Went to the dog park after work on an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. I was tired and it took some effort to get my body going. I was slowly getting through the list. I had a couple warm up runs to get things going. Pop shove, kickflip, no comply 180, fakie flip. Front shove, kickflip, back 180, halfcab flip. My legs weren’t hurting. I was tired, but physically felt good so I started trying harder tricks quicker. Got heelflip after a bit. Posed a bunch of tricks like switch front heel, nollie inward heel, nollie flip, never got close to any. Had a line that got to treflip and thought I would get it first try. Nope, instead I snapped my deck. Doh. It was already cracked and I knew I should have set one up already. Doh.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 navy/grey size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

Tom K was close, but Franky Villani wins best part from last week. His bag of tricks is endless.

Went to Saul’s feeling really exhausted after work. But it was so nice out and him and Jake were skating. I didn’t have my setup with me so I just rode boards form Saul’s quiver. It was pretty fun. I noticed how tight some of the boards turned. It was kind of eye opening. Maybe Indys can be good? Ha ha. I also did a kickflip on the Tsedeq board that is 10.5″ wide. And it felt good. Weird. Jake was ripping as was Saul. Jake had feeble to fakie and a bunch of front smiths. Saul makes tight carves look easy and always hits the coping. It’s rad. It was a fun quick little session even if it started to make me question my setup. Especially a smaller wheelbase.

Met Dave at the meetup curb at 7pm on a beautiful night. When I got there Dave setup a new board so I warmed up mostly solo except for a dude that stopped by for a bit. I had some fun ride on grinds and then slappy crooks. Tried to do them on the same curb all quick, but it didn’t normally work. Also added no comply 180 and switch front nose on the downhill curb, but don’t think I got all 4. Did a few other things, but when Dave was all setup we rolled into campus. After a brief spot check on a new ledge that was skate stopped we ended up near the long Baker hall ledge. We hit the weird sidewalk with the gap in it for awhile. We started just ollieing onto it and trying to grind the yellow curb. There was another dude with lots of energy pushing around and skating fast. On top of that there were people everywhere. Weird roller skates, scantily clad college girls, tons of longboarders, all kinds of craziness. It was messing with me for sure. Dave got the gap to manual. I played around in the area, but didn’t really do much. Then we hit the manual pad area that now has a barrier on it. Dave got a frontside wallride on it and a good b/s one. I had a little line of switch 180 off the curb, ollie up, terrible backside wallride then back 180 off. Also maybe technically a front 180 up fakie thrust on the barrier.

Then we ended up at this tall ledge which required a lot of pop and sucked our energy. I got noseslide, noseslide fakie, boardslide and front board on it. Came close to crooks and couldn’t ollie onto it. Dave got noseslides to fakie and tried to line them with halfcab noseslide which I think technically he did once. He also had some rad front noseslides.

After such a big ledge this little one felt pretty awesome. We played on it for almost an hour. Dave got front crook, numerous back 50s which are hard getting out so quick, front nosegrind to jib out and multiple f/s halfcab noseslides. So sick. I couldn’t get a front nosegrind which was frustrating. But didn’t struggle too much with back 50 which felt good, had a few front 50s, kind of a weird switch front willy that was supposed to be crook and my first (or maybe second) halfcab crook! I was really hyped on that. Fun night.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 navy/grey size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

Went to the dog park on a crisp, but beautiful Sunday. At the dog park there was a dude with one of those big rings spinning around and listening to Modest Mouse. He took up the grey part of the flat we normally skate, but whatevs. I started extra slow. I think Jake had already landed a treflip before I had moved past kickflip. Jake was ripping. No surprise there. He had a bunch of tricks first try. I was not having the same luck, but I ended up getting a few of my basics. The ring man joined us for a bit, he was cross training. Ha, he was cool. After awhile Jake and I played a game of SKATE. It started cool going through a bunch of basics. Things went south for me when I missed a fakie flip and then the double or nothing. SK on fakie flip. Ugh. Jake would get me on treflip too and I was down big. Carleigh showed up around now and worked on ollies, kickflips and shoves. I started getting back at Jake with tricks like halfcab flip, heelflip, b/s flip (best one I’ve done in awhile). I couldn’t get a fakie bigflip to save my life though. So frustrating. It was SKAT to SKAT for awhile until Jake landed a fakie treflip. I landed on three in a row, but didn’t ride away. Doh. We left for campus.

We hit a jersey barrier for awhile near the bank and Saul joined us. Another dude that Jake knew was randomly skating and joined us too. It was cool. jake was doing some really good b/s wallrides on it. Saul was getting on it too. Carleigh is still weary of bashing her leg into something so she worked on flat. I saw a couple few trick lines of various shoves and kickflips. Aaron was hip on the current trends and was doing a bunch of quick 180s and some crazy wallrides on the barrier. I tried a line of wallie nollie on a dumpster, wallride on the barrier and then b/s flip over a manhole, but never came close to the b/s flip.

