How to Fingerflip

The fingerflip is one of the best beginner freestyle tricks you can learn. Even if you’re a hardcore street skater, it’s worth learning a little of everything. It makes you more well-rounded and gives you more options for your own style. And the fingerflip is a whole category of tricks: doubles, bigspins, ollie fingerflips and a million other variations.

It’s also a really friendly trick. You can build up to it in small steps, so the difficulty curve is smooth.

Hand position

Grab the nose and flip the board forward, in the heelflip direction. That’s by far the best way, because it leaves you open to the most variations. You can spin it frontside, do bigspins and even triple fingerflips this way.

Two ways I’d avoid:

• Grabbing the board upside down. You can flip it faster, but you’re more likely to hurt yourself if your weight isn’t quite right. It’s not necessary.
• Flipping it kickflip direction. Street skaters who learn this without looking it up usually do it this way, because kickflip is the default flip in their heads. You’ll end up throwing the board down. Flipping it heelflip direction lets you pull the board up with you and get more height.

Foot position

• Front foot: pretty far back and mostly off the side. Its only job is to get out of the way.
• Back foot: on the tip of the tail. You’re not going to pop it, but if you take up the whole tail, your foot is more likely to stay in contact and get in the way of the flip.

Step by step

Step 1: Flip it standing next to the board

Stand next to the board with the tail on the ground. Grab the nose and just practice flipping it. There’s no risk, so do this until you’re used to how it feels. Work on keeping the board straight and getting the speed right.

Step 2: The tail handflip

Stand on the board in a tail stop. Grab the nose, flip it, and land on it. Technically that’s a tail handflip, not a fingerflip, for any trivia experts out there. It’s a great trick on its own. You can take it to railstand, to casper, to truckstand and a lot more.

Step 3: Roll into a tail drag, then flip

Now get rolling. Grab the nose, drag the tail to slow down, and do the flip from there. You’re bridging the gap between the stopped version and the real thing. If you’re quick enough, you’ll still have enough speed to roll away.

Don’t stay on this step too long, but this is a good time to clean up the board spinning on you. More on that below.

Step 4: The full fingerflip

Do the whole thing rolling without stopping. How far you take this is up to you. A lot of serious freestyle guys do it without the tail touching at all, and it keeps your speed up and looks clean. I let the tail touch a tiny bit, because most tricks do anyway. It actually helps me get more height, because if I’m reaching down as far as I can, I’m already partway through my jump when the tail taps. If you don’t let it touch at all, you’ll be more crouched, and at 6’1” that doesn’t work great for me.

The biggest change from step 3 is your weight. Your foot is on the tail, but you’re not popping it. Keep your weight right over the middle of the board, maybe slightly back. You might feel like leaning forward since your hand is on the nose, and during step 3 your weight shifted to the tail. You don’t want either. Then jump up and flip the board.

It’s unlike anything you’ve done before, because you jump off the board without taking it with you. Your hand does that. It takes a little different thinking, but it’s not that tough.

Troubleshooting

The board spins on the way around

This is one of the hardest things about the trick for me. The board spins just enough that you land and have to kick turn. A couple things cause it:

• Your hand is off center. Flip it around the center of the board. If you grab too far to one side, it flips around your finger and goes off axis.
• A tiny scoop from your back foot. As the tail touches, even a little scoop throws it off.

Twisting your wrist

If you’re too heavy on the board or your timing is off, you start the flip before you’ve jumped. Your hand twists and the board goes nowhere. I’ve hurt my wrist learning these back in the day, starting the flip with my foot still in the way. A little timing and practice gets you past it.

Trying to jump too high

If you’ve skated street for a while, you’re used to jumping as high as you can and throwing the board. Here you’re hunched over, especially at first, because your arm has to hold the board. Bend down, pull your feet up and land. Get your feet up without your whole body going up.

What’s next

Fingerflips open up a whole category of freestyle. The toeflip and railflip are good next steps, and so is the boneless flip.