These photos sum up today's post-work attempt at skateboarding. #strugglefest

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 22, 2016 at 6:10pm PDT

New shoes again. Hopefully for the last time in awhile. New PJs, size 11.5 this time. The park had a collection of total beginners and scooters when I arrived, but it quickly cleared out, then quickly populated again with a younger crew. I was just kind of cruising around trying to warm up for ollies with kickflips. I tried ollieing onto the lower C ledge a few times, but I was really tired and skating so slow. Then I mostly just tried lines between the mellow bank and the long crappy ledge. Never got one spanning the whole area, actually I probably never landed more then one trick in a row at all. I had tried a few switch back 3s as they are my next challenge and they felt doable. Dave showed and cheered me up as I was feeling so much older then everyone else there. Around the same time another older dude showed up and skated the bowls though. We spent most of our time between the long crappy ledge and the knob. We both would get switch back 3s. We were hyped. We didn’t film yet though as they need some work. Dave actually did several. I only did one and when I rode away my butt was mighty high in the air. I took the photo of my board sitting in the bottom of the bowl after a failed attempt at a switch back 3 where I turned about 45 degrees and shot my board into the bowl. This was shortly after several failed front 50 attempts that resulted in some angry yelling. I also went primo and slammed hard on a fakie flip. The struggle was real. Dave was skating alright though, bunch of tricks on the knob, nose manual the ledge, halfcab boardslides, halfcab noseslides. I started trying switch noseslides. On one of them I came to a halt, my front foot came off, I put it back on the board and hucked a 360 shove. Totally landed it. Things felt better. Then I tried to land one actually sliding with it. Got pretty close once. Going the other way I was trying a line of a little scratch grind on the knob, crooks the ledge, kickflip to fakie the little bank. That was a lot of exercise though and it got me tired. I ended by finally doing a halfcab noseslide. Dave ended by slamming really hard twice before getting a sick bluntslide on the knob then bailing the boardslide above and almost getting hit with his board. Somehow I left in a great mood. I think it was because I had Dave to skate with and share the struggles of being older. Sure it was rough, but there were a couple of fun moments in there and those are what we skate for.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, steele/gum new balance numeric pj 533)

@fullertrron #thestubborns Got his trick in less tries then his age.

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 20, 2016 at 12:23pm PDT

On a beautiful day Jake and I rolled to Longmont and met Dave at Twin Peaks. I had new shoes. Well, some super old PJs that are too small and the heels are all tore up inside. They felt pretty good. My first care over the bank resulted in a stop rock that sent me scrambling. Awesome. It got way better though. We all kind of did our own tricks. Dave and Jake worked on Creepy Spins. Jake got one. Dave couldn’t get it. I got a new trick right away. some nollie shove around thing. Pretty dumb, but kind of fun to start with something new. Dave also did a bunch of shove variations. Jake hates the crack in the middle. I got kickflip, kickflip fakie, varial flip to fakie and an over 40 treflip to fakie, a bunch of kickflips on flat over the crack. Jake and I tried to ollie the hip. Well, Jake didn’t have to try because he popped is good. Mine were bad. And I barely got the ollie over the median down the way. Dave did a bunch of graceful ollies over the hip before putting down a couple of wallies. So sick.

Old people doing old tricks. Except for Jake, he's always doing new tricks. Like fakie front crooks. What a jerk. #akineedstogetoninstagram

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 20, 2016 at 3:19pm PDT

Then we went to RME where we met up with Aki too. We were all rudely reminded of how hard that place is to skate. It was pretty warm out so the wax was melted off the ledge and we all struggled to land tricks on it. It was mostly a ledge session except for Dave who was all over the place ollieing the little medians, manualling them, etc. Jake had some good front tails on the ledge pretty quickly. Aki probably struggled the most as he has never really skated many street spots, just parks. But he got a nice back 50 to end the session. I had crooks, a weak back 50, front 50s but no shove out, switch noseslides. I started to get really sore though as size 11 is just too small for me now and had to sit the rest out. Dave did boardslides to fakie, back 50 180 out (off the front truck), front 50s. Jake was trying fakie back tails and ended up getting into fakie front crooks. So he stuck with it and got one! Hammer. Fun day, I need bigger shoes, or at least thinner socks.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, old black/white NB# PJ NM533s)

