After a chill day at work I drove through the traffic to meet Jack, Carleigh and Rob at Rock Creek on a gorgeous day. Jack and Carleigh had already been there for awhile and were skating flat. But we ended up skating the ramp for awhile. I had some decent runs for me then started trying back tail stalls for awhile. I got super close. That’s a good start for my challenge. Everyone seemed to be skating pretty good. Rob tapped his inner Fuller and manualled the deck no problem. He also had some lofty front disasters and long front tails. Jack has gotten a lot better at skating ramps and flew around doing long front tail, 5-0s, smiths. Back d. Kept slamming on some bean/sal variation. Carleigh was doing runs with f/s ollies, front ds and almost back ds in them.

Then we played SKATE for awhile. The first game had Rob mastering the art of “double or nothing” beautifully, Carleigh doing kickflip, heelflip, varial flip in a row as well as learning fakie bigspins. It came down to Jack and Rob. I don’t remember what the last trick was, but I saw Rob throwing back 3 and Jack doing some cab bigspin variation. We played another game. It started pretty similar, but ended up being Jack against me. I got him with a nollie tre. I don’t really care that he didn’t land it, I was just happy to land one. We both battled treflips for awhile. It took so long that Rob and Carleigh said we would lose if they beat us to it. But I ended up finally getting one and of course Jack landed it too. A few more tricks went down. Jack won it on a double flip. Yeap, just like all of the annoying kids on BATB. Ha ha, just joking.

Then we skated the ramp awhile longer. Everyone was ripping. Carleigh had a run with front lipslide, back d and front rock I think? Jack added a bigspin back d and some other rad combos. Rob was back smithing all over the place, backside ollies. I did the same ol’ and added two of the weakest texas plants you could do. Fully set the board into the tranny before stepping onto it. Oh well, baby steps.

We skated around the park a bit. Jack did a bunch of long feeble grind tricks on the flat bar and ollied onto the little ledge to front 180 switch crooks the tall ledge. I boardslid the flatbar. Rob back smithed the ledge all steezy and tried halfcab noseslide 270 out. I think Carleigh was beat and chilled after getting a few more fakie bigspins. Anyways, it was a really fun day.

(setup 8.38 Amigos Venture wides bones med bushings STF 51mm NB+ Stratford 479)

It’s my bday! Normally I get stoked, but I guess I had a bit of that old feeling depression for the first half of the day. I skated flatground in front of my house for awhile. Well, kind of. I mostly just hecked nollie heels and other slow moving tricks I can’t do. I feel like Riley’s recent nollie heel trick tip session helped, but I have yet to make the board flip right. Maybe, just maybe I’ll get one by the time I’m 50.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 12, 2015 at 6:14pm PDT

Liz had asked what else I wanted for my Bday and I said she could maybe film the stupid trick above. I know I could do it. But it’s a lot of luck and not just my awesome skill. Ha. I was quite depressed while trying it. I think it was because I could tell Ollie did not want to be there which was a bummer. The slam above was the closest I got. It was not an intentional Glen fall. It was an honest to goodness desperate attempt at riding away. After seeing this footage I’m not sure I’ll try it again. Rob and Dave showed. They both did sick no comply bean plants over the rock into the path. Rob’s was super lofty.

A photo posted by Rob Helmstetter (@43shifty) on Apr 12, 2015 at 2:55pm PDT

Then we skated this which was about 20 feet away. Ollie had some ollies and front 180s off. Dave was nollieing down the 2 stair with speed. Rob was shredding! Manualed it (which is tough because it’s really rough on top), back 180 up and one incredibly steezy no comply shove down the 2, there was more, but I’m not remembering right now. I messed around with a few things, then put together a line that made my whole day better. Kickflip up the two stair, no comply finger flip on flat, olllie down the 2 then ollie the 4. It was rad because I almost slammed down the 2 and just barely pulled off whatever little ollie it took to clear the 4. It really cheered me up. Ollie and Liz left then Dave, Rob and I moved on. We went around the corner to the double set that Ishod halfcab boardslid. Dave still wanted to boardslide it. He felt it out a little, but didn’t get down it. Then we started trying tricks into the grass. First it was ollies. Dave managed to not stick and got down the hill a couple times. I never did, but I did land on a bunch of kickflips over the curb that were totally committed to. It was fun rolling down the hill. Dave somehow also managed to back 180 into the grass and ride down switch. Wow. Dave and I did this little rock wallie thing for a bit. I tried on the first go and slammed pretty hard. Dave got it in a couple and I was a few behind. I did manage to front 180 the 4 stair which felt really cool. Then Dave and I skated this cool gap to manny that Dave found. He mannied it real quick. I took a few tries. Then he went for nose manual, but never got it. Doh. We hit the long ledge for awhile. There was some dude in headphones cruising around making sure to never make eye contact or say hi. It was weird. Rob continued his shredding. I saw crooks, front tail, halfcab noseslide, front noseslide, front board pop out, and a sick 1-2 punch of noseslide to fakie then halfcab noseslide. I’m kind of blanking on Dave, but I remember front 50, crooks, boardslide pop out, noseslides I think. I didn’t get much more then crooks and front 50 on the ledge, but I did have a treflip and a couple great feeling nollie tres. All in all a fun day, thanks Rob and Dave!

