On a completely beautiful day I drove to Longmont to meet Rob and hopefully Dave at this lovely bank spot. I got there first and warmed up with the nollie shoves then fakie shoves. Rob arrived and warmed up with crailtaps and no complies. We both got backside flips, I got kickflip to fakie, Rob did a nollie shove 360 or bigspin (basically the board does 270 and you do 180). I got stuck on bigflip for awhile, but was rewarded with a first try varial flip to fakie. Well, kind of as drifted sideways in the landing. I battled frontside flips next around when Dave showed. I kind of got one. Dave warmed up with fakie shoves, back 360 ollie, and other shoves. I kind of landed a fakie flip then figured since everything was hard I’d try a treflip to fakie. I never landed one. I mean I guess I kind of landed on a couple, but the hands went down and even my low standards couldn’t count them. Rob was battling wallie/nollies at the same time. Except he would go on to land his. Such a rad trick. Dave was “lining it out” trying to get hyped for 360 flips. He was going frontside bigspins, front 360s, switch b/s ollies then going around the table area and coming back and trying 360 flips while going backside. He got sooo close! We chatted about movies for awhile then Rob took off. I was very sore, but did a few more easier tricks. No comply bigspin, Rob’s nollie shove 360 thing and a bad boneless to fakie. Dave tried more 360 flips and came close, then closed it with some wallie/nollies as I walked around without my shoes on trying to find a cool artsy angle to shoot a photo from. Fun day, but man I’m sore.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 99a, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Another nice November day. Rob, Dave and I were to meet at noon at the banked ledge. I got there first after a few slappy crooks on the yellow parking lot curb that put me in a good mood. Although I was very sore after yesterdays awesomeness. I got to the banked ledge first. I was feeling really stiff so I decided to line out some long basic lines. Like 180s, no pop fakie shoves, etc. I was still feeling some of the motivation though and quickly mixed in some flippers. I never got the whole long line I wanted, but I got close. It was fun starting with 180s over the metal grate. Rob was there next. He did some cool long manuals up and around a nearby sidewalk, some manuals on the manny pad, wallie grinds on the ledge, ollie to wallride below the ledge and more. Dave started out with manuals then took longer than normal for him to do a slappy crooks. We moved on to hit the curb I skated yesterday, but ended up hitting the tall ledge (above). Sorry for such a terrible photo, but Rob was trying boardslides. Not sure if he rode away from home, but he did get a first try noseslide. Dave got a few noseslides to fakie and maybe a front noseslide or two. I got a couple noseslides and couldn’t ollie onto it. Then we ended up at the curb. It didn’t seem quite as fun as before, but that whole area is cool so we had fun. I tried to line out a slappy, boardslide the flagstone bench then wallie/nollie out of the bank. Never got the wallie/nollie. Dave was trying pop shove noseslides on the top curb, but ended up doing it to front crook instead. Ha. Rob is still getting used to new trucks, did some axle stalls and stuff, but wasn’t feeling feng shui at the spot. Ha. Dave and I also tried to do the little narrow path gap, but didn’t really try. I tried to line out a bean plant off the 3, but it became too painful so I just ollie instead. Then Rob and Dave had to leave. I sat for a bit thinking I would skate more, but decided to just head home too.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 99a, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Just a dork, a skateboard, a phone, some self deprecation and finally a few hours without getting called into work. A chronological clip of my fun solo day yesterday including two new tricks for me at the end. Well, kind of. #skateboardingrules #oldmanskateboarding #teamsweatstain #slowskatinginslowmotion

