Went out to Rampy with a bit more energy then the night before. I’m sick of the rain though. I took a few runs and wasn’t really too into it. I did manage a couple back 5-0s out of nowhere though so that was cool. Other then that I skated flatground and it was a blast. I did kickflip and pop shoves then a varial flip. Then for whatever reason I decided I had to do a switch varial flip. They all felt pretty good and several tries later I landed one. Rad! I also hucked switch heels (nowhere close), hardflips (kind of close), switch b/s flips (feel doable, but not close at all), switch bigflips (since I can do switch varial flips, but not switch kickflips it kind of made more sense then switch b/s flip. But I wasn’t even remotely close), varial heel (landed one horribly), and front heel (came really close). Then I got called in to help India with her physics homework. It was hard.

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

Went out to Rampy feeling really sore. On the first back 50 I felt my legs complain about skating. Ha. I tried to get going, but after a few songs and even fewer tricks I went back inside.

Woke up early and since it was to be a family day I figured I’d go skate before everyone else got moving. I started at Boulder park to get warmed up pumping and whatnot. I got there around 7:30am and there was already two scooter kids. They weren’t too bad though. I had fun pumping around, did a few axle stalls, ollied the little hip, etc for awhile. Then started trying a run where I ollie into the narrow bank by the softball field, kickflip off the bump, front 50 down the ledge. I struggled with the kickflip (?) and the front 50 (??). I was doing other tricks in between. Just dropping into the bowl and doing axle stall on the little parts and stuff. Then I was going for the line again and the scooter kids dad was standing at the entrance of the park and giving me one of those “Oh look you are old and not very coordinated and still skateboarding that’s so cool looks” so I just skated by him and left.

Then I went to this spot. Since I was supposed to ollie something for my instagram game of skate I wanted to ollie the little rail. I couldn’t. I jumped over it, but I couldn’t commit. It might have to do with it being 8:30 in the morning, I’m not sure. There were rocks all over the parking lot too so it wasn’t fun to do flatground even. I just made myself manual off the two and ollieup the manny pad a few times. Could be a really fun old man spot.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 17, 2015 at 9:54am PDT

So I went looking for other stuff to ollie over and ended up here. I put a smaller cone after the ledge and even that took me awhile. I put the taller cone and after every bail would do flip tricks on the way back to try and motivate me to commit. When I got 360 flip first try I knew I had to commit. I know it looks like I didn’t go over it, but don’t worry I slow-mo’d it and yeah I go over it. It’s just my weird ollie barely making it.

Then I went to good ol’ Research Center. It was so nice out. A little warm, man it felt great. My body was sore from jumping off that huge ledge (ha). I did a few noseslides to get warmed up again, then crooks. Tried halfcab noseslides for awhile and failed. Doh, I want that trick! Got a couple bad back 50s, a front 50 (i hate skating the ledge uphill), posed kickflip front noseslides. Got slow nollie and fakie tres. Hucked kickflip noseslides for a bit then realized I had already been skating for like 3 hours and should probably get home to play tennis with Liz. Glad I went skating early and could hang with the family the rest of the day.

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

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on May 17, 2015 at 7:37pm PDT

Another Saturday at Broomfield park. Awesome. I arrived first and after a few pumps around the flow bowl and quartapotty tricks I tried to skate the black ledge. Got front 50, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180 out, front 50 to brief front board, front 5-0 (intentional!), crooks, noseslide. I kept at it and would eventually get a back 50, a front tail stall, hucked front smith, a halfcab noseslide or two. Rob showed next and flowed around doing manuals super easy, front board pop outs, boardslides, noseslides, I think crooks, halfcab boardslides and switch boardslides! Riley and Scotty showed next. Riley’s ledge warmups were so good. No problem doing all the stocks and then turning around and doing them switch. Scotty was doing layback front rocks on the brick qp and other sweeper variations. He’s always smiling and laughing. It rules. There was a lot going on so remembering what others did after this is tough. Riley was doing tricks down the double set rail so I tried to ollie it. It felt remotely doable, but my window of opportunity ran out quickly as hucking down that wasn’t easy on me. There was a puddle that prevented the six stair from being a warmup. Unless I wanted to go way huge. I’m not Riley. I tried boardslide transfer to manual on the brown ledge for awhile and eventually got one. Going the other way I would huck halfcab flip noseslides on the blue ledge. Some were remotely close. I played a game of SKATE with Scotty. I got letters on him with kickflip tricks, he’d get letters on me with nollie and switch tricks. My tricks were sloppy, his were clean. He won it with nollie front heel. Dave, Simon and John showed. Simon did so many ollie variations on the steep bank. The nollie to fakie was my fav. We played on the quartapotty for awhile. Dave was trying switch blunt and couldn’t quite put it down. I took a long time to land a hurricane. Riley did a bunch of tricks down the double set (above). We went and got Chipotle. Or as everyone else says, Chipolte.

