Had a lazy Sunday going after such an action packed day the day before. I headed to research ledge late in the afternoon. I brought some wax and it was kind of melted from the warm weather so it caked the ledge. Maybe too much. I started with noseslide and noseslide to fakie, then crooks, boardslide popout, back 50, halfcab noseslide. Some of these were done really badly, but I didn’t want to focus on them. Then went crooks to fakie which took awhile and finally I tried back 50 shove out for awhile and forgot how to back 50. Ugh. I got a little mad at that point. Doing flatground going back up to the starting point went better then expected. I got a lot of my basics. The heelflip first try kind of surprised me, that is one of the tricks I’m supposed to lose with the bigger setup. I ended trying crooks shove out the hard way. I didn’t get close at all, but it seems possible. That’s kind of a dream trick.

(setup 8.38 null ollie deck, venture wides, bones stf 51mm v2, venom 91a bushings, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

Feeling more exhausted then I should I was woken up by Joe and crew around 8am. They wanted to skate! I dragged more then normal, but we headed out for Broomfield around 9am. After a coffee stop we arrived at a crowded and bright park. It was hard to get things going. I tried to pace myself. Joe and Damon were ripping, played SKATE. Rob met us. Fuzz too. Carleigh even later. I was skating the big board, not really liking it. Most of us eventually settled in on a blue bank session. Joe and Fuzz did various 180 combos. Rob was the manual king. Damon was doing fakie tres. I switched to my little board temporarily and hated it, went back to the big board and did a bigflip on the bank. Carleigh did a back disaster on the brick qp.

Fun spot, fun crew.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 2, 2016 at 3:58pm PDT

After some Chipotle we went here. This spot rules. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been here. Fuzz and I started with a game of no pop SK8. I owned him. Ha. People warmed up with ledge tricks. Joe and Fuzz tried fakie willys. Joe landed a good one to forward. Fuzz landed a hilarious one, but it counted! Fakie 50s to fakie, those two were killing it. The setup got further back each time and before long we were lining it out. I think everyone ended up filming lines before too long. Carleigh learned straight no complys and did one in a line off a drop. I did a line with the only two tricks I can do moving faster then a snail (kickflip and front shove). It was incredibly fun when I got it though, as the front shove off the tiny drop felt like a Baker Maker. I filmed Fuzz, Joe, Carleigh for awhile. All got good stuff. Joe tried fakie 50 to back 50s for awhile and got a good one. I tried front 50 kickflips out for awhile and got pissed.

@joerhamilton spot #3

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 2, 2016 at 4:46pm PDT

Then we went to 287 ditch. It was muddy and not as fun as last time. Well, for me. Dave met us and slayed it. Him and Joe were skating hard. I tried to get going, but couldn’t. Damon ripped it too actually. Kickflip to fakie, front 50s, front boards. Richard showed up at the end and did a back blunt on the parking block almost immediately. So sick.

This happened. #IggyPop #epic Thank you a million times @joerhamilton

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 2, 2016 at 10:43pm PDT

Then Liz, Joe and I went to the Iggy Pop show! It was pretty incredible!

(setup 8.38 null ollie deck, venture wides, venom 91a bushings, bones 51mm stf v2 nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

@boredzinejp here's my bad attempt at the Casper stall thing. If you say it counts for #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge (please remember I am on defense) then I challenge you to another fakie big flip, but over a hip this time. The Casper was insanely hard. Proper guest Casper stall by @fullertrron

