Feeling mentally better, but still pretty arthritic I went to Louisville park on a cool, not not too cold night. No one was there when I arrived so I sat in the car for a bit while the lights turned on. Warming up when ok and it didn’t take long to start trying tricks. That is when I started to not skate so good. It took a long time to get a front 50. I have no idea how I have completely lost that trick, but it sucks. I tried lines. Like ollie up onto the little ledge, front 180 off, fakie flip on flat, switch front nose. Or front 50 shove out, shove, boardslide, kickflip on the bank. But I got neither. I tried a lot of nollie frontside flips near the corner when setting up. They felt close sometimes, but still never flip all the way. I fear they will be the end of the O-L-D-F-A-R-T game. Tried a bunch of 360 flips too, landed none. Posed lipslides on the little ledge. Didn’t get a decent back 50, but had a goof feeling halfcab noseslide. Tried a few fakie 50s. Some other dudes showed up for awhile. Like only 10 minutes then bounced. I was trying kickflips over the backside hip for awhile. I thought I was sucking horribly, but then realized the crack at the bottom is monstrous now and it was throwing me off. I landed one and it felt good. I split as it was getting quite cold and I was tired.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushings, old 52mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels, washers outside, old swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

Went out to the garage after a busy evening of running errands for Jason and Christmas. I must have gotten some gluten in me over the weekend because I felt terrible. I think the depression must have started because of that. Anyways, I had kind of thought about trying nollie back shove nose manuals on the sheet of wood, but I quickly learned they wouldn’t work. So I hucked nollie frontside flips for a bit. I realized I was too stiff sore and not motivated enough to really try them so I went inside.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushing , old 52mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels, washers outside, old swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

I’m not sure what happened after I got home Saturday night, but I got insanely depressed. Something about alcohol wearing off, starving and the fact that I hardly landed anything really messed me up. I could hardly sleep. It sucked. I figured I should get my skating out of the way so I could hang with the family the rest of the day. But man, I was super depressed, I could feel it like I got kicked in the head. I went to Red Curbs wanting to just do a few grinds, but there was a few cars near the curbs so I avoided it. Went to a garage with a yellow curb, but left because the incredibly rough finish on the concrete just didn’t appeal to me. Plus they had just repainted the concrete and I wasn’t in the mood to ruin the paint job. I tried another garage too. Ugh, the one under the asian deli and it was super smooth, but covered in debris and seemed like it would cave in at any moment. So I ended up at the spot in the photos, aka Redder Curbs (because the curbs are more red then Red Curbs). I started with a slappy crooks up the kinked part and kind of rolled my ankle not coming out right. Ugh, this day. It got better though. I skated somewhat hard. I never skated great, but I did do a few things that lightened the fog in my head a little. I mostly went between slappy crooks up the kink to backside slappy on a parking block, or frontside slappy the parking block to start then front 50 before the kink then flail a nollie frontside flip. Then tried some lines of back 180 a parking block, fakie flip, switch slappy crooks (never got it). Did a lot of slow back 50s on the kinked curb. Did a few 360 flips with the hands down. Hucked a few switch tres. Did front 50 back 180 on the median over the blocks. Tried switch front tails for awhile and kind of got one. Seems somewhat doable to keep trying it. Couldn’t land a heelflip to save my life. At the end I messes around with a dorky little nollie shove to noseslide. I didn’t get any to slide, but it seems like another one try work on. I left feeling a little better about myself.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushing , old 52mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels, washers outside, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

Old people fun earlier.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 10, 2016 at 1:15pm PST

On a cool morning Carleigh and I rolled to pick up Fuzz then hit this little bowl. Saul had sent an invite. I’ve seen footage of it for a couple of years and always thought it looked fun. It’s at a guy named Rick’s house. He seemed like a nice dude. I’m not sure we were supposed to be rolling so deep, but the crew was rad (the Cooks and a few others I didn’t know). It was very cold when we got there. Then about half an hour in a warm breeze moved in. Then a cold one. Then a warm one again and it was all of a sudden t-shirt weather. Most of our crew was having troubles getting used to it. Dave though, geez, he was manualling around hips, grinding over hips, grinding around corners, everything. Saul was ripping it too. He’s got such a fast and loud carve grind/slash. Carleigh was carving good right away, got disaster both ways quickly and almost got a backside blunt. Fuzz likes to say he can’t carve. False. There are also rumors he does a lot of front tails. Now that used to be true, but not so much anymore. But he did get a good one. I started off pretty bad, got better for a bit and did a disaster and thought I’d be doing a lot of tricks, but then began not landing anything. Argh. Wrex though. Wow. He is pro for a reason. He goes so fast, grinds so long, goes big, everything. The mute to fakie over the hip was fire.

Carleigh by Fuzz ~ yesterday seemed a whole season away going from 60 and sunny to 30 and snowy today. That's Colorado.

