Woke up at 5:30 am and felt like skating. So I left early for work and stopped at Boulder park on the way. Another oldish guy was there getting some carves on in the bowl. I had a blast doing a few things, but I mostly skated the hip. Started with ollies and 180s both ways. Then went through a long spell of trying halfcabs going one way (so bad) then f/s cab the other way. I would eventually land the f/s cab, but man it was horrible. Then I tried a line where I started by the mini bowl and pumped over the pyramid, b/s ollie on the weird hump, f/s ollie the hip above, turn around, kickflip the hip above, turn around, b/s flip over the hip. Never got the b/s flip. Slammed pretty good once. Bailed out quite a few times. Then I went to work. This is the only way I can skate Boulder park, with no one around so I can skate slow in the middle of the park.

Then I met Dave at Blue Skies for lunch. Well, I got there first and arrived to two scooter kids and parents standing on the stairs near the bank watching. It was really annoying. I pumped around on the little banks before deciding I just had to go for the big bank. Did my ollie to fakie warm ups and had gone through a couple flippers when Dave showed up. We kinda did whatevs for a bit. I was hucking noseslide 270 shoves, front 50 shove, couldn’t fakie flip on the bank. Dave did his fakie shove on the bank first try like he does and other tricks I’m forgetting now. Except for the no comply over the flat bar above. Well, he got close, but not quite. Then we got into a shove challenge on the bank. He did switch front shove and I did front shove first. Then we traded. Then we did regular pop shoves to fakie and lastly switch pop shove. I couldn’t stay long at work so I felt bad having to leave so quickly after Dave got there.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

Headed to research center after a long day at work with big clouds looming. Tried to go to other spots, but it turns out it had just rained on the north side of town. I felt really sore and stiff when I started. There was showers, but never enough to actually stop skating. I didn’t skate well. Really struggled with crooks. I think I miss the groove in my old trucks. Luckily I’m starting to get one in my newish trucks. Got a couple back 50s. One really bad halfcab noseslide. Front board pop out, a couple front 50s, tried kick back 50s for awhile and wasn’t close. My grip was so slippery it was driving me nuts. All this rainy weather has brought out tiny pebbles which get in shoes then ruin the grip. Add some wax and razor tail and my board felt unskateable. Luckily I own a skateboard company because I went home and setup a new board because I’m a baby like that.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 27, 2015 at 7:51pm PDT

Went to Stonehenge right after work with the motivation of maybe trying a kick back tail. Warming up was tough, I went through quite a few basics then out of nowhere a kickflip axle stall went down. Then I started trying the kick back tail. It took me awhile. Like 20 minutes to get the first one above. Then a few tries later I did 3 in a row (the next 3 above). That trick feels really neat.

Then I went to this ledge spot. It was so nice out. I should mention it was the first day without rain in weeks. The cracks between the seams are getting worse. Going downhill I mostly tried switch noseslide over the bricks (although I only got all the way over the bricks once) then front 50 variations. Got remotely close to kickflip out, got a front shove out or two. Also got front 5-0. I struggled with crooks. Only got one good one and a few where I barely grinded. But did manage a run of crooks, back 50, heelflip. Hucked some kickflip noseslides. Had fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

Rolled to Blue Skies after work feeling very arthritic and unmotivated, but needing to do a trick for the OLDFART game. I arrived to a huge puddle in front of the bank making it unskateable and a large puddle in front of the ledge too. I spent some time to get the ledge dry and after about 30 minuets it dried. Warming up I just did kickturns and a few ollies then kickflips. I hucked a few noseslide 270 shoves that were surprisingly close and made me not feel so bad. I probably should have just stuck with trying that trick for the challenge. I hucked switch heels, 360 flips and didn’t land any. Finally started trying front 50s on the ledge which was scary because if the board would have gone over the ledge it would have landed in a swamp. After awhile I got close to kickflip out and setup the phone to film it. Minutes later some whiny kid on a big wheel showed up and rolled over then stepped on my phone. Somehow he didn’t break it and somehow his mom wasn’t upset at me for yelling at him. Then the kid rolled through the huge puddle and dragged water in front of the ledge. I left feeling insanely pissed off. Mostly at myself for going to such a stupid park after work where I should expect toddlers. I might be going on a street only binge for awhile.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 25, 2015 at 1:01pm PDT

