Had a half day at work on a gorgeous day. I went to Fort Collins to sell boards at MRKT. On the way I stopped at Fossil Creek. It was a weird scene. Normally no one is there. But this time there were scooter kids, parents, Zumiez kids and a couple dudes that seem down. I started off horribly. Not even being able to pop at all. It was brutal. But after a few minutes I was able to back 50 the curb then crooks the ledge. That is one of my favorite ledges to crook ever. I had some front 50s on the lower part of the ledge, then on the taller part. Even had a couple back 50s on the tall part and got into a few kick back 50s. In the end the scene bummed me out too much. Too many kids with headphones throwing a fit when they didn’t land their front 50.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 20, 2015 at 8:18pm PDT

I met up with Mike and his buddy Chris at MRKT. Then we went to Northside. It was crazy busy, but ended up mellowing out after awhile. I hid in the corner and did the kickflip bank ride thing above. Pretty hyped on that. Mike and Chris were killing it. Mike has a very unique style and bag and it’s rad to watch. After awhile Mike and I tried no comply tailslides on the China bank and ended up getting them back to back. His was over the ledge and legit. Mine had a grab and I kind of pansy footed it. Oh well I did the dropin to quick ledge ride so that was cool.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 20, 2015 at 6:37pm PDT

Then we skated over to this new red curb and wow is it good. Mike was slaying the slappies. He had some really long ones. Chris was going fast and doing front and back 50s. He can’t slappy, which is kinda funny considering how good he is. He had some sick front 360s on flat and f/s flip and f/s hc flip. Mike had f/s and b/s slappies so good. Then in the end he pulled the switch one. WTF! I had some great feeling slappy crooks and tried to back them with nollie tres. Slappy crooks to fakie followed by fakie bigflip. Got a couple regular slappies, but they didn’t come easy or grind far. Did a bunch of front tails to fakie since I needed to do one for the game. I had no idea they looked that bad. Argh. Oh well, fun day.

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

Somehwat cool night. I wasn’t feeling very energetic. Went to Red Curbs even though it wasn’t wet out to try back tails. I had stopped by the Research Center, but it wasn’t lit well and there was gravel all over the sidewalk. Pretty much right away I settled in to trying BSTS so I’d have a better one then this bad one for our game. I tried for like an hour and although I thought I landed a couple, the selfie cam said no. Ugh.

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

Whoa, I took off another day yesterday! That’s the 2nd day this year. Felt good to sit and do nothing. But back to business! Carleigh and Jack picked me up after Ollie and I were kicking the soccer ball to each other for awhile. It was a bit cool out, but humid and it felt good. At times it sprinkled a little, but not enough to interrupt skating. We were the only ones there which was so awesome. I struggled initially. Really bad. I don’t get why. I had a front 180 off a tier then halfcab noseslide that felt cool. Then it was slim pickings for quite awhile. I was sucking trying front 50s on the bump to ledge, but got a couple. Then put together a line I was really hyped on of b/s flip the bank, noseslide the ledge and drop into the bank then front 50 shove out the bump to ledge. I’ve wanted to do the 50 shove forever so that’s cool. Then I finally front 50’d the bump to kicker ledge thing in the middle of the park. Did a couple qp tricks at the end and finished with a fun line of ollie to fakie on the bank, switch front 180 into the lower bank, crooks the ledge, crappy b/s grind to fakie, switch noseslide. Rad! Jack was having stomach pains and lying down at times. But he would get up and rip. He did tricks like front tail 270 shove, front tail front heel out, front board a whole flat bar, ollie up to front 5-0 on the qp, boardslide 270 shove. Carleigh was tossing some mean back d’s on the qp. Did noseslide shove, noseslide on the bump to ledge, perfect b/s flip on a bank, ended with a front d on the qp.

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

Was supposed to meet John at the newish Pearl & 30th ledges with the little brick gaps under them. He said he’d be late so I went across the street to a tiny manny pad instead. I was feeling super sore and didn’t really want to ollie. I did a couple manuals then tried to do manual kickflip out for awhile. I had a few that felt possible, but mostly I just felt like an old uncoordinated fool.

Then I went over to the ledge and John still wasn’t there so I went down the sidewalk to the bikepath ledge and weird hip. I did a few rock ‘n rolls then started trying a line of noseslide to fakie and cab over the hip. Initially the noseslides to fakie felt great and I was landing them all. Then I went through a period of not landing any at all. Then I got them again and managed to put down two of the worst cabs in history. What a weird trick.

Went over to the ledge and John still wasn’t there so I left to pickup India from ballet.

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

On a gorgeous afternoon I ran some boards to 303 then headed back to Broomfield for a session at Darin’s ramp. I was early though and decided it would be a good time to try back tails at Safeway ledge. Ugh. At first I thought I would have this easy. Did quite a few back tail stalls which is still new enough to me that it felt pretty good. But I have to slide it at least a little for the O-L-D-F-A-R-T challenge so I had to keep going. After awhile it got depressing. Stall after stall, fail after ail. I tried a few switch crooks in there just to mix things up,but for the most part I just went in circles trying to do a back tail with a slide. After a solid hour of this I did finally got one that meets the very minimum requirement for slide. Granted, it slid into a stall, but it felt pretty rad anyway. In multiple decades of skating I have never gotten close to that trick. I might try again before posting this one into the contest, but whew, glad I did one. I might try to actually learn it better over time too.

