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)

Went to the Valmont area yet again in hopes of skating this bank to do an airwalk to fakie for the old man instagram game. Unfortunately there were no lights on this bank and it quickly got too dark to film. I still had a decent warm up though. Shoves, kickflips, halfcab flip, boneless, no complies, etc.

So I went over to this other one which was a bit steeper then I remember and lit pretty well. I tried airwalks to fakie for two hours. Luckily there was a curb (in the background) that I could entertain myself on too and I did like 10 kickflip back tail stalls on it. I believe I did an airwalk to fakie. Here’s a screenshot of it, still waiting on Judge Fuller to say yay or nay. But in my eyes I did one. Granted it’s one of those over-40-defense-first-time-ever kind of makes. I was sweating like crazy. There was no one in this area. At one point a suburban creeped up all slow, parked for awhile, then left. It creeped me out. After thinking I landed an airwalk I did a quick line of kickflip into a different bank, ollie onto the curb, ollie off a little loading dock. Fun.

Then I wanted to ollie this little median. It should be really easy right? Remember who I am. To get hyped I started doing tricks off the little curb. I did kickflip, shove, front shove, switch front 180, 360 flip (took awhile, but can you believe it?) and finally varial flip before I got the ollie. Pathetic huh? Ha I was hyped either way. I was sweating and skating hard. The 360 flip off the curb was a battle and the first one in a long time off of anything.

Then since I was in the area I went over to the ledge in hope of rattling off a few ledge tricks before I went home. It went pretty good! Noseslide, crooks, back 50, halfcab noseslide, front 50 the middle section first try, front tail the lower part, fakie front 50 f/s halfcab out (felt super rad), couldn’t quite ride away from front noseslide, got a front 50 shove on the middle section, ended when I couldn’t get kick back 50 or front crooks. I tried a ton of nollie inward heels and got pretty close to a few. Really fun sweaty session.

I had taken off the little riser and I liked it more. I know low trucks aren’t for everyone, but if there is one thing I’ve taken away from my recent change to a smaller/lower setup it’s that I ollie just as good, if not better with it. I was on a 8.5 with 54mms a few weeks ago. That was miserable. Ha.

(setup 8.1 null venture lows thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# pj stratford 533 cream (I think I can finally retire them since they are so bald))

@corpoglenny might be on the team 🌐 Who owns your favorite companies? @null_skateboards OG on the OG logo and tee by @43shifty in the city #repost and photo creds to glens homie.

A photo posted by @crisis_skateboards on Jul 30, 2015 at 11:56am PDT

Another early morning mission. Met up with Liz’s sister’s boyfriend Julian at a train station on the way to Queens to hit Flushing Meadows. We peeped the big grate ledge then moved on to the nearby Maloof skatepark. What a bizarre skatepark. It doesn’t flow like a normal skatepark at all. But if you treat it like a street spot (which I guess it is supposed to be) it flows alright. Julian doesn’t skate much and got wrecked right away so sat out the rest of the session. My first few ollies hurt, but after that I felt great. Manualled the top manny pad. Did a couple tranny tricks on the weird bowled in corner. Front 50’d the ledge off the curb, noseslid over the grate right away. Then figured more then anything I wanted to grind the ledge over the mini grate. I got crooks pretty quick then front 50 too. Both felt neat. I did quite a few of each. Took awhile to ollie the 3 stair, but it felt great.

Then we hit the main ledge. I tried to noseslide it for awhile. Got about halfway a few times and realized I probably didn’t have it in me to do the whole thing. Tricks over the grate are also way gnarlier then I thought. It’s a solid 7 foot flat gap. I posed ollies and b/s flips over it.

3 flip to end an awesome session. 📷 @thejulianthompson

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 30, 2015 at 11:34am PDT

Then we found this crazy spot. Absolutely perfect flatground and this weird ledge. I started doing lines with a flip trick, front slappy on a waxed curb you can’t see in this photo then ollie onto the ledge and ride down it. It was so fun. I was rattling off my flippers. Halfcab flip, treflip, heelflip, nollie treflip, fakie bigflip. After ollieing onto it a few times I would try manual, but I never got too close to that. Tried a line of b/s flip, halfcab flip, ollie on then front 180 off the last part, but that was scary. Ended with an amazing feeling treflip in front of the fountain while Julian snapped a photo. It was the icing on the cake to a great session (for me) and so awesome to see these famous spots that are a part of skate history. The long ledge over the grate is literally 20 feet long. Any trick that has gone down over that is amazing.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# stratford 533 cream)

