Had an hour to kill after work before I needed to pick up Ollie from basketball practice. I was super sore from the marathon skate yesterday so I didn’t want to ollie at all. I debated Boulder ditch or Boulder skatepark and ended up at Boulder ditch. Probably the right choice. I tried ten tricks on the smaller cement qp on the left, but gave up after axle stall to fakie wasn’t working. I didn’t really do much for awhile. Just kind of doing some little boardslides on the pvc and stuff, tailslide attempt on the waxed edge of the ditch. Then tried back 50 on the pvc which was fun and then I forced myself to feeble grind the pvc which I don’t think I’ve done before. It was quite fun and made the whole session worthwhile. It was pretty dark and I was just sitting around on my phone when an older dude came by and cruised the ditch and ducked under a tree like he was getting tubed by a wave. It ruled. Today I also realized that I’m pretty happy with my setup. Cool!

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Today started early at Denver park with @iamnotacreepyjake and @fullertrron. Dave beat me to front 50. #grindsbeforenine #day300alldayskatefest

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 8, 2015 at 2:21pm PST

Picked Jake up at 7am and we were to Denver park by 7:30am. It quite cold and the park was almost empty. We rolled around slowly gaining the ability to try tricks. The first real skating we did was in the humps to the qp. We would do a trick in it and then a boardslide on the curb and then a trick on the bump to ledge. Jake did a lot of tricks on the qp. I did a few. The line was fun though. I think I got crook jib on the qp, boardslide, front 50. We also did the little kid gap off the bump to ledge and that’s how Jake started his run and his ended with front 5-0. Dave showed up. We all started doing wallies up onto the ledge in the snake run. Dave and Jake did it quick, I took a few tries. Then we lined it out with tricks on the bump to ledge or something. There were a couple wallies that I was pretty scared about just because I was going fast rolling into it. It was fun though. Jake (and I think Dave too) also did wallie front 180s and Jake almost did wallie manual. Then Jake and I skated a ledge above that and the little one. I was trying to crooks the first one and then noseslide the second level of the next one. I got remotely close. I also got a couple cali back 50s up and over the pyramid. Jake did a bunch of noseslide and managed to back 50 it once. Gnar! Simon showed up while we were in a physical challenge to front 50 across the ledge on top of the boardercross. After several tries I landed an accidental front 5-0 that only grinded a foot or so and I landed on the deck. Dave went and did a perfect front 50. So sick!

DAY 300! I made it. Beautiful day.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 8, 2015 at 11:35am PST

After a stop for some hippy food and drinks we went to this ledge spot that I have wanted to skate for like 5 years. The ground was way rougher then I expected, but the ledge was quite good. It was hard to line out both waxed sections, but that’s what we mostly tried. Except for Simon because he hauls ass and needed all the speed just for the main one. It took awhile before people started landing tricks. I was feeling every bit of having skated 300 days. I was sore and mentally tired. I was happy to do a few back 50s, couldn’t kick back 50. Got a line of front 50 shove and then switch boardslide to forward. Dave did a lot of really good front 50s with either front 180 out or back 180 out off the front truck. He couldn’t lock in to front crooks like normal though. Jake had a bunch of really good tailslides and tailslides to fakie, back 50s,fakie front 50s f/s halfcab out lined out with crooks to fakie. Simon hauled ass and did frontside lipslides and tailslides. Then he started trying front lip to front tail. We got the camera out and Jake filmed. Things got elevated for a bit and everyone seemed hyped. Simon did the lipslide to tailslide and lipslide to tailslide to fakie, front 5-0 shove out and some other rad tricks. Dave did a really sick boardslide to fakie 50 to f/s halfcab out. I landed a switch boardslide 270 out. Jake, Dave and I played a game of SKATE that was pretty fun with quite a variety of tricks. I would eventually win it with fakie big flip. Dave didn’t land it, but tried it for awhile and got really close. Get it Dave! Jake and I did 360 flips.

