Kevin and I showed up with Christmas completes and had someone take a photo of us.  We were thinking it would be funny to just leave after that. Ha. Kevin had some Venture lows instead of his normal thunders.  I sized down to 8.3 with the new venture 8.25 trucks.  I had huge new wheels. 53mm SML wheels.  I was super hyped to support that company, but should have gotten smaller wheels as I really struggled for awhile.  Kevin on the other hand was totally shredding rattling off ledge tricks.  Nosegrinds, back smith, 5-0s.  Carleigh showed up and pretty quickly joined Kevin on the bump to barrier.  He did different tricks until she landed the boardslide.  The nosegrind was sick. Carleigh did the boardslide pretty quick.  There was almost no one skating so we told Rob to come back.  He did. Rad. Of course the crowds had reformed unfortunately.  The only thing I did that I was hyped on was the line Kevin filmed.  I did it a couple times before filming.  Way better of course (Just joking, but since there is no footage in my head it was better). Ollie the flat bar (hyped that this seemed easier on the smaller setup), wallie the barrier, nollie back tail the small narrow ledge, crook the black ledge.  Carleigh and Rob jumped on similar lines. Rob with the ollie then front 180 over the barrier.  Rob gots pop.  But it’s funny because he can’t wallie it.  Carleigh did ollie, wallie, front 50. 

Later on we met up with Jack at his wood spot.  It was so hot.  That spot is so hard. Well, not for Jack and Kevin. They were ollieing up the weird corner like it was nothing.  Both doing manuals. I think jack ollied the big two out of manual. Kevin did manual drop down to quick back 180.  Kevin ollied the flat gap easily.  Jack did a bunch of tricks over it. One of the steeziest backside bigspins I’ve ever seen, backside flip, impossible some more I’m forgetting.  Carleigh and I were struggling to get up the corner ledge. It was frustrating. I was posing ollies over the flat gap.  I eventually got the ollie up the ledge. Did a boneless down a level, then somehow made it over the flat gap. I say ‘somehow’ because what I did was not technically an ollie.  It was some weird awkward momentum that got me over the gap. It stoked me out regardless.  It also showed Carleigh that if she actually ollied she could do the gap. She tried that while I tried another line to clean up the ollie.  I tried ollie up the ledge, kickflip on the narrow ledge, ollie the gap. I got it and ended it with a back 180 off. It felt awesome.  Carleigh got the ollie too. Jack did a rad quick foot line. Ollie up, gap ollie, half impossible.  Wow. It inspired Kevin to switch flip the gap.  Unfortunately an hour and a half later he gave up after landing on several. Doh.  Fun long day of skating though. I like my new setup so far. 

(setup 8.38 null event horizon deck, venture 5.6 trucks, doh doh bushings (88a boardside, 92a roadside), 53mm sml og wide wheels, 3 bearings inside each axle, mob grip, new balance numeric 533v2 pj grey size 13, currex run pro insoles)

On another overcast day with rain threatening I went to Douglass feeling okay and with a smaller board again. I started just kind of putzing around with non popped flatground tricks. Then did a few flip tricks and then mixed in some lines. I really didn’t land a whole lot, but man I was trying. At one point I tried a nollie tre and it made me a little sad realizing I haven’t even tried one for weeks. I got a heelflip, bad treflip, halfcab flips, first try fakie varial flip. I hucked a lot of flip tricks I’ve never done, didn’t really get close to anything, but it was fun. I had some boardslides, noseslides, crooks on the ledge that felt good. I didn’t try frontside stuff really, only tried to ollie onto it which I got on, but never quite got on it. I tried noseslide back 270 for awhile. Maybe made some progress to learning it. It started to sprinkle and I was running out of time so I tried a few front 50s. Didn’t get close at all. I wasn’t upset as it’s been awhile since I tried to ollie that high.

Then I filmed Jack slay it.

Then we skated Saul’s for a bit. I really sucked it up and bailed too many axle stalls and the run outs killed my knees. Eric was ripping though. Back d the deep, manual to feeble fakie, front 5-0 to tail. Saul locked into some back 50s, tried a front 50, had sme of his great long runs. Jack didn’t really skate.