Whoa, sunshine! Unheard of! I met Dave in Broomfield and we rolled toward some wallride spot he had seen a photo of. We saw this on the way and skated it for a little while. The approach is way harder then it looks. Dave got boardslides and feebles on it. I did a front board transfer and a crooks or two on it.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 25, 2015 at 2:52pm PDT

Then we met up with Simon here. It was funny because we were a couple of blocks away sitting in Dave’s car and didn’t notice Simon at the light next to us. He yells “What did you say?” in such a gangsta voice he got us both so good. Simon killed this spot. Wallride, f/s wallride, ollie the chain, wallride to fakie, wallride ollie out (almost to manual), switch b/s wallride (WTF!). Such a ripper. Dave did several wallrides, fakie wallride and f/s wallride. I didn’t land a single thing other then some basic flippers on the sidewalk. I suck at wallrides.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 25, 2015 at 8:38pm PDT

Then we went here. My stiffness/arthritis was out of control when we started. I could barely walk. Started with some ride on grinds. Eventually started ollieing up the curb, started doing back 180s up then switch ride on 50s. Dave was manualling to 5-0 or 50. Then we went to work on the nose manual 180s. I got one before we turned the camera on, and then after that it took me like another hundred tries. Dave got one shortly after me. Wow we struggled on that one. Glad we finally got it.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones medium bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on May 24, 2015 at 7:16pm PDT

After an early dinner with family I headed to Steelyards to meet Rob and Dave. My wrist was in a brace and I had drank a cider with dinner. Those things are strong and I was feeling ultra lazy. I got there first and had barely ollied before those guys showed. I was bummed on the one car in the parking lot parking right by the manny pad making it hard to hit it the long way. On top of that people would be going in and out of the car the whole session to get stuff and it was just awkward. Rob was MVP with some really long lines cruising fast manuals, nose manuals, ollies out of the curb cut, nollies up the curb, nose manual 180s, no comply shoves, shoves, kickflips, just cruising man. Dave had the slam of the night on a fakie shove fakie nose manual attempt. He also had 180 nose manual, nose manuals, switch back 180 out of the curb cut, kickflips and much more I’m forgetting. I was really lazy. I blame my wrist, the cider and Liz. I had a few manuals, nose manuals. Had a line with manual, ollie up then b/s flip off. Also a varial flip off. A few other flippers. In the end all three of us tried nose manual front 180s on the spot in the photo of me above. Rob did one pretty quick. Dave and I just went in circles trying over and over. We kept putting our back wheels down before the 180. It was so annoying. On the way back I did a few treflips. But yeah, we tried over and over while it sprinkled on us and could not get it. We both got close, bug no cigar.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 23, 2015 at 1:59pm PDT

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 23, 2015 at 2:07pm PDT

I’m getting so sick of the rain and have hit a wall with parking garages. It’s May, I want to be skating outside! Ollie and I met Rob at Blank Curbs. He was already doing pivot shoves on the curb. Rob was doing variations of the run above. He also did manny around the corner shove out and manny around the corner back 180 out. Ollie’s line above pretty much covers what he did. I had a line with a kickflip over Ollie’s board, ollie onto the curved sidewalk from the opposite side of Rob, little gap to front tail stall with a shove out.

Then we went to the other garage across the way. Rob and I did some slappy crooks. Rob had some rad lines with ollie up the curb then ride into the abyss, back 50s on the red median and bean plants over parking blocks. I was kinda lazy then started trying the run above. Well I was trying it with a kickflip to fakie first, then decided to just kickflip on and ride into the abyss. I’ve rode down that thing a bunch of times before without problems, but this one totally caught me off guard. I slammed. I sprained both wrists, but somehow the right one get it bad. I don’t even get it. We stopped then as Ollie was bored and drove through the puddle a few times.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A photo posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on May 22, 2015 at 4:17pm PDT

Wanted to skate a ledge and didn’t feel like doing research ledge once again. Figured Mikes Camera and Pearl ledges would be too wet on top so ended up at Iris ledge. I quickly remembered why I hate this ledge so much. It doesn’t look it, but the little slope before the ledge is too much for me. It took me like 20 tires to get on a front 50. I bailed my board into the bushes a couple times and once a slug landed on it. Wow, that’s never happened before. I was finally starting to get into 50s consistently when it started to sprinkle. Got a bad front 50 180 and a front tail stall. Then the rain came in strong. It was some of the worst I’ve skated recently.

