Skated the Sol ramp with @nolancormier this evening. Totally embarrassing. #ripper

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:48pm PST

Went to the Sol ramp after work to talk bidness with Nolan. I played foosball with Allan for quite awhile first. Then we hit the ramp for a really mellow session. I didn’t do much of anything other then axle stalls. Nolan being mellow is still really good (see above). Oh yeah, I had new shoes, since my experiment with some 11.5 Stratfords proved they were too big. Doh, guess I can’t stockpile all of the 11.5s too. Gotta make 3 pairs of 11s last until April now (yeah right).

The MURDER CITY DEVILS!

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Nov 11, 2014 at 10:05pm PST

I never saw Murder City Devils back in the day. I had tickets to see them open for At The Drive-In, but being the Texans that ATDI are they rolled their van in the snow and the show was cancelled (well I later found out that MCD still played, but at a different venue). So here we are several years later with a chance to see them. They just put out a new album that I think is great. So it’s kind of funny to be excited to hear the older classic songs I’ve never heard and want to hear the new songs as well.

Zach and I braved the cold and got there early enough to see the opening band Dragondeer. They play some breed of blues music. They had talent and played well, but it didn’t really hype us up or anything.

Several more friends showed shortly before 10 when MCD went on. They opened with the new tune “I Don’t Want To Work For Scum Anymore”. It was loud quickly and Spencer walked right off the stage into the crowd screaming the lyrics. It was an intense and awesome way to start the set. He stayed on the stage for the rest of the show which was a good mixture of old tunes with a few new ones sprinkled in. The setlist was pretty similar to this one I found on the web except they closed with Murder City Riot. Which is kind of funny because the lyrics repeatedly sayd “been up drinking all night” and yet the show was over at 11pm. I for one was grateful though and it seemed like a lot of the older crowd was as well. It was a great show. It was nice seeing a band still doing it. Still making great music, still touring, looking healthy (it’s funny getting older and wanting to see bands look healthy rather then wasted like when you saw them at 20 something) and doing things right. Kudos MCD, you guys rule.

Three nights in a row on Rampy. This one I actually had a little time before watching the Simpsons with the kids. It was the first night I felt burnt on Rampy. I always have problems skating the same thing over and over. I could just not skate for a day, but that would be asking too much. I tried to mix it up with some flip tricks on flat, but I also came to the realization that the 11.5 NBs I had as a test are too big. Doh. I tried a heelflip and it felt like my foot was going to come out of the shoe. On the ramp I made myself do a couple things before I could go in and eat popcorn. Oh yeah, it was freezing in the garage. I was bundled up and still felt cold. I had to do a new trick. My motivation was warm popcorn. If you don’t know that about me, popcorn is my favorite. I got lucky with a random new trick. Fakie front axle, to disaster, to back axle. I meant to go to back smith, but somehow it went to axle. So totally lucky, but I’ll take it. Then I had to do two frontside ollies in a row which was so much harder then I thought it would be. My motivation was popcorn. Rampy is so tight. I eventually did two “ollies” on back to back walls. Then I went into the heat, ate warm popcorn and laughed with the kids.

Another brief Rampy session before having to head out and drive the kids around in the cold snow. I skated really good. Lots of tricks first try. Also did a f/s halfcab rock ‘n roll. I’m not sure of the exact name, but it felt neat and just kind of happened.

Tis #rampy season

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:04pm PST

Had a few minutes before leaving for Murder City Devils to skate. Cleaned up the garage a little and skated for about 20 minutes. I had more fun and landed more tricks then I expected. Front tail, feeble, smith, disaster. Back 5-0 fakie (my poor impression of the trick), fakie pivot fakie, fakie Joe Hamilton, fakie 5-0s, front d to fakie. I did quite a few tricks that felt in more control then normal. I did several flatground kickflips to help break in the shoe. These shoes are a half size too big. They are a test to see if I like them enough to add all the 11.5s at Sol, Meta, 303 to my stash of 11s.

0-2

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 11, 2014 at 1:35pm PST

Was chilling on a Sunday morning licking my wounds from the loss the day before when Dave called and encouraged me to come try it again. That guy! Ollie somehow agreed to come with and we set off for Longmont. Him and I were at the school first and I realized I was really sore and tired and not wanting to try kickflips. Ollie was ripping. Drop in on anything there, 180s off the curb, manuals on the ledges (not ollieing up), fakie shove. I had a couple 50s, crooks, basic warm ups then went to work on the darn kickflip. Rob showed shortly and brought a positive vibe that stoked me out and had me trying harder. He did a really sick manual. I had 2 or 3 kickflips I should have stayed on and at least tried to land. But I didn’t. It was quite depressing. It’s so hard to consistently setup for the kickflip. The metal grate in the approach throws you off. Oh well. Maybe some day.

Ledges, banks and sunsets. Money.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 11, 2014 at 4:12pm PST

Woke up before the rest of the family. Did some chores, watched the Enjoi video, etc. Had an hour before I needed to be around so I went to Southern Hills (top ledge). I just kind of dorked around not skating hard just to get my body warmed up. Did some flatground basics. Did some random stalls on the curb (front crooks, back 180 fakie 50). Did a couple crooks on the ledges, noseslides and maybe a front 50.

Then I met Rob, John and Dave at Rocky Mtn in Longmont. Things started pretty good for me. Maybe since I was warmed up. I did most of my basics on the ledge. Front/back 50s, back crooks, noseslide, front board pop out. Rob did some cool manuevers on the far bank to brink. Dave was hurting so he just filmed. John did some rad lines with double ollies and no complies, front 50s. Rob had some hot bean plants and no complies. I tried a kickflip to fakie onto the brick for a long time and came up short. Ugh. I left feeling pretty crappy, but it quickly subsided as it was a fun day with good friends in great weather.

#TGIFlatgroundToedragFriday. Probably gonna get more calls from @dennisbusenitz2 after this one

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 11, 2014 at 2:06pm PST

Went over to the hockey nearby hockey rink for my lunch break. It was super warm out. I started with 180s, shoves, then started flipping. Things started super good. Fakie flip, halfcab flips both ways, heelflip, b/s flip, treflip within a couple. Was thinking I would rattle off a ton of tricks. Then I never landed another treflip and frontside flip took forever. I did manage a couple nollie tres, an extra slow fakie tre. Tried a few switch varial flips, but didn’t get close. Filmed a couple silly things above then went back to work. Might skate more later ..

Rolled up to the park at lunch on a really warm day and my new homie Luke was there. He challenged me to a game of SKATE so that’s how I spent most of my lunch. I struggled with treflip and heelflips, otherwise it probably would have been over pretty quick. He got me with f/s flip and hardflip and a couple other ones. Earlier in the day on gchat I made a deal with Nate that we would learn kickflip backside noseslides so I wanted to try some. I wasn’t close. I didn’t get to skate the park much actually since most of it was spent playing SKATE (which isn’t all bad).

And it’s appropriate today.