Epic spot ✔️ Epic crew ✔️ Epic tricks ✔️ @baffoos switch backside flip

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 3, 2018 at 4:55pm PST

On another gorgeous day Jack and Carleigh picked me up, we met up with Fuzz and Kevin and we went to this spot in Denver. Apparently it’s normally covered in dirt and the city just came through and cleaned it out. Jack’s board went into the water first try. That would happen to everyone’s board at some point. It took some getting used to. My ollies were so pathetic, they were just like little tail scrapes, but I did get a kickflip pretty quick. Jack too. It was surprising to see flip trick master Kevin struggle with kickflips. Fuzz got front 360 quick. After I took too long to do a front shove I filmed Fuzz and everyone else for awhile. Carleigh put down a few pop shoves. Chelsea almost put down some crazy popped kickflips. Kevin had a sick hardflips. Jack did a bunch of tricks like 360 flip, varial flip, impossible and the coveted kickflip late shove. Then I started skating again and eventually I started trying varial flips which seemed like it would be easy. I’ve never done it over a backside hip before. It wasn’t easy. Carleigh was throwing backside flips. It was crazy because she didn’t look close for awhile and then put her feet on it once or twice and then she did it a few tries later. So sick. She did another one too. Both were perfect. Kevin was going in on nollie f/s flips and it took awhile. It was just Carleigh, Kevin and I still trying tricks. Oh yeah, Billy was there earlier. He was mostly chilling, but would take his cruiser for some casual crushing and almost did f/s flip over the hip. Carleigh tried straight kickflips for awhile. Kevin and I were so close so many times. He got a perfect one. Then it was just me skating feeling lame for taking so long and wanting to quit, but thankfully Jack kept encouraging me to try so I did. I finally landed it and it felt really cool. Lots of times when you finally land a newish trick (done plenty of varial flips, but not ever a backside hip and definitely not over a somewhat gnarly street hip) the first make feels weird, but this one just felt great. I was hyped. Kevin had started skating again and worked on switch backside flip for a minute before doing such a good one. Then we went on a journey around the corner to a mexican restaurant and enjoyed some good food and margs. Awesome day. I was incredibly sore after which is the only negative. Not sure I should be without orthotics while skating.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)

On an absolutely gorgeous day I got out of work pretty early and met Dave at Blue Skies. It was seriously so nice out. There was a crew of younger skaters at the actual skatepark, but we were doing flatground friday so we went to the hockey rink. At first we had the park all to ourselves, but then at times there were several young scooter/bike kids and then some people using the hockey rink for what it’s intended for. Dave started off on fire. Skating fast and landing everything. It took me a bit to start committing, but out of nowhere a nollie tre happened it felt so awesome. It’s been awhile for that trick. Then Dave and I went into a funk for awhile of not really landing anything. I mean we landed stuff, but it was mostly just setup tricks to bail harder tricks. Ha. I couldn’t get a 360 flip. I was trying lines of shove, kickflip, heelflip, but struggled with the heelflip. Dave had a lot of kickflips, cabs, shoves, switch shove, a perfect back bigspin, varial flips, struggled with fakie varial flip then did a perfect one and his second f/s halfcab flip. I don’t remember getting passed the basic warmups other than the early nollie tre. But man that nollie tre felt good.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)

Went to go skate the bikepath/hip spot, but it’s no longer lit at night. The nearby Pearl ledge had snow and water around it. Ended up at the nearby bus station. Went to this little ledge and stayed put for 30 minutes or so. I was not wearing my orthotic insoles. I’ve been reading a lot about how you shouldn’t wear them and I’ve been doing lots of foot and leg exercises. So I wanted to see if my legs and back can handle it now. It felt fine. Other than it feeling really weird to not have a solid sheet of wood underneath my feet. Which is obviously a lot! Ha. I actually bailed on the little hill on the bikepath because it felt so weird not having the stiff insole. So yeah it took awhile to get used to, but I did eventually feel fine. The little ledge is pretty sick, but the bump before it weirded me out for awhile. I eventually got a few kickflips and noseslides. A line with front shove then back 50. Back 50s on that were really fun. I of course was getting on where it’s lowest. It would be fun to go back when it’s daytime and can see it better. Someone 50’ing the whole thing up and over could be cool and there is lots of line opportunity.

