Somehow the stars aligned and things worked out for a downtown Denver mission with Dave, Rob, Fuzz, Jack and me. It didn’t look good initially as it was raining at the gathering point of Crisis and on the road to Denver. We went drove to Cherry Curbs and the security guard was up front preventing us from even getting out of the car. Ugh. Rob killed it by telling the security guard that Dave was trying to learn how to drive an automatic since he grew up driving a stick. And that it was too slippery out on the streets. So funny. We headed back downtown and things were dry. We got the boot from a curb spot then ended up at the 5 two stairs in a row (old guy 10 stair ha). Everyone firecrackered them. Such a good warm up. Jack ollied up them too, but he’s only 20 something. Once even with a no comply flip up the last set. Dave, Rob and I added back 180 off the last step. Fuzz tried to back 180 the second to last set then switch front 180 the last set making for some pretty epic bails and slams. The pitch out to butt looked so amazing off a two stair. I managed to early grab through a couple sets. Fuzz rode down all of them switch. Jack did pressure flip and late shove off the last set. A few fun powerslides later we were down the hill and hitting some curbs. Jack had some long back 50s. Fuzz and Rob had some good manuals. I did some kickflips to feel more warmed up. Then we checked out this bench/stair/rail area. Jack had some long back 50s. Rob no comply’d up the three stair. This is when some clearly mentally challenged dude started following us and telling us not to skate. Well, he may have been mute because he was just shaking his head and waving no with his finger. Some people let it get to them, other just ignored him. Either way it was kind of weird. We got the boot from a real security guard and went across the street to a nice granite ground with some round flower pots that we skated. Jack and Fuzz had some boardslide pop outs. Jack was doing them frontside I think and going across the street to do some wallrides. I get a fun line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat then noseslide. Off we went.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 30, 2015 at 11:27pm PDT

I think we ended up at this spot next where everyone boardslid the yellow ledge. Dave and Rob added front board. Jack did 180 switch crooks transfer. Fuzz did halfcab boardslide. Jack rolled off the tall ledge so casual. As we were getting booted I tried a couple of street plant things with my hand on the bar and dropped off. Landed one. It felt so rad.

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Apr 30, 2015 at 10:26pm PDT

A video posted by Jack Spanbauer (@jackspanbauer) on May 1, 2015 at 3:30pm PDT

I think we ended up here next. We actually lasted for quite awhile. We started with the orange benches were they are. Fuzz killed it with front 50, front 5-0 and maybe a front smith too? I got crooks. After awhile one was pulled out to ollie over into the little downhill of the entryway. Jack and Fuzz killed this too. Fuzz did ollie, manual, back 180 and front 180 all first try. Maybe nosebonk too. Jack got kickflip nosebonk, one foot nosebonk and probably more that I’m forgetting. I tried to ollie it. It would have a really big ollie for me. I committed on the last one as we were getting a kind boot, but didn’t get over the bench. Either way it felt cool to try that hard.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 2, 2015 at 8:44am PDT

After some grub at 7-11 I think we ended up at Skyline park. Jack rode off a ledge to 5-0 a trash can. Dave and I did drops to tail. Dave added a 360 egg plant nose bonk. Yes it was as crazy as it sounds. Actually I should gram the video of it. Ok, gram’d it. It’s above. Yeah for technology. And yes the nose bonk was intentional.

I ollied this gap. Actually kind of surprised because of how sore I was. But yeah, again I was surprised at just how fun it was and reminds me to skate gaps more often.

Last spot was here. We rode off the drops on the other side which was pretty fun. I got a noseslide to ride down. I think Dave did boardslide. Everyone was kind of done at that point it seemed, but I tried a crooks on the ledge and it grinded really well. So I did like 100 of them having the time of my life. I would go between crooks to fakie or forward just kind of depending on how the grind went. I think my longest grind was 4 sections. It felt sooooo good! I did a couple bad back 50s too. Dave did boardslide to fakie, boardslide to fakie 50 halfcab out and front board to fakie. All super good. After that we rolled/walked back to the car. Incredibly fun night for me. These dudes rule. Oh yeah, and I finally crooked through the V!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 1, 2015 at 9:40am PDT

(setup 8.38 amigos venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ stratford 479)

After a chill day at work I drove through the traffic to meet Jack, Carleigh and Rob at Rock Creek on a gorgeous day. Jack and Carleigh had already been there for awhile and were skating flat. But we ended up skating the ramp for awhile. I had some decent runs for me then started trying back tail stalls for awhile. I got super close. That’s a good start for my challenge. Everyone seemed to be skating pretty good. Rob tapped his inner Fuller and manualled the deck no problem. He also had some lofty front disasters and long front tails. Jack has gotten a lot better at skating ramps and flew around doing long front tail, 5-0s, smiths. Back d. Kept slamming on some bean/sal variation. Carleigh was doing runs with f/s ollies, front ds and almost back ds in them.

