Met Dave, Rob, Bernie and Garrett at this spot shortly after lunch on a nice winter day. I hadn’t been to this spot since they redid it. It is amazing. The warm up process is easier when pumping a bank is involved. Warmups were no comply bigspin for Rob and I. B/s flip for Bernie and I. Hardflip fakie for Bernie. Wallies on the corner for Garrett. Filming for Dave. Ha. I started messing around with a bean plant wallride/bash to fakie. I have no idea why, it just seemed like a cool trick to do there. I would get one kind of quickly with a hand push off then took like 30 more tries to land another one. Garrett did wallie front 180 over the hip so sick. Bernie was doing f/s flips and trying this crazy rock ‘n roll on the corner of the wall. It was bonkers. He got close quite a few times. Rob had smooth wallrides, b/s one foot ollies, close to b/s no comply finger flip. Dave started skating after I finally landed the beanplant trick and quickly rattled off a bunch of tricks. Fakie wallride, switch no comply, switch no comply 360, invert wallride. Bernie won a fakie treflip race. I slammed pretty hard trying to push switch through a crack before the bank. Everyone left except Dave and I. We just kept messing around having fun. We skated the hip for awhile. Dave did 360s, boneless, almost cab big spin. I did a weak sauce b/s flip, boneless, a fakie bigfip where I landed going the same way I came from. The ‘hip’ is round and there is no defined spots to take off from so it’s just kind of weird. After awhile this lady with a baby and a dog showed up to the playground that is right there. The dog was running after us behind the fence barking and barking and barking. It was quite annoying. I did a fun varial flip to fakie. Then we ended as I tried 360 flip to fakie for a long time and Dave tried varial flip to fakie. I managed to get an ‘over 40’ make of the treflip which was a pretty rad ender for a super fun session.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

I went to the research ledge before the Meta 15 year anniversary party. There was a puddle before the ledge. I cleared off the little bit of snow that was causing the run off, but it didn’t dry. I guess the fact that it was runoff means it was above freezing. So that’s good at least. One of my first noseslides was so off that I hit my front foot on the wall behind the ledge. That would be an omen for the sucking that would come. Other lowlights included trying to pop a big ollie off the kicker at the top of the hill and the board not leaving the ground, not being able to do a front 50 to save my life, struggling with fakie bigflips again, having troubles ollieing up curbs. All of this made me want to focus my board and quit skateboarding forever. Unfortunately I am incredibly stubborn and kept at it. I did managed a first try boardslide pop out, a couple crook grinds, a horrible back 50 or two, and well, that’s about the only positives.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage for about 15 minutes. Did some no-ollie front tails with both 180s out, nosestalls and a few axle stalls. Also a few kickflips, a varial flip and some failed nollie flips.

@boredzinejp and I are sad to see @the_neviathan leave the game, but the game must go on. Here's my 'poor mans' 360 for Josh (with unwarranted slow motion). In honor of Nate the next trick is to fly and be free! Ha, hippy jump body varial. #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #boulderhippy #unwarrantedslomo

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 2, 2015 at 12:36pm PST

Skipped out for lunch at Blue Skies on a beautiful day. It was around 40 degrees and warming up. Most of the park had snow on it. All of the banks, the taller ledges, etc. The flat bar and small ledge were the only dry things. Warming up took awhile so I kind of just tried the 360 for awhile until I had one good enough for the game. It took awhile and I felt warmed up at that point. I started messing with a couple things as the next possible challenge. The hippy jump body varial or switch noseslide shove. I would get both, but the hippy jump body varial just seemed more fun so I went with it. I was quite scared and it took me awhile to commit. Once I did it was fun though, I have never done that over anything before. I somehow landed quite a bit of flippers too. 360 flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, hmm, that list doesn’t sound very impressive after all. Last thing I did was try a line of ollie the flat bar, no comply 180 on flat then switch noseslide shove out (technically 270 shove i guess?). I managed to get the line and it felt awesome. Loving the big setup.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Brief post homework session on the new TF. #nerd

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 1, 2015 at 8:12pm PST

Had to help Ollie with homework for awhile and ran out of juice to get out and skate. So I messed around with the new bank to curb with the sign. I did a few basic tricks on it like backside axle, front axle, front tail, front smith. Also tried some back 360s for the game and did my first one with a slight tail smack so that’s some progress at least. Also tried some nollie flip unsuccessfully. I was trying a line of front tail then b/s flip when Ollie came out. We put the wood all the way onto ledge and skated it like that for awhile. Ollie did the crazy 360 right away. We did a bunch more dorky stuff like manual up to rock, manual down. I tried a bunch of lip tricks and did a bunch of back disasters. I might have to try those on a real qp now. Ollie did a few more tricks too and we called it a night.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage with my new setup without much intent on skating hard or long. I started on the “manual pad” and a few tricks in I slammed, did the splits and hit the back of my head on a bike pedal. Awesome. I did a few more manuals tricks then decided to bring in Ledgy and see if it would be possible to skate it in my garage. I went to move the ‘manual pad’ and noticed how convenient it would work to make a sweet bank to curb. I played with that for awhile, but it needs a sign at the bottom to make it good. The sign I have was in the back yard and covered with snow. Next time. I still messed around for awhile, just lifting up the crack and doing nose stalls and front rocks and stuff. I think it will be quite fun.

