Finally, a “warm” day in the 40s! After a long walk with Liz I set out to Wells Fargo bank to do a quick River Dance. It ended up being way harder there then I thought because it was too quick. On top of that some trucks were going to pull in and some workers informed me that my car would be stuck if I didn’t move it. I left.

You know it's January when 45 feels this warm. @fullertrron 5-0

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 2, 2016 at 4:08pm PST

After chilling at Sol for awhile Dave and I went to Rocky Mtn Elem and it was mostly dry! They had even redone a lot, but somehow left the ledge and banks completely skateable. Awesome. We started off on flatground. I had a new deck and put smaller trucks back on. It felt very different, but nice. I still wasn’t skating great. I had long johns on to combat the soreness I got in the cold the day before. It was overkill, but kind of nice. We did some nollies, switch ollies, 180s, etc over a little puddle. It was fun. We had some kickflips too, I struggled with halfcab flips, but landed on a nollie tre first try. Basically the board was flipping better again, but I just wasn’t used to it yet. Then we moved on to the ledge. In the school remodel they had created a rather large crack before the frontside approach that really messed with me. Gotta bondo it! Anywahs, we still rattled off quite a few tricks. Dave did boardslide to fakie real quick, crooks, noseslide, back 50, boardslide 270, front 50, front 5-0. He did all of them good too. I had noseslide, noseslide to fakie, crooks, some bad back 50s, front 50, front 5-0 (accident), front 50 shove. I tried kickflip noseslide for awhile and committed a couple times, I had one flop off and I landed it, but still none where I really got into a noseslide. I got close to kick back 50 too, it’s great how fast the smaller setup flips. We did some lines. Ollieing the medians on the banks. There are rocks you can ollie on to now. I think Dave did a line of front 5-0, manual on a rock, nollie back 180. Tight.

Snow skate with @fullertrron.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 2, 2016 at 5:08pm PST

Then we went to this little park. There wasn’t much to skate as it was mostly snowy. We skated the bank for awhile. Dave did nosebash to fakie and nosebash tail grab to fakie. They looked fun so I tried them too and eventually landed them. So fun! Then I did my first ever crailbock! I’m coming for you Rob! Ha ha, it hyped me up though. Dave went gnar and nollied then fakie ollied into the bank. I took awhile to do a kickflip to fakie on the bank. Dave rattled off a bunch of different tailblock tricks. My favorite being the rocket block. It made me laugh. We ended with the boardslides and 50s on the snowy ledge. It was fun.

(setup 8.25 null venture 5.2 high 52mm spitfire 99a F4 with 3 washers on the inside of each axle nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum )

