I’ve been wanting to try an 8.75″ board for awhile now. After dinner on a breezy Friday night with rain showers threatening I went to the research ledge. I started up near the long stairs and messed around for a bit. I was amazed how easy it was to ollie up a step. After a bit I went down to the ledge and tried noseslide and it stuck so fierce I almost flew into the wall. Yikes. So I waxed it. It’s not in that great of shape anymore. Saul biked by as the rain drops started, but the wind dried them up quickly. I had some growing pains with the big board, but for the most part it was a decent session. I skated the first half in the 379s, but since I’ve been so sore I also busted out some old 868s. They felt pretty comfy, but harder to flick. I did manage my best line in them though. Front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, crooks, sketchy treflip on flat. I also managed to kickflip up the curb which I was extra happy about with the bigger board. With the crack placement on that curb it makes me pop sooner than I want to get up the curb. I had a few bad tic tac’y back 50s, a not-posted-up-at-all halfcab noseslide, couple front 50s that didn’t really grind because the ledge up hill is garbage, was 3-3 on backside flips. I tried to end with some posted up crooks, but it was pretty dark and I didn’t have nearly as good of board feel in the 868s.

(setup 8.75″ null valley deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, spitfire f4 radials 52mm blue/yellow swirl wheels with all washers on the inside, new balance numeric 379 / 868s size 12)
(pain level 5/10 knee pain)

On a gorgeous day I was kinda slacking. I setup a new board (8.25). I was messing around with it on the rug with my barefoot shoes (not the individual toe shoes I’m not that crazy) and they felt super good. So I went across the street wearing them. They felt beyond incredible. I did a few slappy crooks then started doing some tricks like front 50 and kickflip, but I tore the canvas on the shoes immediately. I went in for a bit and put some glue over them. Then I went out to just skate flatground. The shoes felt weird, but amazing. I felt like I had crazy control. I had done a few flippers when my work phone went off and I had to call it a day. Doh.

(setup 8.25″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside) no boardside washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, xero hana minimalist shoe with thin es insoles)
(pain level 1/10)

Had the day off of work. Dave could only skate early so I was going to meet him around 9am. Kevin took a mental health day and we met Dave shortly after 9. It was way colder than we thought it would be. Like only 20 something. It did warm up quick at least. There were a couple bald eagles flying above us which always makes me smile. Not in a USA kind of way, but what a majestic creature. All three of us mostly start with shoves and stuff in the flatground. Kevin and I had brand new boards, Dave’s was one day old. I stuck with 8.38 as it seems about right. Kevin was struggling as he had his first non-DLX board in forever. He would get past the struggles though. Dave and I were trying no comply tailsides. He challenged me to it. It was funny because I asked him to film it. We’ve never filmed each other in this game yet. I wasn’t doing it anywhere near as well as him, but it was still fun. Around then Dan and Collin showed up. So cool. Then it turns out a lot of 98% would show up. Dar, Scotty, Ladd. We went on to have a fun big ol’ session. Lots of flatground was skated. I didn’t land much of anything for quite some time. Dan and Collin were killing it. Dan’s style is amazing. Collin did regular and fakie inward heels?!?!?! I was pretty blown away by all the tricks they landed. Kevin was in on it too and had a ton of good flippers. When Ladd showed up Dan had said he would do Ladd’s kickflip heelflip cancel (I have no idea what it’s really called). He did it like 3 times! I posed a few and it seems possible. Collin learned nollie bigflip in a few tries. I couldn’t get it. Dave was doing lines with cabs on flat then cabs over the back hip, super long tail slides on the bank, lots of really good stuff. It was a bummer he had to leave. Some ledge action went down. Kevin killed it with most of this tricks real quick. I had front 50 shove and maybe a slow crooks. Collin did crooks shove. I had a fun line of backside flip flyout (to complete halt but how’s counting), switch nose jib to forward into the bank, little scratch grind on the nub, no comply 180 on flat, fakie flip on flat, halfcab flip on the mellow bank. I got a treflip and f/s halfcab heel on flat, both were terrible though. Last thing I did was a flyout treflip and it felt really cool. Ladd was doing back 50s on the bank to ledge. Dan was trying nollie f/s flip out of the bank. Kevin easily did nollie b/s flip then pretty much ended the session with a nollie tre that was super good.