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 3, 2016 at 8:05pm PDT

On a cool day I went out to Louisville park. I would meet up with Dave and eventually Rob. I started out just kind of cruising around, nothing special. Did a few long cali grinds. Started trying front 50 kickflip out. Didn’t get very close. I was on the bigger board again. It felt good for the most part. Dave showed and a mostly hip session went down. I took a long time to get a backside flip over the hip. Dave did a frontside cab and some good pop shoves. I hucked 360 flip, half cab flip, cab flip before settling in on fakie bigflip which also took awhile to land. Dave started trying these sketchy back 50s with no setup and grind into the bank. I thought he was going to die. I was happy when he stopped trying it. Ha. Then Rob showed. Rob! On his first day back on a board after his annual trip to Ireland. He looked good out there. Front board pop outs, manuals, ollies over the hip, crailslides. Killing it. I was liking my bigger board until we went to the hockey rink for flatground friday. Man that big board was harder to get around. We played a game of SKATE which I managed to win, but it was only because Rob didn’t want to try fakie flip yet. Skated flatground a bit longer. I didn’t land much, but a halfcab flip felt really good so it kept me from obsessing over my smaller setup sitting in my car patiently waiting for me to skate it again.

(setup 8.38 null ollie deck, venture wides, venom 91a bushings, bones 51mm stf v2 nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

Another minimum night in the garage. I had a little more desire to skate at least, but still didn’t ollie.

(setup 8.38 null ollie deck, venture wides, venom 91a bushings, 51mm stf v2)

Almost ended my streak and goal of 366 days this year. I was determined, but Ollie made me go out in the garage for a minimum sheet of wood manual session. He joined me. It was fun, we goofed around. I rode a big board that was in my garage instead of my little one. It felt good. I didn’t ollie at all and my streak of doing at least one kickflip a day is over. Kind of sad about that, but it was ruining me.

(setup 8.38 null ollie deck, venture wides, venom 91a bushings, 51mm stf v2)

Skated with Dr Terry Spittles today! First time in years and years! That Null deck is from ~2007. @powtao

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 29, 2016 at 2:07pm PDT

@powtao still got it!

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 29, 2016 at 8:20pm PDT

Drove up to Fort Collins on a cool, but nice morning. I arrived to an empty park. I pushed around not feeling all that great or as motivated as I thought I would. Another dude showed for awhile and I finally got a little warmed up. Then he left. I set out the GoPro and tried to film a front 50 kickflip out on the little ledge for awhile. Got close a couple of times, but the ledge was so inconsistent that I gave up. I tried a few lines for awhile. Ollie the small part of the rail, ollie onto the dragon bank and axle stall the qp. Never got it. Nose manual, front tail over the tiny hip, back 50 on the ledge. This actually took me a long time. Back 50s are the devil lately. Was trying a line of nose manual, b/s flip, halfcab crooks when Steve showed up. I haven’t skated with him in like 8 years. Crazy. He still had it. After some warming up we played a game of SKATE. Right away he hit me with some of his old classics that always got me letters. Nollie back 360, nollie heel, creepy spin. The game would take awhile and I didn’t land much, but I would end up winning it. We skated the park for awhile. Steve was skating the bench without problems. I couldn’t get the fire going, but I did have some ok flippers including a nollie 360 flip that felt awesome. We played another game of SKATE that went T-T before I won. Then we played on the tiny mound qp for awhile. It was fun. It’s the only place I can do pivots to fakie. I also got a blunt to back disaster. That trick kind of rules. Front pivot to fakie, tried front noseblunts. Steve did some rad bluntslides. That was pretty much it. I was dead tired, so incredibly sore and bummed on my state of skateboarding. I think I need to give up on the goal of skating every day this year. It’s killing me and making skating not so fun.

(setup: 8.1 null control room, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

Matt and I met John at the Broomfield park. We pulled in at the same time. Actually John pulled in right as Matt was opening his door and it was close to taking out my passenger door. Ha. We tooled around for a bit before skating the flow bowl for quite awhile. It was fun. John was shredding. Rock’s both ways on the pool block, blunt on the noping, switch carves, feeble grind the pool coping. Matt took awhile to get the channel ollie, then put down a good one, had some good frontside carves. I did some axle stalls, realized low trucks suck for carving, started popping micro airs up into the small qp on top. It was fun. Then we mostly skated the black ledge. Matt killed it with so many first try tricks. Fakie 5-0, fakie nosegrind, backside nosegrind, back nosegrind back 180 out, front tail, back tail, I don’t really remember, but he rattled off a ton. John got a fakie 50 to fakie, switch noseslide shove. I only tried noseslide 270 shove and switch noseslide tricks. John and I started hucking switch tail kickflip out. I mean why not? Then i was off to the Polar premiere.

