Messed around in front of the house for a bit waiting for people to show up. It was pretty clear out of the gates that I was extra sore. I had gone for a mellow bike ride and everything earlier, but nope, still sore. Fuzz met at my house then we went and met Carleigh and Dave at the meetup curb. I got some slappy crooks out of the gate and kind of another slappy hurricane where I didn’t grind. Fuzz tried fakie ollie back 50s. Carleigh was trying manuals and warming up with ollies. Dave was on the manny tip too, out of nowhere he did a backside twirlybird. Wow. Then we rolled down a bit to look at this gnarly gap Josh did in Deimos. It’s insane. We ended up at the weird building with the two long curb high manny pads, 5 stair, and ledges with the pointy wallie triangles. Dave and Carleigh chose the manual route. Fuzz got a manual. Dave firecrackered the 5 stair (I should have filmed it). I dorked around with a line of street plant thing off the ledge holding onto a bench, then kickflip on flat then pose an ollie down the 5 stair. It felt fun to pose the 5 stair even though I had no real intention of landing it.

Then we hit this little ledge for awhile. I mean this GNARLY ledge. Ha ha. Fuzz killed it with the back 50 up, front 50 down, front tail to fakie down. I did a little front noseslide 270 jib, failed at front 50s and even noseslide up it. Carleigh was messing around with Dave’s boardslide 270 out that he did a couple of times perfectly. Along with front 50s up, ollie up from the bump and probably more I’m forgetting.

Then we went to the banked ledge. Well, I stopped by my favorite little frontside ledge for one grind before meeting back up. I tried like 50 slappy back 50s and came up short. Couldn’t even get into the grind. Normally I can at least do an axle stall pretty easily. Ugh. I ended up sitting down. Fuzz got some good slappy 50s. Dave did slappy everything. Crooks to fakie, switch crooks to fakie, front 5-0, back 5-0 and eventually his first ever back tail. #anotherfullerdemo Carleigh was getting into some sick (no pun intended) back feebles and almost riding away from some. Then she disappeared for a bit and it turns out her stomach was really upset. She was super sick so I bolted to get the car while Fuzz hung with her then we got her home. Yikes.

(setup 8.25 null logo board, venture 5.2 low awake trucks, 1/16″ risers, 3 washers inside each axle, venom 88a bushings, swiss bearings, 50mm spitfire classic formula 4 wheels, new balance numeric 344 white, spenco 3/4 thinsoles + thin adidas insoles)

Went to dog park right after work. It was super nice out. Sat there for a bit and checked out the gram while I waited for Dave. I was feeling super sore and tired. Dave showed and we started the hucking. I still didn’t land much for tricks. I got a heelflip and a hands down 360 flip (not the good hands down). I hucked a lot of tricks. Some of which were close and I should commit, but I didn’t. Dave was on his putter and hucked a lot of reg and switch 360 flips. But the real story was how he was popping his kickflips. They were flicked and popped high! Dave left and I just did a few kickflips and tried switch heels for awhile. I didn’t get close at all.

(setup 8.25 null logo board, venture 5.2 low awake trucks, 1/16″ risers, 3 washers inside each axle, venom 88a bushings, swiss bearings, 50mm spitfire classic formula 4 wheels, new balance numeric 344 white, superfeet + thin adidas insoles)

Fun in the sun yesterday with @fullertrron @color_my_friends_in @skateboard_chicken #frontsidesaul #anotherfullerdemo #notreallyakickflip

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 7, 2017 at 5:26am PDT

Feeling pretty arthritic I met Dave at the Dog Park for a quick one before Saul’s. I was on my “5 iron” setup. Normally when I go back to lows I immediately feel like I shouldn’t, but this day everything about my board felt so incredibly right. I didn’t land much in the 15 minutes we skated, but I was actually trying and having fun. I had a few kickflips that I actually popped and felt good. Some terrible landings on fakie flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigfip. Hucked, but didn’t land 360 flip, nollie 360 flip, halfcab heel and a bunch more. Dave was skating fast. Kickflips, switch shoves, front shoves and ended with a fakie varial flip that I didn’t see. Doh.

