Had a half day to take at work. I wasn’t sure how my ankle would take it so I didn’t really make any arrangements and went to Sandstone. I arrived to a big family basically having a picnic in the skatepark. Doritos on the ground, coke spilling down the banks, toddlers sliding down the qp. At least they had a few skatebaords with them and kids would take turns riding them. My first push hurt pretty bad and I thought I’d have to quit, but I’m stubborn so I kept pushing around. It took awhile before I did much of anything. I did some nollie shoves and stuff on the mellow bank. Then the first somewhat real warm up line. Ollie over the b/s hip, ollie to fakie the flat bank, fakie shove on a bank. At this point I should mention I was on Thunder trucks again. 148s. I found out Venture will not be doing the 8.25″ anytime soon. Thunders are perfect on paper so I have some soft bushings in there and hope to just get used to them. The lowness felt good on the fakie shove. I slammed pretty hard on an ollie over the hip which kind of freaked me out about changing trucks. I cruised around the park more then after awhile stuck to the little ledge. I didn’t think I would be able to ollie into front 50, but my ankle had loosened up a lot and I was able to. I did mostly halfcab noseslides though and definitely did the best one I’ve ever done. I was up on it and slid for a couple feet. It felt great. Then I did it in a line of front 50, ollie to fakie the bank, halfcab noseslide. Then I did an even longer line. Crook the ledge up top, go into the bank and ollie the hip, kickturn the bank then noseslide the ledge, turn around front 50 the ledge, ollie to fakie on the bank then halfcab noseslide. For whatever reason the front 50 all of a sudden got super hard and it took me several tries, but when I did I got the whole line and it was fun. Last thing I tries was posing from front 270s over the hip in the back, but then it started pouring. Right as Dave got there. Doh!

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, thunder 148 lights, venom 88a bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric black 345 size 12, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 5/10 right ankle and general pain)

Got to Broomfield on a nice night. I had put 5.8 trucks on again, but kept my 8.25″ board. Well, it was kind of funny because I had setup a complete from old stuff and it turned out the deck I chose was totally cracked. Doh. So I swapped that out after a short warm up while Kevin went to work on the ledge. He had a goal of 33 tricks since he’s turning 33 in a couple days. I think he was at 20 when I got back into the park. Wowzers. My skateboard was feeling foreign under my feet. Partly the bigger trucks, partly because I had new shoes. NB+ 345. They seemed a little thin for me, but weren’t the cause of the frustrations I would have all night. Kevin and Mike were slaying the black ledge. Darin and Justin were on the quartapotty/manny pad tip. Garrett showed up and showed his smoothness quickly. I gave up on the big ledge and played on the little one. Darin and I were working on 3 trick lines. My first one was front 50, some trick, back 50. My back 50s were bad, but I liked the wider trucks for it. Darin’s line was good. Front tail, back tail the qp, back tail fakie the ledge. So sick. Garrett was trying to manual down the tall blue bank. That is some serious pop. My next line was front 5-0, axle stall to fakie, fakie nosegrind. It was bad. Darin was trying front 5-0 shove. I mixed in some front 50 variations, both 180s out, front shove out. We were all trying the ironman line and as is typically the case I was the last. I couldnt heelflip with the bigger board. At some point I kind of rolled my ankle and didn’t think it was bad, but as I write this two days later it’s pretty sore. Garrett, Kevin and I played a game of SKATE to end it. I got out first and did a double or nothing on fakie flip and bailed both. Ugh. Those two did a bunch of crazy tricks. Pretty blah night for me. Everyone else was ripping. I don’t think I’ll stick with the bigger setup.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.8 black icon, venom 88a bushings, 3 washers outside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric black 345 size 12, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 3/10 general weirdness)

After chilling and hurting most of the day I finally went to Red Hawk to meet Dave. When I pulled in there were some dudes filming. Argh. But it turned out to be Sean filming his friend Nick so that was cool. I was so incredibly sore from jumping down the 5 stair the day before. Dave and I went behind the school while they filmed and looked around a bit, did a few tricks and hit a lot of stop rocks. We went back to the main area. Those guys were skating so fast. Dave and I played on the slappy curb for awhile. It’s fun to just ride onto a grind like that. Sean did a sick quick up to nose manual. Then it was just Dave and I. Dave had some nice 50s both ways, boardslides to fakie, manuals the rock. I worked up to a few okay front 50s and too many accidental 5-0s. Had one front 50 shove that was fun. Dave went for a dream trick. Front 50 back big. It looks kinda close, but he never got both feet on it.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 7/10 everywhere)

Kevin showed up and we went to meet Sean and Crestview, but we missed him. Doh. We played around anyway. I was feeling really weird, maybe it had to do with the cold morning quickly warming up. But I literally didn’t feel up to ollieing up a curb even. Kevin was doing crooks and 50s right away. Actually pretty quickly he was trying a line and I was filming it. Nollie tre, boardslide pop transfer up the curb, front blunt. It didn’t come easy. In fact I told my friend Cass whoe lives in Denver where we were skating and he was able to drive all the way to the spot and Kevin was still trying the line. He did get it though and it came out really good. Cass even got a homie clip with front 50 shove. Dave showed up and warmed up too as I rewarmed up. Dave did a bunch of 50s. Cass smoked a lot of cigs. Kevin went in between chilling and ripping. I saw a tall cone and decided to get some classic Glen footage. Basically a couple tricks and then run into it basically. It came out pretty good.

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🚨🚨 📹 @baffoos

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 30, 2018 at 7:02am PDT

Then we went to the weird wallie to manny that Dave wanted to do. I wasn’t really feeling it so I just wallie nollie’d a mailbox. Cass and Kevin tried too, but couldn’t quite get it. Dave would get it and it was smooth like butter.