Fun times in the frigid weather with @joerhamilton and @mattrief

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 27, 2015 at 7:20am PST

On a cold and windy midwest day I drove to Fremont, NE to meet up with Matt and Joe. Joe was still working and after Matt and I hung out for a bit we went to this slappy curb spot. Wow, it’s an amazing curb. It’s got a slight angle like a Cali curb. It was PERFECT for slappy tricks. It was so perfect in fact that it took me awhile to land a slappy crooks. I figured it out though and tried to crook the whole section. I never got to close do doing the whole 20′ section, but man it was fun. Matt was ripping with tricks like the nollie shove back 50, front 50 nollie bigspin out, slappy back 50 the whole section, manuals, nose manuals, first try nollie flip off the curb, backside nosegrind the yellow end part of the curb. We both did kickflips off. I never got regular slappies frontside or backside. The front feeble didn’t take too long though and felt super rad. I messed around with some other basic tricks and had fun. It was hard to not just do slappy crooks over and over though as it was so incredibly fun. In the end I had an over 40 make on a new trick. Fakie front 50 b/s halfcab out. It was sketchy, but felt cool. Joe finally got off work and skated with us for about 15 minutes. He did a bunch of tricks first try. Slappy, front 50, front 50 shove, slappy back 50 to boardslide pop to fakie, fakie 50 to boardslide pop out to fakie. So rad to skate with these fellas. I wish I could skate with them all the time.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings 52mm spitfire f4 99a nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Met Dave, Rob, Bernie and Garrett at this spot shortly after lunch on a nice winter day. I hadn’t been to this spot since they redid it. It is amazing. The warm up process is easier when pumping a bank is involved. Warmups were no comply bigspin for Rob and I. B/s flip for Bernie and I. Hardflip fakie for Bernie. Wallies on the corner for Garrett. Filming for Dave. Ha. I started messing around with a bean plant wallride/bash to fakie. I have no idea why, it just seemed like a cool trick to do there. I would get one kind of quickly with a hand push off then took like 30 more tries to land another one. Garrett did wallie front 180 over the hip so sick. Bernie was doing f/s flips and trying this crazy rock ‘n roll on the corner of the wall. It was bonkers. He got close quite a few times. Rob had smooth wallrides, b/s one foot ollies, close to b/s no comply finger flip. Dave started skating after I finally landed the beanplant trick and quickly rattled off a bunch of tricks. Fakie wallride, switch no comply, switch no comply 360, invert wallride. Bernie won a fakie treflip race. I slammed pretty hard trying to push switch through a crack before the bank. Everyone left except Dave and I. We just kept messing around having fun. We skated the hip for awhile. Dave did 360s, boneless, almost cab big spin. I did a weak sauce b/s flip, boneless, a fakie bigfip where I landed going the same way I came from. The ‘hip’ is round and there is no defined spots to take off from so it’s just kind of weird. After awhile this lady with a baby and a dog showed up to the playground that is right there. The dog was running after us behind the fence barking and barking and barking. It was quite annoying. I did a fun varial flip to fakie. Then we ended as I tried 360 flip to fakie for a long time and Dave tried varial flip to fakie. I managed to get an ‘over 40’ make of the treflip which was a pretty rad ender for a super fun session.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Went out to the garage with my new setup without much intent on skating hard or long. I started on the “manual pad” and a few tricks in I slammed, did the splits and hit the back of my head on a bike pedal. Awesome. I did a few more manuals tricks then decided to bring in Ledgy and see if it would be possible to skate it in my garage. I went to move the ‘manual pad’ and noticed how convenient it would work to make a sweet bank to curb. I played with that for awhile, but it needs a sign at the bottom to make it good. The sign I have was in the back yard and covered with snow. Next time. I still messed around for awhile, just lifting up the crack and doing nose stalls and front rocks and stuff. I think it will be quite fun.

Then I put Ledgy out to skate. I only did stalls obviously since there is no room. I’m not sure I could actually do grind tricks, but I did backside nose stall shove and frontside nosestall shove. Both were really fun. Don’t think I’ve ever done the fs version before. Then I made myself do a front tail stall and called it a night. Oh yeah, I hucked a few switch flips without getting close. The new setup is a 8.38 board. Why am I going bigger? Because I’ve been into ledges and I think the extra board room helps me.

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones medium bushings 50mm v1 bones stfs nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

#thestubborns in the cold. @fullertrron beat me to the backside nosegrind. @iamnotacreepyjake and @43shifty beat us to the bar. #25degrees

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 28, 2015 at 4:19pm PST

Jake and I met Rob and Dave at Red Curbs on a cold, dreary and snowy day. Jake and I got there first. Somehow I felt pretty good right out of the gate. I was wearing long johns so my legs didn’t feel cold for once. I started with slappy crooks as I always do there. Then moved up to 50s, etc. Dave and Rob showed up. Jake and I were trying some lines starting at the far side of the garage. I forget exactly what, but I was trying something like manual around the corner pad, 180 over a little chunk of snow, halfcab flip, nose manual the main pad, slappy crooks. I had some regular slappies too. Jake was doing nollie f/s 180 over the snow chunk. Dave went into the fast boardslides pretty quickly. Rob had some proper slappy crooks, back 50s, walked over to Ross to get some gloves (smart move). The session got good, everyone seemed to be skating good. I cannot remember everything from an action packed session, but I’ll try some highlights. Jake fakie front tailslide, slappies, pop shove and kickflip out of the kicker, front lipslides and his first ever slappy crooks! Rob had the dopest halfcab back 50, back 180 fakie 50s, lap over lipslides, nollie 50s, close to no comply 5-0s, lines for days. I had a couple front nosegrinds which I was really hyped on, front 5-0s, slappy crooks on the taller curb, one 360 flip, a nollie 360 flip, a slow line of kickflip up the curb and an over-40 make b/s flip out of the kicker, didn’t get kick back tail or nose manual shove, I had a lot of fun. Dave did 100mph boardslide 270s, noseslides, back 50s to fakie, steezy back 180s out of the curb cut, back 5-0 band back 5-0 back 180 out on the little part of the median. At the end we both tried back nosegrinds for awhile. Both getting close and sticking a lot. In the end Dave got the one above. It was rad. Then we went across the street to Twisted Pine and had a couple of celebration brews. Super fun day somehow in the cold.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones medium bushings old 52mm stf v1s washers on the outside nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Today started early at Denver park with @iamnotacreepyjake and @fullertrron. Dave beat me to front 50. #grindsbeforenine #day300alldayskatefest

