Trying to get Ollie out of the house turned into me bringing him and 3 friends on a mission to MRKT and more. We started by meeting Dave at Rocky Mtn Elem. Dave was there before us and piecing together a nice line of ollie the flat gap, kickflip on flat, noseslide, 180 nose manual a brick median. I had some better than normal feeling slappys and a crooked grind. Ollie dropped in on the kinked brick section pretty easily. Gabe was going for it and tried to ollie the sidewalk gap. I can’t believe he was committing. It was rad. Sam and Otto were cruising. Dave and I posted up at the sidewalk gap for awhile. Not shown are the big cracks on both sides of the gap that messed with things. Even with my huge 52mm wheels. Ha ha. Dave was going for gap to manual which he got. I was trying to ollie over the cone which I never got, although I did land it while knocking down the cone.

Then we went to Northside after lunch and MRKT. It was pretty mellow. Bo, Hayden, Peyton and Jacoby were there. Those dudes all rule. Ollie and Gabe got up on the MJ ledge quick. Ollie got a pop shove to fakie. It was rad. All of the Squirrel Bros skated the park. They were up on top, cruising, it was rad. Ollie had a bunch of carves on the brink bank to ledge ride. I did a lot of chatting for awhile. Then cruised pretty chill not doing much. I had the little cruiser line of wallie, ollie on the bump, axle stall the barrier and a first try roll in to the halfpipe area that hyped me up. Then I filmed Hayden try f/s flips for awhile. Then it got windy and the kids wanted something else anyway so we went to Spring Canyon.

Which was incredibly windy. We skated though. Bo was filming Hayden on the ledge and I wanted to skate the ledge so those are my embarrassing tricks. I couldn’t even land a back 50. Ugh. Hayden had the smoothest back nosegrind back 180. Hayden rips. The SBs were having fun. Ollie’s coffin was rad. Bo ripped the bowl way harder than I imagined. I got a bit of a fire near the end and did the boardslide transfer that Dave got me to do a long time ago. On one attempt I almost killed a scooter kid in the bowl with my board shooting out. Yikes. Landing it hyped me up as I hadn’t done much all day. Hayden’s gap to nose manual is bonkers. He rips and it was fun skating with him. I had worn some FP Gamechanger insoles. I can’t tell if I was more or less sore after skating than the day before. Argh. I wish shoes/insoles weren’t such a battle for me.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, fp gamechanger insoles)

Epic spot ✔️ Epic crew ✔️ Epic tricks ✔️ @baffoos switch backside flip

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 3, 2018 at 4:55pm PST

On another gorgeous day Jack and Carleigh picked me up, we met up with Fuzz and Kevin and we went to this spot in Denver. Apparently it’s normally covered in dirt and the city just came through and cleaned it out. Jack’s board went into the water first try. That would happen to everyone’s board at some point. It took some getting used to. My ollies were so pathetic, they were just like little tail scrapes, but I did get a kickflip pretty quick. Jack too. It was surprising to see flip trick master Kevin struggle with kickflips. Fuzz got front 360 quick. After I took too long to do a front shove I filmed Fuzz and everyone else for awhile. Carleigh put down a few pop shoves. Chelsea almost put down some crazy popped kickflips. Kevin had a sick hardflips. Jack did a bunch of tricks like 360 flip, varial flip, impossible and the coveted kickflip late shove. Then I started skating again and eventually I started trying varial flips which seemed like it would be easy. I’ve never done it over a backside hip before. It wasn’t easy. Carleigh was throwing backside flips. It was crazy because she didn’t look close for awhile and then put her feet on it once or twice and then she did it a few tries later. So sick. She did another one too. Both were perfect. Kevin was going in on nollie f/s flips and it took awhile. It was just Carleigh, Kevin and I still trying tricks. Oh yeah, Billy was there earlier. He was mostly chilling, but would take his cruiser for some casual crushing and almost did f/s flip over the hip. Carleigh tried straight kickflips for awhile. Kevin and I were so close so many times. He got a perfect one. Then it was just me skating feeling lame for taking so long and wanting to quit, but thankfully Jack kept encouraging me to try so I did. I finally landed it and it felt really cool. Lots of times when you finally land a newish trick (done plenty of varial flips, but not ever a backside hip and definitely not over a somewhat gnarly street hip) the first make feels weird, but this one just felt great. I was hyped. Kevin had started skating again and worked on switch backside flip for a minute before doing such a good one. Then we went on a journey around the corner to a mexican restaurant and enjoyed some good food and margs. Awesome day. I was incredibly sore after which is the only negative. Not sure I should be without orthotics while skating.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)