Then we went to the dentist 5 since we were right there. I was super sore and stiff and couldn’t even attempt to ollie it at first. Dave ollied it first try to show up Kevin who took a few tries to ride away from it. Cass had left. Kevin went to Liquormart, Dave and I were missing around trying to line things out when a carload of high school age skaters pulled up. Dave and I were initially bummed (maybe embarrassed), but these ended up being really cool. Shortly after they showed both Dave an I got some lines. Mine was front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, ollie the 5. I forget Dave’s, but it involved a varial flip and an ollie down the 5 stair. The kids were pretty nice, but hucked a couple tricks then mostly just sat there. Kevin had come back and we were feeling it. Dave left, the kids left, but Kevin and I alternated filming each other hurt ourselves. I was trying no comply shove up the curb, front shove down the 5. Kevin was trying heelflip up, nollie b/s flip down. I never quite committed to landing it. It was a bummer. The last one I tried I just dove to the ground and curled up in a ball in pain. It’s only a 5 stair, but I probably humped down it 10-12 times which was about 5 times too many. Kevin switched to hardflip down the 5 and came closer, but didn’t get his line either. We both were incredibly sore, and Kevin put an end to his chipped board.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 5/10)

Almost forgot to write this entry. I was so tired and pretty sore after work. I sat around watching football with Ollie trying to motivate to skate when he said he’d skate the school with me during halftime. Rad. He almost landed his first kickflip first try, but never got it. He ollied up the curb a few times, had some 180s off, front axle stall. I did a few nollie back tails and then randomly started trying a new trick. Nollie back shove to front nose. I got a few, but was never totally posted up on it, still fun though.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 4/10)

I thought WKND would win it last week, but then this surprise NB# edit came out with 3 dudes killing ledges and it hyped me up even more.

Went to the dog park on the coolest morning of the season so far, in the mid 40s. It felt great. I had more time than normal so I warmed up a bit more than normal. Did some kickflip, fakie flips, halfcab flip, shove its, etc before digging in.

Backside flip – yes
Fakie varial flip – yes
Nollie varial flip – no, normally can get this one
Heelflip – yes, 10th try, worst heelflip i’ve ever done. I seem to have forgot how to do them.
Rick flip – no, couldn’t even commit
360 flip – yes, finally got an ugly one after it’s eluded me all week
Nollie 360 flip – no, the hands down one is funny though
Switch flip – no, it flips when I pose it, but not when I commit. hmm.
Switch fs flip – no, I’ve never landed this, felt close though
Nollie heel – no, never landed this, the one that flipped was pure luck
varial heel – no, felt remotely close, it’s been awhile. maybe since boards were smaller than 8″
ghetto bird – no, never done this one, feels possible.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Feeling a little better than the day before (since I only skated once yesterday ha ha) I went to the dog park on a cool morning. Warm ups went okay, then I went in on the list I made.

Fakie flip – make
heelflip – 10th try make
Frontside halfcab flip – Barely a make
Halfcab heel – slow make
360 flip – Missed this one again. Argh. The 2 hands down landing was before the 10 tries were up, the 1 try landing was like 30 tries later and that’s all I got.
Nollie flip – not close this time
Switch flip – was committing at least
Rick Flip – Not quite a make, but felt cool
Nollie inward heel – Hard to believe I have landed this trick once before
Nollie front heel – Not even close

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

Made a list of tricks in which I really can’t land many of them. Did a couple minutes of basic warm up then went to it.

Heelflip – Can’t believe I missed this
Halfcab heelflip – Again, mad I missed this
Fakie bigflip – The only trick I landed, but I had to go super slow
Varial heel – Not even close
360 flip – So mad I missed this one
Nollie flip – Haven’t landed one in a couple years, at least it felt close
switch flip – Same as above
Switch frontside flip – never landed this, it seems possible
Blizzard flip – Felt like hucking
Frontside cab heelflip – A dream trick that seems somewhat possible

After the list I started back in to 360 flips and ended up giving up. Somehow without focusing my board.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 2/10)

On Sunday I had made a 10×10 list, but was too sore and tired to get at it so I did Monday before work. I warmed up slightly with some shoves, 180s, etc then went right in on the list. Here’s the results.

kickflip – make
heelflip – make
halfcab flip – make
halfcab heel – x
bs flip – make
360 flip – x
fakie 360 flip -x
nollie flip -x
switch flip -x
switch front heel -x

About what I expected, was bummed on not getting treflip and halfcab heel, but the others I understand.

After work I swooped up Dave and we hit the little Longmont park again. There were a few biker kids there, but they didn’t get in the way much. It was already getting dark and it felt like we both put some effort in to get warmed up quick. Dave waxed the bank hip and we both had some front tailslides that were so fun. I had a kickflip to fakie after, then kind of a bigflip. I started trying to ollie the hip rail and after about 30 tries at least got both feet over it before bailing. That would be a big ollie for me. Dave did such a sick line. Bump to 50 the corner ledge, front 180 the hip, fakie ollie to front 50 down the odd hubba on the bank. He tried it with a 5-0 too, but it didn’t work. Then he tried front tailslide shove out for awhile and it looked like he got pretty close to me. I was kind of dorking around at this point not really trying one thing and just throwing random stuff out there. It was fun. I managed to get up the stage once, but struggled with the c ledge 50. Dave kind of did back 50 around the c ledge, did a rad front shove fakie over the tiny hip and managed a kickflip in the dark. This little park is so fun.

(setup 8.25 null lazer deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm v1 bones stf wheels, new balance numeric brown 212s size 11.5, footprint flat 5mm insoles)
(pain level 1/10 in the morning then 4/10 leg soreness after work)