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 25, 2017 at 6:34am PST

Figured I’d be working most of the day considering the first call came in at 5am. But that was it. After some breakfast and shopping with my mom I took advantage of no work and bolted to campus. I parked up near the kill and crossed under Broadway. I started out at UMC bailing a 3 stair ollie then went into the nosepick. I’m not sure whey I decided to film everything but I guess it helped the solo motivation. The nosepick took a really long time. Mainly because it took me forever to get the front axle stall first. That crack in the setup is a killer. Also, somehow in my pocket I had activated some voice reading on my work phone so I kept thinking I was getting called for work. Took me awhile to figure out how to disable that. I haven’t done a nosepick in awhile, it felt cool. Then I went up to the drama building (I think?) bank. The rock kickfilp out is fun, took awhile, but less than the nosepick. The walllie/nollie was great fun. Then I skated that flagstone ledge which is pretty tall. Boardslides are easy, but crooks are weird because it king of sticks. I took me awhile to get a crooks that felt good. I was bummed to see how it looked though. Oh well. The slappy crooks was alright. That new curb is fun. I saw the guy that waxed it up , Blake hitting the curved hill ledge. But I wasn’t wanting to jump that high so I rolled back down into campus kind of looking for something new, but ended up at the rec center. The noseslide and noseslide to fakie were fun. I also did what I thought was a crooks, but when I saw the clip I quickly hit delete. I wanted to hit the bank, but decided I would first try to ollie a rock. Man what a battle. I know it doesn’t look tall and it isn’t tall, but it was a serious battle for me. I would do flip tricks on the way back to the starting point to hopefully hype me up. Had a couple heelflips that felt fun, but not much else worked. I was very relieved when I finally landed the ollie. Then I went down to the bank where I quickly learned backside fastplant then tried front heels for like 20 minutes. Some elderly lady asked me why I skate when I could get hurt. Ugh. I was happy when she left. I have never done a front heel on a bank. One could argue that I still haven’t, but I felt happy to get that close at least. This was one of my favorite skate days. I’m not sure where the motivation came from, but it felt great.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, 51mm spitfire f4 classic 99a, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Didn’t have to work early. Went to the dog park around 9am. I was there for about 45 minutes solo. I was disappointed at how wet the ground was still, but the far end had some open lanes. My legs were sore from so much skating recently, but not in a bad way. It felt like I would have a good one as I got a couple of kickflips right away. But then it kind of fell apart for awhile. I literally could not land anything for a good solid 30 minutes. Including kickflips. I was angry and close to focusing my board. Right before Dave pulled up things started to work though. Got heelflip, close to 360 flip, first try b/s flip. I was trying a line of fakie flip, switch front 180, treflip which I never got. But I did get a treflip. It was the first one on flat that I landed clean in a long time. I was so happy I self cheered and clapped for myself. It felt pretty incredible. I’ve been in such a rut on that trick lately. Other tricks I got were fakie bigflip, halfcab flip, fakie varial flip, heelflip. Came close to nollie tre, accidentally landed a nollie 3 shove. Came close to halfcab heel and fakie heel. Hucked some Rick flips. Actually I hucked a lot. Came the closest I’ve come to switch heel early on. So even though I didn’t land as much as I was hoping I skated hard and that’s enough to make me happy. Dave said he was tired and wouldn’t skate much. Well after a few fakie shoves he was in the zone. Kickflips, second try varial flip, front shoves, switch front shoves, cabs, bigspins in several directions, close to tornado spins, every variation of no comply there is. Ha, he was ripping for sure though. It was so incredibly nice out. If I wouldn’t have gotten so tired I probably would have ignored going to work.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, bones stf v5 52mm, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Went to campus on a cool night wanting to hit all of my favorite spot and quickly rattle off a couple tricks. I started with slappy crooks here. Fun.

Then I manual and nose manual’d this.

And did a couple axle stalls, a slappy feeble that kind of grinded and was intentional which I followed with a few slow basic flatground tricks I forget right now. Bailed a few noseslides, but got a fun feeling front 50 so I moved on.

To this bank spot. I had been thinking of front heels on a bank all day and thought I could do it. I was immediately really close, but the bank is pretty dark and I never quite committed. It ended up being incredibly frustrating. I was so close so many time, but wouldn’t put my feet on it. It felt cool. I also bailed some 3 flips to fakie, got a first try kickflip to fakie, did some little manual bonks and tried a bunch of nollie flips on flat. I lost all my drive after awhile and headed back to the car and of course did a couple slappy crooks on the way.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, bones stf v5 52mm, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Sore from so much skating over the weekend I wanted a mellow little something. It was pretty nice out and Ollie was down to skate the curb he waxed the day before so we pushed 3 times and we were there. He picked a good spot to wax it and I was impressed with his first wax job. We skated for about half an hour. I had some fun 50s, fakie front 50, fakie nosegrind, almost a nosegrind pop out, front 50 nollie shove, slappy crooks. Ollie did some boardslides right away, then started trying crooks, but did some good willy grinds. He tried front 50, but did front willy too. I wish I would do willy grinds when I tried 50s. Oh wait, I do 5-0s. Ha ha. He got close to crooks a few times, but normally it dropped into boardslide and he would 270 out. Ollie was lining it out with ollie up the curb, crack bonk to manual off the curb then trying the curb. It was fun.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, bones stf v5 52mm, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Woke up a little ealier, handled a call for work and decided to go skate quick because I wasn’t sure when I’d be called next. I went to Southern Hills. I tried to start with 10 flip tricks on the smooth patch. Other than struggling with fakie varial flips again I got to nollie varial flip which would have been #7 pretty quickly. But I never got one. I tried for a really long time, landed on a few of them, but ended up giving up and started skating the ledges. But then the principal or something showed up to clean the courtyard a little. So that was weird. I pretended to not skate the benches, kind of helped her and mostly felt weirded out. Luckily she eventually left and I felt free to try whatever. I had grand ideas of lines I would try, but I didn’t get there. I basically tried a line of switch crooks to fakie on the curb, crooks the far bench, 360 flip on flat, turn around then front 50 the far bench. Never got the 360 flip. I was hyped on several switch crooks, but they were just pivots to forward basically. I would like to learn to grind it. I never got the front 50 either, but I did get into it a few times which is better than last time. I started to get super hungry and tired and wishing I had a new board. My trucks were the old ones worn to the axle and I lose motivation to try grinds. It’s like once you get to the axle you win. I’m lame like that. Oh yeah, kind of cool I blew out my switch lace before the regular one! (from trying so many nollie varial flips)

