After a long drive from the frigid midwest and some dinner I went to the research ledge to skate and break in some new shoes (NB# Arto 358). Nothing felt right. It’s probably from so much sitting lately and the new shoes, but man I couldn’t hardly ollie at all. And I struggled badly with kickflips. I tried to do a slow kickflip then back 50 and I could not do the back 50 to save my life. Also, a bearing broke so my back heel wheel was dancing all over and locking up sometimes. After awhile I gave up on back 50 and did a lame crooks and then a better crooks to cheer me up a little. Then a halfcab noseslide. I’m really trying to get on top of those like a regular noseslide and it seems to finally be clicking a little. Then I tried switch crooks for a bit and although I didn’t get close, it felt possible.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric arto 358 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)

My 📱 footage from a fun night with @mattrief @buffalogums @ericjeckert @chrboi and the RIPPING @hoot_ride which I can’t believe I didn’t film. @thebay_

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 27, 2017 at 9:16pm PST

So freakin’ cold. Got picked up from a tea shop in Omaha by Matt in single digit temps and headed to Lincoln to skate the Bay and meet up with a stellar crew. Dan, Eric and Drew were there when we got there. We chilled at the shop briefly and requested Phil skate with us. Drew did his thing in the main area of the park while the rest of us warmed up on a 3′ qp in the corner. It was fun. We basically just rotated tricks and if you wanted to take more than a few tries to land it you did. After a bit Phil joined us. It was good fun. Everyone falling, trying, landing, etc. I think my fav trick was Dan doing a cab tough guy. Well, I’m not sure the name, but like a fakie willy to 270 out. It felt really cool. The ollie to fakie was cool too. Matt did his really high. Last trick was a fakie river dance type of trick. Matt and Phil went in the hard way. So sick.

Then we hit the middle of the park which was pretty chaotic and crowded. I tried to get in the groove, but the legs weren’t having it. I managed some slow crooks, noseslides, flip tricks, but nothing special. Dan got a nice front 50 heelflip out and other Dan tricks. Matt has ledge skills. I can’t remember exact tricks now, but like nollie crooks I think, etc. Drew was flying around. The back tails were so fast and stylee. He also had a fakie back nosegrind so perfect. Eric did a gnarly rock to fakie (not the one on the bench ha ha). Phil was totally shredding. He learned no comply shove, I tried to teach him no comply finger flip, he was doing long front 5’0s on the qps, got a front 50 on the ledge and ollied the double set!!!

We did some group skating after that. The weakest link in the ledge section was me and the nose manual, I kept bailing. Doh. But we got it and it was fun. We had done the qp boardslides before that which was also fun. I started to get too sore to skate. I guess I was out of shape after 3 days off. Ha. Anyway, super fun day with the nebraska crew.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

While I stay warm and comfortable indoors, @corpoglenny is skating in a blizzard. Some, including myself, think he’s crazy. He prefers the term “stubborn”. Either way, I’m proud to have him on the team. #firsttracks #sweatcicles #teamsweatstain #jpskatecrap

A post shared by Joshua Pluger (@boredzinejp) on Dec 23, 2017 at 4:50pm PST

On a cold morning I saw the forecast said snow and even colder temperatures on my first day in Omaha. So I went to the park hoping the ledge was dry at least. It was 19 degrees. I was layered up well and had the park all to myself for the most part. One other person joined for about 15 minutes. The snowfall started pretty much right away, but it was lighter and not sticking for awhile. I did some basic little ollies and turns to start getting warmed up. I actually felt pretty good and shed a layer. I went for a line of halfcab boardslide the parking block, kickflip to fakie on the narrow bank, then halfcab noseslide. I only got the full line twice, but I had a few halfcab noseslides that actually felt good rather than the sloppy fall off one in the clip. I also had a few slow front 50s, a couple crooks. I attempted halfcab crook and might have done a brief one. The snow started accumulating and the other dude left. I had a first try fakie varial flip that made me happy with the smaller setup. Then I tried to film the two clips above fast because my grip started getting icy and it made skating scary. The bs flip took too many tries. I tried to end it on a treflip, but the slippery grip was sketchy so I left. Walking to my car I slammed on some hidden ice way harder than I did skating. Ha. I had fun, I was surprised how little the cold bothered me.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Went out to the garage on a cold and snowy night. I had set up a new board since my tail had chipped so bad. This time I went with an 8” board seeing as how I’ve only been into flip tricks lately. It went okay. I started by doing all 4 of the fakie/nollie bigspins. It’s hard to swing them around in such a little space. Then I went through a lot of my tricks. Most were not landed well. Kickflip, fakie flip, heelflip, varial flip, bs flip, fs flip, halfcab flips, 360 flip and nollie varial flip. Whew! Came close to nollie tre and nollie flip. Then tried dave’s switch no comply shove and got a few. Fun trick. Then I went inside.