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 8, 2015 at 2:21pm PST

Picked Jake up at 7am and we were to Denver park by 7:30am. It quite cold and the park was almost empty. We rolled around slowly gaining the ability to try tricks. The first real skating we did was in the humps to the qp. We would do a trick in it and then a boardslide on the curb and then a trick on the bump to ledge. Jake did a lot of tricks on the qp. I did a few. The line was fun though. I think I got crook jib on the qp, boardslide, front 50. We also did the little kid gap off the bump to ledge and that’s how Jake started his run and his ended with front 5-0. Dave showed up. We all started doing wallies up onto the ledge in the snake run. Dave and Jake did it quick, I took a few tries. Then we lined it out with tricks on the bump to ledge or something. There were a couple wallies that I was pretty scared about just because I was going fast rolling into it. It was fun though. Jake (and I think Dave too) also did wallie front 180s and Jake almost did wallie manual. Then Jake and I skated a ledge above that and the little one. I was trying to crooks the first one and then noseslide the second level of the next one. I got remotely close. I also got a couple cali back 50s up and over the pyramid. Jake did a bunch of noseslide and managed to back 50 it once. Gnar! Simon showed up while we were in a physical challenge to front 50 across the ledge on top of the boardercross. After several tries I landed an accidental front 5-0 that only grinded a foot or so and I landed on the deck. Dave went and did a perfect front 50. So sick!

DAY 300! I made it. Beautiful day.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 8, 2015 at 11:35am PST

After a stop for some hippy food and drinks we went to this ledge spot that I have wanted to skate for like 5 years. The ground was way rougher then I expected, but the ledge was quite good. It was hard to line out both waxed sections, but that’s what we mostly tried. Except for Simon because he hauls ass and needed all the speed just for the main one. It took awhile before people started landing tricks. I was feeling every bit of having skated 300 days. I was sore and mentally tired. I was happy to do a few back 50s, couldn’t kick back 50. Got a line of front 50 shove and then switch boardslide to forward. Dave did a lot of really good front 50s with either front 180 out or back 180 out off the front truck. He couldn’t lock in to front crooks like normal though. Jake had a bunch of really good tailslides and tailslides to fakie, back 50s,fakie front 50s f/s halfcab out lined out with crooks to fakie. Simon hauled ass and did frontside lipslides and tailslides. Then he started trying front lip to front tail. We got the camera out and Jake filmed. Things got elevated for a bit and everyone seemed hyped. Simon did the lipslide to tailslide and lipslide to tailslide to fakie, front 5-0 shove out and some other rad tricks. Dave did a really sick boardslide to fakie 50 to f/s halfcab out. I landed a switch boardslide 270 out. Jake, Dave and I played a game of SKATE that was pretty fun with quite a variety of tricks. I would eventually win it with fakie big flip. Dave didn’t land it, but tried it for awhile and got really close. Get it Dave! Jake and I did 360 flips.

Then we went downtown for a bit so I could try a line that I’ve wanted to do for several months now. It’s basically a weird street plant off this tallish drop that has a pole to hold onto and then a boardslide on the yellow ledge above. After some warming up we started filming. That drop was taller then I remember. I had a few where my legs gave out and I can’t believe I didn’t break my board, but I would get some. Got the original plan of the plant and then the boardslide quick. Then messed around trying to add boneless 360 to the end of the line, but that didn’t work. Dave suggested 360 flip since I had landed a few at the last spot and boom, best feeling I’ve had skating in awhile. Did the plant, got the boardslide and did the 360 flip. I was hyped beyond belief. Then Dave did some really fast and stylee front boards and front board transfer to fakie.

