The vacations and weddings are over so the #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #andnate game is back on! Up first is my first 'real' back lip ever as challenged by @the_neviathan. Next trick is a no comply big spin on a bank. Or @boredzinejp if you want to do it on vert that's cool. The fall was pretty funny because I fell and then my board nailed @fullertrron. The old guy struggle was real today.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 9, 2015 at 4:30pm PDT

A few more from today's junk jam struggle fest. @fullertrron

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 9, 2015 at 7:02pm PDT

I got to the spot first. My arthritis was still kicking something fierce, so I started with just pumping the bank. Then manualling the bank. Then doing the little wallie to manual which was way too fun. I did it a bunch of times and that’s what I was doing when Dave showed up. Dave brought a new manny pad/PVC coping manny pad! I had some fun lines doing ollie over the wallie thing on the bank then nose manny on the manny pad. Back 50s and 5-0s were fun on it too. Dave was trying to front smith it for awhile. He did a really good front 5-0 once, had an awkward fall during the roll away and somehow kicked the ground hard enough to likely break his toe. No! Somehow he skated through it though. Unbelievable! We arranged things in different ways for awhile. We had a wallride going for awhile. I actually beat Dave to landing it, but I think it was because it had slid down a little and wasn’t as vertical. I was still hyped though. I tried kickflips to fakie for awhile. I wanted to get 3 in a row, but it didn’t happen. Argh. Dave got a really good one and a switch front shove. I did a front shove while turning backside. I’m not sure what you would call it. Then I started trying hardflips which were kind of a kickflip to fakie body varial, but they felt really cool. I never got both feet on it. Then we put the manny pad on top of the bank. I took a long time to just wallride and come off of it (both f/s and b/s). Dave did those easy, felt out front 5-0 and back 50 then settled for the back scratcher above. That was the end of the session. Both of us had frustrating sessions, but we skated and tried stuff so it was still fun.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Picked up Jack and met Riley, Garret and Scotty at Crisis. Did some business, hung out for a bit then went to Broomfield park. My arthritis was still kicking fierce. I didn’t do anything I was hyped on and I flailed at a lot of tricks I normally do first try (like front feeble on the quartapotty). Everyone else ripped it though. Jack had some cool unique tricks, Riley slays everything in there, Scotty mixes nollie noseslides in with eggplant attempts (does it get any radder then that combo?) and Garret gets better every time he skates. Then we went to the Broomfield hubba. While Riley was warming up I tried some slappies and didn’t do so well. Riley got his trick. So sick! Then we went to a school out in Arvada. It has a rainbow ledge that you can ride on to. You can go either way, but regular foot backside doesn’t have much runway and it’s pretty much impossible to grind the whole thing. Garret had some rad slappy crooks to fakie. Jack went as far backside as you can. I tried to go over it frontside, but just couldn’t commit to going fast enough. Riley couldn’t ride backside into it. So funny. Then I filmed Riley for awhile on the other stuff there. He killed it super hard. After that Garret and Scotty skated the ledge while I skated some flatground. I was hyped my legs were kind of working. The session ended after Scotty did an absolutely perfect hardflip late flip. So rad!

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Feeling really arthritic. Not sure why. Probably the crappy food I was eating in NYC catching up to me, but who knows. I didn’t want to ollie at all and it was too nice out for Rampy. So I went across the street again and skated the little curb. I started with all 4 tip stalls that didn’t involve an ollie. The f/s halfcab nose stall first try kind of surprised me. Then I did all 4 rock ‘n rolls. Then a no ollie front tail to body varial. A halfcab nosestall body varial. This is all dumb stuff right? Gotta have sessions like this to make 300 days. Last was a slappy crook stall then a switch slappy crook.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Headed to campus trying to find a median with sharp edges to try and learn back lips on for the Instagram game of OLDFART. This wasn’t the one I thought of originally, but worked out just fine. I really like how low it is! Ha ha. I put a few up into it. Then waxed it. Then spent awhile trying to slide a little and got out of it. I landed one! It wasn’t great though so I sent it off to Judge Fullerton for review.