Then I met Riley, Scotty and even Nolan at this spot. When I got out of the car I was so stiff. Man it was a battle to get moving at all, but I would eventually get going. It sucked the van was there to prevent lines starting with tricks up the curb. Of course Riley did a ton of tricks. Scotty was sore too, but started hucking hurricanes both ways and locked into some incredible front hurricanes. They looked so good. I never got front 50. I would get back crooks, noseslide, boardslide popouts and a halfcab noseslide that took awhile. The cracks kind of mess that spot up pretty bad.

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

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 15, 2015 at 9:45am PDT

Went Blue Skies for Flatground Friday. The goal was to get hyped for flatground by putting the stupid back boneless down. Instead I did the same thing over and over until I snapped. I could get into the boneless so easy, but I could not jump back in to save my life. I snapped. I had another week if I wanted it, but I don’t want to spend another minute trying that trick and I really don’t want to snap again and focus another board. I would have been stoked to do one, but it became clear rather quick that I don’t have what it takes to land that trick. Kudos Josh!

(setup 8.25 null (RIP) new venture 5.8 lights (thanks Reed!) bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

For more about the artist Frank Zirbel click here.

Super nice day for once in the low 70s. I met Rob and Dave at Longmont park. We all got there at basically the same time and had the park mostly to ourselves for awhile. After some pumping around and stuff Rob started doing manuals on the long curved ledge near the entrance of the park that normally serves as a bench for lurkers, smokers and parents. I never got a clean manual, but came close. I’m pretty sure Rob got manual, but he definitely got a solid nose manual. Dave did a surfy ollie up turn into lipslide around the corner. I got a couple little crooks, but mostly didn’t and would turn around and get close to varial heels. Rob got into back smiths and Dave had a nice fast front 50 or two. Then we played a game of SKATE. It started with Rob getting me with back 360 and cab, halfcab flip and something else. A few more tricks and then I did 3 flippers in a row that ended up winning it. Fakie flip, heelflip and then a miracle 360 flip that felt really good. We each did our own thing for awhile. Rob was doing front board pop outs on the bump to ledge, I was posing front 50s down it and Dave was doing front tailslides across the pyramid then trying nollie bigspins on the hip. I also tried to feel out the dirt gap by doing some 90 degree ollies and landing on the dirt. I made it to the concrete once, but never went for a real ollie. Bernie, Riley and Scotty showed up. I played another game of SKATE with Bernie and a random kid at the park. It went pretty good for me as far as landing most of my basics, but I ended up being the first one out. I came close to nollie and fakie tres. I finally got the front 50 across and down the ledge. I was hanging on for dear life it felt like. That’s when I got a text from Liz that said “Are you by chance coming home tonight?” Oops, I took off. Ha.

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

I won tickets to Thee Oh Sees through the wonderful Radio 1190. I am familiar with them, but never owned an album or anything. Later that day Carleigh won tickets through the event organizer or something. So Jack, Carleigh, Liz and I left for the show pretty early. I guess way earlier then I realized since we were some of the first people to arrive. It allowed us get some really nice seats on the balcony at least. The first band was Dirty Few. They sang about drinking, spit into each others mouths, tried to ride a skateboard on the stage and appeared to have a blast. We enjoyed it for what it was, but I could go for less spitting.

The next band was Rubedo and they started their set by saying “Hello we are Rubedo and we’re going to rock your socks off!” They didn’t. I guess now that it’s been a couple days I can at least acknowledge that they were interesting. The drummer was fun to watch. The singer would go in between seizures and motivational speaker poses. He even got up on the speaker and spewed meaningless new age crap. He unfortunately didn’t jump. Their music was what you would expect for a band who claims “Rubedo is the physical manifestation of sound streaming from the psyche of its members. This is the alchemy of rock and roll.” Except worse. Fuzz, Rob and Leslie had luckily arrived in time to see this band with us.

It’s amazing how quickly you can tell when a band is good, because it took about 3 seconds for Thee Oh Sees to establish how awesome they are. Straight forward intense shredding for two hours. Toe Cutter and The Dream are a couple of the songs I knew and they were played well. The crowd was super into it. The dueling drummers were really fun to watch. When it was over my ears were ringing and they had gained a new fan. What a great band to see live.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 13, 2015 at 4:05pm PDT

Dave called and said Blue Skies was dry and I should skate with him. It wasn’t dry, but we made it so the little QP was and the main bank was dry too. We messed around a little before I tried back bonelesses for a few minutes. I got closer. But it started raining. Dave kept skating He also did switch no comply and an over 40 f/s halfcab flip on the bank. I’m not sure I can do the back boneless.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings 51mm stf nb+ pj stratford 533)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 12, 2015 at 4:55pm PDT

This really summarizes my session. I went to Blue Skies after work to try the ol’ back boneless for the challenge. I should take away some positive that I could finally get into the trick (most of the time I grabbed behind the wheels like you are supposed to). But I could not commit. There was a couple near the end where I did kind of commit, but I looked like I was going to fakie. Ugh. It was a very tiring session and my left knee hurts from hopping around on it.