(setup 8.38 null venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 8, 2015 at 6:38pm PDT

After work I met up with Dave at Skyline HS. It wasn’t the intended meet up spot, it’s just what happened. We looked at some gaps and crazy boardslides then went behind the school and found the mega hubbas you see above (there is another one that’s b/s for reg footers). I felt insanely awkward warming up. Having a different board is weird. I would eventually boardslide the little b/s one. Dave was doing back 50s through the flat and down on top of hucking nollie/switch heels. I eventually got a few slow front 50s where I deck checked a little. Then moved a rock and was finally able to get on the downhill part. Then added front 5-0s. It’s tiny, but it felt really awesome. I ollied the curb and we split out.

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Apr 8, 2015 at 7:48pm PDT

To the nearby little park. There were a bunch of little kids there. A brother/sister combo doing laps on bike/scooter that constantly go. You could see the frustration on Dave’s face. But he still did a front tail over the hip that cleared the crack. In other words it was really long! I started with the c ledge boardslide. Did some pathetic and embarrassing attempts at ollies over the hip (although I’m going to put some of the blame on the difference in the nose/tail on the sample board). Then I tried a line of front 50 on the corner bump to ledge, turn then front 50 down the next hubba. I kind of got it, but got on before the downhill part of the ledge and was going so slow that I just landed into the bank. Dave started trying the same thing, but with a lofty f/s ollie over the hip to start. Took him awhile, but he got the line good. He also did some sick bluntslides over the hip. I skated this park way different then I normally have. Skated the little ledge for a bit. Got back 50, halfcab noseslide, front 50. It’s only about 3 feet long so it’s hard to get in/out of the trick. Then Dave and I did the double boneless plant things over the rail above. Dave’s slam was so funny! Oh man I almost peed my pants. Dave left after this and I tried a little kid line of 360 flip flyout (right by the rail we bonelessed over) then kickflip off the platform. One of the 3 flips I did felt so amazing. I haven’t done it out of a bump at all in awhile, it’s kind of easier. I would eventually get one with a kickflip off the platform too which actually felt really good. A couple kickflip attempts were sketchy and I landed on the tail once. Gotta give props to the sample board for not cracking on that one. Anyways, after landing the last kickflip I smiled, went and stretched a bit, then went home and watched The Office with India and Liz. Good day.

(setup 8.25 sample quincy deck venture wides bones med bushings 50mm spitfire f4 101s)

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 30, 2015 at 7:29pm PDT

Such a nice day. Felt hot when we first got there. Dave was first and I joined him in skating the little hump. We both struggled for awhile, but Dave did back tails and back tail to fakie super good. I did a front 50 on it. Yippee. Then we all skated a ledge I’ve never skated there before. It backs to the deep end of the bowl so it’s a little weird. Dave was getting on tricks quick. He did front 50s and front 50 180. Rob had boardslide popout and almost front board 270 pop out. Dave also got into front crooks which is super crazy. I took awhile to get up on the ledge and not worry about shooting my board into the bowl, but did front 50 then front 180 down the 3 stair. That was fun. Then I went for front 50 front shove out then front shove down the 3 stair. It’s been awhile since I’ve done anything down a 3 stair. I predicted to Dave that the first one I committed to would probably be a broken board and I was right. But luckily it was still skateable. I would eventually get the line and it felt awesome (even though the shove wasn’t so great). Then we skated the mellow bank in the clip above for awhile. It was a blast. We rattled off a lot of tricks. Dave did his weird underflip, b/s flip, cab nosegrab, f/s cab nosegrab, front shove and probably a bunch more. Rob was doing cabs easy, b/s flip, no comply crailslides (I think) and the awesome b/s no comply shove above. I did mostly flip tricks. No surprise there. Kickflip fakie, b/s flip, fakie flip, halfcab flip, bigflip, 360 flip. Then we skated the main area for a bit. I got a really fun line of cali grind the ledge above the 7′ qp, boardslide the ledge, boneless on the bank, bsts on the hip (it even made the noise!), b/s flip on the little bank, almost f/s flip on the mellow bank. Man that was fun. Dave was going for a crazy long line with a nosestall revert or pop shove on the bank, back 360 over the steep to mellow hip, skate around the park to boardslide the bump to bar. He never got them all in one, but he got them all. Rob was doing no comply to tailslides, manualling the deck of the bank and more of those steezy crailslide things (I need to pay attention to what he’s actually doing). Since my board was really cracked I decided I should push it further and try a line of front 5-0 on the new ledge then kickflip the 3 stair. But on my warm up run of front 50 then ollie I finished it off. Doh. This was one of my favorite skate days in awhile.