Then I went up and skated the tall ledge above. Which felt extra tall. I could barely noseslide it and a tiny slow crooks jib was a battle.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)

Ollie, Gabe and I showed up at Louisville park around 6, but the lights wouldn’t turn on so we went to Lafayette. The park was pretty chill, some people and some snow, but mostly skatable. Ollie and Gabe mostly hung out near the entrance at first. Doing stationary shoves and hitting the bank. Gabriel hasn’t skated a park so it was all new to him and he was scared just rolling down some of the banks initially. I had a pretty good slam on a nollie back 180 on a bank to start my session. Not sure where that came from, but it hurt. Ollie was doing fakie shoves and f/s halfcabs on the bank. Gabe did an ollie to fakie which kind of blew me away having not skated a bank before. I had fun with the rock corner wallie. I was trying to skate the black ledge, but people kept hanging out by the landing so it was kind of annoying. I struggled with the angle for front 50s, but would get front 50, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180 out and then a manual which was the hardest of the lot for me. Gabe got a clean ollie onto it. What the heck? Kid is gonna be a ripper. Ollie got on it too with a quick jib, but had some nice 180s off. We hit the toilet bowl for awhile. Gabe managed the easy roll in entry and got a few kickturns. Ollie kind of did some grinds. I didn’t get much, the coping there is weird. Some dudes came and put the parking block after the little bank and had a fun session going. I tried to no comply flip into the bank. Got close a few times, but was struggling with the flip. I got halfcab flip on the easy bank. I tried front shoves to fakie on the narrow bank by the snake run for awhile. Ollie came in and did a few tricks to hype me up. Then moved on to skate with Gabriel before I landed the front shove. We ended by ollieing off the tight qp by the entrance. Then Ollie front 180’d it in a few tries. Man it was cool seeing Ollie skate so hard. Him having a buddy to shred with is great.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Around 7 I went across the street to play around on the rock area. Yet again I had a new set of bushings. This time Bones mediums in hopes they don’t freeze up when it’s cold or turn to jello when it’s warm. They felt a little stiff, but not as stiff as the Doh Dohs. I started slow and it took a bit before I could even do an axle stall on one of the rocks. But I would eventually get to a point where I was flailing around trying hard. Didn’t get close to nollie flips. Could barely noseslide the bench of the picnic table (it’s really tall). Took a couple tries to ollie up on the longer rock. Didn’t get the manual on it. Didn’t get far on the flip trick list. I hucked a lot, trying different stalls like back axle heelflip out, front pivot kickflip out, switch noseslide shove, front nose shove, etc. Didn’t land any, but it was fun hucking. Got a sketchy line of front tail a rock then ollie up onto the short rock. That’s so scary to me to ollie on and have to get off immediately. Some day I hope to manual or nose manual the tall short one (tall short ha ha. tall rock that isn’t long).

