Still feeling totally horrible on even just walking I went out to the garage not expecting much, but determined to ignore the pain. Started with a couple no pop nollie shoves, slide around 180s and then went kickflip and it felt somewhat ok. After a few more kickflips I started hucking nollie flips. Over and over and got oh so close. So close to so many. Argh. I would commit to every one of them, but the board just didn’t flip fast enough and I would land on it up side down. I hucked switch heels next and committed a few times, but the board didn’t flip all the way. I ended doing 360 flips. I got 4 with my hands down before finally landing a “clean” one. When I was done I felt better then when I started. Guess I just need to skate flatground more. The garage being warmer might be part of it.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

Today's Blue Skies session be like 'just leave it and never go back'. 😢

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 22, 2016 at 4:28pm PST

Went to Blue Skies for lunch feeling more sore then normal. I’m not really sure why. I tried to get warmed up and for a minute it seemed like I might. I did the best switch front noseslide I’ve done in awhile. That would probably be the only highlight though. I tried a line of ollie the low part of the dragon rail, front 50 up the escalator ledge, kickflip to fakie the bank, halfcab noseslide the little ledge. Never got the front 50. The first few felt decent, but it went all down hill after that. I did get close to a back 50 on the little ledge at one point. After awhile I just got more and more upset and depressed. I launched my board off a kicker or two and started walking away like I was going to leave my board there. I went back for it of course. What a tough day. Something in my body is not right, I need to figure it out.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

50 days in a row spoiling myself with a new complete. Everything except the old bushings. Perfect.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 20, 2016 at 7:38pm PST

All new everything (except for bushings)! I was feeling extremely lazy, out of it and sore and didn’t get out skating until around 2pm. I was going to meet Jake and Carleigh at Valmont ledge. I got there first and was starting to warm up when a truck backed in so the destination was changed to research ledge.

I actually had some fun there for awhile. Noseslides and crooks worked. It was fun trying to get the crooks groove going on some new trucks. Jake had them too. Carleigh did noseslides and noseslide shoves. She does that trick good and doesn’t come to a halt on the noseslide like most people (me). Carleigh also did a bunch of kickflips and got into front noseslides and battled front 180 nosegrind for awhile. Jake was rattling off tricks. Front 180 up the curb, fakie back tail the ledge. Back 50, front 50, front 5-0 180, front tail, front tail shove! Geez. I never got a clean back 50 or front 50. I managed a front 5-0 on accident instead. Flip tricks were going ok for me. Did some kickflips up the curb. Almost a line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, kick back 50. Never got the kick back 50, haven’t ever done it there. Carleigh left first. Jake next. My stubborn self stayed awhile putting my body through more needless pain. I tried back 50 shove, but when you can’t back 50 it’s hard to do that. I ended trying a few tricks 5 times going slow. Halfcab noseslide, halfcab crook (didn’t get it), switch front nose, fakie 50 (didn’t get it) and for complete science fiction I hucked 360 flip noseslide (not even remotely close). I felt ok earlier on, but I was mostly just bummed when I left.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

I met Dave, Jake and Fuzz at Broomfield park at 9am. We all did various things to get warmed up. I heckled Jake quite a bit for being young. Which is a complement because he was ripping. I don’t remember much from this part of the day other then it ended by Dave calling out a physical challenge of hitting the double set. And by that I mean ride down the first 3 stair and then the next 3 stair. Dave got it first, Fuzz next, Jake didn’t try it and to no ones surprise I was last. It was quite fun. Oh yeah, I forgot as we left Dave did a kickflip on flat that was not very popped. It made Fuzz laugh hysterically. Getting old is rad. Kind of.

#stubbornsaturday

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 20, 2016 at 1:02pm PST

Then we rolled to this spot in Denver. The ledge we are sitting on was the main point of attraction, but the spot had some other things to offer like a little bank to do tricks into or to manual out of. Jake and I were there first. We got quite a bit of skating in. We each got noseslides, crooks and front 50 on the ledge. But my front 50 was barely, Jake had them easy. I won the race to kickflip into the bank. Had a fun line with a bad ollie up the ledge, kickflip into the bank and then crooks the ledge. I think Jake did that line too. Then Fuzz and Dave showed up. Everyone thought the ledge was tall. Fuzz got 50s both ways, joined Jake with front 5-0 and he did a front smith. Dave had manual followed by front 50. I did a couple 360 flips on flat that felt really fun and I made my goal of 5. Tried to do fakie flip fast enough to land with enough speed to do halfcab flip into the bank. This does not mean I actually had to go fast, it just meant I had to be moving. Dave was kind enough to film Fuzz and Jake for awhile. Fuzz got a line of switch front 180 out of the bank then crooks the ledge. Jake was trying ollie up the loading dock, kickflip into the bank, front 180 nosegrind. He got oh so close. Like 9/10 close. Riley and Garrett showed up and started ripping. They didn’t hit the ledge too much, but ollied up the loading dock easy and did tricking into the bank. Riley switch and regular ollied over a cigarette tube. The rest of the old dudes left, Jack and Carleigh arrived. I played Riley in a game of SKATE even though my legs had pretty much shut down and as expected I lost. This kind of got my legs going again though and I got a couple more crooks and I finally got the fakie bigflip into the bank. Then I gave up and stretched while everyone else got busy on the ledge. Carleigh did noseslides. Jack did some long frontside ones. Riley had back smith and front 5-0 shove. Garrett had front. Then we went around the corner where I just filmed. They all got tricks. It was cool.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