Fun day.

(setup 8.38″ null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel boardside one, yellow 92a roadside), bones stf v2 51mm wheels, new balance numeric 212 maroon size 12, nike zoom air insoles)
(pain level 3/10)

On a cold afternoon I went searching for dry with a new board and wheels. 53mm! But they are PJ wheels so you know they are still good. Ha. I also had a new deck as I didn’t want to use the soggy cracked tail as an excuse anymore. I went by the research ledge, but it was warm enough for snow to be melting and making it unskateable. So I ended up at the super mellow bank spot that is always dry immediately after a snowstorm. As I was sweeping the salt off of it someone walked into the nearby door and didn’t say anything to me. Cool. I started with the silly soft rock 270 which was pretty fun. I did a few flippers for a bit, like kickflip to fakie, fakie flip, b/s flip. Then the soft rock kickflip out. It took about 20 minutes and I kept switching between trying to go to fakie or regs. So I guess the result was neither. I debating cleaning it up, but decided I didn’t care. Then I skated it in ways I haven’t before. Did a line of back shove then back 180 onto it. Also a line of halfcab flip on flat, manual across it and then a b/s flip on flat. The flatground there is not good, it’s rough. Brand new STFs are always super hard so that didn’t help even though they were larger than I’m used to. Actually, finding the manual point was hard with the wheels that tall. I also tried a line of 360 flip on flat then nose manual, but I never committed to the nose manual. The 3 flips were terrible too, came to a total halt due to wheel bite. Then I did the halfcab flip. Then I tried the ollie over the little gutter. It felt much closer to the wall than it looks on film. I went to get a better one that was more over it, but my phone died. So did I clean it up even though my phone had died? Heck no. I moved on. Ha. Plus the slam hurt way more than I was expecting. I hucked casper stalls for awhile along with trying to grind the edge then manual around. I kind of got a casper stall. I’m glad my phone had died and didn’t record it, because I know it wasn’t proper, but man it felt fun. I think both feet had landed on the top and then I kinda scooped the front one under, but it flipped out really fast and felt great. Last challenges of the day were some backside ledge stall transfers into the bank. Like back nosepick in, back 5-0 into the bank, etc. Couldn’t get crooks transfer. Then I spent awhile trying kickflip back tail stalls. It took awhile, but the one I got felt incredible and I went home in a good mood. It was nice having a solo session. I need them.

(setup 8.5 null lazer deck, venture ftc 5.8s v-lights, venom 91a bushings, 53mm bones sft v1 PJ wheels, new balance numeric 379 tan size 12, old rubber STI insole)
(pain level 3/10)

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Lots of gray hair this morning. @skateboard_chicken @fullertrron @edhatesfun #slappy

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Dec 30, 2018 at 5:35pm PST

On a really nice morning I showed up at the newly repaved EBRC parking lot where Dave, Ed and Saul were already slapping them grinds. There were a few different sections. I was getting used to new trucks and wheels. Well, the only part of the truck that were new were the hangers so it wasn’t really that different. I had some new Spitfire 52mm classics too, they felt big too. Argh. We went over to the banked area. It was fun to carve, try to tailslide, etc. Saul did the crazy slappy over the death box which was crazy. He was slappying all over the place. Some manuals around the bank were had, Dave almost got front tailslide shove, Ed was popping backside ollies. There was a fun little gap there too. You just had to dodge goose crap. I had a fun kickflip up then ollie the gap. Dave ollied it too, he also hung up on it and took a good slam I guess. Dave kickflipped off the curb then him and Saul bounced. I was stoked how casual Dave’s kickflips were. Ed and I skated awhile longer. I did the kickflip on the bank. Then we went back to the longer slappy curb. Man it’s good. Ed has the best frontside slappys. I got a couple real backside ones, I’m normally not up on it enough.

