Day 297.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 5, 2015 at 7:04pm PST

On a chilly night (mid-30s) I brought boards to Meta then rolled into the night solo style. It’s been awhile since I’ve skated anywhere other then a spot by myself. I should do it more, it’s fun. I started at this ledge we saw the other night. It obviously begs for lipslide. I started with boardslide going uphill to get warmed up. Did some kickflips. Took a long long time before I could commit to the lipslide. I was a little bummed on that. I also did a noseslide coming up. Then started trying a silly line to the lipslide. There is a bench near the wall that Matt ollied over. I would ride along the ledge and do a silly plant thing off. I had to grab f/s and hold onto the edge with my left hand. It was pretty fun. Then I would do a front shove and try the lipslide. Well I actually didn’t land many front shoves so it took forever. I was hucking all kinds of flippers on the way back to the top. And I had to give up on front shove and finally got the line after giving up on varial flips too and just doing a regular pop shove. And the lipslide was kind of a mutant too. I was basically sliding out when the back axle caught on the lower step and I pivoted out. So it was totally a lipslide to switch crook on the lower step and totally intentional. Either way I was please. Then I took a few tries to do a front 50 on it. It was hard as it was sticky for grinds and if you stuck you could potentially dive into a bunch of metal. Ouch.

Then I went to this area. I did a few sloppy back 50s, horrible front tail stall, switch noseslide then started trying a fun line. Front shove off a curb, kickflip the bump going into the alley then crooks the ledge. The front shove was hit or miss, but I would end up getting the line and was pretty excited about it. Then I started trying another line across the street of front 180 off a curb, switch 180 up the next one, 360 flip on flat and something down the 3 stair, but I didn’t get the 360 flip in the few short tries I had before I got the boot. Oh well. I walked back to my car remembering the one great thing about colder weather: No one is outside, the spots are clear!

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Dave makes the best edits!

Went out to the garage feeling pretty arthritic and sore. I put the ‘manny pad’ out and did the fun manual warmups then felt good enough to try flatground. I ended up skating flat for about an hour and a half and it was fun. I rattled off a few of the normal tricks before mixing in some total hucks. I never got stuck on any tricks and would mostly just try what I could think of at the time. Tricks I was happy with were heelflip, 360 flip, f/s flip, nollie varial flip, first try “over 70” varial heel, “over 80” nollie flip make. I didn’t get close to nollie heels at all. Somewhat close to switch flip, double flip, nollie tre (so hard in that little space). Did a bad varial flip rewind. Hucked tricks I’ll probably never land like switch f/s flip, nollie inward heel, nollie back heel. Whatever, it was fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers inside bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Hadn't skated downtown Boulder in awhile. Fun times

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 3, 2015 at 9:18pm PST

Jake and I met Matt at Meta on a warmish Nov night. We chilled for awhile, tuned our shred sticks to perfection and set off to the Widow Maker. Unfortunately there was an activity up there so we couldn’t play our warm up game of SKATE up there. And you thought we were going to skate the double set? Ha. We ended up at this two stair spot and we stayed there awhile. My new product of the day was Bones medium bushings. I have been trying to get ahold of a set of these for awhile and finally did at Crisis the other night. They seemed much looser then the Venoms or Ventures, but didn’t wheel bite as much. Perfect. Matt manualed this all easy. He had brand new Busentiz shoes on right out of the box. Crazy that he can do that. Jake got a manual or two or five depending on how anal you are about slight tilts. I never manualled it. I was having one of those crappy nights. Matt and I hucked a lot of flip tricks while waiting. Matt of course had several treflips and a switch flip that looked great. I got a few kickflips up and tried to front shove off, but slammed over and over and it was hurting more then normal. Jake got halfcab up and several front 180’s up and almost lined it up with a fakie ollie off. Matt took a long time to get nose manual, but the one he did was tight.

We moved on to Wells Fargo. Everyone was getting tired quick. I had some fun boardslide shuffles around the hip. Jake did bluntslide transfer. Matt freakin’ ollied the yellow bar. That’s what the photo above is supposed to be. I made myself slowly noseslide the easier side which took a long time.

Lastly we skated this barrier for a minute. Here’s Jake giving it an awkward hug and me jumping into it. That’s the kid of barrier session it was. I slammed pretty hard two times. The slams hurt way more then they should, a sign that something isn’t right in my body. Anyways, Jake and I tried to line out a really tech run. Flatground kickflip OVER A CRACK! and then a f/s wallride. The photo above is me as my nose stuck into a rough part of the barrier and I slammed into it. We both struggled with the kickflip part of it too. I was actually getting really upset. Luckily I got the line. Jake gave up as the kickflip was getting the best of him. That section of ‘crete must be cursed. We pushed back to the car. All three of us doing the minimum amount of pushing to slowly roll and get home to our beds.