Went out to the garage after helping India through some tough emotions. Skated for about 20 minutes. Did a couple kickflips, tried nollie flips and switch heels. Got kind of close to nollie flip.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

Went to Blue Skies for an early lunch break, but it was so windy I left after one kickflip. Later in the evening I went to Redder Curbs as it had rained and was very windy at times. Somehow that place is protected from a lot of wind. I started with some slappies on the yellow block. Both ways. Crooks too. So fun. Then added in some slappy crooks on the kinked curb, back 50, front 50s. I had a few 360 flips. Even if I didn’t ride away I would land on almost all of them. Guess you just have to work on them to learn them. Who would have thought. I was having fun trying lines and finally feeling decent on my board. It took awhile, but I back 50d the median over the two parking blocks. That felt really cool. Also got front 5-0 there. Came close to back tail on the kinked curb, but the wind would come in fierce right there so it made it tough. After awhile I just tried switch crooks on the top part of the kinked curb. Over and over. Trying nollie flips between each one. Got close to nollie flip. I tried switch crooks forever. I had a couple that grinded, a bunch that went into boardslide and I slammed and one lousy one where I didn’t really grind to end it. I was still happy about it though. Fun night. So happy to finally not feel so arthritic and sore.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

Day off work park #1

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 17, 2016 at 10:07am PST

Woke up feeling alright, but still bad enough I decided to take an ibuprofen. I drove up to Fort Collins in a good mood, drinking smoothie and listening to Washer. I went to the Waterway park to begin with. Half of the park wasn’t skateable due to water, but at least the long pool coping wall was dry. I did a bunch of back 50s, they were run. Last time I went there I struggled to land one so that was cool at least. I did a few bad front slashes and front rocks. I wanted to do a front smith, but I didn’t. Fun warm up.

#2 #favorite #thankyouibuprofen

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 17, 2016 at 12:05pm PST

Showed up at an empty Fossil Creek park a few minutes later. The park warm up seemed to work and I was good to go out of the gates. I went up top, did a few boardslides off the curb, 50s on the curb. Then some lady started letting her kids play on the ledges so I went to the lower area. Two other dudes showed, didn’t say a word to me and proceeded to avoid me like the plague. Cool. I was happy I was able to ollie up the ledge and hit the ledge above pretty easily. In general my ollies felt better then they have in awhile. Although a front 50 shove took awhile. I did whoever do a back 50 or two. I even did an accidental back 5-0. Tried a line for awhile of ollie up the manny pad, noseslide the ledge, kickflip off, back 50 the low part of the long ledge. Never got the back 50. Doh. Had a few 360 flips that felt great. Another guy showed up. Dave. I’ve seen him there before. He is good. Switch 50s both ways. I tried crooks shove (or bigspin) for awhile and only landed on one. I started getting too tired so I called it a day and headed off to MRKT. Not my best skating, but I could do back 50s on pool coping and crooks on ledges instead of work any day.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

Feeling very arthritic, sore and unmotivated I went driving around looking for something new to skate. I ended up at the new RTD station off Pearl & 30th. It looked kind of fun had I had energy. But I didn’t. So I just pushed around and checked out the goods before doing a couple kickflips and going home.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

Feeling very tired and sore I didn’t feel like skating much. So I went for one of those ‘minimum’ type of sessions. I went to this curb across the street and dorked around for awhile. It ended up being quite fun. Did a lot of stalls. I was surprised by a back smith. Got back pivot shove out. Switch crooks stall. And a kickflip on flat. So far I’ve kickflipped every day of the year.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

So happy Safeway ledge is mostly skateable again. ❤️❤️❤️

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 14, 2016 at 3:22pm PST

Feeling a little tired and the wind had kind of killed me motivation I went to Safeway for the first time all winter just hoping it was dry. It wasn’t completely dry, but the main ledge was skateable. I started with the standard no ollie noseslides which seemed pretty good. Then my first couple of ollies had a weird pain in my left knee. Ugh. It ended up being alright though. Front 50s were fun. I tried a bunch of back 50s, never getting a totally clean one. I kept tic tac’ing in the grind or something. I did a front tailslide! A real one. Ha, it still only slid a few inches, but that is progress. Got a sloppy kick back 50. Hucked a bunch of tricks without getting close. Front crooks, switch crooks, halfcab crooks, kickflip crooks, front smiths. I basically just tried 3 flip tricks the whole time going back. 360 flip (got 4 of them), switch heel (got close once) and nollie inward heel (got really close a few times). It was pretty fun, would have been more fun had more icy melted so the fence ledge was skateable too.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)