Went to Blue Skies for an early lunch break, but it was so windy I left after one kickflip. Later in the evening I went to Redder Curbs as it had rained and was very windy at times. Somehow that place is protected from a lot of wind. I started with some slappies on the yellow block. Both ways. Crooks too. So fun. Then added in some slappy crooks on the kinked curb, back 50, front 50s. I had a few 360 flips. Even if I didn’t ride away I would land on almost all of them. Guess you just have to work on them to learn them. Who would have thought. I was having fun trying lines and finally feeling decent on my board. It took awhile, but I back 50d the median over the two parking blocks. That felt really cool. Also got front 5-0 there. Came close to back tail on the kinked curb, but the wind would come in fierce right there so it made it tough. After awhile I just tried switch crooks on the top part of the kinked curb. Over and over. Trying nollie flips between each one. Got close to nollie flip. I tried switch crooks forever. I had a couple that grinded, a bunch that went into boardslide and I slammed and one lousy one where I didn’t really grind to end it. I was still happy about it though. Fun night. So happy to finally not feel so arthritic and sore.

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

Day off work park #1

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 17, 2016 at 10:07am PST

Woke up feeling alright, but still bad enough I decided to take an ibuprofen. I drove up to Fort Collins in a good mood, drinking smoothie and listening to Washer. I went to the Waterway park to begin with. Half of the park wasn’t skateable due to water, but at least the long pool coping wall was dry. I did a bunch of back 50s, they were run. Last time I went there I struggled to land one so that was cool at least. I did a few bad front slashes and front rocks. I wanted to do a front smith, but I didn’t. Fun warm up.

#2 #favorite #thankyouibuprofen

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 17, 2016 at 12:05pm PST

Showed up at an empty Fossil Creek park a few minutes later. The park warm up seemed to work and I was good to go out of the gates. I went up top, did a few boardslides off the curb, 50s on the curb. Then some lady started letting her kids play on the ledges so I went to the lower area. Two other dudes showed, didn’t say a word to me and proceeded to avoid me like the plague. Cool. I was happy I was able to ollie up the ledge and hit the ledge above pretty easily. In general my ollies felt better then they have in awhile. Although a front 50 shove took awhile. I did whoever do a back 50 or two. I even did an accidental back 5-0. Tried a line for awhile of ollie up the manny pad, noseslide the ledge, kickflip off, back 50 the low part of the long ledge. Never got the back 50. Doh. Had a few 360 flips that felt great. Another guy showed up. Dave. I’ve seen him there before. He is good. Switch 50s both ways. I tried crooks shove (or bigspin) for awhile and only landed on one. I started getting too tired so I called it a day and headed off to MRKT. Not my best skating, but I could do back 50s on pool coping and crooks on ledges instead of work any day.

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

Feeling very arthritic, sore and unmotivated I went driving around looking for something new to skate. I ended up at the new RTD station off Pearl & 30th. It looked kind of fun had I had energy. But I didn’t. So I just pushed around and checked out the goods before doing a couple kickflips and going home.

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

Feeling very tired and sore I didn’t feel like skating much. So I went for one of those ‘minimum’ type of sessions. I went to this curb across the street and dorked around for awhile. It ended up being quite fun. Did a lot of stalls. I was surprised by a back smith. Got back pivot shove out. Switch crooks stall. And a kickflip on flat. So far I’ve kickflipped every day of the year.

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

Yeap, one fire line from PJ will give you first place every time. Runners up are Flo Marfaing and JP Sauza.

So happy Safeway ledge is mostly skateable again. ❤️❤️❤️

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 14, 2016 at 3:22pm PST

Feeling a little tired and the wind had kind of killed me motivation I went to Safeway for the first time all winter just hoping it was dry. It wasn’t completely dry, but the main ledge was skateable. I started with the standard no ollie noseslides which seemed pretty good. Then my first couple of ollies had a weird pain in my left knee. Ugh. It ended up being alright though. Front 50s were fun. I tried a bunch of back 50s, never getting a totally clean one. I kept tic tac’ing in the grind or something. I did a front tailslide! A real one. Ha, it still only slid a few inches, but that is progress. Got a sloppy kick back 50. Hucked a bunch of tricks without getting close. Front crooks, switch crooks, halfcab crooks, kickflip crooks, front smiths. I basically just tried 3 flip tricks the whole time going back. 360 flip (got 4 of them), switch heel (got close once) and nollie inward heel (got really close a few times). It was pretty fun, would have been more fun had more icy melted so the fence ledge was skateable too.