Then we went to Saul’s. It was just Eric, Dave, Saul and I. Super rad small crew. Everyone seemed to skate well and have the fire to skate. Eric got the axle stall, heelflip, cali grind which was sick. He had a bunch of frontside grinds too, roll ins, back d and some funny slams. Saul was skating really fast and grinding through the bricks like it was nothing, frontside slashes, almost cali grind into the bowl, and a good slam trying a boardslide. I did way more grinds then I have there in awhile and somehow kind of landed a kickflip in less than 10 tries. It felt cool, I’d like to work on that one. The Fuller demo was in effect. Every run had something new. He had back boneless to tail just to spite our conversation, pogo, frontside grind the hip, manual the deck, long grinds, etc etc. But no kickflip! Ha ha. One of the funner days I’ve had in awhile. Smaller setups rule.

(setup 8.25 null logo board, venture 5.2 low awake trucks, 1/16″ risers, 3 washers inside each axle, venom 88a bushings, swiss bearings, 50mm spitfire classic formula 4 wheels, new balance numeric 344 white, superfeet + thin adidas insoles)

Went into the garage on a snowy night and played around on the putter. After a brief warm up period I started hucking. First started with switch tre and didn’t get close. Then tried nollie heel and should have landed the first one, but never got close again. Then tried hardflips for almost an hour. There were a few that I got close on like the one above, but I never put both feet on it.

(setup garage putter: 7.5″ 303 deck, thunder lows, 42mm wheels, NB# 344 white with superfeet and thin adidas insoles)

Liz is gone for a few days so I’m Mr Mom for awhile. I skipped out to skate flatground for a bit. My arthritis is still pretty bad, but I decided I don’t care anymore. I went through my old man pathetic warm ups. No pop nollie shoves, 180s, no complys, ollies, etc. Took awhile to kickflip, almost gave up, then kept going. I would eventually get a couple halfcab flips, a terrible fakie f/s flip, my first fakie bigflip in awhile and well, I guess that’s about it. I came close to a lot more, but really it felt good. Like I loosened my body up. It’s use it or lose it with arthritis so I need to keep not caring about pain and skating. Flatground really seems to help the most.

(setup 8.38 null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 classic 99a green wheels, bronson bearings, New Balance Numeric 344 white superfeet 3/4 insoles with a thin adidas insole on top)

Biked to campus on a nice day wanting to skate this little ledge. I figured it would be a good way to get some confidence back. It was pretty warm out, but I left my hoodie on as my body seems to skate best when I’m not. And it seemed to work. I quickly had some front 50s and 5-0s. Flip tricks even went okay too. Landed my first two backside flips, got halfcab flip and close to 360 flip. It took me awhile to get a back 50 though. I hadn’t gone over the corner like that in awhile, but it felt cool when I finally got one. I also got a back 5-0. Tried front crooks or nosegrind for awhile, never got either. Came close to halfcab crooks, kick back tail and switch front crooks. Never ollied the 3 stair. Didn’t realize I was there for too long when I got a call from Liz asking when I’d be home and realized it had been 3 hours. Ha. I love that little ledge.

(setup 8.38 null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 classic 99a green wheels, bronson bearings, New Balance Numeric 344 white superfeet 3/4 insoles with a thin adidas insole on top)

A wet morning meant we planned for yellow curbs even though it had dried up outside. It was still cold though. The crew was Dave, Simon, Carleigh, Fuzz, Mathew, Brillo, Lazer and Nolan. I was feeling pretty self conscious about my low level of skating these days. I was able to ollie up curbs, but it wasn’t easy. So it kind of made me want to hide at times. I did have some fun with slappy crooks and I was hyped to actually manual one of the manual pads, but other that that I mostly hid on the far side trying to line out basic tricks like kickflip and back 50. I got a couple slow lame lines. I hate the cold. Highlights from others I saw: Fuzz did noseslide to crooks to fakie, high speed fakie ollies up curbs. Carleigh did multiple front lips and might have done nollie lips too. Lazer had a sick back tail and some pretty gnarly slams. Nolan did a kick back tail while I was checking my phone. Doh. Also a nollie nose manual nollie flip out. Mathew was flying around the place. Brillo had some flippers that really surprised me like switch heel done so well. Dave did slappy crooks shove and a cool 360 plant over a ledge. Simon did such a sick long boardslide transfer.

