With rain threatening Kevin and I headed to the bike path / hip spot. I really wanted to get a back 360 kickflip before they destroyed the spot. But I was too late. Doh. So we skated the ledge over the brick gap spot. Well, Kevin did and I pretended to. Ha. It sucks being old and taking awhile just to be able to ollie one foot high. By the time Rob arrived Kevin had already done 50s, 5-0s, tails both ways. I had done noseslide and crooks. I get so freaked out trying to grind that ledge for some reason. I guess since it’s narrow. But man, it’s embarrassing how hard front 50 is for me there. Rob and I both got a couple. They weren’t perfect, but we did and it feels good to beat the challenge. I got a front 180 out too. Rob had some front noseslides. I swear one was to manual. The ledge must be kind of hard because Kevin’s only switch trick was front 50. Matt House showed! And as predicted he back 50’d it first try, front 50’d it first try and landed a treflip first try. That boy good. He went on to do front and back tails. Then him and Kevin went over the brick flat gap. Matt did treflip and Kevin did switch flip. Then I got called for work and had to leave. Argh. At least it started raining shortly after that.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, 52mm oj ez edge wheels, venom 91a bushings, es asta accel slims, powefeet pinnacle insoles)

Working on some finishing touches on this one then gonna bring it to #eltoro for my Stubborns ender. 📹 @baffoos

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 14, 2018 at 7:01pm PDT

On a hot and sunny day Dave and I were brainstorming covered spots and agreed on Red Hawk. The session was set and even though Dave would be later it all still worked out. Kevin and Rob were there before me. The 3 of us started in the sunny curb section which was quite fun. You can ride on to grinds without even slappies and it’s fun. Rob was the first to get past the kink. That’s a long back 50 grind. I think both Kevin and I did frontside too. I don’t quite remember, but we both grinded far and it was fun. I had some backside ones that were really fun too. Kevin did a nollie flip super easy then gave some of the best advice I’ve heard. Jump back. I’m writing it down in hopes that I will remember to do it. We started messing around down below in the shade. The north ledge was so slick it was insane. It felt like you would accelerate as you grinded. Kevin is a young pup and was up on the front and back 50s and 5-0s before I had even ollied. Rob had crooks and front boards and a funny front 50 where you could see the amount of wax surprised him. I had gotten a couple front 50s, maybe a super slow back 50 and a couple crooks. Fuzz showed up, chilled for a bit then got in the mix. Then another car of skaters pulled up. Turned out to be dudes we know. Chris and Zack. Pretty cool. They were on a different program skating faster and stuff, but they were nice and it made for a fun session. Fuzz had some good back 50s and then did them with both 180s out. He would go on to piece a rad line together of ollie onto a rock then real quick nollie front lip then the Joe Hamilton ledge trick. Solid. What’s also cool is that Kevin filmed it. And he did a good job. Dave had shown up and looked a little more frustrated than normal. The front 50 back 180 took him a bit, but man when he landed it it sure looked good. Then he left for work. Only to come back a few minutes later realizing he had more time. Ha ha So funny. Then he did back and front boardslide 270s and then went to work. I filmed Kevin get a banger line. Nollie flip, front tail to fakie, switch crook. And he did it perfectly. I had started messing around with kickflip front board. And while it’s debatable that it’s actually a ‘front board’ I did land something. A few times. And I even did it on two setups. Ha. I was struggling to ollie the board I had been skating and remembered I had my bigger board in the car. The first front 50 on it felt great. I stuck with it. I had a few ledge tricks. Switch front noseslide, halfcab noseslide jib, switch noseslide 270 shove, front 50 shove, front 50 180, front 5-0. Couldn’t get fakie nosegrind though. Kevin got a front blunt and front noseblunt that was so good. He does hard tricks. After awhile we called it and debated where to eat before trekking into the insane heat. It was great seeing Fuzz, it’s been way too long.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, 52mm oj ez edge wheels, venom 91a bushings, es asta accel slims, powefeet pinnacle insoles)
(knee pain 4/10)

Work the late shift so decided to flatground friday before work. I had changed my setup slightly. I put on forged baseplates and bones wheels. I liked the changes. I didn’t skate very well or try too hard, but it was an alright session. Got kickflips, fakie flip, halfcab flip, f/s halfcab flip, heelflip and hands down treflip. Somehow that was enough. I only had about 30 minutes to skate. I wish I had brought a skate tool because the trucks felt way too loose so besides knee pain that’s my backup excuse.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, thunder 148 trucks, bones stf 51mm v1 wheels, venom 91a bushings, es accel slim asta size 12, pinnacle powerstep orthotic insoles)
(knee pain level 4/10)

