Drove to Denver to sell boards at Emage and 303. I thought Denver would be drier. It was not. So after tons of Christmas shopping and selling boards I ended up back in Boulder. I was going to stop home and grab Ledgy, but I figured I might get stuck. So I drover around looking for dry. I found a decent patch of somehwat downhill asphalt out in the industrial park and went with it. It had a parking block where I warmed up with some different stalls. There was also a little loading dock to do a quick little half push before riding off. I mostly tried some downhill lines. First one was pop shove, kickflip, back 180. It took awhile. The kickflip was killing me. Ugh. Then I tried varial flip, no comply 180, fakie flip. The varial flip almost resulted in a focused board. That trick is the worst. I would eventually get the line, but it took a toll on me. Then was halfcab flip followed by b/s flip. That one took awhile too, but it felt good when I did it. Then I tried to start a line with 360 flip and never landed it. I left frustrated thinking I was going home. But I drove around looking for some more dry spots.

This spot is always dry and I ended up dorking around. It’s obviously really mellow, but when most spots are covered in snow, you gotta do what you gotta do. I started with some side rock variations then tried to do a rock kickflip to fakie. I got really close and then the one I landed was not really to fakie or regs, it just kind of came out and stopped sideways on the bank. Oh well. Rather then leave as the sun set, I stubbornly decided to do 10 flip tricks on the “bank”. I thought it was a bad omen when the first trick I tried, kickflip to fakie, took over 5 tries. Bs flip, fakie flip and halfcab flip all took longer then they should too. But then it started to become fun. F/s flip, fakie f/s flip, varial flip to fakie, fakie varial flip. I randomly decided to do a “bank” trick I’ve never done before. Sex change. And it felt rad! I decided to torture myself with trying 360 flip to fakie which ended up coming pretty quickly, but I put my hand down. I got a few more, but every time my hand touched. I blame the mellowness of the bank. I was sweating at this point too and it felt good.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides 52mm spitfire f4 99a bones medium bushings nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Hyped to find some dry. #day338

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 18, 2015 at 5:10pm PST

Left work early since I’ll be off for a week. It felt somewhat warm in the 40s and I was thinking I’d just be skating flatground somewhere. But low and behold there was a window of dry at the research ledge! The runway had some wet, the angles were different, it wasn’t easy. I did a couple noseslides and a boardslide before crooks. The crooks felt really rad. At this point I was hyped that I was able to skate outside and grind a little. Then I started trying back 50s. UGH! I tried to do them with less angle then normal. Well actually, I didn’t really have much choice since the snow effected that. Plus I had to get on a little later which was taller. I would end up getting a few really bad ones, but I mostly just got bummed. I did a few more crooks to ease off the pain. Tried a few flip tricks on the sandy sidewalk above the ledge. Even kickflips were hard. Couldn’t do a treflip. Ended by trying halfcab noseslide and couldn’t believe how hard it was for me. I got super bummed, but kept at it until I landed the worst one ever. It’s tough being so stubborn.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 52mm spitfire f4 99a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)