Then we played SKATE for awhile. The first game had Rob mastering the art of “double or nothing” beautifully, Carleigh doing kickflip, heelflip, varial flip in a row as well as learning fakie bigspins. It came down to Jack and Rob. I don’t remember what the last trick was, but I saw Rob throwing back 3 and Jack doing some cab bigspin variation. We played another game. It started pretty similar, but ended up being Jack against me. I got him with a nollie tre. I don’t really care that he didn’t land it, I was just happy to land one. We both battled treflips for awhile. It took so long that Rob and Carleigh said we would lose if they beat us to it. But I ended up finally getting one and of course Jack landed it too. A few more tricks went down. Jack won it on a double flip. Yeap, just like all of the annoying kids on BATB. Ha ha, just joking.

Then we skated the ramp awhile longer. Everyone was ripping. Carleigh had a run with front lipslide, back d and front rock I think? Jack added a bigspin back d and some other rad combos. Rob was back smithing all over the place, backside ollies. I did the same ol’ and added two of the weakest texas plants you could do. Fully set the board into the tranny before stepping onto it. Oh well, baby steps.

We skated around the park a bit. Jack did a bunch of long feeble grind tricks on the flat bar and ollied onto the little ledge to front 180 switch crooks the tall ledge. I boardslid the flatbar. Rob back smithed the ledge all steezy and tried halfcab noseslide 270 out. I think Carleigh was beat and chilled after getting a few more fakie bigspins. Anyways, it was a really fun day.

(setup 8.38 Amigos Venture wides bones med bushings STF 51mm NB+ Stratford 479)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 28, 2015 at 7:59pm PDT

On a slightly cool night I met Riley, Matt, Teegan, Scotty, Garret at the Erie “Street League” park. I was last to arrive and there were quite a few people when I got there. I could tell the competition was too much for me so I just chilled for awhile. Matt kept me company for awhile and we watched people skating. Analyzing their runs, looking to see how we could beat them. Ha ha, ok, so here’s some highlights from everyone.

Scotty. MVP of the session. Posed fakie hand plants on the quarterpipe. Even though he didn’t land it watching him pose them was my favorite part of the night. He basically just messed around and mocked the judges all night.

Riley. Had the most points when the night was done, but just couldn’t top Scotty’s creativity. Ha. Every frontside trick on the qp grinded 10 feet off the qp and into the bank. Lines for days.

Garret. Little fish in a big pond. Ha, he’s getting so good. Front tail bigspin, hung with Teegan in the game big game of SKATE.

Teegan. Treflip over the 3 stair kicker first try. Nosegrind the ledge without the bump. Lots of other goodness.

Matt. The lovely no bump back tail above. Fakie 50 all easy. Oh yeah the back tail was in a line with a fast noseslide over the tiny ledge. He could have competed for first place had he not slammed really bad on an axle stall. So funny!

Me: Saving the best for last. Or at least the most self deprecative. My only highlight was a nollie tre in a game of SKATE with Matt. Flatground was the only thing I did moderately ok. I tried my line of crooks, kickflip on the bank, front 50 the bump to ledge. Never got the front 50 in the line. Ugh. I was so sore. I blame taking a day off skating.

Thanks Dyrdek!

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

Here is a great read on how to eat healthy sent to me from The Mighty LZA.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 26, 2015 at 5:46pm PDT

Feeling pretty lazy with the weather I setup my new Amigos board. I got it because meeting the people behind Amigos was awesome. They were all good dudes. I also put some new wheels on. Bones STF because those soft Spitfires were driving me nuts (and flatspotted). I went out to Rampy and warmed the legs up for a few minutes. I had fixed Ledgy so it could be grinded without sticking in a screw anymore. But it didn’t last and the screws fell out of the side. Doh. So I basically had to put the angle iron back after after trick. My setup felt good with pop though. I got noseslides, noseslides fakie, boardslides, back crooks, front 50, back 50, front 5-0 and a lucky front tail to fakie. Had a line of no comply 180, halfcab noseslide then b/s flip. Tried back 5-0s without success and front nosegrinds. Flatground was alright. I stayed away from heelflips and treflips as I had a brand new board and was scared to crack it.

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

I woke up super early, did some stuff and felt like going skating. I went to Rock Creek and had a mostly fun solo session. The slam that made it “mostly” was a fakie hurricane attempt gone bad where I flipped backwards into the ramp. Somehow I didn’t hit my head too hard and I kept skating. I would do a couple runs on the ramp then a couple flatground tricks. I was 100% on front smiths and 0% on back smiths. Front d’s felt good, front rocks, little frontside ollies. On flat I ended up getting through most of my tricks and was on nollie tres when three cars of helmet kids and a scooter or two showed up. Landed it then I was out.

