How to Railflip to Rail

A railflip to rail is a varial 1 1/2 flip out of a railstand that lands back in a railstand. It’s one of those tricks that looks a lot more impressive than it is. There’s a good chance you can land one in your first session. It may take a while to get consistent, but it’s really not that bad.

First, the name. A lot of people call this a primo flip to primo. Technically, a primo is only the sliding version. It’s like a lipslide vs. a disaster. You wouldn’t say “lipslide stall.” So it’s a railstand and a railflip to rail. It’s not a big deal though.

Your board setup

You don’t need a freestyle board. A lot of people do this on a normal street board, and it works on most street setups unless the trucks are way too big. A freestyle board has offset wheels that cover the axle, so the axle nut doesn’t get scratched up, and the shape is a little better for freestyle. At this point, your street board is fine.

What helps a lot is having your wheels and trucks a little narrower than the deck. With the board tipped the right way in a railstand, you can put more weight on the tail and pop it more sharply. If it tips the wrong way, the board flops over as soon as you put weight on it. I had that problem on my setup when I filmed this, so I ran into a lot of the same trouble you will on a street board.

Before you start

You’ll want two tricks first.

The regular railflip

A railflip is a varial 1 3/4 flip out of a heel side railstand. Put your foot on the tail and do a pop shove it. That’s it. It’s simple, but not necessarily easy. There are three things to play with:

• Where on the tail you are. Farther toward the end flips easier, but spins too much, so I stay away from the very end.
• How much you push down.
• How much you push back.

Play with those and you’ll get it.

The half railflip back to rail

This one is simple, but it gets you used to landing on the rail and expecting the board there. Put your foot on the tail, not far from the wheel. Flip it kind of fast but barely jump. That’s one of the secrets to landing anything to rail: flip it the same speed, but jump less, and you’ll catch it sooner. Hop slightly and swing your feet down onto the wheels. The board isn’t spinning, so it’ll be right there.

Practice both for a while. Get used to being on the rail and flipping out of it.

Foot position

Basically the same as the railflip. There’s some experimenting depending on which method you use to catch it on the rail.

How to railflip to rail

The tricky part: you’re only a quarter flip off from your normal railflip. If you can casually do a regular railflip, how do you also casually do a quarter less? It has to feel different. Here are two ways.

Method 1: flip it slower, jump higher

This is how I’m doing them in the video, because of my truck width problem. If I flip it too fast, the board flops on the ground. So I flip it a lot slower and jump quite a bit higher. Give it plenty of air time, pull your feet way up, wait for it to come around and spot your feet back on the wheels.

If you’ve practiced the half flip back to rail, you’ll be ready for landing up on the wheels. If you ever accidentally land on the rail doing a kickflip, you usually don’t hold it, because you were expecting to land a few inches lower. When you’re prepared for the rail, landing on the grip tape should feel weird. Be ready for those wheels.

Method 2: flip it fast, barely hop

On my old setups, this is how I usually did it. Flip the board a lot faster and barely jump at all. With the right setup, a railflip triple is really not that hard. You can put a lot of pressure down and slam it and the board goes crazy. Do that, barely hop and stomp back down right away. Sometimes I’ve caught it on the rail in the air and put it down, because I got used to that exact motion.

If you can pull it off with your setup, I’d go with the fast flip. It works easiest, and it looks cooler, because the board goes crazy and you’re suddenly back in rail.

Either way, you have to figure out how much clearance to give the board, whether to catch it, whether to stomp down or let it float. Find what works for you and your setup.

Variations worth trying

• Varial double back to rail. I taught the varial 1 1/2 because that’s the standard. But for me, a varial double back to rail is a lot easier, because it’s more different from a normal railflip. You land with the board facing the other way, which gives you more options.
• Two and a half. Might be a little too hard to flip fast enough, but not by much.
• Switch. For a few years, I did my regular railflips off the tail and my railflips to rail switch, off the nose. Every switch one was back to rail, so I could get consistent with that one motion instead of juggling tiny differences. Switching back and forth felt weird after a while, but it’s not hard to do switch, so give it a try.

One of the coolest things about freestyle is that no two people do the same tricks the same way. Don’t be afraid to experiment and come up with your own variations.

What’s next

The truckstand and casper are other freestyle building blocks to combine with railstands.