On a rainy night I went into the garage to mess around. I did a few manuals then some ollies and a kickflip or two. Then I grabbed the putter and went at it with 360 flips for awhile. Maybe 30 minutes. It took awhile before I committed. I was wearing some old Lakai vulcs wanting extra board feel and I was on the putter. I ended up landing like 10 with my hands down before finally getting this “clean” one. I don’t care, it felt awesome and was the first one in a few months.

(setup 7.5″ 303 deck, thunder trucks, 42mm OJ wheels, Lakai Manchester 11 REmind Cush insoles)

Woke up super early and couldn’t fall back asleep. So I got up and did some yoga then hit the dog park. Well actually, I intended to go to Boulder park, but when I pulled in there was like 5 kids skating and I wanted to be alone. Dog park was chill because the parking lot was closed. I started off better than I thought considering I was on the big board. I started with the basics and worked up. Ollie, nollie, switch ollie, fakie ollie. Then all 8 shoves. Man some of them were so bad. Then all 8 180s. Then kickflips which were working better on the big board than the small one. I was still skating incredibly slow though. Got fakie fip and halfcab flip. Was trying backside flip when I saw the time and I had to split in 5 minutes. So I posed 360 flip and switch front heels. Didn’t commit to either, but really only tried for a couple of minutes.

Then after work I met Dave at Wilville on a beautiful evening. I skated there. I was sore from already skating, but I wanted to try and power through it. Warming up seemed like it might be possible. We did some tricks on flat and then tried manuals on the top part of the middle bank. I was messing around with switch 180 to manual while Dave was trying manual. We got the boot though. Doh. I got a nose manual on the way out (I think). So we wandered around for awhile and my soreness kicked in. We skated the little curb at the base of Spanish Towers. It kind of sucked. Ha ha. We ended up back at Wilville. We messed around out front for awhile. Dave rolled in on a bigger bank. I posed bonelesses. Then Dave went back for the nose manual and got it. Then he did the gnarly bank roll ins back to back with a slide between. It was sick. I almost died rolling into the second one. Then we hit the boardslide for awhile. I thought I was done, but Dave hyped me up to keep trying. I ended up getting a boardslide even after a few scary first attempts. Dave did 50s, boardslide transfer, a lot. I tried front board transfers, didn’t quite get one. Then we bounced. Glad I worked through the soreness.

(setup 8.38 null machine deck, venture 5.8 wides, Venom 88a bushings, 50mm STF v1 wheels, bronson bearings, new balance numeric pj 533 black/gum “hyperfeel” 12 with Remind Cush Chico insoles)

On a coolish night I went to campus feeling tired. I was hoping skating would change that. I started with a few dorky whatever nose jibs then got a slappy crook or two and moved on. I tried some kickflips on flat as I rolled ..

.. to this spot. I tried to do a bunch of flippers here, but I had almost none. The STFs did feel fast compared to the old Spitfires so that was weirding me out because I was trying to skate as slow as possible. Man I have no confidence these days. Almost no drive either. It’s like as soon as I can tell my legs aren’t up for it I just give up. I used to have more drive to get through it though. Anyway, I got shoves, kickflip (which took awhile ugh), fakie flip, halfcab flip. Tried 360 flips for awhile and came up empty handed. I landed on a couple. I also posed some switch front heels which were flipping, I just don’t know how to get my feet back on the board. I also did a few stall tricks on the first stair. Then I moved into campus a little more. I was near the hill tunnel, but just kind of gave up on skating. I really don’t like 8″ high ventures.

(setup 8.1 null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 high trucks, venom 91a bushings, 50mm STF V1 wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 “hyperfeel” black/gum 12, remind cush chico orthotic insoles)

Went out to the garage feeling pretty sore, but kind of wanting to skate more again and deal with the pain like I used to. It almost seems like being constantly sore is better than the sore I get after a few day break. I had put some old STFs on instead of Spits and started the new shoe break in period on some new PJs (this time with “Hyperfeel” like grooves that I cut into the sole for added flexibility). I did the no pop manuals for awhile first, then some regular manuals. Then I skated the pink bench top for awhile. It actually took a few tries to commit to back 50 over the corner. Kind of sad, but whatever. Then I did a few front 50s and was out.

(setup 8.1 null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 high trucks, venom 91a bushings, 50mm STF V1 wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 “hyperfeel” black/gum 12, remind cush chico orthotic insoles)

Dave and I filled in our brackets after the first round was done.

Dave’s is above, mine is below. (In case it’s not totally obvious since you know I would pick PJ to win it)

Woke up feeling really bummed on how much skating hurt. I haven’t landed 10 flip tricks in one day in a really long time. So I was determined to do it. I started on the 8.3 setup which worked fine for kickflip, but then I went back to the 8.1 after I failed at fakie flips for awhile. It felt better. I went in the order in the video. The halfcab flip went ok. The heelflip took like 20 minutes. For awhile I thought it would be impossible for me to get to 10. I gave up on halfcab heel, trefilp, nollie treflip and nollie varial fip. The varial flip and no comply flip were cop outs. The varial flip even took a long time. Ugh. It was depressing how long most of these tricks took to land, but it felt good to try. Even physically I felt okay after. Wearing orthotics appears to be a must for me when I skate.