I was happy to have made progress regardless and decided to skate some other stuff for awhile. This was the first time I really street skated again with low trucks on. I loved it! I started with a line of switch front 180 off the sidewalk on the right, ollied up onto the pink ledge and front 180d off then added a fakie flip in for fun. I was already hyped. Going the other way I wallied up. I had two more lines from the far side that really hyped me up. 360 flip on flat, ollie up the ledge, kickflip off (first try kickflip!). I had one 360 flip that bummed me out. I hit the board with my hand somehow mid flip and pulled away as a reaction and punched myself in the forehead. Wow. It bummed me out at the time, but man I wish I had that on video. The 360 flip I got in the line had a hand down, but another one felt incredible. Another line was fakie bigflip, ollie up, front shove off. Going the other way I did front 180 up then switch front 180 off. At this point I was totally stoked on my setup. I’ve proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a bigger (or smaller) setup doesn’t make me skate better. It’s just up to me. So I might as well skate something that hypes me up when I look at it. Hooray for Venture Lows! Then I went back to work on back lips and got one that felt way better. Nice. Turns out Dave wouldn’t count the first one anyway. I was super hyped. Then I went to skate the long ledge. I tried to film a front 50 kickflip out for awhile and got really close. Then Collin and Craig showed up and I picked up my camera and just skated with them. Collin killed some switch crooks, mad flippers, switch back tail, etc, etc etc. Craig had some rad wallies, ollies, cab over a manhole, etc. I didn’t get much more. An accidental front 5-0, maybe a crooks and couldn’t do back 50. Oh well, fun day.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Didn’t feel much like skating and didn’t have a whole lot of time as Liz and Ollie wanted to watch a movie. So I went across the street and went back to the little curb that I have fun messing around on. I wish the asphalt wasn’t so bad in the front area so I could wax up a section of yellow curb. Oh well. I had an alright time. Did a few basic stall tricks including kickflip axle stall. Couldn’t get kick back tail or kick pivot. Ended up having more fun doing tricks off the curb. Kickflip, front shove, back shove, slappy b/s flip.

Then I went to the 5 stair which I have said “I should ollie that once a day to get used to stairs again”. I had trouble committing though and once I finally did I splatted pretty hard. It’s hard to get enough speed. Rather then clean it up I went home and we watched War Games. Pretty fun.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings stf v3 52mm nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

Warm day, nice night. Jake came over around 6:30 and we went to meet Jack and Ladd at “Jack’s spot”. But when we got there they had left. Oh well Jake and I skated it anyway. It took us awhile before we could even hit the qp. We tried ollieing up the curb like Jack does, but it didn’t work for us. We eventually dragged the heavy sign that Jack used to kickturn on and were able to find a way to throw down with enough speed for the qp. This spot is 1000x worse and harder then it looks in these photos. The cracky lump right before the qp really throws you off and the lack of setup time is so hard. With that said it took Jake and I a long time before any trick was landed. We both got rock ‘n rolls to start. Then front rocks followed shortly after that. I added a feeble and an axle stall after a bit longer and then somehow managed a front axle stall. I was hyped. I could have kept skating it, but Jake was understandably over it. We went back to my house and played a game of SKATE in front of my house. It ended up being a long one with some surprises from both of us. I got 360 flip first try. Jake got heelflip and I couldn’t seem to land a heelflip. I landed a lot of the tricks Jake normally gets a letter on me like fakie f/s bigspin (aka the Creepy Spin), fakie 360 shove, nollie f/s bigspin and f/s flip. I hucked a few tricks like f/s halfcab heel, fakie tre, varial heel. Only the fakie tre was close. I would eventually win after getting tricks like fakie bigflip and b/s flip.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

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Feeling tired from traveling and skating/walking so much the previous two days. My obsession over low trucks again led me to switch Venture hangers to some lows. Thanks JP for triggering the thought that my favorite setup in recent times was with lows. So now I’m on lows again. Yippee. I went out in the street thinking I would just push a little and adjust my trucks. I ended up at the little curb behind the school across from my house (far right in the photo). I did a few basic stalls and it felt fun. Tried some back disasters that weren’t so fun because I can’t get close. Got a kick back tail stall. Did some front crook stalls that were fun and eventually got a front crook shove out. That’s a new one! Tried kick back axle stall to varial flip out. Landed on it. Tried more kick back tails with the goal of doing a shove out, but didn’t get another one. Was trying front smith or front pivot to kickflip out and ended the night with a great feeling front pivot kickflip out. Failed at a couple treflips on the 5 push ride home.