#empty

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Aug 14, 2016 at 5:41pm PDT

Feeling a little bit better I rolled to Fort Collins ahead of schedule so that I could skate some before filming Hayden. I had taken some ibuprofen the night before so maybe that’s why I felt better. Or maybe because I finally had some meat again. Either way, I didn’t completely suck and it was refreshing. There was only one other skater for awhile before another dude showed. I didn’t do anything special, but cruised some basics. Had a line of a wallie off the flag, heelflip on flat and then back 50 on the glorified curb. I also had front 50s on it, “nollie” front tails and a manual. Couldn’t get nose manual. Had a crooks or two on the “legit ledge”, noseslides too. Then Justin and Wittman showed up at the park as I was trying over and over to front 50 the ledge. It took me a long time and when I finally got it it was very slow and I only grinded an inch or so. Oh well, I finally forced myself to skate it. My shoes were killing me. The Flacos were also purchased before I stopped wearing my orthotics. Argh. So I stopped at MRKT and got some new shoes, some Lakai VAII. They seem wider and a bigger size so not as tight on my foot. We then went to Northside that was totally empty when we got there. I pumped around while Hayden warmed up. Didn’t do much, but had fun. That park is rad.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, cream lakai flacos / lakai VAII no orthotics)

Feeling really weird and out of it I tried to warm up for a bit on the crappy curb across the street. I had new shoes on (Lakai Flaco) as they were a little longer, but at the same time narrower. I didn’t get much going before Nolan showed up and we ended up at Red Hawk meeting Fuzz, Rob, Kevin and eventually Dave. Upon arriving I felt terrible. Kevin went right to ripping. He had way too much energy. Ha ha. I tried to get things going, but it didn’t happen. Got a line of kickflip up the curb, front 50 front 180 out, switch noseslide on the ledge and a crooks or two on the ledge. But then I basically resigned to filmer Glen. Rob got a couple cool lines with no complys, manuals, wallie nollies, boardslides and crooks. Fuzz got a rad one with fakie ollie, switch board and front 50 back 180 out. Dave got a good one with manual and front 50 body varial. Nolan almost got a crooks nollie varial flip out or however he decided to try and flip it out at the moment. Kevin was shredding some tech moves and got a line of switch flip up the curb, halfcab manual, front 5-0 and nollie front nosegrind. So good. He also did tricks like kick back tail, front noseblunt, front blunt, back 5-0 front shove out. We set Hosercam up and skated the longer ledge for awhile. Fuzz got a new trick of fakie 50 f/s bigspin out. I did a very slow kick back 50 tic tac. I was hurting so bad. Kind of a bummer of a day because I was skating one of my favorite spots with some of my favorite people and skated like complete dookie.

(setup: 8.5 null message deck, venture 5.8s, thunder bushings, 52mm reed wheels, 2 washers inside each axle, cream lakai flacos no orthotics)

So excited to set up a Riley deck that I went for a full new complete!

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jul 27, 2016 at 6:01pm PDT

It seems like every single post I start by saying how tired I am. Well after an 8 hour drive, a short bike ride and some food I went out on a totally new complete for a brief session. I felt better then I thought I would though. I hate having a brand new complete so wanted to skate it initially on a ledge and not show up at a park with a brand new complete. A few noseslides in a huge mob of people went by following Pokemon or something. It was weird. I got a couple of crooks, a couple bad back 50s, couldn’t halfcab noseslide or front crook. Did a few real basic flippers and hucked some nollie and switch flips that felt close. Did a line of front 180 up the curb, fake flip on flat, switch front nose. Got tired and left. Not bad considering how tired I was and everything was new, even my insoles.

