Had the late shift at work so decided to hit Boulder park in the morning. I had about 45 minutes. There were 1-3 other people there, but it mostly felt like I had the park to myself. I had wanted to skate the ledges, but ollieing hurt so I avoided it. I didn’t carve much or do many transition tricks. Actually I didn’t even do an axle stall. Ha. I did some kickflips on the tiny banks on top. For awhile I did the ollie line I always do there. On the big hump, then f/s over the little hip, b/s over the little hip, then whatever comes next. I wanted to do a cab over it which I haven’t in forever. It took awhile. I just did lines of ollie to fakie on the west bank then cab attempts over the little hip. I got two or three terrible little ones. Yippee.

setup 8.25 null jack spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, venom 90a bushings, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 101a 51mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric PJ 533v2 black/white/gold 11.5, spenco 3/4 thinsoles with stock insoles)

Went to campus on a somewhat cool night. Cool enough to wear a long sleeve, but it wasn’t really cold at all. The meeting spot was the slappy ledge. I arrived first. Mentally I was ready to start trying hard, but it took awhile to get going. Jake, Rob and Dave showed up at the same time. I was feeling pretty good around then. Mostly tried a line of front 180 off the little ledge, halfcab flip on flat, slappy, then ollie up the nearby ledge. Never got the ollie up. My trucks felt so squirly all night. Not sure why. Had some front 50s and intentional 5-0. Jake and Dave immediately did slappys. Dave also did slappy crooks to fakie, slappy crooks, slappy front 5-0, slappy front hurricane. Yeah, you get the drift. Jake did slappy back 50 front 180 out and slappy crook. Rob was not feeling it and cruised around. We hung out with a family of racoons for a bit. Then went to find a curb spot on the Meta gam and it was less than appealing when we got there. It was dark and barely waxed. Dave was the only one really into it. He did some super fast and long ride on back 50s that were so sick. Jake and I played noseslide variations on a tall, but quick ledge. Jake got noseslide and halfcab noseslide. I got noseslide and noseslide to fakie. Dave did front board then died a minute later trying to boardslide the curb. For real though, it was a terrible slam. None of us saw it, but we heard him make a scary grunt and he didn’t move for awhile. Turns out he had hung up and slid on his shoulder/jaw on the curb. His shoulder was gnar. Get well soon Dave! After that Jake and I went to the bank. I had called out 5 flippers on the bank. It was a little darker than I wanted, but I still went for it. I got kickflip to fakie, b/s flip, fakie flip, f/s flip and fs halfcab flip. All of which were terrible. But it felt good to do some flippers. Oh yeah, we had seen a black fox run by. That was pretty cool. Pretty weird night, but I was mostly happy with how I skated.

(setup 8.25 null jack spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, venom 90a bushings, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 101a 51mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric PJ 533v2 black/white/gold 11.5, spenco 3/4 thinsoles with stock insoles)

Went out in front of the house for a bit on a really nice night and totally struggled in new stuff. I had the new 533v2 shoes (thanks Tytus!) and a new 8.25 Jack deck. The shoes are more comfy for sure, but different. I didn’t get much chance to break them in so they were extra stiff. Got some kickflips, shoves, halfcab flip, but it took awhile. Landed on a couple treflips, but didn’t get one. Then just hucked one of every trick for a bit. Got close to a few, but never got any more tricks.

(setup 8.25 null jack spanbauer deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, venom 90a bushings, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 101a 51mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric PJ 533v2 black/white/gold 11.5, spenco 3/4 thinsoles with stock insoles)

Met up with Rob and Fuzz at Broomfield park a little after 8pm. There were a couple skaters, but mostly just scooters and bikers. But they mostly stayed out of our way so it was pretty awesome. I thought I would feel great, but was much more sore than I anticipated. This seems to happen after I take a day off of skating now. Guess I should stop doing that. Fuzz and Rob went in on the parking block ollie to manual to shove again. Fuzz would get it. So sick. I slammed trying to ollie the parking block. Man, I had no pop. Rob had a killer long line pretty early on. I don’t remember it exactly, but I think it started with a fast back 50, then a shove, then a front shove, then a front 50 on the black ledge, then a front board on the brown ledge. I had gotten a no comply flip first try. I didn’t really skate too well, but I had fun. Things I was happy with was halfcab noseslide on the black ledge, a few flippers. I took too long to do a boardslide transfer though. Fuzz did a sick line of manual, quick boardslide then back 50 front 180 out. He also did such a perfect halfcab noseslide. Robsoffire had a pretty funny fall with a bean plant off the black ledge into a steezy push up. We ended on a game of SKATE where Rob and I got some letters on tricks we can normally do. Fuzz took it pretty easy. He did a 3 shove, switch front shove, fakie flip, halfcab flip and beat me with a heelflip. I came close to both tries, but for whatever reason didn’t land them. Oh well. Fun night with the dudes.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, venom 90a bushings, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 101a 51mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric PJ 533 black/gum with spenco 3/4 thinsole and old sole tech insoles)

#thestubborns

A post shared by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Jul 30, 2017 at 1:43pm PDT

Rob, Dave and I rolled to Fort Collins. On the way I remembered a little weird bank spot in Loveland and we stopped there. I was so sore when we first got there. I couldn’t even ollie at all. I didn’t think it would go well, but we kept at it and it ended up being a really fun session. John joined us around the time I put down a b/s 45 degree flip over the “gap” into the bank. It wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, but it was harder than I remember. Dave had already done a line with an ollie over the curb and then a front shove into the bank. Rob had done a solid front tail from the bank. Then we opened the gate and treated it like a two hit spot. My legs were feeling sore again so even kickflips were hard. I got a kickflip over the hip. Also a line of no comply 270 then front 180 into the bank. John did a bean plant over the hip and back 180 into the bank. Dave did backside bigspin then fakie ollie into the bank. Then topped himself by doing back big followed by fakie big. Two lines in one day for Dave! All of this took much longer than you would think. Rob was kind enough to patiently film.