(setup 8.1 null venture light lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb+ pj stratford cream)

Last full day in New York! I had set my alarm for 6:30 so I could get out and skate before the family woke up. When the alarm went off I hit snooze and thought I might just bail on skating altogether. I had thought about all the ledges I skated the day before and wanted revenge. But when I started waking up I wasn’t feeling that anymore and decided on a different spot. Thanks to Quartersnacks for mapping out this spot. So there I go skating for over two miles through some crazy jewish neighborhood where all the men wore traditional outfits. There was seriously like 20 men on the sidewalk at any given time looking like this. I arrived at the park before 8am. There was a couple dudes sleeping nearby which I felt bad about, but it’s right by an interstate and it’s NYC so it’s super loud. I started out SUCKING. I should expect that considering I skated or walked over 13 miles the day before (at least that’s what my iphone says). I eventually pieced a line together of f/s halfcab on flat, noseslide to fakie the granite ledge against the fence, switch john brandow the little ledge, then boardslide the end of the long ledge. Then I went for another line of f/s halfcab flip, crooks the ledge and ollie the stairs. Darn near did it first try, but shot out on the 4 stair. Took me awhile to get back to the 4 stair, but when I did the ollie felt rad and I topped it off with a sloppy 360 flip on flat. I ollied down a set that Brad Cromer kickflipped up. Ha. Lets also not forget that this is a PJ spot too! I started trying another line of halfcab flip then front 50 on the little ledge then something on the granite ledge. But the front 50 proved troublesome. Again? Ugh. I moved on to fakie bigflips and managed one bad front 5-0 that was supposed to be a 50. I then moved on to starting with 360 flip. I landed quite a few 360 flips and still struggled with the front 50. If I didn’t land the 360 flip I would try a varial heel in the exact same spot as PJ. I got a couple over-40 makes. It hyped me up to do another ‘same trick at the same spot’ as PJ and I am fully aware of how big of a nerd I am. I would eventually get a 360 flip and then a front 50 shove out that felt so easy it bummed me out it took that long. I was going to try another line hopefully involving a front 180 down the stairs, but I got a text from Liz that they were up and moving. I decided to check out a nearby spot that Rob had told me about.

This spot was only a couple blocks away. It’s also got a bunch of 3 stairs and a gap to rail that is gnarly. Pretty much all four sides of the statue are waxed on every stair. I started with some long 50s because it was fun grinding granite. I eventually did a rather fun line of ollie down the 3 (yeah I started from the top), slappy crooks, back 50, front 5-0. I also manualled the low step, ollied onto the low step and front 50’d the second step. Then I took the long haul back to our apt.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533)

The rest of the family had already bought tickets to go on a boat tour with India’s ballet class members. I was supposed to go skate with Rob, but he opted out leaving me on a solo mission. I woke up not feeling great after having a couple drinks and everyone was tired and had to rush to get out of the house. I went towards the financial district. I walked around a ton through crowds of tourists for awhile and felt kind of hyped to see the stock exchange and stuff. I ended up at this spot across from where the slanted granite ledge in Battery Park apparently used to be. I didn’t think I would last long at all and I felt super nervous about getting busted for some reason. I did a few different stall tricks and would ride down the double set of two stairs. After about 15 minutes a lady came out resembling security so I just skated off. Went down the park on the water for awhile which had some decent looking spots, but too crowded for me. I was definitely getting sick of the crowds of people EVERYWHERE and the constant honking.

I ended up at these ledges. They are perfect. I am not. It was a battle to get started. I got a few crooks, a few noseslides, one front 50 in about 30 tries, close to back 50. Horrible right? I saw a penny sitting on the ground and somehow immediately knew it was from 1973, the year I was born. Pretty cool. I thought my day would get better, but it didn’t really. I did manage a line of noseslide then crooks.

So much marble, so little pop.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 1, 2015 at 2:56pm PDT

Some people sat down on the far bench to eat so I went about 30 feet to this spot. The cracks between each brick is kind of annoying, but really this is beyond perfect spot. Well, except the fresh dog shit that I constantly watched people unknowingly step in as they passed through. I really was not skating well. I took a lot of tries to noseslide across the grate in the front of the photo. I wanted to front 50 going back, but I never committed. Either the ledges out here are taller (I really think they are) or I’m getting older (duh) or my legs are super tired from walking so much (totally broh). I did get remotely close to manualling it though. I know I’ve seen footage of people manualling around them. So cool.

I didn’t get the boot at the angled bench spot, but I could see this ledge less then a block away and wanted to check it out. There are actually tons of these ledges. Most are knobbed. All were mobbed with tourists walking to their boat rides to the Statue Of Liberty or whatever dumb stuff they were doing. The crowds really got to me. I tried to front 50 a different one for awhile and didn’t have the pop. UGH. Then I found this one. Look familiar?

So hyped. I did some boardslides, noseslides, noseslide to fakie, crook and then a family sat on it and I left.

More #skatetourist action. This spot has stood out for me ever since Markovich bigflipped down it in a line in third eye vision. Got the boot before I landed any lines. Doh.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 1, 2015 at 10:12am PDT

So I walked back up the little hill to this spot. I got a yummy smoothie on the way. I was all set to give this spot a go, but there was a security guard camped out about the stairs. Ugh. I walked around the building a couple times.

