Check mentalinsect.com for more amazing art and music by Frank Zirbel.

Ok, I’ll finally settle on one name for the park I skate near IBM. I’ll go by it’s actual name. Blue Skies park. It was Flatground Friday. I was sore from Red Curbs the night before. I wanted to skate in the hockey rink, but it was still covered in snow. Oh well, the park is smooth too. After warming up I got through a few basics. Got a bad treflip, but didn’t care because that trick is the enemy these days. Struggled with pretty much everything. Got a nollie varial flip. Came close to fakie varial heel and nollie f/s flip. Couldn’t do a nollie tre. Left disappointed.

First time I’ve skated outside at night since it’s gotten cold. It felt colder then I thought it would even though it was 41 according to my phone. Rob was there when I got there. The warm up process is so much harder in the cold. Rob was already ripping. He was trying slappy crooks up to back 50s and getting really close. I did a few 50s, hucked some flippers. Got a few treflips with my back hand down. Argh. The basics weren’t going so good so I started hucking. Kick back tails, fakie flip front tails or treflip back noses. Only got close to kick back tail. Treflip noseslide is a pipe dream, but what the heck I felt like hucking. Rob was also trying back 180 fakie 50 shove out. Carleigh showed and rattled off some flatground tricks. Fs halfcab, fakie shove, nollie shove (I have trouble keeping track of what goofy footers do), kickflip, shove. Battled heelflip for awhile then put down a super steezy one. Rob put down a couple slappy crooks pop up to back 50. So sick! Carleigh and I ollied a styrofoam box (they have a ton of these in their trash). I felt like it was a leap of faith for me to get over it. I put a taller one after a curb and tried to ollie up the curb, over the box. Got it on the low side, couldn’t do it the high way. Then did kickflip up the curb, ollie over the box the low weigh. It was one heck of a rocket ollie, but whatever.

Lunch break sessions is back!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 11, 2014 at 10:18am PST

It was kind of warm out, you know, 38 degrees and I split out of work to see if the nearby skatepark had been shovelled. As I pulled up the hockey rink and basketball course were totally covered in snow. It wasn’t looking good. But low and behold the park itself had been partially shovelled. Rad! I started slow, then had a brief period where I skated pretty well. I mostly just skated flatground and the ledge, I mean there weren’t really any other options anyway. I landed 360 flip, nollie 360 flip, f/s halfcab flip, heelflip, varial flip, fakie flip, b/s flip. Hucked varial heels and didn’t get close. Hucked nollie bigflips and was remotely close. On the ledge I had a few front 50 front 180s out, front 50 shove out, back crooks, halfcab noseslide. I also added a very slow fakie front 50 f/s h/c out, a front tail stall and the worst excuse for a fakie nosegrind ever. But it ruled trying them. That is exactly why I go to that park, to play around and try stuff I wouldn’t try with other people around. It rules.

@crisis_skateboards brings the heat for the holidays! #nullrestock #betterthancoal

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:11pm PST

Went to Crisis on a cool night to hang out with friends and sell some boards. Jason, Lindy, Rob and of course Fuzz were there. We watched some morbid Christmas special youtube clips recommended by Jason/Lindy, laughed a lot, stacked Null boards absolutely perfect for the gram, talked about skateboarding, listened to more brilliant Jason ideas on tattoos. I need to see my friends more, it was awesome. After awhile Fuzz, Rob and I started riding this old 70s race board around the shop. You can really carve tight. It’s hard to ride, at least for me. But we started doing figure 8 timed trials and stuff. Fuzz had the fastest time, but Rob had two of the funniest falls ever. We laughed so hard tears were flowing. Good times dudes.

Went out to Rampy while Ollie was doing homework. I was pretty unmotivated and it showed. I didn’t land much. I had some new wheels I was checking out. Spitfire Formula 4. Fuzz wanted me to check them out. He really wants me to like them so he got me some in 50mm. He’s a smart dude. I did a few kickflips on flat that felt good. It’s funny that the only trick I remember from the night is kickflips on flat and not any of the ramp tricks.

A few weeks ago we were skating the DIY spot in Denver when asked to skate around the making of a GWAP video. Well, here it is! I’m especially proud of how real my slam looks. Well, except that they made me goofy footed, but I’ll forgive them.

