Woke up at 6am on a cloudy January morning with the temperature in the mid 30s. Not bad. I had planned on watching football with Ollie and wanted to skate before, but since I woke up at 6am I had much more time then I thought. I drove to Denver drinking my smoothie which makes me really cold, but I had the heat cranked Jason style. I went to Denver park to get the legs warmed up. There were a few other people at the park when I got there. I literally did nothing for quite some time other then push around and realize that I like Denver park more then most Team Pain parks. Wow. I finally started doing a few kickflips and back 50s on various quarterpipes. Then I skated the rocket bowl. Well, the shallow side. Did a few basics. I ended by ollieing the curb into the thruster part of the “bowl”. Neat. That was all I needed for a warm up and I drove off in hopes of feeling better then I did at the park.

I went to Auroria campus in hopes of skating the long black manny pads, but they were covered in snow and ice. So I pushed on excited to skate something I’ve never skated before. I’ve really only filmed on the campus, not skated it. The spot above was the first spot I skated. There was a mini kicker back to the right. I did a horrible line. Halfcab flip, kickflip up the curb, front 180 down the 3. A cop drove by and didn’t seem to care I was there. I guess when you are skating by yourself at 8:30 in the morning on a cold January morning they cut you some slack.

I ollied off the 2nd level and went for the 3rd and totally bailed. I realized then I was even more sore and tired then I had anticipated. I also tried to ollie a weird ledge near there.

I came upon this next. I’ve been wanting to work on my narrow ledge ollie game. I took a few tries to ollie onto it (from the far side), but it felt really cool. I did it several times and tried to back 180 off, but never really rode away from it.

Then I was stoked to find this spot. I did a line that took awhile of crooks between skate stoppers on the ledge, kickflip on flat, ollie up the really weird two stair, ollie onto one of the weird manual pads, then ollie the 3.5 stair to icy slide out. The whole area was covered in salt, ice and water. It was weird. I had a few flippers on the sidewalk setting up for the ledge that were fun. A 360 flip felt really good. After awhile I started walking back to my car, but realized I should check out this one other building.

But I came upon this and could not pass it up! I just wanted to manual it, but my body was saying no. I literally could not ollie up the curb high side the first few tries. I knew I was in danger of getting hurt because of how stiff I was, but I didn’t see the slam coming when it did. On a manual attempt I hung up and ate shit so hard. The brutal jump to the body slam. I sat around for awhile in disbelief that ollieing up a curb high ledge could cause that much pain. But I didn’t leave because I am too stubborn. I did a few flippers to get the blood flowing then started trying the manuals again and felt better. Got one. Whew. I was so hungry, tired nauseous feeling. Went to my car. Ate some fruit, drank some water. Stared into the clouds for awhile.

I drove to this ledge as it was the one spot I wanted to skate. It’s been awhile, I just wanted to grind some granite and it was all I could think of. I was feeling a bit better after the rest. Crooks on it felt great. But front 50s were another story. I only landed 1 out of like 40 tried before realizing that I should just leave before I get hurt more. The crack in the frontside approach kills me. I’m definitely feeling the effects of skating every day. My body is extremely sore. I’m still happy I explored a new part of downtown though, that campus area is awesome.

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

Went to Arvada park on a super nice day. I guess word was out that it was dry and everyone went. I was to meet Carleigh there. I started in the little bowl and did a few back 50s. Carleigh showed. I posed some tricks over the hip for awhile, front heel and b/s flip. Got front 5-0 on the Pier 7 ledge, felt neat. Then Carleigh was trying front boards down the long mellow rail. Pretty gnarly. I hadn’t even tried to boardslide it before so I figured I should at least try it. After a few poses I did it first try. Cool. Carleigh was getting closer and closer to the front board. I started trying a line of crooks on the ledge above and then baordslide. Did it once with a really bad boardslide. I was hyped though. Tried it a bunch more times and was doing better crooks for awhile, but then I just moved on. Carleigh landed on the front board, but never quite rolled away. So sick though. I ended up skating the blue dish for awhile. I love that bank. Actually got treflip to fakie like 3rd or 4th try. Joel Freeman ended up joining me for the flat bank session. He did back 360 no comply finger flip. Yep. Also a switch no comply 360. I also got b/s halfcab flip, fakie flip, f/s flip, couldn’t land fakie treflip and came close no f/s no comply 540. Lots of pivot. I would have been hyped though! Then I went to 303 and intended to skate downtown for awhile too, but ended up being too tired and headed home.

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

Jack and Carleigh came over and skated #rampy!

