Went to Blue Skies on a cooler day. Started out struggling big time again. Argh, my board was in the cold car so the bushings were even stiffer then normal. I did my standard warm ups of ollies on the bank and cab kickturns on the big crack bank. Next thing I remember was a decent front board on a flatbar which is really rare for me. Then I started trying a line where I ride up the qp onto the main ledge and front 180 off, then fakie flip on the main bank then front board the flatbar. I was hyped on how it came together. Hitting the ledge that way feels way better then just climbing up on it and doing a trick off. I got the fakie flip every try. And the front board came again after a few tries. Had a flatground trefip. Some ok feeling heelflips. Ollied the flatbars, did a couple front 50s and crooks. Then I decided I needed to ollie the low part of the escalator ledge again. Ugh. It took me forever. Like 50 tries. I suck at ollies. I landed on it so many times, but it was a depressing struggle. I think I’ve only ollied it once before so I shouldn’t expect much, but still. I finally “landed” one. Basically I landed on my board and rode to the grass that’s 4 feet away. Not sure I would have rode any further had the grass not been there. Oh well.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta crap wheels)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 28, 2015 at 8:14pm PST

After dinner I headed out skating after making no phone calls or having any intention of where I was gonna go. I thought campus, but somehow remembered this spot and decided to go to this ledge spot. There are a few of these in a row, two of which are waxed. Warming up was brutal. And to make it worse the brick sections were wet so I couldn’t do the slappy part. I kept at it and eventually did a few decent things for me. Did a noseslide to fakie followed by a John Brandow (switch “slappy” front noseslide). The Brandow wasn’t all the way over the brick section. Then got a crooks over one. Felt so good. Struggled with front 50s, but would eventually get a few. Over the “gap” I did front 50, front 5-0, front 50 front 180 out, front 50 shove. Did runs of crooks then back 50 over the bricks a few times. The back 50s were bad. But man it was fun. I thought of a dream line at the end. Crooks, go around kickflip up the little curb, front 50 front 180 out, switch 180 on flat, b/s flip off a curb cut. Never got close, but it seems possible. I really don’t like how my setup feels right now. The trucks are so tight. Well, the bushings. They need to break in already. The Ricta wheels are reminding me why I don’t like cored wheels. And worst of all, the 8″ board feels small. At least the tail. And my new shoes feel kind of stiff. Argh. Then I went across the street to Whole Foods and got the best dessert snack ever:

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 28, 2015 at 8:57pm PST

Yum.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta crap wheels)

Then again, who doesn’t? Ha. See more from the artist Frank Zirbel here.

Went to Blue Skies during my lunch break on another day of the 70 degree heat wave. Man it was nice out. Luke was there. We talked a lot. So I didn’t get a whole lot of skating in. He’s got a sponsor me video company. Anyway I didn’t do much and was feeling the effects of new everything. I did one line of ollie into the bank, ollie a flat bar then back 180 the little part of the curvy bar. Boneless and kickflip to fakie on the main bank. Heelflip and fakie heel on flat. Crooks and front 50 on the low ledge. Tried front smiths on the low ledge going slow. Got really close. Popped out of one, but my foot came off. Then accidentally did tailslide and slammed onto the ledge hard. I went back to work then.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta crap 51mm wheels)

A photo posted by carleigh samson (@gnarlycarleigh) on Jan 26, 2015 at 8:15pm PST

