Jack and Carleigh came over and skated #rampy!

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jan 9, 2015 at 7:24pm PST

Snowy winter days, @corpoglenny in his lair #rampy #nullheadquarters @null_skateboards

A photo posted by carleigh samson (@gnarlycarleigh) on Jan 9, 2015 at 7:31pm PST

Another cold and snowy night. Jack and Carleigh came over after I had napped and slacked for awhile. Jack hasn’t skated in months due to injuries, so it was super exciting to see him on his board again. The session was awesome. Carleigh took longer then two tries to get back disaster this session, but got a few of them, some even out of back 50 instead of the tail stall rock fakie setup. She also did a bunch of back smiths, front 50, front disasters, feebs fakie. Jack looked a bit rusty at the start, but as soon as the one foot to front pivot went down it was clear he had it back. He did a ton of tricks. Bigspin pivot, f/s beanplant finger flip to tail, learned sweepers, back smith grinds, many more tricks I’m not remembering right now. I skated alright for me. Did one of the better front feebles I’ve done, couldn’t get a beanplant fingerflip like Jack had done, got a hurricane quickly, fakie hurricane, front tail first try (that one has been a struggle lately unfortunately). After skating we watched The Storm and 7 Year Glitch. Awesome.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Finally warm and somewhat dry enough to go hit Blue Skies during gym time. I was hyped. The main bank was a snowy mess so I had to skate around the bikepath to get there without getting my shoes wet. I pushed switch. It was fun, there was a big corner that was hard to make going switch. The park had more snow/ice then I thought it would. I started slow. Did a bunch of boardslides on the flat bar then front 50s on the low ledge. I went a little faster each time. I tried to grind further too. Did front 50, front 50 180 out, front 50 shove, front 5-0, almost front 50 kickflip out. Back crooks and back noseslide on the taller part. Tried 3 flips for awhile. Finally got a few. Tried a line with 3 flip, ollie a flat bar, 3 flip. Got it, but it wasn’t pretty. I’m basically just trying to force myself into learning 3 flips and trying them when I would normally just do a kickflip. Came close to some faster f/s halfcab heelflips, landed on a varial heel, had a good feeling b/s flip. Skateboarding in the sun and decent temperatures is nice.

After work I went near the research center and found a good sized dry patch of asphalt. I was sore from already skating and working, but I wanted to be out in “warm” (40s) weather a bit more. It didn’t take me too long to get flowing. I was struggling a bit when out of the blue a really good line (for me) came out of nowhere. No comply front 180, fakie flip, fakie treflip. The added bonus was I went fast enough that I didn’t have to push in between any tricks. Granted the fakie tre was pretty slow, but that’s the only way I could do it anyway. It hyped me up. I tried another line of f/s halfcab heel, treflip, front heel. Never got all three. Tried the nollie tre, heelflip, treflip line too, but only landed one nollie tre. Either way I was hyped. My trick list was kickflip, no comply 180, no comply finger flip, fakie flip, b/s halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip, varial flip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip, b/s flip, heelflip, front heel (horrible), 360 flip, fakie treflip, nollie treflip. Came closer to nollie heels and switch flips. At the end I tried b/s halfcab heels for awhile and landed the first one I’ve done in years. It felt amazing. Hooray for flatground!

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

On a cold night in the lower 20s I went to Red Curbs. I lurked a “new” spot for a bit. Sent a text photo to Jack thinking he would be hyped. Instead he reminded me of how slow and old I am and that he had already shut the spot down. At Red Curbs it was pretty wet and snowy and I randomly decided to warm up on this little thing on the far side. I had longjohns on and two pairs of socks. It was too much and I was quickly sweating. I rode up the wedge and did front tail shove on the curb, front 5-0 back 180 out, front d, some weird pivot off the front truck 270 out. Back pivot to front 180 into the “bank”. It was a fun warm up. I also did the first helipop I’ve done in years. For the kids out there that is a “nollie b/s 360” without much pop and a whole lot of pivot.

Alright @boredzinejp let's get this long distance game of Instagram O-L-D-F-A-R-T started! First challenge is my favorite trick, slappy crooks. Good luck! #theglenandjoshOLDFARTlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 1, 2015 at 7:21pm PST

Then I went over to the main area to get Josh and I’s long distance Instagram game of O-L-D-F-A-R-T going with slappy crooks. That trick is seriously the funnest. I did it quite a few times because my self filming wouldn’t focus or whatever. Then I just kind of messed around for awhile. Did quite a few 50s, a few manuals, a version of a front smith, some other stuff then called it a night.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Went out to Rampy with Ollie feeling insanely tired, sore and unmotivated. I just wanted a brief session. Without short sessions on Rampy I could never make 300 days. I call these “days off” even though I’m skating. Ollie ripped it. Did most of his tricks and learned little back 5-0 grinds. So sick! I mostly tried bean plants and failed, but had a few longer runs that got the blood flowing a little.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Hyped to have Ollie art on my new board

