Today was fun. @43shifty @_f_u_z_z @gnarlycarleigh @ashlyngames

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 16, 2018 at 7:18pm PDT

I was having a lazy morning and before I knew it it was time to go skate. The meet up spot was Douglass. Carleigh, Ashlyn and I got there at the same time basically. Rob and Fuzz a little later. Blaine awhile later. Warming up wasn’t great. I did see Carleigh do a nice first try kickflip though. Ashlyn was getting into front noseslides. I was just kind of messing around not hitting the ledges. Grinding up/down the yellow curb, front 180s off the ledge by the door, etc. When Rob and Fuzz arrived it started to rain a little. It looked like it was going to be really bad, but it never ended up saturating the ground. Rob and I skated through most of it. I was desperately trying front 50s. It took awhile, but I did get one. Well, kind of. I came to complete halt and grabbed my board to help me land it. I was still happy. We did some flatground in the covered area when the rain was at it’s worst. The highlight being 3 heelflips in a row (Ashlyn, Carleigh, Fuzz). I blew it on being the 4th, but I did get a horrible one the next try. As it cleared up Fuzz did a boneless 180 over the little wall then snapped an ollie over it like it was nothing. I tried both, but only kind of got the boneless. I have no idea what it would take for me to get over that. Then a kicker session started. Rob and Carleigh snapped some great ollies and Fuzz took top honors by clearing the whole flat. When I tried to ollie half of it I didn’t even hit the tail. Ha. We attempted to skate it link a bank too, but that didn’t really work seeing as how it’s basically flat. Lines were attempted. Rob and I tried ours for a long time. Rob was doing back 180 up the curb, turn around, boardslide the end of a ledge, then the no comply wallie. As you can see he got it, well a variation of it. It was first try for the camera, but it was after I had already given up and sat down. My line was front 50 up the yellow curb, kickflip/heelflip/treflip (only got one terrible treflip, I blame the shoes being a little too big) then curve around and noseslide 270 shove out. I never got my feet on the noseslide shove, but man I was close. It felt good really trying that trick as it’s been awhile. Fuzz had some steezy shifty ollies up the curb, noseslides on the ledge. Ashlyn was doing high speed heelflips. Carleigh was trying to line out kickflip, back 180, halfcab flip. Blaine had showed. He cruised for a bit, hit some snappy ollies. While most of us sat and chilled Rob and Blaine hit the curb on the side of the school. Rob said he got front tailslide shove. Blaine battled back tails and had the selfie documentation to prove he got one. Then we went off to a laughter filled dinner and spot lurk. Great times.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Left work early. It had rained a little so I avoided dog park and went to the basketball ledges. There were some puddles there too, but not enough to mess with it so much. I started off terribly. I couldn’t do anything. Then kind of out of nowhere I did a line that changed everything. Halfcab noseslide, heelflip on flat (the heelflip felt so great), front 50 (well, more of a front axle stall), front noseslide. After that I had motivation and tried harder. Got a couple crooks, switch front noseslides. Finally started getting on front 50s with some consistency and a tiny bit of speed. Almost got front 50 shove. Then some people showed up to play basketball. I still skated the outside ledges. Got a noseslide shove, switch front nose to forward. Then kind of ran out of steam so I left for the dog park.

At the dog park I rewarmed up with some 3 trick lines. I started real basic then got slightly harder until I went for the Ironman challenge (kickflip, heelflip, treflip). It was fun I was skating pretty hard and the kickflip and heelflip were fast enough to be a little scary. I didn’t get too many clean heelflips though so I was going pretty close when it came time to treflip. But I kept not landing the treflip. I would finally get it, but put a hand down. Oh well. It was a battle and I was over it. I hucked some switch tres, nollie/switch heels, halfcab heels for a bit then ollied the cone. I had a few clean ones, but the one I slightly touched it adds some character. I like having that cone to ollie. For those of you paying too close of attention, I will say the size 12 Accel Slim is too big, the 11.5s I had last time skate better.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