Best day I've had in awhile. #thankyouskateboarding #thestubborns Photo by @43shifty

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 30, 2017 at 7:40pm PDT

Dave and John fun on the ledges. @fullertrron @hellagnarbrosevelt #thestubborns

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 31, 2017 at 6:52am PDT

After some Chipotle and a MRKT run we ended up at this ledge I had seen on the gram awhile ago. I wanted to noseslide it. Hayden had said it’s really hard to skate so I didn’t get my hopes up, but when I saw it I knew I could do it. John, Rob and Dave skated the smaller ledges for awhile. I started in on the noseslide attempts. Seeing as how perfect they are I thought for sure we’d get the boot right away. But nope, we had the place for a couple of hours. For the most part my noseslide attempts got closer and less scary, but I was still not getting much past halfway. Then out of nowhere one locked in perfect and I landed it. I can’t describe how happy I felt when I landed it. It felt so amazing. It just kept sliding and sliding. I know it’s just a noseslide on a ledge, but for me this felt like so much more. I felt like I had finally come out of the funk I’ve been in for so many months. And I gotta give props to Rob, Dave and John for being so positive and encouraging me. Dave had done a few caveman front 50s, then did a real front 50 first try. We went to film it and he couldn’t get it until he tried my board and got it first try. He’ll be getting Venture Lows before you know it! Ha ha, just playing. That 50 was so sick though. Then Dave filmed John try a line for a long time. Rob and I mostly just chilled. I was in such a happy place I didn’t feel like skating anymore. John ended up getting his line (twice! – blame the camera). Then him and Dave messed around on the smaller ledge for awhile. John did the easy front 50 and Dave amazed us all with a crooked grind for the ages. Or for the aged. As in The Stubborns. Coming sometime. Awesome day.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, venom 90a bushings, 1/16″ riser, spitfire 101a 51mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric PJ 533 black/gum with spenco 3/4 thinsole and old sole tech insoles)

@43shifty 🔥🔥🔥 #robsoffire #thestubborns #photoapprovedbyrob

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 29, 2017 at 2:44pm PDT

Rain was threatening in Boulder and I went to Broomfield right when a sprinkle started up. Doh. I had really wanted to skate some type of bank, but Yellow Curbs it was ( I wasn’t really bummed). We got to the spot and a couple other dudes were there. We mostly skated the other side of the garage. Everyone seemed to get warmed up at a decent rate. Fuzz had a pretty epic manual backside 180 out were the board was almost primo on the 180 part. Rob manuals easy, nose manual 180. Chad showed up and was fun to skate with. We all kind of hit the “ledge” for a bit as a start to a line. Fuzz and Chad noseslides, Rob front noses, me “switch” front noses. Those other dudes had waxed up the main grind ledge with deodorant. It was crazy slick. All of us shot out the first time. Chad had some nice long front 50s. I just did slappy crooks oh and got lucky on a front 50 back 180 once. It was actually in a decent line for me and Fuzz yelled across the garage that he was hyped on it. We had a funny conversation from a distance before I skated back that way. I won the race to kickflip up/down. Rob was trying ollie up, wallie/nollie to manual. He put in a lot of work and would eventually get it so good. He made me want to retire my Team Sweat Stain status since he had turned a light gray shirt into a dark gray shirt. Chad had ollied over a ledge pretty easily. He had to leave. At one point I got a hands down treflip which made me happy. I was actually skating and not in an insane amount of pain. I filmed Rob and Fuzz try some lines. Both would be successful. Both were awesome. Then Fuzz filmed me get a no comply flip out of the starting gate. It felt rad.

Then we stopped at Crisis for a bit and ended up here. We were all pretty beat, but Rob went right to work with no comply up and bean plant down. He toyed with no complys to manual to firecracker. I dorked around on the stairs. At first I was so stiff and awkward that I thought I’d get hurt, but I would eventually be able to ollie again. I was happy my body got going again just for the fact that it meant I’m doing better. Fuzz didn’t really skate much. Understandable. Fun day with these dudes.

(setup 8.25″ null rabethica deck, venture 5.2 AWAKE lows, venom 90a bushings, 1/8″ riser, spitfire 101a 51mm F4 wheels, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, nbnumeric PJ 533 black/gum with spenco 3/4 thinsole and sole tech insoles)

On a rainy Friday I went into the garage for a short one. Did a few manuals. Then put LLL (Little Legendary Ledge) out. Did a few back 50s, back 5-0s then tried back nosegrind. I thought I did a few, but it looks more like a crook. At least I’m not pinching it, oh well.