A photo posted by crisis skate shop ~ since 2010 (@crisis_skateboards) on Dec 11, 2016 at 9:31am PST

After some really expensive tacos we ended up at this spot. Fuzz and I were both super stiff. There is something about weather changes in the winter and just pumping a bowl that kills me. I could barely bend my legs. Carleigh had no problems though. She just went straight no noseslide. Seriously, like 2 or 3 tries she does it. I skated the basketball court for a bit trying desperately to get the legs going a little. I warmed enough to try switch noseslides without ollieing. I would try it for a couple of hours and not get it. I got close a few times. I had to do kickflips before almost any of them to motivate myself. As you can see the runway involved a big curve which was not that easy to setup for switch. Carleigh tried noseslide shoves and was super close, but having some dangerous primo action going on. Fuzz was going for a line of back 50 the ledge in the background then front 50 the ledge Carleigh noseslid. We took turns filming each other. Fuzz would be the only one that got his trick(s) though. Then we hung out for awhile at Crisis, and it was good times with good friends.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushing , old 52mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels, washers outside, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

Friday fun. @skateboard_chicken @gnarlycarleigh @fullertrron

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 9, 2016 at 4:50pm PST

Went to Saul’s after a day off of work and a long walk in the snow with Liz then a nap. Saul took a few runs then had to run his daughter somewhere so I had the bowl to myself for a bit. Then Dave showed. I skated much better. I credit the softer wheels and the regular Venture baseplates instead of the forged ones. They turn a bit tighter. But yeah, I didn’t bail too many axle stalls like last time and I was landing most of my grinds. I was still having problems keeping my speed though. Still gotta figure out how to pump out of tricks. Dave was shredding it. All the tricks above and then some. Saul came back. He did some frontside carves and slashes along with doing his crazy fast grinds even faster. Carleigh showed and only got to skate for a bit, but got in a few runs and started to get a feel for it. It was a fun session. Definitely the best I’ve skated it. Super hyped on this bowl.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushing , old 52mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels, washers outside, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

Back in the garage for a bit before the Deimos premiere. Hucked the same tricks. Got less close to the half nab flip, but closer to switch front heel. Couldn’t do a 360 flip. The garage is small for that. Especially with the bigger board.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8 V-lights, Venom 88a bushing , 51mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels with a huge flat spot, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

Hit the garage on a cold and snowy night. I had a new challenge to do from Josh, nollie frontside flip, aka half nab flip aka Janoski flip. I would get remotely close. I committed several times, but just couldn’t get it to flip consistently when I committed. I tried my normal setup, my 8.1 and the putter. They were all about the same. I also spent awhile trying hardflips and switch front heel. I feel like switch front heel is possible. Who knows. I skated before and after dinner. It was pretty fun.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8 V-lights, Venom 88a bushing , 51mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels with a huge flat spot, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

After dinner with the family and power being restored to our house I took a few tries to manual from the dining room table to the bathroom.

On a really cold and windy night I went to campus to skate a newish large parking garage. I was pushing around and felt out one of those little wallride signs when a cop came at me kind of hard and eventually let me go.

So I went to Steel Yards. It was totally empty and a decent temperature. I was very sore and my warm ups were quite bad. Eventually I started doing 50s on the curb that looks like it shouldn’t grind, but somehow grinds pretty well. I couldn’t get slappy crooks on it though. I could get into it, but it just wouldn’t grind well enough to get up on top of it and sit in it. I had put some old Spitfire F4 99s on. Turns out they had a pretty huge flat spot (of course), but it didn’t much matter in a dusty rough parking garage. I had some fun back 180s off the curb. Started getting some flip tricks. I did a line that sounds alright on paper, but was really slow. Switch front 180 off the curb, front 50, backside flip (lost all speed in the landing), halfcab flip, then bailed a wallie nollie. Tried switch crooks for awhile and actually got a few of them. Not much of a grind, but it was the best I’ve done with them. Messed around some more, didn’t land many flippers, but also didn’t really try. I was sore. So then I filmed the few tricks above. The switch crooks took awhile this time. I ended by slowly ollieing my water bottle off the curb and since it hurt my legs I left.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushing , 51mm Spitfire F4 99a classic shape wheels, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)

🐔 @skateboard_chicken

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 4, 2016 at 5:31pm PST

After a lazy morning, then a bunch of family stuff I went to Saul’s bowl a little before 3. It was just Saul and Bren when I got there. I was hyped on a small crew, but on my first run I could tell my body wasn’t able to skate well. I’m going to blame the new STFs. Which is kind of funny because Saul and Bren were laughing about how much I obsess over my setup, but really, those wheels hit the coping and they don’t absorb any of it. They bounce off coping with no forgiveness. So yeah, I bailed axle stall after axle stall. Bren and Saul were ripping. Saul was doing lots of double double lines, skating faster, ripping. Bren has super good frontside carves and was slowing around good. After awhile Bren left and a dude named Josh showed who flowed around good too. I didn’t really get any more tricks, but I feel like I did a little better at carving. It was fun. Not sure I’ll stick with STFs after all. Ha ha.

(setup 8.38 Null Riley deck, Venture 5.8s, Venom 88a bushing , 52mm Bones STF V5 wheels, washers on the outside, swiss bearings, NB# PJ 533 maple/black)