Brief and fun ender for the day. Thanks @dnutz37!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Nov 8, 2015 at 3:38pm PST

Yes, we skated more. We stopped at Darin’s ramp. I think I took about 10 runs total, dove onto my shoulder once, but landed a lot of my tricks somewhat quickly. Maybe it was because I was too tired to bail. Jake and Dave got lots of tricks. Darin was ripping as he always does. Actually, maybe even more then normal. Back smith second try. Fun ender for a fun day. Now I shoot for 350 days?

(setup 8.25 null venture lows 1/16 riser 4 washers bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101a nb# pj stratford 533 black/white)

Haven't skated this graphic yet. #hyped #spoiled #hyped

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 22, 2015 at 8:40pm PDT

Arrived to a very crowded park as darkness set in. Thank god for lights! I played on the Quartapotty doing basics. Darin arrived shortly after me and was doing the same. Then a bunch of people joined. I was feeling pretty good with new grip tape (MOB this time around) and softer wheels on the qp. Nolan, Riley and I tried backside kickflips. Nolan got his real quick. 20 tries later Riley landed a really good one and I got his back with one too. I was hyped! My next go on the qp I tried to do front disaster to sugarcane. I slipped out and slammed incredibly hard for me. This pretty much ended my session. I tried to keep skating, but I couldn’t really get it going. I filmed Nolan do every blunt he could in one line. Riley was hurting. Fuller had shown up so I tried to skate with him and Darin on the qp/blue ledge combo. I just did no ollie noseslides and posed kickflip back tails though. I saw Darin do a bluntslide. Dave with some great frontside nosegrinds.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows spitfire f4 51mm nb# pj stratford 533 white/gum)

Old guy morning fun. @iamnotacreepyjake front blunt @fullertrron nosegrind

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Sep 20, 2015 at 2:01pm PDT

Had some time while the in laws were out doing their sunday morning routine so Jake came over and we headed out to Broomfield and met Dave at Safeway ledge. Everyone was a bit skeptical about starting there, but we managed. Dave and I stayed on the ‘slappy’ noseslide routine longer then Jake. He was already doing 50s and 180 50s. Who brought the young guy? Ha. Everyone ended up landing some good stuff. Jake had front tail, front tail fakie, fakie front tail, fakie front 50 f/s halfcab out, front lip, almost back 50 back 180 out. Dave had some really solid front 50s, layback front 5-0!!!, crooks and really solid front crooks. I did 50s, was 1/20 on sliding front tails, front 50 shove, front 50 front 180, kick back 50, nowhere close on front crooks and somewhat close on kick back tail. Flip tricks were feeling good.

Then we went to this little park and continued the fun. Well, when we first started it was kind of overrun with little kids using the skatepark as a playground. Luckily the mom realized they were annoying us and cleared them out after awhile. Not before Dave shot his board into one of them though. Ha, it barely hit the kid though. We went on to have a really fun session. We all skated the park pretty different, it was cool. Jake and Dave had lots of transition tricks, I did lots of axle stalls. Ha. Jake did a pivot to fakie on the steep bank first try. Dave did a sweeper over the hip first try. I took awhile to get a line of crooks the pier 7 ledge, axle stall the qp (or front d depending on how I was feeling), front tail on the steep bank, almost noseslide 270 the top part of the pier 7 ledge. Jake was trying front noseblunt on the steep bank for awhile. Dave was filming it. I took forever to get a back 50 on the pier 7 ledge. Dave was cruising the park in between filming Jake. tranny tricks, almost boardslide transfers on the aframe. I started racing Jake with a front 50 kickflip out while he tried the noseblunt. He won with a sick noseblunt. I would eventually get the front 50 kickflip out and it felt pretty awesome. I filmed Dave for awhile do tricks like nosegrind transfer the lower part of the spine (ridiculous!). I thought we were leaving, but then Jake reminded me of our physical challenge of ollie up, kickflip off the ledge. It took a bit, but we got them back to back all tight like. Then Dave did a totally ridiculous line. Front nosegrind the mini bump to ledge, back tail the qp then boardslide the wide rail. I think the run was even longer then that actually, but either way it was so good. I took awhile to get the boardslide too as Dave did more nosegrind and then we left, both of us late. Ha.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows worn down 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 white/gum)