Went and saw the early showing of Dumb and Dumber To with my kids, then had a lunch date at Wahoos with them. The movie was very good. I dropped them off at 2:30, grabbed my board and split to find some dry concrete. It was only about 28 degrees, but the sun was nice. I drove for a bit, but found this spot. Initially I was really bumming on it. There was a lot of water, salt, sand all over the place. But I just kept skating and told myself to enjoy the sun. It ended up being incredibly fun. It kicked in when I got a line of ollieing off the low part of the dock on the left over some snow and into a puddle, did a kickflip on flat, ollied a puddle and did a little wallride to fakie on the narrow banked beam. Cool. Then I went for it again and added a b/s flip and switch 180 to the mix. Then I skated flat for awhile. I couldn’t do a treflip to save my life. Well, I landed a lot of them, but kept putting my hand down. It was driving me nuts. There was so much sand around my foot kept slipping all over the place. I tried to ollie off the left part of the right loading dock. Man it was tall. Committed at one point and slid out. Made myself do a treflip before committing again which took a long time to do it without touching my hand, but once I did I hiked up and did the ollie. Well, it was one of those ollies that probably looks more like I just fell off the loading dock. Oh well, it was tall for me and landing even hurt a little. I had done quite a few other flat ground tricks in between treflip poses. Then I started down the long driveway with curbs on both sides. The right side has angle iron on it and was insanely slick. I did little lines of slappy front tail then boardslide the end. It was really fun. I tried to add an ollie up onto the driveway too, but didn’t have the pop. Oh well, it was fun. I love skating random street spots.

Another cold and snowy day. Carleigh, John and I decided to try Skatuary. We met Riley, Nolan and Scotty there. We arrived to a rather crowded park. There are two areas. A more beginner style room with some fun looking ledges and stuff which was pretty cold. Then another room with your typical skatepark stuff that was warmer. I played a game of SKATE with Scotty in the cold room. I was not feeling good on my skateboard. I think I landed kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip and fakie bigflip and that’s it. He got me with a bunch of his good tricks. Varial heel, nollie flip, a couple more and ended with a banger. Nollie front foot flip. How the heck do you do that one?

Then we went into the main room where Riley and Nolan were going as fast and huge as possible. Head high airs frontside and backside. It was so sick to watch. Riley’s boneless was insane. I had a backside flip on the flat bank first try. John took a few tries, but got kickflip to fakie way quicker then me. Especially because mine didn’t come until the end of the session. I got a few kickflips over the backside hip. Carleigh struggled with kickflips, but continued to have fun. We joked about how we drove and hour and paid $7 to no land kickflips. Riley did nollie heel back 50 on the pyramid ledge and about every flip trick over the hip. Nolan had a huge front 360, treflip and almost this weird nollie hardflip 180. Maybe a nollie ghetto bird? I’m not even sure. Josh Murphy was there ripping too. Super steezy kickflips over the hip and smith grinds across the pyramid ledge. Justin Greer did wallie back 5-0 on the pyramid ledge. Riley and Nolan skating the corner of the tallest qp was gnarly too. Pretty much every trick. Nolan did front 5-0 to fakie and an insane front crooks. Scotty killed the hip. 360 flip, multiple lazer flips, I forget what else. On the way out I did a front 50 and a crooks on a really good ledge and realized I haven’t ollied much in a week. Stupid weather. It’s good to know there is a snowy day option on Saturdays now though.

Had the day off work. It had warmed up slightly (low 30s), but there was snow everywhere. I sat around watching Breaking Bad and doing a little cleaning. Around 1:30 I went on a drive to try and find some dry concrete for flatground friday. I found a couple really bad option, but wasn’t that desperate and ended up just coming home then skating Rampy. It ended up being a bit more fun then I thought. Didn’t get any new tricks, but hucked some flippers. Oh yeah, I watched this to get myself hyped.

i did a couple backside kickflips really low up the transition. And really low on Rampy basically means not at all. Tried kickflip axle stalls for awhile. Got remotely close. Started trying nollie heels on flat and didn’t come close at all, but felt like I learned a thing or two that might eventually have me landing them.