A photo posted by brianlstrickland (@brianlstrickland) on Mar 15, 2015 at 5:51pm PDT

Then I went over to Darin’s perfect ramp where a small group of dudes were skating. It was rad. Dave kills it so hard. The photo above shows it. It’s impossible to document all of the tricks that Dave did. The beanplant was a sick one, front tailslides, back tailslides, couldn’t beam me on a Texas Plant though, smith grinds, feeble to rock ‘n roll, I don’t know, everything. Strickland was ripping too. Super good beanplant to tail, back smith, almost beanplant to rock fakie. Rad. This other dude was there that slams all the time. I’m so jealous of how he can commit to anything, but man it looks painful. Darin did his tricks good like he does. Back smith, back tail , all of the rock to willy tricks, switch front ds, etc. Dylan showed up and did about 100 tricks in one line that was only 4 walls long. Ha, he packs them in there. I skated mediocre, but had fun. First try front 50 was cool, front smiths, got a bean plant to tail after a million tries, front d to fakie and a weak hurricane on top of my normal tricks. Man it was nice out.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 14, 2015 at 9:12am PDT

Woke up early as I like to do on Saturdays. It was already nice out. I got ready for the day and loaded up the car with boards to bring to Sol and Crisis then went to Broomfield park. I had the whole park to myself for awhile. I mostly dorked around and was still feeling sore and uncoordinated. Not sure why I’ve been so sore lately. It took me awhile to get a back 50 on the blue ledge. So that’s how bad I started. I settled in on some black ledge action doing lines with front 50, front 50 180, front 5-0 or front 50 shove to start, then either b/s flip, fakie flip, boneless over the rail or bean plant on the mellow bank then either crooks, boardslide, noseslide or try to back 50 the black ledge. I was 1/50 on the back 50. Ugh. Without anyone else there I did some other dorking like trying to ollie the little down bar, tiny ollies on the brick qp and lastly back tail slide on the low side of the angled brown ledge. I got a couple back tail stalls, but no slides. Hardest trick ever.

I hung out at Crisis for awhile then met Dave at Rocky Mtn Elem in Longmont. I was super sore initially, but ended up skating some of the best I have for a brief period. I was doing b/s ollies over a band median, rolling off the curb then kickflipping up the curb then doing crooks. Got one back 50. Going the other way I was doing some of the best front 50 shoves I’ve ever done, then pop shove then bean plant over a median. Stoked. Dave wanted to film it, but he was doing this rad fastplant pop shove over a median so we filmed that first. When I went back to film my line I could no longer front 50 shove. It was kind of depressing that I could lose my edge that quick. Oh well, at least at one point I was skating good.

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

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 13, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

Flatground Friday at Blue Skies after lunch. It started slow and didn’t get much better. I completely suck at treflips now. There was a brief good feeling line of no comply 180, fakie flip then f/s halfcab flip. Had some ok b/s halfcab flips too. Was 1/30 on treflips. Hucked a bunch of other tricks like varial heel, switch varial flip, nollie 360 flip, nollie heel, b/s halfcab heel and fakie heel. Fakie heel being the only one I landed (badly). Then I figured I’d just kickflip my water bottle real quick and head back to work. The video pretty much sums up how that went. I was happy to land it at least.

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

Oh so tired after work. I sat around and watched Dexter and stuff until Ollie was trying to go to sleep so I tried manuals in the hallway. I’m a great father. Ha. I mostly just tried to manual and get setup for a kickflip out.

Went to Blue Skies skatepark on my ‘gym break’ feeling very arthritic and sore. I don’t know why. After a flailing around for a bit things started coming together better then expected. Got a boneless on the bank, ollies to fakie on the big bank, cab kickturns on the little bank (yes this is a relatively new one for me and so fun). Had some lines that came out of nowhere which I can’t remember now. Front boards on the flat bar went ok, I still suck at that trick. Did a couple treflips that would only count on defense in an over 80 game of SKATE. Same with a varial heel, but I was hyped on that one because I was committing pretty quick. Tried a dream line of ollie the flat bar (in front on the photo), then a quick ollie to fakie on the little qp, curve around then f/s halfcab heel then some front 50 trick. Never got the halfcab heel. Hucked treflips to fakie on the bank. Did a sweeper on the bank! Got into back to on the escalator ledge (going slow, but I was just feeling it out). I was hyped on how easy the ollies over the flat bar went. Ah, turns out this is the fist time I’ve skated there with my bigger setup. Fun session.

So tired from being woken up the night before at work. I forced myself to go skating after making the kids dinner. I ended up at Red Curbs. I did a slappy crook which felt great then bailed trying to ollie into a front 50 on a curb. Yeah. I knew it was bad at that point. So I tried to huck back tails since I have to learn that trick now or get a letter in O-L-D-F-A-R-T. I cannot comprehend that trick. I can rarely do it when I kickflip in which seem so much easier to me. I left after awhile feeling very frustrated. Oh yeah, I had new shoes. The lovely NB+ Stratfords.

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