe did a front axle on the fence. Matt kind of did a casper. I did a few flippers. Carleigh showed and we moved on looking at a few more things. Dan did a rad manual to firecracker on the 1-7 stair. Carliegh ollied up the curb then rode down the 7 stair with authority. I tried to manual the downhill section and failed.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 13, 2015 at 1:24pm PDT

Then we wen to the long ledge. After a few attempts at skating it I gave up and chilled next to Eric. Carleigh was doing front 50s. Matt was filming a line of nose manual, nollie front tail, dolphin flip. Dan was filming it. Joe was working on front smiths and kickflip manuals. While sitting there I was telling Eric about my quest to film the stupid tail stall 270 shove out into the narrow path. He thought it sounded rad and we went over to try and film it. 151 tries later I came up empty handed again. I know it was 151 tries because that’s what Eric said. Ha. Eric did a cool little tail stall whip around on the rock. Then we went back to the ledge and heard the stories of the goodness that went down. I saw Neil do a couple last minute lines as Matt filmed. So yeah, Fuzz, Lazer and Neil had showed and minutes later Squeeks and Wade did too.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 13, 2015 at 3:56pm PDT

A video posted by Alex Covey (@squeeks_on_board) on Jun 15, 2015 at 8:17am PDT

A video posted by Alex Covey (@squeeks_on_board) on Jun 13, 2015 at 4:48pm PDT

Last spot was this one. I was so beat I didn’t even get my board out of the car. Joe had a bunch of rad boardslides. Richard showed and was killing back nosegrinds. He didn’t quite get one, but wow he was going fast and it looked good. He did get a sick back 5-0. His friend was there too and almost did fakie front 50 across the gap. He also pretty much did some really fast and long front 50s to bigpin out. Almost 3 shove too. Squeeks put on his show with boardslide pushups and long front boards. Pretty impressive. Matt hucked some tricks near the end just to keep Richard going, but we got cut short by rain. It’s ok though because everyone was beat the the Fremonsters wanted to hit the road.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s)

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 12, 2015 at 10:59am PDT

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 12, 2015 at 12:59pm PDT

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 12, 2015 at 1:04pm PDT

Totally pouring in Boulder for day 2 of the #tighbros2015 trip. Ugh. The original plan was to head to Colorado Springs, but the forecast looked really bad to the south. Luckily we have technology and were able to look at the radar and forecast and see that it looked good to the north. So we headed to Miliken where most of us hadn’t skated before and sure enough, it was dry. Even better it was basically empty. It’s a weird park, almost all trannie. Ok, all tranny except for a bench that isn’t even in the park which some people skated almost the whole time. Ha. The crew was Dan, Matt, Eric, Joe, me, Dave, Rob, Neil, Jack, Riley, Scotty, Bernie. Wow. The nice thing about trying to write a journal about a session like this several days later is that I forget almost all of it. It’s a good warm up park, but if that were the only park in town I’d be bummed. I guess at least the ledge behind the park is pretty awesome. Anyway, Riley went nuts skating so fast it was crazy. Almost got the craziest nosegrind. Got huge boneless, stalefish, transfers and like 10 first try ledge tricks. Rob flowed all over the park and told me his line was “the most old man park in the line” or something to that effect. Note, it was a rad line. Bernie did front tail f/s flip and front tail 270 out on the bank. Dan got a daNBD front willy to benett. Crazy. Matt did a bunch of ledge tricks when I wasn’t looking. Neil had some of the best carves of the day. Eric rock fakied the tallest thing in the park and the sketchy little thing in the middle of the big banked wall, but not the oververt pocket. Joe did a bunch of tricks on the ledge. Front 5-0 to front board. Front smith front 180. So good. Also cruised skated the mini section with me a bunch. Scotty had some layback front rocks, popped nollies and lots of smiles. I couldn’t skate the ledge well, had some fun kickflips over big hip, boardslide transfer into the kicker thing, and had a lot of fun on the mini ramp thing getting front smiths and a back 50 up the escalator. Jack had a rad slam trying to manual a volcano, but basically clearing all of it. Ha. Also lipslide to late shove on the bench, some pretty rad transfers and grinds in the park. Dave skated the ledge a lot longer then I would have thought, I only saw front board 270 out and it was amazing. He had some good stuff in the park too. Sorry for forgetting everything.