Yes!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 27, 2015 at 4:58am PDT

Woke up early, went to Manhattan to finally skate LES. I arrived to an almost empty park with two people skating. Both left shortly after I arrived (not because of me ha), but others showed. For about 3 hours the park was just 2 or 3 people. The last hour there was maybe 10 people there, but for that park 10 people isn’t much at all. I skated for four hours non-stop and was a sweaty mess. There is a drinking fountain at the park thankfully. I started on the transition stuff, it was funner then I thought it would be, maybe because it’s all small. I had actually taken a day off skating so my legs felt good. You have to push a lot at that park, things are spaced out, it’s kind of awesome. I got front 5-0 and front 50 shove on one of the ledges. Very low wallride on the bank to fence. Took awhile to crooks the ledge. I thought east coast ledges were supposed to be slicker? I also did a few back lips (kind of) on the little manny pad. Got manual, nose manual and a first try kickflip manual. This was when I began realizing that I was skating exceptional for me. I was doing a lot of tricks first try and cruising the park surprising myself. It ruled. I did spend some time trying to get a b/s flip over the hip. It took a bit, but when I landed it it felt incredible. This would mark the first time I’ve ever done the same trick on the same spot as PJ. Yes, I am a nerd, but man I was hyped. I went on to do halfcab flip and fakie bigflip over the hip pretty quick. Tried varial heels coming the other way, but couldn’t get the flip. I tried a front tail on the bank to curb above one of the ledges for awhile. It was really hard, but the approach was so fun. Roll in, go over the pump bump and a big push. I would eventually land one. Tried to do nosestall or boardslide on the bank to ledge for awhile, but couldn’t get that. Did some more cruising around. Ollies over the hip, kickflips over the b/s hip, front smiths on the qp. Had a fun line where I rode up the bank of a tall ledge, dropped onto another, then down again, then cali grind off the kicker, front tail the bank, kickflip the hip. Manualled the long manny pad. Tried to kickflip pivot the bank to pool coping, but never got close. I was getting pretty tired and wanted to cross f/s halfcab flip off my list too. But rather then just do it I kept lining out further and further. But oh was it worth it when I finally got my line. Front smith on the quarterpipe, front 50 the metal ledge, slash to fakie the qp (or whatever you want to call the weak thing I do), then f/s halfcab flip over the hip (it wasn’t popped, but I was so beat). One of the funnest times I’ve had at a skatepark.

(setup 8.1 null venture lights thunder bushings 52mm stf v3 nb# stratford 533 pj cream)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 1, 2015 at 10:31pm PDT

Well the clip above pretty accurately documents my 3 hour session. Got out of the car, waxed the ledge and started trying noseslide 270 shoves. Bernie and Riley joined. Bernie went right to trying front tail 270 shoves. Riley tried front noseslide 270 shoves, but kind of tweaked his shoulder and took off. Dave showed up for a few minutes before he had a chiropractor appt. I landed a good noseslide 270 shove! I was super hyped to finally land that trick. I have kind of landed it once, but not really. So I setup the camera. Good thing I charged it because it did not come easy to do it again. I had a couple makes that were beyond horrible and barely usable for defense. Riley would get close and then not be close for awhile. Dave showed back up and it seemed like Bernie and I started getting closer again. Then I got the one above! Not super pretty, but it was all I could muster. After that my legs were shot and I mostly just watched Dave and Bernie skate. I was beyond hyped to finally land that trick though. Bernie ended up putting down his trick perfect. Typical Bernie, when he lands something it’s perfect. Dave had his patented boardslide to fakie and some other hot moves. My back bushings had basically completely separated and so loose I didn’t even want to skate my board anymore.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s)

After a nice hike and a nap and stuff I met Rob at the newish spot with the manual pad / 2 stair. Rob quickly determined that his leg was acting up and he wouldn’t be able to skate. Doh. I stayed around for a bit and tried to get warmed up, but it was a struggle. I started getting a few flip tricks and about 30 tries I finally manualled off the 2 then kickflipped off the last curb. Then I went to pick up Jake and we headed to campus. The engineering building had a bunch of gravel on the bank/bank spot so we moved on. We had front tail stalls off the little one ledge off the curb. Then we went to the long ledge. No cars again! I was feeling really good at this point and probably skated too hard and didn’t pace myself. I was trying lots of lines. Flippers, manuals, ledge tricks. Didn’t land much on the manny pad or ledge, but flippers went pretty good. I was 2-4 on treflips, but 0-10 on front 50 shoves. Jake and I both got a back 50 or two, noseslides, neither of us got crooks, he might have got front tail, I did a few accidental front 5-0s that should have been 50s. Then we played a game of SKATE that ended with me winning on 360 flip.