(setup 8.1 Null Riley deck, venture low v-hollows, stock thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 52mm Reed wheels, New Balance Numeric Quincy denim/gum)

Met Riley, Garrett and Bernie at Broomfield park on a warm afternoon. I was dealing with some serious heel pain and was too scared to really skate. I had increasing pain while wearing the PJ shoes the previous week and then wearing vulcanized shoes for one day sent it over the edge. So I wore my last pair of Es Swifts I had waiting. I didn’t do much other then some axle stalls and slappy noseslides. Riley was destroying. Bernie beat Garrett in SKATE. Then we went off to the DIA rail where Riley ended up getting a pretty unique and crazy trick. Rad.

(setup 8.1 Krooked Manderson deck, venture low lights, standard thunder bushings, 1/16″ riser, 3 washers inside each axle, 51mm STF V1, eS Swift black/white)

I am out of Null decks and really wanted a new board. So I went to Meta and got me a pro deck from one of my favs pros and companies – Habitat Mark Suciu. A little later I went over to the school not feeling much like skating. I started by putting my tail down on the curb and trying to jump to front nose since it’s my new challenge. I didn’t get close at all. After awhile I tried them while moving and it was much easier. Too bad that asphalt is the worst asphalt ever and not fun to skate. I would do a kickflip between each try as I was breaking in some old Es Sal 20s I had in my closet. I think I may have only skated them once. For whatever reason I thought they were too thin, but they seem good now. I ended up technically getting a switch nose to front nose, but it was just a jib. Oh well, not a bad start to the challenge.

(setup 8.1 Habitat Suciu deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm bones stf v1, Es Sal black/gum)

After a lot of sleeping and lounging I headed out to the dog park to try and relearn flip tricks. I started slow, was going through some of the basics at a decent rate and then stalled out at 360 flip. It was so incredibly frustrating. I posed other tricks too, got close to switch flip and nollie front heel, but could never get the 360 flip. I wanted to focus my board, but luckily I landed on a treflip in the middle of snapped the board. I was hyped! Ha.

I miss the midnight Alaska sunsets. #cantbelieveitsdarkalready

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Jun 12, 2016 at 8:24pm PDT

Later on I went out to the research ledge. I had a new deck and new trucks. I had been skating some old Thunders that had really bad axle slip and I remember why I gave up on them a long time ago. I had traded a pair of free Ventures for them. Oh, and I had new shoes I started earlier too. Ha, I’m a poser! My last Swifts were too small and they were killing my feet. I started off pretty bad missing noseslides and it almost sent me into a rage. But stubborn me stuck with it and I would have some kind of fun. I got a lot of the basics for me. Noseslide, noseslide fakie, boardslide, crooks, switch front nose, horrible back 50, horrible halfcab noseslide, noseslide shove. I could not get a front 50 though. I got into a bunch, but never landed one. It was dumb. I posed a lot of flippers too. Got a couple over 40 treflips (whew), close to switch flips and had a few more of the basics.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vectors deck, thunder 147 HL stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts grey/white)

Right after work I went to the Dog Park as Rob, Neil, Dave, Blake, Brandon and Alec were in rainy Broomfield and were going to head to campus shortly. So I had a bit of time. I had new shoes. They are a little small, should have got 11 instead of 10.5. Anyways, I was stiff from work. It took awhile before I could ollie, but things started flowing. I got a couple of kickflips and was hyped on how good of flick the Swifts have. Then they kept coming. I posed a few other tricks. Landed both fakie bigflips I tried which I have been struggling with for some dumb reason lately. Halfcab flips, fakie flips, heelflips even. I started trying the “Ironman” (coined by Darin) which is kickflip, heelflip, treflip in a row. I got super close. Heelflips have been a pain lately, but I probably got like 20 of them and was hyped. I landed on most of the treflips, but just didn’t quite ride out. I landed on nollie tre, close to fakie heel, remotely close to nollie flip. I felt the best on flatground I have in awhile.

