After how sore I was I got some new shoes. Some Es Swifts. They seem comfy, but still an adjustment to get used to. I went to Southern Hills again because I didn’t want to go far. I was just supposed to skate flat for about an hour. But flatground wasn’t working. I mean I got through a few tricks, but couldn’t get 360 flip and I got frustrated. These shoes have that weird coating on them and it’s slippery initially. I blame that. Not my total lack of drive or focus. Ha. I tried for a long line. Halfcab flip, heelflip, front tail shove on the one stair, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide. As you would expect I didn’t get it. But what you might not expect is that I never got past the heelflip. I was so mad. Then the wind kicked in and I left.

Later on I went out in front of the house and Ollie joined me. He worked on shoves and kickflips with his hands in his pocket. I did one, it was weird feeling. Ollie has good pop shoves, they smack his feet when he does them. I ended up landing a lot of tricks. I skated slow, but that’s normal. I got a b/s halfcab heelflip which I haven’t done in awhile. Also heelflip, f/s halfcab heelflip, halfcab flips, a sketchy 360 flip, fakie varial flip, fakie flip, an over 50 rick flip! Came close to nollie tre and nollie varial flip. Glad skating went okay and I cheered up some.

(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 grey size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Stairs and gaps all day with @_f_u_z_z and @fullertrron and working on my base tan for Hawaii (or trying to be @iceman_hof ) #thestubborns. . . Okay the real reason I wasn’t wearing my shirt is because Fuzz said I was mixing a @lakailtd beanie with @esskateboarding shoes. And then we realized I had an @independenttrucks crew with @venturetrucks. Then we laughed even more when I revealed a @nbnumeric shirt. Fuzz said I had to shed it too. Thankfully my pants didn’t cause any conflicts.

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 27, 2018 at 4:57pm PST

Dave picked me up and we went to Southern Hills looking for dry. One side of the benches were dry and there was a lot of flatground so we went for it. Warming up was not easy. Three days off for me is a lifetime. Ha. Oh, I had another new sample board. This one was 8.25. It felt really good. Southern Hills is hard to skate. The ground is rough, there are lots of cracks, the ledges don’t grind. Dave was trying boardslides to fakie on one bench then halfcab noseslide the next one. Amazing line, but I don’t think he got it like he wanted it. I got a couple crooks. I was trying a line of front tail stall shove on the one stair, fakie flip on flat, halfcab noseslide a bench. Never got it. I think I chickened out and just tried switch front noseslides instead. Saul and Fuzz showed up at the same time. Saul cruised around for a bit , did a couple front 50s on the one stair and bounced. Fuzz warmed up with some solid pushes, boardslides and noseslides (I think). Then randomly I ollied this little snow gap and it turned into a session. My first ollie was the only clean ollie I had. Dave and Fuzz were able to do 180s pretty quickly. I couldn’t. So I hucked kickflips instead. I wasn’t committing though. Fuzz said “It’s because you’re wearing a Lakai beanie with Es shoes. You can’t mix brands like that.” I laughed and threw my beanie on the ground. Then we realized I was wearing an Independent crew, but skating Ventures. So I took that off. Then we both cracked up upon realizing I was wearing a NB# shirt. I hesitated, but knew I had to shed it too. We were laughing. I think I got the next kickflip, but it was pretty bad and Fuzz didn’t film it. Then I got the slightly better one. I was pretty hyped and put my clothes back on. Then we dorked around on the stairs. Fuzz had several drop down combos. They were so sick. Dave and I tried to hang, but Fuzz had the moves.

