This dude is a machine. This is like the 4th part in a year. He’s creative, but not whacky and has tons of pop and style.

After a very long hike with Liz the day before I was too sore to skate much. So I just went across the street to play around a little. I skated really slow and mellow, but had fun. Did a couple tricks that are rare like fakie 50 without doing the f/s halfcab out, back 50 back 180 out, took a long time to get a front 5-0 front 180 which I haven’t done in a long time, couldn’t get a switch crook. Messed around with fakie shove front tail and got into one. It was kind of a shock. Might have to play with that more and go into it with some speed. I did a bunch of slappy crooks that felt good. I didn’t try hardly any flip tricks, but I just hucked nollie back heels and switch flips. Neither were close, although both seem remotely possible. I’m not sure what’s up with the Thunders, I skate decently in them, but my obsession with Ventures isn’t going away. Argh.

(setup 8.25 null monico deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, bones medium bushings, 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)

Most years I challenge myself to my age in flatground tricks. It’s kind of torture and gets harder each year both physically and having to add another trick. Last year I wasn’t up for it, but here’s the one from two years ago. It was a beautiful morning, no high winds. The 45 clip isn’t exactly in order. I didn’t skate to warm up at all. I just filmed everything starting with the nose/tail no pop shove, moved into shoves, did some flippers, some no complies, finished the flippers, then finished with the easy part of 180s and some bonelesses and stuff. The trick I was most worried about was treflip as it’s given me lots of problems lately. When it came in a few tries I felt stoked, relieved and encouraged. Dave showed up when I had done most of the flippers and was finishing up on fakie tre which took the longest. I did sex change after that, but no more flippers. I was so exhausted. Dave had a couple cameos, Matt with the first try treflip while out with his dog. Going through the clips later in the night I had actually done 46 tricks. So I deleted the ugliest one which was a creepy spin where I didn’t fully rotate at all. Calling it my ugliest trick with all of the ugly tricks above is saying a lot. Ha ha. I was very hyped on the nollie varial flip and nollie treflip. The fakie tre took the longest, but felt amazing when I landed it. Getting both halfcab heelflips felt rad too. I really need to learn some switch tricks to make next years a little more interesting. I must say the Thunder trucks flip great, but the weird turning sure makes for some weird tic tacs.

Then Dave and I met Jake at Boulder park. They skated the mini while I ate. Then I joined them in the combi bowl. I thought we would just be carving around, but they were really skating it. Jake was grinding the deeps, trying sweepers. Dave was doing front pivots on the crazy steep narrow corner, manualling the deck, airing the little bumps. Hopefully I’ll post a clip of it at some point. I got in on it and tried a line of roll in, tiny grind, back 50 into the bigger bowl. I was so content with the flatground session that my brain couldn’t get me to roll into the little 3 foot section. I did eventually though and got the line with some good tic tacs on the back 50.

Then we went to Saul’s. Jake and I were already beat. The only thing I really did was a few carve grinds. Jake had a killer run. Ed joined and ripped it. Saul gets more coping in one run than anyone. It was a fun ender for a great day.

(setup 8.25 null monico deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)

Went to Blue Skies trying to beat the forecasted wind. It was nice out when I left IBM. I was sore, but really wanted to skate a ledge. The minute I arrived at Blue Skies the wind hit. That place is a wind tunnel anyway, so it was extra bad. I managed a couple switch noseslides and a front 50 shove before focusing my old warped board after slamming ollieing the low part of the snake rail.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)

Feeling kinda sick and antisocial, but still wanting to enjoy a warm evening I went to campus with little or no expectations (or motivation). I started with some slappy crooks on the meet up curb. They felt alright, but I was definitely noticing some weird turning from the Thunders. Actually they were bumming me out quite a bit. I moved into the campus though and after snapping an ollie or two I felt better about the trucks. I went by an escalator ledge I’ve only skated once, but there were little pebbles everywhere and it wasn’t waxed up anymore. After some pushing I ended up at the little ledge off the stair. Did a couple front 50s then moved on. Went to the taller curved ledge. Noseslides felt good right away. I’ll give these trucks credit for having that quick snap. I couldn’t get a front 50. Not that I would ever expect to. I tried a line where I rolled down the weird narrow 3 stairs and front 180’d off, fakie flip on flat, halfcab noseslide the ledge. I gave up after awhile. Moved on to the tiny ledge. There were no cars near it so it’s probably gonna be destroyed soon. Front and back 50s were fun. I tried front nosegrinds for awhile and failed. Then I hucked front nosegrind front 180 out and got about as close. I definitely want to try that one again. Couldn’t back nosegrind or switch front crook. Started to feel pretty run down so I went home.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 51mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)

It was snowing like crazy when I went to work, but it was sunny and gorgeous out at 4pm. Went to Blue Skies feeling pretty tired. I got there first and did a quick power nap in the car, then Dave and Rob arrived pretty much when I got there. After the pain I felt Sunday I felt like a shoe/insole change up was in order. I have been wearing some Es Swift 1.5s to work and they are comfy so I tried them without an orthotic insole. Felt great initially and I warmed up quicker than normal. Actually tried the ironman line pretty quick and came close. But then I had a heelflip gone bad where I almost put my foot in front of the board and I got scared of wearing a cupsole. So I switched back to the 212s, but without an orthotic. That didn’t work either, ended up in 212 with footprints gamechanger insole and it worked the best. Enough about my feet. Rob finally appeared to have a little rust and went down on a few kickflips. But he redeemed himself with some long lines with steezy halfcabs, back 180s, kickflips, b/s flips, close to halfcab flips and bought a house! Ha ha, his offer went through. So sick. Dave forgot he focused his board so he was forced to skate his putter. It was pretty funny at first, but he got used to it. I like that he’s gotten to the point where he’s unhappy when he doesn’t land a varial flip perfectly. He had fakie flips too. After starting off decently, I kind of just fell apart. I did have a terrible treflip, came close to switch flip, had some good feeling halfcab flips. But I ended up mostly hucking new or rare tricks like fakie/nollie varial heel, switch flip/heel. Rob had taken off. Dave and I were just hucking and then boom Dave landed a switch flip! Soooo sick! I tried to get his back with something rare, but I just fizzled out.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 50mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, footprints gamechanger orthotic insole)

Yeah so this isn’t a new clip from last week, but I stumbled across this channel and I love it. Older skate nerds are the best.