Talked to Bernie and we met at Valmont. I was just kind of dorking around trying slow front smiths and doing them without grinding. Riley showed next and quickly did the basics. The back 5-0 and crooks up were hot. Rob was next and was having early morning issues. Bernie and Scotty were next and we all played a game of SKATE. They put Rob and I last. Bastards. Once it got to Riley the letters piled up quick and Rob and I both went out on fakie heel. Scotty was out next. We skated the ledge more. Rob had woken up and got crooks and halfcab noseslide to fakie. Scotty did nollie noseslide on a tallish part. Unreal. Bernie was feeling out some rad ones too. I was sucking.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 26, 2015 at 7:41am PDT

Off to campus it was. First spot was the double set rail and Riley went for broke on it. So gnarly. He walked away with a sore knee and no trick, but it’ll go down next time. Carleigh and Dave showed up. After the rail session I asked for 10 tries on the stupid rock again. Never got it, but was close as usual. Dave and Rob added some cool tricks. At the end Bernie joined in on some manual fun and fakie manual’d the sidewalk into the hill. I did front tail to fakie. Dave bonked the rock. Riley did blunt on the rock.

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Apr 26, 2015 at 7:09pm PDT

Then we went over to this ledge. My legs were pretty much done at this point, the only thing I managed was some noseslides. I was hating my setup. Razor tail’d board and soft wheels. Riley, Bernie and Scotty killed it. Scotty nollie hardflipped up the ledge at one point. Crazy! Rob had a really tall halfcab noseslide and boardslide pop outs. Dave was off in the distance doing his gap to nose manual which he finally got. The new Null board probably deserves the credit. After awhile some preppy yacht club dork parked right in front of the ledge on purpose. Dork. Carleigh went for 180 nosegrind right by his truck. After that we hit the slappy ledge nearby. Riley did perfect slappy back 50s and a front 5-0. Dave did a few slappy crooks and his patented front 5-0. I got a weak slappy crook. Carleigh and Rob battled 50s. Bernie giggled. Scotty won the pull up contest.

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Apr 25, 2015 at 9:32pm PDT

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 25, 2015 at 3:20pm PDT

This crew of people is awesome. So stoked to know them all.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 52mm 99 NB+ stratford 479)

On a cloudy day I went to Blue Skies during lunch. Akie was there and we chatted for a bit as Dave had seen him the day before. I felt pretty good warming up. Did kickflip fakie first try, noseslides on the flat bar, slow front 50s on the low ledge. Dave showed. Akie was trying crooks on the flat bar. Dave was doing shove variations on the bank. I was kind of all over. Tried a lot of flip tricks (got a really bad tre and a good feeling nollie tre), tried front 50 kickflip out and couldn’t get it. Man, we just skated like two hours ago and I can’t remember much from this. I know Dave and I were tired. I struggled to ollie the flat bar, Akie didn’t. Dave tried boardslide shove, had a good front 50 that went up the escalator. At the end Dave was trying sex changes on the bank and I was trying fakie tres. Both of us got close, but neither rolled away. It had started raining and I was gone a really long time from work. Dave also tries front board 270 out. The highlight was Dave landing 5 kickflips in a row on flat!

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 52mm 99 NB+ stratford 479)

Plans to meet at Erie park fell through so I just went to research center. Felt sore initially but it got better. Noseslide, noseslide fakie, boardslide pop out, crooks, crooks fakie all happened within a couple tries which hyped me up. Then it was time for back 50. UGH. Just when I thought I could back 50 I seem to have lost it. I got a couple, but they were not good. It took my mood down. I also tried a bunch of frontside noseslides and never rode away from one. I managed one front 50 out like 20. I’ve probably skated too many days in a row and should blame my legs for the lack of pop. But instead I’ll blame the softer wheels and old board. Tried a line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab noseslide, but game up. Flatground went ok. I slammed on a front 50 when Janitor Joe came out for his smoke break. I think he finally doesn’t hate me. Either way I headed up the hill to let him enjoy his smoke break in peace. I tried to pop a good ollie over the little kicker thing (doubtful it popped much). Then I tried a b/s flip for awhile and got a pretty weak one. Went back to the ledge and just started hucking as it was getting windy. I tried kickflip noseslides or crooks nollie tre out. Ha ha, sounds good right? No really I want to do a crooks nollie tre some day so I tried to grind while setting up the back foot. On a scale of 1-100 with 100 being close and 1 being not close at all I think I got to 2. The kickflip noseslide was closer. A couple almost happened. Then the wind became too much and I left.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire f4 52mm 99 NB+ stratford 479)

Learn more about the artist Frank Zirbel here.

It was cold out and I didn’t feel like skating too much so I finally cleaned off Rampy then skated for about 20 minutes. I told myself I had to do a Texas Plant and a frontside ollie. I did them, but they weren’t pretty. I also did a few other tricks. It was fun. It was weird having trucks that are ground down to the axle though because they really stick when grinding. Oh well, new trucks soon hopefully.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushing 52mm spitfire F4 99 NB+ Stratford 479)