Went to Valmont on a hot lazy Sunday. I chose Valmont because I didn’t want to be gone too long and it’s shady. Warmups went ok. I did several variations of slappy noseslides. After awhile I started trying a long line. Manual, nose manual, ollie up the curb, b/s flip off the curb then try to get to the ledge. Never got a clean b/s flip. Also tried some lines going down the top of the dock. No comply 180, fakie flip, switch front 180 off the curb. Then a car parked by the manny pad so that was done. Tried a line of kickflip up the curb, heelflip, ollie off the dock. I guess I was so tired and sore that I didn’t land the ollie. I was lazily doing flip tricks here and there, tried a nollie inward heel, came close, tried another and landed it. I giggled for a bit, sent out some happy texts and went back to skating. I didn’t really land much of anything on the ledge. Halfcab noseslide, front noseslide, weaksauce front 50, kind of a front tail. Tried some lines. Front shove off the bottom kicker part of the ledge then a kickflip noseslide. Which technically I landed, but it was another one of those quick little jibs. Another line of kickflip off the kicker then kick back 50. Didn’t get close. Fell down a lot. My legs were tired. Flip tricks didn’t go so hot and I didn’t get a clean 360 flip again. Stoked to land my first nollie inward heel!

(setup null message 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

Saturday fun. @43shifty @powtao Jacoby Dork Chief @_f_u_z_z

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 17, 2016 at 6:02pm PDT

Another sunny day. Rob and I cruised up to Fort Collins and met up with Chief at MRKT. Then we met Jacoby and Dr Terry Spittles at Northside. There was almost no one there when we arrived, but it quickly became crowded with beginner skaters. Rob and Fuzz tried to manual the MJ ledge for awhile. I don’t know if either of them got it. Steve was mostly on the ledge. I would join him after awhile. Chief was running the bank. Normally I’m scared to roll into the miniramp section, but I did it several times without fear. On the ledge Steve did back 50 pretty easily. I’m jealous. I got a few tricks, mostly slow and not proper. Front 50 super slow, noseslide, noseslide to fakie, noseslide shove, switch noseslide, halfcab noseslide super bad, maybe a crooks. Then a major bank session ensued. Rob had been slaying the bank for awhile. I think he landed like 10 kickflips. Saw Jacoby do a sick fakie flip on the bank. We hit the bank to curb which was much scarier then it looks. I started it off with an axle stall that scared me. Fuzz put down tail, tail to fakie and noseblunt tail grab. Sick! Jacoby was real close to back tail. I got a feeble too. I know it looks easy, but it was one of the scariest tricks I’ve done in awhile. That bank gets steep at the end. Icing on the cake of the fun session for me was a first try treflip on flat.

Then we went to the post office slappy curb. Chief laid into some 50s quick, Rob slappy crooks, Fuzz manual then a solid slappy front 50. I dorked around on the curb cut with back noseblunts for a bit. Then we got the boot. Good. Ha, I don’t like that spot much.

@_f_u_z_z nosepick to backwards with bgp by @corpoglenny

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Sep 17, 2016 at 4:30pm PDT

Then we went to the bank to curb spot. It’s way harder then it looks. Cracks, angles, etc. It’s still a great spot though. Rob put down a few gems that were captured on hosercam. Pop shove nose stall, boneless to tail and a few more I’m forgetting right now. Probably because I don’t know the names of them. Steve got a few basics. Fuzz worked on front nosepick to fakie for awhile and kind of landed it. At least photo worthy. Ha. I struggled. I couldn’t do kickflip stalls so it was a weird session for me. I did a few basics, that was about it. Super fun day.