(setup 8.1 null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 high trucks, venom 91a bushings, 51mm spitfire classic f4 99a wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 black/white 12, remind cush chico orthotic insoles)

And then the snow was gone. Carleigh and I (eventually) rolled to Broomfield park to meet Rob, Jake and Fuzz. It was cool, but sunny and nice out. I was bummed on how quickly I could tell my legs would not be functioning well. I still tried to skate. It didn’t go so well, it took like 5 tries just to ollie onto the little blue box. Rob was ripping. Crooks, manuals, front boards, and solid front noseslides. Jake was shredding. Front tailslides, front 5-0s, front blunts on the quartapotty. Fuzz started slow and had some bad slams on back 180s off the blue box. He got it together though. Carleigh ran through the brick qp tricks. I’m not sure if she got the back d or not, but she did do a really good front lip on the parking block. I had fun with slappy crooks on the parking block then tried a line for awhile of boardslide the black ledge then no comply flip over the parking block. Never got it.

#stubborns

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 20, 2017 at 2:03pm PDT

Then we went to the nearby bank spot. My legs were done son. Just rolling down/up the bank hurt. I did some ollies to fakie, then that was about it except for some bonelesses later on. Jake did some back tails on the bank. The other side was pretty slick and both Jake and Rob slid out trying to control front tails. Fuzz had a bunch of steezy ollies and a line with a kickflip to fakie. Rob had the kickflip on the bank, one foot, tail blocks and more. Carleigh is still batting near 100% on bean plants, did bluntslides and maybe front tails too? After that we got some food then hung out at Fuzz’s. It was fun.

(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 pj 533 black/white 12 with Remind Cush Chico insoles)

#deadspots

A post shared by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on May 17, 2017 at 8:23pm PDT

After a chill day at work, some yoga, a nap, exercise bike and jump rope I went to Redder Curbs to meet Rob and Dave. Dave was totally ripping upon arrival. Flying around doing slappys, noseslides, etc. I took awhile to get in the groove and, well, never really got in the groove. Rob though, he was doing super fast and long back 50s on the kinked curb that were so sick. We were all doing lines around the place. It’s so fun like that. No complies over the parking block, slappys on the busted yellow block, grinds on the red kinked curb (unless you are me who only got one weak and slow front 50 oh I guess I got a few slappy crooks), not much flatground though. Rob started doing wallies out of a little bump to wall. It was really sick. Dave was doing no comply body varials. I was posing kick back tails on a curb and got a wallie/nollie into the little bank Rob was wallieing out of. It felt cool. We skated for awhile like this so it was kind of hard to see what others were doing. I had fun doing 180s out of the little bump, but couldn’t back it up with a flip trick. Oh yeah, I was on a bigger setup out of my quiver. It felt pretty good. My knees though, not feeling so good. After awhile Dave and I tried no comply tricks over the parking block for awhile. Dave got a few switch no comply body varials. So crazy! I tried a bunch of no comply flips and only landed one. Got close to a bunch though. Then we all did slappys for awhile. Rob with the slappy while pushing and slappy crooks. I got a couple slappy front crooks that were over 40 makes. Dave did them switch though! Bonkers. Fun time with a fun crew. I wish my knees didn’t hurt while trying flip tricks so much though.

(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 pj 533 black/white 12 with thin adidas busenitz insoles)

Landed a trick for every person at the park today. #none can't breath up there either and I got sunburnt

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 15, 2017 at 4:56pm PDT

Hit the Leadville park on the way back from my moms on a beautiful day. Sunny and 60 degrees. Although a little windy at times. There was one other dude there for awhile. Aldyr? He was really nice. He thought I was 25 or 26. Ha ha. Man I wish. He was only off by basically 20 years. I felt okay to start, but was really hating my setup for some stuff. Lesson learned. 8″ highs are not good. I bailed a lot of stuff I shouldn’t. Tricks like slow front 50s on the curb, ollies up the wedge, axle stalls. Ugh. Depression set in pretty quick even though Aldyr was rad and ripping. I did get a little line of basics that was okay. Axle stall a bank, noseslide the bump to ledge, axle stall the bank to curb, roll into the little qp, the worst boneless over a rail ever, slappy tailslide, boardslide the round bar. Aldyr left and I had the park to myself. I lost most of my motivation and tried tiny ollies to fakie on the banks and switch flips on the mellower bank. The switch flips felt doable, but I never got one. I also rolled my ankle at some point. Not bad, but it’s worse now. I will be trying wider trucks or something else for now.

(setup 8.1 null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 high trucks, venom 88a bushings, 51mm spitfire classic f4 99a wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 black/white 12, stock nb insoles)

Left a little early to pick up my mom at the airport so hit D park for about 30 minutes. I had gone for a longer run than I have in years (2 miles) so I was sore and not very motivated. I just kind of pushed around and tried tiny ollies and manuals for awhile. I settled into a run that should have been very easy, but ended up proving to be more then I wanted. Kickflip to fakie on the little bank by the entrance, switch 180 on flat, noseslide the little ledge, axle stall on the washboard qp. The only trick I got was the noseslide, and it was a struggle. I was reminded how much I dislike 8″ high trucks. I like 8″ lows or bigger high trucks. Ugh. I also posed some kickflips to fakie out of the snake run into a little bank. It seemed doable. But then I needed to leave. I really didn’t do anything while I was there. Why did I even go skate? Ha.

(setup 8.1 null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 high trucks, venom 88a bushings, 51mm spitfire classic f4 99a wheels, new balance numeric pj 533 black/white 12, stock nb insoles)