On an unseasonably warm evening in the 50s I went to the dimly lit St Julien spot. I was to meet Jack and Carleigh. I started doing laps. Front 50, back 50. I had finally retired my previous pair of Stratfords and was rocking a new pair. Since I’ve skated only this shoe for a long time they felt fine. I added front 50 180 out and a manual on the ledge. Jack and Carleigh had shown. Jack was super sore from the day before. He isn’t 20 anymore. He’s 22. Ha ha! He still did some manuals all easy tailblock slides and front 5-0s. Carleigh mostly skated flatground. Did some nollie shoves, tailblock slides and noseslides. We pushed and walked for awhile. Jack and I ollied a little gap. Ok, Jack ollied it easy. I took a bunch of tries to do a weak stretched out no pop ollie where I landed sideways. Lastly we ended up at the new ledge spot. It’s sick. Jack and Carleigh got cute and did doubles. Jack did front board to manual. Carleigh did boardslide. Then some steezy noseslides. Then tried noseslide shove and front 180 nosegrind. Jack had front 50’d it super easy when we got there. I wanted that. But the shortness of the ledge weirded me out. I had to settle for going in slow and sideways and just doing a little stall. A front noseslide made me feel better at least. Then I had to split to pick up India.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta crap 51mm wheels)

Such a beautiful day!!! @matthouse back tail in a t-shirt

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 25, 2015 at 2:58pm PST

New complete because I left my board at the spot today and it was gone when we went back. #doh #idiot Thanks for having @venturetrucks lows @metaskateboards !!!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 24, 2015 at 9:10pm PST

Went to Southern Hills after a long morning of cleaning toilets, vacuuming, etc. It was SUPER NICE OUT! Like 60 degrees and sunny. Breezy at times, but not bad. I had a totally new setup due to losing my last setup. Doh. So new Venture lows, Bones medium bushings, Reds, 8″ Null deck and some Ricta 51mm speed ring wheels. I was gonna just go with Null wheels, but Meta had them and I like to check the competition. Ok, the real reason is they were smaller. I gave everything a coat of Snaky Jakey wax and went to it. It’s been a minute since I was so motivated. I was skating fast for me. Did a line of noseslide, kickflip, crooks. I was super hyped on going faster for the noseslide. Had an exhausting line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, ollie up the 2 stair, ollie down the 2 stair, noseslide (was supposed to be crooks). Had a few front 50s, but definitely struggled with them as I have been for awhile. The new board did feel poppier though. A couple felt good. Had one line with ollie the two stair (it sounds lame, but there is a crack in front of it so it’s not all that small of a 2 stair) then front noseslide. Was trying a ridiculous line of front 50 a bench, nollie tre on flat, kick back tail the bottom stair. Since I never landed the nollie tre I just did back 50s on the curb which were fun. Also came close to ollie onto a bench then up onto a table. So close. Matt showed up and did every basic ledge trick first try perfect. The back 50 so casual looked so fun. I’m jealous. He also did front 50, front 5-0, front tail, front tail fakie, back 5-0 and back tail. But he couldn’t do a nollie tre! Ha. Oh and it took him 5 tries to land a treflip which might be a record for him. I didn’t get much more after Matt showed. I was pretty beat. Oh, some crooks where I started at the beginning of the ledge and grinded pretty far, rather then just jibbing the end. Fun day, that’s the best I’ve felt all year! 25 days down. 1/12 of my goal of skating 300 days.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta 51mm wheels)

Today was mostly a good day. @nolancormier boosting in Longmont.

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jan 24, 2015 at 8:40pm PST

Carleigh and I met Nolan, Dave and Garrett at the Longmont park on a cloudy, but not too cold Saturday. The park was empty except for us for awhile. I got the wallie up the ledge and tried to turn around and roll in, but couldn’t. Garrett did a bunch of wallie variations. Nolan did a bunch of 360 grabs off the snowboard kicker. Dave and I played a game of SKATE on the mellow bank which was fun. I stayed away from flip tricks and we did a lot of no comply tricks. We both got no comply b/s shove to fakie. I was ahead for awhile, but in the end Dave took champion honors. Carleigh was skating the ledge. Nolan and Garrett were skating the really tall ledge on back of the flow bowl. Then I joined Carleigh on the front 50 fail front. Ha, neither of us were too hyped on how we skated the ledge. I ran into the ledge on back 50 attempt which really bummed me out. Hucked some kickflip noseslides. Carleigh got close to front 50 shove out. Dave, Garrett and Nolan were doing 360s over the hip. Then we skated the bump to ledge. Carleigh brought 50. I did noseslide and boardslide and a couple crooks, but couldn’t land them when it counted. Nolan did the huge ollie above. Dave did some good backside ollies too and front board to fakie the bump to ledge. Also boardslide and boardslide to fakie on the bump to bar. Garrett did b/s noseblunt on the clamshell top. I had a few good flippers throughout that I was hyped on. 360 flips and close to f/s halfcab heel. This session was really fun. At one point Dave landed something good and I remember looking at 15 year old Garrett and we were both stoked. Skateboarding rules. Age 15, age 46, whatever, it’s all the same.