(setup 8.25 null venture wides bones med bushings spitfire 50mm f4 101s)

A video posted by Austin Fischer (@austinmfischer) on Feb 28, 2015 at 5:21pm PST

Saw this skatepark in Josh’s 40th Bday clip and thought it looked really fun. Turns out it’s even funner then it looks. Maybe one of the funnest parks I’ve skated. Once again it’s been almost a week since I skated before writing this so remembering everything that went down is impossible. We met a few of Josh’s friends there. Austin, Ted, Billy, Russel and probably a couple names I’m forgetting. Josh flew all over that park like it was nothing. He might be the only person that skated the mellowish quarterpipes. I had a blast. I was even little-kid-excited at the start not knowing what to try. It was all so fun. Nate and I agreed this was our favorite park. Mainly because it had an absolutely perfect ledge surrounded by fun stuff. I did a manual across the steeper bank, almost kickflip manual, kickflip over the f/s hip, b/s flip over the hip, was the last to nose manual the first pod. Nate and Josh manualed then dropped to nose manual on the second one. I went nose manny to manny. Landed on crooks shove a few times. Bigflip on the bank, fakie flip, kickflip to fakie from low to high. Nate did a Texas Plant!!! So rad. Maybe he’ll get to posting it some day (hint).

A video posted by Joshua Pluger (@boredzinejp) on Feb 28, 2015 at 5:40pm PST

Then we went to Shoreline Park. We were warned the locals might not be so nice. Turns out they were incredibly nice. Ha. Except the parents. I was trying to wallie onto the ledge in the photo then drop to the lower ledge and my board came close to a toddler playing near the park. I told the parent her son was in danger and she yelled at me telling me she had a right to be there. What a stupid lady. The park was crowded when we first got there. So much was going on. It ended up being a really fun park. Maybe as good as Martha Lake, just different. Nate and I skated the ledges a lot. I had made a mental note of the tricks I wanted to do and did all of them. That is about as rare as it gets for me. I did the front 50 on the top ledge and dropped onto the downhill ledge, front 50’d the downhill ledge, front 50’d the ledge into the bank, did the really fun boneless over the rail, kickflip over the hip and ended with b/s flip over the hip and setting up with an axle stall on the qp. Nate back 50’d the ledge to bank and the bank to ledge. Ha. Kickflip over the hip and maybe nollie heel. Josh did every transition trick on the quarterpipe, front 50 and front tail the ledge on the pyramid and across the bank to ledge, slappy down the ledge. It was warm. Then we had to leave. Such a fun day. One of my favorites.

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 26, 2015 at 3:06pm PST

What a crazy day. Started at 4am Mountain time running to a bus stop in a bunch of new snow and 5 degree temperature. Then I was in soggy Portland eating and drinking coffee with Nate and PJ. After lunch it was dry. So naturally Nate and I went skating. We started out at the curved ledge/bank spot that our big crew had skated for hours over the summer. The ledge itself was wet. We did a few basic flippers and stuff before Nate suggested we move on. So we went to the spot above that we wanted to skate last time. Nate front 50’d it first try and it was on. Took me a little longer to get going, but we ended up tally’ing quite a few tricks. Nate did front 50, front 5-0, front 5-0 180 out, front tail, front tail to fakie and front noseslide. I got front 50, front 5-0 (intended to be front 50), front noseslide (not past the crack), front noseslide to fakie (past the crack!) and front 50 shove which took a long time. At this point I was already super hyped on the trip. We skated the metal thing in the middle a bit too. We both did ollie on then front slash then ollie or 180 off.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 26, 2015 at 10:12pm PST

Remembering all of what happened next is going to be impossible a week later as I write this. I think we ended up here next. It was slightly drizzling which made it scary at first. So I just dropped in and did cali grinds off of it. Then an early grab cali grind off it. That’s what the photo of me is. Not even close to what you thought eh? It was fun. It dried up and we skated the ledge. Nate killed some fast back 50s and maybe back 5-0 too. I got crooks. We both did front 50s.