Then we went to Saul’s. There was a decent sized crew of awesome. Saul, Eric, Jake, Josh, Will. I was impressed with Fuzz’s first few runs. He kept his speed and flew around the bowl. Everyone skated well it seemed. Saul had the quick lines, stand up grinds and it was funny when he bailed the grab to tail he has been trying. Will rips. His front 5-0s are so good and he took awhile to get a fakie nose pick. Dave flowed like water as always. He did a lot of tricks including a super long boardslide. Eric did his first back 50 all good, then proceeded to struggle with the next few. Ha. He ripped too. I didn’t skate so good and was getting really sore quick. So I mostly took it easy. Jake was the first of Josh, Will and him to land a front blunt. He also got a nosepick. Josh is one heck of a nice dude and fun to skate with. Oh and he rips. I think that’s everyone. It was fun. Thanks for having us Saul.

(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 grey size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Got angry and inspired by this clip of a blind skater doing flip tricks I can’t. I went into the garage and tried nollie and switch flips for about 30 minutes. I was so close so many times to both. Then they kind of went away so I tried other tricks. Got a 360 flip second try. Hucked a bunch of flip tricks I can’t do and didn’t get anything. Ollie came out and joined me as I was about to head inside so I ended up skating for another hour or so. It was fun. I got a few flippers like heelfilp. b/s flip, an over 60 varial heel, couldn’t get another 360 flip, couldn’t get double flip. Ollie tried kickflips for a long time and just can’t get that front foot on there. He’s got a good flick though. Then he did shove its. These aren’t the best ones, we didn’t turn the camera on for awhile. It was cool though, he was having fun.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es accel sq burgundy/gum size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Went out in the garage on a cold/snowy night craving something other than flatground. So I started with a sheet of wood propped up on Ledgy. It’s scary having so little room and doing stuff. I started with ollies to fakie, pivots, etc. The clip above basically summarizes the whole night. What’s not shown is how many tries the stupid kickflip to fakie took. Or how many b/s flips I landed in a stall before the one I landed coming in. I couldn’t get a decent f/s flip. I was thinking of trying 360 flip to fakie, but instead started trying nose stall 270 shove out. I got close for awhile. I was also trying a few flip tricks. I couldn’t get a clean 360 flip. After the funny slam I lost motivation and went inside.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es accel sq burgundy/gum size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Tried to motivate to skate early since I knew I’d be a filmer later on. I tried to go to the bikepath ledge/hip, but couldn’t find parking near it so ended up at the research ledge. It was pretty nice out, but I was feeling pretty sore and unmotivated. I was just kind of forcing it so I’d be more content filming later. I also had new shoes. Es Accel SQs. They seemed good, not as grippy as the Arto’s, but way comfier. I struggled pretty hard. The first basic line was pop shove, front 180 up the curb, fakie flip on flat, switch front nose. The switch front nose was soooo bad, but I had been trying for long enough that I didn’t care. And I wasn’t filming or anything so who cares. I did manage a few slow and sketchy back 50s. I took a brief detour for some wallie nollies up top (photo). I had tried a bunch of the straight 4 that I can’t do and never committed. Saul biked by and we chatted for a bit. Then I just kind of tried ledge tricks for awhile. Crooks are still fun there. I got a couple halfcab noseslide jibs. The funnest part was trying noseslide 270 shoves out. I have never done it without going off the end of a ledge, but there were a couple that felt close. Then I left. I didn’t really skate later as I was so sore. I did a couple axle stalls at stonehenge, but I was more content pointing the phone/camera.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es accel sq burgundy/gum size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Went to Blue Skies hockey rink to meet Dave on a completely insane warm day approaching 70 degrees. When I arrived there was some snow near the upper goal and streams of water running down the hole rink. Warming up wasn’t so easy. Dave beat me to kickflip! Then he almost went on to beat me to halfcab flip. Yikes! Ha. I went for awhile thinking I might not land anything, but some things ended up working. Heelflips especially, I landed a lot of them. Dave did a lot of kickflips. He was almost doing them in lines with multiple shoves and varial flips. I had big dreams, but they didn’t really pan out as I was too inconsistent. My legs were tired. I got fakie flip, fakie varial flip, fakie shove and close to fakie treflip in one line. That would have made my day. I only got to the fakie tre once though. I had quite a few tricks with absolutely terrible landings. It became kind of funny. Dave claims he’s never done a regular halfcab flip, but wow he got close right away and stayed close. Can’t wait to see him do that one on the regs. He couldn’t quite get fakie varial flip which was odd. That’s kinda how the day was. I tried a bunch of tricks, some easy, some hard, landed some of them, but nothing that stood out. I did a line of heelflip turn around and the worst fakie heelflip. Aki showed! Dave and I were pretty tired at that point, but streams had dried up so much they were small enough to do tricks over. And just like that we had a new spot! I tried a line of switch 180 over one, front 180 the bigger one then fakie tre. Got close, but never rode out of the fakie tre. Dave was doing a random trick then back 180 the larger puddle then trying halfcab flip. Man he got close. Aki was doing f/s halfcab over the smaller puddle, back 180 the larger one then switch flip on flat. I think he got the switch flip. Dang! We all kickflipped the “large” puddle that had evaporated so quickly every try it got easier. I wish I could have stayed, but I needed to get back to work.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