I saw this thing around the corner that PJ back 180’s all easy in his Brick Harbor edit. The hill is steeper then it looks in the footage or the photo and the switch front shove he does is gnarly. I decided to just skate the stairs anyway. I locked up. I don’t know why I was so anxious to skate there. I wanted to do front 180 up, halfcab flip, ollie the 5. But the front 180 weirded me out. It seriously took me like 5 tries to get the 180 up. Got the halfcab flip, posed an ollie and realized it should be pretty easy to ollie the stairs. Did a horrible front 180 up, even worse halfcab flip and was going to turn around, but saw the security guard coming down the upper set of stairs to kick me out. I knew it was my last try so I committed to the ollie. I misjudged how steep the landing is and shot out, but I was still pretty excited that I committed. I begged for one more try, but they weren’t having it. 3 other security guards swarmed in to make sure of that. They were nice at least. I sat there and instagrammed the photo. Neat.

Then I went site seeing for awhile. Saw Brooklyn Banks and was super bummed it’s unskateable for now. Saw the courthouse drop. It’s crazy. The drop wasn’t as high as I thought, but everything else about it was gnarlier then I thought it was. I was able to go up above it and can’t believe what quick foot Suciu did there.

Seeing all the sites today

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 1, 2015 at 11:16am PDT

I dropped in on the black hubba. There were tons of people around. I bailed out and somehow still almost collided with an adult on a scooter. Ha.

I finally found a place to skate without a crowd. It was nice while it lasted. I just did some flatground for awhile. I didn’t skate it very well, but it was nice to get a few flippers under me. I didn’t get very far in my list before a large group of people came in and sat on several of the benches. Obviously I could have kept skating, but I figured it was a sign to move on to another spot. I headed toward midtown and found nothing. Seriously walked/skated like 5 miles and found nothing to skate. Found the Pier 62 skatepark. Without a doubt this is the worst skatepark I have ever seen. Well, I guess the bowl looked decent, but the rest of the area looked beyond stupid. I went back to the apt after that. What a long day. It was frustrating mainly because I skated horribly, but also because I wasted a lot of time skating/walking with no idea of where to go. I wish I had stayed in the financial district. Oh well, maybe next time. I was hyped to almost get that line on the 2 up 5 down spot at least.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights (I have to admit I’ve been obsessing over low trucks again doh) thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream)

@corpoglenny might be on the team 🌐 Who owns your favorite companies? @null_skateboards OG on the OG logo and tee by @43shifty in the city #repost and photo creds to glens homie.

A photo posted by @crisis_skateboards on Jul 30, 2015 at 11:56am PDT

Another early morning mission. Met up with Liz’s sister’s boyfriend Julian at a train station on the way to Queens to hit Flushing Meadows. We peeped the big grate ledge then moved on to the nearby Maloof skatepark. What a bizarre skatepark. It doesn’t flow like a normal skatepark at all. But if you treat it like a street spot (which I guess it is supposed to be) it flows alright. Julian doesn’t skate much and got wrecked right away so sat out the rest of the session. My first few ollies hurt, but after that I felt great. Manualled the top manny pad. Did a couple tranny tricks on the weird bowled in corner. Front 50’d the ledge off the curb, noseslid over the grate right away. Then figured more then anything I wanted to grind the ledge over the mini grate. I got crooks pretty quick then front 50 too. Both felt neat. I did quite a few of each. Took awhile to ollie the 3 stair, but it felt great.

Then we hit the main ledge. I tried to noseslide it for awhile. Got about halfway a few times and realized I probably didn’t have it in me to do the whole thing. Tricks over the grate are also way gnarlier then I thought. It’s a solid 7 foot flat gap. I posed ollies and b/s flips over it.

3 flip to end an awesome session. 📷 @thejulianthompson

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 30, 2015 at 11:34am PDT

Then we found this crazy spot. Absolutely perfect flatground and this weird ledge. I started doing lines with a flip trick, front slappy on a waxed curb you can’t see in this photo then ollie onto the ledge and ride down it. It was so fun. I was rattling off my flippers. Halfcab flip, treflip, heelflip, nollie treflip, fakie bigflip. After ollieing onto it a few times I would try manual, but I never got too close to that. Tried a line of b/s flip, halfcab flip, ollie on then front 180 off the last part, but that was scary. Ended with an amazing feeling treflip in front of the fountain while Julian snapped a photo. It was the icing on the cake to a great session (for me) and so awesome to see these famous spots that are a part of skate history. The long ledge over the grate is literally 20 feet long. Any trick that has gone down over that is amazing.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# stratford 533 cream)