(setup – 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers inside bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

It’s a cupsole shoe battle royale! Featuring three shoes from some of my current favorite skateboarders. PJ Ladd, Mark Suciu and Brandon Westgate. I gave up on vulcanized shoes awhile ago because they hurt my legs and back too much. I wore Footprints Gamechanger orthotic insoles in all of these shoes. I love them and highly recommend them. I blow through the left toe of every shoe I’ve skated. So having to duct tape in an extra piece of suede into the toe is normal for me.

New Balance Numeric PJ Straford 533

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

The original Blackbox made Stratford 479 had become my favorite shoe ever. The New Balance made 533 had a lot to live up to. I loved how flexible and yet supportive the 479 was. The 479 was not very grippy though and not the most durable shoe. I have skated about 5 pairs of the PJ 533 now. While I was initially hesitant of the thicker and stiffer sole I have become just as big of fan of the PJ 533s. The 533 is way grippier and way more durable then the 479. The 533 toebox doesn’t fit as perfect as the 479 for me, but it’s still a good fit. This shoe lasts forever, over a month of skating everyday. It’s insane. From a hippy standpoint I really like that I’m killing fewer cows and wasting fewer resources when I skate these. And I am a huge PJ Ladd fan so supporting him is a major plus to me. This shoe is great. I do with the sole was slightly more flexible though.

Emerica Westgate CC

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

I have had the Leo and I don’t like that shoe. So I was happy to see the new Westgate offer a bit more support then the Leo, but still remain a simple thin cupsole. The long and narrow fit is a little weird and required some breaking in to avoid blisters on the outside of my toes. They are also a little too spongy for me initially. They did break in though and there were a few days where I loved this shoe. I say ‘a few days’ because the shoe didn’t last much longer then that. I wore through to the insole in 9 days. That is not good. For the record I skate Mob grip, but that didn’t stop the PJ shoes from lasting a month. I’m in a position where durability isn’t my biggest concern so I will say I still like this shoe quite a bit. Even if I couldn’t ollie over a car in them.

Adidas Suciu ADV

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

Alright this is kind of a weird one to review. I like thin cupsoles so I thought the ADV would be similar to a cupsole. It’s not, it’s insanely thin and skates like a vulcanized shoe. It also comes with an incredibly thick insole which I replaced with my normal Footprints Gamechanger. So I didn’t really skate the shoe the way it’s designed. I only lasted a few days before I gave up on these. My feet hurt in them even just skating flatground. Rating the durability isn’t easy either as I only skated them a few days, but as you can see they already had wear marks. Judging from experience I don’t think they were very durable. With all that said, if you like a super thin shoe and a thick insole, maybe these are for you.

No surprise, but the PJ shoe wins. Never doubt PJ.

Went into my garage not warmed up at all and tried ~20 nollie heelflips. Only one was remotely close.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers venom bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Dave and I pulled into Denver park at the same time. 7:30 am the morning after Halloween. I thought I would be in worse shape, but the extra hour of sleep from the time switch seemed to help out. It was crisp, but warming up quickly. We both did our own thing for awhile. Simon showed up and Dave and Simon played a game of SKATE that went a long time. I was basically just trying three lines over and over. Rock ‘n roll the bank to curb, manual the driveway, wallride. Never got the wallride. Argh. Then I tried a flipper, little b/s ollie the hip, rock fakie on qp and cab over the hip. Never got the cab. Flip tricks were feeling good at least. Last one was front 50 the bump to ledge near the entrance of the park, ollie the curb into the driveway (somehow hard for me) and just did an axle stall because that’s all I can do on tranny. Then Simon and I played a game of SKATE. He’s got moves! I got him with tricks like heelflip and 360 flip, but in the end he won it with tricks like cab and bigspin. It was a fun game.

Earlier this morning. Simon filming Dave. #thestubborns

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 1, 2015 at 12:18pm PST

Then we went to this bank to ledge spot I’ve wanted to skate ever since Chad’s tricks there in the Sunny Daze video. And guess what? It was wayyy harder to skate then it looks. We all took awhile to land anything. Simon was probably first with front 50. Dave with a nose stall. I took the longest and my first trick was a crook jib. It was funny. Simon would go on to land front 5-0 and some solid noseslides. Dave had front 50, a front crook jib, a bunch of backside pivots. I couldn’t get front 50. I got some silly front nosestall 180s out and posed some kick back 50s for awhile.