Then we met on campus at the spot us old guys love. The banked ledge/manual pads/etc. Those dudes were already filming. I guess Neil’s knee was hurting bad so he wanted to just film. Blake was doing slappy crooks easy, wallies over the whole ledge, and slamming while trying to ride across rocks. Rob was ripping. Slappy grinds, wallrides, long lines with fakie bigspins, front shoves, kickflips, etc. Dave was doing slappy tailslides, slappy crooks, slappy back 5-0, eventually switch slappy crooks (wtf!), accidental fakie slappy tails, lines with back 180’s over a grate and cabs. I got one line I was hyped on of front 180 a grate, fakie bigflip, pop shove, slappy crook. Near the end we were trying lines starting off the ledge. Rob had back 180, fakie bigspin, kickflip, and front tail (I think). Oh yeah, Rob had also done some rad push carve grinds that looked oh so fun looking. Dave was going for switch ollie off the ledge, switch shove, switch crook. Don’t think he got it. I was going for kickflip off the ledge, heelflip on flat, .. but I never got the heelflip. In fact I took a primo to the arch and it hurt so bad it pretty much shut me down.

@pantry_raider 50-50-50-50

A photo posted by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on May 24, 2016 at 6:49pm PDT

A little more skating was done on the bank to curb and and double ledge area. I was sitting as my foot was killing me. Blake did the gnar double 50, even with a shove out. Neil was trying to get things going on the little bank to curb, I think he did nose manuals on it. Dave did something cheer worthy, but I didn’t see it. Fun night with the exception of the primo slam.

(setup 8.25 null abstract 5 deck, thunder 147 lights stock bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 50mm bones stf v1, Es Swifts black/white)

Riley @siouxer666 Persing with the siiiickest backside flip today!!!!

A photo posted by Nolan Cormier (@nolancormier) on May 3, 2016 at 8:26pm PDT

Right after work I drove to northGLENn park. The traffic was surprisingly good. It was sunny and nice out. Still a bit crisp. I showed up the same time that Riley, Bernie and Garrett showed up. Derek was there. I had new shoes. PJs. Bright red/gum. I just couldn’t handle the Sals anymore. They hurt when they were knew, they were gonna end up hurting a lot more. Ugh. Bernie had some new shoes too so we were having the new shoe blues. We goofed around near the bowl, played a really bad game of SKATE. Nolan showed. Then I tried my new challenge of fakie front pivot to back pivot to tail on the tiny noping qp. I didn’t get very close. A regular qp is probably better to do it on, but the nice qp doesn’t have a wide enough deck. Riley took awhile to get it. Bernie was in on the program too, but moved on to kickflips and cab flips. Nolan did the trick to fakie instead. I wasn’t doing much other then trying that trick. There was a very loud dude trying nollie 5 shoves over the gap. Nolan was doing crazy lines. Derek rips that park. Then I filmed Nolan get a line first try and then him and Riley skate the barrier for awhile. Those dudes skated the bowl for awhile while I tried to get warmed up again. Then a cali grind session ensued on the little curb down the bank. It was fun. Riley and Nolan gap 50’d down it. Nolan really did everything actually. Crooks down it, nosegrind up it, front 5-0 to switch crooks up it. Gnar. I was happy to get a 5-0 down it and front 50 up. A hip session went down. Riley did the best b/s flip ever (above). Garrett got a big flip I think. Riley did switch 3, Nolan did regular 3. I got a tiny kickflip that took way too long. Then I sat down shortly before the lights shut off. I didn’t skate all that great, but I had fun.

(setup 8.25 null awkward vector, venture lows, bones medium bushings, 3 washers on inside of axles, 51mm stf v2, New Balance Numeric PJ Stratford 533 burgandy/gum)