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:21pm PST

Feeling insanely sore and stiff I headed to North Boulder to bring India to ballet. I had almost two hours to kill before having to pick her up. I had a new board (8″) with Ollie’s awesome artwork on the grip. It felt incredibly warm out, but that meant puddles everywhere. I went to a parking garage across from Ideal Market that I’ve been to once with Jack before. The upper levels were completely wet, but the bottom two were mostly dry. I did the downhill lap over and over, getting a bit techer each lap. I would go down a hill, turn and down the next hill bringing me to a stair set that I could walk up and be right back at the start. It kind of ruled for how sore I was. I started with slappy tails and 180s going down the hill. Then I started doing back 50s on the curb above, kickflips, 180s, ollies over the next medians. My last lap was back 5-0 on the curb, kickflip going down the hill, ollie a median, curve around and ollie another median. Then I played on the a yellow median like the one in the photo for awhile. I had a fun slappy front tail then fakie flip. A manual bonk into the hill. Got a fakie nosegrind which cheered me up a bit. At that point I heard people talking and I got a little freaked out. It’s weird going into vacant parking garages at night. Sometimes it’s pretty creepy. Turns out it was a security guard and I was getting the boot.

So I drove around for a bit looking for other garages and dry. I ended up noticing the middle school might have some dry. There was a small patch of dry near the tall ledge and a small section of dry to skate flat. I started with the ledge. It was one quick push then hit the ledge. I did noseslide, noseslide to fakie, front nose to fakie and front board. Maybe a crooks. Then addition of the new skate stoppers kind of kills the spot. I wanted to do a front 50 so I tried that. Forever. I’ve never gotten into 50 on that ledge before, only the smaller one there. It sucked. I took forever. I only got up on it 3 times. The last one seeming very easy making me wonder why it took so long. I had a few more minutes to kill so I went for flippers. Got a really horrible front heel, a slightly less horrible fakie f/s heel and a treflip that took me forever making me 5 minutes late to pick up India. As much as I struggled it felt great to skate outside in warm weather. It was 55!

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Went to Valmont garage with Ledgy on another cold day. It was breezy so I didn’t want to try Red Curbs. As I was going through the warm up process I heard skateboarding in the nearby garage. Whoa. I couldn’t really see them though. I did quite a few slappy stalls. Feebles, pivots, crooks. Did a few wallies over the curb, no comply over it, switch front 180, back 180. Did a few kickflips then went for varial flip and landed right on the tail. SNAP. The sad thing is I felt relieved. I didn’t want to be in the cold. When I went to leave I went over to see who was skating in the garage and it turned out it was Blake, Alec and Zeke. Rad. Blake did a line first try and hit a 3 stair I had never noticed before. Cool. I probably only skated for 15-20 minutes, broke a board and also somehow strained my groin. Great start to the new year.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

@bkfilmphoto stayed warm and dry at the awesome @launchskate facility yesterday.

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:21am PST

On a snowy and cold Saturday I headed to Launch with Bernie and Carleigh. When we got there it was pretty crowded, but not insane. We started on the main ramp. It was a mellow session as far as no snaking. Mostly because there were some young kids that would take awhile to drop in. I would go after Carleigh every time so it was cool not wondering where I was in the rotation. Carleigh and I both struggled with front disasters. Other then that I felt like I skated the ramp pretty good. Did a few of the tricks I could never do at Sol like front smith, fakie back smith stall to fakie, little back scratch to fakie, got the corner grind. Then we all skated flat for awhile with a few other people. The manny pad wasn’t there at the time. It was crazy how little space there is and how many people were trying to skate it. I did alright on flippers until I got stuck on treflips. Ugh. Never got one. Carleigh got kickflip first try and a varial flip a few tries later. Bernie rattled off a lot of good ones like hardflip, f/s flip, cab flip, fakie trefilp, etc. I skated the little ramp for awhile. Did front feebles and did a little scratch grind off the coping into the bank which was fun. Fort Collins ripper Jaeson was there tearing up that ramp with ollies to f/s wallride, bonelesses to f/s wallrides, kickflips to fakie, anything he wanted. The little ramp was mostly mobbed with kids though making it really hard to skate as they would stand on the coping not knowing much of anything. Bernie and I skated the manny pad for awhile. I got two kickflip manuals in a row which totally made my day. It’s been a long time since I have landed that trick. So stoked. Bernie did a bunch of manual tricks. Front 180 fakie manual fakie f/s bigspin out and the fakie manual fakie flip out. It was such tight coridors setting up for it and landing. I also got a nose manual shove out. Tried a few kickflip nose manuals, but ended up losing interest. Bernie and I did some kickflips to fakie on the little bank. Carleigh worked on front rocks for quite some time while I talked to Andy then put one down. We got to skate the ramp for awhile after it was closed which was fun. We were all pretty beat by then though. Bernie did the fun stuff above. I slammed dropping in a couple times when my wheels stuck in a crack. Ha. Then finally figured out a line to back 50 out of the corner that was fun and finally did a front disaster. Carleigh hucked some back disasters, but we ended up just agreeing we were tired and went to MRKT. Fun day. Launch rules.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

