Right after work I went to Blue Skies. The park was mostly wet. The bank completely unskateable, the rails, not many paths threw the park. I messed around trying to get warmed up before Dave showed. I was not feeling well at all. I managed to ollie off the tall ledge, ollie a tiny puddle, boardslide the end of the down ledge and then a slow kickflip. Dave showed up around then. We each did our thing. He got on front 50 on the small ledge before me. I was having a great fear of it for some reason. I had to try a long line to it and it didn’t even work. Front 180 off the tall ledge, fakie flip on flat, ollie a puddle, kickflip on flat, front 50. Dave was doing these long boardslides that looked so good until one landed weird and he shot the board into his nuts. Hard enough he laid on the ground for like 10 minutes. You know it’s bad if Dave isn’t skating. I finally got onto the ledge. It was such a terrible line. Cali grind off the tall ledge, super slow heelflip on flat, the slowest front 50 jib that’s ever been done. But getting on it was a break through. I got another slow front 50 and front 50 shove. The front 50 shove at least had some redeeming quality of fun even if I did it incredibly slow. Dave was doing front 50 no comply 180 out, front 50 180 out and near the end did front 50 front shove a couple times. Sick! I added a few additional slow switch noseslides, crooks and came close to noseslide shove. Oh yeah, also a sketchy 360 flip where I turned around. Dave did back 50 on the ledge! Scary. Then it got dark and we went home.

(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 grey size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

After how sore I was I got some new shoes. Some Es Swifts. They seem comfy, but still an adjustment to get used to. I went to Southern Hills again because I didn’t want to go far. I was just supposed to skate flat for about an hour. But flatground wasn’t working. I mean I got through a few tricks, but couldn’t get 360 flip and I got frustrated. These shoes have that weird coating on them and it’s slippery initially. I blame that. Not my total lack of drive or focus. Ha. I tried for a long line. Halfcab flip, heelflip, front tail shove on the one stair, fakie flip, halfcab noseslide. As you would expect I didn’t get it. But what you might not expect is that I never got past the heelflip. I was so mad. Then the wind kicked in and I left.

Later on I went out in front of the house and Ollie joined me. He worked on shoves and kickflips with his hands in his pocket. I did one, it was weird feeling. Ollie has good pop shoves, they smack his feet when he does them. I ended up landing a lot of tricks. I skated slow, but that’s normal. I got a b/s halfcab heelflip which I haven’t done in awhile. Also heelflip, f/s halfcab heelflip, halfcab flips, a sketchy 360 flip, fakie varial flip, fakie flip, an over 50 rick flip! Came close to nollie tre and nollie varial flip. Glad skating went okay and I cheered up some.

(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 grey size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)

Stairs and gaps all day with @_f_u_z_z and @fullertrron and working on my base tan for Hawaii (or trying to be @iceman_hof ) #thestubborns. . . Okay the real reason I wasn’t wearing my shirt is because Fuzz said I was mixing a @lakailtd beanie with @esskateboarding shoes. And then we realized I had an @independenttrucks crew with @venturetrucks. Then we laughed even more when I revealed a @nbnumeric shirt. Fuzz said I had to shed it too. Thankfully my pants didn’t cause any conflicts.

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 27, 2018 at 4:57pm PST

Dave picked me up and we went to Southern Hills looking for dry. One side of the benches were dry and there was a lot of flatground so we went for it. Warming up was not easy. Three days off for me is a lifetime. Ha. Oh, I had another new sample board. This one was 8.25. It felt really good. Southern Hills is hard to skate. The ground is rough, there are lots of cracks, the ledges don’t grind. Dave was trying boardslides to fakie on one bench then halfcab noseslide the next one. Amazing line, but I don’t think he got it like he wanted it. I got a couple crooks. I was trying a line of front tail stall shove on the one stair, fakie flip on flat, halfcab noseslide a bench. Never got it. I think I chickened out and just tried switch front noseslides instead. Saul and Fuzz showed up at the same time. Saul cruised around for a bit , did a couple front 50s on the one stair and bounced. Fuzz warmed up with some solid pushes, boardslides and noseslides (I think). Then randomly I ollied this little snow gap and it turned into a session. My first ollie was the only clean ollie I had. Dave and Fuzz were able to do 180s pretty quickly. I couldn’t. So I hucked kickflips instead. I wasn’t committing though. Fuzz said “It’s because you’re wearing a Lakai beanie with Es shoes. You can’t mix brands like that.” I laughed and threw my beanie on the ground. Then we realized I was wearing an Independent crew, but skating Ventures. So I took that off. Then we both cracked up upon realizing I was wearing a NB# shirt. I hesitated, but knew I had to shed it too. We were laughing. I think I got the next kickflip, but it was pretty bad and Fuzz didn’t film it. Then I got the slightly better one. I was pretty hyped and put my clothes back on. Then we dorked around on the stairs. Fuzz had several drop down combos. They were so sick. Dave and I tried to hang, but Fuzz had the moves.

Then we went to Saul’s. There was a decent sized crew of awesome. Saul, Eric, Jake, Josh, Will. I was impressed with Fuzz’s first few runs. He kept his speed and flew around the bowl. Everyone skated well it seemed. Saul had the quick lines, stand up grinds and it was funny when he bailed the grab to tail he has been trying. Will rips. His front 5-0s are so good and he took awhile to get a fakie nose pick. Dave flowed like water as always. He did a lot of tricks including a super long boardslide. Eric did his first back 50 all good, then proceeded to struggle with the next few. Ha. He ripped too. I didn’t skate so good and was getting really sore quick. So I mostly took it easy. Jake was the first of Josh, Will and him to land a front blunt. He also got a nosepick. Josh is one heck of a nice dude and fun to skate with. Oh and he rips. I think that’s everyone. It was fun. Thanks for having us Saul.

(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 50mm bones stf v1, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 grey size 11.5, custom orthotic insole)