On a hot lazy Saturday I went to Safeway to meet Kevin, Sean and Fuzz. Kevin was there when I got there doing my kind of warm ups – noseslides without ollieing. Except he moved on to flips tricks and grinds way quicker than me. I took a few tries to get into grind, but had a fun feeling back 50 and some front 5-0s that may or may not have been intentional. Sean showed up and I stopped landing tricks. Ha ha. Seriously though, I didn’t land anything for awhile. Sean rattled off steezy basics along with some great looking flippers. Kevin got a nollie front nosegrind pop out which was probably trick of the day. I attempted some front tails, but they were just little tail stall jibs. I couldn’t get kick back 50. Kevin got back tail and then kick back tail. My flip tricks were not working. Fuzz showed up and I chilled with him. Then it started raining so we went and got tacos.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, custom orthotic insole)
(knee pain 2/10 )

After a long day at work, a nap and then dinner I went out to skate flat for a bit. It started slow and initially I was discouraged with the bigger board and wanting to go in and grab a smaller setup. But I stuck with it and when I got a heelflip quick things seemed better. I struggled with halfcab flip and fakie bigflip which was annoying. But in the end I managed most of my basics. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, bs flip, 360 flip, heelflip, halfcab heelflip, fs halfcab flip. Couldn’t quite get fs halfcab flip. I hucked quite a few tricks I can’t do like nollie flip, nollie inward heel, switch flip. In the end I tried nollie tre and fakie heel. But then it got super windy and I just stuck with fakie heelflip. It ended up taking like 30 minutes. I stayed mostly calm somehow. In the end I get a terrible one. I guess I never really land that trick good anyway so a make is a make.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, custom orthotic insole)
(knee pain 0/10 wow!)

On a nice evening I showed up to a mellow Broomfield park. Rob and Kevin were already there and already ollieing and trying real tricks. Kevin doing tricks right away makes sense as he’s young, but I’m always amazed how quickly Rob can snap his tail. They were mostly skating the blue lurb so I joined. Someone had waxed it like crazy which was nice because you could go Glenspeed and still grind/slide. Rob had long front 50s, oh so close to front nosegrind, back 50 step off, nollie lip, nollie lip to fakie and a back 50 shove out which was followed by an epic line of skate improv. He also had a solid crook on the black ledge, nose manuals around the blue bank like it was nothing, manuals too. Kevin showed up Rob with a switch nosegrind 180 out. Ha ha, it didn’t really come off like that. Kevin had fakie 5-0, nollie crooks, nollie nosegrind, but no regular 50s that I saw. I struggled with a slow back 50, had some fun fakie 50s, a tiny fakie nosegrind, some accidental 5-0s. Kevin and I battled kick back 50s. Who do you think won and added kick back 5-0? Correct, the guy with the 7.75. I did get close on a few of them though. I couldn’t get 50s on the black ledge. It’s weird how the bigger setup feels great for noseslides and crooks, but not so good for 50s. I had a fun little line of first try boardslide down the tiny rail then crooks on the black ledge then bailed a treflip. We played a game of SKATE. It was pretty fun. It was going pretty good until Kevin had a run that included nollie and switch flips. Rob got out on backside flip even though he had gotten super close earlier in the game. I was happy to land the bs flip and a first try treflip. Kevin took me out no switch f/s flip. We messed around on the blue bank for awhile marveling at the ease in which Rob could manual and nose manual it. Kevin got nose manual on it too. I didn’t get close to anything.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole and es thin insole)
(knee pain 2/10)

Feeling better, but still without much energy I went to Southern Hills close to sunset. No one was there when I arrived. But as soon as I set my board down two cars screeched into the parking lot and some high schoolers got their boards out. Doh. But all they did was parking lot manuals for awhile and then a couple more cars came and they played basketball. I had gotten a couple warm up lines in before the spot got mobbed. Boardslide, kickflip, noseslide. Noseslide to fakie, halfcab flip, crook. Flip tricks felt terrible. I tried a line for awhile of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide. But never got the halfcab noseslide. Wasn’t able to ollie up the two stair either. Managed one incredibly slow front 50 and didn’t get another actually moving. Got close to kick back tails on the curb, had a few kickflips into the handicap ramp. Couldn’t get a treflip or nollie tre. That spot is hard.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole and stock NB insole)
(knee pain 2/10)

Feeling sick, but with less ear pain thanks to antibiotics I just did a few switch flips attempts on my rug. About 15 tries. Same thing happened. It flips great when I don’t commit, it only flips halfway when I do. Argh.

Quick campus hit with @matthouse. It’s really hard to skate with an ear infection.