Simon and @fullertrron ⬆️⬆️⬇️

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 1, 2015 at 8:14pm PST

Then we went to this spot which is way harder to skate then it looks. The runway is uphill so getting the speed is a chore. I did a kickflip on the bank and that was it. Dave and Simon went off. Dave did front 50s, back 50s (I think), back tail front 50 to spin, cab bigspin and more. Simon did the crooks to fakie and switch back 180 off the ledge a couple times. He also did crooks 270, front tail then back 180 off the ledge and more. I was too tired to push that hard so I started messing around with noseslide 270 shoves at the bottom on the ledge. It was fun. I ended up getting a bad one, but it still made me happy.

@fullertrron and I have slowly been filming for some type of old man video. It's going to focus mostly on the extreme sports side of skateboarding. Handrails, gaps and huge hubbas like this. #thestubborns

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 2, 2015 at 7:12am PST

And now for my #thestubborns 'teaser'. 🔨🔨🔨 #oldmanskateboarding #henolliedintothatwow #clipperledge

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 2, 2015 at 8:14am PST

Then we checked out some of the spots around the park and ended up at this huge hubba. We laughed, slammed and filmed us dork around. Simon did a front blunt too which had BA cheering. Fun day.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers venom bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Brought India to ballet on a beautiful day and went to Broomfield park. I had done some yoga for flexibility in the morning and I felt so loose it was great. I started mostly in the flow bowl just carving around and enjoying it. Rob showed and we got our warm up on. I remember being surprised with a first try front 50 shove out. Other then that nothing stood out for me. It was rad to see Rob getting at it. He was flowing good, had some boardslides, crooks, manuals. Then we mostly tried manuals up and around on the blue slanted pad. Rob was doing it like every try and thinking about body varials out. A bunch of people showed like Max, Chad L, Davis, Joey and Murphy and they were wrecking it. Fun to watch. I don’t remember if I even got a clean manual or not, probably not then.

Then I had to go pick up India and SHE DROVE US HOME! It was crazy. Then I went to Boulder park for Halloween Havoc and the game of SKATE benefit for Riley. I didn’t really skate much, just kinda did a few kickflips here and there. I entered the game of SKATE, but I had been standing around for too long and got taken out by some little kid doing stationary shoves. Ha. Luckily Dan beat him. At the end of the day me and a bunch of the Square State kids were doing slappy crooks and stuff on the curb in front of the park. It was a blast. I had several slappy crooks. Rob had some good ones. Blake, Ted almost learned them, it was a rad way to end a great day.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser venom bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a old nb# pj stratford brown/gum that weren’t quite dead)

Day 291. 💦

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 30, 2015 at 8:07am PDT

One of those rare morning when I work late that I decide to leave early and stop by Boulder park. It was lightly sprinkling as I pulled in. There were two other people there that left shortly after I got there. Hopefully it was the rain that got to them and not me. I did a few axle stalls around the park, almost got a grind in the round deep end and then it started to get sketchy to skate. So I just tried this line over an over of ollie into the far NW bank, kickflilp out of the bump, front 50 down the hubba, front 50 up the hubba. Never quite got it, but did get halfway up the hubba. Good enough for me.

After work I stopped by the research center. I had energy and wanted to skate. It was cool out. I warmed up by riding down the Max stairs a few times then hit the ledge. Had some fun warm up runs with a basic trick on the ledge then ollies up the curbs and the little gap. Took awhile to get crooks. Got back 50 first try. Had an ok halfcab noseslide. Took forever to get a front 50 and when I did I headed around the building to find a good spot for flatground. I told myself I needed to do 15 flip tricks. That’s pretty much all I have so it would be tough. It started out good though. Kickflip, fakie flip, heelflip, halfcab flip, fakie bigfilp, varial flip, fakie varial flip, 360 flip, nollie varial flip, nollie 360 flip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s flip, b/s flip. And then I couldn’t do a trick to save my life. My feet were hurting like crazy and I knew I would never skate the Suciu’s again. I was getting close on f/s halfcab heel, but I would wuss out a lot because of how bad my feet hurt. I ended up getting horrible b/s and f/s halfcab heels to make 15. Fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture vlight lows venom bushings no bottom washer 1/16 riser 4 washers on the inside of each axle 50mm spitfire f4 101a adidas suciu adv)

Almost to 300! I was dragging after a very busy day of work and some family stuff. Ended up just doing a quicky in the garage. The some manuals to start with. First time doing switch nose manual 180 out the long way on the sheet of wood. Neat. Then tried 10 nollie heels not getting close at all and called it a day.