I went out for a short session on a gorgeous day in the upper 40s. I had gone on a long walk with Liz and played football with Ollie already. I really just wanted a short flatground session, but I couldn’t find a close dry spot. I ended up at Bear Creek Elem. There is some flatground in the back, but people were playing basketball. I messed around trying to manual down all 4 of their long stairs out front, only got a couple. Then started trying a line of firecracker down a 3 stair then ollie onto one of the ledges above. Then I gave up on that as I wanted to ollie coming from the far side in the photo as it was slightly downhill. I tried a line of switch 180 the puddle in the background then ollie up onto a ledge, drop and quick back up onto the next. I suck at ollieing up stuff so it felt awesome to try so much. I would get up the first one most times. Most of the time I was in my comfort zone, but sometimes I was going fast for me and I would still get on it. It felt cool. But getting up the next one was about as hard as it could be for me. There is about 8 feet of flat between them. I also tried kickflipping the puddle at the start, but it would send me to the right and make the first ledge really hard. I eventually gave up and just rode through the puddle. Only then did I finally get up and off two of them. But I had to skip the middle one. Oh well. It was sooo much exercise. My heart was beating like crazy.

Then I noticed this as I left. I took a few tries then ollied off the corner. Neat.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 highs 3 wasshers on the inside of each 52mm spitfire 99a F4 NB# PJ straford 533 brown/gum)

Finally, a “warm” day in the 40s! After a long walk with Liz I set out to Wells Fargo bank to do a quick River Dance. It ended up being way harder there then I thought because it was too quick. On top of that some trucks were going to pull in and some workers informed me that my car would be stuck if I didn’t move it. I left.

You know it's January when 45 feels this warm. @fullertrron 5-0

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 2, 2016 at 4:08pm PST

After chilling at Sol for awhile Dave and I went to Rocky Mtn Elem and it was mostly dry! They had even redone a lot, but somehow left the ledge and banks completely skateable. Awesome. We started off on flatground. I had a new deck and put smaller trucks back on. It felt very different, but nice. I still wasn’t skating great. I had long johns on to combat the soreness I got in the cold the day before. It was overkill, but kind of nice. We did some nollies, switch ollies, 180s, etc over a little puddle. It was fun. We had some kickflips too, I struggled with halfcab flips, but landed on a nollie tre first try. Basically the board was flipping better again, but I just wasn’t used to it yet. Then we moved on to the ledge. In the school remodel they had created a rather large crack before the frontside approach that really messed with me. Gotta bondo it! Anywahs, we still rattled off quite a few tricks. Dave did boardslide to fakie real quick, crooks, noseslide, back 50, boardslide 270, front 50, front 5-0. He did all of them good too. I had noseslide, noseslide to fakie, crooks, some bad back 50s, front 50, front 5-0 (accident), front 50 shove. I tried kickflip noseslide for awhile and committed a couple times, I had one flop off and I landed it, but still none where I really got into a noseslide. I got close to kick back 50 too, it’s great how fast the smaller setup flips. We did some lines. Ollieing the medians on the banks. There are rocks you can ollie on to now. I think Dave did a line of front 5-0, manual on a rock, nollie back 180. Tight.

Snow skate with @fullertrron.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 2, 2016 at 5:08pm PST

Then we went to this little park. There wasn’t much to skate as it was mostly snowy. We skated the bank for awhile. Dave did nosebash to fakie and nosebash tail grab to fakie. They looked fun so I tried them too and eventually landed them. So fun! Then I did my first ever crailbock! I’m coming for you Rob! Ha ha, it hyped me up though. Dave went gnar and nollied then fakie ollied into the bank. I took awhile to do a kickflip to fakie on the bank. Dave rattled off a bunch of different tailblock tricks. My favorite being the rocket block. It made me laugh. We ended with the boardslides and 50s on the snowy ledge. It was fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 high 52mm spitfire 99a F4 with 3 washers on the inside of each axle nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum )

A couple snow dances, a river dance and a new trick for #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge. @boredzinejp you asked for a manual trick so here you go! Fakie bigspin manual. The first one has a toe touch, the second is clean. It was hard to find a dry spot for the 🏞💃. Good luck! #slowmotiontocoveruptheslowskating #imnodancer #thesnowdancewasonafocusedboard

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 3, 2016 at 7:33am PST

A coldish day. I brought Ledgy to Valmont and did some sweeping so that one of the manual pads would be dry. I didn’t feel very good. I had taken the day before off. My first day off skating in 43 days. It didn’t help. In fact it seem like taking a day off normally just leaves me more sore. It’s weird. Anyways, I did get on some slow front 50s right away that made me think I’d get warmed up and have a good one. Flip tricks did not come. It felt colder then I thought it would. After awhile I started trying fakie bigspin manuals which I have only done once before. Going back I couldn’t even ollie onto Ledgy, back 50 or front 50 with speed or front tail. It was very depressing. Eventually I set up GP and tried to film the fakie bigspin manual. It ended up taking me a solid hour to land it. And the one I landed happened to of course be the slowest of all. Oh well. I had told myself I needed to ollie over Ledgy before I could leave. Instead I focused my board! It made me so happy!

As I was leaving I randomly remembered the first bank in the clip above. I used my focused board to shovel out the runway a little and tried to ride that board. I slammed so hard pushing at one point. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself knowing I deserved it for focusing my board (even though the board was dead). I would eventually land a River Dance, but forgot to put my hands on my hips. Doh. I decided to leave anyway. My hands were totally covered in mud.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushing 52mm spitfire 99a F4 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)