Then we went downtown for a bit so I could try a line that I’ve wanted to do for several months now. It’s basically a weird street plant off this tallish drop that has a pole to hold onto and then a boardslide on the yellow ledge above. After some warming up we started filming. That drop was taller then I remember. I had a few where my legs gave out and I can’t believe I didn’t break my board, but I would get some. Got the original plan of the plant and then the boardslide quick. Then messed around trying to add boneless 360 to the end of the line, but that didn’t work. Dave suggested 360 flip since I had landed a few at the last spot and boom, best feeling I’ve had skating in awhile. Did the plant, got the boardslide and did the 360 flip. I was hyped beyond belief. Then Dave did some really fast and stylee front boards and front board transfer to fakie.

Brief and fun ender for the day. Thanks @dnutz37!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 8, 2015 at 3:38pm PST

Yes, we skated more. We stopped at Darin’s ramp. I think I took about 10 runs total, dove onto my shoulder once, but landed a lot of my tricks somewhat quickly. Maybe it was because I was too tired to bail. Jake and Dave got lots of tricks. Darin was ripping as he always does. Actually, maybe even more then normal. Back smith second try. Fun ender for a fun day. Now I shoot for 350 days?

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Had a late start and a busy morning and it was off to bring India to ballet. I went to Safeway ledge while she was there. Things started off good. I had moved past “slappy” noseslides quickly. I was even nosesliding the tall fence ledge quickly and got front 5-0 on the lower fence ledge as well as crooks. On the main ledge I had quite a few tricks. Noseslide, noseslide fakie, switch front nose, switch back nose to regs, “nollie” front tail, “nollie” front tail to fakie, front 50, front 50 front 180 out, back 50, back 5-0, back 50 back 180 out (horribly done), front tail (weak sauce), front 50 shove, front 5-0, halfcab noseslide, fakie nosegrind, kick back 50. Came really close to front crooks, kick back 50 shove and kick back tail! The kick back tails were the last thing I tried and I think if I would have had more time I would have gotten one. Flatground was ok. I spent a lot of time hucking tricks I’ve never landed. I really want to start landing switch and nollie tricks. I got somewhat close to switch f/s flip, nollie flip, nollie heel. It was fun hucking. It would have been a great session, but I struggled too much with 360 flip and nollie 360 flip. I only got one 360 flip and never got a nollie tre.

Day 299 #strugglefest #ihavenopop

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 7, 2015 at 3:50pm PST

Then I headed to later in the day to hit 303 and I decided I’d skate these ledges I’ve driven by 100 times. They looked somewhat tall from the road and yeap, they were really tall. Ugh. I was sore and started off so poorly. I eventually did a couple mediocre things like a line with crooks and noseslide to fakie. A few incredibly slow front noseslides. Then I tried front 50 for like an hour and only got into one. Ugh. That is the tallest ledge I’ve skated in awhile. It bummed me out. I need to skate taller ledges more.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

First time trying a #tentricktentryflatgroundfridayfabulousfearsomefunfight in awhile. @boredzinejp gave me a nice list and it was going great until I tried to clean up the heelflip. Should have stuck with the 2nd try make. #doh #itwascold #andnewshoes

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 6, 2015 at 4:33pm PST

I left work a little early with the intention of warming up then doing my first 10×10 in awhile. Josh had written my list of: fs halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heel, varial heel, nollie heel, nollie f/s flip, sw flip, 360 flip, heel flip, backside flip, f/s flip. It was cold, but I managed to get warmed up somewhat quickly and started the game. I was going to go in order of easiest to hardest for me. It was going great until heelflip. I got one 2nd try, but used the rest of my 8 tries to try and get a better one and on the 10th try SNAP went the tail. DOOOHHH. I had new shoes. NB# PJs again. Rad.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Day 297.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 5, 2015 at 7:04pm PST

