@the_neviathan is here!!!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 9, 2015 at 4:40pm PST

You know those people that you skate with really well? That you always have fun with. Nate is one of those people. I picked him up at the airport after working a half day. It was very nice out. I didn’t have a real plan and we ended up going to Commerce City park on a whim. Man that park is awesome. Especially when no one is there. We both just kind of carved around for awhile before the ollies and grinds started flowing. One of the first things we tried was to manual the long backside ledge. Neither of us got it, but for different reasons. Mine was that I couldn’t comfortably ollie that high. Ugh. Nate’s was that he couldn’t drop off that far. I went on to suck at back 50s, and well all grinds and slides. Nate on the other hand was totally ripping. Back 5-0s, back nosegrinds, front 5-0s, front tails to fakie, front lips, all easy. At one point he did a fakie back 50s first try. Ripping. I got close to a few nosegrinds, but basically didn’t skate the ledges worth a crap. Nate and I both kickfipped and back 180’d up the euro.

We hit this little manny pad for a bit too. I manualled it first try which beat Nate to the manual. But then I couldn’t nose manual it to save my life. Nate however, got to nollie nose manual shove out and I filmed it. Radical

Then we went to the DIY spot and Carleigh and Lazer met us. Nate was ripping and hungry. He did lots wallies over the smaller qp, boardslide transfers, blunt transfers, wallies, ripping. Lazer did quite a few tricks on the qp. Carleigh was kind of in chill mode for obvious reasons (Crisis premiere a few hours away). I posed wallies. After awhile Carleigh, Lazer and I tried 10 tricks on the QP. Carleigh and I started out with the same few. Lazer rattled off a bunch of cool ones, the pivot on the side into the steep was rad. I was fishing for ideas for a 10th trick when Lazer suggested kickflip to fakie. I posed it. It felt doable. 50 tries later I landed it very poorly. It hyped me up. Off to dinner and the Crisis premiere!!!

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford brown/gum)

Met Rob and Dave at Blue Skies on a warm December day. Like 55 degrees! It was a little breezy at times, but basically perfect. I had a new pair of PJs. I’ve been wearing them for like 6 months so they are more then broken in. I did quite a few kickflips to get them broken in though. Dave and Rob warmed up in their normalish ways too. Fakie shoves on the bank for Dave. Crailtaps for Rob. Boardslides on the flatbar for all. Rob would go on to do crailtaps on the “quarterpipe” too which I thought was gnar. Him and Dave would try them on the big bank as well. I had did both kickflip to fakie attempts so I didn’t have to worry about Dave showing me up again. Dave was trying feebles on the dragon rail. Rob almost crooksing a tall ledge. I was trying a line of crooks up an escalator ledge, b/s flip on the main bank, back 50 up the other escalator ledge. I was struggling with the last two tricks and having confidence issues. Flip tricks were going ok though. I would eventually get the line, but I was hardly even moving on the back 50. It was so scary to me for some reason. I need to start skating faster again, but it’s hard this time of year. Something happens to my confidence. I had a good time with the boys though.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Dec 7, 2015 at 8:19pm PST

Picked up Carleigh and met Blake and Nolan at Lafayette park around 7:30. The park wasn’t crowded and the only people there were skateboarders. That’s a rare site at Lafayette so that was cool. Carleigh hadn’t skated in awhile. I hadn’t skated tranny in awhile. Blake and Nolan were ripping the toilet bowl. We were all there for a bit then kind of spread out and did our own things before we mostly skated the main rock. Carleigh almost got a line of feeble on the rock and then feeble to fakie on the tight qp. Nolan did that line above 3rd try. Blake almost did a backside nosepick which would have been crazy. I had a wallrides and wallies over the corner of it. The wallies over the corner are one of the funnest things at the park. Also fun is the little granite ledge. Although it is a bummer you can really only hit it one way. I saw Blake back 5-0 back 180 out. Nolan would get a darkslide on it towards the end of the night. Yes, that was correct, a dark slide. Nolan can do anything. I love grinding granite and got a few tricks on it. Front 50, front 5-0, front 50 shove, front 5-0 shove, front 50 front 180 out. The front 5-0 shove out was first try and it’s been months since I’ve landed it so it felt great. I know a lot more went down then I’m listing here, but it was a fun night for sure.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 6, 2015 at 2:24pm PST