Then I put Ledgy out to skate. I only did stalls obviously since there is no room. I’m not sure I could actually do grind tricks, but I did backside nose stall shove and frontside nosestall shove. Both were really fun. Don’t think I’ve ever done the fs version before. Then I made myself do a front tail stall and called it a night. Oh yeah, I hucked a few switch flips without getting close. The new setup is a 8.38 board. Why am I going bigger? Because I’ve been into ledges and I think the extra board room helps me.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went to meet Dave at Red Curbs, but saw that this spot was mostly dry and went for it. The sun came out a few times which was nice, but other then that it was cold in the low 20s. I got there first. I put Ledgy down the lower curb and took awhile to do a line of manual the top section then noseslide down. I finally got it right as Dave showed up. Dave didn’t seem hyped on the setup. Ha. He warmed up for awhile, I tried some other stuff. We eventually settled in on trying lines hitting the manual pad the short way then doing a ledge trick. Man I sucked it up on Ledgy. It’s so scary. You gotta get out as soon as you get in. I didn’t really land much on the manuals either. Came close to switch 180 to manual. Dave came close to front 180 nose manual.

More cold weather action just to make @neilsoffire jealous. @fullertrron front crooks on Ledgy.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 29, 2015 at 2:24pm PST

On Ledge I got front 50 and back crooks. Yippe. Oh and a horrible back 50. Dave got a clean back 50 and a front crooks! My flat ground wasn’t going to good. My board was old, my legs were tired, it was cold. Dave gave me more pointers on the ‘poor man’s 360’ and I got a couple without hitting the tail. I’ll keep working on it. At the end we set the ledge after a curb and did a couple tricks. Dave did back 50 easy and came close to back nosegrind. I struggled with front 50 so did front 5-0 instead. Dave left and I set it up backside for me. I got into several back 50s and would stick. So I waxed it and then it was easy. Imagine that.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings old stf v1 52mm nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

#thestubborns in the cold. @fullertrron beat me to the backside nosegrind. @iamnotacreepyjake and @43shifty beat us to the bar. #25degrees

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 28, 2015 at 4:19pm PST

Jake and I met Rob and Dave at Red Curbs on a cold, dreary and snowy day. Jake and I got there first. Somehow I felt pretty good right out of the gate. I was wearing long johns so my legs didn’t feel cold for once. I started with slappy crooks as I always do there. Then moved up to 50s, etc. Dave and Rob showed up. Jake and I were trying some lines starting at the far side of the garage. I forget exactly what, but I was trying something like manual around the corner pad, 180 over a little chunk of snow, halfcab flip, nose manual the main pad, slappy crooks. I had some regular slappies too. Jake was doing nollie f/s 180 over the snow chunk. Dave went into the fast boardslides pretty quickly. Rob had some proper slappy crooks, back 50s, walked over to Ross to get some gloves (smart move). The session got good, everyone seemed to be skating good. I cannot remember everything from an action packed session, but I’ll try some highlights. Jake fakie front tailslide, slappies, pop shove and kickflip out of the kicker, front lipslides and his first ever slappy crooks! Rob had the dopest halfcab back 50, back 180 fakie 50s, lap over lipslides, nollie 50s, close to no comply 5-0s, lines for days. I had a couple front nosegrinds which I was really hyped on, front 5-0s, slappy crooks on the taller curb, one 360 flip, a nollie 360 flip, a slow line of kickflip up the curb and an over-40 make b/s flip out of the kicker, didn’t get kick back tail or nose manual shove, I had a lot of fun. Dave did 100mph boardslide 270s, noseslides, back 50s to fakie, steezy back 180s out of the curb cut, back 5-0 band back 5-0 back 180 out on the little part of the median. At the end we both tried back nosegrinds for awhile. Both getting close and sticking a lot. In the end Dave got the one above. It was rad. Then we went across the street to Twisted Pine and had a couple of celebration brews. Super fun day somehow in the cold.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings old 52mm stf v1s washers on the outside nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Another cold and snowy day. Went out to the garage for about an hour and a half. I started with some manny tricks, then moved the sheet of wood and skated flatground. It took me about 5 tries to land a kickflip. UGH! It wasn’t all horrible though. I did quite a few more of my ‘basics’. I couldn’t seem to heelflip though and that was annoying. I did a varial flip revert which was kind of rare. Nollie varial flip. B/s flip, f/s flip. Came close to switch flip, nollie treflip, varial heel, nollie f/s flip, switch heel. Didn’t come close to nollie heel, switch f/s flip, heelflip (UGH), cab. Ended as I normally do by trying to just ollie and touch my knees to my chest. I didn’t, but the bigger setup is definitely better for ollies.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings old 52mm v1 stfs washers on the outside of the axles nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage shortly before Thanksgiving dinner on a cold and snowy day. I just grabbed the 8.38 setup that’s in there and started doing the ol’ manual routing on the sheet of wood. It’s a great thing to do on ‘off’ days because I don’t actually ollie ever, I just lift up into nose manual or bonk up into manual. I did most of the ones I’ve learned and then a couple new ones. I got a frontside 180 fakie manual to f/s halfcab out. I felt as cool as Bernie, except that I didn’t ollie in, I just turned off the nose. Then I did it to f/s cab out and it felt even radder. Then I put the manny pad the long way and did a few switch nose manuals, switch manual 180 out (new one) and the f/s 180 fakie manual f/s cab out. Fun!