I love PJ Ladd and I’m not afraid to admit it. This clip has gotten a lot of hate, but I don’t get it. It’s just one roll of film and him warming up at a skatepark or two. I like seeing how he warms up and he kills that bank gap. Switch varial heel? Wow. People say he doesn’t skate like he did during WHL anymore. Looks the same to me. Just doing a ton of tricks at the same spot. He’s still a reclusive skate rat that skates everyday. That’s more then most pros can say for themselves.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 30, 2015 at 7:29pm PDT

Such a nice day. Felt hot when we first got there. Dave was first and I joined him in skating the little hump. We both struggled for awhile, but Dave did back tails and back tail to fakie super good. I did a front 50 on it. Yippee. Then we all skated a ledge I’ve never skated there before. It backs to the deep end of the bowl so it’s a little weird. Dave was getting on tricks quick. He did front 50s and front 50 180. Rob had boardslide popout and almost front board 270 pop out. Dave also got into front crooks which is super crazy. I took awhile to get up on the ledge and not worry about shooting my board into the bowl, but did front 50 then front 180 down the 3 stair. That was fun. Then I went for front 50 front shove out then front shove down the 3 stair. It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything down a 3 stair. I predicted to Dave that the first one I committed to would probably be a broken board and I was right. But luckily it was still skateable. I would eventually get the line and it felt awesome (even though the shove wasn’t so great). Then we skated the mellow bank in the clip above for awhile. It was a blast. We rattled off a lot of tricks. Dave did his weird underflip, b/s flip, cab nosegrab, f/s cab nosegrab, front shove and probably a bunch more. Rob was doing cabs easy, b/s flip, no comply crailslides (I think) and the awesome b/s no comply shove above. I did mostly flip tricks. No surprise there. Kickflip fakie, b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, bigflip, 360 flip. Then we skated the main area for a bit. I got a really fun line of cali grind the ledge above the 7′ qp, boardslide the ledge, boneless on the bank, bsts on the hip (it even made the noise!), b/s flip on the little bank, almost f/s flip on the mellow bank. Man that was fun. Dave was going for a crazy long line with a nosestall revert or pop shove on the bank, back 360 over the steep to mellow hip, skate around the park to boardslide the bump to bar. He never got them all in one, but he got them all. Rob was doing no comply to tailslides, manualling the deck of the bank and more of those steezy crailslide things (I need to pay attention to what he’s actually doing). Since my board was really cracked I decided I should push it further and try a line of front 5-0 on the new ledge then kickflip the 3 stair. But on my warm up run of front 50 then ollie I finished it off. Doh. This was one of my favorite skate days in awhile.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire 50mm f4 101s)

After a long day of chilling, getting a few things done and some soccer with Ollie I went to the research center with some new spitfire 50mms. I was still feeling really bummed from the day before. I sat and waxed the ledge then started with some slow noseslides. My legs weren’t totally dead and I wasn’t as bummed feeling. Then I went for a line of crooks, back 180 up the curb, switch front 180 up the next curb then Ollie the tiny gap. It took a few tries but I would get it. Barely. Next line attempt was back 50, pop shove up the curb, kickflip up the next curb, but never got the kickflip. I messed around with a few flippers too and was doing alright. I was happy to get several back 50s and a treflip that felt awesome. Frontside on the ledge I messed around trying front tails, back 180 nosegrind (not even close) and switch noseslide shove out (landed on it). I was gonna leave and feel somewhat redeemed, but instead I hit the little hill for some flippers. And surprisingly it went really well. Got fakie flip, hc flip, bs flip, Ollie up the curb, noseslide. Another line was fakie bigflip, pop shove, treflip (not bolts) Ollie up the curb, was gonna try crooks but a cop was driving by so I just cruised by. Then I left. Feeling better that I had some energy and coordination after such a tough day the day before.

(Setup 8.25 null, venture wides, bones med bushings, spitfire f4 50mm 101s)

Our macbook died. Well, the hard drive became corrupted and I spent lots of the morning working on it. What a pain. I’m disappointed in Apple for the stupid upgrade path that renders a computer useless. Then Dave and Rob bailed. Carleigh and Jack went to skate parks. I was hoping my body would feel better. As much as I tried to convince myself it was, it wasn’t. I met my old college friend Steve at a bank off Pecos. Upon arriving there I noticed a trailer right in front of the bank. Ugh. You could still skate the mellow part of it so I warmed up with some basics. Oh yeah, I had new Stratfords. Well, not totally new as I’ve skated them before, but I thought 11.5 was too big for me. They felt ok this time around. I did a few variations of kickflips, struggled with varial flips. Steve showed and I was trying 360 flips. I would try them on the steepest part I could fit under the trailer on the approach to. It was pretty fun. I got a couple with my hands down before stomping one that felt amazing. Steve did pop shove to fakie, fakie pop shove and ollies. I added a halfcab flip and we both tried heelflips to fakie. I’ve never done one on a bank. While trying these my legs got stiff and I stopped skating. Then I went to Denver to film Derek. Just pushing to meet him was a chore. He didn’t get his trick. I went home super exhausted and depressed, ate a salad then went to sleep.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)

