After driving down from Buena Vista and a nap I headed out to hopefully enjoy the warm weather a little. I was supposed to do a “Twirlybird” for the game and I remembered this old short manual pad that I skated like 10 years ago (really) that was perfect for 180 nose manuals. So I figured it would be good for the extra 180 too. This spot ended up being pretty awesome. I mostly just tried the twirlybird until I got it. Going back I would try front tails on the curb and they felt somewhat good for once. It took me a solid 20 minutes to get the twirlybird and it felt pretty neat to land it. Then I skated more of the spot. Ollied the tiny median, did some grinds on it, did a kickflip and a bad treflip, ollied the little curb off the sidewalk. Then I ended by doing a wallie/nollie off the one stair. I didn’t do it very good, but it felt pretty cool anyway.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 black/gum)

After snowboarding at Monarch I grabbed my board and did a quick ollie and took 4 tries to get a kickflip.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 black/gum)

Went to Lafayette on a day off of work feeling tired from the late night Longmont session the night before, but not too sore somehow. That park is fun to cruise around in when you’re the only one there. I kind of did the same ol’ thing. Hit the little ledge up top, cruise around the middle section or end up in the snake run or toilet bowl. I didn’t have much energy though and for the most part was just kind of passing the motions. Almost got front 5-0 shove on the little ledge. Did my first every back disaster to fakie on the tiny tiny qp. Also got a crooks on the smaller bump to ledge for the first time ever. It was fun. I was breaking in some new black/gum PJs, they are a little tight, hopefully they stretch out a little.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 black/gum)

Went to Longmont park on a cool night and met up with Dave and Aki. The park wasn’t crowded, but the few people that were there made it pretty chaotic. Having a new complete was definitely messing with me. My new wheels and bearings were so smooth and fast I was thrown off. I mostly started doing the same thing I normally do, cali grind off the top ledge, boardslide the ledge, back tail the hip. But I was totally freaked out by the speed for the boardslide. I’m writing this too long after the session to remember much about the session. Aki was skating the tall flatbar and hip. Dave was doing front tails on the bank and lining out shoves over the hip. Aki and I tried 360 flips on flat for awhile, I tried to line them out with a b/s flip over the hip, but never got close. We all ollied the new 4 stair. Aki and Dave first try, me second try (I did land on it first try and almost roll away). That was probably my favorite thing that happened. We skated the hump in the back for awhile. Dave did back tails and disasters on it. Aki and Dave nose manualed the long pad. I took a long time to front d the hump and I felt horrible on my skateboard. Ugh. Aki skated the ledge for awhile, Dave and I skated the mellow bank. I did a few of my basics and managed an over 40 360 flip to fakie. Dave had a nice fakie front shove, fakie flip and I think fakie varial flip. We ended doing flyouts over the cone. It was easy for Aki and Dave, I struggled to barely get one. Aki also back 180’d it and Dave front 180’d it.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

@boredzinejp challenged me to get all 90s and do a switch noseslide shove. I guess getting into the theme of it helped me out. Next trick Josh is Slappy front feeble. #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #ihadwaytoomuchfuninthosepants #90sforever

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 24, 2016 at 9:12pm PST

This was all I did. These two tricks. I was super exhausted and sore and was going to opt out for one kickflip in the garage. But instead I remembered I had some huge jeans and decided to answer Josh’s 90s challenge. I did the noseslide on a little 8″ board with 42mm wheels. It ruled. Kickflip on that felt so easy. Then I did the front feeb slappy which took longer, but was quite fun.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

Still feeling totally horrible on even just walking I went out to the garage not expecting much, but determined to ignore the pain. Started with a couple no pop nollie shoves, slide around 180s and then went kickflip and it felt somewhat ok. After a few more kickflips I started hucking nollie flips. Over and over and got oh so close. So close to so many. Argh. I would commit to every one of them, but the board just didn’t flip fast enough and I would land on it up side down. I hucked switch heels next and committed a few times, but the board didn’t flip all the way. I ended doing 360 flips. I got 4 with my hands down before finally landing a “clean” one. When I was done I felt better then when I started. Guess I just need to skate flatground more. The garage being warmer might be part of it.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

Today's Blue Skies session be like 'just leave it and never go back'. 😢

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 22, 2016 at 4:28pm PST

Went to Blue Skies for lunch feeling more sore then normal. I’m not really sure why. I tried to get warmed up and for a minute it seemed like I might. I did the best switch front noseslide I’ve done in awhile. That would probably be the only highlight though. I tried a line of ollie the low part of the dragon rail, front 50 up the escalator ledge, kickflip to fakie the bank, halfcab noseslide the little ledge. Never got the front 50. The first few felt decent, but it went all down hill after that. I did get close to a back 50 on the little ledge at one point. After awhile I just got more and more upset and depressed. I launched my board off a kicker or two and started walking away like I was going to leave my board there. I went back for it of course. What a tough day. Something in my body is not right, I need to figure it out.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

50 days in a row spoiling myself with a new complete. Everything except the old bushings. Perfect.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 20, 2016 at 7:38pm PST

All new everything (except for bushings)! I was feeling extremely lazy, out of it and sore and didn’t get out skating until around 2pm. I was going to meet Jake and Carleigh at Valmont ledge. I got there first and was starting to warm up when a truck backed in so the destination was changed to research ledge.