On a nice night I did what I always do. Skate. I wasn’t sure which shoes I would wear so I started at the house/school just messing around in some Es Swifts. I didn’t like how they felt so I put on my Tom Asta Accel Slims that I thought were too big, but they felt pretty good. So once I decided on shoes I went to the ledge. I started out with some noseslides that felt good. Then a boardslide pop out. Made myself do a back 50 before I could try crooks. I got another one of the worst ones ever. The bigger wheels I had put on this setup were annoying me. After the bad back 50 I tried a line. Ollie up the curb, wallride nollie, back 180 off the curb, halfcab flip on flat, ollie up the curb, crooks. The trick I struggled with the most was back 180, but once I got it I got the line. It was pretty rewarding. Although I tried to keep it going and I slammed pretty bad ollieing up the curb before the weird manny pad/gap thing. The sprinklers came on around then making frontside hard. I was trying front noseslides, but not doing good. Tried some front 50s and never got into it. Couldn’t get halfcab noseslide. Flip tricks were whatever, the old board I was riding felt really old. Then I went home.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, thunder 148 trucks, spitfire 52mm radial slim 101a green/black swirl wheels, venom 91a bushings, es accell slim asta size 12, pinnacle powerstep orthotic insoles)
(knee pain level 4/10)

After Broomfield I had setup another complete of used parts. 8.25 deck with Thunder 148. I went to skate the curb across the street, but there was people at the school. Then I went to skate flat in front of the house and my neighbors family was sitting out front of their house and I didn’t want to disturb them. Argh. So I went to campus. Oh yeah, I was trying some different shoes to try and prevent knee soreness as well. Numeric 288s. No orthotic insole. That shoe has a lot of support. So I started at the slappy curb and did a few fun feeling slappy crooks. Then I moved on to this curb thinking it would grind and I could try Dave’s challenge. But this is when everything started to feel wrong. So I moved on to the little yellow metal lurb where things felt even less right and I gave up after a couple failed back 50s. On the way back to the car I did a bunch of little switch ollies on a downhill stretch that was pretty fun. I thought maybe it would get the juice flowing, but nope, I went home.

(setup 8.25 null spanbauer deck, thunder 148 trucks, spitfire 52mm radial slim 101a green/black swirl wheels, venom 91a bushings, new balance numeric tan 288 shoes, stock insoles)

And now, starting a little pain level indicator to see if I ever feel good. Out of 10.
(knee pain level 6/10)

After dinner I threw a complete together from old stuff. Basically my Indy setup, but I put Venture 5.8s on there. Then Saul showed up and we rolled to Broomfield park where we arrived to a big crew of BMXers. Kevin was there too. Turns out there was a fire at a recycling center nearby and after awhile the smoke from it got pretty intense. It was pretty terrible and I can still taste it as I write this a day later. Kevin got on grinds right away. My board felt huge and made for some weird bails. Especially when we all skated the flow bowl. I haven’t carved around in it for awhile. It was fun. Kevin had some backside ollies over the channel, back disaster, back smith the deep. He was killing. Saul was too when he managed to stay in the bowl. Ha. He does the opposite of me and gets fully out on the deck on his tricks. He did the cool pump over a hip and a few solid grinds on the pool coping. He also almost did a crazy transfer while holding the coping and riding on the deck near the 3′ sections. I didn’t do much more than a couple axle stalls.

Then we went back to the “street” section. Saul beat up the curb with endless slappies. Frontside, backside, almost to back smith. He also did a front 50 on the black ledge. Kevin did some crazy easy looking switch front nosegrind 180s, nollie front nosegrind, switch front 5-0, fakie front nosegrinds, nollie tre on flat, almost back 5-0 front shove and totally died on a front blunt on the bump to bar. I did front 50 shove, the Joe Hamilton, intentional 5-0 and almost intentional 5-0 shove, crooks and one weak fakie nosegrind, but it felt cool. Flip tricks were way off. After skating Kevin gave me some normal Thunder baseplates. So look for yet another setup change. Neat.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, venture black icon 5.8 trucks, 52mm oj ez edge wheels, bones medium bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insoles)