This was right up the block and was one of my favorite spots of the trip some how. We both did nose manual into the bank then manual the 2 stair section. Sounds basic. It was. And surprisingly fun.

We ended up here for awhile. Nate manual’d and nose mannyd the thread the needle pad quick. I took a long time to manual it. Nate got a no comply flip over the parking block. I fell on a few. We had fun surfing the little reflectors.

This was fun for a minute. Had a fun noseslide to fakie then switch 180 off the curb. It was scary though because of so much traffic. There was also a little ledge drop that I rode off of that was kinda tall. Then we ended up at the crazy mossy area that Silas destroys in a Portland video. It was a really humbling spot that was so much harder to skate then I would have imagined. Nate did some super rad nose mannies the hard way (backside) and manualled another ledge before trying to 180 nose manual a 3rd. I could not ollie onto the ledge backside. All I did was some front 180’s up and switch front 180s off. Might have done kickflilp up/off. Then as the rain started up again I manual’d a box that Nate manual’d ever try and then sloppily ollied onto a tall ledge and slowly dropped off it. Pretty fun. We were beat so the rain was probably somewhat of a blessing.

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

New favorite #griptapeart by my son Ollie

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 18, 2015 at 8:22pm PST

Such a nice day out! Got out of work at 3:15 and headed up to Fort Collins. Stopped at my Dad’s grave on the way. Went to Fossil Creek first. I love that park. When I got there there was just a couple other people sitting up top. I just skated the ledges on the bottom. I was feeling pretty arthritic. Mostly likely due to the huge weather changes coming (snow ugh) and skating every single day. I had a new board with awesome Ollie artwork after breaking mine yesterday. I warmed up with back 50s on the curb. Started trying lines with back 50 then crooks. Never got a regular crooks pop out. Kept landing on it, but not riding away. It was weird. I got a couple that fell off to fakie. Did front 50 shove. Chadman showed up! So stoked to see him. He is one of the best dudes out. I tried to back 50 the square ledge in the middle of the park and finally did it slowly. Chad did it super fast of course. He also started with a good line of switch front 180 onto the ledge, front smith the ledge up top then nollie shove off the curb. I was trying crooks shove one way and a line the other way. Out of nowhere I did a great feeling crooks shove. I think I’ve done that trick before, but I don’t even know. Either way it made my session go from fun to insanely fun. On top of that I got my f/s line next try. Ollie up the ledge, front 50 the upper ledge, kickflip off the curb (didn’t have to push in between any of those) then noseslide the ledge off the 3 stair. I was hyped! Chadman was killing it. Really good nollie flips, long fakie nosegrinds to shove out. Long manuals and nose manuals going fast. At the end we went up top and messed around for a couple minutes. I failed to ollie the ledge off the 3 stair. Chad came super close to drop down nose manual shove up the curb. So crazy.

@nolancormier at the super fun @launchskate facility. #nullskateboards

A video posted by Null Skateboards (@null_skateboards) on Feb 20, 2015 at 6:29am PST

Then we ate Chipotle and went to MRKT. Then I went to Launch for “Over 30 Night”. To my surprise it was a mellow one with only a few people there. One of which was Nolan totally ripping. He’s only 25, but is one of those dudes that fits in with a mellow old man session or a heated young kids session. He can do it all. Like front tails across the whole ramp to forward or fakie, huge f/s ollies, hurricanes, sugarcanes, tricks I don’t know the name of and the stuff you see above. At least the f/s invert took awhile. I didn’t skate great. I think I was feeling the Rampy effect and skating a lot already. I got a few squeeker front smiths, little b/s slashes to fakie, front disasters, but wasn’t flowing too well. Played a game of SKATE with Andy and John that was pretty fun. It was right after John got there so he wasn’t warmed up and went out quick. Andy was trying some real tricks like hardflip, varial heel. He got me with 3 shove and fakie 3 shove. I got him with lame tricks on him like varial flip and fakie varial flip. Somehow had an ok b/s flip and a good feeling heelflip. Fun evening of skating!

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

It's not perfect yet, but thank you @boredzinejp for making me learn one of the funnest tricks ever! You got this @the_neviathan !!! #theglenandjosholdfartlongdistanceinstagramtricksuperchallenge #andnate

A video posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Feb 18, 2015 at 6:07pm PST

Shortly after getting home from work I went out to Rampy with one purpose, to learn Texas Plants. I started with the tail grab bomb drop into the ramp. Got comfy with that then started hucking. To my surprise the board started coming up to my front hand. Josh was right with the tip to put the front foot back a little. A few tries later I landed one. Then another, And many more. They got better as I went. I was about as excited and happy as I’ve ever been skateboarding. I never thought in a million years I would land this trick. Thanks for getting me to try it Josh!