Then we went to Rocky Mtn Elem and met up with Coburn and a friend of his named Zack. I was super tired and sore at this point and didn’t have much desire to skate. I got a couple crooks on the ledge that felt good, but that was it. Carleigh struggled on frontside ollies over a median. Garrett b/s flipped over one. Zach and Nolan killed it and filmed some tricks. Coburn was ripping the ollies over the medians too. Dave skated my board and I forgot he gave it back to me. When I got home I realized my board wasn’t in the car. SHIT! I called Dave and he went to the school to see if it was still there. Nope. Bummer. Luckily I had a few minutes of Meta still being open so I went and got stuff so I wouldn’t have to stress on it Sunday morning.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Happy Birthday @iamnotacreepyjake

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 23, 2015 at 9:08pm PST

After work and a nap I headed out to a chilly Broomfield park to meet up with Jake and crew on Jake’s 30th Bday. I was looking for a ‘night off’ style session and never really ollied. I added a back smith stall to the tricks I’ve done on the brick qp. Jake was mostly with the crew in the photo doing 30 tricks on the quartapotty. At one point we sessioned the middle of the happy ledge like it was a miniramp. Ha it was so funny. Nolan had front 5-0 to fakie and front disaster oh and blunt to fakie. A bunch more was going on. Matt back lipped the flat bar. Dave boardslid across and down the little rail. So sick! Nolan did everything. I saw a Brian Ball blunt to fakie on the quartapotty which was awesome to see again. At the end of the night Fuzz and I were skating towards the blue bank and ollie bailing and trying to run next to our boards up the bank. Yeap, it was one of those nights.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

Alright @the_neviathan @boredzinejp here's my frozen attempts at skateboarding. Skateboards move slower in the cold, otherwise I would have been flying! Sorry the 180 nose manual is so dark. Time for some flip in action! No comply filmed by @bkfilmphoto 50 filmed by @nolancormier

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 22, 2015 at 7:55pm PST

Went to Longmont park right after work. It was colder out then I thought it would be. I cruised around for awhile. That park has some good stuff. Had a good feeling kickflip on the main bank, some horrible ollies on hips, etc. Bernie showed up as it was getting dark and showed me there was a button to turn on the lights. Ha. Nolan too. We all kind of skated the lower C ledge. Well, they did. Bernie manualled it, Nolan nose manualed it. I ran into it. Nolan ended up doing quite a few basics on it all easy. Then we skated the little ledge for a long time. I was struggling. Did front 50 shove, front 50 back 180 and kick back 50 that took 50 tries and I can’t believe Nolan had the patience to film it. Thanks Nolan! Before filming me he did a bunch of tricks. Back tail, nollie front nose, front tail shove, slammed on back tail shove. Bernie did some neat ones like fakie 5-0 shove out, back tail, front smith 180, back 5-0 almost 360 shove out. After I got my trick we did some no comply 360s then went to Chipotle to eat. Yum. Then I still had a 180 nose manual to do before going to Jason’s so I stopped at Red Curbs and went to work. It was COLD! It took a few tries. It looked like crap. I didn’t care.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)

I guess the 300 day dream is still alive. Due up for a “day off” I skated Rampy briefly after work. I didn’t do many ramp tricks. Slammed on a back 50 to fakie, did a fakie pivot fakie, failed some bean plants. Tried a few b/s 360 no complies on flat.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)