The biggest #dork on #teamsweatstain. 📹 @slaherty

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 8, 2018 at 6:06pm PDT

I do still skate… but don’t actually land tricks 😂 📷: @corpoglenny

A post shared by carleigh samson (@gnarlycarleigh) on Jul 8, 2018 at 3:48pm PDT

On a very hot day I met up with Jack, Carleigh and Sean during the hottest part of the day. It was 95 degrees. We started off at the dry slappy ledge. I had a new board. A new 8″ board. And I hated it immediately. But I tried some lines to get warmed up. Nothing much, but wallie axle stalls were harder than normal. Carleigh did some kickflips. Sean did some noseslides on the tall ledge. Jack can’t skate so he cruised off spot lurking. He came back calling out the rock to fakie for Carleigh so we went over there. It was really hard to skate. I did ollie onto it which took awhile. Carleigh and Sean did that right away. Sean went on to do a sick front disaster up to front disaster thing. I did the dork trick along with posed some flatground. I hated my board being so small. That might turn into a garage board. Carleigh never got the rock fakie, but man she tried and she took a beating. The hang ups were so bad. Good effort though.

(setup 8″ null midnight rider deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insoles)

On a very hot day Kevin and I messed around on the curb across the street for a bit. I could tell my body wasn’t doing so good as anything on the curb kind of hurt. Neither of us landed much before Carleigh, Ashlyn and Margeret showed up to pick us up. After a short rain delay we hit the Nederland park. I quickly remembered how little I like the park. I took a few laps around. The uneven ground is so bad. The ledge is taller than I remember. Whah whah. Most people skated the bowl for awhile. I took one run in it. I couldn’t drop in which turned me off. Kevin got a back smith in the deep. Carleigh scrached the deep. Ashlyn took a bit to dropin then slashed the deep. Margeret tried was grinding and tried to go over the death box. I went off and skated the park. I took way too long to get a mediocre line. Axle stall the hump qp, crooks the ledge, heelflip on flat (barely moving), boardslide up the end of the rail. That was pretty fun at least. Around then Sean showed up. Carleigh, Kevin and Sean skated the step up. Sean is so good. His casual ollies and 180s first try were so sick. Kevin did back 180 too. Carleigh moved in on kickflip and landed a perfect one after awhile. It was so good. Rain was threatening. I wanted to front 50 the ledge and it was so much harder than I wanted it to be. I got perhaps the slowest one ever done. Sean made grinds look so easy. He also did heelflip and front 360 up the step up. Kevin did heelflip up I think and then came close to hardflip. I like the step up, but I hate how little speed I generate for it. I came remotely close to a kickflip up before the rain officially ended the session.

After the drive down and some tacos we went to the research ledge. I was so sore. If I wasn’t with others I wouldn’t have tried to skate. But I’m stubborn. Sean and Kevin were ripping. Flip trick down the hill then ledge trick. I think Kevin did 10 nollie flips in a row. He did back tail, crooks. He was ripping. Sean did some really good basic flippers and solid ledge tricks. He did front 5-0 shove, front tail shove, front tail 270. Carleigh was mostly watching her dog, but did a few noseslides and kickflips. Jack was there, it was rad to see him. He manualled down the hill, but still isn’t able to ollie. I tried hard to not let the pain bother me. I got a crooks and the worst back 50 ever.

@slaherty 50/50 #coloradoskateboarding

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 7, 2018 at 5:23pm PDT

Then we checked out the new spot. Sean front 50’d it. Kevin fakie ollied from high to low. I did a boardslide and slappy crook on the parking block. Kevin also nollie lipped it both ways. And that was that.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, footprints gamechanger low profile insoles)

Eric compiled the phone footy we had. I wish it had more Ed and less Glen.

Wasn’t too hyped to skate flat, but it had rained a bunch so there wasn’t many options. I went across the street. I brought the putter. I went to the back area which was pretty wet at first. I warmed up with a few flippers. Hucked a few on the puuter. Then figured I’d hit Dave with b/s flip since I’ve never seen him do one and I know he can. I got one in a couple tries, but took about 10 tries to get a better one. I don’t really like how mine look. I wish I pivoted more which I know isn’t what most people think looks good, but I wish I did. I was messing around trying to ollie or manual this little brick manual pad on a crate. It was weird. After awhile I tried a super long line. Front axle the taller rock, noseslide the table bench, manual the bricks, kickflip the mini bank, ollie onto a curb backside, back 180 off, switch 180, 360 flip. I never got it obviously, but it was fun trying. I only got to the kickflip on the tiny bank once and blew it. I went on to get the treflip solo. I hucked quite a few other flippers while i was there. One of these days some new ones will feel possible.

(setup 8.25 null dream machine deck, venture 5.2 awake lows, 1/16 riser, old 51mm bones stf v1, 3 washers inside each axle, white venture bushings, vans kyle walker black/gold size 11.5, custom orthotic insoles)