Then I went to Meta to get some trucks Sam had ordered me a long time ago. I also got the new Traffic DVD and watched it while setting up a new board. Then I went to the research ledge with the main purpose of starting the crooks groove in the new trucks. After some noseslides I started trying, but of course all of a sudden I forgot how to crook. Ugh, it was driving me nuts looking at the ugly little jib marks in weird places on the front truck. I was trying switch front shoves on the way back up the ledge, got a couple bad ones, but closer to doing it right. Then I started getting a few crooks and life felt better. Then I started skating it more like I normally do. Flip tricks, lines, etc. I was super hyped on getting back and front 50s somewhat quick. It felt great. Also a first try halfcab noseslide. Then I randomly started trying switch front nose 270. As you can see I kind of did it. I also may have kind of done a switch crook which really excited me. My flip trick game didn’t go so well, but I still had a really fun time. Digging the setup. Super hyped on my legs feeling better.

(setup 8.25″ null maze deck, venture 5.8 lights black, bones stf v5 52mm, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

On a nice morning Jake and I biked towards Saul’s with the intention of skating flat at Wilville for a bit first. We were over by the back entrance which had some good concrete. I was starting slow, Jake was starting faster and then boom, he bailed a varial flip and went down in back pain. Yikes. It wasn’t an awkward bail, but man he wan in pain. It sucked to see. Anyone who has experienced back pain knows the feeling. It’s terrible. He laid in pain, tried to sit up, etc. As he chilled I skated. Flippers weren’t working, I had fun doing various 180s up/down a curb, bailed a 4 stair a few times. Jake was able to get on his bike and took off. I started going to Saul’s then saw another section of flat that seemed better so I told myself 10 flippers before I could go to Saul’s. Took a bit, but I got there. Fakie varial flip took awhile, got f/s halfcab heel. Everything was slow and cautious.

#saulside

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 18, 2017 at 11:58am PST

Then I got to Saul’s. Josh, Saul, Eric and Dave was the crew. Dave wasn’t skating up to his standards. I saw him almost fall pushing a couple times! Ha. It was weird to see. He still killed it though. The backside fastplant to tail (I think?) was so sick. Eric was ripping. Getting his long back 50s right away, back disaster (above), almost back tail, rock ‘n rolls. I didn’t skate it very well. The tighter trucks aren’t so good there. I got a couple front disasters, front slashes, front rocks, but other then that I kind of chilled as the pumping seemed to hurt my legs. Josh was skating mellow for most of it and then towards the end was doing some crazy trick. Front feeble, front pivot to front rock, etc. Saul had his quick grind lines, frontside pop over the hip to quick alley oop axle stall, looking more fluid each time he skates. Must be nice. Ha.