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 30, 2018 at 7:47pm PDT

Feeling very weird from an ear ache that had just started a few hours before I brought shirts to 303 then rolled through the tunnel into campus. Before I even made it past the bikepath I got stopped by a cop who apparently thought I was part of a crew that I think she was after. It was kind of weird. But not as weird as how disoriented I felt trying to skate with one ear. To summarize how disoriented I felt I was like 1/5 on kickflips. Ugh. I had played around with some dork stuff before Matt showed. It took me like 10 tries to do the little grind jam up the curb. Half the time I would commit, but miss the curb. That’s how disoriented I was. Matt did it first try. He also did a super solid treflip first try. We did a few lines, basically what’s on the gram here. I also filmed Matt get a Stubborns line. We did a few tricks without lines. Matt got a sketchy fakie 50. I got a crooks and noseslide. The lines were fun. After I got home my ear pain went through the roof. Turns out it was a legit ear infection. Ugh.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole and stock NB insole)
(knee pain 1/10 but I was so disoriented from the ear infection it didn’t matter)

Couldn’t really ollie today so I played on the low to high with @baffoos and @shark.fist666

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 29, 2018 at 6:17pm PDT

Still feeling sick and worn down from traveling I went to Broomfield park to meet up with Jake and Rob. Jake brought Lazer. Rob told Eric. The crew grew and it was awesome. I was feeling incredibly rusty. Jake started off strong getting a line of front 50 the black box, boardslide the bump to bar, come back and front 180 in to the bank then halfcab noseslide the black ledge. He had moved on to front 5-0 then front tail on the bump to bar before I did the first line, but with a much worse haflcab noseslide. Rob did a better halfcab noseslide than both of us. Lazer was shredding everything. Solid and fast 50s on the ledge and cool transition tricks. Eric had a first try heelflip over the parking block so sick. He also got into some crooks on the black ledge, back 50s the blue ledge. Rob was doing some long front 50s on the blue ledge and got a sick back 180 out, manuals around the top part of the park, manuals on the mountain bank. Jake did some f/s flips on the hump, front tails on the steep bank, then battled front noseblunt for awhile and did it right after I turned off my phone. Kevin showed up with his friend Mike. Rob and Eric bounced. Sean showed. At this point I had given up ollies and joined Lazer with a low to high session. Lazer did front pivot and rock fakie too. He bounced shortly after that with Jake. I have never skated it before. It took me about 100 tries to do the disaster. In that time Kevin had done tail, switch rock and front pivot. I got his back when he did the front pivot. Mike and Sean were skating the manny pad. Mike had some sick kickflip manuals and close to kickflip nose manual. Then another dude joined in on the manny fun (as I battled front disaster). Other dude did kickflip manual, kickflip nose manual, manual kickflip out and I think nose manual nollie flip. Sean did kickflip nose manual front 180 super easy. Fun session, but man I was rusty and sore.

(setup 8.38 null atomic cowboy deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole and stock NB insole)
(knee pain 3/10 but I was not feeling well)

After a very long drive back from TN I was dead an unmotivated. And then it rained. So I just stood on some carpet and hucked switch/nollie flips on my rug. Got close a few times. Switched around shoes between some 420s and 212. Not much of a skate day, but if I had landed one I would have been super hyped. Oh yeah, I had put an old deck on too because the board sitting in the trunk of my car throughout Tennessee got super warped. Doh.

Warmed up with some bs 180s into the bank. Was feeling pretty sick and run down. Did slappy switch noseslide down the last part and eventually back 180 nosegrind. Well, not of much grind really. Maybe if I had wax. Then I pulled out a plastic crate and thought about the trick dave challenged me to: back 5-0 back 180 out. I wasn’t close at all then decided who cares and setup the phone then two tries later I magically got the worst one ever. I was so hyped (until later on when reviewing the clip and sending it to Dave and realizing it didn’t count). I had hucked flippers, but didn’t get much. Then I piled up the crates to make a nice looking ledge, but got the boot before getting much on it. So then I made myself do 10 flip tricks. They went something like: fakie flip, fs halfcab flip, heelflip, fs halfcab heelflip, halfcab annoyingly took forever, bs flip, fakie varial flip first try, terrible 360 flip, gave up on nollie tre so did kickflip then varial flip.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole and stock NB insole)

New shoes which take awhile to get the flick. But I got an early treflip which relaxed me some. Heelflip took awhile. My board felt small. Got backside flip, halfcab flip, fakie varial flip, fakie flip, a couple treflips and an easy feeling halfcab flip. Didn’t get nollie flip, Nollie varial flip or nollie tre. No fs halfcab flip either. All things considered it was still fun.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 sea foam/salmon size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole and stock NB insole)