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

Early bird gets the fog.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 13, 2016 at 7:18am PST

Woke up early on a Saturday feeling much better then the last few days. So I drove through some dense fog to Broomfield park where I had the park all to myself for a couple of hours. It was really cold initially, but the sun would eventually come out and warm things up. I started on the quartapotty and blue box area, but was getting on the blue and black ledges somewhat quickly. I never stuck with any one thing too long. I struggled with back 50s once again, but would eventually get them on the blue box. Front 50 shove, front 5-0, crooks on the black ledge. Front tail on the blue ledge, tried fakie front 50 switch 180 out, but never got out of it right. Boardslid the little rail, had a couple 360 flips, manual the blow box, couldn’t nose manual it. I cruised around a lit trying different things. I couldn’t get nosegrind on the blue ledge either, but I did get pretty close. That park is so fun cruising around solo. Eventually a couple kids showed up and would complain about being tired/sore and sit down frequently. Wusses. Ha.

Later on I met up with a fun crew of Nullers and more. Riley, Bernie, Nolan, Ladd and Carleigh. I was super tired in filmer mode and didn’t really skate the first spot. Nolan got close to doing a cool pole jam rock fakie. Then we went to this kicker spot. Riley rattled off like 20 tricks as did Ladd. Nolan had a nice 360 flip and switch 360. Carleigh had shove quick, kickflip and front 180. I did a couple early grabs which were fun so I started hucking and went with f/s halfcab flip. 2 hours later I landed it! (pretty poorly, but it kind of adds to it)

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

@matthouse and @fullertrron (learning switch crooks at 47 hell yes!) ripping at Blue Skies today. I sucked. #arthritissucks #itevenhurtstowalk

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 12, 2016 at 12:30pm PST

Feeling arthritic again I went to Blue Skies on a nice Feb day. Dave was there. Matt joined shortly. When I first started it felt like I might not actually be able to skate at all. Ugh. I would struggle through and do some very horrible skating. At least watching Matt and Dave was cool. We all tried switch crooks for awhile. Dave got one (above). So sick. We mostly skated the ledge. I mostly tried halfcab noseslides and had two horrible ones to show for it. Matt had never skated there before. He was able to 50 the tall ledge. No back tail like Dave and I were hoping though. Ha. The back 50 back 180 out was hot. So was Daves front 50 180. Dave also had some back 50s that surprised me. And a feeble on the flatbar all easy. We left after Matt front 50’d the whole narrow ledge. Wowsers.

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

Research ledge is dry! I’ve been waiting for this day for awhile now. If only the ledge missed me as much as I missed it. I had felt fine all day and for some reason right before skating I started to feel weird and nauseous. It made for a horrible session. I only skated it backside as the gravel in the frontside run up was too much. Plus I didn’t have a lot of energy. I started with boardslide, noseslide, noseslide to fakie. Then took awhile for crooks which isn’t all that bad, but it felt like a trick I’ve never done before. I don’t know what was going on with my body, but I don’t like it. Going up the hill I would try switch flips over and over, getting close a couple of times. I also tried about a million 360 flips to start my downhill descent towards the ledge, but never landed one. I was bumming so hard, but stubborn me just kept trying to land tricks. I got a very tic tac’y back 50, bad switch front nose and halfcab noseslide. Tried fakie front 50 for awhile never getting close, did another crooks that finally felt ok. Ended posing a couple halfcab crooks and realizing there is no way I could land it feeling the way I did. Went home.

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

After work I picked up Matt and we rolled to Arvada park on a super nice day in the 60s. The park would go through waves of crowds and for the most part was too crazy for me to enjoy. We started out on the little qp at the top of the park. Matt took three tries to get an axle stall. Ha. But then did front and back d, front tail, treflips, heelflip, switch flip, etc. I got most of my tiny qp tricks, the hurricane took way longer then it should have. Then I started trying a line. Front smith the qp, no comply 180 on flat, halfcab flip on flat, crooks the marble ledge. Never quite got the crooks. Matt did back 50 on the marble ledge, front lip down the low rail then some other stuff. I had fun doing a manual across the euro to box and then a kickflip to fakie on the blue bank. Next thing I remember is trying to ollie the marble flat bar and boardslide it coming back the other way. I would get both, but not good. Matt had front and back lip and managed to get in the way of Mr 360 flyout several times. Matt took awhile to get a treflip over the hip. I posed kickflips and b/s flips. I got a couple ollies onto the tall blue pad and almost front shove off. Then it was off to the premiere of fl.oh.CO which totally ruled.

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