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones med bushing 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 21, 2015 at 12:05pm PDT

Busy day at work, but Dave was texting me saying I should go to Blue Skies before it started raining. Somehow I pulled it off and went to meet Dave. When I arrived he was in the hockey rink instead of at the park. I was initially kind of bummed as I wanted to skate the park. But everyone that reads this knows I love flatground so it didn’t take me long to start enjoying it. Dave had only been there a couple minutes so we were both going through the wonderful horribleness that is warming up as an older skater. My legs would get warmed up and feel good and I got a ton of flip tricks including a new one. Started with kickflip, shoves, varial flip, fakie flip, halfcab flips. b/s flip, 360 flip, got a first try f/s halfcab heel so tried rick flips for awhile and got close. Had a line with 360 flip then nollie 360 flip, couldn’t get the fakie tre next though. Also had a run with heelflip then nollie varial flip. Tried a ton of switch varial flips. Got close. Was trying another one and landed something. We thought it was a switch flip at first, but I was riding away regular so apparently I did my first ever switch sex change. Ha, pretty hyped to say the least. I couldn’t get a fakie tre to end my session. Dave did a lot of lines. Nollie front 180 then switch front shove. Switch back shoves. Fakie shove, fakie bigspin, f/s nollie bigspin. Nollie shoves, switch 180s. Lots of 360 tricks. Cab, f/s cab, helipop and learned a new one. Nollie front 360. Or nollie cab. Or switch cab. Just as long as you don’t say “full” I don’t care. He also put down a bunch of kickflips, no complys, switch no complys, 43 shiftys and probably a ton more tricks I’m forgetting. Aki showed up and joined us. He’s a software engineer that goes there at lunch and he’s super nice. He warmed up then started linking a bunch of flippers and 180s. Kickflip, heelflip, back heel, 360 flip, fakie flip. He would get a bunch in a row. Then I needed to get back to work. What a good time.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 21, 2015 at 8:24pm PDT

The day that keeps on giving! Fuzz, Dave and Rob pushed for Old Man night at Launch so we met up in Longmont and headed that way. As we were getting close it was still dry so a detour to the bank to curb was made. We ended up skating there a couple hours and past closing time for Launch. It ruled. It completely ruled. I’ll just start by saying Dave, Fuzz and Rob rule. Even without the skating it would have ruled. But add a good session and you get the shit we live for. We were all a little slow to get started, but the tricks really started stacking up. There is no way I’ll remember them all, but everyone seemed to get “their” trick and a bunch of other ones. I’ll try. Rob. back smiths, started a rad back pivot train where we all did them with a smile, backside nosepick to back d, front tails, locked into a Rob Helmstetter backside noseblunt, feeble to rock, back pivot to back tail, lofty bean plants to tail and pop shove nosebash. Fuzz. Front tail fakie, ollie up to front tail slide, fakie nosepick to fakie, noseblunt tail grab, front pivot fakie, front and back axle stall 270s out. Me. no comply front tail, couldn’t land front tail shove, kickflip “back smith” where my front foot was hovering above my board, kick back tail (felt so rad), slammed super hard switch pushing for a switch front nose stall, hurricane, hucked switch front heels for the heck of it on flat, got a treflip on flat, some other boneless tricks. Dave. Got more flatground kickflips, front hurricane, back pivot shove, back tail (shove too maybe?), thruster plant (I think?), front axle stall to back axle stall, something into axle stall to fakie. I’m blowing it. These are too hard to remember. It was an awesome session with an awesome crew. Stoked.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 20, 2015 at 5:22pm PDT

Went to Stonehenge to try and get a front blunt to front pivot for the instagame. Warmed up with a few basic stalls. Did blunt to b/s axle. Couldn’t do pivot, but started trying frontside anyway. I thought I would get it right away, but it’s me so of course not. Got a bunch of front blunt to front axle, but the pivot was way harder. Slammed once. Got close a few more times then it started raining. I wish it showed how hard it was raining because it was way worse then it looks. My grip was covered. My board was filthy. My wheels brown from riding through dirt on the other side. I managed the lunch breaked out one above. I was going to try another one, but the rain was really getting my board soggy and I didn’t want to ruin another board getting one of Josh’s challenges.