I had the day off work. I was up late seeing Drive Like Jehu destroy it. But since I don’t really drink at all anymore I had no hangover and was feeling pretty good and wanting to skate. I went to Lafayette park around 10:30 not really knowing if I could skate because of my groin pain. I started by doing axle stalls on a bunch of various things at the park. The first of which that was scary was the bank to bank at the end of the snake run. I hit the toilet bowl for awhile and did a basic line of kickturn on the rock, axle stall on the lowest extension, front 5-0 on the parking block. It took a bit and I slammed hard into the pump boob at one point. Having the park to myself ruled. It reminded me that my distaste for skateparks is more related to crowds then terrain. I forced myself to do a tiny scratch grind on the 8′ end of the snake run. I should have tried axle stall, but I’m scared. Then I did a bunch of little spine transfer tricks. Just the typical front 50 to fakie, fakie 50 or pivot then back to fakie. Pretty fun. I got a few noseslides down the little hubba. Somehow ollieing backside doesn’t hurt too much. I had a line of b/s ollie the manhole bump, powerslide, hurricane on the spine thing then noseslide down the hubba. That was a neat feeling. Then I battled noseslides down the 3 stair ledge for awhile. I have never landed it. It seemed like the faster I went the harder I stuck, so I had to find that perfect medium that allowed me to lock in perfect. I eventually landed one that wasn’t the whole thing, but it was fun either way. I ended my awesome day trying cab flips on the flat bank in the back corner. I had a really fun run going into it. Wallie the rock hip, front slash the tiny qp, turn to fakie on the manhole bump, 2 switch pushes then try the cab flip. It was a tough place to do them because there isn’t much room to take angle into the bank. Anyway, I kind of rode away from 2 of them. The first of which was only a halfcab flip that I turned around to forward as I was riding down. The second was closer to a real one, but still wasn’t one clean motion. Oh well, it felt great trying a flip trick and somehow it didn’t seem to strain my groin. I had a blast.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)

Was challenged by @boredzinejp to learn airwalk to fakie for #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge. So I kind of learned them on flat and then spent several hours trying to fakie on a bank. So much harder! At least there was a curb I could do kickflip back tails on over and over until I landed the worst airwalk ever that somehow meets the minimum requirement of an airwalk. Good luck @the_neviathan, this one is hard! #isuck #airwalksarehard #andnate

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 19, 2015 at 6:25pm PDT

Another day of working from home leaving me feeling tired and run down. Ollie didn’t want to skate or let me go anywhere. It was super nice out so I skated flat in front of the house. I felt horrible initially and the first ollie felt like it almost pulled a muscle in my groin. Ugh. I almost quit immediately, but instead I went on to skate flatground for 2.5 hours and have one of my favorite flatground sessions ever. Kickflips came, then halfcab flips, fakie bigflip and a few more basics before I started with 360 flips. I wanted 5 before I moved on. I got them, took awhile, and they weren’t close, but I would eventually get to 5. Tried a line of f/s halfcab flip then f/s flip. Got it quick. The f/s flip wasn’t great, lots of pivot, but whatever. Then I really started hucking. Lots of nollie inward heel attempts, got a horrible varial heel. Well, it wasn’t all that bad, just slow and I landed it sideways. But it was bolts of course. Ha. I started trying fakie treflips and like 3rd or 4th try rolled away. Whoa. So I turned around, did a front shove, hucked a nollie treflip and landed it. Feeling pretty hyped I went for treflip next (I had to avoid cars for a bit so I was pushing along the sidewalk so I could still count it as one line) and put down one of my best tres ever. I felt so great. I landed all 3 of them good. I wasn’t skating fast, but that’s me. I had put the 3 3flip challenge on my list of things to do by age 40 before the reactive arthritis hit me. Since I would have to wait between cars often I was giving JP the play by play over gchat and he told me I had to do a switch 3 flip too. So I tried. I got really close. Never both feet on, but it seems doable. Also hucked front heels, Rick flips, got a b/s halfcab heel first try, switch varial flip first try, several heelfips, landed both feet on a nollie flip for the first time in a few years, b/s flips. Watched a biker run into my neighbors car. Hucked f/s cab kickfips for awhile and landed 3 that would count on defense because of too much pivoting and not a fluid motion. But I think it could come! I finished after hucking a few flatground airwalks so I could spice up my airwalk post. I am loving the low trucks. Oh yeah, I had new NB# PJ shoes. The brown/gum ones. Clearly they skated awesome and man it’s a good feeling having a PJ Ladd pro model shoe.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 brown/gum)