After working late then watching Stranger Things with Ollie and his friends I went across the street to the curb. It’s kind of funny because Ollie and his friend were skating in the garage. The curb had gotten pretty dry, but still grinded. I skated slow and mellow. Did some 50s. Forced myself to try a front tailslide. Didn’t really slide, but did get up on it better. Tried some nollie front 180 switch crooks. Felt close the first try then got further away each time. Tried a few kick back tails and got into a couple, but never rode away. The curb is low enough for me to “nollie front 50”. I put it in quotes because it’s more of a nose scrape and pivot the trucks onto the curb. Still fun though.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

I had setup a new sample board and was excited to skate. It was warmer out than it’s been, but I wasn’t feeling too good so I opted for a short garage session. Warming up felt alright. I ended up trying nollie flips first. Got close. One of these days I’ll be able to hover a little longer and land them. Got close to switch flips again. Hucked a few more things before taking a song to land a treflip and then another song to land a sketchy varial heelflip. I was hyped on that! Also hyped that the sample board held up to some poorly landed heelflips that could sometimes result in a broken tail.

(setup 8.1″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

Went out to the garage on another cold night. I was feeling better about my chances with landing tricks. I did some whatever to warm up then randomly the first trick I tried was rick flip. Ha. Probably hucked it about 10 times then went to nolie flips. Got so close, but didn’t land it. Then I started roughly using songs as a gauge for how long I tried tricks. I had DJR playing and it worked well to try a trick for about a song. Some times though I would just do something like ‘fakie flip tricks’ and did fakie flip, fakie varial flip and almost fakie treflip. Didn’t get nollie heel or nollie flip although both were close. Switch flip was even closer. Tried switch 360 flip because why not. Honestly if I somehow manage to be setup right that trick totally seems possible. I committed to it a few times, but never got remotely close. Managed a few poorly landed regular 360 flips. I got a halfcab heel for the first time in months and followed it with a second try f/s halfcab heel. That was the highlight for me. I ended trying more nollie flips, but couldn’t put one down.

(setup 7.5″ putter, new balance numeric 358 black/white 11 custom orthotics)

Went out to the garage not feeling particularly great on a cold night. I chose to wear the Suciu ADV shoes instead of a different old pair of shoes. They are not very grippy. Anyway, I started out with some of the shoves and stuff before digging in to nollie flips and heels. I never got close and I don’t know if I even made any progress. It was frustrating. I started hucking pressure flips though. I think I finally grasp the movements needed to do them. After awhile I gave up on nollie flip/heels and added 360 flips to my fail list (WTF!). I did manage heelflips and a terrible fakie heel. I got incredibly close to switch flip out of nowhere. That would have been great. All in all a pretty weak night.

(setup 7.5″ putter, Suicu ADV 10.5 with custom orthotic insole)