On another snowy cold winter evening I went into the garage for some flatground before dinner. In typical fashion I thought I would be out there for just a few minutes, but it was more like an hour. Tricks went alright. 3 flip and heelflip came faster then they have lately. Still no nollie or switch flips or switch heels. Tried nollie inward heels for awhile too and didn’t get close. I’ve been telling myself I need to do at least one rare trick a garage session and front heel was the one for this session. I love some flatground.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 52mm spitfire 99a F4 3 washers inside bones med bushings nb# pj stratford 533 burgundy)

@fullertrron and Aki were ripping snow skies today. 📶

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 7, 2016 at 12:35pm PST

Lunch break at “Blue Skies”, but it was overcast with snow forecasted. I arrived last. Aki, Dave and a kid named Austin were there. I wasn’t feeling very energetic and it showed. 4 people is a lot for that park, especially when everyone just wants to do their thing on lunch break. Aki can do good back 50s on the ledge now. Even to back tail. I did some kickflips after a few rolls around the park to try and get warmed up. I would actually feel physically fine after a bit, but was mentally struggling. I couldn’t even stall a front tail going super slow on the ledge. Never got a crooks up the escalator ledge. Came close to kickflip over the low part of the dragon bar. Aki had front 50 up the ledge. Dave did back 50 (I think?) and boardslide up it all good. Then it was time to get back to work.

After helping Ollie with homework I went out to the garage to skate some flatground. I had wanted to do a b/s flip all day. Somehow even though I had already skated I came out swinging with energy. I warmed up with ollies, 180s, shoves, etc then started flipping and went right into b/s flip and heelflip attempts which took forever! I would get several b/s flips, but none I was totally happy with. I was sweating and happy to be skating in the warm garage with some tunes playing. I did a lot more hucking (sw heel, nollie flip, nollie var flip, nollie treflip, switch flip), but only landed treflip and a sketchy varial heel (or two). It was fun though. I guess I did more tricks then that. Oh yeah, I got super close to fakie hardflip. I think if I had more room I would have done it. Flatground is so much fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 52mm spitfire 99a F4 3 washers inside bones med bushings nb# pj stratford 533 burgundy)

@iamnotacreepyjake @matthouse and I had Arvada to ourselves for awhile this morning. Fun!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 6, 2016 at 12:02pm PST

On a nice day I picked up Jake and we rolled to Arvada where we met Matt. We had the whole place to ourselves for awhile. I was a bit sore from skating so much the night before. We warmed up in the flat bar area. Lines starting on the flat bar, do a trick on the little bank, then one on the blue bank, or something something. Matt had a bunch of tricks on the flat bar. Back lip, nollie back lip, back tail, front tail, etc. Jake had a line with noseslide on the flat bar, 5-0 to fakie the bank, fakie flip on the blue bank, blunt to fakie on the narrow noping. I tried a line of crooks on the flatbar (just the last second of it), 5-0 to fakie the bank, halfcab flip on the blue bank. Never quite got the hc flip until I went from a different angle. Jake was trying another long line starting with a pole jam and some ollies. Then we were at the pier 7 area for awhile. I took half an hour to back 50 it, Matt back nosegrinded it super good, Jake did fakie back tail. We all had some flippers. Everyong got treflip. Matt had nollie and swith flips. I got a rare (and bad) halfcab heel. Then Jake and Matt left. I skated a bit longer. Tried a line of front 50 or 5-0 the pier 7 ledge, manual the euro pad, 360 flip to fakie on the blue bank. Never got it. Got really close though. I skated the smaller bowl for awhile which was fun, but the pumping made my sore legs ever more sore. Had some fun back 50s, f/s rock and lip in the small section first try felt cool. I posed a bit more, then ended up leaving.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 52mm spitfire 99a F4 3 washers inside bones med bushings nb# pj stratford 533 burgundy)

On a cool night (low 30s) I went to the engineering building not feeling overly motivated. That ended up changing quickly though. I had a couple weak ollies and kickflips then starting trying the ol’ back 50 down the little 3 stair ledge. That was a fun warm up and let me to a line. Halfcab flip on flat, back 50, ollie the 3 stair, noseslide the bump to ledge. The noseslide was hard as I normally use a lot of angle on tricks and with the rail you can’t really use any. Then I wanted to do a similar line, but with f/s halfcab to start. I struggled with it, and when I finally started getting it the 3 stair ollie got me every time. Well, just the cracks. Them cracks kill. I was hucking all kinds of flip tricks in between tries. I didn’t land much, but it was fun. I tried to front 50 the shorter ledge by the rail, but the narrow approach got the best of me.