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 12, 2015 at 3:19pm PDT

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 12, 2015 at 5:38pm PDT

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 12, 2015 at 6:48pm PDT

Then after food and a stop at MRKT we went to Spring Canyon for a pretty awesome session. Dave and I started with switch flip fails. John joined us and did one. The curb/ledge/manny pad/rail obstacle was the main attraction and it was heated with all of us skating it. I can’t even begin to remember what all happened. I saw John get close to his ollie up , front 50 the back of the bench, noseslide off. Fuller and Rob did 50s to body varial. A bunch of us boardslid up the rail, I was last of course. Joe had front 50 shove and front smith on the ledge off the manny pad. Dan was getting wild with multiple body varials while grinding. Also some jump offs/on to heelflip out. I did a couple ollies onto the bench then drop down to grind, but couldn’t land it when Neil was filming. Jack wallied over the rail to 50 the curb. Mike joined us and did every variation of no comply and some sick boardslide transfers on the spine. Dave had feeble transfers I think. Eric manned up to the carve over the door and Riley got his back by doing it frontside. Riley did a bunch of tricks over the door, it was nuts. Back lip, back tail, fakie ollie, and more I can’t remember. This got Scotty hyped up enough to land a Good Buddy (fakie eggplant). Trick of the day. So sick. Neil was cruising as he does ripping his tricks. Dave, Jack and Riley did a bunch of crazy tricks on the ribbon qp. I managed front rock and axle stall, couldn’t get back smith stall. I was also struggling to ollie up the curb first. I tried a few more switch flips at the end of the session and failed. Other flippers when pretty good throughout the session. Bernie and Scotty were killing some games of SKATE. There was so much going on. Then we went to OCB to eat. It’s gross, but it’s a tradition.

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 12, 2015 at 10:09pm PDT

Then get this, we skated more. What the heck. Went to Longmont park. Neil, Rob and Dave had gone home. Richard joined us. I mostly just carved the bowl then dorked around on the mellow bank. Got kind of close to switch flip. Riley, Jack and Scotty went off up the step up and bump to ledge. Jack did gap to front tail front shove out. So crazy. Joe bonelessed the hip. I really didn’t see much as I was kind of in my own zone in the corner. I love skating with all these people.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s)

After a stressful morning working from home and trying to get things ready for the #tightbros2015 awesomeness. After doing bidness at Crisis, Neil and I left to meet the Fremonsters at the Thornton park. It was immediately awesome. It’s going to be beyond impossible for me to remember who all did what. My highlight happened pretty early nosesliding the big hubba while Eric did a blunt revert on the top of it. I only did one clean noseslide, but it felt really awesome. Neil had reserved his knee for this day and started letting loose. It ruled seeing him fly around again. I saw Joe do front 50 270 out on the bank to curb. Eric did some funny spin transfers on the volcano. Matt could do whatever on the ledge. Dan was doing cool manual grind variations. Rob, Fuzz and Lazer showed up. Lazer ripped the tranny. Fuzz had back 180 switch 50. Rob is always with the smoothness. It started to rain while Joe and I were trying to boardslide across and down the rail.

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 11, 2015 at 2:20pm PDT

So we went to the nearby ambulance ditch which dried up super quick, but not before Matt could do a nollie bigspin and Eric did a sal flip to fakie and f/s. Then the session went off. Fuzz had a sick fakie flip on the bank and a fakie ollie over the hip to super bad slam. He brushed it off though and kept skating. Joe had kickflip rock, front shove rock and cab bigspin. Dan did two heelflip rocks in a row. Neil, Lazer and Rob did triple wallrides. Rob was doing them alley oop and I think even grabbing crail. I took a long time to get a kickflip on the bank then back tail over the hip. Bailed a bigflip I shouldn’t have and ended with a line of no comply bigspin on the hip then no comply shove over the hip. Will had joined us and worked on b/s nollie flip for a long time before getting a perfect one.

A photo posted by Eric J Eckert (@ericjeckert) on Jun 11, 2015 at 7:07pm PDT

Then we drove to Denver to skate this spot before heading to the Mott’s. Neil and I apparently took the slowest route and were the last ones there. Dave met us. I saw Fuzz ollie over the ledge then boardslide down. Matt get into nollie shove crooks. Dave was trying long boardslides. Joe did front 50 shove. I really don’t remember much else. I was starting to feel warmed up and had a couple alright flippers when the rain kicked in then security gave us the boot. The rain settled in good and the Mott’s didn’t happen. Doh. Fun first day though and we got in lots of skating considering how bleak the forecast looked.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushing 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s)

Went to Blue Skies for an early lunch. I was gonna meet Dave, but I ended up having to leave before he got there. I was gonna just skate flat and try switch flips, but there was people using the basketball court and half of the hockey rink. I ended up not really skating flat all that much and just had fun. I did have a couple treflips and came close to nollie flip, but nowhere near switch flips. Came really close to noseslide 270 shove, posed switch boardslides, did some faster then normal from 50s, couldn’t get the tall part of the front 50 though.