It was windy in Boulder. The kind of wind that makes you not want to skate. Dave had called me and said we should do a quick Broomfield session then go to explore in Denver. I got there first, Rob second, Dave third and Jake last. There were a few other older guys at the park initially that were ripping and fun to skate with. But one of their kids following them ran into the happy ledge and messed up his mouth. Then we mostly had the park to ourselves except for a few scooters. For quite awhile we all did our thing. Rob had a bunch of front boards on the black ledge, some funny front noseslides where the ran into the end of the ledge after the make, manuals up and around the blue bank, back 50s the blue ledge, I think a crooks or two the black ledge, kickflips. Dave was struggling. I mean he was still ripping, but you could sense the struggle with his reactions. Things like touching down on manuals, bailing grinds, etc. I was skating decently for me. I landed a lot of flip tricks first try cruising around, had some pop for me, had some lines. After awhile I randomly decided to try nollie back lip on the parking block. I was going super slow, but it felt cool. We played a game of SKATE. It went pretty well for me. In fact the only letter I got was on varial flip which I landed, but Jake was just bummed on getting pink slipped so made me redo it and I bailed. Ha. First time in awhile I got the 360 flip on defense against Jake (even though I had to put a hand down), heelflip. Dave and Rob were out first, I took Jake out with f/s halfcab flip. It was cool because after that Rob, Dave and Jake tried a few of the missed tricks. We just kept skating flat for awhile (Dave was also doing nollie back lips on the curb). Dave got a f/s halfcab flip or two, varial flip. Rob came close to f/s halfcab flip, got the b/s flip. Oh yeah, Rob got halfcab flip in the game too which was rad to see him get. I got a nollie tre which really hyped me up, been awhile. I was loving the Thunders. Jake and Rob took off. The wind picked up. Dave was trying lines starting with kickflip then nollie back lip the parking block. I was trying fakie 50 tricks on the blue ledge. I was hyped to get a fakie 50 where I came out switch. Progress! Then I tried fakie 50 switch front shove out. I kind of landed one, but I turned f/s halfway so it was kind of more like a body varial out. Still felt cool. I tried to keep it going, but got really sore. Tried a few ollies and gave up. Dave finished with a quick little parking block sprack then nose manual the blue box. Took him a bit, but he got it. Fun day until the end when I got way too sore.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 50mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole orthotic and footprints 5mm insole)

@ollie.gillingham first front 50. ❤️

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 7, 2018 at 2:11pm PDT

Woke up to cold temps and snow and lost motivation to skate. In the middle of the day I started watching the Nuggets game and decided to throw together a complete with the Thunder 148s I skated twice. During halftime Ollie and I went across the street and hit the curbs for a bit. My setup felt great. The muscle memory from years of 8″ setups with Thunder’s kicked in and I was doing back 50s like I haven’t in years. Had some fun intentional front 5-0s, manuals, 180s then saw Ollie try to copy a front 50 of mine. A few tries later he did one. So rad. That was the trick that sold me on skateboarding some 30 years ago. So then I had to film one and it took a few more tries, but he got it. I had some fun slappy crooks too, then we went in.

The rest of the basketball game was me changing my setup so that my better deck had the Thunders and I went to the research ledge after. I’m not sure why I was so tired. Oh yeah, while riding my stationary bike as a warm up I was wearing the Lakais and they hurt so bad. The pointed show was killing my toes, so I busted out some NB# 212s I had on deck. Man that shoe has a wide toebox and I love them. So I had new trucks basically and new shoes. It showed initially with some bad noseslide attempts, but I got some. Then I kept missing on crooks because the trucks are set back a little. But once I got used to it crooks felt great. I got several sketchy back 50s, a front 50. Tried a line of 180 up the curb, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide which I didn’t quite get. Flip tricks were kinda weird, but mostly because I had no juice. I also noticed that my deck was warped. Huh. I went home within an hour. Was hyped on the trucks though. I might put in a harder bushing or something, but I think I’ll stick with them for awhile (unlike the two days I gave them before). I mean it makes sense I would like them since they are lower trucks.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, thunder 148s with old forged baseplate, venom 88a bushings, 50mm bones stf v1, new balance numeric 212 b/w size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsole orthotic and footprints 5mm insole)

On a snowy night the rest of the family was doing stuff so I watched skate videos (Ramblin’ and Riddles in Mathmatics) and messed with my setup. I left the 8.5″ setup alone. I replaced Ace 44s for my Venture lows on the 8.25″ setup. I went into the garage to try it out and wow it was terrible. The trucks are really old, the kingpin wobbles and the pivot cups are tore out. I say the trucks are old only because they are like 6 years old, but in fact they were only skated a handful of times. What crappy trucks to blow out like that. So yeah, I tried to like that setup, but I didn’t. Kickflips were hard, 180s were weird, etc. So I went back inside and put some high 8″ Ventures on. I had debated some 8.25″ Thunders, but couldn’t pull the trigger. I went back to the garage with the Ventures and it was crazy how much better they felt. Whew.