Another rainy day. Ran some boards to 303 and it was somewhat dry in the Denver area. Met up with Rob on the way back at Broomfield park. We were the only ones there initially and it was rough going having to avoid puddles for pretty much everything. It would clear up quite a bit though over the next couple hours. We started on the blue box since it was the driest. Neither of us were really feeling it and struggled. I couldn’t even do front 50 shove. I had to try back 50s from the side instead of going over the top since there was a puddle in the way. I got a couple sloppy back 50s and one accidental 5-0. That happened on front 50s too. Rob was going for front board 270 out, front 50 back 180 out. After awhile some other people came including Steve. Rob was trying this sick line of ollie onto the blue ledge, back 180 off then switch boardslide the sad ledge. He got an over 40 make and I think a cleaner make too that I didn’t see. I was having some new shoe blues for sure. These new PJs are way stiffer and it’s hard to skate in them. My run on the NBs is in question. But I have to admit my feet seem to appreciate having the extra support so who knows. I had a couple bailed frontside ollies, could barely do crooks on the black ledge, etc. Started trying a line beginning at the top of the park with a flip trick, then ollie onto the happy ledge, kickflip off, frontside ollie on the brick qp then crooks the back ledge. I spent the rest of the session trying it. Steve was trying some flippers too. Rob was doing manuals on the sad ledge. Not sure if he got a clean one. I struggled with halfcab flips to the point of wanting to focus my board. So started trying other flippers and would struggle with them all. It eventually started to rain and I had one last try to get the line. Fakie bigflip, ollie up, kickflip off, horrible f/s ollie, crooks! Nice way to end the session.

Later on I went out to Rampy with the ultimate goal of learning backside bonelesses and switch heels. I didn’t even get remotely close to the back boneless. I can’t even get into the trick. I smell the first letter of the game coming unless I try somewhere else. Other ramp tricks went ok. Flatground I made myself do a lot of treflips. Only one was clean, but I landed on several. Switch heels weren’t very close, but I at least continued to make progress on consistently flipping it. Came close to switch varial flip. Had a couple weak fs ollies on the ramp, the worst texas plant ever and hung up trying to stand up on my little back slash to fakie. Stoked I skated so hard.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ pj stratfords)

So I’m supposed to learn backside bonelesses now for the game of #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge. I have never tried it before. Not even on the streets. So I went out to Rampy on a rainy Friday afternoon. Did some warming up with normal runs and felt pretty good. The new PJs are really grippy. Got front feeble, front tail, couldn’t get front d to surgarcane. Then I tried a bunch of back bonelesses. None of them even resembled a back boneless. I could not keep my back foot with the board. I would be telling myself as I went up the wall “only take the front foot off” then a second later my back foot would be on the coping. Ugh. I don’t think I’ll be doing that trick on Rampy. But I’ll probably keep trying. I skated flat a lot too. Went through a few basics before trying switch heels for a long time. I got soooo close. It really got me excited. I still have a long ways to go, but feel like it’s finally at least possible. At the end I got an itch to try hardflips and put my feet on a couple of them, but never quite got it. Either way, I was hyped. Also did a fakie varial flip revert. Ha, going oh so slow. Fun day, I skated really hard.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ pj stratfords)

A photo posted by @newbalancenumeric on May 7, 2015 at 1:39pm PDT

A video posted by @newbalancenumeric on May 7, 2015 at 10:01pm PDT

Yeap, you knew I would get them official PJ Ladd pro shoes as soon as I could. We all knew the dude hypes me up more then any other pro skater and I’m stoked to be able to support the dude in some way. It meant I didn’t have a chance to break them in yet so things were rough initially. The new shoes have a much stiffer sole, are a bit thicker and don’t fit quite as well as the old ones. But with that said the new ones are much grippier and seem more durable. Only time will tell if that’s the case and they seem like they will probably break in pretty nice. Either way I’ve been running the 479s for several months so it was a big change. After a couple noseslides I started trying a run of halfcab flip, ollie up the curb then crooks. But I was really struggling with the crooks. Argh. Got fakie bigflip, varial flip, ollie up the curb, no crooks. Ha. On the way up the hill I started hucking switch heels. For the first time ever I was somewhat consistently flipping the board. Man I would be sooo hyped to get that one. None were real close, but I was getting one foot on so it’s a start. Had a run with no comply 180, fakie flip, the worst f/s halfcab flip in history, 180 up the curb, halfcab noseslide bail. Had some slow and hands down treflips, tried halfcab heelflips. I guess in all my flatground game did ok in the new shoes. I did a back 5-0 first try which was intended to be a back 50. Ha. Tried kickflip front noseslides and got pretty close. Hucked halfcab crooks for awhile and never got close. All things considered it was a decent day for a first go in new shoes.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ pj startford 533)

Things get real in this Psycho Unity comic. For more about the artist Frank Zirbel click here.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 6, 2015 at 10:51am PDT

Met Dave at Blue Skies under cloudy skies with rain threatening. I arrived first and had about 10 minutes to get warmed up. I allowed me to get to the point of doing one line I had thought of. Ollie the flat bar, kickflip to fakie the bank, switch 180 on flat, back 180 the low part of the snake bar. When Dave arrived I tried to do front 180 the flat bar, fakie flip on the bank and then noseslide to fakie the tall ledge. Never got the noseslide fakie and really struggled with the front 180. Doh. Dave said I should add some spice with a switch hippy jump after the 180, but I’m not that cool. He demonstrated how easy the switch hippie jump was. He also did nollie shove revert (maybe it was fakie. goofy footers are so hard to figure out) on the bank, a bunch of boardsldies, a bunch of kickflips and more Dave smoothness. I got close to front 50 kickflip out, but then the rain started.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ stratford 479)

