Woke up early on a weekend again. Could have gone for more sleep, but with the sun coming up so early I just can’t. I needed to go to Sol and I was pretty sore from skating so much the day before. Dave is one of the few people that is up by 8am to skate so I hit him up. I got to Longmont park at 8:30am. There was one other dude there drinking beer and skating. I cruised around for awhile getting warmed up doing nothing in particular. Then that guy asked if I wanted to play a game of SKATE. Sure. I ended up winning it with a b/s flip that felt good. The narrower trucks with the wider board flip good. Then I tried to manual the ledge up top of the park for awhile and do a front d on the noping. But I never got the manual. Dave showed up. We were kind of doing our own thing before a switch flip battle ensued. I guess he had finally landed one on his ramp not moving. Neither of us landed it. We probably tried for 30 minutes. Dave landed on one and shot out. I had a couple that flipped good and i landed with one foot and the other next to the board. Looking like O-L for me in the game of torture. Skated the park for awhile. Dave was trying front tails over the hip then nollie bigspins on the bank. I posed some b/s ollies over the hip. Trying to pop them really high. It felt really cool. I didn’t commit to any of the big ones, but landed one or two that were bigger then normal for me. Then we skated flat for quite awhile. Dave was working on the nollie bigpin and got a good one that took a few tries. Then he almost landed f/s halfcab flip which I think is a totally new one for him. I landed a lot of my flipper. Fakie flip, fakie varial flip, heelflip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, f/s halfcab flip, nollie varial flip, nollie treflip (felt super good). Couldn’t land a 360 flip to save my life though. Dave tried to switch front bigspin the hip in the back of the park. He got super close. Had some rad switch front shoves on flat while feeling it out. And some rad lined setting up for it that had tricks like fakie front pivot on the noping, switch f/s ollies on the bank, switch 360 no complys on the bank and probably a lot more. I hucked some front heels over the back hip, but was rarely close. Then I started trying to go up the bank, grind the last bit of the step up into a manual on the deck of the bank. Got a couple. One in a line with a nose manual across the pyramid like Dave was doing. The last thing I did was skate the ledge for a bit. Manualled it, front 50, front 50 front 180, front 5-0 shove (trying front 50), a couple crooks (they felt good and i was a little worried they would feel weird with the smaller axles) and a horrible back 50. Whew. That was a lot of skating. Then I went to Sol and after a quick nap was out playing basketball with Ollie.

(setup 8.25 null venture lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 15, 2015 at 9:45am PDT

Went Blue Skies for Flatground Friday. The goal was to get hyped for flatground by putting the stupid back boneless down. Instead I did the same thing over and over until I snapped. I could get into the boneless so easy, but I could not jump back in to save my life. I snapped. I had another week if I wanted it, but I don’t want to spend another minute trying that trick and I really don’t want to snap again and focus another board. I would have been stoked to do one, but it became clear rather quick that I don’t have what it takes to land that trick. Kudos Josh!

(setup 8.25 null (RIP) new venture 5.8 lights (thanks Reed!) bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

After my depression session at Broomfield I pulled my pile of used trucks out of the garage. I ended up going somewhat big. Venture wides and I setup an 8.25 board. It felt pretty awesome too. I tried a few basics without doing as many setup tricks in between. The bigger board did feel a little better on Rampy. I did a few flatground tricks too. Kickflips felt great. Got a couple others including a heelflip.

(setup – 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings ricta crap wheels)

Such a beautiful day!!! @matthouse back tail in a t-shirt

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 25, 2015 at 2:58pm PST

New complete because I left my board at the spot today and it was gone when we went back. #doh #idiot Thanks for having @venturetrucks lows @metaskateboards !!!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 24, 2015 at 9:10pm PST