Then some cops posted up down the way a little so I hid myself at this bench. I would try a b/s trick (f/s isn’t really possible because of the pillar) and then turn around and try a flip trick. I tried to stack the ledge tricks. Boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie, crooks, halfcab noseslide, switch front noseslide to fakie, switch front nose and lastly fakie nosegrind. I never got the fakie nosegrind, but I did get close. I also tried a few back 5-0’s that felt remotely doable. I didn’t land many flip tricks and I kind of blame the new shoes. They will break in though. Good shoes should take awhile to break in in my opinion. After awhile the hunger pains were just too much and I left.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 52mm spitfire 99a F4 3 washers inside bones med bushings nb# pj stratford 533 burgundy)

Headed out to the garage for a short flip trick session before dinner then swimming with Ollie. I had put the brown/gum PJ’s on originally, but saw that my repair patch on the toe had worn off so I decided to go with the new pair I had been breaking in for awhile. Burgundy. I didn’t really like the brown colorway anyway. I started by posing switch flips for awhile. A couple felt close. Then I did kickflips and b/s flips for a bit. Got the closest I’ve ever gotten to switch heel. It flipped so fast and my back foot was on the board perfect. Just didn’t get the front foot on. So close! Then I tried treflips for awhile which are so hard in the narrow space in the garage. I hucked Janoski flips as well. I finally got a treflip then headed inside to eat.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi bones med bushings 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire F4 99a nb# pj stratford 533 burgundy)

I went out for a short session on a gorgeous day in the upper 40s. I had gone on a long walk with Liz and played football with Ollie already. I really just wanted a short flatground session, but I couldn’t find a close dry spot. I ended up at Bear Creek Elem. There is some flatground in the back, but people were playing basketball. I messed around trying to manual down all 4 of their long stairs out front, only got a couple. Then started trying a line of firecracker down a 3 stair then ollie onto one of the ledges above. Then I gave up on that as I wanted to ollie coming from the far side in the photo as it was slightly downhill. I tried a line of switch 180 the puddle in the background then ollie up onto a ledge, drop and quick back up onto the next. I suck at ollieing up stuff so it felt awesome to try so much. I would get up the first one most times. Most of the time I was in my comfort zone, but sometimes I was going fast for me and I would still get on it. It felt cool. But getting up the next one was about as hard as it could be for me. There is about 8 feet of flat between them. I also tried kickflipping the puddle at the start, but it would send me to the right and make the first ledge really hard. I eventually gave up and just rode through the puddle. Only then did I finally get up and off two of them. But I had to skip the middle one. Oh well. It was sooo much exercise. My heart was beating like crazy.

Then I noticed this as I left. I took a few tries then ollied off the corner. Neat.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 highs 3 wasshers on the inside of each 52mm spitfire 99a F4 NB# PJ straford 533 brown/gum)

Finally, a “warm” day in the 40s! After a long walk with Liz I set out to Wells Fargo bank to do a quick River Dance. It ended up being way harder there then I thought because it was too quick. On top of that some trucks were going to pull in and some workers informed me that my car would be stuck if I didn’t move it. I left.