Then I went to a crowded Broomfield park to meet Sean and eventually Carleigh. There were quite a few older skaters there. Dudes I’ve seen around for years, but never knew. They had tiny setups and it stoked me out. After doing a brief warm up on the quartapotty and blue ledge Sean and I played a game of SKATE. It didn’t go so good for me, I might have gotten one letter on Sean. Since it was over so quick we went for another one, no repeats. This game was awesome! Sean was a gentleman and didn’t get me with tricks I’ve never done. I got letters on tricks I can do though like both halfcab heels, backside flip and something else. I was really surprised to answer back with a first try fakie heel. Especially considering how regular heelflips weren’t working. I was able to get some letters on Sean though. Fakie bigflip, fakie varial flip, 360 flip and nollie tre! I was hyped to get those tricks. We both took awhile to get last tricks. I was going for fakie tre, he was going for Rick flip. Both of us were constantly close, but he got his first and I came close to the Rick flip, but didn’t get it. Super fun game. We mostly skated the blue lurb after that. I didn’t get much. I got a mirror line. Nollie front tail, axle to fakie on the qp, halfcab noseslide. Sean did his front 180 nose manual switch back 180 out so good. Then he tried to mirror out a switch front 50 with a switch back front 50. It took him a long time because he couldn’t switch back 50. But he did get a couple good ones after Carleigh showed up. Carleigh did some good front 50s, kickflips, ollies. I gave up on hard stuff and tried to line out in a way I haven’t before. I did nollie front tail on the blue ledge, boardslide transfer the brown ledge, axle to fakie the qp, fakie 50 the blue ledge. I had done a few flip tricks too. I was really tired and sore when it was all over.

(setup null 8.25 lazer deck, 5.8 venture FTC trucks with forged baseplate, doh dohs bushings (blue 88a barrel bottom one, yellow 92a small top one), no washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 99a classic 52mm green/yellow swirl wheels, adidas busenitz vulc b/w size 12 with stock insoles)
(pain level 4/10 started okay, but by the end I was really hurting)

Having a chill day mostly editing I went over to Creekside with Ollie after putting some new wheels on (Spitfire 52mm radial swirls). It was cold out. I felt the relieve of no video part tricks to film anymore and was having fun messing around. Got front 50 back 180, front and back 50 shoves, front 5-0, slappy crooks, front 50 body varial, some basic flippers. I had a good time. Ollie came close to landing his fist fakie bigspin and got into several front 50s, but never landed one.

setup null 8.5 perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 90a bushings, 2 washers inside each axle, spitfire f4 radial blue/yellow swirl 52mm 99a wheels, new balance numeric 212 cream size 11.5, stock insoles)
(pain level 3/10 it was cold)

On a snowy day I headed to the Steel Yards garage as it’s the warmest and I love the rough little curb by the wall. I finally remembered my rub brick in the car and made the curb even better. Basically the whole hour and a half I tried two trick lines with a flatground trick and a curb trick. Starting basic with shoves and 50s. Front 50s were incredibly fun as they were going like 8 feet. I got stuck on heelflips though. Never landed one. I probably tried 40 of them. I blame the bigger setup somewhat, but really I had been struggling almost as bad with the smaller setup recently. I skated hard. Those are some of the fastest front 50s I’ve done. I landed on treflip and fakie treflip, but never rode away. A homeless dude appeared in the garage and I hadn’t noticed him walk in and it was just weird all of a sudden looking up and seeing someone. I felt bad for how loud my board was when I bailed. I tried Dave’s challenge, halfcab 50 for awhile. Got pretty close and it feels doable, but never got both trucks on it. Overall it was a fun session even though I hardly landed any flip tricks. At least faster 50s were fun.

(setup 8.5 null perception deck, 5.8 venture black icon trucks, venom 88a bushings, 3 washers inside each axle, bones 51mm stf pj v1 wheels, new balance numeric 345 black/white size 12, footprints 5mm insoles)
(pain level 3/10 feet hurt)