After work I went to Sol. Hung with Riley for a bit while waiting for Carleigh to show then we hit the ramp. This ramp hates me. Things started off with me ok on the very basics, but that’s where it stopped. Carleigh flowed around skating fast with some long back 50s, a bunch of front disasters, some funny front slash falls. I wanted to try a bean plant to disaster for JP and I’s new challenge, but I got hung up on disaster and couldn’t land it. It was so frustrating as I would get into it and commit to rolling away, but something would happen and I would fall forward. Ugh. Carleigh left and I wasn’t gonna skate that ramp solo so I skated flat for a bit. Did a couple basics before trying treflip then got stuck trying treflip. Ugh. Landed a few horribly, but gave up and left feeling depressed.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Starting day one off with a bang.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 1, 2015 at 2:21pm PST

The weather wasn’t cooperating with my excitement to start a new year of hopefully skating 300+ days. After taking care of some family stuff I went to Red Curbs. There was quite a bit of snow chunks, debris and snow drifts making parts of the garage unskateable. But at least it felt warmer out. Yes, we’ve reached the point in winter where upper 20s feels decent. I had taken NYE off of skating so my legs felt pretty fresh. I started with slappy tailslides on the main non-red curb. Then 50s and stuff. I started thinking of new tricks and wanted to do the Joe Hamilton of back 50 to boardslide. Technically I did it a couple times, but there wasn’t much slide. Also did a switch front board, fakie nosegrind, slow kick back 50, front lipslides, front 5-0. Tried a few lines over and over. Fakie flip, halfcab flip, nosegrind. Never quite got the nosegrind. Tried a line of 360 flip, heelflip, nollie 360 flip inspired by this sick little line of my hero. But I could not get the treflip to start it. It was crazy. They felt like they were flipping around pretty good, but I could not land them. After about 30 tries I finally started landing a few of them. One of which felt like one of the best treflips I’ve ever done. Had a good heelflip after that, but the nollie tre didn’t happen. I also tried a bunch of varial heels and got really close. I stacked up a couple of cones sideways and ollied them. Then overlapped them a little to make it taller and struggled to get an ollie over that. I finished trying back 50s followed by treflips over and over until I finally landed a mediocre treflip with hands down. Gonna try and do 5 treflips a session minimum.

After chilling at home and watching a movie with Liz and India I went out to Rampy with Carleigh. I was a little sore/tired. Carleigh was ripping out of the gates. Pretty much all of her normal Rampy tricks in the first couple runs and added the new back disaster 2nd try. Sick! She got another one or two as well. She also did front 50. I struggled to land much of anything for awhile, but ended with hurricane, front feeble under my belt. Couldn’t get a bean plant and struggled for front tail. We skated for quite awhile. It was fun.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Yeah yeah, no one cares, but here’s my picks.

SOTY: Easy. Wes Kremer. Dude kills.

Best video: Transworld Outliers. Brad Cromer!

Best video part: Chris Joslin welcome to Etnies. Sorry, it was the one part that motivated me more then anything else this year.

The line starting at 2:41 is my second favorite line of the year and the mach 20 treflip down the sidewalk after the credits is pure epic.

Best line of the year: Wes Kremer. The f/s flip at the end going mach 20 is the icing on the cake.

Best trick of the year: Chris Joslin bigspin at MACBA

Most disappointing video: Plan B Lies. Not even just because of the lack of PJ, but the editing is horrible, the music sucks and the skating is made boring. How you only show the bigspin at MACBA once is beyond me. And then slow motion TPuds standing there more then the trick? Whack.

Runner up most disappointing video: Enjoi Oververt. An entire video of 2 minute parts? Come on now.

Best creative part: Scott Stevens

This part definitely had me trying some new no complies for a few weeks.

Maybe actually the best part of the year: Auby Taylor

And why the hell isn’t he pro? And why did Krooked blow it so bad?

Best part that makes me want to go to the east coast and skate ledges: Gavin Nolan welcome to the Zoo.

Best shoe: New Balance Numeric Stratford.

It’s embarrassing to the skate shoe industry how much better this shoe is then anything else. And NB still isn’t happy enough with the quality.

Best cover: Ryan Gallant kick back noseblunt Clipper. So sick!

Thing I am most ashamed of skate wise this year: Even more embarrassing then the fact that I love New Balance shoes is the fact that I don’t watch skate DVDs so much anymore. This is mostly due to my kids basically owning the TV, but still, I mostly watch parts on my computer or phone now and that sucks.

Worst trend in skateboarding: The loose trucks speed check is the hipster tic tac.

Still the best transition skater ever: Grant Taylor