I went to the research ledge before the Meta 15 year anniversary party. There was a puddle before the ledge. I cleared off the little bit of snow that was causing the run off, but it didn’t dry. I guess the fact that it was runoff means it was above freezing. So that’s good at least. One of my first noseslides was so off that I hit my front foot on the wall behind the ledge. That would be an omen for the sucking that would come. Other lowlights included trying to pop a big ollie off the kicker at the top of the hill and the board not leaving the ground, not being able to do a front 50 to save my life, struggling with fakie bigflips again, having troubles ollieing up curbs. All of this made me want to focus my board and quit skateboarding forever. Unfortunately I am incredibly stubborn and kept at it. I did managed a first try boardslide pop out, a couple crook grinds, a horrible back 50 or two, and well, that’s about the only positives.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage for about 15 minutes. Did some no-ollie front tails with both 180s out, nosestalls and a few axle stalls. Also a few kickflips, a varial flip and some failed nollie flips.

@boredzinejp and I are sad to see @the_neviathan leave the game, but the game must go on. Here's my 'poor mans' 360 for Josh (with unwarranted slow motion). In honor of Nate the next trick is to fly and be free! Ha, hippy jump body varial. #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #boulderhippy #unwarrantedslomo

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 2, 2015 at 12:36pm PST

Skipped out for lunch at Blue Skies on a beautiful day. It was around 40 degrees and warming up. Most of the park had snow on it. All of the banks, the taller ledges, etc. The flat bar and small ledge were the only dry things. Warming up took awhile so I kind of just tried the 360 for awhile until I had one good enough for the game. It took awhile and I felt warmed up at that point. I started messing with a couple things as the next possible challenge. The hippy jump body varial or switch noseslide shove. I would get both, but the hippy jump body varial just seemed more fun so I went with it. I was quite scared and it took me awhile to commit. Once I did it was fun though, I have never done that over anything before. I somehow landed quite a bit of flippers too. 360 flip, b/s flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, hmm, that list doesn’t sound very impressive after all. Last thing I did was try a line of ollie the flat bar, no comply 180 on flat then switch noseslide shove out (technically 270 shove i guess?). I managed to get the line and it felt awesome. Loving the big setup.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Brief post homework session on the new TF. #nerd

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 1, 2015 at 8:12pm PST

Had to help Ollie with homework for awhile and ran out of juice to get out and skate. So I messed around with the new bank to curb with the sign. I did a few basic tricks on it like backside axle, front axle, front tail, front smith. Also tried some back 360s for the game and did my first one with a slight tail smack so that’s some progress at least. Also tried some nollie flip unsuccessfully. I was trying a line of front tail then b/s flip when Ollie came out. We put the wood all the way onto ledge and skated it like that for awhile. Ollie did the crazy 360 right away. We did a bunch more dorky stuff like manual up to rock, manual down. I tried a bunch of lip tricks and did a bunch of back disasters. I might have to try those on a real qp now. Ollie did a few more tricks too and we called it a night.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm bones v1 stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage with my new setup without much intent on skating hard or long. I started on the “manual pad” and a few tricks in I slammed, did the splits and hit the back of my head on a bike pedal. Awesome. I did a few more manuals tricks then decided to bring in Ledgy and see if it would be possible to skate it in my garage. I went to move the ‘manual pad’ and noticed how convenient it would work to make a sweet bank to curb. I played with that for awhile, but it needs a sign at the bottom to make it good. The sign I have was in the back yard and covered with snow. Next time. I still messed around for awhile, just lifting up the crack and doing nose stalls and front rocks and stuff. I think it will be quite fun.

Then I put Ledgy out to skate. I only did stalls obviously since there is no room. I’m not sure I could actually do grind tricks, but I did backside nose stall shove and frontside nosestall shove. Both were really fun. Don’t think I’ve ever done the fs version before. Then I made myself do a front tail stall and called it a night. Oh yeah, I hucked a few switch flips without getting close. The new setup is a 8.38 board. Why am I going bigger? Because I’ve been into ledges and I think the extra board room helps me.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)