After a long day at work I wanted to get some skating in. My body wasn’t feeling great and I didn’t have the motivation to go anywhere so I just went in front of my house. I had a rough goal of doing 20 tricks then going back inside and watching Stranger Things with the family. I started off with the basics. It was still over 90 degrees so the street was a little melted which makes for some weird slow downs/stops sometimes. After about 10 warm up tricks without any flippers I started flipping. I got a few. The melted street was not helping things. Kickflip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, b/s flip, heelflip. Took a long time to get a 360 flip and it was terrible. As soon as I struggle with treflips I want away from Indys. Ha, not gonna bail out this quick though. I got a rare (and terrible) halfcab heel. I hucked quite a bit, it seems like nollie heels are possible. I’ve learned to put my back foot forward and it seems like I just need to commit rather than posing them now. Couldn’t get nollie tre or nollie bigflip. Hucked a few switch tres, switch heels. It was mostly a struggle fest, but whatevs, I skated and tried some stuff.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Feeling mellow on a nice night I went across the street with very little motivation. I did a few basic grinds and started to think about a challenge for Dave. Switch 50 seemed like a good one. I got the 2nd one I tried, but it was dark, then it took about 10 tries to get another. I did a few kickflips and posed treflips. I finished by doing fakie 50 then fakie nosegrind.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

I went a little later than normal, got there around 7:30 on a gorgeous night. Will and Rob showed up at the same time. Eric and Jake were already there. Jake landed the first several tricks I saw him do. Like front blunt on the qp, noseblunt the parking block, front 5-0 the black box. After that though I saw him fall a lot. Ha ha. I saw Eric get a back 50 and front tail on the blue ledge then I started my warm up process. It went alright. I was just starting to feel warmed up when Jake and Eric were eying up the 6 stair. I wanted to ollie it too, but Jake went and did it right then. I wasn’t motivated and the opportunity seemed gone. Eric was doing heelflips and sizing up the rail. Will was getting on the grinds. Rob had a couple odd falls early on. We played a game of SKATE. Rob came out swinging. No comply 360, back 360, backside flip. I was at SKA just like that. I had a good string when I had another turn though. Kickflip, heelflip, treflip, halfcab flip in a row. That made me really happy. Especially the treflip. It was kind of a dick move, but I really wanted to try one and I got lucky. Oh yeah, ha ha, Jake went out on kickflip. He missed the first, went for double or nothing, missed again, then went for triple or nothing and slammed on that one. That was insult to injury and he was out. Will and I were the last two and I bailed a couple fakie bigflips and he took me out with switch shove. I did some frontside flips on the hump which I haven’t done in awhile which were fun. Eric and I battled the little boardslide, then got them back to back. He tried the 6 stair one too, but never got it. I saw Rob almost nose manual around the mountain bank, but it was hard seeing what others were doing until I mostly skated the black ledge. Will was skating it too. He was trying back tail then switch back tail, the switch one eluded him. Jake had left. Rob and Eric were chilling. I tried to get a new trick on the black ledge for me, fakie nosegrind. It took like 100 line attempts to get there, but I did get a fakie nosegrind and it did feel rad. Will was trying switch nose manual. This dude Max was there with a total 90s setup and it was awesome. He was fun to skate with. Will started trying to back nosegrind the sad ledge. It made me want to back 50 it, which meant a line to it to try and get hyped. I started with kickflip the parking block, frontside tricks on the qp (got a front tail for the first time in awhile). But I was having trouble committing. Got a line to it eventually and back 50’d about a third of it. It felt cool. The line was back 180 the parking block, fakie axle stall, back 50. I probably did 15 kickflips over the parking block which felt great. Will never got the back nosegrind, but he was close. I ended trying some slow kick back 50s on the blue ledge. The first set of lights shut off, but left enough light to keep trying. A few tries later I got one. It was slow, but it felt great. This was some of the hardest I’ve skated in awhile. It felt great. I love summer.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

@fullertrron and I learned a fun one yesterday. #davediditbetterandiamokaywiththat

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 11, 2018 at 7:17pm PDT

Left Boulder around 10am to meet Dave at Indian Peaks. The drive was crazy as the Diagonal had a triathlon and 4 lanes were down to 2. Ugh. Then I got to Indian Peaks and it looked like construction had the bank unskateable. Luckily I could move the fence a little and it was still fine. My warm up was a bean plant to fakie which took a few tries to get as I was rusty after a day off of skating (ha ha). Dave showed. I took way too long to do a front shove to fakie. Dave did a bunch of different shoves. Regs, frontside, switch, etc. He started messing with a line where he did a front 360 then goes through the little courtyard and comes back and did a front shove. Then Dave took a bit to get a kickflip to fakie and varial flip to fakie. But man that varial flip to fakie was great when it came. I started messing with a line too. A trick on the bank, then wallie nollie the brick wall near the tree then come around and hit the bank again. I messes around with various first tricks like kickflip, some weird fastplant thing, but ultimately I just went with a nollie 3 shove. But man the line felt cool. Nollie 3 shove, wallie nollie, kickflip to fakie. After that I went for 360 flip to fakie and I got one in ~10 tries that also felt great. I had setup my phone to film it even. Whew! Dave did frontside flip then would go around and try the 360 flip going backside. He got close. I tried nollie tre for a bit, but gave up. Then randomly tried a frontside beanplant wallride. Dave was hyped and had never done it either so we went for it. It was a little harder than it would seem, but we both got some after a bit. I don’t care how simple it looks, it felt great.