(setup 8.25 null ventures lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Worked from home. Went out to Rampy 3 separate times for about 20 minutes each time. Tried switch flips. Failed. Tried an 8″ setup with 42mm, but got closer with my regular setup. Felt very depressed. Didn’t even really get too close. Wasn’t wearing my wrist guard and slammed on my wrist at the end. Ugh. I have never really tried to skate switch in my life and it’s showing. I landed one switch kickflip in my garage about 10 years ago. Not sure I have it in me to get another one.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 8, 2015 at 8:05pm PDT

Went to Crisis right after work to see Neil. So exciting. We chilled for a bit then went over to Safeway ledges. I warmed up with my typical bash the nose into the ledge and turn around tricks. Neil was stretching because he has a torn meniscus and can’t really skate much. It didn’t stop him from getting in a few front 50s, noseslides and ollies. Then he wanted to film me. I went for a crazy line for the heck of it. Kick back 50 then nollie tre. I struggled a bit with the kick back 50, but I locked into a kick back 5-0 and when I landed that I knew I had to land the nollie tre. Got it! Probably the best line I’ve ever filmed and one heck of a great feeling to do those two tricks together. Before filming I had hucked a front crooks to fakie and did probably my best one ever. I still put both hands on the wall and pushed off, but whatevs. So I tried to film another line of crooks on the fence ledge then front crooks the main ledge. Couldn’t get the front crooks though so ended up doing a line of crooks, front 50 180 out then halfcab flip. Rob showed up shortly after that. I was just kind of messing around with halfcab flip noseslides and doing more back 50s since I was actually doing them ok for once. Rob filmed a couple rad lines with front noseslides on the fence ledge, some crazy shuffle tricks on the ledge and them more shuffle tricks after. Ha, it was tight. I finally back 50’d the fence ledge. Tried a bunch of switch flips throughout and didn’t get very close. Felt some of the best I’ve felt on a board in awhile.

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jun 8, 2015 at 7:42pm PDT

Then Neil and I went by Broomfield park to see Riley, Nolan, Scotty, Teagan, Garrett. Tight crew. Nolan is recovering from a broken foot and was just kind of messing around which was fun. Scotty has gotten so fun to watch. Nollie 50s, hardflips and fakie handplants. What an awesome combo. Riley and Teagan were attacking the double set. Garrett had front tail then back tail on the black ledge. I just kind of dorked around on the quartapotty and tried blunts to pivot, but was so tired. We left after awhile. Fun day.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Woke up early on a weekend again. Could have gone for more sleep, but with the sun coming up so early I just can’t. I needed to go to Sol and I was pretty sore from skating so much the day before. Dave is one of the few people that is up by 8am to skate so I hit him up. I got to Longmont park at 8:30am. There was one other dude there drinking beer and skating. I cruised around for awhile getting warmed up doing nothing in particular. Then that guy asked if I wanted to play a game of SKATE. Sure. I ended up winning it with a b/s flip that felt good. The narrower trucks with the wider board flip good. Then I tried to manual the ledge up top of the park for awhile and do a front d on the noping. But I never got the manual. Dave showed up. We were kind of doing our own thing before a switch flip battle ensued. I guess he had finally landed one on his ramp not moving. Neither of us landed it. We probably tried for 30 minutes. Dave landed on one and shot out. I had a couple that flipped good and i landed with one foot and the other next to the board. Looking like O-L for me in the game of torture. Skated the park for awhile. Dave was trying front tails over the hip then nollie bigspins on the bank. I posed some b/s ollies over the hip. Trying to pop them really high. It felt really cool. I didn’t commit to any of the big ones, but landed one or two that were bigger then normal for me. Then we skated flat for quite awhile. Dave was working on the nollie bigpin and got a good one that took a few tries. Then he almost landed f/s halfcab flip which I think is a totally new one for him. I landed a lot of my flipper. Fakie flip, fakie varial flip, heelflip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, f/s halfcab flip, nollie varial flip, nollie treflip (felt super good). Couldn’t land a 360 flip to save my life though. Dave tried to switch front bigspin the hip in the back of the park. He got super close. Had some rad switch front shoves on flat while feeling it out. And some rad lined setting up for it that had tricks like fakie front pivot on the noping, switch f/s ollies on the bank, switch 360 no complys on the bank and probably a lot more. I hucked some front heels over the back hip, but was rarely close. Then I started trying to go up the bank, grind the last bit of the step up into a manual on the deck of the bank. Got a couple. One in a line with a nose manual across the pyramid like Dave was doing. The last thing I did was skate the ledge for a bit. Manualled it, front 50, front 50 front 180, front 5-0 shove (trying front 50), a couple crooks (they felt good and i was a little worried they would feel weird with the smaller axles) and a horrible back 50. Whew. That was a lot of skating. Then I went to Sol and after a quick nap was out playing basketball with Ollie.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Went to Southern Hills around 9am since both kids were sleeping still. I played it really mellow for awhile. Just nosestall pivot stuff on the lower stair. Then stepped it up to back 50 on the stair. Then I skated flatground for awhile going through a few basics. Tried switch flips for awhile and started to get depressed so I stopped. Well kind of. Started doing laps with the ledge and stair. Tried a ridiculous run for awhile. F/s flip on flat, halfcab noseslide the ledge, kick back tail the stair. Got all the tricks, but never together. Tried b/s flip then fakie nosegrind, but couldn’t commit to the ledge. Landed one treflip. Didn’t come close on switch flips. Did crooks, a back 50, noseslide, noseslide to fakie, front nose, front nose to fakie, front 50 and a front 5-0 shove out where I was trying a front 50 shove out. I’ll take it. It was super nice out. I ended after trying several noseslide 270 front shoves out. Didn’t get too close to that one.