You know it's January when 45 feels this warm. @fullertrron 5-0

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 2, 2016 at 4:08pm PST

After chilling at Sol for awhile Dave and I went to Rocky Mtn Elem and it was mostly dry! They had even redone a lot, but somehow left the ledge and banks completely skateable. Awesome. We started off on flatground. I had a new deck and put smaller trucks back on. It felt very different, but nice. I still wasn’t skating great. I had long johns on to combat the soreness I got in the cold the day before. It was overkill, but kind of nice. We did some nollies, switch ollies, 180s, etc over a little puddle. It was fun. We had some kickflips too, I struggled with halfcab flips, but landed on a nollie tre first try. Basically the board was flipping better again, but I just wasn’t used to it yet. Then we moved on to the ledge. In the school remodel they had created a rather large crack before the frontside approach that really messed with me. Gotta bondo it! Anywahs, we still rattled off quite a few tricks. Dave did boardslide to fakie real quick, crooks, noseslide, back 50, boardslide 270, front 50, front 5-0. He did all of them good too. I had noseslide, noseslide to fakie, crooks, some bad back 50s, front 50, front 5-0 (accident), front 50 shove. I tried kickflip noseslide for awhile and committed a couple times, I had one flop off and I landed it, but still none where I really got into a noseslide. I got close to kick back 50 too, it’s great how fast the smaller setup flips. We did some lines. Ollieing the medians on the banks. There are rocks you can ollie on to now. I think Dave did a line of front 5-0, manual on a rock, nollie back 180. Tight.

Snow skate with @fullertrron.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 2, 2016 at 5:08pm PST

Then we went to this little park. There wasn’t much to skate as it was mostly snowy. We skated the bank for awhile. Dave did nosebash to fakie and nosebash tail grab to fakie. They looked fun so I tried them too and eventually landed them. So fun! Then I did my first ever crailbock! I’m coming for you Rob! Ha ha, it hyped me up though. Dave went gnar and nollied then fakie ollied into the bank. I took awhile to do a kickflip to fakie on the bank. Dave rattled off a bunch of different tailblock tricks. My favorite being the rocket block. It made me laugh. We ended with the boardslides and 50s on the snowy ledge. It was fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 high 52mm spitfire 99a F4 with 3 washers on the inside of each axle nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum )

A couple snow dances, a river dance and a new trick for #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge. @boredzinejp you asked for a manual trick so here you go! Fakie bigspin manual. The first one has a toe touch, the second is clean. It was hard to find a dry spot for the 🏞💃. Good luck! #slowmotiontocoveruptheslowskating #imnodancer #thesnowdancewasonafocusedboard

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 3, 2016 at 7:33am PST

A coldish day. I brought Ledgy to Valmont and did some sweeping so that one of the manual pads would be dry. I didn’t feel very good. I had taken the day before off. My first day off skating in 43 days. It didn’t help. In fact it seem like taking a day off normally just leaves me more sore. It’s weird. Anyways, I did get on some slow front 50s right away that made me think I’d get warmed up and have a good one. Flip tricks did not come. It felt colder then I thought it would. After awhile I started trying fakie bigspin manuals which I have only done once before. Going back I couldn’t even ollie onto Ledgy, back 50 or front 50 with speed or front tail. It was very depressing. Eventually I set up GP and tried to film the fakie bigspin manual. It ended up taking me a solid hour to land it. And the one I landed happened to of course be the slowest of all. Oh well. I had told myself I needed to ollie over Ledgy before I could leave. Instead I focused my board! It made me so happy!

As I was leaving I randomly remembered the first bank in the clip above. I used my focused board to shovel out the runway a little and tried to ride that board. I slammed so hard pushing at one point. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself knowing I deserved it for focusing my board (even though the board was dead). I would eventually land a River Dance, but forgot to put my hands on my hips. Doh. I decided to leave anyway. My hands were totally covered in mud.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushing 52mm spitfire 99a F4 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Day 350! A fitting end to 2015. I had a goal of 300 days and shattered it. My previous record was 312 days of skating. Also shattered. I'm tired and sick of the cold and I'm not gonna skate until next year! Ha.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 30, 2015 at 7:45pm PST

I made it! Day 350. So crazy. It was cold out and I was burnt out and not wanting to go to a garage and having to ollie. So instead I just went out in the garage with Ollie and we messed around on the “manual pad”. We skated about 20 minutes. I slammed hard into the bike and am surprised my hand didn’t get cut open. It was fun though. The main thing about skating every day is it’s become harder to not skate. It’s so easy and fun to just do a short mess around in the garage. I don’t have the 300+ goal for 2016, but I imagine I’ll still skate most days.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings 52mm spitfire F4 99a NB# PJ stratford 533 brown/gum)