On an absolutely gorgeous day I got out of work pretty early and met Dave at Blue Skies. It was seriously so nice out. There was a crew of younger skaters at the actual skatepark, but we were doing flatground friday so we went to the hockey rink. At first we had the park all to ourselves, but then at times there were several young scooter/bike kids and then some people using the hockey rink for what it’s intended for. Dave started off on fire. Skating fast and landing everything. It took me a bit to start committing, but out of nowhere a nollie tre happened it felt so awesome. It’s been awhile for that trick. Then Dave and I went into a funk for awhile of not really landing anything. I mean we landed stuff, but it was mostly just setup tricks to bail harder tricks. Ha. I couldn’t get a 360 flip. I was trying lines of shove, kickflip, heelflip, but struggled with the heelflip. Dave had a lot of kickflips, cabs, shoves, switch shove, a perfect back bigspin, varial flips, struggled with fakie varial flip then did a perfect one and his second f/s halfcab flip. I don’t remember getting passed the basic warmups other than the early nollie tre. But man that nollie tre felt good.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)

I love long lines with lots of flipper in them.

Went to go skate the bikepath/hip spot, but it’s no longer lit at night. The nearby Pearl ledge had snow and water around it. Ended up at the nearby bus station. Went to this little ledge and stayed put for 30 minutes or so. I was not wearing my orthotic insoles. I’ve been reading a lot about how you shouldn’t wear them and I’ve been doing lots of foot and leg exercises. So I wanted to see if my legs and back can handle it now. It felt fine. Other than it feeling really weird to not have a solid sheet of wood underneath my feet. Which is obviously a lot! Ha. I actually bailed on the little hill on the bikepath because it felt so weird not having the stiff insole. So yeah it took awhile to get used to, but I did eventually feel fine. The little ledge is pretty sick, but the bump before it weirded me out for awhile. I eventually got a few kickflips and noseslides. A line with front shove then back 50. Back 50s on that were really fun. I of course was getting on where it’s lowest. It would be fun to go back when it’s daytime and can see it better. Someone 50’ing the whole thing up and over could be cool and there is lots of line opportunity.

Then I went up and skated the tall ledge above. Which felt extra tall. I could barely noseslide it and a tiny slow crooks jib was a battle.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, stock insoles)

Ollie, Gabe and I showed up at Louisville park around 6, but the lights wouldn’t turn on so we went to Lafayette. The park was pretty chill, some people and some snow, but mostly skatable. Ollie and Gabe mostly hung out near the entrance at first. Doing stationary shoves and hitting the bank. Gabriel hasn’t skated a park so it was all new to him and he was scared just rolling down some of the banks initially. I had a pretty good slam on a nollie back 180 on a bank to start my session. Not sure where that came from, but it hurt. Ollie was doing fakie shoves and f/s halfcabs on the bank. Gabe did an ollie to fakie which kind of blew me away having not skated a bank before. I had fun with the rock corner wallie. I was trying to skate the black ledge, but people kept hanging out by the landing so it was kind of annoying. I struggled with the angle for front 50s, but would get front 50, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180 out and then a manual which was the hardest of the lot for me. Gabe got a clean ollie onto it. What the heck? Kid is gonna be a ripper. Ollie got on it too with a quick jib, but had some nice 180s off. We hit the toilet bowl for awhile. Gabe managed the easy roll in entry and got a few kickturns. Ollie kind of did some grinds. I didn’t get much, the coping there is weird. Some dudes came and put the parking block after the little bank and had a fun session going. I tried to no comply flip into the bank. Got close a few times, but was struggling with the flip. I got halfcab flip on the easy bank. I tried front shoves to fakie on the narrow bank by the snake run for awhile. Ollie came in and did a few tricks to hype me up. Then moved on to skate with Gabriel before I landed the front shove. We ended by ollieing off the tight qp by the entrance. Then Ollie front 180’d it in a few tries. Man it was cool seeing Ollie skate so hard. Him having a buddy to shred with is great.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Around 7 I went across the street to play around on the rock area. Yet again I had a new set of bushings. This time Bones mediums in hopes they don’t freeze up when it’s cold or turn to jello when it’s warm. They felt a little stiff, but not as stiff as the Doh Dohs. I started slow and it took a bit before I could even do an axle stall on one of the rocks. But I would eventually get to a point where I was flailing around trying hard. Didn’t get close to nollie flips. Could barely noseslide the bench of the picnic table (it’s really tall). Took a couple tries to ollie up on the longer rock. Didn’t get the manual on it. Didn’t get far on the flip trick list. I hucked a lot, trying different stalls like back axle heelflip out, front pivot kickflip out, switch noseslide shove, front nose shove, etc. Didn’t land any, but it was fun hucking. Got a sketchy line of front tail a rock then ollie up onto the short rock. That’s so scary to me to ollie on and have to get off immediately. Some day I hope to manual or nose manual the tall short one (tall short ha ha. tall rock that isn’t long).