(setup 8.38 null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 classic 99a green wheels, bronson bearings, New Balance Numeric 344 white superfeet 3/4 insoles with a thin adidas insole on top)

I huge thank you to slappy crooks for the amount of joy they bring to my life. ❤

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 30, 2017 at 7:15pm PDT

Setup so steezy new green spits and hit campus. I started at my favorite warm up spot which is basically just me doing slappy crooks over and over and over. So fun. I did a couple of front 5-0s (that were supposed to be 50s) and took too long to get a line of switch front 180, slappy crook, kickflip. But I can partially blame the fact that I had blown out one bearing so my right rear wheel was all over the place.

Then I went to the outdoor basketball court flatground facility. Unfortunately I didnt’ land anything. I hucked a few I haven’t don in awhile, but I only landed kickflip, halfcab flip and actually, ugh, that was it.

Stubborn Glen kicked in even though I was in some good pain at this point and I went to the engineering building in search of a grind or two in between lots of cracks. The frontside one took forever. It’s so weird because my head feels like it will hit the pillar at the same time my butt will hit the handrail. Luckily neither hit. I can blame the lose wheel on the back making it awkward to come off the curb. The backside 50 took way less time and even though I barely grinded past the stairs was incredibly fun. I ended with a noseslide on the regular bench and called it a day.

(setup 8.25 Null Fortune deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 classic 99a green wheels, bronson bearings, New Balance Numeric 344 white superfeet 3/4 insoles with a thin adidas insole on top)

Went to campus on a surprisingly nice day (they had forecasted snow). I went to the research ledge, but it was in the shade with sand all around it so I left and ended at Wilville. There is a bunch of new stuff I haven’t skated there yet. I was somehow pretty stiff, so started with some total basic lines. Oh yeah, I had put an old 8.25 deck on since I had focused my last board and didn’t feel worthy of setting up a new board. The smaller wheelbase felt weird, but it worked. I started with a switch nose jib to forward on a little knobbed ledge, shove of the nose, regular shove then ollie way up onto the 2″ tall manny pad and rode down it. It’s fun riding down that thing. Then I did the next line of front board pop out, kickflip on flat, manual the top part of the manny pad. I almost hit a stopper on the way down. Yikes! Then I left for a new ledge that looked fun to boardslide. And it was! It actually took me a few tries to get it. I also did some slappy crooks, tried to ollie the 4 stair and bailed out before trying to ollie over the ledge which took even more tries. I haven’t ollied anything in awhile though and it felt good. It took that terrible heelflip to get me motivated enough to try it.

Then I went in to campus. I pretty much went right to the bank spot. I took awhile to do anything. I was so sore at that point, but I was determined to skate through it. Pushing hurt. Squatting hurt. I did some shoves, bean plants, kickflips and then tried this varial/big flip thing for awhile. I never got it. Ugh, this is one of my normal staple warm up tricks! I blame the big fat wheels.

(setup 8.25 Null Fortune deck, venture 5.8 wides, 3 washers outside each axle, Venom 88a bushings, 52mm Spitfire F4 conical 99a pink/purple wheels, bronson bearings, New Balance Numeric 344 white superfeet 3/4 insoles with a thin adidas insole on top)

I decided enough was enough. No more caring how bad my arthritis was. So I went out into the garage on a rainy evening and rode the putter (7.5″ with 42mm wheels). I started by doing all 8 shoves. Most of them incredibly poorly. I got nervous when it was time to kickflip, but they came easy. Obviously skating such a small board makes them easier, but it still felt good. I went on to get a few other tricks. The treflip felt great whether or not my heel was on the ground. I’ve never landed a nollie tre in my garage, it’s just not enough speed to do that trick. It was still fun to try though. Glad I can still skate some flat if I make an effort.

(setup garage putter NB# 344 white 11.5 superfeet 3/4 insoles with adidas insole on top)