(setup null message 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

@fullertrron knocked this out in a mere two hours! #thestubborns #fakiehippyflip

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 16, 2016 at 7:05pm PDT

#flatgroundfriday 📸 @fullertrron

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 16, 2016 at 6:02pm PDT

After a chill day of working at home I met Dave a little after 4pm on a warm Friday at the dog park. Dave was napping when I got there. Ha. He said he was too tired to skate. I started warming up and it seemed like I might skate alright. But once it got to real tricks it didn’t go so good. We kept at it though and tricks began accumulating. I got a nollie varial flip and Dave started trying them. He was doing lines with shoves, cabs and started trying fakie varial flips. He would try other tricks too, but for the most part it was fakie varial flip and he was close for a long time. I ended up landing a lot of tricks from my back. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie f/s flip, halfcab heelflilp, heelflip, fakie heelflip, bs flip, treflip, nollie treflip, nollie varial flip, nollie cab, no comply 180. Close to fakie treflip, fakie front heel and nollie flip. We skated for a long time. It was fun. Dave got the fakie varial flip so good. I never landed a clean treflip. Not sure why I can’t seem to land that one right anymore. I left with very sore legs.

(setup null message 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

Old guy fun. @43shifty @_f_u_z_z @iamnotacreepyjake

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 16, 2016 at 6:55am PDT

Met up with the dudes at Broomfield park around 7. Well, Rob and Jake were there, but Fuzz was still closing up shop. Both dudes were killing it already and the park wasn’t very crowded. I was a little sore after several days without a ‘day off’. Jake was skating the Pier 7 ledge when I got there. First 50, then 5-0. I told him I’d get his back with 50 on his 5-0 and he went and did it. I got into the 50, but not out of it. Luckily he moved on so I didn’t have to keep skating it. Rob was all over the park doing manuals, back 50s, tailblocks, halfcab noseslides, he had some fire going. I struggled with front 50s on the black ledge. Not sure why. Oh yeah, I had a new board, it felt good. It’s the longest 8.1 that Generator makes and it’s my favorite pointy shape. We played a game of SKATE. I had to double or nothing a kickflip. Yikes. Jake got first try treflip and I got a crappy double or nothing defensive make. I was happy to do it though. Jake would go on to win with 3 shove and fakie 3 shove and nollie bigspin (can’t believe I got a letter on that). Then we skated around. I was trying a flatground trick then pivot to fakie on the quartapotty. I got really close, probably close enough to call it a defensive make. I was still pivoting to fakie on the tranny rather then just going in. I had some fun flippers as setups like nollie tre and heelflips. Fuzz showed and played a game of SKATE with drunk kids. Ha. I got another treflip, felt good. Rob did halfcab boardslide on the sad ledge. Jake did the noseblunt. I tried front smith to front rock for awhile and didn’t get it. Rob and Fuzz did their doubles, I did my boardslide and we called it a session. We went over to Fuzz’s and nerded out on youtube clips. It was awesome. I need to hang with my friends more.

(setup null message 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

@pjladd edit from #tintodeverano our Sales Manager @rothdigga put together! 🙌🔥

A video posted by New Balance Numeric #NBNumeric (@nbnumeric) on Sep 14, 2016 at 7:13pm PDT

Haven’t done a “best of the week” in awhile, but PJ Ladd takes it. He always takes it even when it’s just one clip, but this is just wonderful.

Went to Redder Curbs around 8pm after a really busy day at work. I was somewhat sore and started by just kind of mini-ramping it with stalls going back and forth on the parking blocks. I had a bail on a feeble that shot some crazy pain through my knee. I almost stopped at that point, but instead I decided to skate it out. I was rewarded with a motivated session. I didn’t land a whole lot, but I did skate hard. A lot of the motivation came from this clip of PJ Ladd. His skating is the best. I got some slappy crooks going on the kinked red curb, started ollieing and trying flip tricks. There was one point where I tried a halfcab flip and didn’t think I would get it at all, but landed it. It made me happy about the smaller setup I’m on these days. Same thing happened on a couple of heelflips. I can’t say the same for trying to ollie over a cone though. I made myself do a back 50 on the median over a parking block. That took awhile, didn’t get over both of the blocks, but it’s scary. Tried a line for awhile of kickflip a parking block, treflip on flat, front 50 the downhill part of the kinked curb. I may have done it once, but basically none of the tricks were under 50 year old makes. Especially the two hands down treflip landing. I never got a clean treflip. Doh. I tried to heelflip the parking block for awhile which I’ve never done before, didn’t ever commit, but it felt doable. Ended in a flurry of trying kick back tails on a curb, treflips on flat or switch crooks on the curb. Got none of them, came the closest to kick back tail. Focused my board so it would force me to setup a new one that is in decent shape.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

