How to Pressure Flip

The pressure flip is a funny one. When I made my video about why people hated pressure flips, I said the trick faded out because it was so easy anyone could learn it in an afternoon. A lot of you told me it wasn’t that easy. I didn’t really get it until I went out to film these. I’d been doing pressure flips for years and always thought they were really easy. On my setup at the time, I could barely land them clean. Out of about 50 on video, only a handful were worth showing in slow motion.

The reason was my trucks.

Tight trucks vs. loose trucks

Back in the day, I rode the tightest trucks possible. My freestyle setup had one-piece trucks that didn’t turn at all. When I filmed these, I was riding loose trucks.

If you’re having a lot of trouble, tighten your trucks way up. You don’t want to change your setup for one trick forever, so learn it tight, get used to it and then loosen them back up and adapt. I’ll cover both ways.

Foot position

• Back foot: on the toe side of the tail.
• Front foot: this matters more than you’d think, and it depends on your trucks.

With tight trucks, cram your weight onto the toe side of the tail, with your toe right on the edge. That’s why it’s called a pressure flip. Your front foot just holds the board on the ground. Jump, pop down and the board goes crazy.

With loose trucks, it’s more complicated. So much of your weight goes on the toe side that I have to put my front foot on the very edge of the board, almost falling off, to balance it. Ride in that position but don’t put any pressure down until you pop.

Pro tip for loose trucks: if you’re getting ready and your wheel comes up, bail. Don’t even try it. If you put weight on the toe side early, the wheel lifts and the tail gets closer to the ground. You get less pop and a weak pressure flip where the board goes halfway and you land on it upside down. Stay as centered and balanced as you can, and only put your weight down when you pop.

How to pressure flip

Nothing else really builds up to this trick. As long as you can pop shove it and do a couple of flip tricks, you’re ready.

1. Roll up centered and balanced.
2. Pop it like a regular pop shove it or an ollie.
3. As you get in the air, dip your toe down and push forward. Your foot should end up kind of in front of you, around the middle of where the board was, with your toe pointing down.
4. Get out of the way and let the board flip.
5. Catch it and land.

It’s a weird feeling, nothing like you’re used to. It’s not a pop and then a flick, and it’s not a late inward heelflip. It’s all one motion.

With tight trucks, the tip of the tail doesn’t even touch. The side of the tail touches. If you look at your board after a while, that spot gets worn down, mostly from frontside no comply stuff. That should give you an idea of how it should feel.

Practicing it as a no comply

In my impossible guide, I say that learning by stepping off or standing next to the board doesn’t help much, because the weight balance is different. The pressure flip is an exception. A no comply pressure flip feels a lot like a loose-truck pressure flip, since you’re not using your weight. It’s a good way to get the feeling of the side of the tail popping.

Staying balanced

The toughest part after the flip is staying balanced. With tight trucks, no problem. You jumped off a solid base and can land right on the board.

With loose trucks, your front foot is way over on one side and your back foot is on the other, so you’re kind of facing forward. Pushing the board backside turns you even more forward, and staying over the board to catch it on the bolts is really tough. My average landing is in a backward pressure flip stance, and you’ll see that in a lot of my footage. Adjusting your foot position to be more stable goes a long way here. I’m still working on it too.

Getting more height

People say nobody does pressure flips because they’re low and sloppy. I don’t think that’s true. To me, pressure flips are one of the easiest tricks to do really high. Move your back foot farther back and pop it as high as you want.

Here’s the weird thing. The hardest part of the trick is getting the flip started, because it’s so different. If you do it low, you have to flip it faster. If you do it really high, the board is more vertical, more Chad Muska hardflip style, and there’s less flip to it. The technique is easier, but you have to commit to a high trick and catch it right away. Learning a trick with a catch is harder, but it’s worth messing around with to see what works for you.

What’s next

Once you have it, try the pressure hardflip. The toeflip is basically a varial kickflip style pressure flip, and the impossible starts with a similar scoop.