After packing for a fun filled family road trip and setting up a new board after yesterdays board focus I intended to drive to Douglas. But then I saw Wilville and went with it. I had a new 8.25 deck and new wheels. Also forged baseplates instead of regular. I had done some research throughout the day in my journal and I’ve had come good days on this setup. But as expected starting out was not easy. I dropped into the middle bank a couple times then worked my way towards the ledge. A few BMXers showed up too which was kind of annoying watching the ledge get destroyed. Although maybe their pegs were plastic. Either way they weren’t overly nice so I’m glad they left quickly. I slammed on some noseslide and boardslide attempts. You know, really tech tricks. But things would come together at times. I did a line of halfcab flip, crook jib on the ledge then ride down the narrow bank. It was scary because my heel scraped the wall. Had a few boardslide pop outs on the narrow side, switch noseslides. Tried noseslide shove for awhile and got a sketchy one. Then I tried front 50s forever. They were so scary for me. Not only was the ledge tall, but it was dark and there are cracks everywhere. I would try a slow 360 flip on the way back. Normally I would bail it, but I landed on a few sketchy ones. At first I tried to front 50 the first part which meant ollieing from the bricks which was wavy and weird. Then I started coming in with a big angle and 50 the second part. It only took like 50 tries, but I started getting into it. I landed a really slow and bad one, but it made me happy. That is a tall ledge I’ve never 50’d before.

(setup 8.25 null perception deck, venture 5.8 lights black icon trucks, bones medium bushings, bones 51mm v1 stf, new balance numeric 212 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insoles)

Joe, Chad, Ollie and I met Kevin after a nice drive at the Evergreen park. It was looking like rain, but it had held off for now. As if being sore from several days of skating wasn’t enough of an excuse I added a new complete to the mix. Indys again. Yup. The reasoning. First, the Ray Barbee graphic seriously spoke to me. Second, I’ve been enjoying the bigger boards lately, but wanted to try Indys because of the smaller wheelbase than Ventures. This comes the day after I called Indy’s useless. Ha ha I suck. It felt stiff and made for some awkwardness throughout the day, but it wasn’t too bad and I liked it. As soon as we got to the park Chad threw some lofty cabs that looked so darn good. Kevin had beaten us there, but was still battling the warm up kickflip which he got. He might have even gone on to do it switch. We skated for quite awhile with just one other dude. My highlight was a kickflip onto the hip from the red kicker, front disaster on the qp, kickflip over the hip. Also a b/s flip that took way too many tries. Ollie was having fun and staying in the mix. Fakie shoves, regular shoves, f/s halfcab the hard way over the hip. Kevin killed the little ledge too. Switch nosegrind front 180, kick back tail. Him, Joe and Chad were getting at the taller ledges off the stair. Joe with the front 50 to front board, Kevin crooks, Chad feeble. Some other dudes showed up right before Fuzz, Rob, Neil. They weren’t shrimpin’ like the rest of us. Fuzz did a few ollies then fully committed to shrimpin. Rob went for it though. Starting with the bean plants, kickflips, manuals on the curb, boardslides, back smith the curb. Neils of Fire had them one foots, nose manuals, front 50s, lots of tricks going. Joe and I battled halfcab flips and both got them eventually. I saw Joe do back 50 front 180 out on the sharp ledge. I had some crooks on it, switch front noses.

I wrote the section above a few days ago and didn’t finish. Now I have no recollection of how it ended. I know I was sitting for awhile. I guess most of us where and Bobby was going for the fence ollie. Joe was still going. Front 50 to manual. Chad was trying bigspin tailgrabs over the hip. Chad had also nosegrinded up the ledge. Kevin nosegrinded down it at some point. I know I am missing a whole lot. It was a fun session. I was still feeling pretty sick and after the drive home went to sleep for a couple hours. It was tough being sick and skate guide at the same time.

(setup 8.38 null perception deck, indy 149 ray barbee trucks, oj 52mm ez edge insane-a-thane wheels, venom 94a bushings, es accel slim all black size 11.5, footprint gamechanger low profile insole)

Brief curb session with @fullertrron while the ❄️ melts.