Went to Louisville park around 7:30 after a busy day at work. It was cool out. I arrived to a bunch of younger skaters who just aren’t that into skating. They suck. At least they were on skateboards, but they just mostly dork around with each other and not even really skate. And when they do they don’t care about snaking you. I started off in a good mood, but was skating absolutely terrible. I didn’t let it get to me and would eventually start skating alright. The kids left and one somewhat older dude showed up to mostly just stare at his phone. It was weird. I did a back heel on the bank. It might be my first one ever, as bad as it looks it felt fun. I got into some front crooks, but never landed any on the ledge. No back 50s on the main ledge, but several on the little one. Rolled into the snake run for the first time in awhile. Couldn’t get 360 flip to fakie on the bank. I left sweating, happy I skated.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

Alright, it might not look like I have new shoes, but I do. They are the same steele grey PJs as before, but now in size 12 instead of 11.5. Ever since removing my orthotics I’ve realized I need bigger shoes. I originally thought 11.5 would be enough, but nope. So I hit 303 and got some PJs in the same color as to not look like a total poser with new stuff again. They are way more comfy, maybe even feel a bit too big, but we’ll see. I skated for about an hour. My board felt tiny with the bigger shoes and I felt pretty clumsy. It took a few tries to land a kickflip. I really didn’t skate good, but at one point I did a line of fakie f/s flip, nollie tre then heelflip. That was my saving grace as I laid into treflips after that and came up empty handed. Well, not totally, my hands did keep me afloat on one over 60 make. I hucked some switch f/s flips again and got remotely close. Close to nollie varial flip, not close to nollie flips and struggled with fakie bigflips again. Doh.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

Met up with Chad at the Broomfield park around 9:30 am. I was feeling a little better then yesterday, meaning I could squat a little at least. Warming up was ok. Quartapotty tricks, blue ledge, parking block. Chad was pretty tired from his baby keeping him up and had a sore ankle. I had some ok runs going like switch 180 into the bank, crooks the ledge, front rock the brick qp then slappy crooks the parking block. Chad was almost doing front nosegrinds on the black ledge, front tails on the blue ledge. Chad left and I kept skating as Rob was on the way. I got a few tricks like front 50 shove on the black ledge, haflcab noseslide, more basic tricks. Got a line of kickflip on the hump, back 180 into the bank, halfcab noseslide. Rob showed. He manualled the top of the park quickly, crooks the ledge, boardslides, tailblocks the hump. I got a really, really bad back 50 on the black ledge, a little line of switch noseslide then the fakie triple rock on the wedge. I guess that’s pretty much it, seems like more happened, but I’m struggling to remember right now.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

I had done a bunch of lunges at work the day before and was feeling it. I could barely squat at all. I started doing rock ‘n rolls and stuff on the “qp” part of it. Then on the ledge it was tough to even do a slappy crooks at the top of the ledge. I would eventually loosen up a little though. Somehow flip tricks didn’t hurt too much. I did a couple lines starting with slappy crooks then kickflip to fakie or kickflip over the “hip”. Then took a few tries to get noseslides and got nollie and regular back 360s over the “hip”. Did a few of the worst/slowest back 50s the ledge has ever seen. Then I hucked back 360 kickflip over the hip for awhile. Like 10th try I did one. It amazed me. It felt a little pivoty, but pretty much perfect. I of course tried to film it, but the phone overheated before I landed it. I might put that one on the stubborns trick list. Going back up I tried a lot of front crooks. They felt good, but that ledge needed wax and I would stick. Got close to pulling in a few though. I added a really bad cab over the hip to my collection of tricks over the hip. Then it was time to go pick up India at the mall. I drove to the wrong mall to pick her up, but you get the point.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)