How to Backside Flip

The backside flip is a backside 180 kickflip. Once you learn it, it’s pretty consistent and easy. Learning it can be a challenge, but I’ve gone through every problem you can have with it, so I should be able to guide you through.

A lot of people say it’s just a varial kickflip with a body varial. That’s not true at all. It doesn’t feel like that. It’s its own trick.

Before you start

You need to be able to backside 180 and kickflip independently. That’s pretty important. You need a feel for each part and shouldn’t try to learn it all at once. If you have those, this shouldn’t take you long.

Foot position

• Front foot: normal kickflip position, maybe a little farther up than normal. A wider stance that covers more of the board is very important for me. If my front foot is farther back, I can make the board flip, but I’m spinning around my center and the board is spinning around its own center, and it flies away.
• Back foot: doesn’t really matter. You don’t need a scoopy position. Most of the rotation comes from your shoulders and your wind up. I put it slightly toward the toe side to be safe.

How to backside flip

My style is to do the whole spin in the air and land fakie with no pivot and no sliding it out. That comes from growing up on rough, soft pavement where sliding things out wasn’t an option. I recommend learning it this way first. You can tweak your style from there.

1. Wind up and stay over your front foot

Keep your feet wide, wind up a little and get your shoulders going.

The big focus is balance. With anything that spins, staying balanced is the hardest part for me. I’m 6’1”, so maybe that’s part of it. The way I do it is by staring at my front foot. I don’t think about my back foot. I keep my weight as far forward as possible. Not leaning all the way forward like a forward flip, just facing that way slightly.

2. Unwind, pop and flick

As you unwind and get ready to pop, you’re still over the nose a little, still over your front foot. Pop and flick.

The flick should be very natural. It’s a normal kickflip flick. Nothing to worry about.

At this point, the trick is either landed or not. If you spun the board while leaning too far back, it goes flying. If you’re balanced forward and pivoted around the tail instead of around your own center, you stay with the board and have a good chance at landing it.

3. Finish the rotation

A lot of trick tips say to catch it at 90 and pivot it around. I don’t recommend that at first. That advice kept me from landing this trick for a long time. I assumed you aim for 90, catch it, twist your feet and land. That’s not how it works.

You may catch the board at 90, but you should have enough rotation to finish no matter what. Whether you catch the board or not, you and the board should both be completely done by the end. If you aim for 90, you’ll land at 90. Or you’ll twist it quickly and lose your foot position.

4. Land and roll away

When you’re learning, just try to land them and roll away. Get used to the feeling. Don’t force the catch. Work on that later.

Troubleshooting

Landing not quite straight

If you catch the board flat, it spins slower. When the board is flipping, it’s narrow and spins faster. When it flattens out, it’s wider and spins slower. So if you do the exact same thing but catch it earlier, you might not land straight. You’ll get used to it.

Landing with your toe down

Sometimes you’ll push the board around with your catch and land with your toe down. Let the catch come naturally at first.

Checking your balance

If you land not fully rotated or with your toe down, you should still be able to kick turn and roll away. It won’t be pretty and you’ll lose your speed, but you should be able to recover. If you land a little off and the board shoots away and you’re way over to the side, your balance isn’t right. Staying over the board and sticking with it no matter what is a sign you’re on the right track.

Skip the camera

This one sounds weird. When I film, I set a marker so I know when I’m on camera. As I got closer to that marker, I found myself shifting back a little. If you’re having trouble and you usually film yourself, try skipping the camera for now. Stay 100% focused on your board.

What’s next

The frontside flip is the other half of the pair. It’s a similar difficulty for me, but I think this one is a little easier.