On a chilly night (mid-30s) I brought boards to Meta then rolled into the night solo style. It’s been awhile since I’ve skated anywhere other then a spot by myself. I should do it more, it’s fun. I started at this ledge we saw the other night. It obviously begs for lipslide. I started with boardslide going uphill to get warmed up. Did some kickflips. Took a long long time before I could commit to the lipslide. I was a little bummed on that. I also did a noseslide coming up. Then started trying a silly line to the lipslide. There is a bench near the wall that Matt ollied over. I would ride along the ledge and do a silly plant thing off. I had to grab f/s and hold onto the edge with my left hand. It was pretty fun. Then I would do a front shove and try the lipslide. Well I actually didn’t land many front shoves so it took forever. I was hucking all kinds of flippers on the way back to the top. And I had to give up on front shove and finally got the line after giving up on varial flips too and just doing a regular pop shove. And the lipslide was kind of a mutant too. I was basically sliding out when the back axle caught on the lower step and I pivoted out. So it was totally a lipslide to switch crook on the lower step and totally intentional. Either way I was please. Then I took a few tries to do a front 50 on it. It was hard as it was sticky for grinds and if you stuck you could potentially dive into a bunch of metal. Ouch.

Then I went to this area. I did a few sloppy back 50s, horrible front tail stall, switch noseslide then started trying a fun line. Front shove off a curb, kickflip the bump going into the alley then crooks the ledge. The front shove was hit or miss, but I would end up getting the line and was pretty excited about it. Then I started trying another line across the street of front 180 off a curb, switch 180 up the next one, 360 flip on flat and something down the 3 stair, but I didn’t get the 360 flip in the few short tries I had before I got the boot. Oh well. I walked back to my car remembering the one great thing about colder weather: No one is outside, the spots are clear!

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Dave makes the best edits!

Went out to the garage feeling pretty arthritic and sore. I put the ‘manny pad’ out and did the fun manual warmups then felt good enough to try flatground. I ended up skating flat for about an hour and a half and it was fun. I rattled off a few of the normal tricks before mixing in some total hucks. I never got stuck on any tricks and would mostly just try what I could think of at the time. Tricks I was happy with were heelflip, 360 flip, f/s flip, nollie varial flip, first try “over 70” varial heel, “over 80” nollie flip make. I didn’t get close to nollie heels at all. Somewhat close to switch flip, double flip, nollie tre (so hard in that little space). Did a bad varial flip rewind. Hucked tricks I’ll probably never land like switch f/s flip, nollie inward heel, nollie back heel. Whatever, it was fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers inside bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Hadn't skated downtown Boulder in awhile. Fun times

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 3, 2015 at 9:18pm PST

Jake and I met Matt at Meta on a warmish Nov night. We chilled for awhile, tuned our shred sticks to perfection and set off to the Widow Maker. Unfortunately there was an activity up there so we couldn’t play our warm up game of SKATE up there. And you thought we were going to skate the double set? Ha. We ended up at this two stair spot and we stayed there awhile. My new product of the day was Bones medium bushings. I have been trying to get ahold of a set of these for awhile and finally did at Crisis the other night. They seemed much looser then the Venoms or Ventures, but didn’t wheel bite as much. Perfect. Matt manualed this all easy. He had brand new Busentiz shoes on right out of the box. Crazy that he can do that. Jake got a manual or two or five depending on how anal you are about slight tilts. I never manualled it. I was having one of those crappy nights. Matt and I hucked a lot of flip tricks while waiting. Matt of course had several treflips and a switch flip that looked great. I got a few kickflips up and tried to front shove off, but slammed over and over and it was hurting more then normal. Jake got halfcab up and several front 180’s up and almost lined it up with a fakie ollie off. Matt took a long time to get nose manual, but the one he did was tight.

We moved on to Wells Fargo. Everyone was getting tired quick. I had some fun boardslide shuffles around the hip. Jake did bluntslide transfer. Matt freakin’ ollied the yellow bar. That’s what the photo above is supposed to be. I made myself slowly noseslide the easier side which took a long time.