Met up with Rob and Dave at Crisis. We hung out for awhile, did bidness and watched some rad old H-Street videos. Then we went to Broomfield park. Almost no one was there. After watching those videos I was some of the most hyped I’ve been in awhile to skate. Unfortunately it didn’t result in me being able to skate worth a shit as I struggled like crazy initially. Rob was keeping it mellow and feeling out his board again. He still did some good boardslides, crooks, manuals, etc. Dave was manualling the steep cement bank like it was nothing. He had a cool dropin on the hubba to the deck of the quartapotty then rolled in. So rad. I had a couple lines around the park that felt cool. Had some f/s ollies on the brick qp that felt neat and crooks up the little escalator ledge. Near the end Dave and I were trying lines starting at the top. He got a long back tail on the hump, boardslide down the rail then nose manual the black box! So good. If only he didn’t slam on the rock fakie after. Ha. I had an ok run of f/s flip on the hump, front 180 into the bank then halfcab noseslide the black ledge. I was trying for halfcab flip on the hump, kickflip into the hip then a f/s 50 shove, but I never got the kickflip into the bank.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 27, 2015 at 3:34pm PDT

Then we went to Safeway ledge for awhile. It was fun! Rob kept getting the feel back and did some switch boardslides, noseslide 270 and more. I did like 5 or 6 kick back 50s. Tried to do 5-0s a couple times, but only got 50s. Tried back 50 shove and got close. Dave and I both got front tailslides. His was good. Then we did front crooks! Well, I did little ones to fakie where I push off the wall. Dave did the manly one above!

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)

Was exhausted after driving down from the mountains and the sand dunes the day before. My third day off of the year! Did a few manuals in the house where I would setup for kickflip position. Then I watched Johny Dangerously with the Ollie and his friend.

After snowboarding with my brother and Ollie I stopped at the Buena Vista park still in my snow pants for a real brief skate. Dewey and Andrea were there. I did a few axle stalls around the park then grinded the little rainbow roll on rail which was fun. That was it.  Dewey was ripping as usual. 

My brother was off site seeing bso I got some stuff done then went skating.  I had a new board. Ollie art on the top and bottom, so awesome.  It didn’t help me much though as I started off skating horribly.  I tried a line of boardslide, front tailslide the one stair, kickflip on flat, crook. Never got it. Almost lost my shit.  Got a front 50 that was slow. Going faster was supposed to help, but I just stuck. I finally had one ok line of noseslide to fakie, halfcab flip, crooks. Other then that I had a squatty treflip, front board pop out, and that was really about it. 

Later on in the day after some football I met Dave at Steelyards which was too crowded to skate. So we roamed around the new train depot area over to Folsom. We didn’t really do much or find anything great.  It was nice out and fun though. 

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)

After dinner at Under The Sun with my brother and a couple drinks Steve went out to Rampy. I thought he was joking, but he kept skating it. Just starting from the bottom and doing kickturns. Then he worked up to dropping in and before I knew it he was doing rock ‘n rolls! I was in the middle of setting up a new board so I couldn’t grab mine. So we just shared one that was in the garage. Felt like an 8″ with Thunders and some pretty small wheels. It was fun. My first few runs were pretty sketchy. I got a few of the standard tricks then started trying to show Steve a Texas Plant. Took a bit, but I got one and it felt great. Steve went on to do a few back 50s, rock fakies then almost died on a halfcab rock. That was the end of the session.

After doing Crisis in the morning I went to Lafayette to meet Nolan and give him a board. The park was full of scooter kids and parents. Ugh. I ended up not caring and got a couple of lines I was super hyped on. First was wallie the rock hip, axle stall the weird round qp with a circle on top, front rock the mini tooth qp. Next one was front 50 front 180 the little ledge up top, halfcab into the bank, f/s ollie on the manhole qp, boneless the qp by the entrance then front axle stall the tiny qp at the entrance. Whew! Hyped on that one. Nolan showed. I didn’t really see him skate much, he kinda had the flu. I did a few other random things, but then bolted after a quick whaddup to the No Love dudes that had just showed.

Then I met Dave on campus. We started out under the engineering building. We warmed up for a bit then I filmed Dave get a rad line of front 50 to front tail, nollie back 180 then switch ollie a crack. Ha! It was rad though. I had a little line of halfcab flip then b/s 90 flip. Still felt neat though. And tried to front 50 the ledge that was real close to the handrail. It was too close for me in the end.

A photo posted by carleigh samson (@gnarlycarleigh) on Mar 21, 2015 at 5:00pm PDT

Then we went over to this area and stayed there for awhile. I did a rock walk down the five stair. Jack wallied this thing really easy. The rest of us couldn’t. It seemed easy, but with the tiny setup room it wasn’t. Dave got a couple cool grab wallie tricks. Jack filmed a “dork” trick.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 21, 2015 at 4:57pm PDT

Then we went to this slappy ledge thing. Dave immediately slappy front 5-0’d it. Then went on to do slappy crooks and slappy front tail. Geez! Carleigh locked into some good slappies. Jack wallied the ledge then mostly filmed. I had done a couple slappies then was trying a line. Ollie up onto a ledge, kickflip off, slappy. I was struggling with the ollie though and after landing one kickflip I snapped my tail on the next. Doh.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings no washers 52mm null wheels)