Then after a siesta I ended up at research ledge. The shade was in effect and it didn’t seem hot. Dave had challenged me to a crooks to fakie and I figured this would be a good spot for it. I started with noseslides and noseslide to fakie. Then I went with an old rule of mine where I had to do back 50, front 50 and 360 flip before trying crooks. I didn’t quite get there, but I did all 3 before landing a crook (the back 50 was more of a feeble and the 360 flip had a hand down). I had some trouble finding the sweet spot on crooks with the Indys, but I did get it eventually. The crooks to fakie took about 10 minutes. Then I messed around on some new wood benches below. Well, all I did was a couple noseslides and just pretended I would do anything else.

Then I went to Saul’s. For awhile it was just Saul and I. I was pretty beat from so much skating. I had some okay stuff for me, but nothing that really stood out or felt like progress. I did get close to my first frontside carve grinds, but bailed out every time I got close. Saul was ripping. Stand up 50s, front slash the deep, closer to 5-0s, some funny falls. Brian showed up for his first time there. It’s always interesting seeing peoples first runs. Brian did good though. Carve grinds and didn’t slam. He went on to rip some front slashes, display a couple trademark Brian falls and probably more after I left. Eric showed up shortly before I left and put down a lot of his tricks right away like the “Certain Death” and heelflips on flat.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white asta size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Had the day off work and after a nice morning I met Rob after noon. When I got there it was just Rob and another older dude I’ve seen skate there a few times. Rob was already doing mannuals and nose manuals so he was pretty warmed up it seemed. I had a new pair of Accel Slims which took a bit to get used to. We both seemed to skate decent. The other dude was messing up the flow some, but he was skating hard so it’s cool. It was really hot when the sun was out, but luckily for the most part there was cloud cover. My first 3 front 50 attempts all turned into front 5-0s. That’s getting a little old. I did get a few front 50s up the sad ledge, but never over all of it. Got first try boardslide transfers both ways on the brown ledge. Rob went after the regular boardslide transfer and got it. I had never ollied onto the low part of the brown ledge and rode off the tall end. It’s basic, but it felt pretty cool. Made myself boardslide down the tiny rail for the first time in awhile. Rob was on the front noseslides or crooks on black ledge, back 50s the blue ledge, halfcab noseslides, manuals up around the CO bank. Then we played a game of SKATE. Oh I should mention I had decided this was the last day in the Indy trucks trial period. They had felt good. And even after the game I was sold. I had gotten tricks like heelflip and 360 shove first try. Rob got two letters on halfcab flip even though he landed on both of them. Doh. He got me with a cab. The winning trick was the 3 shove. After that Rob showed me cabs for awhile and I probably made some progress towards getting one, but I never got one. Rob left and I kind of just tried one line for awhile. Front 50 the black ledge (or sometimes try to Joe Hamilton it) then 360 flip out of the little bank. I kind of got it. I really like how much better Indys are for 360 flips. Some kid showed up at the park and was throwing a temper tantrum when he couldn’t land a crooks and threw his board into the tree and it stuck. Ha ha. He had to climb up and get it covering the sad ledge with pine cones, needles and branches. When he finally got his board he just left the debris. Stupid kids. Then I went to Crisis and hung with Rob and Fuzz for awhile. Good times.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim navy/white size 12, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

After work, a nap and a small dinner I went to Saul’s. I arrived to a rad crew. Ed, Dave, Saul, Will and Eric. I was late so things were already going. Will was trying to learn frontside grab grinds (I have no idea what it’s really called – front hand grabbing the nose while doing a front 5-0) and doing sick lines to get to it. Ed only took a couple runs before bouncing, but I saw a front tailslide which I haven’t seen him do before. Saul was front slashing the brick and almost the deep which is funny because he was totally going for it, but it just didn’t work. He also had some nice long back 50s and his patented quick carve grind lines. Eric did some tricks easily that I’ve seen him need to work up to before. Slashes in the deep, back disasters, ride on grinds, back 50s, you know the drill. I was nervous about how my new setup would handle in the bowl, but it felt great. I had better than normal carve grinds, longer runs which had more than one trick in them and my first real back 50s in the deep in awhile. Dave was kind of off, but still able to manual all over the place, back tail, some weird backside plant, maybe fastplant? Front smiths, back feebles, back tails, casually ripping as he always does.