Another rainy night in Colorado. I headed out to Rampy for a bit. I wanted to try back tails and the dream was to do a TX Plant and a back tail in one run to prove I’ve really learned the tricks of the game. But the Texas Plant never happened. Every time I committed I slammed. Sometimes pretty hard. Doh. I got somewhat close to back tail stall. I had a few runs at first that had a lot of different tricks in them. Got hung up on hurricanes for awhile and never got one. Skated flat quite a bit too. Mostly trying nollie heels which were remotely close. Man I would LOVE to learn that one. Got a first try treflip and a few other flippers. Skated a little over 30 minutes. Didn’t land much, but had fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushing stf 51mm nb+ stratford 479)

Felt decent when I got home from work. Kinda wanted to just skate Rampy briefly, but I became appointed the one that would bring India to ballet and run some errands. After dropping her off I went to Blank Curbs, aka Valmont garage. As soon as I set my new board down I could tell I wasn’t feeling it. On my second attempt to wallie over a parking block something weird happened resulting in me doing the splits really bad and almost hurting my knee. So sketchy. I got up, did a few slappy stalls then left for Red Curbs. I felt horrible there too. Partly because everything was kind of damp, not puddles, just slippery and damp. I got a “nollie” front slip that felt cool and some slappy crooks, but other then that everything sucked. I tried a line of back 50, varial flip and there was supposed to be more, but I never got there. Instead I left.

Rain threatening again I met Rob at Broomfield park. I got there first and after doing a few laps of basics on the quartapotty I pumped around the flow bowl. My legs enjoyed the low impact warm up and rewarded me by not being so sore. We each did some laps for awhile and then settled in on some lines on the blue and black ledges as well as flatground. There were only a few other people at the park and as Rob said it felt like skating a street spot. I don’t remember the actual lines that went down, but a lot of tricks went down. Rob had a bunch of back 50s on the blue ledge, nosegrind on blue, sick first try fakie 3 shove, kickflips, back 180s, halfcab noseslides, crooks (I think), front noseslides, front boards, fakie nosegrind on the black ledge, manual up the escalated ledge then nose manual the blue ledge. So sick. I couldn’t quite stand up on nosegrinds on the black ledge and when I tried them on the blue ledge I got the dreaded love tap. Got crooks and crooks fakie on the black ledge, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180, on the blue ledge back 50, accidental back 5-0, fakie nosegrind jib, little switch front noseslides. Flatground was going decent. Had a couple 3 flips, halfcab flips, fakie bigflip, same ol’ then out of nowhere snapped the tail on a nollie tre. Bummer! I have never even come close to cracking a board on a nollie tre before. It worked out though because I wasn’t sore yet, the weather was getting weird and a bunch of people showed up.

(setup amigos 8.38 RIP venture wides bones medium bushings stf 51mm NB+ stratford 479)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 2, 2015 at 7:08pm PDT

Met up with Rob, Riley, Scotty, Bernie and eventually Dave at Longmont park on a warm day with rain threatening. When I got there Riley, Scotty and Bernie were doing tricks up the step up. They would fly around the park and land or slam. Riley rattled off like 10 tricks including nollie inward heel, nollie back heel, switch front heel, switch 360, pretty much everything. I had to do no comply tailslides for the challenge and went to work on them right away until I got the weak one above. It was harder to slide then I thought. I’ll blame the bank for not having wax. Ha. Rob had tricks like the steezy crailslide above, one foot ollies and kickflips. Us older dudes skated the mellow bank for awhile. Dave and I both landed boneless noseblunts. Pretty cool. Dave had a bit of a deck check and I did some sort of “What in the hell was that?” thing. Bernie and Riley skated the manual pad. Scotty joined us on the mellow bank and did a bunch of fakie sweeper combos. Almost got fakie heel sweeper finger flip. So rad. Then we started doing more flip trick stuff. Rob got a b/s heelflip and b/s no comply finger flip. Dave did a really good frontside flip and almost got fakie varial flip. I tried cab flips for awhile and kind of did one with lots of pivot. That would be a fun one to try more. Bernie joined us for a few textbook flippers. Then I tried the big flip for awhile and lastly skated the ledge as Riley front feebled the handrail. I got crooks, a horrible back 50 and a front nosegrind as Dave did back 180 flyouts over a cone. Good times.

With rain threatening and even leaving streaks sometimes we hit Zuni park for awhile. I had to do a back tail to fakie for the old guy game of insta-skate. So I went right to work on the small quarterpipe and managed to land a few! The first ones ever! Dave filmed one then I filmed him do it how it’s supposed to be done. Right to the next challenge I tried no comply tailslides on the big bank for awhile. Kind of did them, but didn’t want to film because it wasn’t very proper. Jake was looking good on his board after meniscus surgery. Back blunt, front blunt on the qp. Dave was cruising around everything and did a bunch of tricks on the little qp. I got a kickflip on the big bank. It started to rain heavier so we just skated flatground for awhile. Jake and I tried treflips for awhile. He got his first and mine didn’t feel good, but we got them. Dave did a bunch of kickflips and tried some treflips. He also got a varial flip! I got a first try nollie tre, bad heelflip, fakie bigflip and a couple others I think. Fun little session after such a long one the night before.