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jan 9, 2015 at 7:24pm PST

Snowy winter days, @corpoglenny in his lair #rampy #nullheadquarters @null_skateboards

A photo posted by carleigh samson (@gnarlycarleigh) on Jan 9, 2015 at 7:31pm PST

Another cold and snowy night. Jack and Carleigh came over after I had napped and slacked for awhile. Jack hasn’t skated in months due to injuries, so it was super exciting to see him on his board again. The session was awesome. Carleigh took longer then two tries to get back disaster this session, but got a few of them, some even out of back 50 instead of the tail stall rock fakie setup. She also did a bunch of back smiths, front 50, front disasters, feebs fakie. Jack looked a bit rusty at the start, but as soon as the one foot to front pivot went down it was clear he had it back. He did a ton of tricks. Bigspin pivot, f/s beanplant finger flip to tail, learned sweepers, back smith grinds, many more tricks I’m not remembering right now. I skated alright for me. Did one of the better front feebles I’ve done, couldn’t get a beanplant fingerflip like Jack had done, got a hurricane quickly, fakie hurricane, front tail first try (that one has been a struggle lately unfortunately). After skating we watched The Storm and 7 Year Glitch. Awesome.

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

Finally warm and somewhat dry enough to go hit Blue Skies during gym time. I was hyped. The main bank was a snowy mess so I had to skate around the bikepath to get there without getting my shoes wet. I pushed switch. It was fun, there was a big corner that was hard to make going switch. The park had more snow/ice then I thought it would. I started slow. Did a bunch of boardslides on the flat bar then front 50s on the low ledge. I went a little faster each time. I tried to grind further too. Did front 50, front 50 180 out, front 50 shove, front 5-0, almost front 50 kickflip out. Back crooks and back noseslide on the taller part. Tried 3 flips for awhile. Finally got a few. Tried a line with 3 flip, ollie a flat bar, 3 flip. Got it, but it wasn’t pretty. I’m basically just trying to force myself into learning 3 flips and trying them when I would normally just do a kickflip. Came close to some faster f/s halfcab heelflips, landed on a varial heel, had a good feeling b/s flip. Skateboarding in the sun and decent temperatures is nice.

After work I went near the research center and found a good sized dry patch of asphalt. I was sore from already skating and working, but I wanted to be out in “warm” (40s) weather a bit more. It didn’t take me too long to get flowing. I was struggling a bit when out of the blue a really good line (for me) came out of nowhere. No comply front 180, fakie flip, fakie treflip. The added bonus was I went fast enough that I didn’t have to push in between any tricks. Granted the fakie tre was pretty slow, but that’s the only way I could do it anyway. It hyped me up. I tried another line of f/s halfcab heel, treflip, front heel. Never got all three. Tried the nollie tre, heelflip, treflip line too, but only landed one nollie tre. Either way I was hyped. My trick list was kickflip, no comply 180, no comply finger flip, fakie flip, b/s halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip, varial flip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip, b/s flip, heelflip, front heel (horrible), 360 flip, fakie treflip, nollie treflip. Came closer to nollie heels and switch flips. At the end I tried b/s halfcab heels for awhile and landed the first one I’ve done in years. It felt amazing. Hooray for flatground!

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

On a cold night in the lower 20s I went to Red Curbs. I lurked a “new” spot for a bit. Sent a text photo to Jack thinking he would be hyped. Instead he reminded me of how slow and old I am and that he had already shut the spot down. At Red Curbs it was pretty wet and snowy and I randomly decided to warm up on this little thing on the far side. I had longjohns on and two pairs of socks. It was too much and I was quickly sweating. I rode up the wedge and did front tail shove on the curb, front 5-0 back 180 out, front d, some weird pivot off the front truck 270 out. Back pivot to front 180 into the “bank”. It was a fun warm up. I also did the first helipop I’ve done in years. For the kids out there that is a “nollie b/s 360” without much pop and a whole lot of pivot.

Alright @boredzinejp let's get this long distance game of Instagram O-L-D-F-A-R-T started! First challenge is my favorite trick, slappy crooks. Good luck! #theglenandjoshOLDFARTlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 1, 2015 at 7:21pm PST

Then I went over to the main area to get Josh and I’s long distance Instagram game of O-L-D-F-A-R-T going with slappy crooks. That trick is seriously the funnest. I did it quite a few times because my self filming wouldn’t focus or whatever. Then I just kind of messed around for awhile. Did quite a few 50s, a few manuals, a version of a front smith, some other stuff then called it a night.

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

Went out to Rampy with Ollie feeling insanely tired, sore and unmotivated. I just wanted a brief session. Without short sessions on Rampy I could never make 300 days. I call these “days off” even though I’m skating. Ollie ripped it. Did most of his tricks and learned little back 5-0 grinds. So sick! I mostly tried bean plants and failed, but had a few longer runs that got the blood flowing a little.

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

Hyped to have Ollie art on my new board

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:21pm PST

Feeling insanely sore and stiff I headed to North Boulder to bring India to ballet. I had almost two hours to kill before having to pick her up. I had a new board (8″) with Ollie’s awesome artwork on the grip. It felt incredibly warm out, but that meant puddles everywhere. I went to a parking garage across from Ideal Market that I’ve been to once with Jack before. The upper levels were completely wet, but the bottom two were mostly dry. I did the downhill lap over and over, getting a bit techer each lap. I would go down a hill, turn and down the next hill bringing me to a stair set that I could walk up and be right back at the start. It kind of ruled for how sore I was. I started with slappy tails and 180s going down the hill. Then I started doing back 50s on the curb above, kickflips, 180s, ollies over the next medians. My last lap was back 5-0 on the curb, kickflip going down the hill, ollie a median, curve around and ollie another median. Then I played on the a yellow median like the one in the photo for awhile. I had a fun slappy front tail then fakie flip. A manual bonk into the hill. Got a fakie nosegrind which cheered me up a bit. At that point I heard people talking and I got a little freaked out. It’s weird going into vacant parking garages at night. Sometimes it’s pretty creepy. Turns out it was a security guard and I was getting the boot.