Weekend leftovers with @gnarlycarleigh and close to a dream trick. #thestubborns

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 15, 2017 at 6:56pm PDT

Then we hit the bank for awhile. Okay, for a long while. Well Saul didn’t for too long as he was getting sore and had been skating earlier too. Everyone did a few warm up tricks. Carleigh set the session off with a textbook backside flip. It was seriously so well done. She went on to also do kickflip to fakie, fakie flip and a sick frontside flip (stubborns alert). Jake rattled off new tricks for him. 360 flip going backside, 360 flip to fakie and backside boneless wallride (stubborns alert). Those are just the new tricks for him. I did alright. Took too long to get a halfcab flip, but at least got fakie flip first try. I tried 360 flip to fakie for awhile and couldn’t quite get it so I just did a few no comply tricks instead. They were fun. Aaron was fun to skate with. He had some crazy moves. Body varial manual, casper, no comply 540. He was rad. Then Jake and I took the fun hill down towards the car and bounced after a quick peek at the Ralphy ledge.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 navy/grey size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

Fun times before the wind set in. @skateboard_chicken 50-50. @gnarlycarleigh popped no comply. Me trying to be @43shifty #thestubborns #windsucks #streetsaul

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Oct 14, 2017 at 2:43pm PDT

After a late night of work I was feeling lazy. It was gusty at times and supposed to get worse. Liz told me to get out and skate so I kind of just left for this spot and made plans after. Saul arrived shortly after me. Carleigh quite awhile later. I had done a couple of little runs that are so fun. Slappy crooks (which I struggled with) then b/s flip over the hip. Also a little switch front nose jib and then no comply bigspin over the hip. Saul was on the 50-50 tip from the start. First slappy 50 on the parking block. Then front 50 on the curbs against the fence. I managed a few slow back 50s on the downhill ledge. Then we hit the escalator ledge for awhile. Saul had a bunch of slappy 50s. I got a couple back 50s. It felt cool to do them on the tallish section. Carleigh showed up shortly after that. Saul was still doing a bunch of front 50s. I kind of got a line of of slappy crook then over the hip to front pivot to back 180 out. Carleigh is recovering from a leg injury and kept it mellow. She looked extra steezy in her new PJ shoes and quickly learned no complies on the bank. Saul took off and I started messing with my dream trick there. I’ve done it once before now that I think about it, but it’s 270 kickflip over the hip. I got pretty close, but didn’t get it around enough. I definitely want to go back for that one. Then the wind became too much.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, venom 88a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 burgundy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

After a horrendous night of not sleeping due to being called for work and then a full day of work I went across the street just wanting to push. It was a beautiful evening. I ended up in the main parking lot where I haven’t spent much time before. There are some fun curb cuts and it felt good to cruise them. Nollie into one, front 180 off the next, switch 180 into next and then ollie out of the last one. Back 180s off were fun too. I was skating a little faster than normal for me (which isn’t saying much). I tried to do this manual up a sidewalk and around a little rock garden. I didn’t get too close, but I was happy that I was scaring myself ollieing up the curb at speed. I ended with a kickflip axle stall on a little curb and went home.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, venom 91a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 burgundy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

After a run to Meta I did a solo mission to campus. I haven’t been there since the students arrived after summer. I wasn’t feeling very social or all that motivated really, but I just didn’t want to end up at research ledge again. I started with a couple slappy crooks at the meet up curb which didn’t come easy. After quite a bit of pushing I ended up at the little bank by the stadium. I tried to pop some basic ollies to start with. Frontside and to fakie. It was fun. Did a few no complies then took a bit too long to do a kickflip to fakie. I posed a couple treflips to fakie and decided to move on.

I hit this ledge for a bit. It’s right by where Dave almost died trying to boardslide a curb. Last time I was there I barely got noseslide and noseslide to fakie on it. Both of those came pretty easy this time so I went for boardslide next. It took a bit, but I got a couple. The ledge is tall, but short in distance which makes it hard. I hucked a few flip tricks, but didn’t land much in between tries. I figured I should try crooks since I was on a roll. Got it first try! A cop rolled up and parked as I was trying to ollie one of the rocks which made me happy to not have to go through that battle.

I was headed to a bigger ledge, but remembered this and was hyped. Normally there is no one around, but due to construction a lot of students were walking by. It made it a little frustrating, but it was still fun. I took longer than I should to get a front 50, but back 50s came easy. I wanted to try something new and decided to start hucking back 180 nosegrinds. Well as you can see above I kind of got one. It felt rad I must say. Then I basically walked home. Kind of a weird night with periods of no motivation and then decent tricks for me. It was good for me to get out of my element a little and street skating always feels more rewarding than a park.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, venom 91a bushings, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 burgundy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)

This part is bonkers good. I think if I could skate at pro levels a part of mine would resemble something like this. Well, at least the dorky tricks.

On the coldest night of the season I went out to the garage feeling motivated. I started with no pop manual bonks then put the manny pad the long way for manual 180s both ways. Did some basic ollies, 180s, etc to get warmed up then a few kickflips. Randomly I started hucking fakie hardflips. I got so close for quite awhile. Never got both feet on it, but came pretty close. I was surprised how easily the bigger board was flipping around. A lot of attempts resulted in the board doing double flips. After awhile I gave up and tried other tricks. Nollie heel, nollie f/s flip. Neither were close, but the nollie heel felt encouraging. Did switch shove its terribly. Landed on a treflip, but fell off. Then lost motivation and went inside. I always feel like there is not enough room in my garage for treflips, but Max proved me wrong on that years ago.

(setup null rabethica 8.5″ deck, venture 5.8 v-light, 1/16″ riser, bones medium bushings no washers, 52mm spitfire f4 radial slim green/black, new balance numeric 212 burgundy size 11, spenco 3/4 thinsoles, footprints 5mm insole)