(setup 8″ null Monico deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

After a chill day at work I went to the dog park on a beautiful afternoon, but a little breezy at times. Cold weather was supposed to be moving in and I think it was messing with me. Because a couple minutes in I slammed on a front shove so bad I almost hit my head bad on the ground. What the heck. It scared me and I felt like leaving. But I was chatting with JP and he gave me some trick ideas. He suggested fs halfcab heel so I started trying it. About 15 tries later I got that one above. Dave showed up around now. Next trick for me was the kickflip version which took a bit and all I got was that tic tac’d one. Oh well. Dave was on his putter and started with shoves in all directions, nollie 180s, etc. He went in on fakie hippy flips, but didn’t quite get one. Also f/s halfcab flip which he was also close on, varial flip which I think he got, bigspin which looked great and came super incredibly close to 360 flip. Man. I had done a really awkward f/s flip and Josh’s next suggestion was b/s flip. Got the crappy one above first try and moved on. Tried Rick flips and back heels. Got remotely close to Rick flip, but not the back heel. That’s a weird one for me, I’ve never really done it, but it does seem doable. Can’t wait to see Dave land a treflip, he’s so close.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

After work, a quick meal and a Null drop at Crisis I went to Broomfield park on a cool night. There were a few people when I got there and they were all biking or skating. It was too cold for any lurkers to be sitting around. I warmed up hitting a basics not really with anything in particular. I never really tried anything long, just kind of cruised all over hitting or missing some basics. I had a good feeling crooks on the black ledge. Tried a line for awhile that kept getting longer. Started with front or back 180 into the bank, halfcab noseslide, tiny ollie on the brick qp, noseslide 270 shove the brown ledge. Never got the nose shove. Then I started trying it with a front 50 front 180 out on the black ledge, fakie flip out of the mellow bank, then turn around and start with the 180 into the bank. I never got the fakie flip although I was close. I started trying a couple nose manuals on the brown bank, and then decided I should line it out even further by starting with an ollie down the six stair. I bailed a couple, it actually took a lot for me to even jump down the stairs. But I had a couple treflips in a row on flat that I thought would hype me up enough to do it, but nope I bailed. Then the lights shut off.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Productive weekend. #thestubborns Coming 2018? 📸 @43shifty 📹 @fullertrron

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 17, 2017 at 6:57pm PST

After chilling and getting some stuff done on a cold Sunday morning I went to BMOCA to meet Rob and Dave. Dave had signed up to film me try a line I wanted to do there. Poor Dave. I got there first and skated the ledge across the street for awhile. Some dog was going nuts barking non-stop and the owner brought the dog over wanting me to teach it how to skateboard. Ugh. Warming up went pretty good though. Flip tricks were working. I think I had a couple mini lines of fakie flip then halfcab noseslide. Also halfcab flip then crooks then almost nollie tre. This is about when Dave and Rob showed up. I was really struggling with frontside grinds on the ledge. I got a few 5-0s that were supposed to be 50s, but they didn’t feel good. Rob got on some crooks right away. Halfcab noseslide, front noseslide. Dave got going on the ledge too. Back 50 where it looked like he was trying nollie shove out after doing a varial flip on flat. I went over and did a few warm up boardslide attempts and then tried kickflips off the curb until Dave was ready to film. The next hour or so was me trying to do 3 basic tricks. Boardslide, kickflip, front 50. The first two went alright. I didn’t land everyone of either, but I was landing them. But the f’ing front 50 killed me every time I got there. There was only one that I locked into, but it stuck. I wanted to try the Helmstetter instead of 50 (front nose 270 out), but that didn’t work either. I was pretty much over it and decided to throw a 360 flip off the curb instead. Two tries later I landed one of the best treflips I’ve done. It felt amazing. The noise that Dave makes when I finally land the line is hilarious. Thanks a million Dave, i think the boardslide then treflip is better anyway so I guess it all worked out.