Then Dave and I went to the basketball court ledges. There was tree debris all over everything, but no one playing ball (until later but they just sat by the other hoop). We tried some switch tres to start out. Dave got closer. Then started hitting the ledges and I struggled way more than expected. Everything felt off. My shoes were done, my socks were too thin and I still cannot figure out these Indys on ledges. I really do like them on basically everything else, but skating ledges I hate them. And that sucks because ledges are my favorite. I was even struggling with noseslides. Argh. Dave got on some front 50s right away. He would struggle too, but not like me. We tried lines with flip tricks, etc. I got my line from last time of switch front noseslide, switch front 180, crooks. Still couldn’t get the halfcab flip instead of the swtich 180. Dave did front 50 around the corner then front noseslide. I tried front noses to fakie, fakie flip, switch back nose, but couldn’t get the fakie flip. Dave did a lot of kickflips. I took a long time to get a super bad front 50. Dave got a solid back 50. I struggled with halfcab noseslide. I ended up chilling as I was sore and nothing was working. Dave was doing his slappy crooks. He got a couple then overshot on one and slammed so hard. It was terrible looking. He was alright, but that was the end of the night.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Got to Broomfield around 7 for Broomfield Tuesday. To my surprise no one from the norma crew was there. Dakota was there though and I haven’t seen him skate and wow it’s insane the tricks he can do consistently. He’s gotta be one of Colorado’s best tech skaters. Rob showed up shortly after me and the warm up process began. I have been desiring low trucks again, but that kind of went out the door right away as my setup felt good (until later). The warm up process was pretty normal. Slappy crooks on the parking block, switch noseslides on the blue ledge, some basics on the quartapotty. Got the first try kickflip and it felt good. Rob gets to real tricks way quicker than me. Crooks on the black ledge, back 50 the blue, halfcab noseslide, manuals, nose manuals. There wasn’t a lot of people at the park, but it was pretty heated at times. Rob and I both tried the Joe special, front 50 to front board on the black ledge. Both of us eventually getting them, but we have some work cut out for us if we’re gonna take it to Joe’s level. It is a fun trick though. I was struggling to get up in front 50s and it was kind of annoying. The high trucks have advantages in things appear lower, but it doesn’t seem to translate to better pop for me. I think Rob got a first try nosegrind on the blue ledge. I couldn’t get a fakie nosegrind which was quite annoying. I did get a first try 360 flip though. I started trying the fandangle plant or whatever it’s called. I was hyped to get one so I setup the selfie cam to capture it. Dave issued that trick as a challenge to his friend in Alaska, but he never responded. So I figured I’d do it. Then I went for the other tricks Dave had either challenged or been challenged to. The nollie tre took a few tries, the terrible front shove was first try and the halfcab flip took a few tries. Around then Will showed up. I was pretty beat, but I tried to skate with him. He was killing the ledges and doing some rad lines. Front and back 5-0s, front nosegrinds, 50s, it was cool. He got me to try a line which took awhile. Front 50 down the escalator ledge (but I did an accidental 5-0), axle stall to fakie on the qp, switch 180 up the blue ledge. He also did back 50 and 5-0 across the sad ledge. I tried to back 50 it, but failed and decided to call it a night. I watched Will for awhile and we chatted for awhile. That dude is cool. Fun night.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Went out to skate a little flat before having a dinner date with Liz. It was really hot out and my street was melted so that wasn’t an option. The curbs at the school are still covered in rocks. There was some day care going on so I couldn’t skate the ledge right in the front. So I went to the nice and shady alley behind the school which wasn’t as full of debris as I thought it would be. I did not skate well. In fact I started to think about going home and getting my smaller setup. Not good. I was bailing everything, even fakie flips. But I hucked a 360 flip and landed on it and made things feel a little better. I was trying switch treflips going up the slight hill and lines going down. I went on to get a line of fakie flip, halfcab flip, hands down 360 flip (meaning hands on the ground). I went home after that. Definitely struggling a little with the Indys. But the smaller wheelbase really does help for 360 flips so I’ll try to stick with them.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, bones medium bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)