Lastly we skated this barrier for a minute. Here’s Jake giving it an awkward hug and me jumping into it. That’s the kid of barrier session it was. I slammed pretty hard two times. The slams hurt way more then they should, a sign that something isn’t right in my body. Anyways, Jake and I tried to line out a really tech run. Flatground kickflip OVER A CRACK! and then a f/s wallride. The photo above is me as my nose stuck into a rough part of the barrier and I slammed into it. We both struggled with the kickflip part of it too. I was actually getting really upset. Luckily I got the line. Jake gave up as the kickflip was getting the best of him. That section of ‘crete must be cursed. We pushed back to the car. All three of us doing the minimum amount of pushing to slowly roll and get home to our beds.

(setup – 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers inside bones medium bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

It’s a cupsole shoe battle royale! Featuring three shoes from some of my current favorite skateboarders. PJ Ladd, Mark Suciu and Brandon Westgate. I gave up on vulcanized shoes awhile ago because they hurt my legs and back too much. I wore Footprints Gamechanger orthotic insoles in all of these shoes. I love them and highly recommend them. I blow through the left toe of every shoe I’ve skated. So having to duct tape in an extra piece of suede into the toe is normal for me.

New Balance Numeric PJ Straford 533

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

The original Blackbox made Stratford 479 had become my favorite shoe ever. The New Balance made 533 had a lot to live up to. I loved how flexible and yet supportive the 479 was. The 479 was not very grippy though and not the most durable shoe. I have skated about 5 pairs of the PJ 533 now. While I was initially hesitant of the thicker and stiffer sole I have become just as big of fan of the PJ 533s. The 533 is way grippier and way more durable then the 479. The 533 toebox doesn’t fit as perfect as the 479 for me, but it’s still a good fit. This shoe lasts forever, over a month of skating everyday. It’s insane. From a hippy standpoint I really like that I’m killing fewer cows and wasting fewer resources when I skate these. And I am a huge PJ Ladd fan so supporting him is a major plus to me. This shoe is great. I do with the sole was slightly more flexible though.

Emerica Westgate CC

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

I have had the Leo and I don’t like that shoe. So I was happy to see the new Westgate offer a bit more support then the Leo, but still remain a simple thin cupsole. The long and narrow fit is a little weird and required some breaking in to avoid blisters on the outside of my toes. They are also a little too spongy for me initially. They did break in though and there were a few days where I loved this shoe. I say ‘a few days’ because the shoe didn’t last much longer then that. I wore through to the insole in 9 days. That is not good. For the record I skate Mob grip, but that didn’t stop the PJ shoes from lasting a month. I’m in a position where durability isn’t my biggest concern so I will say I still like this shoe quite a bit. Even if I couldn’t ollie over a car in them.

Adidas Suciu ADV

Rating: COMFORT
Rating: BOARD FEEL
Rating: BREAK IN PERIOD (Good rating means it doesn’t take long to break in)
Rating: SOLE DURABILITY
Rating: UPPER DURABILITY
Rating: STYLE
Rating: OVERALL

Alright this is kind of a weird one to review. I like thin cupsoles so I thought the ADV would be similar to a cupsole. It’s not, it’s insanely thin and skates like a vulcanized shoe. It also comes with an incredibly thick insole which I replaced with my normal Footprints Gamechanger. So I didn’t really skate the shoe the way it’s designed. I only lasted a few days before I gave up on these. My feet hurt in them even just skating flatground. Rating the durability isn’t easy either as I only skated them a few days, but as you can see they already had wear marks. Judging from experience I don’t think they were very durable. With all that said, if you like a super thin shoe and a thick insole, maybe these are for you.

No surprise, but the PJ shoe wins. Never doubt PJ.

Went into my garage not warmed up at all and tried ~20 nollie heelflips. Only one was remotely close.

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers venom bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)