Went to Southern Hills after a long morning of cleaning toilets, vacuuming, etc. It was SUPER NICE OUT! Like 60 degrees and sunny. Breezy at times, but not bad. I had a totally new setup due to losing my last setup. Doh. So new Venture lows, Bones medium bushings, Reds, 8″ Null deck and some Ricta 51mm speed ring wheels. I was gonna just go with Null wheels, but Meta had them and I like to check the competition. Ok, the real reason is they were smaller. I gave everything a coat of Snaky Jakey wax and went to it. It’s been a minute since I was so motivated. I was skating fast for me. Did a line of noseslide, kickflip, crooks. I was super hyped on going faster for the noseslide. Had an exhausting line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, ollie up the 2 stair, ollie down the 2 stair, noseslide (was supposed to be crooks). Had a few front 50s, but definitely struggled with them as I have been for awhile. The new board did feel poppier though. A couple felt good. Had one line with ollie the two stair (it sounds lame, but there is a crack in front of it so it’s not all that small of a 2 stair) then front noseslide. Was trying a ridiculous line of front 50 a bench, nollie tre on flat, kick back tail the bottom stair. Since I never landed the nollie tre I just did back 50s on the curb which were fun. Also came close to ollie onto a bench then up onto a table. So close. Matt showed up and did every basic ledge trick first try perfect. The back 50 so casual looked so fun. I’m jealous. He also did front 50, front 5-0, front tail, front tail fakie, back 5-0 and back tail. But he couldn’t do a nollie tre! Ha. Oh and it took him 5 tries to land a treflip which might be a record for him. I didn’t get much more after Matt showed. I was pretty beat. Oh, some crooks where I started at the beginning of the ledge and grinded pretty far, rather then just jibbing the end. Fun day, that’s the best I’ve felt all year! 25 days down. 1/12 of my goal of skating 300 days.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta 51mm wheels)

Flatground Friday #scenesfromwhereifalldown

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:08am PST

Flatground Friday! This time with some new shoes. Another pair of Stratfords from the stockpile. I feel like I’ve been blowing through shoes, but I’m still getting 3 weeks out of these which is about as good as it gets for me. I started a little slow, but ended up feeling pretty good. Got through a lot of the basics in first or second try (first try nollie varial flip!). Struggled a bit with 360 flips as always. Did the worst nollie tre ever. Slammed hard enough on a fakie treflip that someon walking their dog nearby asked if I was ok. Tried some new trick. Not close on switch flip or nollie f/s flip. Landed on fakie double flip and shot out. Super close to fakie hardflip. Almost some really good f/s halfcab heels. Some really good for me heelflips.

Okay so now that I was down to skate lows again I stopped by Meta to get a new set after work. The hanger’s I had were really worn down and apparently so old that the mold was different (pre-DLX) and they didn’t fit right in my newer baseplate. I traded in a set of trucks that Reed had given me. Then I went to old faithful – the research center. I had about 30 minutes to skate and just hit the ledge. Didn’t skate it too well, but I attribute that mostly to having already skated earlier in the day and being incredibly hungry. I got one good crooks, a sloppy back 50 or two, struggled for front 50s. I forgot how good the low trucks carve. They carve better then the highs. Flip tricks were whatever.

After a nap, dinner, some indoor basketball with Ollie I went to Valmont on a mild December night. As I pulled in Carleigh hit me up to skate. I was there for awhile first though. I had put my Venture Lows on again. Well, not change the whole truck, just the hanger. I’m dumb. Basically since I have the tighter bushings I thought I could get away with less wheel bite and it seems to be true. This might be partly due to having such tiny wheels. Anyways, so I started out hucking. Got into a few back 180 nosegrinds, but have no idea how to land one. Go ultra lucky with a first try back 50. Ollied a little box with some good scrape. Hucked some flatground. Landed on a switch flip and shot out. It was so bloody close. Both feet on, rolled a tiny bit then shot out. Argh! Carleigh showed up and rattled off a few flatground tricks and did several noseslide shoves. I can’t do that trick to save my. I got somewhat close, but not really. I added a short front noseslide, front 50, weak front tail and a couple 360 flips with hands touching.

There was supposed to be super high winds, but it was just breezy and kind of warm in the mid 40s. I setup a new board as I could not get the crap off of my grip from the night before. It turned into this weird slippery mess. Grip gum, shoes, scrubbing would not get it off. And since I’m totally over PJ I had to get rid of his pro trucks. Ha, ok, as if. I had grinded them to the axle and being the poser that I am I don’t like keeping trucks around when I get to the axle. I mean when you get to the axle you already won right?! So I setup some new black ones that Reed from DLX had sent me. I had to wait awhile before I could leave because Liz was picking up India so I had to watch Ollie. I skated Rampy for a bit. Not having all that much fun. Oh I had put my old Bones medium bushings in the new trucks. I don’t really know why. Partially because I’ve wanted my trucks a little tighter, partially because I didn’t want to take the PJ trucks apart. Anyways, Rampy kinda sucked. I almost died trying a couple front tailslides. Forced myself to do a frontside ollie then it was off to the Research center.