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 27, 2018 at 12:14pm PDT

So I went with 8.25 and the wide trucks, got new wheels and it felt great. I had the day off work with some time before my flight to Seattle. Dave stopped by for a lunch skate and we went to the curb across the street. I felt good right out of the gate. It was kind of surprising. We were both trying a lot of lines. Up curbs, down curbs, grinds, slides, flippers. It was cool. Dave had kickflip, manual front 180 out, 50s, back 50 nollie shove out, no ollie tailslides and some good back 5-0s when I wasn’t taking a photo. I tried front 180 a puddle, fakie flip on flat, fakie 50 a curb, but never got the fakie 50. Had 50s, intentional front 5-0s, hucked a bunch of tricks I haven’t done in awhile like kickflip front 50, switch crook, front nosegrind. I got a line of switch front 180 a puddle, kickflip back 50 then almost back 50 (ha ha, got the flip in, but not the easier version) and ended by landing a new trick in the slowest way possible. Front 5-0 no comply shove out.

Straight off the ✈️ to #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux @boredzinejp @joerhamilton

A post shared by glen gillinghammer (@corpoglenny) on Mar 28, 2018 at 8:39am PDT

Then after a bus ride and a flight #cloggingyourfeedwithstokepartdeux was on!   We went right to Jefferson skatepark.  Half of it was lit well, the other half was not.  There was also several youth hanging out tagging the park or vibing.  It was pretty cold, but it’s a different cold then CO.  It’s in the 50s, but humidity makes it cold.  Once you get warmed up it’s good.  We did our thing warming up.  Joe had done a few ledge tricks as had Josh.  Josh tried a couple fakie 50s and then Joe comes and shows him up with a first try fakie 50 shove out.  Take that Josh!  I took a few tries to get a back 50 on the qp over the ledge which was very fun. Even though the lower area wasn’t lit very well Josh was ollieing the kicker, doing lipslide transfers over the qp hip, beanplants, a lot more. I had a fun line of front 50 the lurb then noseslide the ledge into the bank. Joe did the fakie 50 into the bank so good. Josh took a break for a bit, I battled the front 50 over the qp which was scary at first and took quite a few tries. Thanks for filming it Josh! Then Josh and I did the doubles routine and Joe and I finished the night off with a frontside ledge into the bank session. And by that I mean Joe rattling off tricks like front 50 180, front lip to 50 while I took too long to do front 50. But the front 50 felt awesome. Fun first night.

(setup 8.25 null atomic cowboy deck, black venture 5.8 v-light, 3 washers outside each axle, 88a venom bushings, 51mm bones stf v1 wheels, old swiss bearings, new balance numeric 255 baby blue size 12, spenco 3/4 thinsole with 5mm footprints insole)

OCD kicked in a bit and knew I needed some new wheels and shoes before Hawaii in a few days. So I hit 303 since they had the Es Swift. I added in some 52mm Spitfire F4s. I drove around Denver for a bit looking for something dry, but it was still pretty wet. I drove back to Boulder, parked at research center, changed my wheels out and twisted the new shoes around. I started on a new two stair area (not above), but it was pretty wet and boring. I went up near the Max G rail and was hyped to see they redid the concrete so the long two was skateable. I started slow, but ended up trying some hard runs for me. I could tell that the bigger wheels helped me ollie up the 2 stair (my old wheels were probably down to 47 or 48). I didn’t do many flip tricks, I just tried lines. I would start at the crappy ledge, go around a couple corners, ollie up the 2, then turn around and do a trick down them. I did boardslide, front 180 up, front 180 down. Then halfcab noseslide, ollie up, back 180 down. The back 180 down took a few tries so it took awhile. Then I tried halfcab boardslide, back 180 up, switch front 180 down. Man. The back 180 was killing me. I haven’t done a back 180 up anything in awhile and a long two was hard. But I’m stubborn and I stuck with it. Even when the sun went behind the mountains I kept at it. It got cold quick and my bushings froze up making for some funny and awkard switch pushes up the hill to the ledge. I finally got a back 180 up and of course missed the switch 180 due to some awkward pushing. About 10 tries later i got the back 180 again and the switch front 180 came easy. I was quite hyped on that line. Exhausted with sweat freezing I headed home.

(setup 8.25″ clutch sample deck, venture 5.25 awake lows, 52mm spitfire F4 101a classic shape, 3 washers on the inside of each axle, white venture bushings, es swift 1.5 black/white size 11, custom orthotic insole)