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Woke up way too early and was off all day. Got to Broomfield park on a windy and not warm day with Ollie to meet Dave who had probably already been there for an hour. There was some snow and runoff dividing the park a little, but for the most part you could hit what you want. We mostly skated the blue box. The quartapotty wasn’t skateable. I was mostly determined to get some back 50s and I did. I still approached with a huge angle, but after 30 years of doing it that way it’s not gonna change. Dave was shredding. Nose manual, front 50 180, front 5-0 180. Ollie said he wanted to skate, but sure didn’t seem too motivated. He did some boardslides, a bunch of stationary shove its, kind of ollie up the blue box and front 180 off. Later on Dave was trying front 5-0 shove and I was trying back 50 shove. We got them back to back! Even Ollie might have smiled for us briefly. I suggested halfcab boardslides to Ollie and he did a couple. Not much of a slide, but it was still cool. One time he technically did halfcab noseslide. My last trick was fakie nosegrind which took way too many tries. Dave did a regular front nosegrind and we bounced. The whole time I was annoyed with how stiff my bushings were. Goodbye doh dohs. Oh yeah, this dude showed up that was so smooth. He was just doing nose manual front 180 out, then the same things switch and some little grinds. But he was easily one of the smoothest skaters I’ve seen in awhile and it was sick.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Well, I guess wind is good for something, because even though there was a couple inches of fresh snow in the morning a lot of it was gone in the afternoon. After a nice hike with Liz I ended up at the research ledge. It was dry and even most of the hill and sidewalk were dry. It was really surprising. But sometimes crazy gusts would pick up and blow snow by the ledge making everything temporarily wet. I had to sit a couple times, but for the most part it was fine. I wanted to learn noselide back 270 out so I tried it to get warmed up. I’m not sure why I’ve never tried that trick before, but it felt close. I got a few that definitely don’t count, but seem like a baby step in the right direction. I had some fun lines trying pop shoves on the sidewalk then either noseslide, back 50 or crooks. I had a few crooks that felt really good, a couple back 50s. Frontside was kind of messed up, but I had one really fun line where I ollied a little snow pile then got a little front 5-0 jib. That was my fav part of the session. I had some okay flatground. Fakie varial flip, heelflip, close to 360 flip, tried a bunch of nollie and switch flips getting close. The bushing seemed to have loosed up a little, but I would still like to try a little softer.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

After work I went to the Steel Yards since it was snowing out. I had some motivation to skate flat, but man it ended up being a battle. My new bushings felt wayyy too stiff to skate. I had them so loose by the end the bolts were almost off. But I tried. Started with a few 3 trick lines of basic tricks. Can’t believe how hard I struggled with front shoves. Even halfcab flips weren’t working. But the curb was grinding and fun. I was hyped to get a few intentional back 5-0s. Also tried switch crooks and didn’t really get any. Also back 5-0 front 180 out but didn’t get very close to that.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

After my first day back at work and dealing with the reality that I am no longer in paradise I went out to the garage to try nollie flips. Jake, Neil and I had talked about how we need to learn them. I tried, but I didn’t try that hard. I probably tried some other stuff too. Oh yeah, I had new bushings in hopes that they don’t freeze in the cold and melt in heat (not that I’ll see warm weather anytime soon). Doh Dohs 92a. To end the session I forced myself to do the one push ollie over something. It’s so hard with such little setup in the garage, but I got a couple.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Oahu rules, I miss surfing. Thx @corpoglenny @neilsoffire

A post shared by @ iamnotacreepyjake on Feb 21, 2018 at 8:42am PST

Last day of the trip. Argh. Neil took us to Kailua via a beautiful scenic route. We hit the skatepark. After so many days of skating it gets hard. Some things feel great, others (like motivation) do not. But we skated. Neil didn’t last too long since he’s been to that park a bunch and I get it. I started off okay linking some fun lines with kickflips on the mellower banks. Actually skated the little ledge okay too. But then I would struggle on b/s flips on the steeper bank it was kind of downhill from there. Jake was struggling with f/s flips on the mellow bank too. I had a fun boneless then b/s flip over the super mellow hip. Neil had rad front 50s through this awkward corner, crazy bank rides in a pocket, style ollies everywhere. Jake pieced together the rad line above which also has a tailblock in the awkward corner. I ended with a fun line of crooks on the ledge, then switch noseslide 270 shove out. I did it pretty good once then we tried to film it, but I gave up after a few. That park is fun.

Last spot of the trip. #stubbornwithaloha #sunburntandstubborn @neilsoffire @iamnotacreepyjake

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 20, 2018 at 7:43pm PST

After a stop at 808 skateshop we went to this epic little ditch spot. I could do those back 5-0s all day. The parking block triangle is harder than it looks. Jake’s pivot fakie on it is crazy. I only managed rock, front rock and axle stall. Neil had some sick lines to rock on it. He’s like the energizer bunny when he skates, his lines just keep going and going. Wallies over the hip were fun, Neil’s front 50s on the pipe were sick, starting lines with front tail on the far parking block was a blast. Epic mellow spot to end the trip. Thanks for hosting us Neil, we had a blast!

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)