Then Kevin and I ate and later met up with the dudes at a little curb high manny pad. I was so sore that I couldn’t ollie up it the first few tries. Dan quickly manual, nose manual, switch manual. Dar was trying switch nose manual. Ladd was trying this weird pressure cancel flip to manual which he would eventually land. TWICE! At one point I pissed behind a dumpster and it kind of ran into the runway of the manny pad. Oh man. How embarrassing. It ended up being pretty funny though as Kevin was coming back and dodged Collin and rolled right through it. That was probably the angriest look he’s ever given me, but man it was funny. Collin was close to fs halfcab manual. Dan was trying front 180 fakie manual, then moved on to nollie fs 180 nose manual which he would also get after some struggles. Kevin locked into a kickflip nose manual and then the next try took the most amazing slam ever. He literally did a kickflip nose manual primo. It “rolled” about a foot before he Wilson’d as high as anyone has Wilson’d before. Ouch. He did try again, but eventually call it and chilled. I got a nose manual, somewhat close to kickflip manual, but gave up. I got a no comply flip up and some weird no comply boneless off. Dar was still going strong on his trick when Kevin and I left. Man what a fun day. It was great running into the 98%ers and skating with them. They are such good dudes.

(setup 8.38 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, venom 91a bushings with no bottom washer, bones stf v1 pj 53mm wheels with all washers on the outside, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold afternoon I went searching for dry with a new board and wheels. 53mm! But they are PJ wheels so you know they are still good. Ha. I also had a new deck as I didn’t want to use the soggy cracked tail as an excuse anymore. I went by the research ledge, but it was warm enough for snow to be melting and making it unskateable. So I ended up at the super mellow bank spot that is always dry immediately after a snowstorm. As I was sweeping the salt off of it someone walked into the nearby door and didn’t say anything to me. Cool. I started with the silly soft rock 270 which was pretty fun. I did a few flippers for a bit, like kickflip to fakie, fakie flip, b/s flip. Then the soft rock kickflip out. It took about 20 minutes and I kept switching between trying to go to fakie or regs. So I guess the result was neither. I debating cleaning it up, but decided I didn’t care. Then I skated it in ways I haven’t before. Did a line of back shove then back 180 onto it. Also a line of halfcab flip on flat, manual across it and then a b/s flip on flat. The flatground there is not good, it’s rough. Brand new STFs are always super hard so that didn’t help even though they were larger than I’m used to. Actually, finding the manual point was hard with the wheels that tall. I also tried a line of 360 flip on flat then nose manual, but I never committed to the nose manual. The 3 flips were terrible too, came to a total halt due to wheel bite. Then I did the halfcab flip. Then I tried the ollie over the little gutter. It felt much closer to the wall than it looks on film. I went to get a better one that was more over it, but my phone died. So did I clean it up even though my phone had died? Heck no. I moved on. Ha. Plus the slam hurt way more than I was expecting. I hucked casper stalls for awhile along with trying to grind the edge then manual around. I kind of got a casper stall. I’m glad my phone had died and didn’t record it, because I know it wasn’t proper, but man it felt fun. I think both feet had landed on the top and then I kinda scooped the front one under, but it flipped out really fast and felt great. Last challenges of the day were some backside ledge stall transfers into the bank. Like back nosepick in, back 5-0 into the bank, etc. Couldn’t get crooks transfer. Then I spent awhile trying kickflip back tail stalls. It took awhile, but the one I got felt incredible and I went home in a good mood. It was nice having a solo session. I need them.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, venom 91a bushings, 53mm bones sft v1 PJ wheels, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, old rubber STI insole)
(pain level 3/10)

After a lot of chilling and resting I got out on a nice day while fighting a cold. I went to the curb at first. The worst part of winter skating is all the sand/pebbles. The curb section was really bad from the school busses depositing rocks/sand/boulders/landmines. I had put an 8.25″ deck on because I thought I should. I didn’t like it. I had some fun slappy crooks and okay 50s. I tried kickflip 50s both ways and couldn’t get it. I blamed the “big” board so went in and put a new 8″ board on. Then I skated flat in front of the house for about an hour. I was fighting the sickness so didn’t have a ton of energy/drive. Kickflips felt great. Heelflips do not work in City Cups. Seriously, how do people like McClung and Gustavo heelflip in them? Took me so many tries to get a heelflip and I couldn’t ever get a halfcab heel. I never quite got a 360 flip. I got incredibly close to nollie flip, nollie treflip. Hucked a few more other tricks. I feel like nollie heel is so possible finally. It’s all because of Jack’s advice of putting all your weight on the front big toe. I had a couple great feeling fakie bigflips. When the sun went behind the foothills it got really windy and I went inside. Feeling defeated yet again, but not so angry because at least being sick counts as little excuse.