We headed to the bank to fence, but ended up stopping at this little bump into downhill sidewalk. Jake put down kickflip first try and I put down b/s flip second try. Then it was off to the races with all of our tricks. I was hyped on fakie flip really quick. It wasn’t much downhill, but it was still a bit of a challenge and super fun. Jake got kickflip, 360 flip, heelflip (first try), f/s flip, fakie flip and almost fakie treflip. I got b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, varial flip, nollie treflip, f/s halfcab flip, treflip and hucked cab flips at the end that felt remotely close at times. Such a fun session.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254)

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Jun 26, 2015 at 4:47pm PDT

Went to Boulder ditch after work to meet Rob and Dave. I arrived first and laid back in my car for a power nap of which I was rudely awoken by Dave. Ha. D5 and Pigeonhole were there skating and it made for extra hype. This spot is a tough warm up, but it ends up working out pretty good. Dave was on fire from the start. 47 and killing it. Everyone seemed to skate pretty good and Rob skated the best I’ve seen him skate there. He had a line with f/s ollie, back smith the curb qp, sick boneless. D5 had rad alley oop rocks, rock ‘n rolls. Pigeonhole had boardslide transfers, boardslides and a big smile. I finally back 50’d the pvc. Had a fun line of front disaster the curb qp, boardslide the ledge then a kickflip. Also the front rock then b/s flip I’ve done before. And some longer boardslides on the pvc. Dave back 5-0d to back tail the whole pvs from crete to crete. Insane. He also did lipslides, front 5-0s, front tails, back disaster the curb qp, drop in on the tire, front 50 transfers on the pvc, front board transfer the pvc, much more. Happy Birthday Dave!

(setup 8.25 null venture light wides bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ quincy 254s (note I was really hyped on my setup today))

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 21, 2015 at 12:05pm PDT

Busy day at work, but Dave was texting me saying I should go to Blue Skies before it started raining. Somehow I pulled it off and went to meet Dave. When I arrived he was in the hockey rink instead of at the park. I was initially kind of bummed as I wanted to skate the park. But everyone that reads this knows I love flatground so it didn’t take me long to start enjoying it. Dave had only been there a couple minutes so we were both going through the wonderful horribleness that is warming up as an older skater. My legs would get warmed up and feel good and I got a ton of flip tricks including a new one. Started with kickflip, shoves, varial flip, fakie flip, halfcab flips. b/s flip, 360 flip, got a first try f/s halfcab heel so tried rick flips for awhile and got close. Had a line with 360 flip then nollie 360 flip, couldn’t get the fakie tre next though. Also had a run with heelflip then nollie varial flip. Tried a ton of switch varial flips. Got close. Was trying another one and landed something. We thought it was a switch flip at first, but I was riding away regular so apparently I did my first ever switch sex change. Ha, pretty hyped to say the least. I couldn’t get a fakie tre to end my session. Dave did a lot of lines. Nollie front 180 then switch front shove. Switch back shoves. Fakie shove, fakie bigspin, f/s nollie bigspin. Nollie shoves, switch 180s. Lots of 360 tricks. Cab, f/s cab, helipop and learned a new one. Nollie front 360. Or nollie cab. Or switch cab. Just as long as you don’t say “full” I don’t care. He also put down a bunch of kickflips, no complys, switch no complys, 43 shiftys and probably a ton more tricks I’m forgetting. Aki showed up and joined us. He’s a software engineer that goes there at lunch and he’s super nice. He warmed up then started linking a bunch of flippers and 180s. Kickflip, heelflip, back heel, 360 flip, fakie flip. He would get a bunch in a row. Then I needed to get back to work. What a good time.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 21, 2015 at 8:24pm PDT

The day that keeps on giving! Fuzz, Dave and Rob pushed for Old Man night at Launch so we met up in Longmont and headed that way. As we were getting close it was still dry so a detour to the bank to curb was made. We ended up skating there a couple hours and past closing time for Launch. It ruled. It completely ruled. I’ll just start by saying Dave, Fuzz and Rob rule. Even without the skating it would have ruled. But add a good session and you get the shit we live for. We were all a little slow to get started, but the tricks really started stacking up. There is no way I’ll remember them all, but everyone seemed to get “their” trick and a bunch of other ones. I’ll try. Rob. back smiths, started a rad back pivot train where we all did them with a smile, backside nosepick to back d, front tails, locked into a Rob Helmstetter backside noseblunt, feeble to rock, back pivot to back tail, lofty bean plants to tail and pop shove nosebash. Fuzz. Front tail fakie, ollie up to front tail slide, fakie nosepick to fakie, noseblunt tail grab, front pivot fakie, front and back axle stall 270s out. Me. no comply front tail, couldn’t land front tail shove, kickflip “back smith” where my front foot was hovering above my board, kick back tail (felt so rad), slammed super hard switch pushing for a switch front nose stall, hurricane, hucked switch front heels for the heck of it on flat, got a treflip on flat, some other boneless tricks. Dave. Got more flatground kickflips, front hurricane, back pivot shove, back tail (shove too maybe?), thruster plant (I think?), front axle stall to back axle stall, something into axle stall to fakie. I’m blowing it. These are too hard to remember. It was an awesome session with an awesome crew. Stoked.