I actually had some fun there for awhile. Noseslides and crooks worked. It was fun trying to get the crooks groove going on some new trucks. Jake had them too. Carleigh did noseslides and noseslide shoves. She does that trick good and doesn’t come to a halt on the noseslide like most people (me). Carleigh also did a bunch of kickflips and got into front noseslides and battled front 180 nosegrind for awhile. Jake was rattling off tricks. Front 180 up the curb, fakie back tail the ledge. Back 50, front 50, front 5-0 180, front tail, front tail shove! Geez. I never got a clean back 50 or front 50. I managed a front 5-0 on accident instead. Flip tricks were going ok for me. Did some kickflips up the curb. Almost a line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat, kick back 50. Never got the kick back 50, haven’t ever done it there. Carleigh left first. Jake next. My stubborn self stayed awhile putting my body through more needless pain. I tried back 50 shove, but when you can’t back 50 it’s hard to do that. I ended trying a few tricks 5 times going slow. Halfcab noseslide, halfcab crook (didn’t get it), switch front nose, fakie 50 (didn’t get it) and for complete science fiction I hucked 360 flip noseslide (not even remotely close). I felt ok earlier on, but I was mostly just bummed when I left.

(setup: 8.25 null awkward deck, venture v-hollows 5.2 hi with 3 washers inside, venom 91a bushings, 50mm spitfire 99a wheels, nbnumeric pj stratford 533 patriot)

I met Dave, Jake and Fuzz at Broomfield park at 9am. We all did various things to get warmed up. I heckled Jake quite a bit for being young. Which is a complement because he was ripping. I don’t remember much from this part of the day other then it ended by Dave calling out a physical challenge of hitting the double set. And by that I mean ride down the first 3 stair and then the next 3 stair. Dave got it first, Fuzz next, Jake didn’t try it and to no ones surprise I was last. It was quite fun. Oh yeah, I forgot as we left Dave did a kickflip on flat that was not very popped. It made Fuzz laugh hysterically. Getting old is rad. Kind of.

#stubbornsaturday

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 20, 2016 at 1:02pm PST

Then we rolled to this spot in Denver. The ledge we are sitting on was the main point of attraction, but the spot had some other things to offer like a little bank to do tricks into or to manual out of. Jake and I were there first. We got quite a bit of skating in. We each got noseslides, crooks and front 50 on the ledge. But my front 50 was barely, Jake had them easy. I won the race to kickflip into the bank. Had a fun line with a bad ollie up the ledge, kickflip into the bank and then crooks the ledge. I think Jake did that line too. Then Fuzz and Dave showed up. Everyone thought the ledge was tall. Fuzz got 50s both ways, joined Jake with front 5-0 and he did a front smith. Dave had manual followed by front 50. I did a couple 360 flips on flat that felt really fun and I made my goal of 5. Tried to do fakie flip fast enough to land with enough speed to do halfcab flip into the bank. This does not mean I actually had to go fast, it just meant I had to be moving. Dave was kind enough to film Fuzz and Jake for awhile. Fuzz got a line of switch front 180 out of the bank then crooks the ledge. Jake was trying ollie up the loading dock, kickflip into the bank, front 180 nosegrind. He got oh so close. Like 9/10 close. Riley and Garrett showed up and started ripping. They didn’t hit the ledge too much, but ollied up the loading dock easy and did tricking into the bank. Riley switch and regular ollied over a cigarette tube. The rest of the old dudes left, Jack and Carleigh arrived. I played Riley in a game of SKATE even though my legs had pretty much shut down and as expected I lost. This kind of got my legs going again though and I got a couple more crooks and I finally got the fakie bigflip into the bank. Then I gave up and stretched while everyone else got busy on the ledge. Carleigh did noseslides. Jack did some long frontside ones. Riley had back smith and front 5-0 shove. Garrett had front. Then we went around the corner where I just filmed. They all got tricks. It was cool.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)

Went out to the garage after helping India through some tough emotions. Skated for about 20 minutes. Did a couple kickflips, tried nollie flips and switch heels. Got kind of close to nollie flip.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 hi’s 3 washers inside 52mm spitfire 99a F4 venom 91a bushings nb# pj stratford 533 patriot)