(setup 8″ null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow high trucks, 51mm bones stf pj v1, 3 speed washers on the inside of each axle to make it feel a little wider, bones medium bushings, adidas city cup b/w size 11, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a warm night that started in the mid 40s I drove into campus in search of dry. The meet up curb was snowy, the rock ledge was snowy, ugh, so I ended up going under the engineering building. It was dry, but the lights weren’t on over the double bank section which was a flip trick bummer. I started with a back 180 up where I wallie nollie flop off. The wallie nollie flop felt pretty fun though. Then I went for the back 50 off the 3 stair which is normally a first try thing. But this time it wouldn’t grind and it made it tough. I tried back 360s when I would bail. Got kinda close. What a random trick to try. I got a few back 50s and tried to back it with an ollie down the next crack ridden 3 stair. I slammed hard catching a crack right before the ollie down 3. It was close to getting too hurt to skate, but I got up and decided to ollie up the 3 stair instead. Now I’m never going to say I’m good at ollieing up 3 stairs, but this 3 is harder than most. Cracks and long. But as you can see I would eventually get it. And man it felt great. Street skating can be very rewarding.

Next I went up to this little ledge. From the looks of it, it’s been skated more, but it was quite sticky. I told myself 10 ledge tricks before I could bounce. I got boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie, switch noseslide to forward, front nose to fakie, front nose 270 out, took awhile to get a crook, switch front nose, and halfcab noseslide jib. I guess that’s 9. Maybe I forgot one. I posed some flip tricks in between. I was pretty sore from the battle of ollieing up the 3 stair. I had put some old bones STFs on. They were small, but they felt better to me then those soggy big Spits.

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture FTC trucks with forged baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel bottom one, yellow 92a small top one), no washers inside each axle, bones stf v1 51mm pj wheels, adidas busenitz vulc b/w size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

After getting hyped on some Vics Market videos at Jack’s I felt like doing some real street skating for once.  Just pull up to an area of town and skate.  I had to bring boards to Fedex so I just went there and skated around.  I was immediately stoked to see the very well lit alley behind the old Whole Foods being totally skateable now.  I played around for awhile warming up then settled on some lines to get going.  I would do a variation of a side rock, then ollie a little square cement chunk and then try to tailslide a little yellow curb.  I had setup a new board, 8.25.  It felt small, but fine.  I had the City Cups going again and they felt tine too.  I took a long time to get a kickflip to fakie, the approach was hard.  I tried to back tail the tiny yellow curb, but that didn’t work.  Pop shove to fakie was fun too.  That area is cool.  Then I rolled around for awhile and ended up at the weird wood bench in the photo.  There is a slight bank up to it.  i did a nose stall to fakie then took a very long time to get a front axle stall.  But it felt good when I did it.  I had tried a few flippers, but didn’t land much.  My board/shoes felt weird for that.  But yeah, super fun night, felt great to really street skate.  I need to do this more.

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, bones  bushings (medium big bottom one, hard top one), no washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, adidas city cup size 11, stock insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

It was supposed to be windy and rainy, but it was nice out. We met up at Red Hawk. Dave and I got there at the same time. Sean and Rob shortly later. We had warmed up on the slappy curb for a bit. I was feeling okay on my skateboard, but still with some sore heels from the Dentist 5 session. Dave had done a good 50 I think before Sean got on the ledges and immediately 50’d, 5-0d, nosegrinded, etc with ease. Rob mostly sat out the session to save his legs for later (it worked!). I started hucking my dream trick (kick front board) and it seemed doable. Oh yeah, I had a new board since I had broke mine at the dentist, this time back to 8.5. It felt good. Dave signed up to film me. Poor guy. I ended up trying a line of halfcab flip, nollie front tail, kickflip front board. I struggled with halfcab flips, but somehow the nollie tail worked. The kick front board landed in darkslide more times then not. Then the wind really kicked in and the clouds came in. Argh. I got my line. I had a few decent halfcab flips, but the one I landed in the line was beyond terrible. The kick front board was a quick jib. Still, it was cool to do all of them in a row, but I don’t think it’ll make the Stubborns cut. Sorry Dave. Sean had been trying a line he wanted. Fakie 50, fakie tail 270 shove. I flimed him do it in a few tries. Dave was maybe gonna try a trick, but the wind was beyond insane and rain had started.