(setup 8.25 null venture wide lights bones med bushings 51mm stfs nb+ pj stratfords)

Somehow the stars aligned and things worked out for a downtown Denver mission with Dave, Rob, Fuzz, Jack and me. It didn’t look good initially as it was raining at the gathering point of Crisis and on the road to Denver. We went drove to Cherry Curbs and the security guard was up front preventing us from even getting out of the car. Ugh. Rob killed it by telling the security guard that Dave was trying to learn how to drive an automatic since he grew up driving a stick. And that it was too slippery out on the streets. So funny. We headed back downtown and things were dry. We got the boot from a curb spot then ended up at the 5 two stairs in a row (old guy 10 stair ha). Everyone firecrackered them. Such a good warm up. Jack ollied up them too, but he’s only 20 something. Once even with a no comply flip up the last set. Dave, Rob and I added back 180 off the last step. Fuzz tried to back 180 the second to last set then switch front 180 the last set making for some pretty epic bails and slams. The pitch out to butt looked so amazing off a two stair. I managed to early grab through a couple sets. Fuzz rode down all of them switch. Jack did pressure flip and late shove off the last set. A few fun powerslides later we were down the hill and hitting some curbs. Jack had some long back 50s. Fuzz and Rob had some good manuals. I did some kickflips to feel more warmed up. Then we checked out this bench/stair/rail area. Jack had some long back 50s. Rob no comply’d up the three stair. This is when some clearly mentally challenged dude started following us and telling us not to skate. Well, he may have been mute because he was just shaking his head and waving no with his finger. Some people let it get to them, other just ignored him. Either way it was kind of weird. We got the boot from a real security guard and went across the street to a nice granite ground with some round flower pots that we skated. Jack and Fuzz had some boardslide pop outs. Jack was doing them frontside I think and going across the street to do some wallrides. I get a fun line of front 180 up the curb, halfcab flip on flat then noseslide. Off we went.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 30, 2015 at 11:27pm PDT

I think we ended up at this spot next where everyone boardslid the yellow ledge. Dave and Rob added front board. Jack did 180 switch crooks transfer. Fuzz did halfcab boardslide. Jack rolled off the tall ledge so casual. As we were getting booted I tried a couple of street plant things with my hand on the bar and dropped off. Landed one. It felt so rad.

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Apr 30, 2015 at 10:26pm PDT

A video posted by Jack Spanbauer (@jackspanbauer) on May 1, 2015 at 3:30pm PDT

I think we ended up here next. We actually lasted for quite awhile. We started with the orange benches were they are. Fuzz killed it with front 50, front 5-0 and maybe a front smith too? I got crooks. After awhile one was pulled out to ollie over into the little downhill of the entryway. Jack and Fuzz killed this too. Fuzz did ollie, manual, back 180 and front 180 all first try. Maybe nosebonk too. Jack got kickflip nosebonk, one foot nosebonk and probably more that I’m forgetting. I tried to ollie it. It would have a really big ollie for me. I committed on the last one as we were getting a kind boot, but didn’t get over the bench. Either way it felt cool to try that hard.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 2, 2015 at 8:44am PDT

After some grub at 7-11 I think we ended up at Skyline park. Jack rode off a ledge to 5-0 a trash can. Dave and I did drops to tail. Dave added a 360 egg plant nose bonk. Yes it was as crazy as it sounds. Actually I should gram the video of it. Ok, gram’d it. It’s above. Yeah for technology. And yes the nose bonk was intentional.

I ollied this gap. Actually kind of surprised because of how sore I was. But yeah, again I was surprised at just how fun it was and reminds me to skate gaps more often.

Last spot was here. We rode off the drops on the other side which was pretty fun. I got a noseslide to ride down. I think Dave did boardslide. Everyone was kind of done at that point it seemed, but I tried a crooks on the ledge and it grinded really well. So I did like 100 of them having the time of my life. I would go between crooks to fakie or forward just kind of depending on how the grind went. I think my longest grind was 4 sections. It felt sooooo good! I did a couple bad back 50s too. Dave did boardslide to fakie, boardslide to fakie 50 halfcab out and front board to fakie. All super good. After that we rolled/walked back to the car. Incredibly fun night for me. These dudes rule. Oh yeah, and I finally crooked through the V!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 1, 2015 at 9:40am PDT

(setup 8.38 amigos venture wides bones med bushings stf 51mm nb+ stratford 479)