(setup 8.25 venture wides bones med bushings no washers null wheels)

Such a beautiful day!!! @matthouse back tail in a t-shirt

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 25, 2015 at 2:58pm PST

New complete because I left my board at the spot today and it was gone when we went back. #doh #idiot Thanks for having @venturetrucks lows @metaskateboards !!!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jan 24, 2015 at 9:10pm PST

Went to Southern Hills after a long morning of cleaning toilets, vacuuming, etc. It was SUPER NICE OUT! Like 60 degrees and sunny. Breezy at times, but not bad. I had a totally new setup due to losing my last setup. Doh. So new Venture lows, Bones medium bushings, Reds, 8″ Null deck and some Ricta 51mm speed ring wheels. I was gonna just go with Null wheels, but Meta had them and I like to check the competition. Ok, the real reason is they were smaller. I gave everything a coat of Snaky Jakey wax and went to it. It’s been a minute since I was so motivated. I was skating fast for me. Did a line of noseslide, kickflip, crooks. I was super hyped on going faster for the noseslide. Had an exhausting line of fakie flip, halfcab noseslide, ollie up the 2 stair, ollie down the 2 stair, noseslide (was supposed to be crooks). Had a few front 50s, but definitely struggled with them as I have been for awhile. The new board did feel poppier though. A couple felt good. Had one line with ollie the two stair (it sounds lame, but there is a crack in front of it so it’s not all that small of a 2 stair) then front noseslide. Was trying a ridiculous line of front 50 a bench, nollie tre on flat, kick back tail the bottom stair. Since I never landed the nollie tre I just did back 50s on the curb which were fun. Also came close to ollie onto a bench then up onto a table. So close. Matt showed up and did every basic ledge trick first try perfect. The back 50 so casual looked so fun. I’m jealous. He also did front 50, front 5-0, front tail, front tail fakie, back 5-0 and back tail. But he couldn’t do a nollie tre! Ha. Oh and it took him 5 tries to land a treflip which might be a record for him. I didn’t get much more after Matt showed. I was pretty beat. Oh, some crooks where I started at the beginning of the ledge and grinded pretty far, rather then just jibbing the end. Fun day, that’s the best I’ve felt all year! 25 days down. 1/12 of my goal of skating 300 days.

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing ricta 51mm wheels)

Finally warm and somewhat dry enough to go hit Blue Skies during gym time. I was hyped. The main bank was a snowy mess so I had to skate around the bikepath to get there without getting my shoes wet. I pushed switch. It was fun, there was a big corner that was hard to make going switch. The park had more snow/ice then I thought it would. I started slow. Did a bunch of boardslides on the flat bar then front 50s on the low ledge. I went a little faster each time. I tried to grind further too. Did front 50, front 50 180 out, front 50 shove, front 5-0, almost front 50 kickflip out. Back crooks and back noseslide on the taller part. Tried 3 flips for awhile. Finally got a few. Tried a line with 3 flip, ollie a flat bar, 3 flip. Got it, but it wasn’t pretty. I’m basically just trying to force myself into learning 3 flips and trying them when I would normally just do a kickflip. Came close to some faster f/s halfcab heelflips, landed on a varial heel, had a good feeling b/s flip. Skateboarding in the sun and decent temperatures is nice.

After work I went near the research center and found a good sized dry patch of asphalt. I was sore from already skating and working, but I wanted to be out in “warm” (40s) weather a bit more. It didn’t take me too long to get flowing. I was struggling a bit when out of the blue a really good line (for me) came out of nowhere. No comply front 180, fakie flip, fakie treflip. The added bonus was I went fast enough that I didn’t have to push in between any tricks. Granted the fakie tre was pretty slow, but that’s the only way I could do it anyway. It hyped me up. I tried another line of f/s halfcab heel, treflip, front heel. Never got all three. Tried the nollie tre, heelflip, treflip line too, but only landed one nollie tre. Either way I was hyped. My trick list was kickflip, no comply 180, no comply finger flip, fakie flip, b/s halfcab flip, fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip, varial flip, f/s halfcab flip, f/s halfcab heelflip, b/s flip, heelflip, front heel (horrible), 360 flip, fakie treflip, nollie treflip. Came closer to nollie heels and switch flips. At the end I tried b/s halfcab heels for awhile and landed the first one I’ve done in years. It felt amazing. Hooray for flatground!

(setup 8″ venture lows bones med bushing spitfire four 50mm wheels)