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#thestubborns

A post shared by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Nov 24, 2018 at 2:21pm PST

Off to yellow curbs we went. There was another crew there when we arrived. One older dude Jason that we knew, good seeing him still ripping. We all did our thing. That garage has a tiny curb that’s so fun to slappy. I had a fun front 50 back 180 out, several slappy crooks, front slappy on the little part, back 50s and a no comply flip. Rob was getting it and Dave filmed him. He nailed like 3 lines with tricks I’ve rarely seen him do or never do at all. It was sick, you’ll have to wait for the vid. I tried a line of no comply flip then slappy front crook for a bit, but ended up giving up and filming Rob and Dave. Dave was doing some incredibly long front 5-0s and followed one up with a banger you will be seeing on December 7th.

setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 5/10 felt okay early but after the drive my body could not recover)

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Snowy day curbs a couple days ago. @damon1819 @joerhamilton @43shifty @baffoos

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 19, 2018 at 8:28pm PST

Joe was still here, but it was snowing. I didn’t sleep well. Damon showed up at like 9:30 am on a snowy day to skate garages. Ha ha. Joe, Damon, Kevin and I went to Redder curbs around 10:30. I had a new board as the cracked tail had gotten worse the day before. I went 8.38 this time instead of 8.5. It seemed quite a bit smaller surprisingly. That garage might be small, but it sure offers a lot of variety. It’s kind of hard to see what everyone is doing though since it’s kind of a circle. So maybe that will be my excuse for not documenting a lot that happened. The curbs didn’t grind so great initially. It’s that weird new paint they used. But we threw some wax on and grinding started happening. We played a game of SKATE pretty early on. I had to do triple or nothing on kickflip, but other then that it went alright for me. I even got a defensive cab which normally gets me a letter. I do feel like I made it onto the front trucks before pivoting. I think Kevin won the game on something like switch frontside flip. The game helped the warm up for sure. Everyone was starting to get in the groove of a line and we started filming each other. Rob showed up and got in the mix quickly. The slam on the back 50 was so bad. I skated better than the previous day, but still had some struggles and fear trying to front 50 a curb. Argh. Jack and Carleigh showed around the time we got booted. Doh. That still gave Jack some time to do a crazy wallie manual thing off the pillar.

Then we hit 303 and had some tacos before going to St Julien. I was wanting a nap so that’s what I did. I watched the tail end of the session which looked fun. Jack kickflipped the whole parking block, Carleigh and Joe did lipslides, Damon was trying heelflip front blunts, when Kevin wasn’t waking me up he did nollie noseblunt. Whoa. Then it was off to J Mascis!

(setup null 8.38 dream machine deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, lakai proto white/black 11.5, thin rubbery adidas insoles)
(pain level 3/10 probably from the cold)

After my disappointing outing yesterday I went to sleep angry and wanting to skate. Since I work the late shift and it was super nice out I left early for work with the plan of going to dog park to skate flat. Instead I saw no one was at Boulder park so I pulled in. I pumped around a couple times. Then had a fun warm up line of back tail stall on the mellow bank then front tailslide the little hip. A couple other people showed up, but mostly stuck in the bowl. I had started a line that got longer with each bail until I finally settled on it. Front 50 across and down the little ledge, go around, come out of the qp, noseslide down the ledge, tail stall drop in thing on the weird hump, manual the pyramid, kickflip over the b/s hip. I would often deviate from the line or do other tricks (kickflip tricks on the little bank up top, ollies on the hips). The line took a long time, but was pretty rewarding when I got it. I tried to add b/s flip to the end, but didn’t quite get it. Then it was off to work. Can’t believe how nice and warm it was. I should mention that the Es Swifts were annoying me. Sure they are comfy and flexible, but somehow they have no board feel. I sense a change coming.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, es swift 1.5 navy/clear size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10)