I had a busy morning of yoga, tennis with Liz and then basketball with Ollie. For some reason basketball KILLS my legs. So after all of that Ollie and I went to the legendary Boulder spot downtown. Rob and Dave were there too. Omi randomly appeared on his cruiser board after awhile and sessioned with us. For awhile we rotated on the quarterpipe rattling off tricks. I was happy with a backside blunt. Ollie was doing rock ‘n rolls both ways and little grinds. It was cool to see. I did some lame ollies onto the ledge then dropped into a pole ride which wasn’t very hard, but pretty fun. It took me a few tries. Dave did it first try. I started trying to line out with the curb earlier in the alley. I got a couple of lines, but I was moving at a snails pace. Kickflip up the curb, back 180 off, halfcab flip, front pivot to fakie. Kickflip up the curb, back 180 off, fakie flip on flat, fakie pivot to fakie (although I think it was more of a smith). I also got a shove it off the curb. So I kind of missed what the others were doing. After that Rob, Ollie and I were mainly skating the QP while Dave and Omi were skating the manny pad. Rob did front tail, back disaster, crailblock all steezy. Ollie was trying blunts and SLAMMED. Maybe his worst skate slam that I’ve seen. He took it fine. I got a couple front blunt to front axle, but couldn’t quite get front pivot. Ollie and I were pretty much done at that point. We watched the others skate the ledge for a bit which was cool. Rob did a couple good manuals. Dave did ollie up, back 180 off (the hard way), Omi almost got ollie up, kickflip off. Fun day. Stoked that Ollie had fun.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Met Dave, Rob, Bernie and Garrett at this spot shortly after lunch on a nice winter day. I hadn’t been to this spot since they redid it. It is amazing. The warm up process is easier when pumping a bank is involved. Warmups were no comply bigspin for Rob and I. B/s flip for Bernie and I. Hardflip fakie for Bernie. Wallies on the corner for Garrett. Filming for Dave. Ha. I started messing around with a bean plant wallride/bash to fakie. I have no idea why, it just seemed like a cool trick to do there. I would get one kind of quickly with a hand push off then took like 30 more tries to land another one. Garrett did wallie front 180 over the hip so sick. Bernie was doing f/s flips and trying this crazy rock ‘n roll on the corner of the wall. It was bonkers. He got close quite a few times. Rob had smooth wallrides, b/s one foot ollies, close to b/s no comply finger flip. Dave started skating after I finally landed the beanplant trick and quickly rattled off a bunch of tricks. Fakie wallride, switch no comply, switch no comply 360, invert wallride. Bernie won a fakie treflip race. I slammed pretty hard trying to push switch through a crack before the bank. Everyone left except Dave and I. We just kept messing around having fun. We skated the hip for awhile. Dave did 360s, boneless, almost cab big spin. I did a weak sauce b/s flip, boneless, a fakie bigfip where I landed going the same way I came from. The ‘hip’ is round and there is no defined spots to take off from so it’s just kind of weird. After awhile this lady with a baby and a dog showed up to the playground that is right there. The dog was running after us behind the fence barking and barking and barking. It was quite annoying. I did a fun varial flip to fakie. Then we ended as I tried 360 flip to fakie for a long time and Dave tried varial flip to fakie. I managed to get an ‘over 40’ make of the treflip which was a pretty rad ender for a super fun session.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