So I drove around for a bit looking for other garages and dry. I ended up noticing the middle school might have some dry. There was a small patch of dry near the tall ledge and a small section of dry to skate flat. I started with the ledge. It was one quick push then hit the ledge. I did noseslide, noseslide to fakie, front nose to fakie and front board. Maybe a crooks. Then addition of the new skate stoppers kind of kills the spot. I wanted to do a front 50 so I tried that. Forever. I’ve never gotten into 50 on that ledge before, only the smaller one there. It sucked. I took forever. I only got up on it 3 times. The last one seeming very easy making me wonder why it took so long. I had a few more minutes to kill so I went for flippers. Got a really horrible front heel, a slightly less horrible fakie f/s heel and a treflip that took me forever making me 5 minutes late to pick up India. As much as I struggled it felt great to skate outside in warm weather. It was 55!

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

Went to Valmont garage with Ledgy on another cold day. It was breezy so I didn’t want to try Red Curbs. As I was going through the warm up process I heard skateboarding in the nearby garage. Whoa. I couldn’t really see them though. I did quite a few slappy stalls. Feebles, pivots, crooks. Did a few wallies over the curb, no comply over it, switch front 180, back 180. Did a few kickflips then went for varial flip and landed right on the tail. SNAP. The sad thing is I felt relieved. I didn’t want to be in the cold. When I went to leave I went over to see who was skating in the garage and it turned out it was Blake, Alec and Zeke. Rad. Blake did a line first try and hit a 3 stair I had never noticed before. Cool. I probably only skated for 15-20 minutes, broke a board and also somehow strained my groin. Great start to the new year.

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

@bkfilmphoto stayed warm and dry at the awesome @launchskate facility yesterday.

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Jan 1, 2015 at 8:21am PST

On a snowy and cold Saturday I headed to Launch with Bernie and Carleigh. When we got there it was pretty crowded, but not insane. We started on the main ramp. It was a mellow session as far as no snaking. Mostly because there were some young kids that would take awhile to drop in. I would go after Carleigh every time so it was cool not wondering where I was in the rotation. Carleigh and I both struggled with front disasters. Other then that I felt like I skated the ramp pretty good. Did a few of the tricks I could never do at Sol like front smith, fakie back smith stall to fakie, little back scratch to fakie, got the corner grind. Then we all skated flat for awhile with a few other people. The manny pad wasn’t there at the time. It was crazy how little space there is and how many people were trying to skate it. I did alright on flippers until I got stuck on treflips. Ugh. Never got one. Carleigh got kickflip first try and a varial flip a few tries later. Bernie rattled off a lot of good ones like hardflip, f/s flip, cab flip, fakie trefilp, etc. I skated the little ramp for awhile. Did front feebles and did a little scratch grind off the coping into the bank which was fun. Fort Collins ripper Jaeson was there tearing up that ramp with ollies to f/s wallride, bonelesses to f/s wallrides, kickflips to fakie, anything he wanted. The little ramp was mostly mobbed with kids though making it really hard to skate as they would stand on the coping not knowing much of anything. Bernie and I skated the manny pad for awhile. I got two kickflip manuals in a row which totally made my day. It’s been a long time since I have landed that trick. So stoked. Bernie did a bunch of manual tricks. Front 180 fakie manual fakie f/s bigspin out and the fakie manual fakie flip out. It was such tight coridors setting up for it and landing. I also got a nose manual shove out. Tried a few kickflip nose manuals, but ended up losing interest. Bernie and I did some kickflips to fakie on the little bank. Carleigh worked on front rocks for quite some time while I talked to Andy then put one down. We got to skate the ramp for awhile after it was closed which was fun. We were all pretty beat by then though. Bernie did the fun stuff above. I slammed dropping in a couple times when my wheels stuck in a crack. Ha. Then finally figured out a line to back 50 out of the corner that was fun and finally did a front disaster. Carleigh hucked some back disasters, but we ended up just agreeing we were tired and went to MRKT. Fun day. Launch rules.

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

After work I went to Sol. Hung with Riley for a bit while waiting for Carleigh to show then we hit the ramp. This ramp hates me. Things started off with me ok on the very basics, but that’s where it stopped. Carleigh flowed around skating fast with some long back 50s, a bunch of front disasters, some funny front slash falls. I wanted to try a bean plant to disaster for JP and I’s new challenge, but I got hung up on disaster and couldn’t land it. It was so frustrating as I would get into it and commit to rolling away, but something would happen and I would fall forward. Ugh. Carleigh left and I wasn’t gonna skate that ramp solo so I skated flat for a bit. Did a couple basics before trying treflip then got stuck trying treflip. Ugh. Landed a few horribly, but gave up and left feeling depressed.

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