(setup: 8.1 null control room, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

Easter Day fly out fun. A couple basics before the hardest trick ever. #hownottoollie #atleastoneframelookslikeadecentollie #kickflipsareeasier

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 27, 2016 at 6:49pm PDT

Drove out to Case Logic on a decent Easter Sunday to try and get a Casper stall for the game. I got closer sooner so that was somewhat comforting. But it was still a long and frustrating battle. At least at this spot there was plenty of flatground to entertain me on the way back to the starting point. I tried to clean up my b/s flips. My left knee was kind of hurting in a way it hasn’t in awhile. Argh. After about an hour and a half I landed the casper stall! Well, my weak defensive version of it. After that I started doing various fly out stuff. All of the tricks took way longer then they should have. I got some treflips and tried more halfcab heels in between tries. I was super hyped to ollie that trash can .. until I saw how it looked. Yuck! Man I suck at ollies! Then it was back to family time.

(setup: 8.1 null control room, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

A couple oldies then a couple new tricks from @fullertrron and I. #stubbornsaturday

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 26, 2016 at 7:45pm PDT

Drove around looking for a dry bank to try casper stalls and ended up at the spot Dave does the fakie pogo above. I pretty much only tried them for two hours straight. The first hour I was solo. I would do some kickflips and switch back 180’s on flat and stuff, but for the most part I just failed casper stalls for what felt like forever. Dave used to have a freestyle board and had that trick so he gave me some pointers. As did Jack. Basically my biggest problem was trying not to do a kickflip. I think it took 45 minutes before I even got into one stall. Near the end I had a couple of close ones, but that was it. Dave got a couple without the casper, a fakie pogo (first try), kickflip and fakie flip.

#stubbornsaturday

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 26, 2016 at 6:19pm PDT

Then we went to this parking garage. I was hoping the entrance to it would be dry, but it wasn’t at all. So we skated this curb for another couple hours or so. We did a lot, tried a lot. Dave did a much better noseslide 270. That was a new one for him. We both did some regular front tails we were hyped on. Dave had switch noseslides, slappy feeble 270 out, back 50, front 50, front 50 180 out, legit front hurricanes, lots of front shoves and the sickest switch crooks! A bunch of switch crooks! They were so incredible. I wasn’t feeling all that great, took a few tries to get a slow back 50, had some fun front 50s, “slappy” front and back tails, slappy crooks, posed kick back tails and fakie flip front tails, got close to nollie inward heels, struggled to ollie the tiny median at the top of the garage, learned slappy hurricanes! Skated way longer then my body wanted to and could not get a switch flip to save my life at the end of the session.

(setup: 8.1 null control room, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)

Fun little flatground session on a freshie before date night Liz. For those who are counting, I did not make my New Years resolution of not changing my setup. Back to lows and 8.1. #ohwell

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 25, 2016 at 6:09pm PDT

After some more skate madness I decided to go with a Null 8.125 as my setup. The 8″ are too narrow and the 8.25″ just seems to big. Normally it would be an easy call to go to 8.1, but the 8 and 8.25 boards have 14.25″ wheelbases. The 8.1 has a 14″ wheelbase. I like 14.25. Oh well. So far I seem to like it. I didn’t have much time so I just went in front of the house for awhile. It was not warm and there was snow/water lining the edges of the street. The warm up process didn’t seem too bad and I ended up rattling off a lot of tricks. I got most my kickflip variations and a few treflips that felt good for the first time in awhile. Stayed away from straight heelflips as that can be a board breaker for me on a fresh deck. Tried nollie tres for awhile and never landed one. Tried halfcab heel for awhile too and got a good feeling one. Hucked other tricks too, close to front heel. I actually had fun skateboarding.

(setup: 8.1 null control room, venture 5.25 lows with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm bones stf V1 wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 steel/gum)