I went to the research ledge before the Meta 15 year anniversary party. There was a puddle before the ledge. I cleared off the little bit of snow that was causing the run off, but it didn’t dry. I guess the fact that it was runoff means it was above freezing. So that’s good at least. One of my first noseslides was so off that I hit my front foot on the wall behind the ledge. That would be an omen for the sucking that would come. Other lowlights included trying to pop a big ollie off the kicker at the top of the hill and the board not leaving the ground, not being able to do a front 50 to save my life, struggling with fakie bigflips again, having troubles ollieing up curbs. All of this made me want to focus my board and quit skateboarding forever. Unfortunately I am incredibly stubborn and kept at it. I did managed a first try boardslide pop out, a couple crook grinds, a horrible back 50 or two, and well, that’s about the only positives.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage for about 15 minutes. Did some no-ollie front tails with both 180s out, nosestalls and a few axle stalls. Also a few kickflips, a varial flip and some failed nollie flips.

@boredzinejp and I are sad to see @the_neviathan leave the game, but the game must go on. Here's my 'poor mans' 360 for Josh (with unwarranted slow motion). In honor of Nate the next trick is to fly and be free! Ha, hippy jump body varial. #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #boulderhippy #unwarrantedslomo

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 2, 2015 at 12:36pm PST

Skipped out for lunch at Blue Skies on a beautiful day. It was around 40 degrees and warming up. Most of the park had snow on it. All of the banks, the taller ledges, etc. The flat bar and small ledge were the only dry things. Warming up took awhile so I kind of just tried the 360 for awhile until I had one good enough for the game. It took awhile and I felt warmed up at that point. I started messing with a couple things as the next possible challenge. The hippy jump body varial or switch noseslide shove. I would get both, but the hippy jump body varial just seemed more fun so I went with it. I was quite scared and it took me awhile to commit. Once I did it was fun though, I have never done that over anything before. I somehow landed quite a bit of flippers too. 360 flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, hmm, that list doesn’t sound very impressive after all. Last thing I did was try a line of ollie the flat bar, no comply 180 on flat then switch noseslide shove out (technically 270 shove i guess?). I managed to get the line and it felt awesome. Loving the big setup.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Brief post homework session on the new TF. #nerd

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 1, 2015 at 8:12pm PST

Had to help Ollie with homework for awhile and ran out of juice to get out and skate. So I messed around with the new bank to curb with the sign. I did a few basic tricks on it like backside axle, front axle, front tail, front smith. Also tried some back 360s for the game and did my first one with a slight tail smack so that’s some progress at least. Also tried some nollie flip unsuccessfully. I was trying a line of front tail then b/s flip when Ollie came out. We put the wood all the way onto ledge and skated it like that for awhile. Ollie did the crazy 360 right away. We did a bunch more dorky stuff like manual up to rock, manual down. I tried a bunch of lip tricks and did a bunch of back disasters. I might have to try those on a real qp now. Ollie did a few more tricks too and we called it a night.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage with my new setup without much intent on skating hard or long. I started on the “manual pad” and a few tricks in I slammed, did the splits and hit the back of my head on a bike pedal. Awesome. I did a few more manuals tricks then decided to bring in Ledgy and see if it would be possible to skate it in my garage. I went to move the ‘manual pad’ and noticed how convenient it would work to make a sweet bank to curb. I played with that for awhile, but it needs a sign at the bottom to make it good. The sign I have was in the back yard and covered with snow. Next time. I still messed around for awhile, just lifting up the crack and doing nose stalls and front rocks and stuff. I think it will be quite fun.

Then I put Ledgy out to skate. I only did stalls obviously since there is no room. I’m not sure I could actually do grind tricks, but I did backside nose stall shove and frontside nosestall shove. Both were really fun. Don’t think I’ve ever done the fs version before. Then I made myself do a front tail stall and called it a night. Oh yeah, I hucked a few switch flips without getting close. The new setup is a 8.38 board. Why am I going bigger? Because I’ve been into ledges and I think the extra board room helps me.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)