Then after hanging with India for a few hours I went to Valmont with the sole purpose of landing a switch flip for the game of torture I’m playing with Josh and Nate. I brought an 8″ setup from my garage too in case it was easier on it. It wasn’t. It sucked on both. Above is as close as I got. I’m getting really sick of trying switch flips. I went home as it started to rain again. I put some 8″ Venture hangers on my board and tried a few switch flips on the flat of Rampy. Got pissed then tried to skate Rampy. That was somewhat ok. Tried more switch flips. Didn’t land any. Over it.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushing 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Another crazy day at work. I had a chance to go skate earlier, but it was pouring. Then things cleared up in the afternoon and I went to meet Dave at Blue Skies. Aki was there when we first got there. There was people in the hockey rink. I pumped around the crack banks for a bit because my legs were really sore. Aki was doing a bunch of tricks on the flat bar. Crooks, front lip, front 50. Dave showed and Aki had to leave. The people had left the hockey rink so we went up there. We ended up skating for like two hours so there is a lot I’m not going to remember. Dave had new shoes too so I think we both had more misses then normal at the start. Dave had a bunch of lines involving no comply 180s, switch no comply 180s, nollie front 180s, nollie back 180s, cabs, f/s cabs, helipops, back 360, front 360, his new one nollie cab, kickflips, fakie bigspins, fakie shoves. Wow that’s a long list. He also came really close to switch kickflips. At the end of the session he put down a couple varial flips. So sick. I mostly tried normal tricks going the slightly downhill way and switch flips going uphill. There were some really close switch flips and I feel like I made more progress on them, but I guess it’ll still take awhile. Hopefully within the next week so I don’t get another letter. I couldn’t do a treflip. But everything else went decent. Landed kickflips, heelflips, halfcab flips both ways, b/s flips, f/s pivot flips, fakie flips, fakie bigflips. Lines I tried were fakie bigflip, turn the board around then nollie bigflip. Also heelflip, f/s flip, fakie treflip. Got kind of close. Came close to f/s halfcab heel, switch flips and landed on a varial heel that could maybe count in an over 60 game of SKATE on defense. Then I realized I had to be back at work like 30 minutes ago. Fun times.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

Super tired after a long day of work. Almost didn’t skate, but it was nice out and I felt like I should for a little bit. I went to the research center and wow the view of the craziness in Longmont was pretty awesome. The bright spot in the photo above is actually lightning. Anyways I did a couple noseslide tricks to start. Oh yeah, had some new shoes. NB+ Quincys. I was liking the temp tryout of vulcs with the Es Accents, but they are just too slim and hurt my feet too much. This will be a true test if I can handle going back to vulcs. The board feel compared to the PJs is night and day better. I really didn’t skate long though. I would try a ledge trick and on the way back up try a switch flip. I never got close to the switch flips. On the ledge I good back noseslide, back noseslide fakie, front noseslide, back board pop out, crooks, a few tic tac’y back 50s and a really bad halfcab noseslide.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)