I started near the Max rail. Just doing that line I love of noseslide, boardslide pop out then roll down the long stairs. I was struggling a bit with the new setup. After awhile I moved back to the 4 stair side. I really wanted to get up the 2 stair part then down the 4, but I’m not good like Matt and Josh. So I settled for an ollie to back axle stall, turn onto the top, push and ollie it. Yippe. I tried a couple front 180s after, but they were just poses. Then I went over to the ledge. Had a few crooks, a sloppy back 50, a couple really great feeling front 50, really great feeling front 50 shove, a couple worry attempts at front tails and of course some noseslides that were supposed to be crooks. I lined out a couple things that felt good. Ollie up the curb, crooks, front 180 the manhole, halfcab flip. Had a few b/s flips. And trying to learn switch back 180s better. I would love to do that trick up curbs.

Then I skated flatground for awhile in the big parking lot out back. I had told myself to do 20 tricks and was at 15 when I got distracted by trying a long line. Manual a bit of the sidewalk in the background by the snow pile (the manual took me forever and I think I toe dragged a little (TILT!)), no comply 180, fakie flip, halfcab flip then ollie the tiny gap over the curb in the foreground. I only got to the ‘gap’ once and it was way smaller then I thought so luckily I did it first try. That pretty much drained me and I headed home after that. The manual seriously took me forever. Ugh.

Stuck working on a Friday night. Ugh. Managed to see most of Ollie’s football games. Then went for a brief skate to the research center. I started near the Max rail and it ruled. I had new shoes (Etnies RCT) and a new 8.25 deck with my old Venture wides. Yeah, so in Portland there were several times where I felt like my board was too small. So I figured it’s time to try the bigger setup again. This time only 8.25 and Ventures instead of Indy. It felt decent. I started with a line of noseslide coming up the handicap ramp, boardslide a curb, then front 180 up the two stair. It’s a dorky spot, but really fun because you have to curve around all crazy. Then I had a super fun line. Firecracker the two stair, ride down the mess of long stairs, kickflip on flat, no comply 180, start doing down the hill, switch front 180, back 180 (felt really good with the bigger setup), turn around, ollie up the curb, crooks the ledge, then manual the long pad. But I ended up falling on the landing of the manual. I laughed then looked up and saw this awesome view.

I skated the ledge for awhile. Locked into some crooks, didn’t land many of them. Did one back 50. Went to try some flippers, but my achilles is still hurting so bad that I stopped.

On a rainy night I gave India a ride to ballet with Jake then stopped by Meta, dropped off some goods, picked up Matt and we headed to Red Curbs. Matt had never been there before. I had a lot of new stuff. Those shoes are way brighter then they look too. They are ridiculous. Herman G6 Vulc. Also put some new 52mm Nulls on because my last set had worn down into the mid/upper 40s. They felt and looked huge! Ha. Oh and some old PJ trucks because I had worn my previous set of Ventures to the axle (unheard of for me). Anyways I set the tone for myself on my very first push around the spot by slamming onto my elbow on the edge of the curb on a slappy crooks. Matt quickly front 180’d the median and ollied some tall cones. Had some sick fakie nosegrinds, front 5-0 180, switch back 50, probably much more. Slammed prety hard without his wrist guard a few times. Doh. Jake gets better every time he skates. Front tails, front 180 over two sideways cones piled up, halfcab over that too, almost a kickflip manual, got into fakie back lips, his new trick the fakie bigger flip, fakie front tail, a treflip and more. I slammed and struggled all night. Managed to ollie the sideways cones, a couple 3 flips, slappy crooks, ride on front 50s and a few other basic flippers.

Put my old 8″ Ventures on a 8.25″ board. The board looked so small. I skated in front of the house for a bit before Ollie was ready to leave for a short Louisville session. I was able to ollie while hitting the tail again (ha), kickflips felt easier, halfcab flip felt great. I did end up liking how Indy’s turned, but for now I’m just gonna skate the Ventures and not think of getting 8″ Indys unless I actually end up disliking the Ventures (unlikely). We went to Lville. We skated the skate run thing first. It was fun. The Ventures carve differently then Indys, but the grind felt better and I actually landed tricks I got into instead of just stopping. Ollie pumped better then he has in awhile and followed some lines I showed him to keep his speed more. I got a front d, but bailed out of roll ins. Thanks JP. Ever since making that roll in bet I’ve been completely unable to commit to a roll in. Goofed around on the street section for awhile. Didn’t do anything special and definitely noticed that crooks are harder to get into with a smaller truck. But it was cool. Ollie had some nice front 180’s off the ledge. We were both so tired from vacation and driving that we called really quick.