Then Eric, Dave and I met Rob and Fuzz at the banked ledge spot. The bike ride there loosened up my legs again and I was able to start trying tricks even though I started really slow with some little wallrides below the “coping”. Dave was doing front 5-0s and back 50’s right away. He owns this spot. Rob was pretty distracted by some house sale news, but still pushed one getting used to kickflips with wider trucks, did some cool bean tails. Eric was hitting the heelflips hard. He had a few really good ones and started trying them over the manhole. Fuzz started with shoves and noseslides and kept doing them over and over getting faster each time. It was rad. Dave was doing noseslides to fakie on the tall ledge, switch crooks on the banked ledge. Fuzz started doing 180 over the hydrant than halfcab noseslide the ledge, b/s flip on flat. I went to film him and Dave, but Hosercam wasn’t charged up. Doh. I had a couple fun lines doing little front 180 off the ledge, halfcab flip on flat and bail something on the ledge. I was getting close to kickflip off the ledge when I got called for work. Argh. Right then Fuzz did a sick line of back 180 the manhole, halfcab flip on flat, ollie up the ledge, front 180 off and then fakie front shove. It was sick. I wish I could have kept skating with them, but instead I was on a work call for several hours. Doh. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture wides, bones stf v5 52mm, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Skipped out of a busy day of work for a flatground friday with Dave at the Blue Skies hockey rink. It was warm enough out, but pretty windy at times and rain was blowing in from somewhere. It was hard to find the motivation to begin with. I brought my quiver. Dave brought his putter. So I basically started on my putter too. I didn’t really like it so I went to my 8.25″ setup with venture wides. It felt great. Really great actually, I went on to have a great day for me. I mean I struggled with kickflips, but most other tricks felt good. I had some heelflips right away and in a couple tries got a really sketchy varial heel. It hyped me up. Halfcab flips felt good too, got a first try fakie bigflip. Got a nollie varial flip out of nowhere (thanks for trying Dave and reminding me) and a first try fakie varial flip. Keep in mind I was going so slow for all of these tricks. I couldn’t quite get trefilp, halfcab heel or fakie heel. I ended on a backside flip that took way too many tries. The smaller board with tighter trucks felt great for flip tricks. Dave had a really good fakie 360 shove, a bunch of lines with no comply 180, switch no comply 180, switch no comply shove all casual, cabs, front shoves, lots of kickflips, No treflips unfortunately. That trick is hard when it’s windy. I left back for work feeling hyped. It’s been awhile since I’ve landed so many tricks.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture wides, bones stf v5 52mm, 3 washers on the outside, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 212 green size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic insole)

Got a decent night of sleep. Saw it was nice out and supposed to be windy later so I got ready for work quickly and hit Boulder park for a little over an hour. It was still cold out when I started, but warmed up quickly. Warming up wasn’t all that bad. Did a few tiny ollies, some pumping around the park and started trying a few things. I like skating parks all by myself. I try basic tricks that I suck at and am normally too embarrassed to try around people. I mean I’m almost too embarrassed to write about them even. Ha. Tried a lot of lines. Maybe that makes them sound better. First one was a front shove to fakie on the little wedge up top, switch noseslide the ledge into the bank, front 50 the bump to ledge then roll into the mini. I hadn’t rolled in in awhile so it felt cool. I sucked it up in the mini, couldn’t even do a front disaster. I’ve lost all my transition “skills”. Did a bunch of ollies to fakie on the medium steep bank and they were scary. Then I took awhile to get a noseslide on the pyramid ledge. I am terrible at bump to ledge stuff. I got a few where I only slid a little. I would like to get them fast and come off the end. Maybe 270 shove out into the bank. That would be really good for me. The last line I tried was just a little manual across the pyramid, tiny f/s ollie on the east wall then a b/s flip on the medium steep bank. It took me a long time, when I got it I tried a back 180 over the little hip and had more speed than I thought and slammed. It was one of those slams that doesn’t hurt and made me laugh. It was a good ender. Then I went to work. I had done more tricks, was kind of all over the park, but lots of one hit tricks. Can’t believe how scared of the 6′ tall coping I am.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8, venom 88a bushings, spitfire f4 99a 53mm classics, bones swiss, nbnumeric 212 navy size 11, powerfeet pinnacle orthotic)

I went out later into the garage and skated with Ollie. I was wearing some new green 212s. We started out on the “manny” pad. Ollie tried copying a lot of my tricks. He We did front 180 nose manual 180s. Some other ones. He was the first one to ollie. He also pretty much did a nose manual. Rad. Then we just skated flat. Ollie tried so many kickflips. He just can’t get his front foot on it, but he’s close. He tried a few other tricks like shoves. He did some weird spin around to tail at one point that was awesome. I gave up on my big sled and skated the putter. It was fun. I did a few heelflips really easy, got incredibly close to nollie flip and landed 3 270 flips in a row. Felt cool and immediately triggered my brain to want a smaller setup for regular skating. What was funny was Ollie seemed mad that I landed 360 flips. He had some fire, he really wants to land a kickflip. I hope I’m there to see it!