Then we went over to Saul’s curb which was way more fun than I remember. I did a few slappy crooks, something that hopefully resembled slappy front crooks, 50s and posed kick back tails. Then I filmed Rob and Dave. Rob had some rad slappy crooks to back 50. He also did a rad wallie to manual and later on a front slappy. Dave had a bunch of front slappys, and I filmed him do slappy crooks shove, front shove back 50 and some flatground after. That curb is good. We’ll be back.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Did some stuff in the morning then met up at the dog park. I was there first, Rob shortly after, Garrett, Riley and Fuzz a little later. Rob and I were there awhile and we were struggling. My first kickflips felt good, but I kept bailing fakie flips and halfcab flips weren’t working. The stiff PJs are hard to get used to, but my heel pain is slowly going away so I guess they are helping. Rob had some lines going. Cabs, front shoves, kickflips, several b/s flips. Came close to treflip. I tried the fakie bigflip, varial flip, treflip line some more. Had some better feeling fakie bigflips, but still couldn’t manage the treflip even though I was committing and felt like they should work. Rob was working on varial heels when Riley showed. Riley gave him some advice and went on to do it first try. Jerk! Ha. Riley’s flippers are top notch. I hope that skating with him more again rubs off on me. His switch heels! Garrett had some styley treflips and manuals. Dude is smooth. Fuzz showed, cruised around pushing then did every shove variation. It was cool. I had a good slam on a f/s halfcab flip. We bounced across the street.

I was thinking we were gonna skate manuals, but after I showed Riley a wallride we all assembled at the bank which ended up being quite fun. Well, I sucked it up struggling even with kickflips. Got close to treflip fakie before I started filming Riley. Garrett was trying wallrides too. Dave, Rob and Fuzz were ripping the bank. Fuzz did the Gonz move (cab kickturn late ollie), fakie 540 kickturn and would go on to get a sick front nosepick on the curb of the bank. Rob did the bank Joe Hamilton (yeah so Joe has a ramp trick (50 to rock), ledge trick (front lip to front 50 to shove or some similar variation) and the bank trick (cab bigspin)) and would do it to boardslide. Riley’s run was nuts. I’m most blown away by how fast he was going for the halfcab. He didn’t even push, just took a few steps and threw down and he was flying. Garrett got a cool front tail b/s flip out. Dave did a cool front tail shove. Then everyone was out, but I wanted to skate some more. Rob was kind enough to film a line I wanted to do. Front 180 the little gap up top, fakie shove on flat, halfcab flip on the bank. I got it pretty quickly. Everything felt good for me, but I was super embarrassed about how I looked. Oh well, it’s an awkward spots and I actually linked up the tricks I wanted. Decent day. Hyped on everyone stacking a clip or two.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Not the best #flatgroundfriday but at least it was pretty. 🌅 @fullertrron ollie

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 15, 2017 at 4:54pm PST

On a beautiful afternoon I met Dave at the dog park. I got there first and was struggling really bad with the warm ups. Almost enough I thought I might just stop. But Dave showed and we skated. It’s what we do. I couldn’t hardly kickflip so I tried treflips and got the first couple. They had a brief hand touch, but they felt good. Dave was really struggling with kickflips which was rare to see. He even struggled with back bigspins, but he made up for it by doing a few switch back bigs. Whoa! I tried a line of fakie bigflip, varial flip, treflip. I never got it and and when I actually landed the first two tricks they were full of tic tacs. But that would be a good line for me. Couldn’t get a nollie varial flip or treflip, switch tricks felt impossible. It got dark and Dave set up a light. He was trying nollie shoves then treflips. He got pretty close, but didn’t get both feet on any. I did the little no comply back shove revert and then it was time to head home.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Had about an hour on a cool night to skate. I had driven past the research ledge on the way home from work and saw there was no snow or ice on it so I went there. I started out riding down the long stairs a couple times. The redid the concrete above the stairs so they are less sketchy. Then I went down towards the ledge area and had an alright session. I skated hard, didn’t land a whole lot, but it was cold and dark so I expected it. Did better at crooks than normal, landed most of the ones I tried. Failed at front 50 for awhile, but got a decent one. A few sketchy back 50s and halfcab noseslides. Flatground started pretty good. Got the regular/fakie part of the straight 8. Tried to line out a heelflip then crooks (or crooks to fakie) then treflip for awhile. The heelflip was scary since I was trying it on the downhill part of the sidewalk. Ended up having to leave and got a hands down treflip to make the quota.

(setup 8.25″ null atomic cowboy, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric 533v2 black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)