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, bones medium bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Woke up way too early and was off all day. Got to Broomfield park on a windy and not warm day with Ollie to meet Dave who had probably already been there for an hour. There was some snow and runoff dividing the park a little, but for the most part you could hit what you want. We mostly skated the blue box. The quartapotty wasn’t skateable. I was mostly determined to get some back 50s and I did. I still approached with a huge angle, but after 30 years of doing it that way it’s not gonna change. Dave was shredding. Nose manual, front 50 180, front 5-0 180. Ollie said he wanted to skate, but sure didn’t seem too motivated. He did some boardslides, a bunch of stationary shove its, kind of ollie up the blue box and front 180 off. Later on Dave was trying front 5-0 shove and I was trying back 50 shove. We got them back to back! Even Ollie might have smiled for us briefly. I suggested halfcab boardslides to Ollie and he did a couple. Not much of a slide, but it was still cool. One time he technically did halfcab noseslide. My last trick was fakie nosegrind which took way too many tries. Dave did a regular front nosegrind and we bounced. The whole time I was annoyed with how stiff my bushings were. Goodbye doh dohs. Oh yeah, this dude showed up that was so smooth. He was just doing nose manual front 180 out, then the same things switch and some little grinds. But he was easily one of the smoothest skaters I’ve seen in awhile and it was sick.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Well, I guess wind is good for something, because even though there was a couple inches of fresh snow in the morning a lot of it was gone in the afternoon. After a nice hike with Liz I ended up at the research ledge. It was dry and even most of the hill and sidewalk were dry. It was really surprising. But sometimes crazy gusts would pick up and blow snow by the ledge making everything temporarily wet. I had to sit a couple times, but for the most part it was fine. I wanted to learn noselide back 270 out so I tried it to get warmed up. I’m not sure why I’ve never tried that trick before, but it felt close. I got a few that definitely don’t count, but seem like a baby step in the right direction. I had some fun lines trying pop shoves on the sidewalk then either noseslide, back 50 or crooks. I had a few crooks that felt really good, a couple back 50s. Frontside was kind of messed up, but I had one really fun line where I ollied a little snow pile then got a little front 5-0 jib. That was my fav part of the session. I had some okay flatground. Fakie varial flip, heelflip, close to 360 flip, tried a bunch of nollie and switch flips getting close. The bushing seemed to have loosed up a little, but I would still like to try a little softer.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

After work I went to the Steel Yards since it was snowing out. I had some motivation to skate flat, but man it ended up being a battle. My new bushings felt wayyy too stiff to skate. I had them so loose by the end the bolts were almost off. But I tried. Started with a few 3 trick lines of basic tricks. Can’t believe how hard I struggled with front shoves. Even halfcab flips weren’t working. But the curb was grinding and fun. I was hyped to get a few intentional back 5-0s. Also tried switch crooks and didn’t really get any. Also back 5-0 front 180 out but didn’t get very close to that.

(setup 8.25″ null monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, doh dohs 92a bushings, adidas busenitz vulc white/blue size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)